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What happens when you mix male gamers, pretty girls, and a social platform where girls that connects the two for a price? The answer is GameCrush, which has just opened to the public. GameCrush first made headlines in March when it entered public beta. The site hooks up "Players" (mostly nerdy males) with "PlayDates" (mostly young females) to play everything from Call of Duty to simple arcade games. Players can choose to play either Xbox 360 games or just a simple browser-based game. Users of GameCrush have four basic options for making connections with PlayDates. The Arcade is for casual gaming, The Arena is for serious gaming, The Academy is for learning "tips and tricks" from PlayDates and The Edge is this service's version of a red-light district. There is a catch, of course. PlayDates don't crush their controllers for free; it costs $0.60 per minute to have a pretty girl sniping with (or at) you. The result is a growing list of paying users and PlayDates earning $20+ per hour playing video games with curious or lonesome guys. And before you ask, yes, you'll find girls that are willing to do more than just play games if you ask nicely. Part of the reason for this is the service's points system. Players are expected to tip points to PlayDates, who can then trade them to get real cash. Simply put, there's a big incentive for PlayDates to "do more" to earn more points. As part of today's launch, GameCrush has added support for a wide variety of online and console games, as well as advanced social features and profile tools. The company has raised $700,000 in angel funding from the likes of Anthem Venture Partners, Zivity founders Cyan and Scott Banister and angel investor Paige Craig. ||||| She'll talk to you, she'll play games with you, and for a little extra she'll consider doing even more. Welcome to GameCrush, the new website that helps nerds battle loneliness and young women battle the recession. The official rate to video chat and play videogames with a girl on GameCrush is $0.60 per minute. But as Mashable's Ben Parr points out, there's an expectation of tipping built into the system. Also built into the system: A red light district called "The Edge." That's probably no surprise, given that the site's backers include classy porn purveyor Cyan Banister. Add it all up, and GameCrush looks like a cleverly veiled sex talk parlor. Indeed, the site's FAQ says, "GameCrush does not monitor, moderate or otherwise control the interaction between its users." Right on. Just remember, fellas: You can pwn Halo and still get played. Click to view

– A site where users pay to play video games against young female opponents is open for business, Mashable reports. Though GameCrush has been in a public beta stage since March, the site formally launched today. Players—generally, men—pay 60 cents a minute to play games on Xbox Live or an arcade game service against a "PlayDate" of their choice. But they also need to pony up for tips. And that tipping system hints at another side of GameCrush—players tip points to their Playdates, who redeem them for cash. How exactly a Playdate earns her tips is left open to the players, who are assured by GameCrush that their interactions are not monitored. There's even a special area of the site called "The Edge" that's billed as an everything-goes chatroom. "Add it all up," writes Ryan Tate for Gawker, "and GameCrush looks like a cleverly veiled sex talk parlor."

Facing attacks from the campaign trail over the soaring price of gas, President Obama today called for Congress to eliminate $4 billion in subsidies for oil and gas companies, calling them “outrageous” and “inexcusable.” “I’m asking Congress: Eliminate this oil industry giveaway right away. I want them to vote on this in the next few weeks. Let’s put every single member of Congress on record: You can — you can stand with the oil companies, or you can stand up for the American people,” the president said at a speech in Nashua, N.H. The president’s proposal isn’t likely to get far in Congress, where Republicans claim the idea amounts to a tax increase on energy production and would not lower gas prices. “Right now 4 billion of your tax dollars — 4 billion — subsidizes the oil industry every year,” the president said to boos from the crowd at Nashua Community College. “These companies are making record profits right now, tens of billions of dollars a year. Every time you … fill up your gas tank, they’re making money, every time.” “Does anyone really think that Congress should give them another $4 billion this year?” Obama asked. “No!” the audience shouted back. The president’s speech came as Republican front-runner Mitt Romney pivoted his standard stump speech to focus on energy as well, saying the president “does not understand energy. He is the problem; he is not the solution.” The president accused his GOP rivals of trying to score political points from the rising cost of gas and aggressively targeted Republicans who have called for increased domestic oil production to bring down the cost of gas. “Anybody who tells you that we can just drill our way out of this problem does not know what they’re talking about, or they’re not telling you the truth, one or the other,” the president said. Instead, Obama argued his “all-of-the-above” approach is the “only real solution” to tackle the nation’s long-term energy challenges. “The easiest thing in the world is to make phony election-year promises about lowering gas prices. But what’s harder is to make a serious, sustained commitment to tackle a problem that we’ve been talking about for 30 years and has not been tackled, has not been solved. It’s not going to be solved in one year or one term — maybe not completely even in one decade. But that’s the kind of commitment that we need right now. That’s what this moment requires,” he said. Steve Fox, a retiree from Peterborough, N.H., who came to see the president today, told ABC he doesn’t expect the president or Republicans to exact a quick fix. “What are you gonna do? Put price controls on? If you want to pay less at the pump, don’t buy as much,” he said. ||||| Campaigning in the state with the nation's lowest unemployment rate, Mitt Romney pivoted to energy policy Thursday -- accusing President Obama of standing in the way of good paying jobs and using his energy policies to reward campaign donors in industries like wind and solar.Romney, who has been endorsed by many of the state's most prominent Republicans , did not mention his Republican opponents in North Dakota -- apparently hoping to keep the focus on the contrast between his energy agenda and that of President Obama, who discussed his efforts to boost domestic energy production in New Hampshire on Thursday.He argued that Obama has tried to stifle the development of oil and gas resources in the U.S. and said the president was wrong to try to strengthen federal oversight of fracking -- a technique where fluids are blasted into the ground to help extract oil and gas.While North Dakota's rich natural resources have created a thriving economy compared to many other states -- its 3.3% unemployment rate is the lowest in the nation -- Romney said the Obama administration has thwarted the efforts of other states to tap into their natural resources.Obama, Romney told an enthusiastic crowd at an early morning event in Fargo, has "tried to slow the growth of oil and gas production in this country, and coal production in this country. So far from taking credit, he should be hanging his head and taking a little bit of the blame for what's going on today."As an example, Romney noted that states have long regulated fracking, but Obama "has got 10 different federal agencies trying to push their way into fracking so that they can slow down the development of oil and gas in this country."Romney, who favors allowing expanding offshore oil drilling and permitting drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, argued that the Obama administration has also created uncertainty about future energy policy decisions — making it difficult for businesses to access loans, hire workers and expand: "We have to have a government that's responsive like businesses try to be," he said.The former Massachusetts governor also criticized the Obama administration's decision to deny a permit for the 1,700-mile Keystone XL oil pipeline that would carry crude oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries."When someone says do you want to bring in a pipeline that's going to create tens of thousands of jobs to bring oil in from Canada, how in the world could you say no? But he did," Romney said. "This is a president who does not understand energy. He is the problem. He is not the solution. It's time to get him out of office and get someone in who will get us energy-secure."In January, the State Department announced that it had not had "sufficient time" to assess whether the Keystone XL project was in the national interest. Obama said the decision was "not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline" but rather a reflection of the fact that Congress had not given the State Department enough time to collect the information that was needed. The proposed route would have taken the pipeline through the environmentally sensitive area of the Nebraska Sandhills above the Ogallala aquifer.Romney and a number of other Republican candidates routinely note their support for the Keystone XL pipeline in their stump speeches because it has been a rallying cry for what many Republican voters view as the Obama administration's over-regulation of business.The Obama administration's efforts to increase the nation's reliance on green energy — through Department of Energy grants and the federal stimulus program — have amounted to picking winners and losers in the energy sector, he said."I like wind and solar sources of energy; I think they're great, but they are not going to drive our cars," he said, as some in the crowd nodded. "So we're going to develop them but we're not going to have the president deciding winners and losers. We want instead the free market and the free economy to encourage those sectors that have the greatest potential to get America energy secure."[email protected]

– President Obama again went on the offensive over rising gas prices today, notes ABC News. Speaking in New Hampshire, he told Americans to call their congressional representatives and demand they end the $4 billion subsidies to gas and oil companies. His takeaway line: “You can either stand up for the oil companies, or you can stand up for the American people. You can keep subsidizing a fossil fuel that’s been getting taxpayer dollars for a century, or you can place your bets on a clean-energy future.” On the GOP side, the Los Angeles Times notes that Mitt Romney has joined Newt Gingrich in making energy a big theme. "This is a president who does not understand energy," Romney said in Fargo, ND. "He is the problem. He is not the solution. It's time to get him out of office and get someone in who will get us energy-secure."

TOKYO—Japan unveiled its plan to clean up the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and return the surrounding region to normal, a 40-year process that represents one of the most ambitious such efforts in history. The plan lays out a timetable to completely dismantle the plant, where reactors overheated dangerously following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. It includes the development of robots to decontaminate the reactor buildings and technology to seal leaks in walls submerged in radioactive water. The path laid out is arduous and slow: Officials estimate they won't finish plugging Fukushima Daiichi's leaky reactor buildings until 2018. Removing the melted fuel rods from three reactors will take 25 years, or until about 2036. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. has estimated the decommissioning process will cost roughly ¥1 trillion ($12.8 billion), although that figure is expected to rise. The decommissioning plan follows a proposal announced earlier this week, to start—as early as April—to return to their homes some of the 88,000 evacuees from areas nearest the plant, and to spend at least ¥1 trillion on decontaminating towns, parks and roads. It comes as the government also considers tightening food-safety standards to permit only one-fifth of the radioactive cesium that current rules allow. Together, those proposals form the backbone of Japan's plan to deal with the long-term repercussions of the world's second-worst nuclear accident, following Chernobyl in 1986. Experts say the program will be extremely challenging to implement, in part because they aim to bring the region back, as much as possible, to the way it was before the accident. "There is a strong call for us to put a lot of effort into decontamination, into restoring everything that can be restored, so people can live there again," said Goshi Hosono, Japan's minister overseeing the nuclear crisis, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "In order to restore things, we need to work on developing the technology, and devote plenty of money to whatever else is needed.'' In many ways, Japan's cleanup and restoration plans are more ambitious and challenging than those following the nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island in the U.S. and Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union. The 1979 accident at Three Mile Island was much smaller in scale, and emitted far less radioactive material into the atmosphere. The reactor's fuel rods were damaged, but the vessels in which they were contained were intact. That is a very different situation than at Fukushima Daiichi, where the fuel in three reactors is thought to have burned holes in their immediately surrounding pressure vessels, and in one case to have fallen all the way through to the bottom of the outer containment vessel. The reactor buildings and equipment at Fukushima Daiichi also are damaged and leaking radioactive water, something that didn't happen at Three Mile Island. Experts say those differences present huge technological challenges—particularly in figuring out how to get to the bits of melted fuel. Those bits are likely scattered around the piping and other equipment at the bottom of the reactors' containment vessels "like bird droppings,'' says Tadashi Narabayashi, a professor of reactor engineering at Hokkaido University. According to the government's blueprint for dismantling Fukushima Daiichi, engineers will first have to repair the reactor building leaks, which could take six years, then drain the buildings of radioactive water, which could take an additional two years. Those estimates themselves are iffy, since nobody knows yet where the leaks are, says Hajimu Yamana, a professor of nuclear engineering at Kyoto University and head of a government panel studying how to dismantle the plant. "It's a bit of a stretch to say you'll do something in [a certain number of] years, when you don't know what it is you have to do,'' he said. Not until 2022 does the plan foresee beginning the process of removing the melted fuel. Japan's cleanup plans also are more ambitious than those in place at Chernobyl, but for different reasons, experts say. In that accident, the lack of a containment vessel surrounding the reactor meant radioactive materials from the accident were spread far and wide. Japanese officials point out that radiation released from Fukushima Daiichi is still only about 15% of what was emitted at Chernobyl. But the Chernobyl cleanup plans were also simpler, experts say: Build a thick concrete container around the shattered reactor and move people away permanently. That won't work in Japan, where land is scarce and attachments to it are strong, says Mr. Hosono, the nuclear-crisis minister. "In this small country, people won't accept it if there is a big area where nobody is able to live,'' he says. That means Japan is prepared to spend a lot of time, energy and money cutting up the contaminated plant and cleansing the site, so that people feel safe moving back near it. The government also has released ambitious plans to decontaminate surrounding areas to radiation levels that—while still many times what they were before the accident—are considered well below levels that scientists have found to be dangerous. "We're trying to restore the land, even if living there doesn't raise health concerns,'' says Mr. Yamana. "That is very difficult.'' —Juro Osawa contributed to this article. Write to Phred Dvorak at [email protected] and Mitsuru Obe at [email protected] ||||| TOKYO — Decommissioning the wrecked reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will take 40 years and require the use of robots to remove melted fuel that appears to be stuck to the bottom of the reactors’ containment vessels, the Japanese government said on Wednesday. The predictions were contained in a detailed roadmap for fully shutting down the three reactors, which suffered meltdowns after an earthquake and tsunami struck the plant on March 11. The government had previously predicted it would take 30 years to clean up after the accident at Fukushima, the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. The nuclear crisis minister, Goshi Hosono, acknowledged that no country has ever had to clean up three destroyed reactors at the same time. Mr. Hosono told reporters the decommissioning faced challenges that were not totally predictable, but “we must do it even though we may face difficulties along the way.” The plan’s release follows last week’s declaration by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda that the plant had been put into the equivalent of a “cold shutdown,” a stable state that suggested the runaway reactors had finally been brought under control. Critics, however, immediately challenged that statement, saying it was impossible to call the reactors stable when their fuel had melted through the inner containment vessels, and appeared to be attached to the concrete bottom of outer containment vessels. Still, the government appears ready to move ahead with the next stage of the cleanup. According to Wednesday’s roadmap, the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power, will spend the next two years removing spent fuel rods from storage pools located in the same buildings as the damaged reactors. At least one of those pools, which are highly radioactive, was exposed by hydrogen explosions that destroyed the reactor buildings in the first days of the accident. The most technically challenging step will be removing the melted fuel, a process that the government said will take 25 years and require new types of robots and other new technologies that have not even been developed yet. After the removal, fully decommissioning the reactors will take another 5 to 10 years, according to the roadmap.

– The predictions are getting worse: Japanese officials today said that it could take as many as 40 years to decommission the Fukushima nuclear plant, upping the previous estimate of 30 years. According to the detailed roadmap, TEPCO intends to spend the next two years clearing the spent fuel rods out of the storage pools situated in the reactor buildings; but the lion's share of the time will go to removing the melted nuclear fuel. That process will take some 25 years, and will necessitate the use of robots—and technologies that haven't even been invented yet, reports the New York Times. The Wall Street Journal zeroes in on one of the toughest steps in the process: Figuring out how to drain thousands of tons of irradiated water from the reactor buildings' basements. The cracks that the earthquake created in these buildings will then be repaired, allowing the reactors to be refilled with water, which must occur before the melted fuel can be removed from them. Once that process is complete, it'll be another five to 10 years until the reactors are completely decommissioned.

But beyond the tight circle around Mr. Trump, there were growing concerns in Washington about General Flynn’s fitness for the job, fueled by talk of his temperament, his conspiratorial worldview and his own incendiary Twitter postings. Many Democrats were openly critical from the moment the appointment was announced last month, and several prominent Republican national security officials also quietly voiced concerns. Now, with Mr. Flynn under growing scrutiny, some are beginning to speak publicly. “The national security adviser should have a moderating effect on the instincts of the president, and it remains to be seen if Mike can do that,” Michael V. Hayden, a former director of both the C.I.A. and the National Security Agency, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. The role of national security adviser calls for mediating the conflicting views of cabinet secretaries and agencies, and sifting fact from speculation and rumor to help the new president decide how the United States should react to international crises. It is a job that is likely to take on greater importance for Mr. Trump, who has no experience in defense or foreign policy issues and has a habit of making broad assertions that are not based in fact. General Flynn, too, has shown similar inclinations both on Twitter and in his previous jobs in the military. At the Defense Intelligence Agency, his staff members even coined their own name for his sometimes dubious assertions: “Flynn facts.” “He has regularly engaged in the reckless public promotion of conspiracy theories that have no basis in fact, with disregard for the risks that giving credence to those theories could pose to the public,” Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said on Tuesday. ||||| 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 ||||| Washington (CNN) Officials from President-elect Donald Trump's transition team attempted to distance themselves Tuesday from Michael G. Flynn -- the son and former top aide to his father, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who is Trump's pick for national security adviser and was involved in the transition effort. However, government sources tell CNN that the Trump transition team had requested a security clearance for the younger Flynn. When asked about the request for clearance on CNN's "The Lead," Vice President-elect Mike Pence wouldn't answer Jake Tapper's repeated questions about whether he knew the transition team sought security clearance for Flynn Jr. Instead, Pence repeated that the younger Flynn was merely helping his father with scheduling and administrative matters -- and no longer is doing so. Pressed on seeking a security clearance for Flynn Jr., Pence said: "Well, whatever the appropriate paperwork was to assist him in that regard, Jake, I'm sure was taking place. But that's no longer the case." "All of our families want to be helpful, and four weeks to the day from Election Day, we've got a lot of work to do. But Mike Flynn Jr. is no longer associated with Gen. Flynn's efforts or the transition team, and we're focused eyes forward," Pence said. Eight. That's how many times @jaketapper asked @MikePenceVP about Mike Flynn Jr.'s security clearance. Here: https://t.co/COy6fodgin — The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) December 6, 2016 Read More

– The son of incoming national security adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has apparently gotten himself fired from the Trump transition team for sending dubious tweets. The New York Times reports that a transition team spokesman said Tuesday that Michael G. Flynn is no longer working for the transition. Sources say the younger Flynn had been in the process of getting a security clearance to join his father at the National Security Council, but was fired because of his tweets about the "PizzaGate" fake news story. Flynn Jr. continued to tweet in support of the conspiracy theory even after a gunman stormed a pizzeria in Washington, DC, on Sunday, looking for children he thought were being kept as sex slaves by top Democrats. Mike Pence told CNN Tuesday that Flynn Jr. was no longer part of the transition, but declined to say whether the team had been seeking security clearance for him. "All of our families want to be helpful, and four weeks to the day from Election Day, we've got a lot of work to do," Pence told Jake Tapper. "But Mike Flynn Jr. is no longer associated with Gen. Flynn's efforts or the transition team, and we're focused eyes forward." The Times notes that the elder Flynn has made so many "dubious assertions" of his own on Twitter and elsewhere that his staff started calling them "Flynn facts." Democrats and some former GOP national security officials have questioned his fitness for the role, though there is no sign that his position is in jeopardy.

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. ||||| Wall Street suffered one of its most volatile sessions in years Monday, with the Dow industrials plunging more than 1,000 points in the opening minutes, bouncing back to recover most of the losses and then fading into the final bell to record the biggest drop in four years. Meanwhile the main benchmark S&P 500 slipped into correction territory, having fallen more than 10% from its peak reached on May 21. “Short-term fear of the unknown is still in the driver’s seat, I would expect more volatility in the coming weeks,” said Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones. Indeed, Monday’s trading session saw the main indexes plunge by more than 5%. Nearly 14 billion shares changed hands on Monday, the largest volume since August 10, 2011. Investors remained concerned about global growth in the face of plummeting commodity prices and slowing growth in China, the second largest economy in the world. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.75% ended the day down 588.47 points, or 3.6%, at 15,871.28—its lowest settlement since February 2014. All 30 members of the Dow finished the day in negative territory. The S&P 500 SPX, +0.85% dropped 77.68 points, or 3.9%, to 1,893.21, the lowest level since October 2014. The index is down 8% year to date. Nearly all 500 members of the index closed with a loss. Both the Dow and the S&P 500 scored their biggest one-day percentage declines since August 2011. The Nasdaq Composite COMP, +1.29% ended the day down 179.79 points, or 3.8% at 4,526.25. “Trading volumes are driven by ETFs today, but we are not seeing a lot of panic, where people dump large amounts of stocks in one go. There are still buyers out there, who are picking up stocks that have seen large corrections. However, volatility is back, so seeing large intraday and day-to-day swings is not surprising,” said Brian Fenske, head of sales trading at ITG. Sal Arnuk, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading, described Monday’s open as painful. “There’s definitely blood on the street. You can check the level of the VIX,” Arnuk said. Implied volatility on the S&P 500, as measured by the CBOE Volatility Index VIX, -7.78% jumped to 38, significantly above the long-term average of 20. Investors piled into Treasurys, briefly pushing the yield on the 10-year note below 2%. Bond yields move inversely to prices. Many investors expected the People’s Bank of China to take some action over the weekend to support the financial system. In the absence of any move, a brutal bout of selling overtook markets. The Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, +0.39% closed down 8.5%. Read: Investors haven’t been this terrified since 2009 Ric Edelman, chief executive officer and chairman of Edelman Financial Services, said that his firm hasn't experienced a barrage of calls from panicky clients. “It appears that most of the selling is done by algorithms and institutional investors rather than retail investors. We think that’s because retail investors have learned their lesson of 2008: that the best thing to do at a time like this is nothing,” Edelman said. Stocks to Watch: Shares of Apple Inc. AAPL, +3.31% switched between big losses and big gains. Share closed down 2.5%, after opening down more than 4.3%. The stock entered bear-market territory on Friday. Energy stocks suffered as the U.S. crude benchmark CLV5, +0.00% struggled to hold above $38 a barrel. But AGL Resources Inc. US:GAS soared 28% after the energy company received a $12 billion buyout bid from Southern Company. SO, -0.96% Read more in Movers & Shakers. NIK, +0.97% Other markets: In addition to the Shanghai Composite’s heavy losses, the Nikkei 225 index NIK, +0.97% slid 4.6%, pressured by a strong Japanese yen. Investors flocked to the perceived safe haven of the yen, pushing the dollar USDJPY, -0.08% and other rivals lower. Read: China shares wipe out 2015 gains as stocks tumble 8.5% In Europe, stocks followed Asia’s lead as the Stoxx Europe 600 dropped 5.3%, falling deeper into correction mode. Gold prices US:GCZ5 failed to score any gains on Monday, despite its reputation as a refuge in times of market turmoil. The yellow metal fell 0.5% to settle at $1,153.60 an ounce. Providing critical information for the U.S. trading day. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Need to Know newsletter. Sign up here.

– MarketWatch used a stock photo of the Grim Reaper and words like "carnage" in an early-morning article on stock futures—it appears to have been prescient. After an ugly morning in which Dow futures plummeted some 850 points, the Dow fell by more than 1,000 points in its opening minutes. MarketWatch puts an early-morning low point at around 15,441, which is down 6% from Friday's level. The Dow is currently down about 700 points. This comes on the heels of the Dow's 800-plus-point drop on Thursday/Friday, the biggest two-day drop since the financial crisis.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Andrew North in Dhaka: "This is really now a race against time" Two owners of garment factories in the building that collapsed on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka have been arrested. Mahbubur Rahman Tapas and Balzul Samad Adnan are suspected of forcing staff to work in the eight-storey building, ignoring warnings about cracks. At least 336 people are known to have died after the Rana Plaza in the suburb of Savar collapsed on Wednesday. On Saturday morning, at least 24 more people were rescued from the rubble. Rescuers and volunteers, who worked through the night, cheered as they were brought to safety. At the scene I have just seen a woman pulled alive from deep inside the rubble of the Rana Plaza, four days since this huge garment factory complex collapsed. She was crying as she emerged into the light on what was once the roof of the building. Rescuers shouted Allahu Akbar (God is great) as she was brought up on a rope and then carried away on a stretcher. Emergency personnel say up to 14 more people are still trapped on what was the fifth floor of the building and work is under way to free them. Hundreds of volunteers are still helping army and emergency services. Bodies are also still being retrieved from this massive tangle of concrete and metal. There have been more clashes with police and protesters near the site as anger simmers over the disaster. We passed dozens of riot police on the drive here, some were guarding other nearby garment factories following attacks on several others. Earlier, rescue teams said they had located about 40 survivors on the collapsed third and fifth floors of the building. Officials said they were working to extricate the remaining survivors and had passed oxygen cylinders and water to those still trapped. Among those pulled out alive after three days in the rubble was Marina Begum, 22, now recovering in hospital. "It felt like I was in hell," she said. "It was so hot, I could hardly breathe, there was no food or water. When I regained my senses I found myself in this hospital bed." More bodies of victims were also retrieved overnight and on Saturday morning. Some 3,000 people are believed to have been working in the building at the time of the collapse and about 600 are still missing. Rana Plaza housed three garment factories, a bank and a number of shops. Watching the operation are hundreds of relatives of those still missing, many clutching photographs of their loved ones. Abul Basar wept as he awaited news of his wife who worked in one of the garment factories. "My son says that his mother will come back some day, she must return," he cried. 'Negligence' Mr Tapas and Mr Adnan, the owners of the New Wave Bottoms and New Wave Style factories, were remanded in custody for 12 days by a court on Saturday. They were arrested earlier in the day after turning themselves in. Deputy chief of Dhaka police Shyami Mukherjee said the two were accused of causing "death due to negligence". The owners reportedly told their employees to return to work on Wednesday, even though cracks were visible in the building a day earlier. Three other clothing factories were reportedly operating in the building. Police are also questioning two municipal engineers who are reported to have approved the safety of the building a day before it collapsed. The owner of Rana Plaza, Mohammed Sohel Rana, is said to have gone into hiding. "Those who're involved, especially the owner who forced the workers to work there, will be punished," Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told lawmakers on Friday. "Wherever he is, he will be found and brought to justice," the prime minister added. There is widespread anger in Bangladesh over the disaster and fresh clashes between police and protesters erupted again on Saturday. Image caption Rescuers say many people are still trapped. Picture: Andrew North On Friday, police used tear-gas and rubber bullets to break up crowds that had blocked roads, set fire to buses and attacked textile factories. Protesters are demanding that the government arrests all those responsible for the disaster and improves conditions for garment workers. Police are guarding other garment factories in the area. Bangladesh has one of the largest garment industries in the world, providing cheap clothing for major Western retailers that benefit from its widespread low-cost labour. But the industry has been widely criticised for its low pay and limited rights given to workers and for the often dangerous working conditions in garment factories. Primark, a clothes retailer with a large presence in Britain, confirmed that one of its suppliers was on the second floor of the Rana Plaza, and said it would work with other retailers to review standards. Labour rights groups say the companies have a moral duty to ensure their suppliers are providing safe conditions for their employees. UK fashion designer Katharine Hamnett has called on fashion brands to insist on safer working conditions for garment workers internationally. "The price of clothes may be low but they are paid for with human lives," she is reported to have said at the Vogue Festival in London on Saturday. "We should demand credible, certifiable inspections on building structures and industry standards." She added: "This is a very dark day for the clothing industry." Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Communist Party and left-leaning Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal party have called a general strike on 2 May to demand punishment for those found responsible for the deaths. ||||| Story highlights Rescue efforts will go on until we "rescue the last of the survivors alive," official says Four people are arrested and four others are being questioned by police The owner of the building itself has gone into hiding, police say The building, which housed garment factories, collapsed Wednesday, killing over 300 Bangladeshi authorities arrested four people, including two factory owners, after at least 340 people died in a building collapse near the capital this week. Many others were trapped under concrete rubble; nearly 600 remain missing. The owner of the building itself remains at large. Sohel Rana, has gone into hiding, said police, who are questioning four of his relatives, including his wife, in a bid to find him. Police identified the arrested garment factory owners as Mahmudur Rahman Tapash and Bazlul Samad Adnan. Two government engineers also were arrested, police said. Night fell in the capital Saturday, and rescue efforts continued for the fourth day -- beyond the 72-hour deadline since the collapse when authorities had said they'd switch from rescue to recovery mode, a decision that solicited vehement protests from those saying it was premature. Even after that milestone had passed, supplies of fresh oxygen, food and water helped keep alive some who had been located but who were still trapped, the state-run BSS news agency reported. "We will proceed with our campaign to rescue the last of the survivors alive," said Maj. Gen. Hassan Sarwardy, who is leading the effort. Authorities have said they will decide on Sunday morning whether to shift the operation from a rescue mission to a recovery mission. Crowds of relatives of the workers who were in the building pleaded for the intensification of rescue efforts that they say have slowed as the days have passed. "There were hundreds of workers, now we're not getting them back, alive or dead," one woman said. "Please let us get to them, either dead or alive." Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday had ordered police to arrest the owners of the building and the garment factories in it so that they can "face legal actions," her spokesman said. "It is not an accident, it is a killing incident," Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu told reporters. "All, including owners and administrative officials concerned, must be put on the dock for the killing of people." Most of the victims appear to have been garment factory workers. Amid the arrests, the death toll mounted as families of the missing hoped for a miracle. Rescuers pulled out a woman who had given birth in the mangled mess of the crumbled eight-story building, the state-run news agency Sangbad Sangstha reported. It was unclear Saturday how the mother and the baby were doing a day after they were rescued. But most reports coming from the fallen structure near the capital, Dhaka, were of woe. Officials originally planned to end the rescue efforts Saturday morning and bring in heavy equipment to retrieve the remaining bodies, but pushed that decision back for another day. At a nearby medical college hospital, "thousands of survivors have been treated," said Sajjad Hussein, a spokesman for an anti-corruption agency. "The crisis for blood is acute and the hospital authority is urging people to donate blood for the victims. There is also a shortage of medicine. The local military hospital is also treating patients." Looking for loved ones The picture of despair was clear Friday at a nearby local school, where bodies were being kept. Hundreds amassed, many of them relatives desperately searching for loved ones. "People with photos of their relatives, mostly workers of the apparel factories, are asking the officials there for help. Whenever an ambulance is arriving at the spot, everyone is rushing towards (it) hoping to find at least the body of their near and dear ones," Hussein said. In all, more than 2,400 people had been rescued, police said. But it may take some time until the full extent of the destruction will be known. The collapse occurred Wednesday morning, a day after cracks appeared in the structure. It has stirred outrage in Bangladesh over lax safety standards in the country's key industry. The cracks led the bank to order its employees not to report for work Wednesday, and the shops in the mall were closed because of a strike. But garment factory workers were told to report to work despite their concerns that the building's structure was not sound The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association announced Friday that all garment factories would be shut over the weekend "for treatment of victims of the Savar building collapse and completion of the rescue operation successfully."

– Bangladesh authorities have arrested eight people in the collapse of a building whose death toll has risen to at least 336. Two factory owners and their relatives were arrested, along with two engineers, CNN reports via state news. "It is not an accident, it is a killing incident," says the country's information minister. "All, including owners and administrative officials concerned, must be put on the dock for the killing of people." Twenty-four more people were rescued today, the BBC reports; in total, some 2,300 have been saved, according to police. About 600 remain missing. Among those rescued were a woman and her newborn after the woman reportedly gave birth in the rubble. Rescue work was set to end this morning, officials said, prompting new protests yesterday. "Whenever an ambulance is arriving" at a school housing bodies, "everyone is rushing towards hoping to find at least the body of their near and dear ones," says an anti-corruption organization rep.

Anyone want to buy a German village? On Saturday, the entire hamlet of Alwine, in the south of Brandenburg state, will be up for auction with a starting price of €125,000 ($147,230). Alwine has around 20 residents who are, with the exception of one family, retired. As local news outlets have reported, its dilapidated state is characteristic of much of the former East Germany. The village had around 50 residents at the time of reunification with West Germany in 1990. However, the coal plant that owned it shut down the following year, so its younger inhabitants moved west. None returned. A private investor bought Alwine in 2000 for one Deutschmark (Germans started using the euro in 2002) but, according to reports, that did not stop the village from falling further into disrepair. Alwine in Brandenburg, Germany. Karhausen Auction House Andreas Claus, the mayor of the Uebigau-Wahrenbrück district that contains Alwine, told TheLocal.de that he only learned of the proposed sale when he saw a report in the media. He said the residents would not try to buy it. Claus said he would invite the buyer “to see how we can try to develop something here, in collaboration with the people, and not against them.” In Germany’s federal elections in September, almost a quarter of Uebigau-Wahrenbrück voted for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, reflecting disillusionment with traditional parties. Nationally, the AfD only got an eighth of the vote. ||||| Alwine's empty homes and ageing residents mirror the wider fate of the ex-communist east German hinterlands since the country's reunification 27 years ago (AFP Photo/Tobias Schwarz) Berlin (AFP) - The only bidder at an unusual auction on Saturday put down 140,000 euros and walked away the new owner of a small slice of German history: the village of Alwine, population 20. Its empty homes and ageing residents mirror the wider fate of the ex-communist east German hinterlands since the country's reunification 27 years ago. The anonymous buyer, who bid by telephone, scooped up the community that real estate auctioneers Karhausen had given a starting price of 125,000 euros ($148,000). In 2000, the hamlet was sold to private investors for one "symbolic Deutschmark," the pre-euro German currency. The two brothers who were the original buyers of its dozen buildings, plus sheds and garages, did not manage to stop its slide into neglect. Only about 20 mostly retired people still live in the cluster of decaying homes in rural Brandenburg state, 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of Berlin. During World War II, the Hitler Youth trained around Alwine and prisoners of war were incarcerated nearby. Then the Iron Curtain went up and it became part of Germany's communist East. Until Germany's 1990 reunification, all the property in Alwine, which once counted about 50 residents, was owned by a nearby coal briquette plant, the oldest in Europe. The plant closed in 1991 and many people left as the work dried up. Alwine is not the only such community in eastern Germany, which still lags behind the west in prosperity, wages and jobs with a per capita GDP that was only 67 percent of that in western states in 2015. Between 1990 and 2015, the eastern region's population fell by about 15 percent, according to a government report this year. "After reunification, many people moved away for jobs," Hildegard Schroeteler-von Brandt, a professor of architecture and urban studies at Siegen University, said before the sale. "These jobs have not been replaced everywhere in East Germany." Andreas Claus, the mayor of Uebigau-Wahrenbrueck of which Alwine is a part, said: "People in economically underdeveloped areas feel left alone with their problems." During the elections in September, nearly 23 percent of Uebigau-Wahrenbrueck voted for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, nearly twice the national average.

– An anonymous buyer just purchased an entire German village over the phone for less than $165,000, AFP reports. The mystery person was the only bidder in an auction for the village of Alwine on Saturday. Alwine—an embodiment of the failure of what was once East Germany to match the prosperity of the West—boasts a dozen or so decaying buildings and a population of 20. According to Fortune, all but one family in the village are retired. Prior to reunification, the village 75 miles south of Berlin was owned by a coal briquette plant, which closed in 1991, leading many residents to seek out jobs elsewhere. Alwine was bought by two brothers in 2000, but they had little luck changing its fortunes. The mayor of the district containing Alwine says he wants the village's new owner "to see how we can try to develop something here, in collaboration with the people, and not against them."

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, centre and members of the Royal family arrive for the Easter Mattins Service at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, in Windsor, England, Sunday, April 1, 2018. (Tolga Akmen/Pool... (Associated Press) Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, centre and members of the Royal family arrive for the Easter Mattins Service at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, in Windsor, England, Sunday, April 1, 2018. (Tolga Akmen/Pool Photo via AP) (Associated Press) LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II, Prince William and his wife Kate and other senior royals have celebrated an Easter church service at St. George's Chapel in Windsor. William and Kate arrived at the church a few minutes late Sunday. She is expecting the couple's third child later this month. Prince Harry and his fiancee, American actress Meghan Markle, did not attend. Palace officials said their weekend plans are private. The two will wed in St. George's Chapel on May 19. Prince Philip, the queen's husband, also did not attend. The 96-year-old has retired from public duties and is seen less frequently. Most of the royals walked down the hill from Windsor Castle to the chapel, but the 91-year-old queen arrived by car. William and Kate also took a car to the chapel. ||||| The royals are celebrating Easter in style! Kate Middleton and Prince William arrived late for Easter church services alongside Queen Elizabeth on Sunday, stepping out together as the expectant mom’s due date quickly approaches. William and Kate, who is due to welcome her third child later this month, pulled up in a royal car to join the Queen and other members of the family at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle —which is also the historic venue for the May 19 wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Kate, 36, looked elegant in a classic dark coat (shop similar styles here and here), matching hat and nude pumps as she made her way into the 14th century Gothic chapel inside the castle walls. Now on maternity leave, the outing is likely to be the last time Kate is seen in public before she gives birth. Karwai Tang/WireImage Karwai Tang/WireImage The couple’s children — Prince George, 4, and Princess Charlotte, who will be 3 on May 2 — were not with them for the second year running. Also absent were Meghan and Harry, who have private plans elsewhere, palace officials said. Prince Philip, 96, who had to pull out of a high-profile church service on Thursday because he was suffering from a hip problem, did not join the family again on Sunday. Tolga Akmen - WPA Pool/Getty Images TOLGA AKMEN/AFP/Getty Images Prince Andrew and his daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie attended the Easter service, along with Eugenie’s fiancé Jack Brooksbank. Princess Anne and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence led the royal family down the hill to the chapel. Anne’s son Peter Phillips and his wife Autumn, as well as Prince Edward, the Countess of Wessex and their children Lady Louise Windsor, 14, and James, Viscount Severn, 10, also attended the service. The Queen was presented with posies by Madeline Carleston and Amelia Vivian, two six-year-old girls whose parents work and live in the castle, when she arrived. William and Kate told the girls that George and Charlotte had been on an Easter egg hunt on Sunday morning. RELATED VIDEO: Kate Middleton Becomes First Royal Patron of the Victoria & Albert Museum Madeline’s mother, Deborah Carleston, told reporters: “The Queen asked: ‘Have you had lots of Easter eggs?’ “ “Prince William and his wife asked: ‘Have you lost any Easter eggs yet?’ ” Carleston added. “They said there had been great excitement in their house this morning. They said their children will probably still be finding eggs around the house in six months time.” On May 19, all eyes will again be on the steps of the magnificent St. George’s Chapel, when Meghan will sweep in — and emerge a princess.

– Britain's house of Windsor celebrated Easter on Sunday with the rest of Christendom, with a couple of notable exceptions, reports People. While one might think that would include Kate Middleton, her only concession to being in her eighth month of pregnancy was to take a car to services while most of the rest of the family walked, notes the AP. But 96-year-old Prince Philip, who retired from public life earlier this year, missed his second official event in a week. Also missing: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, whose Easter plans were characterized by palace officials as private. The family services were held at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, where the couple will marry next month.

On Media Blog Archives Select Date… December, 2015 November, 2015 October, 2015 September, 2015 August, 2015 July, 2015 June, 2015 May, 2015 April, 2015 March, 2015 February, 2015 January, 2015 AP Photo White House to skip Correspondents' Dinner No White House staff will attend next month’s White House Correspondents' Dinner in “solidarity” with their boss, Donald Trump, who is the first president to skip the dinner in decades. "The White House informed the White House Correspondents’ Association this evening that White House staff will not be attending this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner out of “solidarity” with President Trump, who has previously announced that he would skip the event,” WHCA President Jeff Mason said in a letter sent to the organization. "The WHCA board regrets this decision very much. We have worked hard to build a constructive relationship with the Trump White House and believe strongly that this goal is possible even with the natural tension between the press and administrations that is a hallmark of a healthy republic. We made clear in our meeting tonight that President Trump, Vice President Pence, and White House staff continue to be welcome to join us at this dinner.” Trump announced in February he would be skipping the annual dinner, an occasion to present awards to journalists, give scholarships to students and show respect for the presidency. But the question remained whether Pence or any other White House staff would attend. Typically, the White House press secretary sits on the front dais along with the members of the WHCA, the president, first lady and the night’s entertainment. As a result of the president not attending the dinner, there will also be no Secret Service protection or security for other dignitaries who may attend. In a short interview, Mason said the WHCA and the hotel will provide the necessary security. The night’s entertainment is also up in the air. No entertainer has been announced when in previous years, the entertainers were often announced, at the latest, in February. One late-night host, James Corden, was offered the position but turned it down. There’s also the possibility the association will choose not to tap a comedian, or not to have any entertainment at all. "I don’t have anything to update on that but, stay tuned, it shouldn’t be too long now,” Mason said. This year’s WHCD will look a lot different than past dinners. Many of the high-profile events surrounding the dinner, hosted by the likes of Vanity Fair, Bloomberg, The New Yorker, and Time/People magazines have been canceled. Some outlets are not attending, while others are inviting journalism students instead of politicos and celebrities. "Only the White House can speak to the signal it wants to send with this decision,” Mason wrote in the letter. "But our signal is clear: We will celebrate the First Amendment on April 29 and look forward to acknowledging the important work of our terrific members and awarding scholarships to students who represent the next generation of our profession." Hadas Gold is a reporter at Politico. ||||| 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

– It's unlikely they're going to Samantha Bee's roast of President Trump instead, but a month after the president announced he would steer clear of the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, White House staff members are following suit. "The staff is standing in solidarity with the president, who has been treated unfairly," Press Secretary Sean Spicer says in a statement. The White House Correspondents Association says it is disappointed, but the event will continue on April 29 in order to honor journalists and students, per Politico. Several news outlets have also dropped out of the event this year. The entertainment has not been announced.

Mazel tov, Anne Hathaway! After a one year engagement, the actress wed Adam Shulman yesterday. The ceremony took place on a private residence in Big Sur in front of 180 guests and some pretty rustic décor. But we digress -- the part we were most excited about was Anne's highly-anticipated wedding gown. It was revealed last week that the 29-year-old actress would wear Valentino when the designer raved about the then-bride-to-be to E! News, so our expectations were high. And then, when rumors began to swirl that Yifat Oren, Natalie Portman's wedding planner, was hired to plan the "Dark Knight Rises" star's nuptials, we couldn't help but have visions of an equally as dreamy wedding made even more special by an ethereal gown for Ms. Hathaway (we were using Natalie's exquisite Rodarte dress to guide us, obvi). So now that Anne's big day finally came, we have to say that we were not disappointed with her dress in the least. The gauzy Valentino confection was as romantic as a wedding dress can get, featuring an off-the-shoulder neckline, delicate lace and a crowning veil that cascaded down the floor-length hemline of the gown. She really looked stunning. As for Adam, the new hubby wore a traditional tuxedo (no matching styles for the couple this time). And since we plan on spending the rest of our afternoons using Pinterest to plan our own currently-hypothetical weddings, we'd like to send a big congrats to the new husband and wife! Check out the photo of Anne's wedding dress and tell us what you think. PHOTO: If you hadn't had enough cuteness for one day, take a look at celebrity couples who have matching styles! Loading Slideshow Kim Kardashian & Kanye West, 2012 Getty Images Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn, 1942 Getty Images Lauren Bacall & Humphrey Bogart, 1955 Getty Images Sonny & Cher, 1965 Getty Images Sonny & Cher, 1965 Getty Images Sonny & Cher, 1966 Getty Images George Harrison & Patti Boyd, 1967 Getty Images Paul McCartney & Linda McCartney Getty Images Paul McCartney & Linda McCartney, 1967 Getty Images Paul McCartney & Linda McCartney, 1978 Getty Images John Lennon & Yoko Ono, 1968 Getty Images John Lennon & Yoko Ono, 1968 Getty Images John Lennon & Yoko Ono, 1968 Getty Images Mick Jagger & Bianca Jagger Getty Images Mick Jagger & Bianca Jagger, 1970 Getty Images Mick Jagger & Bianca Jagger, 1972 Getty Images Ronald Reagan & Nancy Reagan, 1971 Getty Images Ronald Reagan & Nancy Reagan, 1990 Getty Images Sammy Davis, Jr. & Altovise Gore, 1972 Getty Images Sammy Davis, Jr. & Altovise Gore, 1976 Getty Images Natalie Wood & Robert Wagner, 1973 Getty Images Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg, 1974 Getty Images Rod Stewart & Britt Ekland, 1975 Getty Images Jack Nicholson & Anjelica Huston, 1977 Getty Images Jack Nicholson & Anjelica Huston, 1978 Getty Images Jack Nicholson & Anjelica Huston, 1983 Getty Images Prince Charles & Princess Diana, 1981 Getty Images Sid Vicious & Nancy Spungen, 1978 Getty Images Sting & Trudie Styler, 1982 Getty Images Kurt Russell & Goldie Hawn, 1983 Getty Images Madonna & Sean Penn, 1986 Getty Images Sean Penn & Madonna, 1987 Woody Allen & Mia Farrow, 1986 Getty Images John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, 1997 Getty Images Lenny Kravitz & Lisa Bonet, 1987 Getty Images Lenny Kravitz & Lisa Bonet, 1988 Getty Images Sarah Jessica Parker & Robert Downey Jr., 1987 Getty Images Sarah Jessica Parker & Robert Downey Jr., 1990 Getty Images Bruce Willis & Demi Moore, 1988 Getty Images Bruce Willis & Demi Moore, 1988 Getty Images Bruce Willis & Demi Moore, 1988 Getty Images Bruce Willis & Demi Moore, 1989 Getty Images Bruce Willis & Demi Moore, 1990 Getty Images Bruce Willis & Demi Moore, 1992 Getty Images Johnny Depp & Winona Ryder, 1990 Getty Images David Bowie & Iman, 1990 Getty Images Keifer Sutherland & Julia Roberts, 1991 Getty Images Nicollette Sheridan & Scott Baio, 1992 Getty Images Brad Pitt & Juliette Lewis, 1992 Getty Images Johnny Depp & Kate Moss, 1994 Getty Images Matthew Mcconaughey & Sandra Bullock, 1996 Getty Images Want more? Be sure to check out HuffPost Style on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest. ||||| 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

– Once better known for her romantic misfires, Anne Hathaway has officially settled down: The 29-year-old Catwoman yesterday married actor and jewelry designer Adam Shulman, 31, before 100 guests on California's Big Sur, reports People. The couple had been together four years, and got engaged last November. "I'm so delighted by [Adam]," Hathaway told an interviewer last year. "He's all the things you want a partner to be. I so find joy in his presence." You can catch a glimpse, if a bit blurry, of the bride's Valentino dress over at the Huffington Post.

OAKLAND -- The man tapped last week to lead the Oakland Police Department through a sexual-misconduct scandal was abruptly fired by Mayor Libby Schaaf on Wednesday, apparently after she became aware of an affair he had while working previously for the department. Though Schaaf wouldn't disclose the reason she dismissed Ben Fairow less than a week after tapping him as interim chief, she called her decision to hire him a "mistake" and said she had learned Monday information that "caused me to lose confidence in Ben Fairow's ability to lead the Oakland Police Department at this particular moment." Fairow, who began his career 26 years ago at OPD, was on loan from BART police, where he served as a deputy chief. Ben Fairow addresses the media as he is named interim Oakland police chief at City Hall in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, June 10, 2016. On Wednesday Fairow was forced out. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group) In a statement late Wednesday, BART police Chief Kenton Rainey disclosed that, while married, Fairow had "a personal relationship with a consenting adult more than a decade ago, none of which precludes him from serving as a sworn law enforcement officer or as one of my deputy chiefs." Rainey said he would welcome Fairow back to the BART force. Multiple sources told Bay Area News Group that Fairow apparently had inappropriate sexual contact with another employee during his earlier stint with OPD, possibly influencing Schaaf's decision. However, BART spokesman Jim Allison said the relationship referred to in Rainey's statement did not involve an OPD worker. Advertisement "I own the mistake I made. The important thing is that I'm fixing it, and I'm fixing it quickly," Schaaf said at a Wednesday news conference. Paul Figueroa, who has served as the department's inspector general and oversaw training before becoming assistant chief under Whent, was named acting chief. Schaaf said an interim chief from outside the department will be hired as the city searches nationally for a permanent chief. Schaaf cited state law protecting personnel information in refusing to discuss what led to Fairow's firing. Wednesday's announcement was the latest in a string of developments to rock the police department in recent weeks, all stemming from the growing sexual misconduct scandal involving multiple officers. Fairow was named the interim chief late Thursday evening following Chief Sean Whent's departure, which sources say was orchestrated by the department's federal monitor, upset over the misconduct case involving officers from Oakland police and other East Bay agencies and a teen girl. Five Oakland officers have resigned or been placed on administrative leave in the fallout, along with a Contra Costa County sheriff's deputy, with at least four officers alleged to have had sex with the girl while she was under age. And in a development late Wednesday, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley issued a statement that a DA inspector has been placed on administrative leave in the case. O'Malley, who has focused her tenure in office on human trafficking, declined to name the inspector. However, the woman at the center of the sex scandal, Celeste Guap, claims to have had an online friendship when she was under age with DA inspector Rick Orozco, who at the time was an OPD captain. According to a message provided by Guap, Orozco purportedly once wrote: "I would love your taco!" Mayor Schaaf has repeatedly said that in the investigation into officer wrongdoing prompted by this scandal, no former Oakland officers in the District Attorney's Office would participate. "The alleged conduct of the officers in this matter is not in line with what our office and the wider community feel is acceptable for those who are sworn to protect and serve," O'Malley's statement Wednesday said in part. During his previous stint at OPD, Fairow earned the nickname "Straight Arrow" Fairow, for following procedure by the book. A deputy chief at BART since 2011, Fairow was named in a lawsuit by the widow of Sgt. Tom Smith, accidentally killed by detective Michael Maes in a friendly fire shooting while serving a search warrant in 2014. The suit alleges that BART, under the leadership of Fairow and Rainey, increased its number of searches while de-emphasizing the use of specially trained SWAT and other tactical units, and that Fairow used profanity in dismissing requests from Smith and others for advanced training. The 52-year-old's brief tenure as Oakland's top cop follows a similar changing of the guard in 2013 when the city saw three chiefs in three days. Former Chief Howard Jordan was ousted as chief in 2013 by the federal monitor, with Anthony Toribio becoming acting chief for two days before Whent got the job. Fairow was a finalist for the permanent job that Whent landed. City Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney said Schaaf never should have looked outside the department for an interim chief. "I just didn't know enough about Ben Fairow to feel good," she said. "Figueroa is an Oakland son. I think he should have been named in the first place." "It's a big mess, and you don't know when it's going to end," Councilman Larry Reid said about the latest upheaval. "It's like we take 20 steps forward and 3,000 steps back." Councilman Noel Gallo said he has been inundated with phone calls and emails from fed-up residents. "Basically, they're saying it comes down to we don't know what we're doing at City Hall, and there's a lot of truth to that," he said. "It's a reflection of failed leadership in the city of Oakland." Earlier Tuesday, civil rights attorneys John Burris and Jim Chanin called for possibly expanding the duties of the department's federal overseer to include control over hiring, recruitment and the department police academies. The fact that several officers involved in the sexual-misconduct scandal are recent academy graduates and at least two other recent graduates have been charged criminally for off-duty incidents raises serious questions about the caliber of officers coming out of the academies, the attorneys said. Burris and Chanin were the lawyers who took part in the settlement from the infamous Riders police-beating scandal that led to federal oversight of the department. Wednesday's dismissal caught Fairow off guard as he had already been fitted for his uniform Monday and passed his gun training at the shooting range. In an interview Monday, he hadn't ruled out applying for the permanent position. His framed chief photo portrait had even been hung in the Oakland Police Department lobby. Staff writers Erin Baldassari and Matthew Artz contributed to this report. Contact David DeBolt at 510-208-6453. Contact Matthias Gafni at 925-952-5026. Follow them at Twitter.com/daviddebolt and Twitter.com/mgafni. ||||| News of the scandal began to attract attention in the Bay Area last month, but the allegations gained national attention last week when the woman at the center of the scandal told several news outlets that she had slept with more than a dozen Oakland police officers, starting while she was underage. She also asserted to have had sexual contact with officers from a number of other police agencies in the East Bay. ||||| This July 16, 2013 photo shows Oakland Police Assistant Chief Paul Figueroa during a city council meeting in Oakland, Calif. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf removed interim police chief Ben Fairow on Wednesday, June 15, 2016, after appointing him less than a week ago amid a widening sex scandal involving... (Associated Press) OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — After firing an interim police chief who had been in place for less than a week, the mayor of Oakland vowed to recruit a new law enforcement leader from outside the city to oversee a department tarnished by "disgusting allegations" that a number of officers had sex with a teenage prostitute. Mayor Libby Schaaf said her office was conducting a formal background check on Interim Police Chief Ben Fairow when she received new information that led to his abrupt dismissal on Wednesday. Schaaf declined to reveal what that information was, citing state personnel laws, but called Fairow's brief appointment a mistake. "I remain as determined as ever to insure that this department has a culture that does not tolerate immoral behavior, bad judgment or disrespect and certainly does not tolerate victimization of sexually exploited minors," Schaaf said. Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Chief Kenton Rainey said later Wednesday he had welcomed Fairow back to his department and that Fairow had informed him he had an affair with a consenting adult while married more than a decade ago. That doesn't preclude "him from serving as a sworn law enforcement officer or as one of my Deputy Chiefs," Rainey said. Fairow has been reassigned to his position as deputy chief of the department's support services division, Rainey added. The Oakland Police Department has been under renewed scrutiny since the city's previous chief revealed publicly last month that an internal investigation had been launched into alleged sexual misconduct with a minor by three officers. The investigation was opened based on questions that arose from an Oakland officer's September suicide. An 18-year-old woman has alleged in multiple news media interviews that two dozen current and former officers in five cities had sex with her while she walking the streets. The encounters happened in exchange for protection or advance word on planned prostitution stings, and three of the officers had sex with her when she was underage, the woman has said. Two Oakland officers have resigned, and three others remain on paid leave in the case. Other law enforcement agencies in the area also are investigating possible misconduct by their officers. The police department in the city of Richmond said this week that several ranking officers are being investigated for criminal contact with the woman or policy violations. Oakland City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan said Wednesday that the city council had not been briefed on the mayor's reasons for firing the interim chief. But Kaplan expressed concern about the police department's ability to investigate its own. "We have a systemic problem here," she said. "What is going on with how this whole scandal is being handled by the department is ridiculous." Schaaf named Fairow, an assistant chief for the regional transit system, as Oakland's interim chief after Chief Sean Whent resigned last Thursday. The mayor acknowledged that the appointment had been rushed, but said she felt comfortable inviting him to take the job temporarily because she knew him from his previous work in Oakland, which included stints in internal affairs and overseeing the police department's vice and narcotics unit. "The leadership of this department at this moment in time is very important. We are dealing with disgusting allegations that upset me greatly," she said, adding that new leadership would be critical to making clear the department does not tolerate "unethical behavior, sexual misbehavior or lying." This is the second time in three years that Oakland has faced a rocky transition in obtaining a new police chief. When Chief Howard Jordan resigned in May 2013, the assistant chief assigned to replace him on an interim basis served for two days before Whent took over. The department has been operating under federal oversight since 2003 because of past failures to adequately hold officers accountable for misdeeds that included planting evidence and robbing residents in predominantly black west Oakland. _ Associated Press Writer Ellen Knickmeyer in San Francisco contributed to this story.

– Ben Fairow's reign as Oakland's top cop was, in a word, brief. Fairow—who replaced resigning police chief Sean Whent on Friday amid an investigation into possible underage sex and murder—was removed from his post Wednesday after just six days, reports the Los Angeles Times. During a background check, Mayor Libby Schaaf says she received information that "raised concerns for me about whether [Fairow] can effectively lead this department at this particular moment in time." She didn't elaborate, but the chief of the Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department—where Fairow previously served and will return—says Fairow told him he had an affair with a consenting adult while married more than a decade ago, per the AP. Fairow worked for the Oakland Police Department at that time. Sources tell the East Bay Times that the other party was an employee, though a BART rep denies that. While an officer's suicide note first suggested that four Oakland officers were involved with an underage prostitute, the woman now claims she had sexual contact with some two dozen officers from various agencies in exchange for protection or knowledge of prostitution stings in the works, including while she was underage; she is now 18. A Contra Costa County Sheriff's deputy has been suspended, two Oakland officers have resigned, and three are on administrative leave. "We are dealing with disgusting allegations that upset me greatly," says Schaaf. "I believe that the leadership at this time is critical in order to build confidence that the culture of this department does not tolerate unethical behavior, sexual misconduct, or lying." Assistant Police Chief Paul Figueroa has been appointed acting chief while the department searches for a permanent replacement.

A man checks on a boat storage facility that was damaged by Hurricane Harvey, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017, in Rockport, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) (Associated Press) HOUSTON (AP) — Rising floodwaters from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey chased thousands of people to rooftops or higher ground Sunday in Houston, overwhelming rescuers who fielded countless desperate calls for help. A fleet of helicopters, airboats and high-water vehicles confronted flooding so widespread that authorities had trouble pinpointing the worst areas. Rescuers got too many calls to respond to each one and had to prioritize life-and-death situations. The water rose high enough to begin filling second floors — a highly unusual sight for a city built on nearly flat terrain. Authorities urged people to get on top of their homes to avoid becoming trapped in attics and to wave sheets or towels to draw attention to their location. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez used Twitter to field calls for assistance. Among those seeking help was a woman who posted: "I have 2 children with me and the water is swallowing us up." People used inflatable beach toys, rubber rafts and even air mattresses to get through the rising waters to safety. Others simply waded while carrying plastic trash bags stuffed with their belongings. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said authorities had received more than 2,000 calls for help and would be opening the city's main convention center as a shelter. He urged drivers to stay off flooded roads to avoid adding to the number of stranded people. "I don't need to tell anyone this is a very, very serious and unprecedented storm," Turner told a news conference. "We have several hundred structural flooding reports. We expect that number to rise pretty dramatically." The mayor defended his decision not to ask residents to evacuate before the heavy rain from Harvey swamped roads and neighborhoods across the nation's fourth-largest city. He said there was no way to know which neighborhoods would be most vulnerable. "If you think the situation right now is bad and you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare," he said, citing the risks of sending the city's 2.3 million inhabitants onto the highways at the same time. Rainfall of more than 4 inches per hour resulted in water levels higher than in any recent floods and higher than during Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001, said Jeff Linder of flood control district in Harris County, which includes Houston. Rescue came by land, water and air. On Interstate 45 south of downtown, television video showed people climbing over concrete dividers to get to a high-wheel dump truck that appeared to be wheels-deep in water on a service road. They clambered up the side of the truck to get into the dump box. In Friendswood near Houston, authorities asked people with flat-bottomed airboats or fuel for them to help rescue people, KPRC-TV in Houston reported Sunday morning. The Coast Guard, which received more than 300 requests for help, deployed five helicopters and asked for additional aircraft from New Orleans. Staff at a Houston television station broadcasting live coverage of the floods had to evacuate after water from the nearby Buffalo Bayou started to gush into the building. The anchors and news operations at KHOU-TV moved first to a second floor before finally abandoning the station. The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brock Long, said the government expected to conduct a "mass care mission" and predicted that the aftermath of the storm would require FEMA's involvement for years. "This disaster's going to be a landmark event." President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday morning that he would visit Texas. "I will be going to Texas as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption," the president posted on Twitter. "The focus must be life and safety." The rescues unfolded a day after the hurricane settled over the Texas coastline. It was blamed for killing at least two people and injuring up to 14. Anxiety ran high throughout the region between Corpus Christi and Houston because some of the areas with the greatest hurricane damage were inaccessible to rescuers. And the forecast for days of steady rain threatened to inundate the region's flat landscape with as much as 40 inches (100 centimeters). In the island community of Port Aransas, population 3,800, officials were unable to fully survey the town because of "massive" damage. Police and heavy equipment had only made it into the northernmost street. "I can tell you I have a very bad feeling and that's about it," said Mayor Charles Bujan, who had called for a mandatory evacuation but did not know how many heeded the order. Some of the worst damage appeared to be in Rockport, a coastal city of about 10,000 that was directly in the storm's path. The mayor said his community took a blow "right on the nose" that left "widespread devastation," including homes, businesses and schools that were heavily damaged. Some structures were destroyed. Rockport's roads were a mess of toppled power poles and other debris. Harvey's relentless wind tore the metal sides off the high school gym and twisted the steel door frame of its auditorium. "We're still in the very infancy stage of getting this recovery started," said Aransas County spokesman Larry Sinclair. One person was killed in Aransas County when in a fire at home during the storm, county Judge C.H. "Burt" Mills Jr. said. Another person — a woman who tried to get out of her vehicle in high water — died in flooding in Harris County, where Houston is located, , though authorities had not confirmed a cause of death, said Gary Norman, a spokesman for the Houston emergency operations center. Meanwhile, the storm was barely moving. Rainfall totals varied across the region, with Galveston receiving around 8 inches (20 centimeters), Houston 11 (28 centimeters) and Aransas 10 (25 centimeters). Tiny Austwell got 15 inches (38 centimeters). The fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade came ashore late Friday about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Corpus Christi as a mammoth Category 4 storm with 130 mph (209 kph) winds. Harvey weakened Saturday to a tropical storm. By Sunday morning the system was centered about 65 miles southeast of San Antonio, with maximum sustained winds of about 45 mph (72.42 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center, which described the flooding as "catastrophic." Harvey came ashore as the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in 13 years and the strongest to strike Texas since 1961's Hurricane Carla, the most powerful Texas hurricane on record. ___ Associated Press writers Juan Lozano and Nomaan Merchant in Houston; Tammy Webber in Chicago; David Phillip in Dickinson, Texas; and Jamie Stengle, David Warren and Claudia Lauer and in Dallas contributed to this report. ||||| Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE Residents of storm-ravaged Rockport, Texas were picking through the wreckage of homes and businesses Saturday. The south Texas town took the brunt of Hurricane Harvey's wrath, damaging residential, business and marina areas. (Aug 26) AP A family evacuates their home in Houston on Aug. 27, 2017. Rescuers answered hundreds of calls for help Sunday as floodwaters from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey rose high enough to begin filling second-story homes, and authorities urged stranded families to seek refuge on their rooftops. (Photo: Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle via AP) HOUSTON — Helicopters plucked desperate flood victims from rooftops Sunday while boats and trucks swept hundreds more residents to safety as Tropical Storm Harvey fueled historic rains and devastating flooding across a wide swath of East Texas. Late Sunday night,Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said another 1,000 National Guard members will be sent to Houston on Monday, joining 3,000 already activated. Flooded highways and streets left cars abandoned as weather alerts went off continuously, warning of possible tornadoes — all under a steady, pelting rain. The unrelenting rain was forecast well into the week, and the Texas Gulf Coast braced for days of catastrophic flooding. The National Weather Service said some areas could be slammed with an "unprecedented" 50 inches of rain by week's end as the storm lingers in the region. "This event is unprecedented & all impacts are unknown & beyond anything experienced," NWS tweeted. "Follow orders from officials to ensure safety." Abbott activated the National Guard troops in addition to hundreds of other state emergency personnel aiding local first responders. He said 600 boats were aiding rescue efforts, and the Coast Guard said at least 16 helicopters were tapped for air rescues, with more coming into the area by Monday. Convoys of buses and a mobile hospital unit were on the way to Houston and the Gulf Coast, as were truckloads of food and volunteers, Abbott said. “They now know the cavalry is coming,” the governor said, adding: "Our top priority is to protect human life." From Louisiana, the so-called "Cajun Navy," a group of volunteers with boats, were mobilizing to help with rescues. And from New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie announced he was sending NJ Task Force 1 — a team comprised mainly of police, fire and emergency personnel — as members of the National Urban Search & Rescue Response System to arrived in Texas on Monday More: Harvey threatens to make natural disaster history More: Desperate for help, flood victims in Houston turn to Twitter for rescue Flooding was overwhelming the Houston metropolitan area. Scenes of families being shuttled to safety played out in scores of neighborhoods. The Coast Guard said it rescued more than 100 people from rooftops and conducted more than 2,000 multi-person rescues, its three-boat teams searching block-by-block for stranded residents. "If you are in a flooding situation, stay calm, do not panic," the Coast Guard said in a statement. "Do not go into the attic, rescuers from the air cannot see you." The storm had claimed at least two lives, but it was to soon to know the full extent of the death and destruction as power and cellphone outages made communications difficult. "The flooding in and around America's 4th most-populous city is going to write world headlines and set records for generations," tweeted meteorologist Roger Edwards of the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center. More: 'Catastrophic' Houston flooding leads to at least 500 overnight rescues More: Federal government plans years-long recovery effort in states hit by Harvey President Trump tweeted support for the agencies battling the disaster and planned to visit the state Tuesday. “We are coordinating (visit) logistics with state and local officials," the White House said in a statement. "We continue to keep all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers.” Under persistent, pounding rains, some residents in Richmond, 20 miles south of Houston, took refuge in a Red Cross shelter inside a Catholic Church recreation center. Austin Herrera, 18, said the water on his family's 10-acre property in nearby Guy, Texas, jumped 1½ feet overnight, as water moccasins slithered under the house. He ushered the horses and other animals to higher ground, then drove the six members of his family to a nearby church who then bused them to the shelter. "We've seen flooding before," Herrera said. "But never like this." As of Sunday, the Red Cross shelter in Richmond, Texas, had 49 displaced residents. More could soon be on the way, since Richmond and neighboring Rosenberg sit on the banks of the Brazos River, which experienced catastrophic flooding just last year. This event could match or surpass that, meteorologists said. Some residents here were being bused in from another shelter at the Chinese Community Center in Houston, which had already filled to capacity, said Christine Bradley, the shelter manager. "This is a whole new thing," she said. "It's huge." More: Exclusive: Get an aerial look at Aransas County after Harvey Over the next few days, Harvey also is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 5 to 15 inches farther south toward the lower Texas coast, farther west toward the Texas Hill Country, and farther east through southwest and central Louisiana, the weather service said. But Houston was the focal point of the disaster. The National Weather Service said parts of Harris County had been hit with more than 20 inches of rain in 24 hours. Jeff Lindner, a meteorologist with the county Flood Control District, called the rainfall totals "staggering." He tweeted late Sunday night that Buffalo Bayou was more than 7 feet above flood stage: "Catastrophic flooding is in progress." Buffalo Bayou at West Belt is 7.28 ft above flood stage. Catastrophic flooding is in progress #houwx#hounews#txwx — Jeff Lindner (@JeffLindner1) August 28, 2017 This is “worse than the worst-case scenario for Houston,” tweeted WeatherBell meteorologist Ryan Maue. This storm will not break our spirit. We are in this together and we will rebuild even greater together after #HurricaneHarvey — Sylvester Turner (@SylvesterTurner) August 27, 2017 Mayor Sylvester Turner said emergency officials had been overwhelmed with about 6,000 rescue calls and more than 56,000 calls to 911; he urged residents not to call unless their situation was life-threatening. He ordered the city's George R. Brown convention center opened as a shelter. Turner confirmed one death in Houston, saying a woman drowned trying to flee her car in high water. Another death was reported in a house fire in coastal Aransas County. Turner defended his administration's decision not to call for evacuations ahead of the storm, saying it was too difficult to determine which areas of the sprawling city of 2.3 million people were likely to take the worst hit. The entire city has seen at least some flooding, he added. “You give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare," he said. Officials were urging people to stay off of the roads. "It's so dangerous that people would give themselves the death penalty," said Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, who was out with his officers making water rescues in his saturated city Sunday. "Sad, breaks your heart for our city and our state," Acevedo said. "But it's Texas. We'll get through it." The floodwaters themselves are a hideous, toxic brew, with reports of alligators and swarming fire ants in the water. The storm made landfall Friday night in Aransas County, southwest of Houston, as a furious, Category 4 hurricane with winds exceeding 130 mph. Sheriff Bill Mills said about 30 people were treated for injuries in his county alone. Two Aransas County municipalities, Rockport, with a population of 10,000, and Port Aransas, with about 4,000 people, took the brunt of the storm. At least 10 injuries were reported from collapsed roofs in Rockport, which is 25 miles northeast of Corpus Christi and 220 miles southwest of Houston. More: Corpus Christi breathes sigh of relief, prepares for post-Harvey cleanup More: Texas homeowner shoots intruder as Harvey makes landfall Nearby Port Aransas was particularly vulnerable perched on a narrow strip of Mustang Island, which sits at the entrance to Corpus Christi Bay. It registered the strongest wind gust of 132 mph from Harvey, according to the National Weather Service. The two towns, like dozens over others in the area, reported widespread damage as emergency teams searched for any survivors trapped in low-lying areas or collapsed buildings. Meteorologists were awed by the scope of the disaster. “This could easily be one of the worst flooding disasters in U.S. history,” tweeted Weather Channel meteorologist Greg Postel, who said he cannot think of an analogous flood event. Homer reports for KHOU-TV in Texas; Bacon for USA TODAY in McLean, Va. Contributing: Doyle Rice, Rick Jervis, USA TODAY; Julie Garcia, John C. Moritz, Corpus Christi Caller Times Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2wJx7kz ||||| 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

– Harvey may be a tropical storm instead of a hurricane, but the devastation it is unleashing on Houston in the form of heavy rain and flooding is nonetheless severe. "Catastrophic and life-threatening flooding," says the National Weather Service of southeast Texas. "Worse than the worst-case scenario for Houston,” tweeted WeatherBell meteorologist Ryan Maue," per USA Today. Authorities were warning people to get to their roofs, and rescuers had to pick and choose which calls to go out on based on life-and-death severity, reports the AP. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez used Twitter to field calls for assistance. Among those seeking help was a woman who posted: "I have 2 children with me and the water is swallowing us up." Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said authorities had received more than 2,000 calls for help and would be opening the city's main convention center as a shelter. He urged drivers to stay off flooded roads to avoid adding to the number of stranded people.

Is the Large Hadron Collider dangerous? No. Although powerful for an accelerator, the energy reached in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is modest by nature’s standards. Cosmic rays – particles produced by events in outer space – collide with particles in the Earth’s atmosphere at much greater energies than those of the LHC. These cosmic rays have been bombarding the Earth’s atmosphere as well as other astronomical bodies since these bodies were formed, with no harmful consequences. These planets and stars have stayed intact despite these higher energy collisions over billions of years. Read more about the safety of the LHC here What happened with the LHC in 2015 and what does CERN plan to do in the future? The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) restarted at a collision energy of 13 teraelectronvolts (TeV) in June 2015. Throughout September and October 2015, CERN gradually increased the number of collisions, while remaining at the same energy. In November, as with previous LHC runs, the machine run with lead ions instead of protons until mid-December when it had its winter technical stop. After a successful run in 2016, the most powerful collider in the world was switched back on in spring 2017, followed by a period of tests. After a period of commissioning, the LHC experiments began taking physics data for 2017. Over the coming years, the LHC operators plan to increase the intensity of the beams so that the machine produces a larger number of collisions. This will enable physicists to have a better understanding of fundamental physics. Why is the Higgs boson referred to as the God particle? The Higgs boson is the linchpin of the Standard Model of particle physics but experimental physicists weren’t able to observe it until the arrival of the LHC, nearly 50 years after the particle was first postulated. Leon Lederman coined the term ‘the God particle’ in his popular 1993 book ‘The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What is the Question?’ written with Dick Teresi. In their book, Lederman and Teresi claim the nickname originated because the publisher wouldn’t allow them to call it ‘the Goddamn Particle’ – a name that reflected the difficulty in observing the elusive boson. The name caught on through the media attention it attracted but is disliked by both clerics and scientists. Is CERN's aim to prove that God does not exist? No. People from all over the world work together harmoniously at CERN, representing all regions, religions and cultures. CERN exists to understand the mystery of nature for the benefit of humankind. Scientists at CERN use the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter – the fundamental particles. Particles are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. This process gives the physicists clues about how the particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature. Why does CERN have a statue of Shiva? The Shiva statue was a gift from India to celebrate its association with CERN, which started in the 1960’s and remains strong today. In the Hindu religion, Lord Shiva practiced Nataraj dance which symbolises Shakti, or life force. This deity was chosen by the Indian government because of a metaphor that was drawn between the cosmic dance of the Nataraj and the modern study of the ‘cosmic dance’ of subatomic particles. India is one of CERN’s observer states, along with the USA, Russia and Japan. CERN is a multicultural organisation that welcomes scientists from more than 100 countries and 680 institutions. The Shiva statue is only one of the many statues and art pieces at CERN. What are the shapes in the CERN logo? The shapes in CERN’s current logo represent particle accelerators. The logo in this form dates back to 1968, when a decision was made to change the CERN logo from the original one, seen here. Some 114 new designs were proposed, many of which used CERN’s experiments as inspiration. The final design used the original lettering, surrounded by a schematic of a synchrotron, beam lines and particle tracks. Today’s logo is a simplified version of this. Will CERN open a door to another dimension? CERN will not open a door to another dimension. If the experiments conducted at the LHC demonstrate the existence of certain particles it could help physicists to test various theories about nature and our Universe, such as the presence of extra dimensions. There is more information here. What did Stephen Hawking say about Higgs potential destroying the Universe? Hawking was not discussing the work being done at the LHC. The LHC observes nature at a fundamental level but does not influence it. Measurements of the Higgs boson have allowed us to learn more about the intrinsic nature of the Universe, and it is this that Hawking was discussing. The measured properties of the boson suggest that the Universe is in a quasi-stable equilibrium, though with a lifetime far exceeding anything we can imagine (10100 years). This is explained further in the TEDxCERN talk below: http://tedxcern.web.cern.ch/video/2013/what-higgs-might-mean-fate-universe Why does CERN appear in Google Maps when I type certain keywords? Many of these associations have no grounding in fact, and are a possible result of several users renaming locations on their own maps, keyword searches, or from lots of users creating custom maps, which utilise those search terms. Can the LHC have an influence on weather patterns and natural phenomena? No. The magnets at CERN have an electromagnetic field, which is contained with the magnets themselves and therefore cannot influence the Earth’s magnetic field, nor the weather. The strength of the LHC magnets (8.36 teslas) is comparable to the magnetic field found in PET-MRI scanners (up to 9.4 tesla), which are regularly used for brain scans. Will CERN generate a black hole? The LHC will not generate black holes in the cosmological sense. However, some theories suggest that the formation of tiny 'quantum' black holes may be possible. The observation of such an event would be thrilling in terms of our understanding of the Universe; and would be perfectly safe. More information is available here. I saw a video of a strange ritual at CERN, is it real? No, this video from summer 2016 was a work of fiction showing a contrived scene. CERN does not condone this kind of action, which breaches CERN’s professional guidelines. Those involved were identified and apropriate measures taken. Does the LHC trigger earthquakes? The LHC does not trigger earthquakes. Earthquakes are a natural hazard caused by the movement of tectonic plates. As these rigid plates move towards, apart or past each other they can lock up and build up huge stresses at their boundaries, such as the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, or along the Pacific rim. When the plates suddenly slip apart, this stress is relieved, releasing huge amounts of energy and causing an earthquake. Several million earthquakes occur across the Earth each year but most are too small to be detected without monitoring equipment. There is no means by which the LHC could trigger earthquakes, and no correlation between LHC operation and the occurrence of earthquakes. Anecdote: Some high precision instruments at CERN are able to detect earthquakes due to their sensitivity to tiny movements. In the LHC, there are more than 100 Hydrostatic Levelling Sensors that monitor the relative displacements of the magnets that steer beams of particles around the LHC’s 27 km ring. These sensors can detect the waves emitted by earthquakes occurring even very far away after their journey through the Earth. Another tool, the Precision Laser Inclinometer, is used to measure the movements of underground structures that can affect the precise positioning of the LHC’s particle detectors. These are also sensitive enough to detect earthquakes. ||||| 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.

– When CERN's Large Hadron Collider is fired up again at the end of April, physicists won't just be testing for unknown particles. They'll also be testing a new FAQ page, and it's an unusual one that distances CERN from demons and Satan. Since the LHC began smashing particles together, conspiracy theorists have suggested physicists were about to open a door to another dimension, allowing apocalyptic forces to reach our planet, reports the Wall Street Journal. An editorial in Michigan's Daily Reporter in September noted CERN "could easily and suddenly, without warning, destroy our universe." A few pointed out that CERN's logo included the 666 sign of the Antichrist. Then there was the group who planned to protest the smashing of particles at CERN. "I guess they more or less see particles as planets with very small 'people' on them," a rep says. "It got to the point where there really needed to be some intervention," says CERN's social media rep. The FAQ page, born in September, not only describes CERN's logo as depicting particle accelerators rather than a sign of Satan, it also clarifies that "CERN will not open a door to another dimension," though physicists can test for particles that may suggest extra dimensions exist. The nice thing is that the page can always be updated, says a rep. For example, it doesn't yet address rumors of "occult symbolism" hidden in a dance opera filmed inside CERN. But it isn't clear if all conspiracy theories can be crushed. CERN seems to inherently draw the "conspiracy subculture," says a political science professor at Syracuse University. "Any time you have forces that are high energy and invisible, they lend themselves to these kinds of interpretations."

Facebook may be killing off its email address feature, but their uselessness will live on in iOS contact books around the world. You see, right before iOS 6 and its Facebook contact sync feature came out, Facebook forcibly hid the real email addresses everyone shared with their friends. It only left the @facebook.com addresses it assigned everyone visible, so that’s what got synced by iOS 6. At the time in June 2012 I called this “poppycock” and implored Facebook to undo the visibility change it made without permission. Allowing users to choose to share their @facebook.com address that routed to their Facebook Messages Inbox would have been fine. If Facebook wanted to compete to be your email address, though, it should have done it on a level playing field. But to banish email addresses provided by its competitors like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft with hardly any notice was dishonest. One source even told me that Apple may have pressured Facebook to hide Gmail addresses as part of the deal to get baked into iOS 6. No matter the reason, it was a treacherous move. And it bombed. No one used the @facebook.com email addresses. Facebook thought it should be where you read personal emails. It created an integrated communication system designed to combine instant chat, asynchronous messages, and email. Turns out that last part was just too different to be corralled. So today the company began digging a grave for @facebook.com email addresses. In a statement to TechCrunch, the company said: “We’re making this change because most people haven’t been using their Facebook email address, and we can focus on improving our mobile messaging experience for everyone.” Anyone who did use them will get messages sent to their Facebook addresses forwarded to their primary email account instead of their Facebook Messages inbox. People will be able to dig into their settings and disable this forwarding. But if you don’t, anyone will be able to get your Facebook username by finding your profile’s URL and sticking it in front of @facebook.com to be able to hit your real email address with a message. Facebook confirms it won’t forward blatant spam, but pings from strangers that would have been hidden in the “Other Inbox” of your Facebook Messages will get shot to your real email like that person knows you. Ugh. Yet we still won’t be able to escape the death-stench of Facebook’s defunct attempt to conquer email. Facebook tells me it won’t be changing any visibility settings in your profile or re-syncing with iOS contacts. That means your real personal email address is probably still hidden from the friends you once explicitly said could see it. And your iOS contact book will be full of synced Facebook profiles and @facebook.com addresses that people might disavow, instead of their real email addresses. Hopefully this whole crap carnival will discourage Facebook from making more prohibited changes to our profiles…or those of users of its acquisitions like WhatsApp. Facebook was just trying to make it so our personal emails weren’t drowned out by bills, receipts, and marketing spam. But it crossed the line, abused its power, and our contact books bear the scar. ||||| Facebook is retiring its email service and has begun notifying users that all email sent to their @facebook.com address will soon be forwarded to their primary email address on file. Facebook users can turn off the forwarding feature, which is on by default. Users without a primary email address on Facebook won't receive forwarded messages, but it's pretty unlikely that they're missing anything. "Most people have not been using their @facebook.com email address," said a Facebook spokesperson, who confirmed that the update effectively retires the social network's email service. Facebook launched its email service back in November 2010 in hopes of providing one inbox where users could send and receive emails and messages. "It seems wrong that an email message from your best friend gets sandwiched between a bill and a bank statement," the company wrote in its announcement blog post for the feature. The service didn't catch on, perhaps in part because Facebook never truly created a friendly or familiar interface for emailing. The Messages screen always prioritized Facebook messages, and didn't even support cc's, bcc's, or subject lines. Facebook's email feature caused more trouble than it was worth for the social network The email feature, rarely updated, has in fact caused more trouble than it's been worth for Facebook. In June 2012, Facebook highlighted @facebook.com email addresses on profiles while hiding other email addresses. The move was intended to return user profiles to a blank slate where email addresses were private, but the outcome was that people thought Facebook was favoring its own email services over others. Today's update brings another odd and unfortunate side effect for Facebook: you can now reach someone's primary email inbox by emailing their @facebook.com email address. These email addresses are by default only accessible to friends, but you can easily figure out somebody's @facebook.com email address by finding their profile page's URL and pasting it before the @ symbol. Fortunately, Facebook lets you turn off forwarding altogether, effectively destroying its email service once and for all.

– Facebook has quietly retired the email service that many users didn't even know existed. The service—touted as a "Gmail killer" before its launch in 2010—never caught on and the company has now notified users than any email sent to their @facebook.com address will be redirected to the primary email address associated with their account, the Verge reports. "We're making this change because most people haven’t been using their Facebook email address, and we can focus on improving our mobile messaging experience for everyone," Facebook says. But even with the service killed off, users are stuck with what Josh Constine at TechCrunch calls "the death-stench of Facebook’s defunct attempt to conquer email." The other email addresses Facebook banished from profiles in favor of its own email address remain hidden, he notes, advising people to turn off Facebook's automatic email forwarding. If you don't, "anyone will be able to get your Facebook username by finding your profile’s URL and sticking it in front of @facebook.com to be able to hit your real email address with a message," he warns.

The charge has been withdrawn against a Pickens County woman who spent a night in jail for failing to return a movie she rented in 2005, according to the Pickens County Sheriff's Office. Kayla Michelle Finley, 27, was charged with failure to return rented video cassette on Feb. 13. A release from the Sheriff Office on Friday said the former business owner of Dalton Videos requested the court withdraw the charge. Chief Deputy Creed Hashe said the decision to not prosecute this offense was made by the former store owner after considering all of the factors including the level of media attention that has been directed at the business owner, Finley and to local law enforcement tasked with serving the charge. Hashe said Finley rented the movie in 2005 from Dalton Videos in Pickens County, which is now out of business. Hashe said when Finley didn't return the movie, the business owner went to a Pickens County magistrate who issued an arrest warrant. Hashe says that Finley was sent several certified letters to turn herself in, but never did. Hashe said Finley was at the Sheriff's Office on another matter and the active warrant was discovered. ||||| Isaac here with a look ahead to Alan Jackson, Tuesday mountain snow, and big-time cold! 26 19 ||||| Story highlights A South Carolina woman was jailed overnight last week for not returning a 2005 video rental The video, "Monster-In-Law," was from a store that's now out of business Woman on Facebook says she moved out of state after rental and forgot about it Kayla Michelle Finley may be wishing that services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime had been around a little earlier. The South Carolina woman spent a night in jail last week for failing to return a video she rented -- in 2005. It was a VHS tape. Of a Jennifer Lopez movie. Finley, 27, was arrested Thursday in Pickens County, South Carolina, on a misdemeanor charge of failure to return the video, according to CNN affiliate WYFF-TV The movie, "Monster-In-Law," starring Lopez and Jane Fonda as a feuding potential daughter- and mother-in-law, was rented from a video store, Dalton Videos, that is now out of business. The WYFF report says Finley was at the county sheriff's office on another matter when an active warrant for her arrest was discovered. Chief Deputy Creed Hashe told the station that the store's owner had asked a Pickens County judge for the warrant years ago when Finley didn't return her video. Hashe said Finley had been sent several certified letters asking her to turn herself in. Finley spent the night in jail because her bond hearing couldn't be held until Friday morning. A judge released her on $2,000 bond. Efforts to reach out to Finley via social media were unsuccessful early Monday. But a woman identifying herself as Finley, and whose profile picture appeared similar to Finley's mug shot, took to Fox Carolina News Facebook page on Saturday to defend herself. She said that after renting the movie she had to move out of state because of her husband's job and that she simply forgot about it. "I'm no criminal, but Pickens County Sheriff's office sure made me feel like I was," she wrote. She said she never received any letters from the sheriff's office, while striking back at people who had made negative comments on the Fox post. "If I had, it would have been taken care of immediately," she wrote. "Some of you need to quit (judging) like you are. This is a bogus charge and everyone knows it." For Finley, it's no laughing matter. But that didn't stop folks online from commenting on the ridiculousness of it all. "Oh god, I'm so embarrassed," wrote Twitter user Alec MacKinnon . "Now everyone is going to know I rented 'Monster In Law.' " "They should sentence her to time already served," wrote one CNN commenter. "She'll never get the 2 hours she spent watching that movie back." Others were taking shots at what they felt was an overreaction by law enforcement. "Wait till they find out that she forgot to REWIND the tape!!!" annother commenter wrote. The Pickens County Sheriff's Office did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

– The weird part of this story is that a woman had to spend the night in jail because she failed to return a movie rental from 2005 to a business that no longer exists, reports WYFF-TV. The sad part is that she went to jail not for Capote, or Brokeback Mountain, or Good Night, and Good Luck, or really any other movie from 2005 besides the one she actually rented: Monster-in-Law, with J-Lo and Jane Fonda. Kayla Michelle Finley, 27, was at the Pickens County Sheriff's Office in South Carolina on a different matter when the old arrest warrant surfaced and deputies took her into custody. The owner of the video store, when it was still open, had gone to police after sending Finley certified letters asking for the movie back. Because Finley's bond hearing could not be held until the next morning, she spent the night in jail. CNN notes that a woman calling herself Finley explained on the Fox Carolina News Facebook page that she had moved out of state and never got the letters, and had forgotten about the movie. "I'm no criminal, but Pickens County Sheriff's office sure made me feel like I was," she wrote.

Image caption Test drilling confirmed there was water underneath the arid ground A huge water source has been discovered in the arid Turkana region of northern Kenya which could supply the country for 70 years, the government says. The discovery of two aquifers brings hope to the drought-hit region, tweeted Environment Minister Judi Wakhungu. They were found in the Turkana Basin and Lotikipi Basin using satellites and radar. Last year, scientists released a map detailing the vast reservoirs which lie under much of Africa. This newly found wealth of water opens a door to a more prosperous future for the people of Turkana and the nation as a whole Judi Wakhungu, Environment Minister Another aquifer was found in Namibia - sub-Saharan Africa's driest country. Turkana is one of the hottest, driest and poorest parts of Kenya and was hit by a devastating drought last year. Many of the region's inhabitants are nomadic herders, who are especially vulnerable to a lack of rain. Test drilling confirmed there was water under the ground. The discovery was announced by Ms Wakhungu at a meeting of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Unesco. "This newly found wealth of water opens a door to a more prosperous future for the people of Turkana and the nation as a whole. We must now work to further explore these resources responsibly and safeguard them for future generations," she said. 'Irrigation and industry benefits' The aquifers are said to hold some 250bn cubic metres of water. Ms Wakhungu said Kenya currently uses about 3bn cubic metres a year. "We're hoping with the two test boreholes, the water should be available within a month. The first priority is to supply water to the people of the area, who have always been water insecure." Image caption The huge water source has been discovered in the arid Turkana region of northern Kenya. Image caption The government estimates the two aquifers found in the the Turkana Basin and Lotikipi Basin, using satellites and radar, could supply the country for 70 years. Image caption Turkana is one of the hottest, driest and poorest parts of Kenya and was hit by a devastating drought last year. According to the UN, about 17 million of Kenya's 41 million people lack access to safe water. Image caption Many of Turkana's inhabitants are nomadic herders, who are especially vulnerable to a lack of rain. Fighting over resources like water has been the main source of conflict in many arid areas of country. Image caption The discovery was announced at a meeting organised by Unesco. It spearheaded the project in partnership with the government and with the financial support of Japan. Image caption Environment Minister Judi Wakhungu said the aquifers hold some 250bn cubic metres of water; the country currently uses about 3bn cubic metres a year. Image caption The minister said the first priority was to supply water to the people of the area. "We're hoping with the two test boreholes, the water should be available within a month," she said. Image caption Using the water for irrigation and industry would also be considered, Ms Wakhungu said. Massive oil deposits have also recently been discovered in Turkana. Image caption The BBC's Angela Ng'endo says despite Turkana's burgeoning wealth, the region's inhabitants have always felt marginalised. Image caption The non-governmental organisation Friends of Lake Turkana is urging the government to engage more with local communities about how the water will be used in future. previous slide next slide Using the water for irrigation and industry would also be considered, she said. Massive oil deposits have also recently been discovered in Turkana. What is ground water? When water falls as rain or snow, much of it either flows into rivers or is used to provide moisture to plants and crops. What is left over trickles down to the layers of rock that sit beneath the soil. And just like a giant sponge, this ground water is held in the spaces between the rocks and in the tiny inter-connected spaces between individual grains in a rock like sandstone. These bodies of wet rock are referred to as aquifers. Ground water does not sit still in the aquifer but is pushed and pulled by gravity and the weight of water above it. The movement of the water through the aquifer removes many impurities and it is often cleaner than water on the surface. The BBC's Angela Ng'endo in the capital, Nairobi, says despite its burgeoning wealth, the region's inhabitants have always felt marginalised. Abou Amani, Unesco's Africa hydrologist, urged caution and said it was important not to "overexploit" the aquifers. "We need to put in place a sound management system," he said. The head of the non-governmental organisation Friends of Lake Turkana, Ikal Anglei, said the government also needed to engage more with local communities. "Unfortunately they're not creating forums for us to engage with them," she said. "It is critical for governments to realise they don't… come up with programmes without community ownership… and linking it to economic development." According to Unesco, about 17 million of Kenya's 41 million people lack access to safe water. ||||| International Discovery Of Massive Aquifers Could Be Game Changer For Kenya i itoggle caption Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images Satellite imagery and seismic data have identified two huge underground aquifers in Kenya's drought-prone north, a discovery that could be "a game changer" for the country, NPR's Gregory Warner reports. The aquifers, located hundreds of feet underground in the Turkana region that borders Ethiopia and South Sudan, contain billions of gallons of water, according to UNESCO, which confirmed the existence of the subterranean lakes discovered with the help of a French company using technology originally designed to reveal oil deposits. The Lotikipi Basin Aquifer is located west of Lake Turkana, the world's largest permanent desert lake, which nonetheless contains alkaline and unpalatable water. The second discovery is the smaller Lodwar Basin Aquifer. "This newly found wealth of water opens a door to a more prosperous future for the people of Turkana and the nation as a whole," said Judi Wakhungu, Cabinet secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. "We must now work to further explore these resources responsibly and safeguard them for future generations," she said. "If we use the water sustainably, when it comes to water resources we become very secure," Wakhungu said. UNESCO says 40 percent of Kenya's 41 million people lack access to safe water, and 28 million do not have adequate sanitation. NPR's Warner says the subterranean lakes, shaped as scientists describe like a short stack of "interconnected pancakes," are naturally replenished by mountain rain. "But getting the water to the people could be a challenge," he says. "Turkana is the least developed region of Kenya, just south of a disputed border region and scene of frequent deadly tribal clashes." ||||| Scientists say the aquifer may have enough water to fill the parched area's needs indefinitely. Is the English language becoming less significant in Europe after Brexit? Why migrants, en route to the United States, are pausing in Mexico Why the new health-care bill may keep affordable care out of reach for some An aerial view photographed through an aircraft window, shows the Ngamia drilling site in Turkana region, northwestern Kenya, February 13, 2013. Scientists using technology for discovering oil have found a vast underground water reservoir in one of Kenya’s driest regions that could supply the country's needs for nearly 70 years, potentially turning arid zones into lush farmlands. The new reserves are located in a basin in the extreme northwest that has a surface area the size of Delaware, and is estimated to hold billions of gallons, nearly nine times Kenya’s current reserves. Almost half of Kenya’s 41 million people have no access to clean water, and farmers in arid areas struggle to raise crops without adequate irrigation. Scientists say it is possible that, along with water run-off from surrounding hills and plains that replenish the aquifer, the newly discovered resources could fulfill the country's water demands indefinitely. Tapping the new reserves in the basin, located in Kenya's northern Turkana region, may allow for vast new zones of farmland in landscapes where today even the hardiest plants struggle to survive. “The news about these water reserves comes at a time when reliable water supplies are highly needed,” Judi Wakhungu, cabinet secretary at the Kenyan environment, water, and natural resources ministry, said in a statement. “This newly found wealth of water opens a door to a more prosperous future for the people of Turkana and the nation as a whole," Ms. Wakhungu added. “We must now work to further explore these resources responsibly and safeguard them for future generations." The hitch If there is one hitch, the basin is in a remote area in the extreme northwest. It lies close to Kenya's borders with South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Uganda in an area sparsely populated and prone to conflict over existing scarce resources. The land that lies above the reservoir is among the most hostile in Kenya. There are few roads or electricity supplies, and the Turkana, Samburu, and Pokot tribes that live there are regularly at war with each other. The border area between Kenya, South Sudan, and Ethiopia, known as the Ilemi Triangle, has never been officially delineated. Constructing, fueling, and maintaining boreholes, and building pipelines to bring the water supplies to remote communities, can pose significant difficulties. Who found it? The discovery was made by researchers from a Texas-based company, Radar Technologies, with assistance from the Kenyan government and Unesco. The team layered satellite, radar and geological maps on top of each other and then used seismic techniques developed to find oil, to identify the reservoir. “It is important to say that these are early estimates, and these resources must be managed well in order that they benefit the people of Kenya,” says Mohamed Djelid, Unesco’s East Africa director. “But if all goes well, we can say that this really is a game changer.” Kenya’s government will now carry out further drilling in areas surrounding the sites where the new water supplies were first drawn to the surface, to gather more data on their full extent. In the past there have been similar announcements of massive new water finds beneath Africa’s driest areas. In 2007, scientists said that they had identified an underground “megalake” in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region that was 10 times the size of the Kenyan discovery, but its bounty has yet to be tapped. “Knowing there’s water there, and then getting it to the surface, are two different things,” says Brian McSorley, a water expert at Oxfam in Nairobi. He added that, "There will need to be decent follow up studies and then proper investment to ensure that these newly-discovered resources benefit the poorest people.” The aquifers lie as deep as 1,000 feet, which poses significant technological and cost challenges compared to shallower reserves, Mr. McSorley says but notes that, “Having said all that, the figures are encouraging and I think this needs to be cautiously welcomed.”

– It's another kind of liquid gold: Technology typically used to find oil has instead led scientists to massive lakes, or aquifers, hundreds of feet beneath some of Kenya's driest land. UNESCO yesterday announced that five aquifers were identified and two have thus far been verified in the Turkana region. The New York Times reports one is roughly the size of Rhode Island, and NPR reports that scientists described the aquifers' orientation as like a small stack of "interconnected pancakes." The two hold enough water to turn the dusty region into farmland and sate Kenya's water needs for 70 years—or more. It's possible that run-off from the adjacent hills feeds the underground reservoir, which would expand that timeline, the Christian Science Monitor reports. It's big news for a country that struggles mightily with access to safe drinking water, but there are also some big hurdles. The basins sit in the far northwest, which happens to be one of the country's most conflict-prone areas, and maintaining boreholes and piping the water would be no simple task. Still, Kenya seems optimistic. "We're hoping with the two test boreholes, the water should be available within a month," an official tells the BBC. (Another massive aquifer was identified last year in Namibia.)

Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Convicted sexual predator Bill Cosby has canned his entire legal team ahead of ​his Sept. 25 ​sentencing, his spokesman told The Post. “Joseph P. Green Jr. is Mr. Cosby’s new attorney,” Andrew Wyatt said after the news broke that Cosby had tossed all of his high-powered legal team. The mass firing occurs as the 80-year-old faces sentencing in September on three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and molesting Andrea Constand in his suburban Philadelphia home in January 2004. Cosby was convicted at his April retrial, and faces up to 10 years behind bars on each count. The legal casualties include Hollywood bigwig Tom Mesereau, who got Michael Jackson off on child molestation charges. “I wish Mr. Cosby, his family, and his new defense team all the best,” said Mesereau. Unlike the glitzy Los Angeles team, Green hails from West Chester, Pa. “He’s angry. They let him down, and these aren’t easy times,” a source told RadarOnline of the attorneys’ firings. Wyatt declined to comment further on the change, simply saying that Green would handle the case and appeals from now on. Kathleen Bliss and Becky James were also thrown off the team, the spokesman said. This isn’t Cosby’s first legal shake-up. He cycled through numerous lawyers before settling on Brian McMonagle and Angela Agrusa for his June 2016 prosecution — which ended in a mistrial. That pair were later replaced with Mesereau et al. The Montgomery County DA’s Office, which is handling the case, declined to comment. ||||| 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. ||||| RadarOnline.com has learned exclusively Bill Cosby’s wife Camille has finally ditched the shamed comedian — and now that she’s escaped from the sex perv’s lair, the pair are quickly hurtling toward a blockbuster divorce! The humiliated wife of convicted rapist fled their Pennsylvania mansion, leaving the comedy sicko pleading with her to return as he wallows in solitary confinement! “He literally is home alone,” a source spilled to Radar exclusively, noting the estranged couple now live separate lives. “She even took the staff with her!” A Radar investigation can reveal Camille Cosby, 74, has sequestered herself in the couple’s Massachusetts hideaway with their chef, multiple drivers, a house manager AND their three grown kids, who have not visited the 80-year-old monster in months, according to insiders. PHOTOS: ‘We Want To Seek Justice!’ Philly DA Vows To Reveal ‘Truth’ About Cosby Sex Assault The twisted TV sleaze was convicted on April 26 of drugging and sexually abusing Andrea Constand in the same Cheltenham, Pa., estate where he is confined and reduced to wearing an ankle bracelet to track his every move. “They’ve been fighting and arguing since the verdict,” dished our insider. “She wanted a divorce, but he begged her to stay!” Once America’s ultimate TV dad on the iconic “Cosby Show,” the sex fiend is now left with a single staffer in his empty suburban prison palace — while his former employees tend to his wife’s every need 250 miles away! Radar tracked Camille to the secluded town of Shelburne Falls, Mass., where we discovered her diving into their Olympic-sized pool three times a day, ferrying in groups of female friends to provide emotional support and hawking family assets in the wake of Cosby’s massive legal bills. PHOTOS: The Most DISGUSTING Claims Against Bill Cosby In 15 Clicks Tipsters exclusively squealed that Camille has already sold the former Jell-O pitchman’s private jet and is in the process of dumping his vast vintage car collection — as well as their California real estate holdings! Meanwhile, Cosby is spending what is likely his final summer of freedom in isolation as he pines for his wife of 54 years! Since the soon-to-be jailbird can only leave his home for visits to lawyers or doctors, insiders claimed he’s resorted to faking illness to try to arrange medical care in Camille’s state — in the hope he can win her back! “Camille wants to leave his scandal behind her. She has no interest in seeing Bill,” said a source. “She wants to reside quietly in Shelburne — and doesn’t want his reputation affecting the life she’s building for herself!” PHOTOS: Fall From Grace: The Twists & Turns Of Cosby’s Sex Assault Trial Before Found Guilty Cosby and Camille married in 1964 and somehow survived Bill’s extramarital affairs in the ’70s, the disclosure of love child Autumn Jackson and even the tragic murder of their only son, Ennis, in 1997. But Camille and their three surviving daughters — Erika, Evin and Erinn — were nowhere to be seen during his notorious criminal trial when Cosby was convicted of three counts of indecent sexual assault! The sick predator now faces up to 30 years behind bars for the 2004 assault on Andrea — despite her public forgiveness of the fallen funnyman. About 60 other women have accused the slimeball of similar attacks over a 40-year span! While Cosby remains confined to his home until his Sept. 24 sentencing, he has been ordered to take a psychiatric test to determine whether he suffers from a maniacal “mental abnormality.” PHOTOS: Drug Addiction, Abuse & Murder! Bill Cosby’s Daughter Ensa’s Dark Past Before Death But insiders told Radar he has furiously fought the order, refusing to cooperate with state investigators tasked with conducting the presentence examination. “Bill was adamant about not taking the sexual predator assessment that the judge ordered,” the source said, adding that Camille “was definitely sick of the drama.” And now that she’s out of the house, insiders snitched that Camille plans to sell off their Pennsylvania and New York homes — as soon as the prison cage door closes behind the Cos for good! We pay for juicy info! Do you have a story for RadarOnline.com? Email us at [email protected], or call us at (866) ON-RADAR (667-2327) any time, day or night. ||||| Life keeps getting worse for Bill Cosby! After he was dumped by Camille, his wife of 54 years, RadarOnline.com can exclusively report that the disgraced funnyman has fired his entire legal team. PHOTOS: ‘We Want To Seek Justice!’ Philly DA Vows To Reveal ‘Truth’ About Cosby Sex Assault “Every single one of them,” a source inside the Cosby camp told Radar on Thursday, June 14. “He’s angry. They let him down, and these aren’t easy times.” Cosby was represented by a team led by former Michael Jackson attorney Tom Mesereau and former California prosecutor Kathleen Bliss. But the star power didn’t prevent a jury from convicting the shamed star of sexual assault in April. PHOTOS: Drug Addiction, Abuse & Murder! Bill Cosby’s Daughter Ensa’s Dark Past Before Death At 80 years old, Cosby is facing up to 30 years behind bars when he’s sentenced in September. The source said Cosby is hoping to buy a little more time on house arrest with the firings. “It could be the judge puts off sentencing until he can find adequate counsel,” the source explained. PHOTOS: The Most DISGUSTING Claims Against Bill Cosby In 15 Clicks However, the source acknowledged that the firing also could have unexpected and immediate consequences: “The judge could order him remanded because he no longer has counsel, which could make him a flight risk.” As Radar exclusively reported, Camille Cosby fled the couple’s Pennsylvania home, claiming she was fed up with the comedian and his conviction. PHOTOS: Fall From Grace: The Twists & Turns Of Cosby’s Sex Assault Trial Before Found Guilty Now desperate, alone and angry, Cosby has lashed out against his attorneys, who had been gathering information they thought were helpful to his appeals. “He can’t find anyone else willing to defend him, and besides the money is gone and he can’t pay anyone,” the source said. We pay for juicy info! Do you have a story for RadarOnline.com? Email us at [email protected], or call us at (866) ON-RADAR (667-2327) any time, day or night.

– Bill Cosby is now killing time as he awaits his September sentencing after being convicted of sexual assault in April, but is his wife killing time with him? Radar cites a source who claims that 74-year-old Camille Cosby has left their Pennsylvania home and moved into a home they own in Shelburne Falls, Mass., taking their chef, other staff, and three grown daughters with her. "They've been fighting and arguing since the verdict," the source says. "She wanted a divorce, but he begged her to stay." Radar notes it sent its own staff to the Mass. town and saw Camille Cosby swimming in her pool and hanging out with female friends. That's news, however, to the Cosbys, the comedian's rep tells People, calling the Radar report a "ridiculous story from an egregious publication." "The accusations they have made in their tabloid are absolutely false," says Andrew Wyatt. "Mrs. and Mr. Cosby are not getting divorced and she's with him in the Philadelphia home as we speak." He adds, via the New York Daily News: "Mrs. Cosby isn't going anywhere." There's also news on the legal front in Cosby world: Page Six reports the disgraced 80-year-old has fired his entire legal team as he prepares for his Sept. 25 sentencing, with Pennsylvania lawyer Joseph P. Green Jr. stepping in as his new counsel, per his spokesman. "Every single one of them," a source tells Radar. "He's angry. They let him down, and these aren't easy times." From newly pink-slipped celebrity attorney Tom Mesereau, per Page Six: "I wish Mr. Cosby, his family, and his new defense team all the best."

Skip in Skip x Embed x Share The first rabbit to join the police force in peaceful 'Zootopia' must prove she has the chops to crack a bewildering case of animals going wild. VPC Bunny cop Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) is on the case in 'Zootopia.' (Photo: Disney) There's no scaring off Zootopia. The animated animal comedy finished first at the box office for a second week in a row by pulling in $50 million and holding off the J.J. Abrams-produced thriller 10 Cloverfield Lane, according to studio estimates from comScore. The domestic total stands at $142.6 million after 10 days, and another $83.1 million internationally has run its worldwide tally to $431.3 million. "Disney released a movie for families at the perfect time and they are definitely reaping the benefits of that," says comScore senior box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "The marketplace has spoken." Directed by first-time feature filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg, Cloverfield Lane snagged a decent haul of $25.2 million with its taut plot of a woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) trapped in an underground bunker and told there's been a chemical attack outside. While it scored a middling B- grade from audiences at CinemaScore, critics approved of the scare tactics: Lane has a 91% "fresh" rating on RottenTomatoes.com. A great marketing campaign, solid social media, a mysterious concept, Abrams' name attached and a modest budget in the mid-teen millions make it "a profit-making machine for Paramount," says Dergarabedian, who added that Lane had an 8% uptick on Saturday. "Some of these movies that are very clever and very genre will drop big in their second day, but it went up, so that means audience are digging the film and talking about it." The top five was rounded out by a trio of returning films: $10.8 million for the R-rated comic-book antihero Deadpool ($328.1 million total); $10.7 million for the Gerard Butler action film London Has Fallen ($38.9 million total); and $4.6 million for the Tina Fey war comedy Whiskey Tango Foxtrot ($14.6 million total). The ensemble romantic comedy The Perfect Match opened with $4.2 million, and even with Easter around the corner, the biblical drama The Young Messiah could only muster a mere $3.4 million in its debut. The tale of a 7-year-old Jesus took some heat for a whitewashed cast, yet earned an A- at CinemaScore and an above-average 63% RottenTomatoes score from critics. "Faith-based movies tend to be very consistent performers, particularly at this time of the year," Dergarabedian says. "Maybe it'll get a nice boost Easter weekend, but there's almost too much inventory in terms of films in the marketplace. With this many wide-release debuts, it's hard to rise above the noise." The biggest first-week bomb, however, was The Brothers Grimsby with $3.2 million. Crowds gave the vulgar action comedy — starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark Strong as estranged brothers — a B+ at CinemaScore but critics weren't as kind (38% on Rotten Tomatoes). It ranked as Baron Cohen's worst opening to date. "He's definitely an acquired taste and has a distinctive point of view," says Dergarabedian. "When you're trying to create films that are not necessarily cookie-cutter and really push the envelope, those are movies that down the road may be seen in a better light but sometimes are difficult to digest at first." Final figures are expected Monday. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1ph7b7A ||||| This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Mary Elizabeth Winstead, left, and John Goodman in a scene from the film, "10 Cloverfield Lane." (Michele K. Short/Paramount Pictures via AP) (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — The J.J. Abrams-produced "10 Cloverfield Lane" capitalized on a mysterious marketing campaign to debut with a better-than-expected $25.2 million over the weekend, though the Disney animated hit "Zootopia" stayed on top with $50 million. The second-straight No. 1 weekend came easily for "Zootopia," which slid a mere 33 percent, according to studio estimates Sunday. The monster movie "10 Cloverfield Lane," a so-called "spiritual successor" to 2008's found-footage hit "Cloverfield," also performed well, boosted by positive reviews. But Sacha Baron Cohen's "Brothers Grimsby" flopped with only $3.2 million, a career low debut at the box office for the British comedian by a wide margin. Perhaps sensing trouble, Sony Pictures had postponed the release date of the R-rated comedy numerous times.

– The JJ Abrams-produced 10 Cloverfield Lane capitalized on a mysterious marketing campaign to debut with a better-than-expected $25.2 million over the weekend, though the Disney animated hit Zootopia stayed on top with $50 million, reports the AP. The second-straight No. 1 weekend came easily for Zootopia, which slid a mere 33%, according to studio estimates Sunday. The monster movie 10 Cloverfield Lane, a so-called "spiritual successor" to 2008's found-footage hit Cloverfield, also performed well, boosted by positive reviews. "Some of these movies that are very clever and very genre will drop big in their second day, but it went up, so that means audiences are digging the film and talking about it," an analyst tells USA Today. The top five were rounded out with Deadpool ($10.8 million), London Has Fallen ($10.7 million), and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot ($4.6 million), notes USA Today. But Sacha Baron Cohen's Brothers Grimsby flopped with only $3.2 million, a career low debut at the box office for the British comedian by a wide margin. Perhaps sensing trouble, Sony Pictures had postponed the release date of the R-rated comedy numerous times.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A California judge has thrown out a proposed ballot initiative that advocated killing anyone who engages in gay sex, calling the measure "patently unconstitutional." Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Raymond Cadei relieved California's attorney general late Monday of the duty to clear the so-called Sodomite Suppression Act for signature-gathering. Cadei said it would be "inappropriate, waste public resources, generate unnecessary divisions among the public, and tend to mislead the electorate" for Attorney General Kamala Harris to process the proposal. Harris had asked for a judge's permission in March to reject the initiative through a legal complaint against its sponsor, Orange County lawyer Matthew McLaughlin. After McLaughlin did not attempt to defend the measure in court, the attorney general last week sought a default ruling in her favor, a request Cadei granted. "This proposed act is the product of bigotry, seeks to promote violence, is patently unconstitutional and has no place in a civil society. I applaud the court's decision to block its title and summary," Harris said in a statement Tuesday. McLaughlin did not immediately reply to a telephone call seeking comment on Tuesday. He has not commented publicly on his motivations for pursuing the initiative since he paid $200 to submit it for processing. The initiative sought to amend the California penal code to make sex with a person of the same gender an offense punishable by "bullets to the head or by any other convenient method." It also would have made the distribution of gay "propaganda" punishable by a $1 million fine or banishment from the state. Harris has said that if a judge did not block the measure, she would have had no choice but to give McLaughlin the go-ahead to seek the nearly 366,000 votes needed to qualify the measure for the November 2016 ballot. The attorney general has not attempted to stop another citizen's initiative that has worried LGBT groups in California. Her office on Tuesday issued an official title and summary for a proposed law that would require transgender people to use the public building restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their birth sex instead of the gender with which they identify. Transgender people with a revised birth certificate, a court order recognizing a gender change or medical evidence of transitioning would be exempt from the law, which also seeks to authorize private businesses to enact similar restrictions on bathroom use. California's legislative analyst says the initiative violates state laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, gender identity and gender expression. If it qualifies for the ballot and is approved by voters, the measure also could put the state at risk of losing federal funds if the U.S. government determines that it conflicts with laws and regulations covering sex discrimination. ||||| 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.

– There's no need for California to waste any more time or energy on a ballot measure that proposes legalizing the murder of gay people, a judge has decided. The Sacramento County judge ruled yesterday that allowing the "Sodomite Suppression Act" to move forward "would be inappropriate, waste public resources, generate unnecessary divisions among the public, and tend to mislead the electorate," meaning that it will not progress to the signature-gathering phase or end up on any future ballots, reports the Los Angeles Times. It was sponsored by lawyer Matthew McLaughlin, who has declined to speak to the media about it. Calif. AG Kamala Harris, who says the proposed act "is the product of bigotry, seeks to promote violence, is patently unconstitutional, and has no place in a civil society," had sought the ruling, the AP reports. Harris says she will "continue to fight for the rights of all Californians to live free from hatred and intolerance," reports the Times, which notes that McLaughlin only had to pay a $200 fee to register his disturbing ballot measure, but would have needed to collect 365,000 signatures in 180 days to get it on the ballot. (Under the proposed "Intolerant Jackass Act," McLaughlin will have to pay a hefty fine.)

News Sunrise The Free + Active program is Medibank’s commitment to help all Australian’s feel happier, healthier and more connected. As a program partner, parkrun organise free, weekly, 5km timed runs and walks around Australia at more than 300 locations. They are open to everyone, free, and easy to take part in. ||||| The husband of an Australian university lecturer who died climbing Mount Everest has said he “blames [himself]” after leaving her behind to press on to the summit. Maria Strydom, 34, was forced to turn back just 15 minutes from the top of Everest when she fell ill with altitude sickness. On her way back down the mountain she started struggling to speak or walk before she collapsed and could not be revived. She died in the arms of her husband, Robert Gropel, who told Australia’s Seven Network he “still can’t look at any pictures of her because it breaks my heart”. “I asked, ‘Do you mind if I go on,’ and she said, ‘Yes, you go on, I’ll wait for you here,’” said Mr Gropel, who himself suffered attitude sickness and later had to be airlifted to Kathmandu. “From that position the summit didn’t look that far, 15 minutes away. “When I made it to the summit of Everest it wasn’t special to me, because I didn’t have her there,” he said. “I just ran up and down and it didn’t mean anything to me.” Mr Gropel said his thought processes were hampered by his own sickness when he returned to Ms Strydom after reaching the summit. “It took a while for me to register that I had medication, and so as soon as I realised I gave her a dexamethasone injection,” he said. Sherpas brought more oxygen and, with that and the medication, Ms Strydom’s condition began to improve. But it did not last, and she died at an altitude of around 8,000 metres last Saturday. Mr Gropel said: “I’m her husband, it’s my job to protect my wife and get her home and it’s just natural for me to blame myself.” Mr Gropel, a vet, and his wife were both vegans and determined to climb the world’s highest peaks “to prove that vegans can do anything and more”, Ms Strydom said in March. Everest officials said on Friday that the body of an Indian climber had been found above the South Col (7,900 metres), bringing the death toll since the mountain was re-opened this spring to four. Everest has been climbed by more than 7,300 people since 1953 when Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary made their pioneering ascent. In that time and including this week’s deaths, at least 283 people have died trying to make the expedition. ||||| Husband Robert Gropel reached the top as Strydom waited for him, but she died in his arms on the descent At first Robert Gropel thought his wife, Maria Strydom, was simply exhausted from the effort of climbing Everest. The Australian couple had halted at well above 8,000 metres, in an area known as the death zone, as Strydom said she could not continue. Gropel asked her for permission to go on to the summit. What neither of them realised was that it was not simply exhaustion but altitude sickness, and that it would cost 34-year-old Strydom her life. In a moving interview with Australian television, Gropel described the hours leading to his wife’s death and the decisions they both made that for him were tinged with grief and regret. Above 8,000 metres, even with supplemental oxygen, the risks increase markedly. The blood thickens which, combined with dehydration and effort, can trigger altitude sickness, which at its worst can cause a lethal buildup of fluid on the lungs and brain. Complicating the issue is that it affects individuals in different ways, and the onset of the first symptoms is sometimes mistaken for tiredness or a minor illness. Decision-making can become more difficult. Small mistakes – a dropped item of equipment, a stumble, something as simple as not drinking enough or the question of when to turn back or carry on – can have multiplying and serious consequences. With the summit apparently only 15 minutes away, Gropel asked his wife whether he should continue without her. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Robert Gropel said he blamed himself for Maria Strydom’s death. Photograph: Narendra Shrestha/EPA “I asked: ‘Do you mind if I go on,’ and she said: ‘Yes, you go on, I’ll wait for you here,’” he told the Seven Network. “From that position the summit didn’t look that far. “I didn’t want to separate from her. I wanted her to keep going,” he said of the decision to leave her and press on to the top. “I also understood she was very exhausted. I just ran up and down and it didn’t mean anything to me. Because we do everything together and everything else we did together was much more special. “When I made it to the summit of Everest it wasn’t special to me, because I didn’t have her there.” After he returned to Strydom the pair began their descent, but it was soon clear that something was seriously amiss. Strydom began hallucinating, struggled to walk and was talking incoherently, perhaps the result of a stroke triggered by cerebral odema. Helped at times by a group of sherpa guides, and at other times apparently struggling on his own, he shared oxygen with Strydom until that ran out and then, suffering the effects of altitude himself, recalled that he had medication for altitude sickness. “It took a while for me to register that I had medication and so as soon as I realised I gave her a dexamethasone injection.” But the long period spent high on the mountain was taking its toll on Strydom, who by the time she faded into unconsciousness had been without extra oxygen for 20 hours. “I could see that her condition had deteriorated,” Gropel said. “She was going through periods of being lucid and periods of hallucinating.” Gropel’s interviewer, Steve Pennells, said in the broadcast: “There was a point where they thought she would get better. Her condition had improved and she was taking medication and fluids and had made camp. And then overnight she just got worse.” Strydom died in Gropel’s arms on 20 May. “Walking away was the hardest thing [for him],” Pennells said. “You can imagine, or hopefully you can’t, making the decision to come off the mountain knowing that the body of your wife is up there.” Strydom, a university lecturer, and Gropel, a vet, had wanted to climb the highest mountains on each continent, a challenge known as the Seven Summits. Mount Everest death toll rises to three amid overcrowding fears Read more Gropel said: “She was my motivation idol, my hero, she was a very strong advocate for women, she was the perfect person. I’m just trying to be strong. I’m learning to cope and block out what causes sort of, breakdowns and trying to get the job done of bringing my wife home. “I’m her husband, it’s my job to protect my wife and get her home and it’s just natural for me to blame myself. I still can’t look at any pictures of her because it breaks my heart.” Sherpa climbers brought Strydom’s body down the mountain to Camp Two on Wednesday. A rescue helicopter picked it up and took it to Kathmandu on Friday. “Her body has now been brought to Kathmandu from the mountain,” said Phu Tenzi Sherpa of the Seven Summit Treks, which organised her expedition.

– The husband of a woman who died climbing Mount Everest earlier this month says he blames himself for her death, the Guardian reports. In an interview with Network Seven in Australia, Robert Gropel says wife Maria Strydom seemed exhausted from climbing when they were just 15 minutes from the peak. "I asked: 'Do you mind if I go on,' and she said: 'Yes, you go on, I’ll wait for you here,'" says Gropel. "From that position the summit didn’t look that far." Not realizing that she was suffering from altitude sickness, which can be lethal, Gropel kept climbing to the top of the world. "I just ran up and down and it didn’t mean anything to me," he adds. "When I made it to the summit of Everest it wasn’t special to me, because I didn’t have her there." When he got back and they began descending, 34-year-old Strydom had trouble walking and talking and even hallucinated, possibly due to a stroke brought on by cerebral edema. Gropel says he gave her altitude-sickness medication and the Independent reports sherpas gave her additional oxygen, but she got worse overnight and died in his arms on May 20. "I'm her husband, it’s my job to protect my wife and get her home and it’s just natural for me to blame myself," says the Australian. "I still can’t look at any pictures of her because it breaks my heart." Both vegans, Gropel and Strydom hoped to show the world "that vegans can do anything and more," Strydom said in March. Initially left behind, Strydom's body has been picked up by helicopter and flown to Kathmandu. (Meanwhile, her mother isn't satisfied by the official story.)

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "E-Commerce Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here. Walmart began selling meal kits on Walmart.com earlier this week, and there are now a number of available options from two different brands, Home Chef and Takeout Kit, according to TheStreet. The new offerings appear to be popular, as some meal kits are reportedly already sold out. The participating meal kit brands are still responsible for the fulfillment of each order, but Walmart receives a referral fee and commission, a source told TheStreet. Meal kits are available for various cuisines, generally serve two or four people, and range from $32 to $79.60 in price. For the meal kit brands, Walmart provides an opportunity for greater exposure.Walmart.com gives Home Chef and Takeout Kit, as well as any other brands that enter the marketplace in the future, access to a huge consumer base that they can't replicate on their own. Only 16% of US consumers subscribe to a meal kit service, and both brands offer such subscription plans. Exposing Walmart.com shoppers to these companies' meal kits may lead to increased sign ups for a full subscription if they can get more consumers to give their meal kits a try. Walmart is likely looking to maintain its lead in US grocery by getting into the $2 billionmeal kit industry. Walmart relies heavily on its grocery business, as it accounts for 56% of the company's sales and is one of its biggest drivers of online growth. In order to ensure its continued grocery success, Walmart has built out its omnichannel grocery and delivery options, invented new foods, and is now looking to the meal kit space. The retailer could even look to purchase a meal kit brand as Albertsons has done with Plated, or start its own, in order to fully invest in the industry. The retail giant is in a unique position to combat meal kit subscriptions’ biggest obstacle, price. The No. 1 reason US consumers gave for not subscribing to meal kit services is that they're too expensive. Walmart has a reputation for offering low prices, so if it can effectively leverage that persona, it may be able to get its consumers to give meal kits a try, even for a one-off rather than a subscription. If Walmart can lower prices and convince consumers that meal kits are worth it, Walmart could become a major player in the industry. To receive stories like this one directly to your inbox every morning, sign up for the E-Commerce Briefing newsletter. Click here to learn more about how you can gain risk-free access today. ||||| Meal kit pioneer Blue Apron Holdings Inc (APRN) now has more to worry about than just execution issues. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) just started selling meal kit offerings on its website, including some under the Takeout Kit and Home Chef brands, and some selections are already sold out. TheStreet reported in September that the retail giant was in talks with multiple meal kit makers to sell their items on its website. Each meal kit company is still responsible for fulfilling each order, however, according to a source, and Walmart will get a referral fee and a small commission. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Takeout Kit was the first meal kit company to be featured on Walmart.com. It was available online as of Sunday, Dec. 3. On the following day, Home Chef branded kits were also made available. There are now nearly 30 meal kits available, including Takeout Kit's global cuisine offerings with two-month shelf lives, such as chicken tikka masala with rice for four, which costs $35, and German beer garden spatzle, also $35. One of Takeout Kit's meals for sale on Walmart.com Home Chef, based in Chicago, offers more traditional American cuisine on Walmart.com, including the "Everyday Supper" collection that serves three meals for two people each, for a total of $59.70. The $79.60 "Family Favorites" box, which includes "Tex-Mex Turkey Taco Salad" and "Salmon with Brown-Butter Tomato Relish," is already out of stock, as are four other Home Chef products. "This is a low-risk model for Walmart to see if their e-commerce shoppers will have an interest in meal kits, and if so, which ones are the most interesting to them," said Michael McDevitt, the CEO of Terra's Kitchen, in September. "There's no infrastructure risk, no marketing risk." Terra's Kitchen was among the companies that Walmart reached out to earlier this year. The meal kit industry is valued at more than $2 billion, though investors are now cautious given the struggles of Blue Apron, which went public in June. The company's stock has dropped more than 70% since then, and last week, the company announced that co-founder Matt Salzberg was being replaced as CEO. Meal kit companies have also been targets for strategic acquisition. Grocery chain Albertsons acquired meal kit company Plated for $200 million in September, for instance. And Home Chef tapped Deutsche Bank in June to explore options for sale, in the wake of Blue Apron's then-imminent public offering. Walmart and Home Chef did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Takeout Kit CEO Rachael Lake confirmed her company's role in fulfilling the orders as a third-party vendor. More of What's Trending on TheStreet: ||||| Walmart has officially joined the meal kit scene, offering options like chicken tikka masala and Thai crab curry with jasmine rice on its website. The company appears to be working with several brands, such as Takeout Kit and Home Chef, to offer diverse cuisines like Sichuan-style Mapo tofu, Moroccan shakshuka, Spanish paella, and other low calorie or gluten free options. Home Chef’s Walmart offerings alternate every Tuesday afternoon, similar to how meal kit subscription service Blue Apron’s menu changes every week. Prices range from $32 for Mapo tofu to $79.60 for two meal kits in one. Each meal kit is portioned for four people. $32 for a four-person portion Both Takeout Kit and Home Chef are responsible for fulfilling the orders and shipping them to customers’ doorsteps, while Walmart earns commission and a referral fee, people familiar with the matter told TheStreet. Some meal kits have reportedly already sold out, as originally over 30 meal kits were offered on Walmart.com beginning early this week. While each meal kit order from Walmart is a one-time purchase, both brands also offer subscription services on their own sites, so Walmart could be a gateway for consumers to get hooked onto these Blue Apron competitors. Since its founding in 2012, Blue Apron became the brand best associated with pre-portioned dinner kits, though it has since struggled in light of Amazon’s launch of its own meal kits over the summer. Before Amazon, it also felt pressure from startup competitors like Hello Fresh, Plated, and more. Pricing continued to be more competitive over the years, with Blue Apron’s kits selling for $20 for a two-person meal, while Amazon’s equivalent is as low as $16. All of this adds onto Blue Apron’s rough year. Its IPO is currently the worst-performing in the US this year, trading nearly 70 percent below its value last month.

– Walmart has made the latest move in its never-ending battle with Amazon for control of people who shop in their underwear. TheStreet reports Walmart started selling meal kits from companies like Home Chef and Takeout Kit on its website last weekend. Amazon, of course, entered the meal kit game over the summer. The way it works for Walmart: customers buy meal kits on Walmart.com, the meal kit companies fulfill the orders, and Walmart gets a small commission and referral fee. The CEO of meal kit company Terra's Kitchen says it's "a low risk model for Walmart to see if their e-commerce shoppers will have an interest in meal kits." It also gives meal kit companies access to Walmart's huge customer base, according to Business Insider. So far it seems like a success, with a number of the 30 meal kits available on Walmart.com having reportedly sold out already. Meanwhile, Blue Apron continues to be collateral damage in the Amazon-Walmart war. The meal kit company went public in June only to see its stock tank when Amazon got involved in meal kits. And now Walmart is giving a boost to Blue Apron's competitors, the Verge reports. While the meal kit industry is valued at more than $2 billion, Blue Apron's stock has dropped more than 70% since the company went public. Its IPO is currently the worst-performing stock in the US this year.

Donald Trump's name has been doing the rounds a fair bit recently. You might recognise him as the American businessman who has his own tower in New York or as the host of the original version of The Apprentice. You're also likely to have heard his name recently because he's hoping to be the Republican presidential candidate. And if you've been on Twitter since he suggested Muslims should be banned from America, you might have seen him being compared to Lord Voldemort. In a campaign statement, Donald Trump said a "complete" shutdown should remain until the US authorities "can figure out what the hell is going on" and if Muslims pose a threat to the US. He later repeated the comments at a rally in South Carolina, where supporters cheered him loudly. Read more about all the candidates hoping to take over from Barack Obama as US president. But Jeb Bush, who is also from the Republican party and hoping to be president, said the New York businessman was "unhinged". Donald Trump's comments, which he said were "common sense", were made in light of last week's shooting in California where a Muslim couple, believed to have been radicalised, opened fire and killed 14 people at a health centre in San Bernardino. The White House said Mr Trump's comments were contrary to US values, while the internet compared him to Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter - a lot. This isn't the first time in this campaign that Trump, who also thinks there should surveillance on some US mosques, has been criticised. His idea to build a "great, great wall" between the US and Mexico didn't go down too well. Mr Trump, a billionaire New Yorker who has been leading in the polls, defended his plan to build a wall on the US-Mexico border and deport all the people living illegally in the US. "You're going to have a deportation force, and you're going to do it humanely," he told MSNBC's Morning Joe. "You have millions of people that are waiting in line to come into this country and they're waiting to come in legally." Donald Trump: 21 things the Republican believes. For more stories like this one you can now download the BBC Newsbeat app straight to your device. For iPhone go here. For Android go here. ||||| J.K. Rowling took on Donald Trump with her latest tweet heard ’round the world. After the Republican presidential candidate frontrunner said that all Muslims should be banned from entering America, Harry Potter fans began comparing Trump to Lorde Voldemort, a.k.a. he who must not be named, a.k.a. the most draconian, dastardly villain in all of literature — well at least in Harry Potter’s wizarding world. But Rowling didn’t agree with the comparison. “How horrible,” Rowling wrote. “Voldemort was nowhere near as bad.” How horrible. Voldemort was nowhere near as bad. https://t.co/hFO0XmOpPH — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 8, 2015 On Monday, Trump called for the “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” “Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension,” Trump said. His remarks were slammed by both Republicans and Democrats alike. “Donald Trump is unhinged,” Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush wrote on Twitter. “His ‘policy’ proposals are not serious.”

– Donald Trump is usually the one dishing out insults on Twitter. Not on Tuesday. The business mogul found himself the latest to be burned by JK Rowling after proposing a "total and complete shutdown" of Muslims entering the US, reports Entertainment Weekly. Twitter users quickly began comparing Trump to Harry Potter villain Lord Voldemort, reports the BBC, but Rowling was having none of it. "How horrible," she tweeted. "Voldemort was nowhere near as bad." Her comment was retweeted more than 50,000 times within hours and racked up almost as many likes. (By the way, you've been saying "Voldemort" incorrectly for years.)

Irish recruit, 17, dies after fall in Florida Email Comments Share ESPN.com news services Notre Dame recruit Matt James died Friday in Panama City, Fla., after falling from a hotel balcony, a high school spokesman has confirmed. James, 17, was vacationing in Florida for spring break. A 6-foot-6, 291-pound offensive tackle, James was named USA Today first-team All-American after leading Cincinnati's St. Xavier to a No. 4 ranking in the final state poll. John Albright/Icon SMI Matt James, an offensive tackle from Cincinnati St. Xavier, was named a first-team All-American by USA Today as a senior. James' former teammates from the football and basketball teams gathered for a private prayer service in the school's chapel on Saturday, led by chaplain Paul Rieselman. "His message was that we have to take care of one another," spokesman Mark Motz said. James apparently died instantly after he fell from the Days Inn Motel at about 6:30 p.m. ET, police told WJHG-TV in Panama City. Students at St. Xavier High School had gathered on its football field Friday night to remember James. James was the second St. Xavier athlete to die during the school year. Junior wrestler Kevin Le was struck by a car and killed in September. The football team -- including James -- wore his initials on their helmet for the next home football game. Grief counselors will be available when classes resume April 12 after spring break. Police had not confirmed James' identity as of Saturday morning, but Motz said the school was "devastated" by the news. Motz said the impromptu vigil was organized as word of James' death spread through social-networking sites such as Facebook. "When one of their own is in trouble, they band together," Motz said. The mother of St. Xavier quarterback and fellow Notre Dame recruit Luke Massa said she heard James was pretending he was going to fall and lost his balance. "It was an accidental fall. Nobody pushed him, there wasn't anything like that," Mary Massa said. Massa's father told the Cincinnati Enquirer the teammates were among several dozen students on vacation together. "Luke is devastated," Gary Massa told the newspaper. "He lost one of his best friends." Gary Massa fondly remembered James. "One of the visions I have in my mind is after football games at St. X he was like the Pied Piper, all the little kids, everybody's little brothers and sisters would follow him around. He was just a gentle giant, that's the best way to describe him," Massa said, according to The Associated Press. James, a senior, chose Notre Dame over Ohio State, committing on Feb. 3 on national signing day. "It was a really tough decision," James said then, according to the Enquirer report. "... I like the situation of being in the first class with Coach [Brian] Kelly there." James' family learned of his death during a family gathering for the 50th birthday party for one of James' uncles, according to the Chicago Tribune. “ Matt was an extremely talented person who was very bright and possessed a great dry sense of humor. He could not wait to join the Notre Dame family. ” -- Irish coach Brian Kelly "His mom and dad were here when they got the call," said Dan Rudolph, father of Irish tight end Kyle Rudolph, according to the Tribune. "The whole James family was here. I can't believe that happened." Whit Majors, a forensic investigator with the Florida State Medical Examiner's District 14 office, said the person who died was on spring break but did not release his name. The cause of the fall was being investigated, and officials planned to do toxicology tests, Majors said. James was an all-city and all-state football player for St. Xavier. He also was a member of the high school's varsity basketball team. "The Notre Dame football program is in a state of disbelief and incredible sadness with the news of this tragic event," Kelly said in a statement. Kelly and his staff recruited James to go to Cincinnati, where Kelly coached the past three years. James decided to follow him to Notre Dame when Kelly was hired in December. "Matt was an extremely talented person who was very bright and possessed a great dry sense of humor," Kelly said. "He could not wait to join the Notre Dame family." James isn't the first spring breaker to die from a balcony fall this year. Brandon Kohler, a 19-year-old from Winder, Ga., died March 24 when he fell from a fifth-floor balcony at the Holiday Terrace Motel in Panama City Beach. Funeral arrangements were pending. Motz said the school would take its cues from James' family. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. ||||| A top Notre Dame football recruit from Ohio died after falling from a hotel balcony while on spring break in Florida, a high school spokesman said Saturday. In this July 30, 2009 photo, St. Xavier High School's Matt James poses for a photograph in Cincinnati. A spokesman for St. Xavier said Saturday that students gathered Friday night to remember the senior... (Associated Press) In this April 2, 2010 photo, students hold a candle-light vigil at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati for football player Matt James. A spokesman for St. Xavier High School said Saturday that students... (Associated Press) Students at St. Xavier High School gathered on the football field Friday night to remember senior Matt James following reports of his death in Panama City Beach, Fla., spokesman Mark Motz said. The 17-year-old James apparently died instantly after he fell from the third-floor balcony of the Days Inn Motel at around 6:30 p.m. Friday, police told WJHG-TV in Panama City. Police had not confirmed James' identity as of Saturday morning, but Motz said the school was "devastated" by the news. Motz said the impromptu vigil was organized as word of James' death spread through social-networking sites such as Facebook. "When one of their own is in trouble, they band together," Motz said. James was the first big signing for new Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly. James selected the Irish over Ohio State on signing day. The 6-foot-6, 290-pound offensive lineman was an all-city and all-state football player for St. Xavier and signed a letter of intent in February to play for Notre Dame. He also was a member of the high school's varsity basketball team. James' former teammates from the football and basketball teams gathered for a private prayer service in the school's chapel on Saturday, led by chaplain Paul Rieselman. "His message was that we have to take care of one another," Motz said. James was the second St. Xavier athlete to die during the school year. Junior wrestler Kevin Le was struck by a car and killed in September. The football team _ including James _ wore his initials on their helmet for the next home football game. Grief counselors will be available when classes resume on April 12 after spring break. Whit Majors, a forensic investigator with the Florida State Medical Examiner's District 14 office, said the person who died was on spring break but did not release his name. The cause of the fall was being investigated, and officials planned to do toxicology tests, Majors said. "The Notre Dame football program is in a state of disbelief and incredible sadness with the news of this tragic event," Kelly said in a statement. Kelly and his staff recruited James to go to Cincinnati, where Kelly coached the past three years. James followed him to Notre Dame when Kelly was hired in December, choosing the Fighting Irish over Ohio State. "Matt was an extremely talented person who was very bright and possessed a great dry sense of humor," Kelly said. "He could not wait to join the Notre Dame family." Kelly had recruited James while he and his staff were at Cincinnati. What set James apart, Kelly previously said, was his size and quickness. James' family received the news of his death at a gathering to celebrate the 50th birthday of an uncle, according to Dan Rudolph, who attended the gathering and whose son Kyle Rudolph is a Notre Dame tight end. "His mom and dad were here when they got the call," Dan Rudolph told the Chicago Tribune. "The whole James family was here. I can't believe that happened." Mary Massa said her son, Luke, was James' friend, teammate and a fellow Notre Dame recruit. She said she heard James was pretending he was going to fall and lost his balance. "It was an accidental fall. Nobody pushed him, there wasn't anything like that," she said. Gary Massa, Luke's father, fondly remembered James. "One of the visions I have in my mind is after football games at St. X he was like the Pied Piper, all the little kids, everybody's little brothers and sisters would follow him around. He was just a gentle giant, that's the best way to describe him," he said. James isn't the first spring breaker to die from a balcony fall this year. Brandon Kohler, a 19-year-old from Winder, Ga., died March 24 when he fell from a fifth-floor balcony at the Holiday Terrace Motel in Panama City Beach. Funeral arrangements were pending. Motz said the school would take its cues from James' family, noting that St. Xavier is on spring break until April 12. ||||| James' former teammates at St. Xavier High School gathered for a private prayer service in the school's chapel on Saturday. The All-State lineman had been the first top signing for new Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly. Matt James died Friday around 6:30 p.m. at the Days Inn Motel in Panama City Beach. He was dead when police arrived. CINCINNATI -- A "drunk and belligerent" 17-year-old Notre Dame football recruit was killed in a fall from a fifth-floor hotel balcony during his senior-year spring break in Florida, authorities said Saturday. Police did not use James' name during a news conference. Instead, they referred to him as a 17-year-old from Ohio who had signed with Notre Dame. "Witnesses and friends indicate he had become drunk and belligerent," Humphreys said. "He had leaned over the balcony rail, was shaking his finger at the people in the next room over. He fell over." Humphreys said the railing at the hotel met the standards for proper height. He said police would be interested in pursuing charges if it was learned who provided the underage teen with alcohol. Police said an autopsy on James would be done later. Toxicology results were pending. James' parents went to Florida on Friday night, returned to Cincinnati and released a statement Saturday evening asking for privacy while they make funeral arrangements and grieve. "We would like to thank everyone for their prayers and support during this tragic time, particularly the family at St. X," Jerry and Peggy James said. "Matt was a very special young man, and it is gratifying to us that you all could see that as well. We are touched by this outpouring of love." The 6-foot-6, 290-pound offensive lineman was an all-city and all-state football player. He also was on St. Xavier's varsity basketball team. Students at St. Xavier gathered on the football field Friday night to remember James following reports of his death, school Mark Motz said. About 40 students from St. Xavier and a half-dozen parents were on the trip to Florida, police said. Grief counselors will be available when classes resume on April 12 after spring break. "The Notre Dame football program is in a state of disbelief and incredible sadness with the news of this tragic event," Irish coach Brian Kelly said in a statement. "Matt was an extremely talented person who was very bright and possessed a great dry sense of humor," Kelly said. "He could not wait to join the Notre Dame family." Gary Massa said his son, Luke, was James' friend, teammate and a fellow Notre Dame recruit. "One of the visions I have in my mind is after football games at St. X he was like the Pied Piper, all the little kids, everybody's little brothers and sisters would follow him around. He was just a gentle giant, that's the best way to describe him," he said. Funeral arrangements were pending. Motz said the school would take its cues from James' family, noting that St. Xavier is on spring break until April 12.

– One of the nation's top high school football prospects is dead after falling off a third-floor hotel balcony while on spring break in Florida. Police say he was "drunk and belligerent" before the accident. Matt James, 17, had been Notre Dame's top recruit and was on USA Today's first team All-American squad as an offensive lineman. Friends set up a Facebook tribute page. "Witnesses and friends indicate he had become drunk and belligerent," says a police official in Panama City, Florida. "He had leaned over the balcony rail, was shaking his finger at the people in the next room over. He fell over." The Chicago Tribune, AP, and ESPN have more details on James, who attended St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Brock Turner was seen by two other students sexually assaulting the woman in 2016 A lawyer for a former US student convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman has launched an appeal to have the ruling overturned. Brock Turner was sentenced to six months in jail in 2016 for assaulting the woman outside a Stanford University fraternity house a year earlier. The sentencing judge was widely criticised for leniency and removed from office by voters in June. On Tuesday, his lawyer argued there had been insufficient evidence to convict. Turner, a champion swimmer, was found guilty of three felony charges. His lawyer Eric Multhaup told justices at a California appeals court that there was no evidence to prove at what point the woman became unconscious, US media report. He said the jury had had to "speculate" and had "filled in the blanks" to reach their conclusion. Mr Multhaup described his client's actions as "outercourse", meaning a sexual act while clothed, as opposed to intent to rape. Deputy Attorney General Alisha Carlile argued that there had been "ample" evidence for the convictions. The appeals court judges appeared sceptical of Mr Multhaup's arguments, the Associated Press news agency reported. They are expected to reach their decision within 90 days. Turner, 22, was not present during Tuesday's hearing. Although prosecutors had sought a six-year term, Turner was sentenced to six months and released after serving only three. He was placed on the sex-offenders register for life. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Anger at the sentence sparked a campaign to have Judge Aaron Persky recalled The case sparked a debate in the US about sexual assault and whether white men from wealthy backgrounds are treated more favourably by courts. Outrage at the sentencing was compounded by a letter from Turner's father saying his son's life would "never be the one that he dreamed about... a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20-plus years of life". The victim, who has remained anonymous, directly addressed Turner in court and made a moving impact statement that was widely read online. Judge Aaron Persky was later removed from his post by voters in Santa Clara County following a campaign to unseat him. He said he had no regrets about the case and had been bound by sentencing and probation guidelines. Judge Persky was cleared of misconduct by the California Commission on Judicial Performance. ||||| SAN JOSE — A lawyer for a former Stanford swimmer whose conviction on sexual assault charges led to the extremely rare recall of a judge tried to convince an appellate court Tuesday to overturn his client’s conviction — on the novel grounds that the athlete wanted “outercourse” with his intoxicated victim, not intercourse. “Outercourse,” his lawyer Eric S. Multhaup explained to the three poker-faced justices, is sexual contact while fully clothed. Turner had his clothes on when he was caught by two Swedish graduate students making thrusting motions on top of a half-naked, intoxicated, unconscious woman, his lawyer noted. The hearing is the latest development in a high-profile case that led last month to the recall of the judge, who gave Turner what many considered a lenient six-month jail sentence for the sexual assault outside a campus fraternity party in 2015. It was the first time in 86 years that voters have recalled a judge in California. Although Turner wound up serving only three months, he is required under a state law to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life because of his conviction on the charge of attempting to rape an intoxicated person. The jury also found Turner guilty of two counts of digital penetration. He has moved back to Ohio and was not at Tuesday’s hearing. Multhaup focused Tuesday on trying to convince the justices to overturn the attempted rape charge, arguing there wasn’t sufficient evidence for the jury to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Turner never intended to rape the woman, he said. But the justices appeared skeptical of his argument. The panel has 90 days — until late October — to issue a ruling. “I absolutely don’t understand what you are talking about,” Justice Franklin D. Elia said, adding that the law “requires the jury verdict to be honored.” “We are not in a position to say (of the jury), you should have gone a different way.” Justice Adrienne Grover tried to clarify Multhaup’s argument. “You’re saying (the jury) made unreasonable inferences?” “Yes!” Multhaup said. ”They filled in the blanks.” But Elia didn’t seem to buy it. Related Articles Brock Turner: Justices reject ‘outercourse’ argument, upholds conviction “Intent is rarely proved by direct evidence,” he said, noting that it’s typically based on circumstantial evidence. “You can’t surgically remove things and look at them separately.” Assistant Attorney General Alisha Carlile didn’t mince words. She argued that Multhaup had presented a “far-fetched version of events” that didn’t support the facts of the case. The Stanford law school professor who led the campaign to recall Judge Aaron Persky said Turner had a chance to make that argument at trial, but did not. “Now, he has a brand new story,” Michele Dauber said in a phone interview Tuesday, contending that Turner, who testified in his own defense, lied on the stand. “It’s inappropriate to ask the appeals court to substitute its judgment for the jury.” ||||| Brock Turner leaves the Santa Clara County Main Jail in San Jose, Calif., on Sept. 2, 2016. (Photo: Dan Honda, AP) Lawyers for Brock Turner, the former Stanford University swimmer whose conviction and sentencing cast a national spotlight on treatment of sexual assault cases, sought a new trial Tuesday before a three-judge panel in San Jose, California. The judges should rule on the request within 90 days. In papers filed in December, his lawyers said the initial trial was “a detailed and lengthy set of lies.” Although Turner has been released from jail, a new trial could help overturn his mandatory lifetime requirement to register as a sex offender. Turner, 22, was convicted in March 2016 of assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated/unconscious person and related charges stemming from an attack outside a Stanford fraternity in January 2015. The victim, identified as Emily Doe, read an emotional 7,000-word statement during the sentencing detailing the impact to her life and the horror of the 2015 attack. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner, who could have faced 14 years in prison, to six months behind bars. More: Today's talker: Good riddance to judge in Brock Turner's case More: Judge who gave Brock Turner lenient sentence recalled The sentencing outraged victims' rights advocates. And Turner served only about half of that time due to good behavior in jail. The victim statement, however, quickly went viral, drawing more than 10 million views within four days and resonating with thousands of sexual assault survivors across the nation. The state legislature noticed, and later that year Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that toughens penalties for attacks on unconscious victims. Last month, Persky became the first California jurist recalled from the bench in 86 years. Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2uNNSIB

– Brock Turner, the former Stanford swimmer convicted in 2016 of sexually assaulting a woman outside a 2015 campus party, wasn't interested in intercourse but rather "outercourse," his lawyer claims. Eric S. Multhaup—who's hoping to overturn Turner's conviction for the attempted rape of an intoxicated person, which came with a lifelong requirement to register as a sex offender in addition to a three-month prison stay—argued Tuesday that Turner was seeking fully clothed sexual contact when he was found thrusting on a half-naked, unconscious woman. Per USA Today, Multhaup appeared before a three-judge panel in San Jose, claiming that Turner had his clothes on and never intended to rape his victim. The "poker-faced justices ... appeared skeptical of his argument," reports the San Jose Mercury News. Indeed, Justice Franklin D. Elia announced, "I absolutely don't understand what you are talking about." Multhaup went on to argue that the jury had insufficient evidence to convict—he said it was unclear when the intoxicated victim known as Emily Doe fell unconscious—and improperly "filled in the blanks" in the case, per the BBC. "Intent is rarely proved by direct evidence," Elia responded, citing reliance on circumstantial evidence, per the Mercury News. "We are not in a position to say [of the jury], you should have gone a different way," he added, while Deputy Attorney General Alisha Carlile said there was "ample" evidence to convict. Turner, 22, lives in Ohio and wasn't present for the hearing, which follows the June ousting of his sentencing judge. A ruling is expected by late October.

In the tissue-thin pages of “The Norton Anthology,” the canon of world literature looks delicate and staid, but it’s as violent a Darwinian contest as any fought in the primeval forest. Strong, adaptable stories survive; muddled, time-bound stories die. Eu­ripi­des’ “Medea” still roars over the millennia. George Lillo’s “The London Merchant” might have taken the 18th century by storm, but now it sleeps with the woolly mammoth. Sigmund Freud, in his foundational work “The Interpretation of Dreams,” considered why, despite the passage of 2,500 years, “Oedipus Rex” is still capable “of moving modern men no less than it moved the contemporary Greeks.” He speculated that “there must be a voice within us which is prepared to recognize the compelling power of fate in ‘Oedipus.’ ” He went on to recognize in this dysfunctional family — long before “Cougar Town” came to ABC — a basic pattern of psychological development: a sexual desire for one’s mother and a murderous rage against one’s father. Psychology has evolved since those heady days in Vienna, but there’s no denying the immutable terror of Sophocles’ tragedy. Like other archetypal stories, it lends itself to creative retelling, restaging and reinterpretation. Which only adds to our eager anticipation of David Guterson’s new novel, “Ed King,” a modern-day version of “Oedipus Rex.” In the three novels since his spectacularly successful debut, “Snow Falling on Cedars” (1994), Guterson has focused on alienated people driven into the woods by shame, or illness, or a thirst for the truth. The disgraced king of Thebes would seem to fit comfortably in that line of his tragic loners, and, indeed, there’s something weirdly titillating about seeing the ancient details of Sophocles’ story transferred to the late 20th century. But that titillation isn’t enough to animate this ill-conceived novel, which somebody should have strangled at birth. The opening, though, when Guterson sets down the terms of his re-imagined tale, is perversely appealing. Walter Cousins is a philandering actuary who “weighs risks for a living” but now finds himself troubled by fate. With his wife in the hospital, he’s left alone with his children’s nanny, Diane, a flirtatious young Brit who was “a drop-dead ringer for the sixteen-year-old Disney darling who’d been in newspapers and magazines lately for turning down the lead role in ‘Lolita.’ ” On a family outing to the Fine Arts Pavilion one afternoon, they all stare at a painting called “Oedipus and the Sphinx.” With those allusions firmly in place, events proceed apace in a sweaty-palmed narrative that finds 15-year-old Diane pregnant and Walter’s life on the edge of ruin. This first section is far and away the most engaging, and the themes of risk, fate and family determinism all cleverly point toward trouble. Walter’s panic tests his faith in statistics and his power to control events, and Diane’s transformation from cute temptress to steely extortionist is even more delicious (she’s the whore with a heart of bile who enlivens every scene). But once Diane abandons her baby on a random doorstep, the novel begins to skate through unfolding events. Where Sophocles holds us arrested for a single day, Guterson zips through the years in a kind of narrative shorthand that tracks events in the Greek play without translating its meaning, its power or its horror. The characters are set at such a dulling distance from us that usually we can’t feel anything but distaste for them. “Ed King: A Novel” by David Guterson. (Knopf) Baby Ed grows up to be a wild, brilliant young man (perfect except for his slightly deformed ankles). His adoptive Jewish parents, the Kings, treat him like a prince. (Get it?) He has a nasty run-in with you-know-who on the highway. But later, as an amalgamation of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Larry Page, he makes a fortune by figuring out how to solve impossibly difficult riddles on the Internet. And then he meets a sexy older woman . . . . At that point, Guterson stops the action and addresses us directly in a licentious tone that should excite any middle-school boy who makes it this far: “Now we approach the part of the story a reader couldn’t be blamed for having skipped forward to.” Actually, I wouldn’t blame you for skipping this book entirely, but if you must, turn to page 236. What follows are three pages that might very well win the Literary Review’s annual Bad Sex Award, including my personal “ick” moment: “Ed smelled vulnerably digestive.” In the smutty hands of Chuck Palahniuk, all this might have been a gas, but here it just made me want to take my wife’s hairpins and stab out my eyes. So what exactly are we to make of this novel, which eventually sees Ed at the height of his hubris evolve into a billionaire version of Ray Kurzweil, determined to live forever “in the very heart and mind of God”? Almost every line is infected with an acid tone meant to punish these trite, ambitious, self-absorbed people. Guterson’s criticism of the corrosive effects of vanity, money and media mania, which animated his far more thoughtful novels “Our Lady of the Forest” and “The Other,” is in these pages relentless and obvious. He’s knocking on the doors of Claire Messud, Jonathan Franzen and Lionel Shriver, but he doesn’t demonstrate the requisite wit or stylistic panache to pull off that kind of satire. The result is a mirthless story that’s tedious where it should be suspenseful, bitter where it should feel cathartic. A tragedy, indeed. Charles is The Post’s fiction editor. You can follow him on Twitter @RonCharles. ||||| Topics: Books, Sex What’s more cringe-worthy: Haruki Murakami’s comparison of “a freshly made ear” to “a freshly made vagina” or the scene from “Ed King,” David Guterson’s modern retelling of the Oedipus myth, in which the title character ends 12 hours of marathon lovemaking with his mother with one last quickie in the shower? According to the U.K.’s Literary Review, it’s definitely the shower. The journal has awarded Guterson (also the author of “Snow Falling on Cedars”), its Bad Sex in Fiction Award for 2011. (Whether either finalist really compares to Rowan Somerville’s now-infamous 2010 sentence — “Like a lepidopterist mounting a tough-skinned insect with a too blunt pin he screwed himself into her” — is another question entirely.) The novel’s “victory” might not surprise readers and reviewers; as GalleyCat’s Jason Boog points out, Ron Charles of the Washington Post anticipated that its awkward descriptions of an awkward encounter might make it a strong contender for the prize. These two paragraphs from “Ed King,” specifically cited on the Literary Review’s website, helped bring home the prize: These sorts of gyrations and five-sense choreographies, with variations on Ed’s main themes, played out episodically between 10 p.m. and 10 a.m., when Diane said, “Let’s shower.” In the shower, Ed stood with his hands at the back of his head, like someone just arrested, while she abused him with a bar of soap. After a while he shut his eyes, and Diane, wielding her fingernails now and staring at his face, helped him out with two practiced hands, one squeezing the family jewels, the other vigorous with the soap-and-warm-water treatment. It didn’t take long for the beautiful and perfect Ed King to ejaculate for the fifth time in 12 hours, while looking like a Roman public-bath statuary. Then they rinsed, dried, dressed and went to an expensive restaurant for lunch. In a recent essay for the Financial Times, Literary Review senior editor Jonathan Beckman called the prize “a comic coda to the literary year and a gentle spoof of a culture in which awards have proliferated at speed.” He added: “Despite murmurings to the contrary, the mere presence of a sex scene does not inevitably lead to a pillorying. Every year we rule out many examples sent to us by enthusiastic readers on the grounds of utter competence.” Earlier this year, Salon published its first Good Sex Awards, judged by Laura Miller, Louis Bayard, Maud Newton and Walter Kirn. Read their discussion of “What makes a good sex scene?” here. Continue Reading Close ||||| Image caption The book was described by one reviewer as a "sweaty-palmed narrative" An account of a frenzied encounter in a shower has earned US writer David Guterson the annual Bad Sex In Fiction Award. He beat the likes of Stephen King with a scene from his novel Ed King, a modern version of the fable of Oedipus. The offending passage in the book is introduced as "the part where a mother has sex with her son". On hearing of his win, Guterson said: "Oedipus practically invented bad sex, so I'm not in the least bit surprised." The author, who is based in the US, was unable to attend the prize ceremony at the In and Out Naval and Military Club in London. Instead, EastEnders star Barbara Windsor presented the award to his publishers. The ceremony is now in its 19th year, having been established by Auberon Waugh in 1993. Previous winners include Norman Mailer, AA Gill, Melvyn Bragg and Tom Wolfe. The award is run by The Literary Review, which says its purpose is to "draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it". Guterson is the author of the best-selling Snow Falling on Cedars, which was turned into a film starring Sam Shepard and Ethan Hawke in 1999. Ed King, his fifth novel, takes the Sophoclean tragedy Oedipus Rex (the title is a pun on the original) and transports it to late 20th Century Seattle. Image caption David Guterson lives and works in Washington State The story revolves around a baby boy who is given up for adoption and goes on to become one of the world's most powerful men, killing his father and sleeping with his mother in the process. Branded a "sweaty-palmed narrative" by the Washington Post, the novel contains several pages of explicit exposition. One goes into exhaustive detail about an erotic massage, where the protagonist "massaged, kneaded, stretched, rubbed, pinched, flicked, feathered, licked, kissed, and gently bit her shoulders". But judges said they were finally swayed by a passage that begins: "Ed stood with his hands at the back of his head, like someone just arrested, while she abused him with a bar of soap." The scene concludes: "Then they rinsed, dried, dressed, and went to an expensive restaurant for lunch." Reviewing the novel in the Express, David Robson argued that "Guterson's descriptions of hyperactive incest are absolutely unbearable and not in a good way". Other nominees this year included Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible by James Frey, Chris Adrian's The Great Night and Lee Child's The Affair.

– Ron Charles of the Washington Post wins the prognosticator award among book critics. When he reviewed (and panned) David Guterson's novel Ed King, he took note of one part: "What follows are three pages that might very well win the Literary Review’s annual Bad Sex Award." Well, that award came out today, and ... congratulations, Mr. Guterson (who is also the Snow Falling on Cedars author). The UK publication singled out Guterson's modern version of Oedipus Rex for a lengthy scene in which the main character has some intimate moments in the shower with, yes, his mother, reports the BBC. A few examples: "In the shower, Ed stood with his hands at the back of his head, like someone just arrested, while she abused him with a bar of soap." “Ed smelled vulnerably digestive.” "Then they rinsed, dried, dressed and went to an expensive restaurant for lunch." Salon has a more complete excerpt here, along with an antidote-like link to a discussion about good sex scenes.

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. ||||| MOSUL, Iraq—Three years ago, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the existence of an Islamic State caliphate and proceeded to sweep his forces through northern Iraq and toward Baghdad, threatening the viability of the fragile country. Today, the leader declaring an end to the caliphate is someone few would have imagined in the position, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. A man seen as the favorite of none but acceptable to all, the 65-year-old former electrical engineer has managed to turn that tepid sentiment into a defining strength. Over nearly three years in office, Mr. Abadi has narrowed gaps between Iraq’s warring Shiite and Sunni politicians. He balanced competing interests among geopolitical rivals Iran and the U.S., and spearheaded an overhaul of Iraqi security forces, who had fled advancing Islamic State fighters. Iraq is close to retaking Mosul, Islamic State’s psychologically important stronghold. “Abadi has magnificently shifted between leading and balancing,” said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “If he led too much then there’d be too many alienated people, and if he balanced too much there would be no forward progress.” Today, Iraq’s security forces are on the verge of defeating Islamic State, the key requirement if the nation wants to enjoy a stable and cohesive future, despite daunting challenges that remain. Sectarian anger still simmers, and the country’s economy and infrastructure have been devastated by years of fighting. The ruins on Sunday of the Al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, where militant leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the Islamic State caliphate three years ago. Photo: ahmad al-rubaye/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images “Abadi is riding high,” said one U.S. official in Washington. “But the government needs to show that it can act to make people’s lives better, and probably the window for that is pretty limited. If it doesn’t, all that goodwill Abadi built up will diminish.” There wasn’t always such a sense of possibility in Iraq. Before Islamic State swept to power in 2014, the country was at its most-fractious since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Mr. Abadi’s predecessor, Nouri al-Maliki, was a polarizing figure, accused of fueling sectarian conflict and packing ministries with loyalists. Transparency International ranked the country near the bottom at 171 of 177 countries world-wide for corruption, with such pervasive problems that the country has only moved up a few positions after years of attempted overhauls. Mr. Maliki didn’t respond to a request for comment, but Sunday released a public statement praising the military and militias. When the festering Syrian civil war next door bled across the border, Iraq’s military crumbled. In June of 2014, militants exploited Iraq’s problems to blitz into Mosul—grabbing nearby land, stores of weapons and oil fields. In Islamic State’s advance, millions of civilians came to live under the Sunni extremist group’s rule. Some Sunnis initially welcomed the militants as an alternative to the predominantly Shiite government of Mr. Maliki. The implementation of Shariah law followed, where people could be jailed for smoking or executed for unauthorized use of a cellphone. Amid the turmoil, the conciliatory Mr. Abadi was tapped to become prime minister, an antidote to Mr. Maliki’s divisive rule. He faced growing alarm among Iraq’s allies. Iran, the world’s biggest Shiite-majority country, couldn’t countenance its neighbor falling to a Sunni extremist group. In 2014 Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the pre-eminent Shiite cleric in Iraq, called on fellow countrymen to rise up to help protect the country; Shiite militias formed that Mr. Abadi has both empowered and theoretically kept under central government control. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s elite Quds Force decided to fund and train many of them. Ayatollah Sistani, who typically makes public statements via a representative at Friday prayers, didn’t respond to a request for comment. For Iran, forging such a partnership offered a way to cultivate a new proxy in Iraq and also to nurture others. Iran could revive overland supply routes through Iraq and its other ally, Syria, to Lebanon, where the Shiite political and militant group Hezbollah is based. For Mr. Abadi, the relationship provided a backstop to a buckling Iraqi military. It also offered a skilled battlefield partner in Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards. Iran’s heavy involvement in Iraq also exposed Mr. Abadi to accusations that he was turning his country into an Iranian pawn. An official in the office of Iran’s United Nations representative didn’t return a request for comment on Iran’s relationship with Mr. Abadi. U.S. State Department officials mostly sidestep the thorny issue of Iran’s involvement in Iraq’s war against Islamic State, saying Baghdad was ultimately in charge of the powerful Shiite militias. As part of this balancing act, Mr. Abadi courted the U.S. military for assistance, too, just years after the Americans pulled troops out of the country. As Islamic State's control over its strongholds in Iraq and Syria crumble, the extremist group acknowledges that soon not much may be left of its self-declared caliphate. So what does the loss of its territory mean for ISIS and will it bring its fight closer to the West? WSJ's Niki Blasina reports. In 2014, the U.S. military started a gradual increase of troops with the launch of Operation Inherent Resolve. By the end of Barack Obama’s presidency, more than 5,000 Americans were deployed to Iraq with hundreds close to the front lines of combat. Support has increased under President Donald Trump. Iraq has benefited from a more than billion-dollar investment by the U.S. to train and equip conventional army troops and special operations forces, and fund U.S. troops in the country. Mr. Abadi also fired generals from the Maliki era and demanded that top officers eschew sectarianism. Those steps brought increased assistance from the U.S., including advanced weapons and air support. Comparing the current force to that of just a decade ago, when U.S. forces were still leading many operations, Lt. Col. James Downing, a U.S. Army adviser who is near the front lines in Mosul, said, “they are infinitely more capable.” As the war with Islamic State heated up, Iraq became a tinderbox of crisscrossing rivalries and sectarian tensions. Christian and Sunni minorities in Iraq grew wary of Iran’s growing influence, with those groups forming some of their own militias. Some Iran-friendly Shiite forces, meanwhile, became openly hostile to U.S. troops. In late 2015, multiple militias pledged to fight U.S. troops if they deployed to Iraq and established bases in the country, harking back to their efforts against Americans during the Iraq war. Mr. Abadi sought to keep everyone on the same side, largely by lauding the benefits of a unified Iraq, adding Kurdish and Sunni elements to his cabinet and reaching out to Sunni leaders for dialogue. From the beginning of his tenure, the Iraqi prime minister reached out to Sunni Arab countries in the region while maintaining his ties with Iran. In 2015, the Saudi government reopened its embassy in Baghdad, which had been shuttered decades before in response to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. Inside Iraq, Mr. Abadi begin to win over the country’s minority Sunnis. “This government led by Abadi has not met desired levels of ambitions, but if you compare it with the previous government, you will find a big difference,” said Ahmed al-Masari, head of the Sunni political bloc in federal parliament. “Now there are reforms and progress, while during the previous government several provinces fell to terrorism.” Renad Mansour, a fellow at Chatham House, a London-based internationally focused think tank, said Sunni leaders came to realize a flexible Shiite leader may be their least bad option, especially if they hoped to exercise some power as a minority group in a democratic Iraq. “The Sunnis are past their denial of reality,” he said. “They realize that they’re going to be a minority.” Mr. Abadi didn’t neglect the country’s Shiite majority either. By 2015, Ayatollah Sistani, arguably the most revered figure in the country, voiced strong support for Mr. Abadi and worked to ensure the militias remained by law ultimately under Iraqi government control. Mr. Abadi in turn has praised the cleric, even this week saying his call to form militias was a crucial move to save the country from Islamic State dominance. In marshaling foreign and domestic support, Mr. Abadi’s government began racking up wins. In mid-2015 Iraqi forces took back Tikrit from Islamic State, their first major territorial victory. In November 2015, Kurdish Peshmerga forces pushed into the northern town of Sinjar, and the Iraqi military soon declared the Anbar hub of Ramadi free from militant control. The city of Fallujah fell months later. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, left, with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in June, has built an alliance with Iran to help defeat Islamic State. Photo: Iranian Supreme Leader/European Pressphoto Agency In Mosul, where an offensive began last fall, Islamic State didn’t retreat but dug in deeper. Even as Iraqi forces surrounded the city and advanced, the militants used hundreds of thousands of civilians as human shields while stockpiling munitions and setting up snipers’ nests in the warrens of the old city. Today, Iraqi forces are fighting scattered pockets of Islamic State fighters. In east Mosul, shops selling mobile phones or fashionable jeans have reopened next to restaurants slicing up kebabs. Patrons smoked openly, even during the holy month of Ramadan—a display unthinkable under Islamic State control. Still, seeds of new conflicts are just below the surface. Iraqi soldiers are accused of beating and summarily executing unarmed men and boys fleeing fighting in the heart of Mosul. The most recent allegations come from a Human Rights Watch report released Friday. Because the military is seen as a Shiite institution and Mosul is predominantly Sunni, such abuses, real or even rumored, threaten to fan sectarian tensions. The Iraqi government will investigate any credible cases of abuse, according to Saad al-Hadithi, a spokesman for Mr. Abadi, but he said those allegations must be based on evidence and not hearsay. Mr. Abadi has said he wouldn’t tolerate any human-rights abuses by troops. In Anbar Province, tribal officials have exiled families of Islamic State members. In the city of Mosul, the city council recently passed a resolution declaring the same. Mr. Abadi has signaled he will use his federal authority to prevent the local government from taking such actions. Mosul mobile-phone salesman Forat Latif said the environment is ripe for another antigovernment group to lure Sunnis into more fighting. “We will go back to the same environment that created Daesh,” he said. “It’s the same cloud that brought all this rain.” Inside the ruins of Mosul’s Al-Nuri Mosque on Sunday. Photo: ahmad al-rubaye/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Iraqi officials recently released a 10-year $100 billion reconstruction plan. The government doesn’t have the money, and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund haven’t come forward with funds. Last year, the IMF provided a $5.3 billion dollar emergency loan to help stabilize the country—a sizable contribution at the time but a fraction of what is needed now. Large sections of major cities like Ramadi and Mosul have been destroyed, with buildings, bridges and water mains turned to rubble. During his tenure, Prime Minister Abadi has overseen an increase in oil production, which helped boost the country’s GDP last year by 11%, according to the IMF. Yet low oil prices have complicated Iraq’s efforts to pay government workers, who have sporadically taken to the streets to protest, and the non-oil sector of the economy is still reeling. One of the biggest challenges for Mr. Abadi is the pressure from different Iraqi minorities for more autonomy. The Kurdish north, led by President Masoud Barzani, has been angling for independence for years, and last month announced it will hold a referendum on the issue in September. Federal elections are scheduled for April, and Mr. Abadi may face rivals for his position. He has managed to remain on good terms with both Iran and the U.S.—with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson praising the prime minister publicly in March. But as the relationship between the U.S. and Iran deteriorates, there is a risk that Iran will back a challenger to the prime minister more clearly in Tehran’s camp. Mr. Maliki has remained a constant presence in the political realm. Mr. Abadi may face his biggest test when Iraq and its foreign allies no longer share a common foe. On Thursday, as he declared the end of the caliphate, Mr. Abadi stayed focused on defeating Islamic State. “We will continue to fight Daesh until every last one of them is killed or brought to justice.” On the same day, though, brownouts in Baghdad left millions without power, showing the government’s limited capacity to provide public services to its people. Four improvised bombs, meanwhile, detonated in different areas of Baghdad, killing a handful of people. Such attacks are a reminder that the war against Islamic State is moving beyond the battlefield and into the daily lives of Iraqis, something they had hoped a prime minister would prevent. —Ghassan Adnan in Baghdad, Asa Fitch and Ali A. Nabhan in Erbil, Iraq, and Dion Nissenbaum in Washington contributed to this article. Corrections & Amplifications An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as Defense Secretary. (July 2, 2017) ||||| (Beirut) – Allegations are emerging of Iraqi forces beating and unlawfully killing men and boys fleeing Mosul in the final phase of the battle against the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), Human Rights Watch said today. Four witnesses told Human Rights Watch that they saw Iraqi forces beat unarmed men and boys fleeing the fighting within the last seven days, and said they also obtained information about Iraqi forces executing unarmed men during this time period. “As Iraqi forces are poised to retake the entire city of Mosul, allegations of unlawful killings and beatings significantly raise concerns for the civilians there who have been living under ISIS control,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Iraqi forces are promising liberation, but they need to find out what’s happening now and stop any abuse.” One witness said that three Emergency Response Division and Iraqi Security Force (ISF) members on a key route for civilians fleeing the city boasted to him that they were executing captured unarmed men who were thought to be ISIS-affiliated instead of detaining them. The Emergency Response Division and ISF fighters, stationed three kilometers from the heaviest fighting in the Old City, said they made an exception for elderly men, the witness said. Two other witnesses said they saw Iraqi uniformed soldiers pick at least six men and boys out of crowds of fleeing civilians at a checkpoint, beat them, and drive them away. They said they saw soldiers pick out another man, beat him, and then move him into a building they were using as a base. One of the witnesses said that soldiers later said they had killed him. “I have heard of countless abuses and executions in this battle,” one witness said. “But what’s changed is that in this final phase fighters are no longer hiding what they are doing and are comfortable allowing us to witness the abuses first-hand.” The same witness said that earlier this week, he heard three screams coming from a building being used by the elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), after which fighters from the unit ushered him away. That afternoon in another neighborhood of west Mosul, the witness saw two CTS fighters take down the corpse of an alleged ISIS fighter that had been strung up to an electrical pole, and stone the body before taking a few photos of each other posing with it. That night, he said, a CTS fighter also showed him a video of a severely beaten man who the fighter said was an ISIS prisoner. In the video the CTS fighter shoots and kills the unarmed detainee, he said. In the days before, the man said he saw five Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint pick out at least 10 men over a period of an hour, beat them, and drag them toward a building the soldiers were using as a base. He said that one of the men the soldiers were beating was wounded and that he had arrived with his family from a front-line field hospital. The witness said that as he was leaving the area he saw the soldiers single out more and more men, beat them and take them away, but lost count of how many. An article published in a Swedish outlet on June 28, 2017, by a Swedish journalist who was on the front-line says that a Federal Police officer boasted about decapitating at least 50 men with knives and beating others, with fellow officers watching, cheering, and sometimes filming. The article said the Federal Police backed up these claims with photos and videos. Throughout the operation to retake Mosul, Human Rights Watch has documented Iraqi forces detaining and holding thousands of men and boys in inhumane conditions without charge, and in some cases torturing and executing them, under the guise of a screening them for ISIS-affiliation. In May 2016, Iraqi forces retook the city of Fallujah from ISIS, but in the operation committed horrific abuses, including executions, torture, and the disappearance of over 600 men whose bodies have yet to be found. Human Rights Watch has raised concerns regarding allegations of ill-treatment, torture, and executions numerous times in meetings with Iraqi officials in Baghdad as well as with representatives from US-led coalition member countries. Human Rights Watch does not know of a single transparent investigation into abuses by Iraqi armed forces, any instances of commanders being held accountable for abuse, or any victims of abuse receiving compensation. Iraqi criminal justice authorities should investigate all alleged crimes, including unlawful killings and mutilation of corpses, committed by any party in the conflict in a prompt, transparent, and effective manner, up to the highest levels of responsibility. Those found criminally responsible should be appropriately prosecuted. Extrajudicial executions and torture during an armed conflict are war crimes. Despoiling dead bodies and other outrages on personal dignity are violations of the laws of armed conflict and may amount to war crimes. “Reports of unlawful executions and beatings by Iraqi soldiers should be enough to raise concern among the highest ranks in Baghdad and among members of the international coalition combatting ISIS,” Fakih said. “Iraqi officials should translate that concern into accountability for war crimes.” ||||| The Iraqi government's declaration that ISIS had been expelled from Iraq goes against both the current situation on the ground in Mosul and the experience other Iraqi cities freed have gone through. Ahmad Al-rubaye / AFP / Getty Images A member of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) walks through the rubble and broken wall of a damaged building. The Iraqi government declared Thursday that Iraq was rid of ISIS after its forces reclaimed Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, from the terror group. There was just one problem: Almost no one agreed with the assessment that the war on ISIS in Iraq was all but over. The US military said Thursday that at least three other ISIS-controlled Iraqi cities face the kind of military campaigns that have all but destroyed other cities in the push to free them. Aid organizations said life in Mosul remains fragile, even after its near liberation. And a report released Wednesday by a top counterterrorism research group noted that the liberation of Iraqi cities hasn’t ended ISIS’s threat to the country; according to the report by West Point's Combating Terrorism Center, there have been 1,468 ISIS attacks in Iraqi and Syrian cities after they’d supposedly been freed from ISIS control. “Pushing the Islamic State out as the formal governing party in a territory is not a sufficient development when it comes to ending the group’s ability to enact violence against individuals in Iraq and Syria,” the report concluded. Still, Iraqi officials celebrated what they called the recapture of Mosul, symbolized by Iraqi troops’ occupation Thursday of the al-Nuri Mosque, the historic site where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the creation of the Islamic State nearly three years ago and where ISIS sappers demolished its famed leaning al-Habda minaret only days ago. ISIS fighters now control only two areas in the city, both US and Iraqi officials said — the warren of streets immediately around the mosque and a hospital complex, both on the city’s west side. "The return of al-Nuri Mosque and al-Hadba minaret to the fold of the nation marks the end of the Daesh state of falsehood," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a statement, using an Arabic term for ISIS. Ahmad Al-rubaye / AFP / Getty Images The destroyed Al-Nuri Mosque. Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, an Iraqi military spokesman, reportedly told state television that the “fictitious state has fallen.” Photos from the city showed Iraqi troops moving among the rubble of the mosque in what was a climax to an eight-month campaign to retake the city. But fighting is likely to continue for a while longer as Iraqi troops clear the remaining pockets of ISIS fighters, Army Col. Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the US military campaign in Iraq and Syria, told reporters at the Pentagon. The complete liberation of Mosul is "closer to days versus weeks" away, he said. After that, a new war front will open, Dillon said. The Iraqi government will decide which ISIS-controlled Iraqi city to liberate next with the help of a barrage of coalition strikes — al Qaim, Tal Afar, or Hawijah, he said. In all, there are 150,000 Iraqi citizens still living under ISIS control in those cities, including 75,000 children, Wendy Taeuber, Iraq country director for the International Rescue Committee, said in a statement. The cost to liberate Mosul — and other ISIS-controlled cities before it — has been high. Piles of rubble are all that remain of neighborhoods in the liberated cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, and Mosul’s west side bears deep scars from months of combat, Dillon said. Only 191,000 residents have returned to the city’s eastern half since it was retaken by government troops in January — and it is far less damaged than the west. In all, 900,000 residents have fled Mosul, according to aid groups. Moreover, Iraq’s counterterrorism force, which has fought ISIS in at least a half-dozen Iraqi cities, has had an attrition rate — dead and wounded — of roughly 40 percent during the Mosul campaign. Past campaigns to liberate Iraqi cities so far have failed to turn Iraqi cities into inhabitable communities again. The West Point study noted that in Fallujah, which was liberated from ISIS a year ago, “the citizens of the city are still facing an array of challenges, from destroyed buildings to live Islamic State munitions buried in the rubble to the continuing threat of Islamic State attacks.” As of March, the mayor of Fallujah had yet to return to the city to live; instead, he visits periodically from his home in the Iraqi city of Irbil, the study said. Ahmad Al-rubaye / AFP / Getty Images ||||| This frame grab from video released on May 24, 2017 and provided by the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, shows a Syrian forces tank fires at Islamic states positions at Palmyra desert,... (Associated Press) BEIRUT (AP) — As the U.S.-led coalition tightens the noose around the Islamic State group in Syria, President Bashar Assad's Iranian-backed troops are also seizing back territory from the militants with little protest from Washington, a sign of how American options are limited without a powerful ally on the ground. Washington is loath to cooperate with Assad's internationally ostracized government. But it will be difficult to uproot IS militants and keep them out with only the Kurdish and Arab militias backed by the U.S. — and a coalition spokesman pointed out that Assad's gains ease the burden on those forces. Letting Assad grab IS territory, however, risks being seen as the U.S. legitimizing his continued rule and would likely strengthen his hand in his war against the already struggling rebellion. It also threatens to further empower Assad's allies, Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah, which both have forces alongside his troops in the assault into IS-held territory. Within the Trump administration, there is a split over whether to aggressively try to stem Assad's advances, said a senior U.S. official, who wasn't authorized to speak to reporters and requested anonymity. Army Col. Ryan Dillon, the spokesman for the anti-IS coalition, said Syrian government forces are welcome to reclaim IS-held territory and fill the vacuum once the extremist group is gone. The statement was startling — even more so because soon after President Donald Trump this week warned Assad he would pay "a heavy price," claiming "potential" evidence that Syria was preparing for another chemical weapons attack. The mixed messages reveal a discomfiting fact that most policy makers would rather not spell out: Assad is a pariah but he is also a convenient tool to secure and govern territory in majority-Arab cities in a complex terrain. The situation in Syria is a contrast to Iraq, where the coalition and the Iraqi government, working hand in glove, appear to be on the verge of retaking the main IS redoubt in city of Mosul. The Syrian government has repeatedly suggested that everyone is welcome to work with it to defeat IS. Mohammad Kheir Akkam, a Syrian lawmaker, questioned U.S. support for the Kurdish-led forces "despite the fact that the Syrian-Russian cooperation has achieved more results in combating terrorism," while U.S. efforts have "had the opposite result." The U.S. so far has shunned any cooperation with the Syrian leader, whom Trump described as an "animal." Instead, it has partnered with local Kurdish and Arab forces known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. Those fighters are currently spearheading the assault on the Islamic State group's self-declared capital, Raqqa in northern Syria, and then face the prospect of assaulting the group's final major stronghold to the southeast, in Deir el-Zour. But U.S. support for the Kurdish-led group has angered Turkey, which views it as an extension of a Kurdish insurgency within its own territory. The SDF is also viewed with suspicion by the predominantly Arab residents of Raqqa and Deir el-Zour. Furthermore, the SDF, numbering around 50,000 fighters, is already risking overstretch and is in no way ready for the more challenging battle in Deir el-Zour. Assad and his Iranian allies, on the other hand, have steadily positioned themselves in key areas on the flanks of the U.S.-led war against IS, grabbing territory on several fronts, including on the outskirts of Raqqa and Deir el-Zour. With Russian and Iranian support, Assad has made steady gains and now controls almost all of Syria's major cities except those held by IS. The symbolism was striking this week as a smiling Assad paid a visit to central Hama, driving his own car, and to a Russian air base in western Syria, where he posed alongside Russian generals and inside the cockpit of a Russian SU-35 fighter jet. Syrian troops have positioned themselves on Raqqa's southwestern flanks, and officials have vowed to retake the city eventually. The U.S. has insisted that the city should be handed over to a local council that would handle its administration post-liberation — and it has made clear it will not tolerate the Syrian government and its allies cashing in on the fight. U.S. forces recently shot down a Syrian aircraft as well as drones believed connected to Iranian-supported forces as tensions escalated near a base where the coalition trains Syrian rebels. But the senior American official said there was significant disagreement about how aggressively the U.S. should try to prevent Assad from reclaiming the territory IS vacates, with some in the White House pushing a more forceful approach while the State Department and the Pentagon warn of the risks. Keeping Assad's territory to a minimum would ensure his hand isn't strengthened in an eventual political deal to end the conflict, making it more likely the U.S. could deliver on its longstanding desire to see him leave power. Limiting his control in eastern Syria would also prevent Iranian-backed forces from securing a wide corridor through Iraq to Syria and all the way into Lebanon. The more risk-averse voices in Trump's administration are wary about letting the U.S. slip into a more direct fight with Assad, the official said. Dillon, the coalition spokesman, told reporters at the Pentagon that the U.S. goal is to defeat IS wherever it exists. If others, including the Syrian government and its Iranian and Russian allies, want to fight the extremists, "we absolutely have no problem with that." Frederic C. Hof, director of the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, said the comments reflect the narrow U.S. view of the Syria war, focused very specifically on the neutralization of IS. In the coalition view, "it is all about killing ISIS in Raqqa." Hof wrote in an article this week. "Creating conditions that would keep it dead? That, presumably, would be someone else's job." ___ Karam is the AP's news director for Lebanon and Syria and has covered Syria since 1996. Lederman, who reported from Washington, has covered the White House and national politics for The Associated Press since 2012. ||||| Maha (daughter) Mom, Odai got infected from drinking poisoned water, we managed to get to the emergency room here, the doctor told me it is extremely important for him to drink clean water but it is hard to find it here. Mom, I'm desperate, I don't know what to do. I swear, I don't know. Wafa (mother) Sweetie, try to find him clean water and give it to him. Sweetie, let me know how you're doing. Sufficient for us is God and he is the best disposer of affairs [an Islamic expression meaning God is in control]. Maha Mom, I’m exhausted and the situation is horrible, I can’t bear this life anymore, my son is sick and there’s no medicine or clean water or anything for my child. It was really hard to find some milk yesterday. Wafa I swear sweetie, there’s no one I haven’t spoken to so that you come. I’m speaking to the media, I’m speaking to the doctor, I’m speaking to the entire world. More than three weeks pass before Maha is able to reply ... Maha Hi mom, please let me know how you are doing, I hope you are well, it was very hard to get online, the place where I found a cyberspace [an internet café] is far away from where we’re staying. I don’t know if I’ll be able to come back here, it might get closed. Wafa Sweetie, try to leave, try to leave, try to go to another village, awaiting a solution to get you to Turkey. Maha Mom, why don’t you respond? Please respond. Please answer me. Tell me how you have been. Wafa Sweetie, I have responded, I'm with the doctor, I don't know when you're gonna be able to get online again. Why wouldn’t I respond to you my soul, my life. Your situation got me here, I spend my time in hospitals, I drink sleeping pills and I have had several nervous breakdowns. More than a month passes … Maha Mom, you promised me to get me out of this hell. Mom, I have nightmares, I dream that they come after me to kill me. After I sent you a voice note, I delete everything because I got so scared. I see them [ISIS fighters] everywhere now. I’m so exhausted because of this life. Wafa Sweetie, I swear, there's no one I haven't spoken to, to doctors, to lawyers, to journalists, there's no one in this world I haven't spoken to about you and Odai. I will do the impossible to get you out. Maha Mom, I need to come back, I can’t stay here, I’m afraid they’ll arrest me. I’m scared they will hurt me if they find out that I sent you voice notes and details about how unsafe this place is. They [fighters] consider it a crime to talk to people outside Raqqa. I will try to get online again. Wafa Sweetie, where are you? Answer me. Sweetie, answer me. Let me hear your voice. Maha Mom, there is nothing here, we don’t have food, nor water or electricity, nothing. They [fighters] have everything they need and have a great life. Sufficient for us is God and he is the best disposer of affairs. Wafa I know who they are, the sons of fouls [expression meaning sons of b**ches] who hold their heads high. I despise Daesh [an alternative name for ISIS] and those who got Daesh to us. Nearly two months pass before Wafa hears from her daughter again. When she does, Maha has moved to another area of Raqqa ... Maha Mom, answer me, mom, why don’t you respond? We moved to another place today, I don’t know when I will be able to get online again, Daesh fighters are all over the place, I’m afraid I won’t be able to come back to get online again. I am scared, and Odai is exhausted. Wafa Sweetie, if you think this is a more dangerous area where you are now, please don't leave. I would not be able to bear not to hear your voice anymore. Maha Have a blessed Ramadan mom, I wish you the best (she sighs). Mom, I’m distressed. The village we moved to now is really isolated and deserted and everything is expensive here, food, vegetables, fruit, meat, chicken, I can’t afford milk for Odai. Sanitary pads are so expensive. It is really hard, so hard to get milk for Odai. Wafa Blessed Ramadan, sweetie, I wish you would be with me right now, with your honour and dignity. May God reunite us again. You and Odai, may God reunite me with you again. It is my dream. It is my dream. I can’t lose more than now. Maha Today we saw someone from the religious enforcement [ISIS’ religious police force] putting his suicide belt on, he was bleeding so much, it happened in the village where we are now, later he left and they took him, we were scared to death. Maha We are exhausted. I’m afraid I’m gonna commit suicide. My son is sick – I am sick myself, and defeated (she starts to cry). From dawn until I go to bed I feel this way. Maha Hi mum, how are you…get me out of this horrible situation; we are in a very horrible stage right now. I am tired; my son is exhausted (she starts to cry). Get me out of here I beg you. I can’t talk much. You don’t have any idea how bad our situation is. Get me out please. And may God reward you. If you can’t get me out I am afraid I may end my life. I will beg you until my last breath, please get me out. Wafa Oh sweetie, I know you have been cut off from everything. I swear I know. I swear, but I don't have anything in my hands (cries). I swear, I’m dying here, I'm tired of repeating the same things. Maha Mama, save me from this situation. Save me. Save me. We’re living in hell, in hell. Save me from this. My son is next to me dying. Save me, save me. If you loved me you would save me. If you loved me you would save me. Don’t leave me in this situation. (Inaudible) Save me, save me. Wafa Oh sweetie, there’s no one I haven’t spoken to. I’m talking to the media, I’m talking to the doctor, and with the IND immigration (immigration and naturalization service in the Netherlands). Please be patient. Sweetie, I swear I’m going to get them to rescue you. Maha Mama, try, please try everything. Try everything. We have nothing here. We have no food or drink. The situation is (inaudible). Mama, the basic necessities of life aren’t here. Try everything. Try. Rescue me and Odai. If you love me, beg everyone—the journalists, the doctors. Try them all. Maha My son is dehydrated, this water is causing him diarrhea. There is no nutrition, try, my son is dying in front of my eyes. Try, my faith is in you, try. Please try. (Inaudible) You know what I am doing is a big risk, but I took the risk and sent it. Wafa I curse on them sweetie, they live like princes, they can afford anything. We’re the only ones who are suffering. We are shattered. We are dead.

– The Islamic State appears to be nearly ousted in the Iraqi city of Mosul, and now US-backed forces have the last 2,500 ISIS holdouts trapped in the group's other stronghold of Raqqa, Syria, reports the New York Times. The militants are cut off from supplies, though the final battle to defeat them promises to be a difficult one that plays out building by building. ISIS leaders already have fled the city, and the group maintains control over smaller towns in both Syria and Iraq. Related developments: The plan? Once ISIS is routed from Syria and Iraq, then what? The Los Angeles Times reports that the US doesn't seem to have a clear strategy yet for the aftermath, one that takes into account factors such as Iran, Russia, reconstruction, safe zones, troop numbers, etc. Without "rules of the road,” it's "a dangerous situation," says one analyst. Assad's role: One particularly thorny problem for the US is whether to try to keep Syria's Bashar al-Assad in check as he seeks to reclaim territory abandoned by ISIS. The AP has an analysis. 'Mom, I'm exhausted': What's it like for civilians still in Raqqa? "Mom, I'm exhausted and the situation is horrible, I can't bear this life anymore," writes a 23-year-old daughter to her mom. CNN takes a look at WhatsApp messages. A leader emerges: Iraq's success in Mosul has turned the spotlight on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. In a profile, the Wall Street Journal reports that the 65-year-old former electrical engineer has emerged as a genuine leader after three years, to pretty much everyone's surprise. Premature? But at BuzzFeed, Nancy A. Youssef writes that Abadi and other Iraqi leaders may have made a mistake in declaring the end of the ISIS caliphate last week. Too much fighting remains, in Mosul and elsewhere. Abuses in Iraq: Human Rights Watch says it has reports of Iraqi soldiers beating and executing unarmed men fleeing Mosul.

The latest allegation swirling around businessman Herman Cain — that he conducted a 13-year long extramarital affair with a woman named Ginger White — could well amount to a political death blow for his already-reeling presidential campaign. And that’s bad news for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Businessman Herman Cain listens as former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney speaks during the Republican presidential debate on national security November 22, 2011 at the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) Meanwhile, a parade of would-be rivals — Donald Trump, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Cain -- have risen rapidly and fallen just as quickly. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich is the latest to try to seize that mantle. While the vast majority of the media coverage has focused on the ups and downs of the anti-Romney candidates, that glosses over the fact that the former Massachusetts governor hasn’t been able to win over large swaths of conservatives — remaining almost entirely stagnant for months. Take the CNN poll. In the last four national polls — the first in early September, the last just before Thanksgiving — Romney has won 21 percent, 22 percent, 26 percent and 24 percent. (Gingrich, by contrast, went from 7 percent to 8 percent to 11 percent to 22 percent in those same surveys.) What those numbers suggest is that Romney’s best (only?) path to the nomination is if conservatives, who seem to have decided they won’t be with him, fracture among several candidates rather than unify behind a single one. That reality is true on the national level but equally true in early voting states like Iowa and South Carolina where Romney seems to have a solid 15 to 25 percent but hasn’t moved much beyond that number. A Bloomberg News Iowa survey showed Romney at 18 percent — bunched with Cain, Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul. (That’s not true in New Hampshire, where Romney’s geographic proximity and the close attention he has paid to the state make him a clear frontrunner.) The latest allegations regarding Cain, when coupled with the dead-in-the-water candidacies (at least for the moment) of one-time conservative alternatives Perry and Bachmann, make it increasingly likely that Republicans looking for a Romney alternative will view Gingrich as the only viable option. That could spell trouble for Romney — particularly in Iowa and South Carolina — as he goes for a quick and decisive victory in the early days of the primary race in hopes of spending his attention and money on President Obama and the general election. Gingrich targets Romney: Gingrich is starting to go after Romney, saying Monday that he is more conservative than the former Massachusetts governor and suggesting he is also more consistent. Gingrich said on a South Carolina radio station that he was “a lot more conservative than Mitt Romney.” He also said that “it’s wrong to go around and adopt radically different positions based on your need of any one electorate, because then people have to ask themselves, what will you tell me next time?” If that’s not talking about Romney, we don’t know what is. Gingrich is perhaps the only emergent frontrunner who has shown both a willingness and capability to attack Romney. We’ll see how it pans out. Nelson poll shows him leading: Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) appears to be benefitting from the more than $1 million that the Democratic Party has spent on ads for him this year, according to a new poll conducted for his campaign. The Hickman Analytics poll shows Nelson leading all three of his most likely GOP opponents. After trailing state Attorney General Jon Bruning and state Treasurer Don Stenberg in a previous poll by his pollster, he now leads Bruning within the margin of error, 47 percent to 45 percent, and he leads Stenberg 49 percent to 43 percent. Nelson’s personal numbers have also improved, with 54 percent of Nebraskans rating him favorably, compared to 47 percent in February. His net favorable rating has gone from -2 to +14. Bruning’s numbers, meanwhile, have declined, as his campaign has stumbled a bit early on. The poll is particularly good news for Democratic Party officials who are wooing Nelson away from retirement. In a state like Nebraska, he may be their only hope of holding the seat. Proposed map in Florida: We have the first proposed redistricting map in Florida, courtesy of the state Senate. The map creates one new Democratic district — the 27th — in Orange County south of Orlando and a GOP district in northern Florida, between Gainesville and Tallahassee. (The latter district is actually labeled the 6th, but GOP Rep. Cliff Stearns lives in the new 26th and may run there. Both are strong GOP districts.) Perhaps more interesting, the map dilutes firebrand Rep. Allen West’s (R-Fla.) already-tough south Florida district, moving it from a district where Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) would have won 48 percent in the 2008 presidential race to one in which he would have won 44 percent. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R), Steve Southerland (R) and Tom Rooney (R) also get less safe and could have tough races ahead, but in exchange, Reps. Daniel Webster (R), David Rivera (R) and Sandy Adams (R) get considerably safer. The Florida map is a tough one for the GOP, given that it already controls 19 of 25 districts and has so many incumbents to shore up. Complicating matters further are the new constitutional amendments passed by voters last year that aim to rein in gerrymandering. Democrats contend this could invalidate a GOP-drawn map that doesn’t create several new Democratic districts. While this is far from the final product, the first draft is a good indication of where at least some Florida Republicans are hoping to go with the map. Fixbits: Romney gets the backing of three key Hispanics in South Florida — Diaz Balartand Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and former congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart. Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-Texas) campaign is encouraging college students to spend “Christmas Vacation with Ron Paul.” The White House defends its many official trips (on the taxpayer dime) to states that just happen to be important in the presidential race. The effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker (R) is on pace to get well more than the required signatures. Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) makes his Senate campaign official. Must-reads: “Family ties prove thorny for Tierney” — Jenna Russell, Boston Globe “Texas asks Supreme Court to block federal judges’ redistricting plan” — Robert Barnes, Washington Post “As White House candidates abandon public funding, Republicans look to end system” — Ben Pershing, Washington Post Read more on PostPolitics.com Cain reassessing presidential candidacy Woman accuses Cain of having 13-year affair Bachmann claims she never said ‘anything inaccurate’ during debates ||||| National Review's Robert Costa broke the news that Herman Cain told his senior staff on a conference call that he was "reassessing" whether or not to stay in the GOP presidential race now that a woman is publicly claiming she had a 13-year affair with the businessman turned candidate. Cain says the decision will come in the next few days and reminded staffers that he's remained in the race after prior travails. But it's worth exploring how the race would be affected if he did choose to exit. The most popular theory is that Cain's departure would hurt Mitt Romney and benefit his chief rival at the moment, Newt Gingrich. The GOP electorate maintains severe reservations about Romney, so his strategy for winning has always depended on squeaking through as conservatives fail to settle on one alternative. If Cain were to leave, there would be one less candidate to carve up the conservative vote, thus complicating Romney's strategy. Though Cain has declined in polls over the last several weeks, according to the Real Clear Politics average, he's still at 15.5 percent nationally, 15.8 percent in Iowa, 7 percent in New Hampshire and 16.7 percent in South Carolina. Gingrich has been the beneficiary of Cain's recent slide, and would theoretically stand to gain ground if he were to drop out. Yet there's also another way of looking at things that could play into Romney's hands. If Cain does end up dropping out over reports that he had an affair, it could lead to a greater focus on Gingrich's messy personal life, three marriages and extra-marital affair. Though Romney is unlikely to directly attack Gingrich on this, expect to hear a lot more about Romney's 42-year marraige to emphasize that this isn't an issue Republicans would have to worry about should he be the nominee. ||||| By Molly Ball As the scandal-tarred Republican candidate ponders his future, a look at the implications for the remainder of the GOP presidential field On a conference call Tuesday morning, Herman Cain told campaign staffers he's " reassessing " his candidacy in the wake of the latest allegation of sexual misbehavior against him. Cain said he would stick to his schedule, including a speech at Michigan's Hillsdale College scheduled for 6 p.m. tonight. "We're going to continue until we complete our assessment over the next several days," he said, according to National Review's Robert Costa, who was on the call. "But if a decision is made different than to plow ahead, you all will be the first to know," Cain added. Thus begins the deathwatch stage of the former pizza CEO's twisting presidential campaign saga. The vultures have been circling Cain for the last several weeks as the scandal has played out; Cain's blunders have only accelerated the slide. Who stands to benefit if Cain does drop out? What's clearest is who doesn't: Mitt Romney. As a flawed and unloved front-runner, Romney's best shot has always been against a fragmented field of subpar challengers. From Cain to Rick Santorum to Ron Paul, the more secondary candidates carve up the pie of voters who see Romney as unacceptable, the fewer votes he needs to achieve a plurality win in each successive primary. The revolving-door nature of the race so far, with successive challengers peaking and then fading, has been Romney's dream scenario: Even as Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Cain have lost ground, they've each retained their hold on a small corps of followers, draining more votes from the anti-Romney pool. As the currently surging Romney alternative, Newt Gingrich seems best poised to win over the votes freed up by a Cain withdrawal, though it's not a clear-cut transfer. The Cain fans who identify with the Tea Party might go to Michele Bachmann, while his evangelical supporters could flee to either Bachmann or Rick Santorum. Rick Perry looks like a plausible substitute on paper, but it's hard to overstate how completely GOP voters have written him off after his many problematic performances in debates and at other venues. Though Gingrich is far more fluent than Cain on the details of policy, the two share a stylistic appeal: an air of authenticity, as well as a certain joie de vivre. Gingrich always seems like he's having fun and believes what he's saying. (And Gingrich's personal baggage -- garden-variety adultery and lack of marital commitment -- looks downright tame next to what Cain's been accused of.) And with his credentials as the architect of the 1994 Republican revolution and the GOP's scholar-in-residence, Gingrich has a plausible electability pitch. Steve Deace, a Des Moines-based syndicated radio host, said whether or not Cain decides to soldier on, his time is up. "Anytime you're not sure if that's the job I should take -- it's not. If you're not sure if that's the woman I should marry -- it's not. Any candidate who openly talks about whether they should be in the race at this stage, no, they shouldn't," he told The Atlantic. But the successive candidate boomlets have proved that a large number of voters are determined to choose a nominee other than Romney. "Romney's only strategy is to be the John McCain of 2008 -- the last man standing," Deace said. "The fewer alternatives to Romney, the higher likelihood of galvanizing the anti-Romney sentiment, which is the majority of the Republican electorate." Image credit: Getty Images/Mandel Ngan

– The news that Herman Cain is "reassessing" his campaign in the wake of allegations of an extramarital affair has left pundits wondering which candidate would come out on top if the Cain Train came to a halt. A look around the blogosphere: Some of Cain's Tea Party and evangelical supporters may end up choosing Michele Bachmann or Rick Santorum, but rising Mitt Romney alternative Newt Gingrich is best placed to benefit, decides Molly Ball at the Atlantic. Gingrich and Cain "share a stylistic appeal: an air of authenticity, as well as a certain joie de vivre," she writes. Cain's exit would be good news for Gingrich, and very bad news for Romney, writes Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post. Romney's stagnant poll numbers suggest that his only chance of winning the nomination will be if conservatives "fracture among several candidates rather than unify behind a single one," he writes. Cain dropping out could actually work in Romney's favor, according to Philip Klein at the Washington Examiner. The spotlight could shift to Gingrich's "messy personal life, three marriages, and extramarital affair," he writes, and while Romney probably won't directly attack Gingrich over his personal life, don't be surprised if he starts mentioning his 42-year marriage a lot more often.

Christine Ford, the California professor accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault more than three decades ago, is "being used" by Democrats who have "betrayed her," Sen. Lindsey Graham told "Fox News Sunday." Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also made clear that Republicans "are not going to turn the hearing over to her lawyers" by allowing them to dictate which witnesses to call, or in what order to call the witnesses. If Ford's lawyer's persist, Graham said, "there won't be a hearing." The South Carolina Republican specifically took an apparent shot at Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who received Ford's allegations in a confidential letter in July through a Northern California congresswoman. Ford only went public last week after news of the letter's existence leaked to the Intercept -- a leak Republicans have linked to Senate Democrats. "I'm want to listen to Dr. Ford," Graham said. "I feel sorry for her. I think she's being used here. If she truly wanted to be anonymous, the person who brought this allegation to the public owes her an apology." FOURTH PURPORTED WITNESS, A LIFELONG FRIEND OF FORD'S, SAYS NO RECOLLECTION OF ATTACK He added: "I don’t know what Dr. Ford expected us to do with an anonymous letter. If she wanted to stay anonymous those who betrayed her need to apologize." That criticism was echoed last week by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who wrote a letter telling Feinstein, "I cannot overstate how disappointed I am" in her handling of Ford's claims. "I feel sorry for her. I think she's being used here." - Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Ford's legal team last week asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to agree to certain terms before she sits down for a potential interview. Among the terms: Only members of the committee -- no lawyers -- can question her; Kavanaugh cannot be in the room at the time; and Kavanaugh should be questioned first, before he has the opportunity to hear Ford's testimony. But, Graham said, some of those requests were nonstarters, especially because Ford has already been granted several extensions to make a decision on when to testify. "Chairman [Chuck] Grassley has bent over backwards to make this happen," Graham told host Chris Wallace. "The offer is Thursday at 10 o'clock. She made ten conditions through her lawyer. We've accepted six. "We're not going to turn over to the other side how many witnesses to call. There will be two witnesses, Dr. Ford, then Judge Kavanaugh, and we'll hire our own counsel. ... If they continue to contest those two things, there won't be a hearing. If they really want to be heard, they can be heard in a small room with a lot of security, limited press availability, she'll be treated fairly. But we're not going to turn the hearing over to her lawyers." Asked by Wallace whether Republicans wanted to bring in outside lawyers simply to avoid the optics of having the all-male Republican contingent on the Judiciary Committee asking Ford questions, Graham said there were other concerns at play. "We've got 11 politicians who haven't done a trial in about 20 years," Graham said. "I thought it would be really smart to have someone come in who knows what the hell they're doing, to ask the questions, to be respectful." WATCH: DEM SENATOR TELLS MEN ACROSS THE US TO 'SHUT UP AND STEP UP,' SAYS 'SOMETHING SMELLS' Graham also rejected an impassioned plea last week by Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono, who told men to "shut up and step up" in the wake of the accusations against Kavanaugh. "I am not going to shut up, with all due respect," Graham said. "When I voted for Sotomayor and Kagan, no one on the other side told me to shut up." He added: "What am I supposed to do? Go ahead and ruin this guy's life, based on an accusation -- I don't know when it happened, I don't know where it happened, and everybody named in regard to being there said it didn't happen. I'm just being honest. Unless there's something more, no, I'm not going to ruin Judge Kavanuagh's life over this." Ford, in an interview with The Washington Post, said Kavanaugh forcibly threw her onto a bed and tried to remove her clothes more than 35 years ago at a high school house party. Ford, who said Kavanaugh tried covering her mouth before she escaped, has acknowledged she is unable to recall exactly when the alleged attack occured, who owned the house involved, and why there was a gathering there. She has also said her therapist inaccurately recorded that four boys were involved in the assault, rather than two. Graham also reacted to reports over the weekend that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein suggested wearing a wire to take down President Trump -- a remark that a source in the room has told Fox News was "sarcastic." WATCH: HANNITY SAYS THE DEEP STATE IS 'CRUMBLING,' WARNS TRUMP THAT FIRING ROSENSTEIN IS A SETUP "We need a special counsel to look at this, not Mr. [Michael] Horowitz, the IG [Inspector General of the Justice Department]," Graham said, after arguing that Rosenstein shouldn't be fired unless the president thinks he's lying. "Rosenstein is doing this country a great disservice by not appointing a special counsel to look at all this. "There’s a bureaucratic coup against President Trump being undiscovered here," Graham said. "Before the election, the people in question tried to taint the election to tip it in Clintons' favor -- and after the election they are trying to undermine the president. I don’t know what Rosenstein did, but I know what [Andy] McCabe, [Bruce] Ohr, [Lisa] Page and [Peter]Strzok did. They tried to destroy this president." ||||| 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 ||||| 'I'm not going to ruin Judge Kavanaugh's life over this': Sen. Graham doubts Ford's story CLOSE Allegations of sexual assault by Brett Kavanaugh leveled by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford threaten to end his nomination for the Supreme Court. USA TODAY South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the 11 Republicans who sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, made it clear Sunday that while he is willing to hear out Christine Blasey Ford about her sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, he has not heard enough evidence to "ruin Judge Kavanaugh's life over this." "What am I supposed to do? Go ahead and ruin this guy's life based on an accusation?" Graham asked in an interview with "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace. "I don't know when it happened, I don't know where it happened. And everybody named in regard to being there said it didn't happen. I'm just being honest. Unless there's something more, no I'm not going to ruin Judge Kavanaugh's life over this." "But she should come forward, she should have her say. She will be respectfully treated," he added. Ford alleges that Kavanaugh held her down, covered her mouth his hand and tried to remove her clothes after he and a friend locked her in a bedroom at a party in 1982, when they were all in high school. Mark Judge, the friend who was allegedly in the room with Kavanaugh and Ford, denied having any recollection of the party. And in an email obtained by USA TODAY, a lawyer for a woman Ford also said was at the house said she didn't know Kavanaugh and that she did not remember the party. More: Senate panel quietly investigating Kavanaugh assault claims amid testimony negotiations Graham repeatedly expressed doubt about the allegation during the interview Sunday based on the amount of time that has passed since the alleged assault and the lack of evidence. "This accusation has to be looked at in terms of our legal system, Graham said. "Everything I know about Judge Kavanaugh goes against this allegation," he continued. "I want to listen to Dr. Ford. I feel sorry for her. I think she's being used here." Wallace showed clips of Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Mazie Hirono criticizing Republicans treatment of Ford, but Graham wondered if "these two senators have an agenda that's related to their hatred of President Trump." "I'm trying to be fair here and get this thing done in a reasonable way," he said. Graham said that Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley "has bent over backward to make this happen" and that the Iowa Republican had met six of 10 conditions set by Ford's lawyer for her to testify before the committee on Thursday morning. He said Ford's team is still contesting the committee's insistence that only Ford and Kavanaugh testify, and that outside counsel be brought in to question them. "They contest those two things," Graham said. "If they continue to contest those two things, there won't be a hearing." "And that's it," he said, adding that if they couldn't agree to those terms that If they "means they really don't want to testify." "Bring it forward, I will listen," Graham said. "But I'm not going to play a game here and tell you this will wipe out his entire life." Wallace asked Graham if the Judiciary Committee Republicans, who are all male, wanted to bring in outside counsel to do the questioning because they feared "the optics" of them grilling Ford. Graham explained that they wanted to bring in a lawyer because "we've got 11 politicians who haven't done a trial in about 20 years. I thought it'd be really smart to have somebody come in who knows what the hell they're doing, to ask the questions, to be respectful." Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2MX8Afo ||||| U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Sunday that people shouldn't "second-guess" Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. "Accusers go through a lot of trauma. Some handle it one way and some handle it another way. Regardless, It’s not something we want to do to blame the accuser or try and second-guess the accuser. We don’t know the situation she was going through 35 years ago. We don’t know the circumstances," Haley said on CNN's "State of the Union." .@nikkihaley to @jaketapper on @realDonaldTrump's reaction to Kavanaugh's accuser: "you never want to blame the accuser or try to second guess the accuser" — State of the Union (@CNNSotu) September 23, 2018 ADVERTISEMENT Haley was responding to a question from host Jake Tapper, who asked if it was fair to suggest that because an accuser didn't inform police of an assault, then it likely didn't happen — a line of questions based on doubts raised by President Trump about Ford. Trump tweeted Friday that if the sexual misconduct allegation against Ford was "as bad as she says," then "charges would have been immediately filed." I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018 Ford has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her during a high school party in the early 1980s. Ford told The Washington Post that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, tried to remove her clothes and covered her mouth when she protested. Ford is expected to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, following negotiations with committee leaders over terms. Haley said Sunday that Ford "deserves the right to be heard." "At the same time, I think the accused deserves to be heard," Haley said of Kavanaugh. "I think that’s going to happen, which is great. The Senate has a huge responsibility here. They have to make sure it’s fair. They have to make sure it’s responsible. And they have to take the politics out.”

– Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham describes the woman accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault as a victim of the Democrats: "I want to listen to Dr. [Christine] Ford. I feel sorry for her," he says, per Fox News. "I think she's being used here." He then takes an apparent shot at Sen. Dianne Feinstein, saying, "If [Ford] truly wanted to be anonymous, the person who brought this allegation to the public owes her an apology." Graham also reveals his thinking on the Kavanaugh vote, per USA Today: "What am I supposed to do? Go ahead and ruin this guy's life based on an accusation? ... I'm just being honest. Unless there's something more, no I'm not going to ruin Judge Kavanaugh's life over this." For more around the Sunday dial: Second-guessing: "Accusers go through a lot of trauma," says US Ambassador the United Nations Nikki Haley on State of the Union, per the Hill. "Some handle it one way and some handle it another way. Regardless, it's not something we want to do to blame the accuser or try and second-guess the accuser." Host Jake Tapper had asked if it's fair to discredit an accuser for not going to the police, as President Trump has done.

The company did not give a reason for his abrupt departure in the regulatory filing and a Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment. But the troubled Internet company has had disappointing advertising results and has been unable to kick-start revenue growth on his watch. And the former Google executive had reportedly been on the outs with Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer. De Castro was Mayer's first major hire at Yahoo. She recruited him away from Google in October 2012 with a pay package estimated as high as $61.6 million including as much as $20 million in restricted stock units. He had worked at Google since 2006 and was the company's vice president of partner business solutions worldwide. He will receive severance benefits and equity awards according to his contract, Yahoo said. Mayer has been leading the charge to reinvent Yahoo and compete against Google and Facebook for advertising dollars and users' eyeballs. But, even as the digital advertising market boomed, Yahoo had trouble catching up to rivals, and de Castro was under pressure to show results. Yahoo's third-quarter earnings beat estimates, but revenue remained essentially flat, with a decline in display advertising revenue. ALSO: NSA-proof smartphone? Apple settles FTC complaint over in-app sales for $32.5 million Some say they'll return Nest thermostat because of Google acquisition ||||| As has long been rumored, Yahoo COO Henrique De Castro is departing Yahoo. I had reported last week that he was in big trouble — he was not in attendance at any major events at CES that Yahoo had at the high-profile event, as he had been last year — and was working on a story about his expected departure. Yahoo had declined to return a number of emails this week about his status. Now we know why. According to a regulatory filing, De Castro is toast as of tomorrow. Yahoo PR will likely try to put a pretty face on this departure. But he was fired, except he will get a very big severance per the rich contract he was awarded when he was hired in late 2012 from Google. [Update: In an internal memo, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer confirmed the firing.] Consider: His total compensation in 2012 was close to $40 million. This is clearly a big correction for CEO Marissa Mayer, since De Castro was her first major hire to be her No. 2. Interestingly, despite giving off the impression they did, the pair actually did not work closely at Google, according to dozens of sources there. Therefore, Mayer did not seem to grok the many signals that De Castro had a troubled time there near the end of his tenure. Considered whip-smart and clever, the former business consultant also made a number of powerful enemies at Google, including top ad product execs Susan Wojcicki and Neal Mohan, among many others. In preparation for a longer article I was working on about him, I had done dozens of interviews about De Castro’s time there and few — even those who liked him (and he can be very charming personally) — were positive. The move to remove him is also not unexpected within Yahoo and increasingly without. Insiders at the company had taken to calling him “Dead Man Walking” to me many times in recent weeks and De Castro himself had begun to reach out to many Internet execs for advice. Ad industry people had also told me that De Castro had disappeared from the scene, too, despite a lot of prominent appearances only months ago. I saw him at a Silicon Valley event in December and he seemed less flashy and ebullient than he had been in the past. (He also talked to me, which is a Yahoo no-no under Mayer, so I figured something had to be up.) Why jettison him now? Because Yahoo is set to announce its quarterly results later this month and most expect them to continue to lag the Internet industry badly once again. A person close to the Yahoo board had told me a week ago that De Castro’s fate would be settled before that report came out. In addition, De Castro — who was a polarizing figure at Google, where Mayer had hired him from — quickly became the same polarizing figure at Yahoo. Perhaps most problematic: In recent months, according to numerous sources, he and Mayer had developed a tense relationship that many in meetings with the pair found it hard not to notice. “They just did not get along and did not hide it at all,” said one person in several meetings. “It was really awkward.” He had also been fighting for power with the new sales head Ned Brody, M&A head Jackie Reses and marketing head Kathy Savitt. In other words, everyone inside the Mayer inner circle. In fact, Brody, a former AOL exec, had rolled his eyes to many who asked about De Castro’s absence at CES and his status. Savitt had been seeking control of Yahoo’s media unit, which had been under him. And Reses had long since grabbed Yahoo’s business development unit, another former De Castro charge. In other words, “Boardwalk Empire,” but without the cool clothes and snappy banter. Besides these interpersonal issues, perhaps most critical was that De Castro was unable to move the advertising business, which has continued to lag as Mayer’s two-year anniversary nears. As I noted last week about De Castro’s looming troubles: That pressure to perform in the advertising space has caused a lot of tension inside Yahoo, said a multitude of sources, especially between Mayer and COO Henrique De Castro. Sources present at a number of meetings both attended said the relationship had become less cordial than previously and that Mayer has begun to significantly insert herself in content and media efforts. Mayer brought De Castro over from Google, where she was also an exec, last year, with the hope that he would be able to turbocharge the struggling ad business at Yahoo. Despite a giant paycheck she gave him and a lot of internal rejiggering, that has not happened as yet, and it has caused the persistent rumors of his departure to surface periodically inside and outside the company. The noise has gotten louder recently, perhaps in anticipation of the fourth-quarter results, though he might be redeemed once Stream Ads kick in. In addition, De Castro still has not replaced former Yahoo media head Mickie Rosen — a key job — since last year, which has also prompted speculation about his ongoing role. Many sources said De Castro’s relations with Ned Brody and Kathy Savitt have also become tense, with Savitt angling to take over media and Brody more prominent as the face of Yahoo’s ad push. Brody came to Yahoo after a tussle with AOL, his former employer, to run ad sales. Where all this jockeying — and it is just that, no matter what Yahoo PR puts out — leaves De Castro is anyone’s guess at this point. Where it leaves him is with a big pile of Yahoo’s money for very little results. Where it leaves Yahoo is without a No. 2, although I don’t expect Mayer to replace him. Here is Yahoo’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission about De Castro: ||||| Here it is, the internal memo to Yahoo staff about the sudden — though it was not sudden, by any means — leave-taking today of its COO, Henrique De Castro, courtesy of one of my 10,563 sources left at Yahoo! In it, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer makes clear she dumped the former Google exec, whom she had once effusively praised. Earlier today, I noted that De Castro was shown the door, and Mayer said the same in her email. Referring to the beginning of the year, she wrote to staffers: “During my own reflection, I made the difficult decision that our COO, Henrique de Castro, should leave the company. I appreciate Henrique’s contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavors.” In other words: I am going to try to appear honest and forthright here, hoping it will make people forget that I did the hiring, I paid him too much and I did not act sooner when it was clear that it was not working out. (De Castro is even making out like a bandit upon being bounced, with a giant payday.) What refreshing candor! (Modified kudos, I guess, but was there a choice?) Now, pretty much everyone is reporting to Mayer, according to her info about the new management shifts. And, after much knife-in-back machinating for months against him, CMO Kathy Savitt finally wrests the media unit from De Castro’s cold, um, you know, hands. Oh, just read the memo: ||||| The seed for this crawl was a list of every host in the Wayback Machine This crawl was run at a level 1 (URLs including their embeds, plus the URLs of all outbound links including their embeds) The WARC files associated with this crawl are not currently available to the general public.

– Marissa Mayer has fired COO Henrique de Castro, 15 months after she snatched him away from Google on an outsized four-year package worth an estimated $62 million. That was Mayer's first big hire as CEO, but he hasn't been able to boost Yahoo's flagging ad revenue as much as she'd hoped, the LA Times reports. De Castro will get a parting bonus of $20 million in restricted stock, Business Insider observes, to go with the $39.2 million in cash and stock earned in 2012. In a memo to staff, Mayer confirmed that she'd shown de Castro the door, Kara Swisher at re/code reports. It won't come as a shock, Swisher adds; her sources in the company have been calling him "dead man walking" in recent weeks, and he had a tense relationship with Mayer and her entire inner circle. "They just did not get along and did not hide it at all," one source said. "It was really awkward." Swisher doesn't expect Mayer to hire a replacement.

Play Facebook Twitter Embed Unsealed testimony details extent of FIFA bribery 1:30 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog The bribery and corruption scandal that toppled FIFA President Sepp Blatter involved the global soccer organization's decisions on who should host at least two World Cups, in addition to millions of dollars' worth of television and marketing contracts, according to federal court documents unsealed Wednesday. Federal prosecutors last week announced the indictments of nine of the most powerful executives in world soccer, along with four sports marketing executives and an accused intermediary. At the time, they outlined an alleged two-decade conspiracy in which the sports marketing executives paid the FIFA executives more than $150 million in kickbacks and bribes in exchange for rights to televise soccer tournaments. One of those indicted was Chuck Blazer, an American who was general secretary of the confederation of soccer-playing nations in North and Central America and the Caribbean — CONCACAF, which includes the U.S. — and a powerful member of FIFA's ruling executive committee. Play Facebook Twitter Embed How FIFA Works 1:32 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog Prosecutors said Blazer pleaded guilty and provided a trove of major evidence in a 2013 plea deal. Until Wednesday, however, details of what Warner actually did and saw remained sealed. According to a transcript of the 2013 hearing at which Blazer pleaded guilty to 10 counts — including racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and income tax evasion — Blazer told the court that he personally accepted a bribe for his support in the bidding to host the World Cup in 2010, which went to South Africa, and "facilitated" a bribe to a FIFA colleague in connection with the 1998 World Cup, which was won by France. Other members of the executive committee also accepted bribes in connection with those World Cups, Blazer told the court. RELATED: What, and Who, Is Next for FIFA? Much of what Blazer admitted was revealed last week when the 2013 charges against him were disclosed. But the transcript adds new and important details that give shape to the scope of the scandal. Particularly significant are the maneuverings described around the 2010 World Cup — a scheme that, according to Blazer's plea, involved not only a "high-ranking official with FIFA" but also the South African government. The schemes started around 1992, as the executive committee began considering bids from Morocco and France to host the 1998 tournament, Blazer said. Blazer and an unnamed co-conspirator traveled to Morocco, where a representative of the Moroccan bid committee offered a bribe to the co-conspirator in exchange for his agreement to cast his secret ballot for Morocco to host the 1998 World Cup, he said. Morocco tried again in 2004, putting in a bid for the 2010 World Cup. Again, Blazer and the same co­-conspirator traveled to Morocco, where a representative of the Moroccan bid committee offered the co-conspirator $1 million for his vote, Blazer said. Meanwhile, he alleged, FIFA, the South African government and the country's bid committee were arranging for South Africa to pay $10 million to a soccer organization controlled by the co-conspirator, which Blazer said he understood to be a bribe in exchange for Blazer's and the co-conspirator's delivering all of the votes of CONCACAF's representatives to South Africa instead of Morocco. South Africa won that bid with strong support from the CONCACAF representatives. Eventually, Blazer raked in more than $750,000 from the scheme, he told the court. Blazer's co-conspirator isn't named, but ahead of the decision for the 2010 tournament, the South African Football Association sent a letter to FIFA asking it to withhold $10 million from the tournament's budget to finance a "Diaspora Legacy Program" under the control of Jack Warner, then president of the U.S. region's confederation, who was among those indicted last week. At a news conference Wednesday in Johannesburg, South African Sport Minister Fikile Mbalula denied that the $10 million payment was intended as a bribe, instead calling it an "above-the-board" donation to build a soccer center for expatriate Africans living in the Caribbean. Play Facebook Twitter Embed South Africa Denies Bribing FIFA to Host World Cup 0:55 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog But Mbalula acknowledged that the money went to Warner personally instead of to FIFA or to the regional confederation. He didn't say why beyond praising Warner as "a person of good standing." The revelations could tarnish the legacies of both World Cups, particularly the 2010 tournament, which is fondly remembered for its images of Nobel Peace Prize winners Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu smiling and celebrating with the World Cup trophy. Mandela and Tutu were widely credited with lending prestige that helped put South Africa's bid over the top, and neither has been implicated in any wrongdoing. ||||| MARABELLA, Trinidad (AP) — Former FIFA vice president Jack Warner made a televised address in Trinidad on Wednesday night, saying he will prove a link between soccer's governing body and his nation's elections in 2010. Former FIFA vice president Jack Warner hold a copy of a check while he speaks at a political rally in Marabella, Trinidad and Tobago, Wednesday, June 3, 2015. Warner made a televised address Wednesday... (Associated Press) Former FIFA vice president Jack Warner speaks at a political rally in Marabella, Trinidad and Tobago, Wednesday, June 3, 2015. Warner made a televised address Wednesday night, saying he will prove a link... (Associated Press) "I will no longer keep secrets for them who actively seek to destroy the country," Warner said. Warner also said in the address, which was a paid political advertisement, that "I reasonably actually fear for my life." Still, a half-hour after the speech aired, Warner appeared at his Independent Liberal Party's rally held under a canopy on a residential street. At least a couple hundred people were present when Warner spoke, many of them having not seen the televised remarks. Warner said he has documents and checks that link FIFA officials, including embattled President Sepp Blatter, to the 2010 election in Trinidad and Tobago. "I apologize for not disclosing my knowledge of these events before," Warner said. At his rally, a half-hour into his remarks, Warner — mopping sweat from his forehead several times — told supporters that he will not hold back in his newfound plan to expose scandal. He said he has compiled reams of documents and is delivering them to his attorneys, for them to disseminate as they see. "Not even death will stop the avalanche that is coming," Warner said as his supporters cheered in celebration. "The die is cast. There can be no turning back. Let the chips fall where they fall." Warner also said that when he heard Blatter was stepping down, he wrote him to urge his immediate departure from FIFA. "Blatter knows why he fell. And if anyone else knows, I do," Warner said. ||||| Play Facebook Twitter Embed Jack Warner: 'I Reasonably Actually Fear For My Life' 0:56 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog One of the top figures implicated in the FIFA corruption scandal has threatened to release documents allegedly chronicling "financial transactions" involving Sepp Blatter, the organization’s embattled president who is stepping down. Former FIFA vice president Jack Warner claimed the documents — which he likened to an "avalanche" — also linked soccer’s governing body to the general election of 2010 in his native Trinidad and Tobago. Warner said he has handed the "comprehensive and detailed series of documents, including checks and corroborated statements," to a third party, claiming: "I reasonably, actually fear for my life." He added: "Retracting them is not a possibility; there can be no turning back." Speaking in an eight-minute paid political advertisement entitled "The Gloves are Off," Warner likened himself to a "lone soldier" and quoted Mahatma Gandhi. He is facing charges including to racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy. The Department of Justice also revealed last week that Warner’s sons, Daryll and Daryan, pleaded guilty in 2013 to charges including wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. Blatter was not named in the DOJ’s 160-page indictment, but he announced Tuesday he will step down in the wake of the allegations. Warner was bailed last week following his arrest and the U.S. is seeking to extradite him to face charges in America. On Wednesday, Interpol issued so-called "red notices" for Warner and five other people accused by the DOJ of being involved in the vast corruption network. Play Facebook Twitter Embed FIFA Chief Sepp Blatter Announces Resignation 1:46 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog Warner, who is Blatter’s former deputy, said the documents included his "knowledge of financial transactions at FIFA, including, but not limited to, its president, Mr. Sepp Blatter." He said they also detailed "the link between FIFA, its funding, and me ... and the people’s partnership government [ruling coalition] in the general election of 2010." Warner added: "I will no longer keep secrets for them who actively seek to destroy the country." Warner was re-elected during the 2010 election and served as a government minister in Trinidad and Tobago until he left in April 2013 to form the Independent Liberal Party. At a political rally held half an hour after the address, Warner added: "Not even death will stop the avalanche that is coming," according to The Associated Press. "Blatter knows why he fell. And if anyone else knows, I do," he said. His statement comes hours after details were revealed of a deal between American Chuck Blazer and U.S. officials. Blazer, who formerly served as a high-ranking FIFA official, admitted taking bribes in connection with the 1998 and 2010 World Cups.

– FIFA's former vice president, now on Interpol's most wanted list, says he has documents that contain an "avalanche" of secrets about soccer's governing body, including a link to Trinidad and Tobago's general election in 2010. In an eight-minute paid political advertisement that aired on TV last night, NBC News reports Jack Warner said the "comprehensive and detailed series of documents, including checks and corroborated statements," also reveal "financial transactions" involving FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who is stepping down. "I reasonably, actually fear for my life," Warner said in the video. He went on to make further remarks at a political rally, where he said he's giving the documents to his lawyers to distribute, per the AP. "Not even death will stop the avalanche that is coming." Warner, who was re-elected to the Trinidadian Parliament in 2010, said the documents detail "the link between FIFA, its funding, and me ... and the people's partnership government [ruling coalition] in the general election of 2010." He added, "Blatter knows why he fell. And if anyone else knows, I do." He also apologized for not revealing the information previously, but "I will no longer keep secrets for them who actively seek to destroy the country," he says. "Let the chips fall where they fall." Meanwhile, details of a 2013 plea deal reveal former American FIFA official Chuck Blazer accepted or "facilitated" bribes in connection with the 1998 and 2010 World Cups, NBC News reports.

Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. / Updated By Herb Weisbaum Ever wonder what’s going to come in that mail today? Will you get your sister’s wedding invitation? Is this the day your IRS refund check finally arrives? Informed Delivery, a free service from the U.S. Postal Service, lets you see what will be in your mailbox that day. Sign up and you’ll receive an email each morning with actual size black and white images of the front side of the letters and cards to be delivered. Informed Delivery, a new and free service from the Post Office, lets you see what will be in your mailbox that day. usps.com Knowing when that check really is “in the mail” could change how you plan your day. You might want to get home in time to deposit it. The service has been available in Northern Virginia since 2014. The pilot program was later expanded to parts of California, Connecticut, Maryland, New York, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Bob Dixon, the executive program director for Informed Delivery, told NBC News the feedback was “tremendously positive,” so it’s being rolled out nationally in mid-April. A USPS survey found that nine out of 10 people who signed up for the service checked their Informed Delivery notifications every day. What's in the Mail? Feedback from the pilot program showed that Informed Delivery was popular with people who had roommates. This way, everyone in the household knows what they should expect that day, no matter who goes to the mailbox. It’s also been a hit with people who travel and want to know what’s in their mail, even if they can’t physically retrieve those letters. Christopher Ebert is CEO of Ophelia Myth Media, which is based in New York and London, so he is always on the go. He’s used Informed Delivery for about two years and likes the way it helps him stay more aware and more in control. “My life is largely digital,” he wrote NBC News in an email. “Having the ability to see my mail deliveries right on my phone keeps me connected.” Integrating the physical and digital is a smart move, according to Miro Copic, a marketing professor at San Diego State University. “This makes postal mail more interesting to millennials, who are on their devices all day long,” Copic said. “And it just might change the equation of how millennials think about the post office longer term.” A Few Specifics Informed Delivery is for residential mail customers and you must sign up for it at InformedDelivery.USPS.com. It is not currently available for mail delivered to P.O. boxes. Only 10 images will be sent via the daily email notification. If you receive more than 10 pieces of first-class mail, you’ll get 10 images and a link to see the rest. These images are available for seven days. Notifications are sent Monday through Saturday on days that mail is processed. If for some reason a piece of mail is not handled via automation, an image cannot be sent. The Postal Service does not open any mail. This is simply a digital scan of the address side of the envelope. And those images will only be emailed to the person to whom the letter was sent. If all the mail in one household is delivered to one mailbox, those who share the residence and the mailbox will receive the same images for all the mail delivered to that household. If you get an image of a letter, but not the physical piece itself, Informed Delivery makes it easy to report that missing mail to the Postal Service. The image can help speed up the process of finding what’s missing. Why Give Snail Mail a Digital Twist? In a world of instant communication, the U.S. Postal Service is searching for ways to remain relevant and increase revenue. Mail volume has dropped dramatically during the last 10 years. USPS reports that it handled 61.2 billion pieces of first class mail in 2016, down from 98 billion in 2006. Informed Delivery gives it a way to reach the growing number of Americans who’ve shifted to digital communications. “Our emerging consumers, younger folks, are digital natives. That’s how their communications are coming to them,” Dixon said. “We also know that if we can get those folks to the mailbox, they’ll spend longer with each piece of mail than someone who has a long history of mail usage. So the benefit to us is that we continue the relevance of mail in a very digital world and we provide access to the consumers for those mail pieces.” This scanning technology has been in place since the 1990s. It’s part of the automation process that sorts the mail. This is a way for USPS to leverage something it’s already doing. This digital presence also gives the Postal Service a way to deliver digital advertising. For now, it will be a free bonus for companies that use the mail. Prof. Copic thinks the Postal Service has found a way to add value for both mail customers and potential advertisers by offering something that no other service provides. “It’s an opportunity for the Post Office to work with marketers to make their offers more appealing and interesting and to reduce the decline of mail being delivered,” he said. “It opens an opportunity that allows them to play with the big boys in direct marketing, rather than being on the sidelines.” USPS policy will strictly limit that advertising. It must be related to a piece of mail sent to you that day. For example: If you’re getting a frequent flier statement, the airline could have a link for a special offer sent to you along with the image of their envelope. But you’ll never see an ad for something that’s not already a physical piece of mail in your mailbox, USPS assures customers. “We don’t want to create spam,” Dixon told NBC News. “We don’t want to create a channel that’s got a lot of noise in it for consumers. Physical mail cuts through the digital clutter and we don’t want to add digital clutter to this channel.” Security Implications Mail theft is a serious problem. It’s one of the common ways identity thieves get personally identifying information to commit their crimes. Informed Delivery can help you spot a problem in real time. If an important piece of mail that was supposed to be delivered isn’t in the mailbox — a credit card bill, tax document or financial statement — you can assume it was stolen or delivered to the wrong address and start working to find out what happened. With identity theft, the quicker you discover a problem, the faster you can move to manage the damage. These email notifications can be a double-edged sword, cautioned Adam Levin, co-founder of the digital security firm CyberScout. “If your account is compromised, criminals will know when something of value that they can cash, charge or use for the purpose of exploiting your identity is coming to your mailbox and be there to grab it before you do,” Levin told NBC News. “That’s why it’s imperative that you use a long and strong password for a service like this. It also needs to be a unique password that you don’t share or use for any other websites.” Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website. ||||| 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. ||||| New USPS Service Gives You A Peek Into Your Mailbox Before You Get Home Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of U.S. Postal Service Courtesy of U.S. Postal Service In the spring of my senior year of high school, I took daily trips to the mailbox. It might have been the only time in my life when I knew for a fact that any day, letters with my name on them would appear in the mailbox from colleges that had read through my hopeful applications. It's this excitement that Bill McAllister, the Washington correspondent for a stamp publication called Linn's Stamp News, calls the "mail moment." It's the feeling you have when mail arrives, knowing that you could be receiving a handwritten letter, or, in my case, a college acceptance. But this moment is no longer a common experience for McAllister. "The amount of mail — single-piece first-class mail — has dropped so dramatically that there isn't much magic in the daily mail anymore for most people," he says. "And that's a rather sad thing." Now a new service by the U.S. Postal Service called Informed Delivery might be an attempt, he says, to get back the magic of that moment. On April 14, the Postal Service is set to launch a nationwide service that allows users, in a sense, to peek at their mail before it arrives in their mailbox. Users will have the option of getting an email with photos of the front of card- and letter-size mail pieces that are due to arrive that day, or a day or two later. The email is sent on days when mail is being processed and delivered. It shows up to 10 grayscale images in each email with a link at the bottom to see the rest. Users can also view the images for seven days on their dashboard, which they can find on informeddelivery.usps.com. Right now, the program is available to select addresses only, as shown on the map. Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of U.S. Postal Service Courtesy of U.S. Postal Service Bob Dixon, the executive program director of Informed Delivery, says the program was first piloted in Northern Virginia in 2014 and sprang from a program to help post office box customers know when they had something in their P.O. box. He says participants in specific scenarios — like roommates who misplaced each other's mail or people who traveled frequently — found the daily messages helpful. "I and many people manage their life through a cellphone or tablet or some other digital medium," Dixon says. "As we become busier and busier, it's important to have things in one place." Scanning mail is not a new thing. Since the 1990s, the Postal Service has been taking photos of the exterior of most mail pieces to sort and route the mail. In 2013, The New York Times reported that the USPS "occasionally provides the photos to law enforcement agencies that request them as part of criminal cases." McAllister, who wrote a piece on this new feature in Linn's Stamp News, says it's hard to find usefulness in a new aspect of a product that's not significant in one's daily life to begin with. "Most urgent mail or messages that you get this day tend to come by telephone or email," he says. "That has become the way most people communicate, and letters, sadly, aren't just as important as they used to be." McAllister previously wrote a stamp and coin column for The Washington Post for 19 years, where he says he covered the Postal Service as the Internet was growing. "There were people down there who just basically thought the Internet was nothing, that it was a fad and would go away, and it wouldn't impact mail," he says. "But it has. It has impacted mail dramatically." Dixon says he knows the Postal Services' consumers are very digitally engaged. "We also know that mail is still one of the highest response rate channels there is for marketing messages," he says. "It's important for us because we want to be able to continue to demonstrate the relevance of mail but provide that convenience of a digital response channel." And maybe it will. Dixon, as one of Informed Delivery's first users, says when he was traveling and was informed of a jury notice, he was able to ask his son to pull the letter out of his stack of mail that was piling up on the kitchen table in his absence. It's situations like these, he says, where people can use the service to plan ahead for the day. So the reality of the service is that it might not always be magical. It's not often that I see something in the mail that I'm genuinely excited to tear open. But Dixon is hoping that by marrying mail with the convenience of digitized notifications, mail will at least stay relevant. Cecilia Mazanec is an NPR digital news intern.

– Anyone who’s waited by the mailbox for an important letter or much-needed paycheck will want to be first in line for a new free service USPS is rolling out widely in mid-April. Residential customers who sign up for Informed Delivery will receive a daily email with high-quality photo scans of their incoming envelope fronts, reports NBC News. The emails display up to 10 images—if there are more than 10 on a given day, the rest can be viewed via a link that stays active for seven days. After receiving “tremendously positive” feedback in pilot test runs, executive program director Bob Dixon says the program has been particularly appealing to people living with roommates, since they’re not always first to retrieve their daily mail. Frequent travelers are another group utilizing the service, which Dixon personally attests to as one of Informed Delivery’s first users. He tells NPR that he was able to flag a jury duty summons while on the road and asked his son to set it aside so it didn’t get lost in a towering mail pile. With the rate of mail delivery declining (61.2 billion pieces of first-class mail were handled by USPS in 2016 compared to 98 billion in 2006), the service is one way the post office is innovating and trying to remain relevant. "Our emerging consumers, younger folks, are digital natives," Dixon says. "That's how their communications are coming to them." USPS has opened sign-up for Informed Delivery at: informeddelivery.USPS.com. (Finland's postal service tried to innovate in a different way.)

Officials in Liberia have found 17 patients infected with the ebola virus who fled a quarantine centre in Monrovia. The patients escaped after rock-throwing protesters broke into the West Point clinic and stole blood-stained mattresses and sheets while claiming the ebola outbreak was a government hoax to secure foreign aid. Some 29 patients were housed in an isolation unit at the centre and health officials feared the missing patients could spread the virus if they were not tracked down. Information Minister Lewis Brown said the missing patients had now been transferred to another clinic. Officials began a desperate search for the patients after they fled He said: "We are glad to confirm that all of the 17 individuals have been accounted for and have now been transferred to JFK ebola specialist treatment centre. "All those hooligans who looted the centre are now probable carriers of the disease. They took mattresses and bedding that were soaked with fluids from the patients." 1 / 9 Gallery: Mob Raids Ebola Isolation Unit In Liberia A mob overruns an Ebola isolation centre in the West Point slum of Monrovia, claiming there is no ebola in the city. Several hundred people took part in the raid. Families are encouraged to leave the isolation unit. A family inside the unit considers whether to join the mob. The mob breaks open the doors at the centre. Those in the crowd claimed the Liberian president was "broke" and that ebola was a hoax. Nearly 30 ebola sufferers are believed to have fled one quarantine centre in Monrovia after protests. Protesters take a peek inside the unit. The ebola epidemic has killed more than 1,000 people in four West African countries, with Liberia now having the most deaths. Wilmont Johnson, head of a youth association that helped search for the patients, said witnesses reported seeing some of them disappear into "other communities". West Point is home to some 75,000 people and is one of Monrovia's most densely populated townships. Comprised mostly of slums, its inhabitants suffer from a lack of clean water and poor sanitation. Police are waiting to be given protective equipment before they can re-open the clinic. Mr Brown added that three infected African doctors who had received the experimental ebola drug Zmapp were showing "remarkable signs of improvement", quoting an assessment by the doctor overseeing their treatment. Latest figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) reveal there have been 2,240 confirmed cases of ebola in West Africa, including 1,229 deaths in the latest outbreak. Some 84 people have died in the last three days alone. A total of 413 of these cases have been in Liberia, more than any other country and despite a state of emergency being declared. 1 / 8 Gallery: August: Ebola Victims In Isolation A sick man staggers through a makeshift ebola isolation ward in Liberia. The images released in August illustrate the scale of the difficulties in treating sufferers The sick are often left to die in the makeshift wards, sometimes former classrooms A woman tries to help her sick husband who trips and falls in one of the wards Liberia is struggling to contain the outbreak and the sick face dying in terrible isolation The wife of a sick man despairs as her husband lies on the floor after falling A child lies sick in an isolation ward in Liberia A medical worker with a young family in an isolation ward A sick woman lies in a classroom now used as an ebola isolation ward WHO officials warned that measures to restrict travel in heavily infected areas, including quarantines of whole villages and counties, are limiting access to food in many cases. It comes after an ebola alert in Spain has been removed after a young Nigerian man who was admitted to a hospital in Alicante with fever and vomiting tested negative for the disease. ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption This man carried a young girl out of the West Point health facility There are conflicting reports over the fate of 17 suspected Ebola patients who vanished after a quarantine centre in the Liberian capital was looted. An angry mob attacked the centre in Monrovia's densely populated West Point township on Saturday evening. A senior health official said all of the patients had been moved to another medical facility. But a reporter told the BBC that 17 had escaped while 10 others were taken away by their families. More than 400 people are known to have died from the virus in Liberia, out of a total of 1,145 deaths recorded in West Africa by the World Health Organization this year. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Police fired warning shots but failed to disperse several hundred people around the Ebola centre Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah said protesters had been unhappy that patients were being brought in from other parts of the capital. Other reports suggested the protesters had believed Ebola was a hoax and wanted to force the quarantine centre to close. The attack at the Monrovia centre is seen as a major setback in the struggle to halt the outbreak, says the BBC's Will Ross, reporting from Lagos. Health experts say that the key to ending the Ebola outbreak is to stop it spreading in Liberia, where ignorance about the virus is high and many people are reluctant to cooperate with medical staff. 'All gone' Mr Nyenswah said after the attack that 29 patients at the centre were being relocated and readmitted to an Ebola treatment centre located in the facility of the country's John F Kennedy Memorial Medical Center. However, Jina Moore, a journalist for Buzzfeed who is in Monrovia, told the BBC that 10 people had been freed by their relatives on Friday night and 17 had escaped during the looting the next day. Rebecca Wesseh, who witnessed the attack, told the AFP news agency: "They broke down the door and looted the place. The patients have all gone." Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The crowd were reportedly angry that an Ebola isolation centre had been set up in their neighbourhood Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Health workers wear protective clothing when handling the bodies of Ebola victims The attackers, mostly young men armed with clubs, shouted insults about President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and yelled "there's no Ebola", she said, adding that nurses had also fled the centre. The head of the Health Workers Association of Liberia, George Williams, said the unit had housed 29 patients who "had all tested positive for Ebola" and were receiving preliminary treatment. Confirming that 17 had escaped, he said that only three had been taken by their relatives, the other nine having died four days earlier. However, Mr Nyenswah said it was not confirmed that the patients had Ebola. Fallah Boima's son was admitted to the ward four days ago, and seemed to be doing well, but when the distraught father arrived for his daily visit on Sunday his son was nowhere to be seen, AFP adds. "I don't know where he is and I am very confused," he said. "He has not called me since he left the camp. Now that the nurses have all left, how will I know where my son is?" 'Stupidest thing' Ebola is spread by contact with an infected person's bodily fluids, such as sweat and blood, and no cure or vaccine is currently available. Blood-stained mattresses, bedding and medical equipment were taken from the centre, a senior police officer told BBC News, on condition of anonymity. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The current outbreak is the deadliest since Ebola was discovered in 1976 "This is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen in my life," he said. "All between the houses you could see people fleeing with items looted from the patients." The looting spree, he added, could spread the virus to the whole of the West Point area. Described as a slum, there are an estimated 50,000 people in the West Point neighbourhood. The Ebola epidemic began in Guinea in February and has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. One Nigerian doctor has survived the disease and was sent home on Saturday night, said Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu in a statement. Mr Chukwu said five other people infected with Ebola had almost fully recovered. On Friday, the death toll rose to 1,145 after the WHO said 76 new deaths had been reported in the two days to 13 August. There have been 2,127 cases reported in total. Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Image copyright Science Photo Library

– The 17 Ebola patients who fled a health center during a riot Saturday in Liberia have been found—however, health officials there fear the damage has already been done. The patients apparently turned themselves in after being traced, and are now at a hospital elsewhere in Monrovia, the country's information minister tells the BBC. "All those hooligans who looted the center are now probable carriers of the disease. They took mattresses and bedding that were soaked with fluids from the patients," he says, as per Sky News. Witnesses saw the patients "disappear" into the community after the riot, says one source; and health experts fear the incident could stymie efforts to contain the outbreak. Monrovia's West Point township alone is densely populated and lacks clean water or proper sanitation, Sky adds. It's not clear what sparked the riot, though there are troubling reports that protesters believed Ebola is a hoax perpetrated by the government to get foreign aid, reports Sky. They wanted to close the health center, and so far it's still shuttered; police are waiting for protective equipment before they will open its doors. The UN said today that Ebola has now killed 1,229 people this year. Meanwhile, a small bit of good news: the experimental drug Zmapp has helped three Liberian doctors infected with Ebola, BBC adds.

Buy Photo Jared Fogle, the Subway pitchman, steps from a police evidence truck parked in the drive of his Zionsville home on Tuesday. (Photo: Charlie Nye / The Star)Buy Photo Jared Fogle's weight-loss story made him a celebrity, but his career may be forever damaged after police searched the Subway spokesman's home two months after an associate's arrest on child pornography charges. The FBI, Indiana State Police and U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday grabbed documents, electronics and other items from Fogle's Zionsville home. From early morning through early evening officials streamed back and forth between the house and a large evidence truck parked in the driveway. Authorities would not comment on the nature of the investigation. Fogle is assisting investigators, his attorney said. "Jared has been cooperating, and continues to cooperate, with law enforcement in their investigation of unspecified charges and looks forward to its conclusion," attorney Ron Elberger said in an email. "He has not been detained, arrested or charged with any crime or offense." Subway in a statement Tuesday said the fast-food giant and its everyman pitchman were "suspending their relationship" because of the probe. Earlier in the day the company said it was "shocked" over the news. By the end of the day it had pulled a page on Fogle from its website. Fogle's rise as a sandwich spokesman turned the Hoosier into a celebrity. He was a 425-pound freshman at Indiana University when he embarked on an unusual diet of turkey and veggie subs in 1998. After losing 235 pounds he began to appear in television commercials for Subway. He has since starred in more than 300 Subway commercials, appeared in numerous television shows and movies, wrote an autobiographical book and pulls in $5,000 to $10,000 for personal appearances. His net worth now may exceed $15 million, estimates celebritynetworth.com. Officials from the FBI and the Indiana State Police referred questions about the search of Fogle's home to the U.S. attorney's office. A spokesman there said Department of Justice policy prohibits confirming or denying the existence of an investigation. The search follows the May arrest of a man hired in 2008 to run Fogle's nonprofit, The Jared Foundation, which through trips to schools and other events encourages children to develop habits of healthy eating and exercise. Russell Taylor, 43, of Indianapolis, was charged with seven counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. Detectives said Taylor had produced and possessed child pornography involving children — both boys and girls — as young as 9 years old, court documents said. Two thumb drives found in Taylor's home office appeared to have a link to Fogle or his foundation, according to court records. One drive, police said, contained "commercially made child pornography from Eastern Europe similar to that seized on other investigations" and "revealed a document file with Taylor's employer listed in the file name." In the documents, the investigating detective described another drive in which "videos of child pornography and child erotica were recovered as were documents related to his employment as director of a foundation." Atty Ron Elberger (r) drives #Subway spokesman Jared Fogle from his home after morning-long criminal investigation. pic.twitter.com/1tfQ7Q0Esj — Charlie Nye (@CharlieNyePhoto) July 7, 2015 Fogle, who founded The Jared Foundation in 2004, fired Taylor soon after his arrest. Fogle issued a statement saying that he was "shocked" and that his foundation was "severing all ties" with Taylor. Taylor while in custody at the Marion County Jail on May 6 attempted suicide. He survived and was put on life support. Tim Horty, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said Tuesday that Taylor's health has improved and that he was in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. A tip from a woman who reached out to Indiana State Police prompted the investigation into Taylor, court records said. The woman said Taylor offered to send her images and videos of young girls by text message, and she also raised concerns about bestiality and other sexual matters. Officers searching Taylor's home in the 1300 block of Salem Creek Boulevard on April 29 found several digital media cards and thumb drives that included "multiple video files of nude or partially nude minor children," court documents said. More than 400 videos of child pornography were found. Many of the images appeared to have been made in bedrooms and bathrooms at Taylor's former and current homes, police said. "Many of these videos showed the exposed genitals or pubic area of the children," both boys and girls, court records said. The "minors did not appear to be aware that they were being filmed." The court documents also said Taylor had an interest in bestiality and shared images with an unnamed person involving a "dog licking the nude genital area of an adult female." Taylor has not been charged with any crimes related to bestiality. The attorney on record for Taylor did not respond to a request for comment after his initial arrest. On June 3, federal authorities asked for additional time in which to present the case against Taylor to a federal grand jury for indictment. According to court documents, that request was granted two days later. The court ordered that the government's time to review the evidence in the case could be extended until Aug. 3. Authorities began searching Fogle's home in the 4500 block of Woods Edge Drive before sunrise Tuesday morning. By 7:30 a.m. officers were seen removing electronics, documents and other items and loading them into the evidence truck. FBI spokeswoman Wendy Osborne did confirm that the agency was conducting a criminal investigation in Zionsville but declined to elaborate further. Subway said in a statement that it is "shocked" by the news and believes the search of Fogle's home was related to Taylor's arrest. Fogle stepped out of the evidence truck before leaving in a black Lexus with his attorney, who returned to the home later in the day without Fogle. The home was surrounded by police, media and curious neighbors. About two dozen vehicles lined the nearby street, including several squad cars and at least two media satellite trucks. An officer from the Zionsville Police Department walked back and forth on the street. Curious neighbors and passersby also walked by, pausing to gawk at the spectacle. Neighbors said the Fogle family was cordial but private. Other residents declined to discuss their neighbors. "He's a private guy," Jacob Schrader, 19, said. Schrader said he saw Fogle walking the neighborhood or getting his mail. Other neighbors said Fogle would appear outside from time to time and give a friendly wave. On Tuesday, the blinds were drawn on the home. CLOSE Reporter Justin Mack describes today's events at the home of the Subway spokesman. Clark Wade / The Star USA Today contributed to this article. Call Star reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @VicRyc. Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/1MbtzVO ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video Investigators raided the Indiana home of longtime Subway pitchman Jared Fogle on Tuesday, seizing electronics in a search that the sandwich chain says might be linked to the earlier arrest of someone who once worked for him. Agents took computers from Fogle's home in Zionsville, just north of Indianapolis, after arriving at about 6 a.m., Fogle attorney Ron Elberger said, without disclosing what they were looking for. Elberger said Fogle, the man who soared to fame 15 years ago after saying he shed more than 200 pounds in part through a Subway diet, has not been arrested or charged with any crime. The sandwich chain said Tuesday that it was parting ways with Fogle. "Subway and Jared Fogle have mutually agreed to suspend their relationship due to the current investigation," a Subway spokesman said in a statement. "Jared continues to cooperate with authorities, and he expects no actions to be forthcoming. Both Jared and Subway agree that this was the appropriate step to take." Tuesday's raid comes more than two months after the executive director of the Jared Foundation -- Fogle's organization that aspires to combat childhood obesity -- was arrested in Indianapolis on federal child pornography charges. Authorities haven't said anything linking the search at Fogle's home to that case or any other investigation. Attorney: He has not been charged with any crime "Jared has been cooperating with law enforcement in its investigation of certain unspecified activities and looks forward to its conclusion," Elberger said. FBI Special Agent Wendy Osborne, responding to questions, said that the agency is "conducting investigative activity in the area," but that she couldn't discuss the nature of the probe. U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Tim Horty said he couldn't confirm or deny an investigation. But Subway said that it believed the search was "related to a prior investigation" of someone who used to work for Fogle's foundation. "We are shocked about the news and believe it (Tuesday's search) is related to a prior investigation of a former Jared Foundation employee," a Subway spokesman said. "We are very concerned and will be monitoring the situation closely. We don't have any more details at this point." Subway didn't name the former Jared Foundation worker or elaborate on that case. Foundation's former executive director charged Authorities have previously said that the foundation's former executive director, Russell C. Taylor, 43, of Indianapolis, was charged in early May with seven counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. During a late April search at Taylor's home, authorities found "a cache of sexually explicit photos and videos Taylor allegedly produced by secretly filming minor children" there, federal prosecutors said in a May news release. Adam Brower, an attorney for Taylor, declined to comment on the allegations Tuesday. After Taylor's arrest, Fogle issued a statement saying that he was shocked at the allegations and that his foundation was severing its ties with Taylor, WTHR reported. On Tuesday, a nonuniformed man escorted Fogle from his home into a white truck parked in his driveway, video from CNN affiliate WTHR showed. The video shows gloved investigators carrying electronics from the home. Later, WTHR reported, Fogle left the property in a car with his attorney. Authorities have spoken to Fogle previously about the case involving his foundation's former executive director, Elberger said. Subway commercials brought fame Fogle became famous in 2000 when the sandwich chain released a commercial centered on his claims that he dropped about 245 pounds -- from a peak weight of 425 -- in one year as an Indiana University student, thanks in part to exercise and a simpler diet involving Subway subs. He served as a Subway pitchman in the ensuing years. In 2013, he told CNN's "Piers Morgan Live" that he traveled almost 200 days a year for his job with Subway, and that he still was focused on keeping weight off. "I don't eat (Subway) every single day anymore. (It's) in moderation. I tell you, I kept the weight off for 15 years. I still probably average eating it three or four days a week," he said. ||||| Jared who? Subway is shelving its relationship with longtime spokesman Jared Fogle, the restaurant chain announced Tuesday afternoon, hours after reports surfaced that federal authorities had raided Fogle’s suburban Indianapolis home. "Subway and Jared Fogle have mutually agreed to suspend their relationship due to the current investigation," the company said in a statement. "Jared continues to cooperate with authorities and he expects no actions to be forthcoming." No charges have been filed against Fogle, and federal authorities would not confirm the investigation, but a former executive with Fogle's Jared Foundation was charged in May with making and possessing child pornography. Earlier Tuesday, Subway announced that it was "shocked by the news" about Fogle, and it set about removing the spokesman’s presence from its website, starting with pages detailing Fogle's story and history with the company. It was at least another hour before Subway scrubbed a game called "Jared's Pants Dance" from its kids site. Subway is probably "hedging its bets" and following good crisis management, said Ira Kalb, assistant professor of clinical marketing at the USC Marshall School of Business. The chain will have to drop Fogle if he's charged, but in the meantime it should stay quiet and avoid promoting any rumors, Kalb said. "If something happens to his reputation, that is going to spill over to the brand," Kalb said. "That is why many brands use mascots…. People sometimes get into trouble, and if they do, they take the brand with them." Kalb cited several examples of brands dropping spokespeople who are experiencing bad press: Temple University severed ties with Bill Cosby last year amid allegations of sexual assault; Aflac dumped Gilbert Gottfried as the voice of its duck after the comedian joked about victims of Japan’s massive 2011 earthquake; and the Florida Citrus Commission dropped beauty queen Anita Bryant in the 1970s after she made anti-gay comments that sparked national backlash. Michael Conroy / Associated Press Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle walks to a waiting car as he leaves his home Tuesday in Zionsville, Ind. FBI agents and Indiana State Police have removed electronics from the property. Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle walks to a waiting car as he leaves his home Tuesday in Zionsville, Ind. FBI agents and Indiana State Police have removed electronics from the property. (Michael Conroy / Associated Press) (Michael Conroy / Associated Press) Some brands dropped athletes such as Kobe Bryant amid a rape case and Tiger Woods after his sex scandal, though Kalb said that athletic brands tend to hang on to athletes unless they cheated in the sport -- such as the case with Lance Armstrong. "The problem is that the people who are on these huge pedestals – when they have a fall, they come crashing down," Kalb said. Fogle, 37, has appeared in the sandwich chain's ads for more than 15 years, touting the "Subway diet," which he claimed helped him lose 245 pounds. Known to many as "the Subway guy," Fogle helped the restaurant become a central part of a burgeoning healthy eating movement, at one point joining First Lady Michelle Obama at an event as part of her campaign to combat childhood obesity. He rose to fame after Men's Health magazine reported on his weight loss, which began when he was an obese junior at Indiana University. He became a relatable model for those seeking healthier lifestyles — he exercises, but doesn't love it, and still splurges "plenty of times," he told The Times in 2012. Fogle has been crucial to Subway's marketing. Sales fell 10% after ads featuring him briefly stopped airing in 2005, according to AdAge. Subway also stuck with Fogle after he gained 40 pounds in 2010, encouraging him to run and finish the New York City Marathon that year, AdAge said. Subway also stayed with Michael Phelps after a photograph emerged of the swimmer hitting a bong at a party, which resulted in a three-month competition ban and cost Phelps a reported $500,000 deal with Kellogg’s. The "before and after" images of Fogle at his highest weight and after his Subway diet are a "very positive association" for the brand, Kalb said. According to local station WTHR-TV, Fogle's Zionsville, Ind., home was raided by federal and state agents about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday. The station reported that he was detained outside his home but was not under arrest. His wife and children left the home shortly after the raid began, the station reported, and Fogle left with an attorney Tuesday afternoon. Tim Horty, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of Indiana, would not say whether his office was investigating. The FBI and Indiana State Police confirmed they were assisting with an investigation in Zionsville, but declined to confirm that he was involved and referred questions to Horty's office. An attorney for Fogle did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The reported raid at Fogle's house comes two months after the former executive director of the Jared Foundation, which Fogle founded, was arrested on child pornography charges. Federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint on May 4 against Russell Taylor, 43, charging him with seven counts of production and one count of possession of child pornography. A joint task force of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, the Indiana State Police and the FBI raided Taylor's home April 29 after getting a tip that he was in possession of illegal pornographic images. Investigators said they found more than 400 videos of child pornography in Taylor's home office. Investigators said Taylor "sexually exploited four children" to produce pornography in the bathrooms and bedrooms of his home between 2012 and 2015, according to the criminal complaint. The complaint indicates the children, both male and female, did not know they were being filmed. Shortly after Taylor's arrest, Fogle released a statement saying he was "shocked" about the allegations and was severing all ties with Taylor, the Associated Press reported. The investigation into Taylor started in September after a woman he was texting sexual messages to reported him to police, according to the complaint. The woman told police he offered to show her child pornography. Times staff writer Christine Mai-Duc contributed to this report. ALSO: ESPN latest to dump Trump, pulls golf tournament from his course

– Jared Fogle hasn't been charged with anything, but after an FBI raid on his home yesterday, Subway didn't waste any time in cutting its ties with its longtime spokesman. The company announced that they had "mutually agreed to suspend their relationship due to the current investigation"—which is believed to be linked to the child-porn arrest of a former Fogle employee—and his presence, including his history with the company and a game called "Jared's Pants Dance," was scrubbed from the Subway website within hours, the Los Angeles Times reports. Fogle's lawyer says his client has been cooperating with authorities and looks forward to the conclusion of the investigation, reports KTLA. Experts say the Subway move looks like good crisis management. "If something happens to his reputation, that is going to spill over to the brand," a marketing professor at the USC Marshall School of Business tells the Times. "That is why many brands use mascots. People sometimes get into trouble, and if they do, they take the brand with them." The former Fogle employee, ex-Jared Foundation chief Russell Taylor, has been charged with producing and possessing child pornography, and court records state that two thumb drives found in his home office are linked to Fogle or the foundation, reports the Indianapolis Star.

Olivia Grimes (Photo: Oasis Community Church / Provided) State officials are taking over the investigation into a teen girl's death at a Christian camp on Sassafras Mountain. Olivia Paige Grimes, 16, of Lakeland, Florida, died after falling from a rope swing at Carolina Point. Grimes was attending the Young Life Camp when the accident happened late Monday afternoon, said Chief Deputy Creed Hashe. Grimes was a member of Oasis Community Church, which has posted a statement on its website asking members to pray for the family. "It's with deepest sorrow and broken hearts that we let you know that Olivia Grimes, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Pastor Phil and Robyn and sister of Sabrina, passed away on Monday after an accident at a summer camp," the statement said. Hashe said Grimes was seated on a pendulum rope swing with two other campers when she became unattached and fell approximately 120 feet. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The Pickens County Sheriff's Office's initial investigation found no signs of foul play in the accident. The report says there were no indications of a mechanical or structural failure of the swing, equipment or safety gear. Investigators say the victim's harness was not attached to the apparatus when the swing left the loading platform. Hashe said two staffers were supervising the ride at the time. The swing Grimes fell from is one of several rope courses at the week-long Young Life Camp that straddles Brevard, North Carolina, and Pickens County. The camp is one of 28 in operation in the U.S. Inspectors determined camp operators should have applied for an amusement device permit before it began operating, state officials said late Thursday. A spokesperson for Young Life headquarters in Colorado said "this is the first notice Young Life’s Carolina Point has received that the Department of Labor believes permitting was required to meet certain state standards." Terry Swenson, Young Life Vice President of Communications says it appears the agency may be unaware that the camp's swing and zip lines meet safety, training, inspection and certification requirements of the Association for Challenge Course Technology. According to Swenson industry experts say these requirements "are far more rigorous that the standards that the Department of Labor has referenced". Aleesha Mathis, Young Life public relations and marketing coordinator says the group has swings at 13 camps, all of which are currently closed as a precaution. The investigation has been turned over to the state. Elizabeth Sanders, Romando Dixson and Karen Chávez contributed to this report. Read or Share this story: http://grnol.co/1IXBual ||||| The family of a 16-year-old who died at an upstate ropes course is suing the ropes course. The teen died after falling out of a swing more than 100 feet from the ground, according to the Pickens County Sheriff's Office. Olivia Paige Grimes, of Lakeland, Florida, was at Carolina Point Camp, in Sunset, on Monday when she fell out of the swing, according to Pickens County Deputy Coroner Gary Duncan. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The family of Grimes has sued over her death. Court records show a lawsuit filed in January against Young Life Inc. and Adventure Experiences Inc. was transferred Monday from Florida to federal court in South Carolina. Mediation is set next month. South Carolina labor officials said the camp had no permit for the ropes course. To see video from Sky 4 of the camp, click here. "We've had a tragic accident involving one of our campers. A high school-age camper somehow became detached and fell off of a swing. Camp staff called emergency medical assistance immediately and began administering CPR. To our great sorrow, this young woman passed away. "All of us at Carolina Point and across Young Life grieve with this young woman's family and friends. We do not yet know how this occurred. At the moment, our focus is on those grieving over the tragic accident. This is a very sad day for us all," camp manager Greg Carlton said in a statement. Terry Swenson, of Young Life headquarters in Colorado Springs, also released a statement, saying, "Safety is our highest priority at Young Life camps. For all rides at our camps (including the swings), we observe strict protocols regarding upkeep of equipment as well as safety training and operating procedures. We have swings at 13 of our camps; all are currently closed as a measure of precaution and to ensure a safe experience for our campers. We do not yet know what happened at Carolina Point. We are deeply saddened by this tragic accident and are doing our best to care for everyone involved." Duncan originally reported the name of the victim as Oliver Paige Grimes. Later, the coroner's office corrected that information to report the victim's name as Olivia. Duncan also reported the incident as a zip-line accident. In a release from the Pickens County Sheriff's Office, Chief Deputy Creed Hashe said it was an accident involving a swing more than 100 feet in the air. Hashe said deputies responded to the scene about 4:20 p.m. Calls to the Sheriff's Office reported that a juvenile had fallen while attached to a rope course at Carolina Point Young Life Camp, at 4000 Glady Fork Road in Brevard, North Carolina, Hashe said. Hashe said a portion of the facility is in North Carolina, with the remaining acreage in South Carolina, which explains why his agency was called. Hashe said Grimes was an attendee at the camp, which uses ropes and rides through wooded areas as team-building exercises. Grimes was assigned to a group of other teens participating in an event called the "Freebird," Hashe said. "The victim was seated and attached to a large pendulum swing along with two other participants when she became unattached and fell approximately 100 to 120 feet from the swing onto the ground," Hashe said. Hashe clarified that the accident did not happen in a zip-line course, as previously reported by the coroner's office. Meanwhile, officials from the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation confirmed that there have been no state inspections at the camp. However, the agency's Office of Elevators and Amusement Rides is sending a team of inspectors to the scene to see if the swing that caused Grimes' death meets the definition of an amusement ride that should be subject to state regulations.

– A Florida teenager died about 6pm Monday after falling out of a rope swing at a Christian camp on the South Carolina-North Carolina border. Olivia Paige Grimes, 16, of Lakeland, Florida, was part of a group participating in an event called the "Freebird" and was attached to a large pendulum swing along with two other participants. Olivia became unhooked from the swing and fell what Greenville Online reports was 120 feet to the ground. Deputies are investigating the fall at Carolina Point Camp in Sunset; they say it appears to have been accidental. No one else was injured, and authorities say the ride was supervised by two camp employees. The camp on Sassafras Mountain is run by Young Life, a Christian youth organization. It operates 28 camps across the country and said in a statement, "We have swings at 13 of our camps; all are currently closed as a measure of precaution and to ensure a safe experience for our campers. We do not yet know what happened at Carolina Point." That particular camp released a statement of its own that noted staff immediately began administering CPR, per WYFF. Olivia was pronounced dead at the scene. "All of us at Carolina Point and across Young Life grieve with this young woman's family and friends," per the statement. "At the moment our focus is on those grieving over this tragic accident."

Image copyright AP Image caption James Kottak joined German band Scorpions in 1996 The drummer for the German rock band Scorpions has been sentenced to one month in jail in Dubai for offensive behaviour, according to local media. They say James Kottak, an American national, was convicted of insulting Islam, raising his middle finger and being under the influence of alcohol. Kottak, 51, admitted to drinking alcohol but denied the other charges. The reported incident occurred at Dubai airport on 3 April, when Scorpions were en route to Bahrain for a concert. Kottak was arrested following a disturbance in the transit hall, the National newspaper reports. The court heard he started swearing and talking about "non-educated Muslims", then flashed his middle finger. Witnesses also testified that they heard Kottak shouting that he would not travel with a group of Pakistani and Afghan passengers. Denying the charges, he said: "I did not curse Muslims or Islam. I would never do such a thing even if I was drunk," according to Gulf News. However, he admitted drinking alcohol without a licence, and was fined Dh2,000 ($550; £320), reports said. Kottak is expected to be released and deported in the coming days as he has been in custody since his arrest. Best known for their power ballads, including the 1990 hit single Wind of Change, Scorpions have released more than 20 albums since they formed in 1965. Kottak joined the band in 1996. ||||| DUBAI // A member of the heavy metal band Scorpions was yesterday sentenced to a month in jail for insulting Islam and lifting his middle finger at Muslims at an airport. James Kottak, 51, the American drummer for the German band whose hits include Rock You Like a Hurricane, said he drank five glasses of wine on a flight from Moscow to Dubai. He was in transit to Bahrain to perform at the country’s Formula One grand prix about 11pm on April 3. He said he and a friend had taken a wrong turn and enter-ed the transit hall. Kottak was arrested for being drunk and became angry, witnesses said. They said he started swearing and talking about "non-educated Muslims", then flashed his middle finger at Pakistani passengers. Police said he also exposed his behind. Kottak, who pleaded not guilty to insulting Islam and raising his middle finger, was also fined Dh2,000 for drinking without a licence, to which he pleaded guilty. He has been held since April 3, and will be released soon because of the time served. Policeman A A said he heard Kottak say, "What is this disgusting smell?" before he insulted Islam. "I didn’t see anything else but I heard him. I then informed my supervisor, who came and took the defendant away," A A said. S O, 27, a customer service employee at the airport, said: "When he saw the Pakistani and Afghan passengers, he covered his nose and said that there was no way he will travel with them." He added that the drummer then started swearing repeatedly at the arrivals area of Terminal 2. "He wasn’t talking to a person specifically but was talking in general," said S O. "He was very nervous at the time and talking loudly." A B, 25, a Jordanian passenger services agent, said Kottak came over to her and was talking loudly. She said: "He was shouting ‘non-educated Muslims’ then he went to the office of the head and flashed his middle finger at the passengers." Police said in records that when he lowered his trousers he was asking people to touch his behind. "I don’t remember saying these words and I did not flash my middle finger," Kottak said to prosecutors. When asked about taking down his trousers, he said "this is not true – I just lifted my shirt up to show the tattoo on my back" as a "spontaneous act". "There is no way that I would say such a phrase about Muslims, whether I was drunk or not," he told police. "I confess to drinking alcohol but I refuse the other two charges, I did not do them." At Dubai Court of Misdemeanours yesterday, his lawyer said his client was innocent and the witnesses must have been misunderstood. "Their testimonies are contradictory, your honour," said Hamid Al Khazraji. [email protected]

– Drunk and sweary is no way to go through a Dubai airport, a Scorpions member has discovered. James Kottak, the German heavy metal band's American drummer, was sentenced to a month in prison in the emirate for allegedly ranting about "non-educated" Muslims, giving the middle finger to fellow passengers, and exposing his buttocks while in transit between Moscow and Bahrain, reports the National. Witnesses say Kottak appeared drunk and shouted that he wouldn't travel with a group of Pakistani and Afghan passengers. Kottak, 51, admitted drinking five glasses of wine on the flight from Moscow but denied all other charges, the BBC reports. He told authorities that he hadn't exposed his rear, but just "lifted my shirt up to show the tattoo on my back" as a "spontaneous act." There is "no way that I would say such a phrase about Muslims, whether I was drunk or not," he told police, according to court records. "I confess to drinking alcohol but I refuse the other two charges, I did not do them." He is expected to be deported when he finishes his sentence.

Over the past year, Michael Flynn sat down with federal investigators 19 times, answering questions and providing evidence. On Tuesday, Special Counsel Robert Mueller shared just a small amount of what he told them in a legal filing that should spook the White House. A year and three days since President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, Mueller filed two brief legal documents calling for him to spend no time in prison over it. In the filings, Mueller, a decorated Marine veteran, pointedly noted that Flynn — unlike “every other person who has been charged” in the special counsel investigation — had a long record of military and public service, which made his initial lies to the government all the more confounding. But the tone of the filing was much different from Mueller’s filings on former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, who reported to a federal prison camp last week, and former campaign chair Paul Manafort, who Mueller said breached a cooperation agreement. The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now After a daylong buildup of anticipation to the filing of the Flynn sentencing document, it turned out to say little that wasn’t already known. In January of 2017, Flynn lied to the FBI about a conversation he had with then-Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak just a month earlier, falsely telling investigators that he hadn’t discussed sanctions with him. That conversation took place the day the Obama Administration announced it was imposing sanctions on Russia for attempting to interfere in the election, raising questions about whether he violated the Logan Act, which bars private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments about official disputes. He also lied about discussing a United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlements with Kislyak. Two months later, Flynn failed to fully disclose the nature of his work in Turkey when registering with the government as a foreign agent, omitting the fact that he had worked on a project at the direction of the Turkish government while advising the Trump campaign on national security issues. Additionally, he failed to disclose that he authored an op-ed on behalf of the Turkish government about the attempted coup, falsely stating he wrote it of his own volition. Flynn had revealed during his court appearance last year that he was cooperating with the Special Counsel’s office, but the filings reveal both the extent and the implications for the probe as a whole. Mueller noted that Flynn later worked extensively with the special counsel’s investigation, likely prompting other witnesses to be more forthcoming. “His early cooperation was particularly valuable because he was one of the few people with long-term and firsthand insight regarding events and issues under investigation,” Mueller wrote. But several parts of the addendum were blacked out in the publicly available version, including a section describing a criminal investigation, a second investigation that is entirely redacted, a portion describing interactions between the Trump transition team and Russia and a brief description of one way that Flynn cooperated. Some of Trump’s allies were quick to declare victory for the President. “Everyone’s going to focus on what has been redacted,” Rep. Mark Meadows told Fox News. “But let’s look at what’s not in there. There is no suggestion that Michael Flynn had anything to do with collusion. He was with the transition team, he was part of the campaign, and yet there’s no mention of collusion. I think it’s good news for President Trump tonight that this is what it’s come down to.” But Democrats, as well as some legal experts, disagreed. While this filing doesn’t spell out the President’s legal vulnerabilities, they argue, it provides a glimpse of the wealth of information he has accumulated about the Trump campaign’s conduct. “What this suggests is there is one more major ball to drop and we don’t know what that is,” said Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor. Rep. Adam Schiff, the likely incoming chair of the House Select Permanent Committee on Intelligence — who could, if he wanted to, reopen that investigation into Russian interference when Democrats take control in the next Congress — offered similar sentiments regarding Mueller’s fact-finding. “The recommendation of no jail time for Flynn, apart from its obvious irony for the man who led chants of ‘lock her up,’ reflects both the timeliness and significance of his help,” Schiff wrote on Twitter. “That most of the details are redacted signals he has given far more than we or the President may know.” Mariotti also said that he found the filing unusual because Mueller recommended sentencing guidelines for Flynn while continuing to rely on his help for other potential cases. Typically, he explained, prosecutors only sentence defendants who have flipped when they no longer need them, in order to avoid any backsliding. But as with former Trump fixer Michael Cohen’s sentencing hearing this week, Mueller appeared to be letting Flynn go. It does, however, divulge some new pieces of information, none of which are good for the President. We know, for instance, that Flynn has sat for 19 interviews with Mueller’s team, in addition to providing documents and other forms of communication; that the assistance Flynn provided was about contacts between Russian officials and Trump’s team during the presidential transition, but wasn’t limited to that topic; that Mueller’s team thinks Flynn’s willingness to flip helped others do the same. But the filing provides only a narrow window into Mueller’s investigation. What are likely the most informative bits of the addendum were heavily redacted in the publicly available version, according to the filings, due to “sensitive information about ongoing investigations.” The next window will open on Friday, when Mueller’s team files new documents on the sentencing of former Trump fixer Michael Cohen and campaign chair Paul Manafort. Perhaps coincidentally, Trump began the week assailing both Mueller and Cohen on Twitter. He may end it wishing he hadn’t. Write to Alana Abramson at [email protected]. ||||| CLOSE Here are the important dates detailing Michael Flynn's relationship with Russia that led to his resignation. Wochit-All Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn (right) is pictured with Donald Trump during rally at Grand Junction Regional Airport on Oct. 18, 2016 in Grand Junction, Colorado. (Photo: George Frey) WASHINGTON – Prosecutors from special counsel Robert Mueller's office released a memo Tuesday evening detailing the level of cooperation by Michael Flynn, the president's former national security adviser. The 13-page document goes through the allegations against Flynn, including his lies to the FBI about contacts with Russia during the presidential transition and all the work Flynn has done behind the scenes to help Mueller's investigators in the year since taking a plea deal. Flynn is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 18. The memo is part of Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether there was coordination between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign. More: Mueller inquiry: Michael Flynn has offered 'substantial' assistance to investigation; no prison time recommended Related: Read Mueller memo on Michael Flynn's cooperation in the Russia investigation Here are some of the key takeaways from the memo: No prison time? Mueller's investigators recommended that Flynn receive no prison time and cited his "substantial assistance" in the year since he began cooperating with investigators. Flynn, who called for the jailing of Democrat Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Republican convention, took a plea deal last December after being accused of lying to the FBI. Flynn admitted lying about conversations he'd had with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States. Flynn discussed U.S. sanctions with Kislyak on Trump’s behalf during the presidential transition and said members of the president’s inner circle were aware of, and in some cases directing, his efforts, according to the plea. Flynn urged Kislyak not to respond to sanctions imposed by the Obama administration in response to Russian election interference. Flynn’s FBI interview occurred in January 2017, shortly after he took his post as national security adviser in the Trump White House. He was forced to resign in February 2017. He admitted he lied to FBI agents about his work lobbying on behalf of the Turkish government. He later registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent because of the work. "Given the defendant’s substantial assistance and other considerations set forth below, a sentence at the low end of the guideline range – including a sentence that does not impose a term of incarceration – is appropriate and warranted," Mueller's team said in the memo. The request for no prison time is something of a rarity as Mueller's team hasn't made a similar request for anyone else charged in the investigation. His cooperation led to others helping Mueller Michael Flynn was one of the earliest to take a deal with Mueller's investigators, and they said it may have helped ease others into cooperating. "The defendant's decision to plead guilty and cooperate likely affected the decisions of related firsthand witnesses to be forthcoming with the SCO (special counsel's office) and cooperate," Mueller's team wrote in the memo. CLOSE Michael Flynn may be facing potential jail time but that’s not slowing down his comeback tour, for now. Nathan Rousseau Smith has the story. Buzz60 The filing states that Flynn helped "on a range of issues, including interactions between individuals in the presidential transition team and Russia." He offered "firsthand information about the content and context of interactions between the transition team and Russian government officials," Mueller's team said in the document. Many of the examples in the memo are blacked out since investigations are ongoing. Mueller's team wrote that Flynn's cooperation was "particularly valuable," given he was one of the few individuals with "longterm and firsthand" knowledge of events that the special counsel investigated. "The defendant deserves credit for accepting responsibility in a timely fashion and substantially assisting the government," Mueller's team wrote. "Shortly after the SCO reached out to the defendant to seek his cooperation, the defendant accepted responsibility for his unlawful conduct and began cooperating with the government." Helping in 'several ongoing investigations' In arguing for a lower sentence for Flynn, investigators detailed the level of his assistance over the past year. That includes his help on "several ongoing investigations," the memo states. Flynn helped on at least three investigations, including the Russia inquiry. The memo, which is partially redacted, says, "The defendant has assisted with several ongoing investigations: a criminal investigation [redacted], the special counsel's office's investigation concerning any links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald J. Trump, [redacted]." It's not clear whether the public is aware of the redacted investigations or whether Mueller's team simply wants to keep quiet about Flynn's participation in them. Since Mueller started investigating, prosecutors with the Southern District of New York have started several investigations surrounding Trump, his family and associates. One investigation in New York led to Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, pleading guilty to multiple criminal charges and offering to help Mueller's team. 19 interviews with investigators Mueller's team said in the memo that Flynn sat down with investigators on 19 occasions. "As part of his assistance with these investigations, the defendants participated in 19 interviews with the SCO or attorneys from other Department of Justice offices, provided documents and communications [redacted]." The inclusion of Flynn meeting with prosecutors in other offices could point to the other investigations Mueller said Flynn helped on. CLOSE Former U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn plead guilty in a Washington, D.C., court Friday to making false statements to the FBI. (Dec. 1) AP Others who cooperated with Mueller's team also had lengthy interviews. Former White House counsel Don McGahn, who had extensive access to Trump, opened up to Mueller in a series of interviews. Trump said the cooperation was approved by the White House to show transparency. Steve Bannon, the president's former chief strategist, sat down with Mueller's team for at least 20 hours, and Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide and business partner of Paul Manafort, continued to meet with Mueller's investigators, his lawyer said in a court filing in October. Redactions mean there's more to come The lack of information in the memo almost says more than what's in the document. Some pages were almost entirely filled with black lines of redactions. Nearly half of the pages in the 13-page memo include blacked-out lines of information still under investigation by the special counsel. Investigators redacted some of the topics on the Russia investigation that Flynn helped on. Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/12/04/michael-flynn-key-takeaways-robert-muellers-memo-cooperation/2209972002/ ||||| Washington (CNN) Michael Flynn's lawyer had it right back in March 2017 -- his client certainly has a story to tell. That special counsel Robert Mueller clearly agrees but is not ready to share the former national security adviser's tale with the American people cannot be anything but bad news for President Donald Trump and those around him. That help was so significant and timely, Mueller said in heavily redacted documents, that Flynn should serve no jail time for lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russia's envoy to the US and his business ties with Turkey. Tuesday's documents did little to add to Mueller's mosaic of ties between Trump world and Moscow, given his reticence to prejudice other investigations. But what the filing did have in common with Mueller's past practice was the sowing of new intrigues, open loops and what have become known as "breadcrumbs" that offer tantalizing clues about the direction he is headed. Mueller's filing to a district court in Washington had been seen as a potential window into his tightly held investigation of whether members of Trump's orbit had cooperated with Russia's interference effort in 2016 and another criminal investigation. It provided few definitive answers, but its line after line of blacked-out text offered eloquent testimony on the breadth of the Mueller investigation and appears to dispel expectations that he is nearly ready to wrap up. That's because he withheld the most crucial details that would have blown open the case to protect ongoing and future inquiries and potential prosecutions. "What I think here is Flynn provided information that is allowing Mueller to make a criminal case against someone," Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, told CNN's Don Lemon on Tuesday. "We don't know who that is. We can speculate or not speculate. But there is certainly somebody out there who has a criminal case that could be coming," he said. Many of Mueller's previous court filings have embroidered a rich narrative about what he knows about the effort by Moscow's spy agencies to disrupt the presidential election, which eventually developed into a preference for Trump over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, a Russia hawk. Mueller has sought to establish that multiple people around the President had contacts with Russians and their sympathizers and were dishonest about those communications. Last week, Mueller made a case that Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen was negotiating to build a Trump Tower in Moscow into June 2016 -- long after it was clear that his boss would win the GOP nomination and in contravention of the President's statements that he had no business ties with Russia. Cohen's own lawyers argued in their filings that he had kept Trump up to speed on his contacts, a factor that raised questions about the President's denials that he knew about other links between people in his inner circle and Russia. A mystery criminal investigation The most interesting disclosure was that Flynn had helped with what appears to be at least one separate, unidentified criminal investigation that is distinct from the probe into Russian election interference and any links to Trump's 2016 team. All references to that avenue of inquiry were blacked out -- an omission that is likely to spark fierce speculation about what he is referring to and who may be in his sights. There was also an unmissable line in the Flynn sentencing memo that will be viewed as a sign that the special counsel is aiming at administration officials who are more senior, even, than a former national security adviser. He wrote, while noting Flynn's exemplary military service over a long career, that nevertheless "senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards." That hint should certainly worry Trump and his top aides. Throughout the filing, Mueller stressed the value of Flynn's work in lifting the lid on what had gone on in the Trump campaign and the transition period before he was fired a few weeks into the administration, for what the White House said was lying to Vice President Mike Pence over a telephone conversation in which he had discussed sanctions with Russia's then-ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak. "His early cooperation was particularly valuable because he was one of the few people with long-term and firsthand insight regarding events and issues under investigation by the (special counsel's office)," the memo said. "Additionally, the defendant's decision to plead guilty and cooperate likely affected the decisions of related firsthand witnesses to be forthcoming with the SCO and cooperate," Mueller wrote. These remarks cannot be considered outside the context of Trump's Twitter praise for associates such as Roger Stone, who have refused to cooperate with Mueller, and criticism for those such as Cohen, who have agreed to divulge what they know in the hope of reduced sentences. Mueller appears to be sending a message to other witnesses that full disclosure will be rewarded while attempts to thwart him -- for example, by former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, whom he has accused of lying in contravention of a cooperation agreement, will be severely punished. A new challenge for Trump legal team JUST WATCHED Manafort team briefed Giuliani on Mueller meetings Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Manafort team briefed Giuliani on Mueller meetings 01:21 There was no immediate reaction to Mueller's filing by Trump or his legal team. But it is likely that the President's defenders will use the redacted documents to stick to their consistent line that the special counsel has still yet to offer any conclusive evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Yet given the vast quantity of redacted evidence in Mueller's latest filing, it appears more likely that the special counsel will find -- or already has identified -- evidence to suggest such a conspiracy did take place. The documents left unsaid who has the most to fear from Mueller. But there were few officials in the Trump campaign who were more influential or closer to the candidate and President-elect himself. After Tuesday's developments, there is certain to be fresh speculation about the potential jeopardy of key figures including Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The Flynn sentencing memo is not the only shoe to drop this week. On Friday, the special counsel is due to explain in another court filing why he believes that Manafort has lied to his investigators -- behavior that he contends should end a court-mandated cooperation agreement with the former uber lobbyist. CORRECTION: This story has been updated to include the correct characterization of Flynn from Tuesday's memo as one of the "few" people with information about the ongoing investigations.

– President Trump ought to be worried by special counsel Robert Mueller's Tuesday court filing describing Michael Flynn's "substantial" help in the probe into Russian election interference, CNN reports, highlighting one line in particular. "Senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards," Mueller writes in the 13-page document, which is heavily redacted—a sign that discoveries are still being withheld to protect ongoing and future investigations as well as potential prosecutions, per CNN. Indeed, in addition to providing information on "interactions between individuals in the presidential transition team and Russia," and claiming such individuals directed him to discuss sanctions with Russia's ambassador to the US, Trump's former national security adviser cooperated in a criminal investigation separate from the Russia probe, the filing states, per USA Today. Rep. Mark Meadows says "no mention of collusion" is "good news for President Trump," per Time, though a former federal prosecutor tells CNN he believes "Flynn provided information that is allowing Mueller to make a criminal case against someone." Mueller notes Flynn's decision to cooperate, which likely encouraged other witnesses to follow suit, "was particularly valuable because he was one of the first people with long-term and firsthand insight regarding events and issues under investigation." These words differ greatly from those Mueller has used to describe Paul Manafort, suggesting "full disclosure will be rewarded while attempts to thwart him … will be severely punished," CNN reports, mentioning "Trump's Twitter praise for associates such as Roger Stone, who have refused to cooperate with Mueller" and his criticisms of those who've agreed. (More on the filing here.)

Jennifer Lawrence Becomes a Pop Star With Success of "Hanging Tree," Hunger Games Soundtrack Song Jennifer Lawrence can add pop star to her growing list of talents and accolades. The Oscar-winning actress, 24, found herself amongst the likes of One Direction, Taylor Swift, and Meghan Trainor this week, climbing music charts worldwide with "The Hanging Tree," a track off the soundtrack to The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1. PHOTOS: Jennifer Lawrence's Early Modeling Pictures Lawrence currently holds the No. 12 spot on ARIA Australian Top 50 Singles Chart and the No. 14 spot on the Official UK Singles Chart. The chart performance puts the star behind 1D, Swift, and Trainor, but above heavyweights such as Nicki Minaj, Lorde, and Sam Smith. Led by composer James Newton Howard, "The Hanging Tree" is also performing well stateside. Billboard reports that the track could move 150,000 copies, making it a contender for the top 40 of Billboard's Hot 100 chart. PHOTOS: Jennifer Lawrence's Best Dresses The haunting number is featured in Lawrence's latest smash hit Hunger Games installment, which has already grossed more than $480 million at the worldwide box office. Her heroine Katniss Everdeen uses the tune from her past as a rallying cry for the rebellion. The Serena star's decision to sing in the movie clearly paid off, though she was far from enthusiastic about the gamble at first. PHOTOS: Jennifer Lawrence's Most Outrageous Moments and Quotes "I can't stand singing," she said in an interview with HitFix last month. "The idea of singing in front of people is my biggest fear in the entire world." "I cried the day that I did that," Lawrence added of performing the Hunger Games song. "I was shaking. I was like, 'I want my mom.' I've never listened to it. When that scene comes on, I plug my ears." Take a listen to Lawrence's chart-climbing pipes in the song above! ||||| Jennifer Lawrence is aiming to score her first hit single on Billboard's charts. The Academy Award-winning actress is heading for the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "The Hanging Tree," from her film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part I. Listen to Jennifer Lawrence's 'Hunger Games' Folk Ballad, 'The Hanging Tree' Industry forecasters suggest the song, performed by James Newton Howard featuring Lawrence, may sell upwards of 150,000 downloads in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 30. The song was released as part of Howard's score album for Mockingjay, which was released on Nov. 24. That sales figure alone should be enough to enable the song's debut in the top 40 of the Hot 100, the top 10 of which will be revealed on Wednesday (Dec. 3). (The Hot 100 blends sales, airplay and streaming data to rank the 100 most popular songs of the week.) "The Hanging Tree" was written by Suzanne Collins (author of The Hunger Games series of books) and The Lumineers' Jeremiah Fraites and Wesley Schultz. The song is heard in the film first as an a cappella performance by Lawrence (in character as Katniss Everdeen), before she is joined by a choir and an orchestra. Lawrence recently discussed her unlikely turn as a singer on the Nov. 11 edition of The Late Show With David Letterman. "I do not like singing in front of other people. It's like my biggest fear. I cried on set that day," she told host Letterman. "That was awful." ||||| Jennifer Lawrence is already an Oscar-winning actress, and she might be adding chart-topping singer to her resume soon thanks to The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1. In the latest Hunger Games installment, Lawrence’s character performs “The Hanging Tree,” a song that begins with Lawrence’s bluesy a cappella vocals and ends with a choir and orchestra joining in. According to Billboard, the song is expected to sell “upwards of 150,000 downloads in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 30,” meaning it could make the top 40 of Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Chart. The track already found chart success in other countries though: “Hanging Tree” is No. 14 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart and No. 12 on ARIA’s Australian Top 50 Singles Chart. The Lumineers’ Jeremiah Fraites and Wesley Schultz wrote the music for “The Hanging Tree” while Hunger Games author Suzanne Collin wrote the lyrics. The song appears on The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 score album. ||||| by Kevin Winter/Getty Images One of the most stirring scenes in the latest installment of the Hunger Games movie franchise, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 (just rolls off the, erm, keypad, don’t it?), occurs about midway through the film, when Katniss (played by Jennifer Lawrence) is asked by one of her fellow rebels to sing. She promptly croons—with raspy, appealing verve—a song called “The Hanging Tree,” which is eventually echoed by a marching gang of District 13-ers as they head to battle. Lawrence—who has made something of a bit out of refusing to sing during the press tour for the film—acquits herself quite well. (When we saw the film, our 13-year-old cousin assessed, afterwards, “Of course she can sing well, Josh—she’s Jennifer Lawrence.”) And it would appear most of the world agrees with our cousin’s assessment, as the song—the music for which was written by the Lumineers (the lyrics were crafted by Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins)—is currently perched at No. 2 on the U.S. iTunes charts. Billboard reports the song is expected to sell “upwards of 150,000 downloads in the U.S.” in the week that ended yesterday, which could land it a spot on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, which will be revealed on Wednesday. The tune is resonating elsewhere, as well, as it has reached No. 14 on the U.K. Singles chart and No. 12 in Australia. The question is not whether or not Lawrence will EGOT, it would seem, it’s whether or not she’ll do it by age 30.

– Jennifer Lawrence may have an Oscar to her name, but she's also winning praise for her singing chops. In the latest Hunger Games movie, Lawrence sings a song called the Hanging Tree that is now No. 2 on the US iTunes chart and threatening to crack the top 40 of Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart. (We'll know Wednesday.) Overseas, the song is No. 12 in Australia and No. 14 in the UK, notes US Weekly. The song "begins with Lawrence’s bluesy a cappella vocals and ends with a choir and orchestra joining in," observes Entertainment Weekly. All of which causes Vanity Fair to add: "The question is not whether or not Lawrence will EGOT, it would seem, it’s whether or not she’ll do it by age 30." (That would be an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. She's still got six years.)

Joshua Quick, a second-year law school student at Florida State University, left, and FSU President John Thrasher at Nov. 16, 2018 Board of Trustees meeting. (Photo: Bill Lax/FSU Photography Services) Florida State University President John Thrasher and the board of trustees Friday committed $30,000 of their personal money to cover law school costs for Joshua Quick. Quick, a second-year law student at FSU, has been hailed as a hero for his efforts in attacking the shooter who opened fire Nov. 2 at the Hot Yoga studio in Tallahassee. Two people, Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, 61, an internist and medical director for Capital Health Plan, and Maura Binkley, a 21-year-old student majoring in German and English at FSU, were killed in the shooting. Five other people were wounded. More: After Thousand Oaks, daughter's death in yoga studio shooting, 'time for silence is over' Quick, in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” said after shooter Scott Beierle fired shots inside the Midtown studio, he confronted him with a vacuum cleaner, hitting him over the head when the shooter’s weapon stopped firing. Quick was pistol-whipped and bloodied, but went after Beirle again, hitting him with a broom. The exchange allowed others to escape the studio. Buy Photo A first responder talks to Joshua Quick moments after a shooting in the Hot Yoga Studio in Midtown on Nov. 2. Quick was pistol whipped as he tried to fight off the gunman with a vacuum cleaner. He has been hailed as a hero. (Photo: Tori Schneider/Tallahassee Democrat) Quick thinking: Beirle was found dead inside from a self-inflicted gunshot. During Friday’s’ meeting, Thrasher praised the efforts of Quick, who has downplayed the “hero” label describing him since the incident. On Wednesday, Mayor Andrew Gillum presented Quick with a Key to the City on behalf of a grateful community. Thrasher told trustees he didn’t have a key to offer, but instead, wanted to make sure Quick’s law school expenses are covered. “We are going to start an effort to take care of the rest of his time at our law school,” Thrasher said after bringing Quick to the front of the room. “I want you to know how much gratitude we have for what you did,” Thrasher said to Quick. Joshua Quick, a second-year law student at Florida State University, gives brief remarks during Nov. 16, 2018 Board of Trustees meeting. (Photo: Bill Lax/ FSU Photography Services) Quick, standing before trustees at the Turnbull Conference Center, thanked Thrasher in brief remarks before leaving the room. “I want to offer my gratitude to everybody,” he said. “Thank you all for the recognition I don’t feel I deserve.” Following a break, board chairman Ed Burr passed out pledge cards to members to indicate their support. Thrasher said he was hoping to raise $35,000 to $45,000 to cover Quick’s tuition and expenses. “I’m confident we will rally the necessary resources to do the right thing for what he did for the people in that room,” Thrasher later said. Thrasher said the contributions would go through the FSU Foundation earmarked for the FSU College of Law general scholarship fund. By the end of the meeting, Burr announced trustees had responded with $30,000. Burr said it was clear trustees were moved by the tragedy and Quick’s efforts. “This young man saved lives in a moment of stress," Burr said. "He responded heroically. “That’s a pretty impressive number for a smaller board to come up with in a few hours.” Thrasher said he and his wife, Jean, and members of his leadership team plan to attend a celebration of life for Binkley at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 25, in Atlanta. More: The victims of the Hot Yoga Tallahassee shooting, Sunday vigils, the GoFundMe page Contact senior writer Byron Dobson at [email protected] or on Twitter @byrondobson. To contribute: Checks can be made to “The FSU Foundation” and mailed to The FSU Foundation, 323 W. College Ave., Tallahassee, Fl 32301-9969, or, go online at http://foundation.fsu.edu. Checks should be earmarked: FSU College of Law General Scholarship Fund. Read or Share this story: https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2018/11/16/thrasher-fsu-trustees-commit-30-000-hot-yoga-shooting-hero-joshua-quick-college-expenses/2026332002/ ||||| 'He saved my life': Joshua Quick fought off yoga studio gunman with vacuum, broom Jeff Burlew | Tallahassee Democrat TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida man who is being hailed as a hero for fighting back against the gunman who killed two people at a yoga studio said Sunday he used what he could to try to stop to the gunman. On "Good Morning America" on Sunday, Joshua Quick said after Scott Beierle opened fire Friday night, he confronted him with the only weapon he could find – a vacuum cleaner with a heavy end. “The gun stopped firing,” said Quick. “I don’t know if it jammed or what. So I used that opportunity to hit him over the head with it.” The gunman pistol-whipped Quick, bloodying his face. But Quick recovered and tried to stop Beierle again. Nov. 4: Tallahassee yoga studio gunman gave off 'psychopath vibe' as substitute teacher Nov. 3: 'She just wanted people to be happy and healthy': Yoga shooting victim a dedicated doctor “I jumped up as quickly as I could, ran back over and next thing you know, I’m grabbing a broom, anything I can. And I hit him again.” Quick’s actions gave time for others to escape the yoga studio. Among those who got away was Daniela Garcia Albalat. Before Quick intervened, she told ABC, she thought she would die at the gunman’s hands. “I want to thank that guy from the bottom of my heart,” she said, “because he saved my life.” Two people, Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, an internist and chief medical officer for Capital Health Plan, and Maura Binkley, a Florida State University student, were killed in the shooting. Five other people were wounded. Three of them were released from Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare on Saturday. It wasn't clear whether the other two have been released as well. Their names are not listed in the hospital's directory, said Danielle Buchanan, a hospital spokeswoman. That could mean they have been released. But it's also possible law enforcement or the patients themselves asked not to be listed. Follow Jeff Burlew on Twitter: @JeffBurlew Nov. 3: Scott Beierle, gunman in Tallahassee yoga studio shooting, remembered as 'really creepy' Nov. 3: 'Senseless act': Gunman posed as customer before opening fire at Tallahassee yoga studio Nov. 3: Maura Binkley, victim in Tallahassee yoga studio shooting, 'just wanted to help other people' Nov. 3: State Rep. Kristin Jacobs, who represents Parkland, was witness to aftermath of Tallahassee yoga studio shooting Nov. 2: At least 3 dead, including gunman, in shooting at Tallahassee yoga studio, police say

– Joshua Quick is being hailed as a hero—now, if only he would agree. "I want to offer my gratitude to everybody," said the second-year Florida State University law student Friday at a meeting of FSU's board of trustees, per the Tallahassee Democrat. "Thank you all for the recognition I don't feel I deserve." FSU President John Thrasher and the board promised at least $30,000 of their own money to pay Quick's school costs for his actions during the Nov. 2 hot-yoga shooting in Tallahassee. "We are going to start an effort to take care of the rest of his time at our law school," said Thrasher, who expressed hope the board would give more. "I want you to know how much gratitude we have for what you did." Quick has stayed humble about his actions that day. On Good Morning America, Quick said he only struck shooter Scott Beierle with his own gun because the weapon had stopped firing, per USA Today. The 40-year-old assailant pistol-whipped Quick until bloodied, but the student kept fighting: "I jumped up as quickly as I could, ran back over and next thing you know, I'm grabbing a broom, anything I can," said Quick. "And I hit him again." Quick's actions allowed others to escape the studio where two women—Dr. Nancy Van Nessem, 61, and student Maura Binkley, 21—were murdered in cold blood and five were wounded. "I want to thank that guy from the bottom of my heart," says survivor Daniela Garcia Albalat, "because he saved my life." (Beierle demeaned women in YouTube videos.)

A father of two who was issued with a bizarre court order meaning he has to give the police 24-hours-notice before he has sexhas claimed it is because he used to attend a 50 Shades of Grey style fetish club. The 45-year-old IT worker, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, has accused the police of deliberately trying to ruin his life. He said not only does the order mean it is impossible to have a relationship, but he also has to hand over all electronic devices to be inspected - sometimes every other day - and is banned even from using an intercom because it is classed as an "electronic communication device." North Yorkshire Police successfully applied for the Sexual Risk Order earlier this year after he was unanimously cleared of rape. ||||| A man who is required to give police 24 hours’ notice before he has sex has said he plans to go on hunger strike to protest the order. The single man in his 40s, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was cleared after a rape allegation last year, but remains under an interim Sexual Risk Order (SRO), which requires him to contact police 24 hours before engaging in sexual activity with a new partner – giving her name, address and date of birth. Previously, the man called the order “unjust”, saying that it had made his life a “virtual prison”. “It’s just so unjust, there is not a conviction to my name – one allegation, acquitted, and they can still shut you down,” he said. To protest the order, he has decided to go on a hunger strike, beginning Wednesday. If police ignore his protest, he said, it would “continue to either a satisfactory or a natural conclusion”. “I have no life under this order,” he said. “This order condemns me to a life alone and without work. I have seen nothing but bitter injustice these last two years. I cannot, and will not live like this. Who could? I am, and always was, innocent just like the jury said.” In a recent statement, he said: “I intend to commence hunger strike in protest over the SRO to which I am subject. “I protest that even though a jury found me unanimously not guilty, after nearly two years I still find myself being punished for a crime that never happened. “I protest to being subject to an order that is unlawful in almost every syllable, is unjustified and is so extreme as to be utterly unliveable. "Home Office guidelines clearly explain the types of behaviour that SROs are designed to prevent, and none of it applies in any way to me. "The law has been misapplied deliberately by North Yorkshire Police out of sour grapes over being shown to be prejudicial and incompetent in their investigation of the original complaint against me.” A Sexual Risk Order can be applied to anyone whom the police believe poses a risk of sexual harm, regardless of whether they have been convicted of a crime. The man previously admitted to having an interest in sado-masochistic sex, and used to visit a fetish club with an ex-partner, but denies having any criminal convictions. Outside court, at his last appearance, the man said there was “no prospect” of a relationship for him at the moment He said: “Can you imagine, 24 hours before sex? Come on”. Love and sex news: in pictures 23 show all Love and sex news: in pictures 1/23 VR porn could raise issues about consent The rising popularity of virtual reality pornography could cause a dangerous blurred line between real life and fantasy, researchers have warned Getty Images/iStockphoto 2/23 What men think about make-up According to a new survey from YouGov, 63 per cent of men believe that the main reason women wear makeup is to trick people into thinking they’re more attractive than they really are Getty Images/iStockphoto 3/23 The best way to feel better after a breakup Just like taking a placebo medicine has at times proven to be effective for pain treatment, placebo pretending to be okay can also be helpful after a break-up according to researchers from the University of Colorado Getty Images/iStockphoto 4/23 Book readers make the best lovers The dating site eHarmony found that listing reading as a hobby on your dating profile is a winning move that makes you more appealing to the opposite sex. Data revealed that men who list it as an interest receive 19 per cent more messages, and women three per cent more Getty Images/iStockphoto 5/23 Couples can improve their wellbeing by giving each other a massage New research found that when people, who were novices when it came to massages, gave their partners one it improved their physical and emotional wellbeing. The satisfaction levels were the same whether the partner was giving or receiving the massage with 91 per cent of the couples studied saying they would recommend mutual massages to their friends Getty Images/iStockphoto 6/23 Top strain on relationships in the UK revealed Finding a partner who has similar attitudes to you, when it comes to money, could be more likely to guarantee you a successful, harmonious relationship. The main strain on UK relationships is money worries, according to new research, and the key to avoiding money ruining a relationship is to align how you deal with your finances. Concerns about finances make up 26 per cent of relationship difficulties, according to new research from relationship charities Relate, Relationships Scotland and Marriage Care who surveyed over 5,000 people in the UK Getty Images/iStockphoto 7/23 Cheaters are likely to be unfaithful to their partners multiple times Research by UCL suggests why serial cheaters repeatedly lie to their partners and commit adultery. According to the study, it’s because with every lie a person tells, they feel less bad about doing so afterwards Getty Images/iStockphoto 8/23 Timetable of Love A new study has revealed that Sunday at 9am is the most popular time of the week for Brits to get busy in the bedroom. Our weekends tend to be a lot sexier than our weekdays, with three of the top five most common times for sex falling on a Saturday, at 11.30am, 10.30pm and 11.30pm Getty Images/iStockphoto 9/23 Spain appoints 'sex tsar' Spain has appointed a ‘sex tsar’ to encourage the declining population to ramp up procreation in a bid to reverse a dip in the birth rate. The country reported a higher number of deaths than births for the first time last year, prompting the government to take action 10/23 How to spot when your partner is hiding their true feelings How often do you and your partner actually spot when one of you is hiding your emotions? According to a new study, it’s probably not as frequently as you think. New research suggests that people miss cues that their partner may be suppressing negative feelings because we see our other-halves in a more positive light Getty Images/iStockphoto 11/23 Online dating risk A new report by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau has found that last year, singles were conned out of £39 million by fraudsters they’d met on dating sites and apps. Con artists are increasingly creating fake online profiles and tricking people on dating sites into handing over often large sums of money. Getty Images/iStockphoto 12/23 Singletons judge potential partners on their phones, says new study A new study has found that women are 92 per cent more likely than men to judge a potential partner negatively for having an older phone model. Getty Images/iStockphoto 13/23 Mother's blood pressure before conception could influence sex of child, study suggests Pregnant woman measures the blood pressure with automatic sphygmomanometer. Getty Images/iStockphoto 14/23 Sainsbury’s sells same sex valentine’s day cards for first time For the first time, Sainsbury’s is selling a range of Valentine’s Day cards that represent same-sex couples. The simple designs feature illustrations of a woman and a woman, and a man and a man, with the caption ‘You + Me.’ 15/23 Couples oversharing on social media do so to mask relationship insecurities, expert suggests Couple sitting on couch with their phones in their hand Getty Images/iStockphoto 16/23 Injection of ‘romantic’ hormone could help treat psychosexual problems Getty Images/iStockphoto 17/23 One in ten British women experience pain during Getty Images/iStockphoto 18/23 Watching porn does not cause negative attitudes to women The average porn user may have more egalitarian views towards women than non-users, a contentious new study has suggested. Researchers at Western University in Canada have even argued that many pornography fans might be “useful allies” in women’s struggles for equality in the workplace and in public office. They reported in the Journal of Sex Research that the 23 per cent of people who said they had watched an “X-rated” film during the previous year were no more or less likely to identify as feminists than those who did not watch porn. Getty 19/23 Erectile dysfunction 'linked to risk of early death' Men who suffer from erectile dysfunction (ED) are 70 per cent more likely to die early, a new study has found. US scientists believe that the disorder may be linked to poor cardiovascular health, and suggested that men with ED should be screened for health issues that could cut their lives short Rex Features 20/23 The characteristics of men who pay for sex Men who pay for sex share similar traits to rapists and sex offenders, according to new research. A study from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), claims that men who have sex with female sex workers feel less empathy for them than men who do not buy sex. Part of this reason is due to the fact that they view them as "intrinsically different from other women,” according to the authors. Getty Images 21/23 Heartbreak can actually change the rhythm of your heart Losing a loved one really can break your heart, research suggests, although not for ever. People who lose a partner are at an increased risk of developing an irregular heartbeat for the next 12 months, scientists found. The risk seems to be greatest among the under 60s and when the loss of the partner was least expected Getty 22/23 'Weird' sexual fetishes are actually very normal A number of sexual fetishes considered anomalous in psychiatry are actually common in the general population, a study has found. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), sexual interests fall into two categories: normal (normophilic) and anomalous (paraphilic). Researchers asked 1,040 Quebec residents, representative of the general population, about their experiences of sexual behaviour considered abnormal by the DSM-5. The study, published in The Journal of Sex Research, found that of the eight types of anomalous behaviour listed in the DSM-5, four were found to be neither rare or unusual among the experiences and desires reported by men and women 23/23 A new dating show for Trump supporters Across the pond, there’s a new TV dating show in the pipeline: one inspired by President Donald Trump. The dating site - whose tagline is ‘Making dating great again’ - launched in May 2016 and now has over 37,500 active users Getty Images The man imitated talking to a woman, saying: “There’s a nice French restaurant I’d like to take you to, but first the police are just going to come around for a little chat.” The case is due to be reviewed at York Magistrates Court on 14 July, before a full hearing on 19 August. A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “North Yorkshire Police will only make an application to the Court for a Sexual Risk Order in circumstances where it is considered necessary to do so to protect the public from the risk of sexual harm. “The full details of this case cannot be provided for the man’s own protection, but we are satisfied that our actions are justified.” ||||| Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption The man must tell police of his plans to have sex the day before the act happens A man cleared of rape who must give police 24 hours' notice before he has sex is to go on hunger strike in protest over the ruling. The man, in his 40s, was acquitted last year at a retrial but is the subject of an interim sexual risk order (SRO). He said the law had been "misapplied deliberately by North Yorkshire Police" and he would "commence hunger strike in protest over the SRO". The force said it was "satisfied that our actions are justified". Sexual risk orders were introduced in England and Wales last year and can be applied to any individual who the police believe poses a risk of sexual harm - even if they have never been convicted of a crime. The order requires this individual to disclose any planned sexual activity to the police or face up to five years in prison. In a statement, he said: "I protest that even though a jury found me unanimously not guilty, after nearly two years I still find myself being punished for a crime that never happened. "I protest to being subject to an order that is unlawful in almost every syllable, is unjustified and is so extreme as to be utterly unliveable. 'Sour grapes' He accused the force of "sour grapes" in applying for the order after his acquittal. He said if his protests were ignored his hunger strike would "continue to either a satisfactory or a natural conclusion". A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said its application for an SRO was considered necessary "to protect the public from the risk of sexual harm". Image copyright Google Image caption The single father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is due before York Magistrates on 14 July Sexual risk orders are civil orders imposed by magistrates at the request of police. The order was extended in January for four months after it was initially imposed in December. The case is due back before York Magistrates on 14 July ahead of a hearing on 19 August, which will decide whether to make the interim order permanent. The man, who said the complainant had consented to sex, was cleared of rape after being held on remand for 14 months. It declares he "must disclose the details of any female including her name, address and date of birth... at least 24 hours prior to any sexual activity taking place". It also lists restrictions on his use of the internet and mobile phones and requires him to inform officers of any change of address.

– Think it's ridiculous for someone to face five years in prison for not warning police that he's about to have sex? So does a British man who plans to protest with a hunger strike. The unnamed father of two was cleared of rape but must abide by an "interim sexual risk order." Such orders can be applied to any person deemed a risk of being a sexual predator, whether or not they've committed a crime, and this one requires him to "disclose the details of any female, including her name, address, and date of birth ... at least 24 hours prior to any sexual activity taking place" so police can first visit her, reports the BBC. The 45-year-old—who says it's impossible to have a relationship under such conditions—also faces limits on his internet and cellphone use and has police show up at his door "sometimes every other day" to check his browsing history. "I cannot and will not live like this. Who could?" he says, per the Independent. "I protest that even though a jury found me unanimously not guilty, after nearly two years I still find myself being punished for a crime that never happened." The man argues that the temporary order—in place since December—was "misapplied deliberately" by North Yorkshire police officers bitter over his acquittal and visits to an S&M fetish club, reports the Telegraph. Police, however, say they are "satisfied that our actions are justified." An Aug. 19 hearing will determine whether the order should be made permanent. His hunger strike was to begin Wednesday, and he said it would "continue to either a satisfactory or a natural conclusion." (Click for more on the case.)

SOCHI, February 6 (RIA Novosti) – Organizers of the Sochi Winter Olympics are hoping a spectacular opening ceremony will get the criticism-beleaguered Games off to a flying start Friday at the Fisht stadium. Millions of dollars have been spent on the ceremony orchestrated by Konstantin Ernst, the influential director of Russia’s Channel One, and participants have been sworn to secrecy. The benchmark for opening ceremonies is that of the 2012 London Summer Games, directed by filmmaker Danny Boyle, which won plaudits from critics and fans alike and surprised spectators by keeping a lid beforehand on what and who would appear in the show. Russian organizers have also maintained a tight grip on information about the ceremony. One Olympics volunteer who had attended the final rehearsal gave a thumbs-up sign and smiled when asked about the ceremony, and said: “It was amazing, great, but I can't say anything about it.” The only leak in the last week was from faux-lesbian Russian pop duo tATu, who said they were reforming for the ceremony, only to later delete a tweet and an announcement on Facebook. Britain’s Spice Girls famously reformed for the London ceremony. But with less than 24 hours to go until the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Games, some details have slipped out. After all, rehearsing in a stadium with a capacity of 45,000 in a city of 340,000 means that a lot of people have seen some of Friday’s show. © RIA Novosti. Winter Olympics: Facts and Figures Indeed, of six people fairly randomly approached Thursday, four had been to the final rehearsal on February 4, all of them said they loved it and three were willing to talk about what they had seen. “It was simply fantastic,” said housewife Yekaterina Andreyeva. “I had high hopes, but it exceeded my expectations.” The rehearsal only covered part of the real show that will be beamed live around the world. We were told that they had kept some secrets from us, said one Olympic Park worker who declined to give her name, but judging by the rehearsal there will definitely be a run-through of Russian history. “It shows all of Russian history, apart from the revolution,” said a smiling Yury, another Olympic Park worker, who declined to give his surname. “There is no Lenin or Stalin.” Among the scenes depicted are the 14th-century Battle of Kulikovo that saw Russians defeat their Golden Horde rulers for the first time, the epic war with Napoleon's forces and World War II. Izvestia newspaper previously reported that Peter the Great and a Gogolesque troika would also make an appearance. However, two of the three spectators willing to comment also said there was a section dedicated to the industrialization of the country in the 1930s under Stalin, a section likely to cause controversy if it depicts the positive side of the country's new industry but fails to show the human cost. Millions of people died during Stalin's push to turn the Soviet Union into an industrial power. Ваш браузер не поддерживает данный формат видео. ©Marina Spirina 2014 Winter Olympic Medals Delivered to Sochi Zoom InAdd to blog Add video to blog You may place this material on your blog by copying the code. <object width="480" height="360" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://static-c.rian.ru/i/swf/riavideocv2.swf"><param name="movie" value="http://static-c.rian.ru/i/swf/riavideocv2.swf" /><param name="scale" value="noorder" /><param name="wmode" value="window" /><param name="devicefont" value="true" /><param name="flashvars" value="file=http%3A%2F%2Fnfw.aurora-video.ru%2Fflv%2Fplaylist.aspx%3Fid%3D243559%2526fmt=xml%2526adv=0%2526img=http%3A%2F%2Fen.ria.ru%2Fimages%2F18726/37/187263714.jpg%26amp%3B©right=%C2%A0RIA%20NovostiMarina%20Spirina&info_url=http://en.ria.ru/services/media/187262751-info.html&videofilesize=13.57Mb&videolen=127 s.&blog_url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.ria.ru%23blogcode&video_url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.ria.ru%2Fvideo%2F&skin_locale=eng"/></object> Ваш браузер не поддерживает данный формат видео. ( 2:07 / 13.57Mb / просмотров видео: 3282) RIA NovostiMarina Spirina 2014 Winter Olympic Medals Delivered to Sochi Zoom Out The opening ceremony of the London Games famously showed the British industrial revolution as a rolling sea of countryside replaced by factories and steam engines. Those who had seen the final rehearsal in Sochi said there were a lot of special effects and that some of the action took place above the audience, with performers flying past on wires. “I had to crane my neck to see,” said Andreyeva. One of Andreyeva's favorite parts, she said, was a scene in which a soldier danced a waltz from the iconic 1970s Soviet movie “A Hunting Accident.” “That waltz is part of our culture,” said Andreyeva. “It is so powerful.” At the rehearsal, extras filled in for the athletes and dignitaries. “Instead of the president there was some other guy,” said the female Olympic Park worker. © RIA Novosti. Sochi 2014: Winter Olympics venues Few of the musicians and groups that will play on the night were there, though Yury did say that Na-Na, a famous 1990s boy band, made an appearance. None of the others interviewed remembered that part. There was one hint that tATu may take part after all. When the Russian Olympic athletes were introduced, one of tATu’s best known hits – “Not Gonna Get Us” – blasted around the stadium, said the female Olympic employee. There are also some clues as to who the other special guests will be. The team in London had a somewhat easier job of concealing the identities of the stars due to appear in the opening ceremony. Paul McCartney or the Spice Girls could have been in London in August 2012 for any number of reasons, but if you spot a Russian star in Sochi on the eve of the Games then there is a good chance that come Friday evening, you will see them in the Fisht stadium. It only took a short walk around Sochi on Wednesday to bump into tennis champ Maria Sharapova and former heavyweight boxer Nikolai Valuev. A crowd of young kids flocked around Sharapova on Thursday at the tennis school where she first played the game that has made her famous – and made her millions. She is also in town to commentate on the Olympic Games for US broadcaster NBC. Ваш браузер не поддерживает данный формат видео. ©Dmitry Makievsky, Petr Kasatkin IOC President Thomas Bach Tries Out Bobsled Simulator in Sochi Zoom InAdd to blog Add video to blog You may place this material on your blog by copying the code. <object width="480" height="360" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://static-c.rian.ru/i/swf/riavideocv2.swf"><param name="movie" value="http://static-c.rian.ru/i/swf/riavideocv2.swf" /><param name="scale" value="noorder" /><param name="wmode" value="window" /><param name="devicefont" value="true" /><param name="flashvars" value="file=http%3A%2F%2Fnfw.aurora-video.ru%2Fflv%2Fplaylist.aspx%3Fid%3D243488%2526fmt=xml%2526adv=0%2526img=http%3A%2F%2Fen.ria.ru%2Fimages%2F18722/64/187226473.jpg%26amp%3B©right=%C2%A0RIA%20NovostiDmitry%20Makievsky%2C%20Petr%20Kasatkin&info_url=http://en.ria.ru/services/media/187226470-info.html&videofilesize=5.05Mb&videolen=45 s.&blog_url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.ria.ru%23blogcode&video_url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.ria.ru%2Fvideo%2F&skin_locale=eng"/></object> Ваш браузер не поддерживает данный формат видео. ( 0:45 / 5.05Mb / просмотров видео: 2493) RIA NovostiDmitry Makievsky, Petr Kasatkin IOC President Thomas Bach Tries Out Bobsled Simulator in Sochi Zoom Out Sharapova lived in Sochi for four years until the age of six, and used to practice against the wall at the club with her father. She remembered how she would play in the cold. “I was in a fur coat and you had all of those tourists walking by thinking that my father and I were crazy," she said. Sharapova is taking part in the opening ceremony, she told RIA Novosti, but refused to say what she would do. Not even an invitation to mime her role rather than talk about it could persuade her to open up. On Thursday, Buranovskiye Babushki – the elderly ethno-pop girl group that was a hit at Eurovision 2012 – turned up in Sochi and also seem likely contenders to perform at the ceremony. Andreyeva will not go to the opening ceremony, but said she had fond memories of the rehearsal and of the audience when leaving the stadium. “Nobody pushed anyone, everyone smiled,” she said. ||||| 18.54 The flame is lit, the fireworks go off! They're not that... oh wait here we go! OK that was pretty spectacular. And with that, the 2014 Winter Olympics are underway! 18.53 Well to where the flame is to be lit. You know what I mean. The cauldron. Here we go... 18.52 One of the six lighting the torch is a Russian ice hockey goalie. The size of that guy is absurd! Right they're all running out of the stadium towards the flame. 18.49 Here's the Olympic flame and it's being delivered by the hometown girl Maria Sharapova. Suddenly every teenage boy reading this liveblog wishes they'd watched this rather than leaving it to me. 18.46 Each sport is represented by a 3D action figure made of projected stars. It's a very cool effect and presents Hazel Irvine with her 243rd opportunity of the night to describe something as "a powerful sequence." Hazel just doesn't miss and gobbles the chance up once again. 18.43 But now we have rollerbladers skating around over projections of stars that appear on the floor of and, somehow, above the stadium. That's quite impressive it has to be said. 18.42 The oaths are taken as we wait for... 18.39 Sorry, that one was a bit full-on for my ears. 18.36 The Russian flag is raised and is followed, to the strains of more opera, by the Olympic one. Fun fact: I live above an opera singer, which is surprisingly pleasant in the mornings. 18.34 If you're looking for a pithy summary of the big parade bit earlier: it was quite spectacular, as you'd expect at the price, but exactly what Danny Boyle did, only with Russia. 18.27 Rather than the traditional release of doves of peace, we've got Swan Lake. It looks more like jellyfish to me. 18.26 Thomas Bach is now urging fans to enjoy the games before handing over to Vladimir Putin. Putin will not be happy when he realises he's been duped by his TV (see below), is he? 18.22 Wait, WHAT? 18.18 Praxis: Russia is wonderful. 18.16 Thomas Bach, the IOC President, takes to the podium. He spends a whole minute saying "welcome". 18.15 Suit #1 switches to English: "Our games will be cool" he says. "When we all come together in all our diversity-" and then he's remarkably not drowned out with a massive "eff off" for that disingenuous nonsense. 18.14 Give me an ECB press conference. 18.10 Time for the speeches now. When someone says something interesting and denounces Russia's homophobic policies I'll let you know. In the meantime, have a look at the photos linked to up above while I sit through the platitudes. 18.09 Now a video montage of the journey of the torch. It went into space! Space! As well as the bottom of the world's deepest lake; I don't know that works. In conclusion from this montage though, Russia (and space) is pretty. 18.06 A few moments ago some giant stone heads went floating through the stadium. I would have mentioned it earlier but for the paroxysms of terror. Now the little girl from the beginning is back... excpet is that the same little girl? I'm sure she had different hair before. She's floating up into the sky on a red balloon. 18.04 The BBC commentary is very earnestly explaining the symbolism of each performance art piece. I don't have a producer researching these things myself, so I'm refusing to cheat and copy what they say. 18.01 It goes dark and spotlights roam the stadium. Now blueprints are being projected on to the floor and the sound of industrial machinery. This apparently represents the formation of the iron curtain, then we move on to the space race. Sadly they don't launch an actual rocket, which they probably could have done with their £30bn+ budget. It's backed by some lovely new wave music though. 18.00 Right now that's ov- THE RED MACHINE HAS ROLLED TO A STOP! I GET IT NOW! 17.55 Now there are giant girders floating about along with geometric shapes and, er, a train or a rocket. It's all drenched in red light. There's what appears to be... you know what you figure out what this is meant to be. I think it has something to do with Russia. 17.51 Things your liveblogger knows inside and out: 1. The history of Northampton Saints Rugby Club in the professinal era, 2. Radiohead's back catalogue, 3. The first nine seasons of The Simpsons. Things your liveblogger knows nothing about: 1. Ballroom dancing, 2. Classical music. Guess what I'm liveblogging right now. 17.47 We've now got ballroom dancing. It's incredibly elegant and apparently a representation of War and Peace. Imagine if Strictly Come Dancing had a budget of more than a fiver and wasn't broadcast from a provincial working men's club. And didn't have the bank manager from the Nationwide adverts in it. 17.45 This all looks great from the GTA-style top-down camera angle, but I'm not convinced that those in the stadium will really appreciate the projections as much, especially those in the lower seats. 17.42 A cartoon ship with real men marching about on its deck is sailing across the stadium, because of course it is. This actually looks genuinely brilliant, weird as it may be. This is actually a real live thing! 17.41 If you'd like to get a better idea of what I'm struggling desperately to describe, it's worthwhile looking at The very best pics from the opening ceremony. 17.38 It's turned into a big carnival now. There are Kossak dancers, gymnasts, dancing enormous chess pieces made of candy, huge inflatable bears chasing huge inflatable teapots and that little girl from the beginning. Now they're all levatating into the sky. What the hell is in my coffee? 17.34 Now in the stadium the "snow" is flooding in as the Troika (three white horses akin to those you might find in a provincial town Christmas display) draw "the sun" (a red ring) across the top of the stadium. The "ice" melts and we have a fairytale Russian city below! Ta-da! Actually that Troika/sun combo is 65m long, which is pretty impressive. 17.31 Now the story of Russia through the ages, told by medium of a lavish historical epic starring apparently-famous Russian actors and with no dialogue. It's also entirely bloodless, so I'm not going to recognise any of the key moments in Russian history that I'm remotely familiar with. Sorry. 17.30 Uhhh cat? Jaguar? Ocelot? 17.29 Now for an ice-skating giant bear, rabbit and, uh, cheetah. 17.28 Serious news alert: Turkish officials are reporting that there was an attempted hijacking on a plane bound for Ukraine with the intention to divert it to Sochi. The situation has now been resolved. 17.25 They're mixing that song with Daft Punk's 'Harder Better Faster Stronger'. If Daft Punk are actually playing I'll retract every cynical and sarcastic sentiment I've conveyed so far. 17.24 I've just realised the music Russia are parading to is 'Not Gonna Get Us', Tatu's minor follow-up hit that I'd forgotten about. They don't appear to be performing. 17.22 Here comes Team Russia. The crowd are a lot more excited about this than you or I, let's be honest. 17.20 You know I really like the Belarussian flag. But now the biggest cheer of the parade as here come Jamaica's bobsleigh team! 17.18 My kind editor Mike Adamson has given me a headband to help me get through this. He said it's going to be an effort and if this parade isn't near the end he's going to be right. 17.15 Finland?! France?! How the eff are we back to F?! 17.09 Now the largest team ever to appear at a Winter games. YOO ESS A! YOO ESS A! 17.08 Here are the fireworks from earlier. Pretty cool, eh? 17.02 Norway emerge wearing shiny grey flatcaps. It's like if The Jetsons were hipsters. 16.58 The bad, bad dubstep to which the athletes are entering is apparently being mixed by the side of the stage. It sounds like his hands must be really, really cold. 16.55 Lithuania's green-on-green combo doesn't really work, writes your sartorial expert. Like if Norwich City's kit ran in the wash. 16.49 Here come Spain, followed by Italy. The athlete's parade is always the worst part of the opening ceremony and this year we have a record 88 bleedin' countries in it. Bah! 16.45 Wow, that German team kit is something else. Here's Olivia Bergin of this parrish with her take on the weird and not-so-wonderful outfits some of the athletes will be wearing. 16.42 Here comes Team GB! And they're done. That was fast. Is this really going to take two and a half hours? 16.38 We're on to the Bs! Oddly the British Virgin Islands emerge ahead of Belarus. As I said, the Cyrillic alphabet is weird. 16.35 Right so that projection. It seems the satellite zooms in on each particular country and the live picture of said country fills up the entire stadium floor. The middle of said floor opens up and a Close Encounters-esque ramp opens up for the teams to emerge from. Like this, actually. 16.34 Well that was a brisk opening wasn't it? We're into the endless athletes' parade now, which doesn't impress Twitterer Ben Grier: <noframe>Twitter: bengrier. - Bringing the athletes on already? That's so boring</noframe> 16.32 OK that projection of the globe is pretty impressive. It's a live satellite feed from space. Here comes team Greece first up. No chance I'm trying to spell the name of the flag bearer, sorry. 16.28 As the men dressed as James Bond belt out the anthem, a lot more people in brightly-lit white, red and blue LED suits take to the pitch and form the Russian National flag. It's all very Daft Punk again. Oh and now they're shuffling up and down to make the flag ripple. It's kinda cool, I guess, if you ignore everything you've read about Russia in recent weeks. 16.26 We'll now have the Russian national anthem while I try to contain my mirth at that. 16.25 Oh dear. Five giant flakes of snow descend and open up into the Olympic rings. But... 16.22 Is that an actual wolf? Wait, no it's animatronic. There's now a 180-strong chorus standing in the swirling snow, which is presumably not real. 16.21 The whole thing is being played out to some lovely opera. I preferred Daft Punk though. Sorry. 16.19 Through some admittedly impressive tricks of light and strings, the little girl is flying by the moon across Russia's varying landscapes. There are 4km of rails on the roof of the stadium getting these nine landscapes to float across the top of the stadium. Danny Boyle's influence is obvious here. 16.17 Fireworks come out the top of the stadium! Of the 3,500 available, I'd say there's a good 120 there. Now the little girl is on stage, but has strings coming from her arms. Ahh it is a real little girl, flying a kite, which is now lifting her high into the sky. Crikey that looks terrifying! 16.16 C sounds like Z, is about the 15th letter and stands for Sputnik. 16.15 A low-key start as we watch a slideshow of a young Russian girl giving us an A-Z of Russian history. I say A-Z, but it's a Russian alphabet, where H follows M and is for Nabakov. This is going to be hard work. 16.13 I've just been informed that they've spent in excess of £30bn on these games! This had better be spectacular; you could actually make Game of Thrones for that! 16.09 With five minutes to go until the start, here's a look inside the Fisht stadium. Fisht, incidentally, is the name of a mountain rather than what Sean Connery punches you with. 16.02 Matthew Pinsent is giving us his previews of Great Britain's medal hopefuls and is so tough he isn't even wearing gloves! If you're interested in having a look at Team GB's hopefuls then why not have a look at our gallery up the top? 15.58 I can hear Daft Punk coming from the stadium. 'One More Time', if you're interested. 15.52 Alternatively, here's Marie Wood, who sends us this photo of her own anti-homophobia protest, one of many we've seen throughout the day. 15.50 Here's our very own Jonathan Liew with a succinct summary of the BBC's coverage so far. <noframe>Twitter: Jonathan Liew - Ten minutes into their Sochi coverage and the BBC have already given us gay rights, a</p> <p> <strong>15.34</strong> Comedian <strong>Paul Sinha </strong>has alternative worries about these games: </p> <p> <iframe src="https://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/html/TwitterEmbed/Version1/web19443.html" width="460" height="115" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" id="tweetframe43181303825434214617384305611391787425"><noframe>Twitter: Paul Sinha - 98 gold medal events ? Won't somebody please think of the quizzers ?</noframe> 15.30 Here we go then. The Beeb's opening credits look like they cost a fortune. They do actually look pretty cool. 15.28 Have you missed these guys? No, me neither. 15.26 The best song ever to come out of Manchester, hands down. We are going to be watching one of these: 15.20 Right-o there is apparently a "pre-show" going on for those poor, poor folk lucky enough to have tickets. Word has it that this is where Tatu will be playing, rather than at the ceremony itself. So that one Russian pop song you know? You won't hear it. 15.13 Apparently our LGBT activists have been arrested in St Petersburg for displaying a banner that quoted the sixth “fundamental principle of Olympism” from the Olympic charter (“Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement”). Interestingly that forms part of today's Google doodle too, as Claire Carter reports. 14.55 This is what it looks like outside the park at the moment. Enjoy that while I get coffee. 14.49 Apparently Konstantin Ernst, made a joke earlier. This amuses me because "ernst" is German for "serious" and because I am easily amused. Ernst also put together the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow a while back, so this could be stunningly tacky. There will also be 3,500 fireworks used at the Fisht Stadium, which is surprisingly awkward to type. The ceremony is due to last an hour and a half or so. 14.38 If, like me, you can't wait until the new season of Game of Thrones, you might as well watch the BBC's trailer for their coverage of the Games. It's as unsubtle a nod as you'll see, even featuring Charles Dance. They just stop short of adding "winter is coming" in an ominous voice because, as you obviously know, Dance's character wouldn't say that, would he? Anyway, here's Game of Thrones. 14.00 Afternoon all. Or, if you're reading this from the ceremony in Sochi, добрый вечер! Yes folks, that there's an example of the high-octane, incredibly skilled and utterly thrilling Googling action you can expect to see from me today. The answers to questions like "Where the hell have tATu been since 'All the Things She Said'?" and "how on Earth do you spell that?!" are at my fingertips. I'm Dan Lucas, and I'll be actually watching an opening ceremony so you don't have to. The Winter Olympics are thought by many, your liveblogger today included, to be far, far more exciting than their summer counterpart. This the first of Telegraph Sport's liveblogs of the tournament, although this one is unique as we're not going to be talking about sport all that much. Instead we have dancing, costumes, Tatu and a rotating image of the earth to point and laugh gasp in wonder at. Actually that thing about the rotating image of the Earth intrigues me. To recap: "We have created a special flooring where there is going to be an image of the earth projected. The earth will be rotating and we are going to project the image of the earth from outer space and every time a country is announced the earth will rotate in such a way so we can see the particular part of the earth where that country is. You are going to fall down on to that country and then there will be a ramp opening, and the athletes will appear from the heart of their country's territory and will walk up on to the stadium." It's going to be fun to see how this works for some of the smaller countries. I imagine Russia have designed this with themselves in mind, not quite figuring how fully-grown human beings are going to emerge out of a scale image of, say, Cyrpus. It'll be like clowns coming out of a car, I guess. The ceremony gets underway at 20.14 local time (geddit?), which is 4.14pm here in London. The BBC is going to start their coverage at 3.30pm, so in the meantime don't hesitate to get involved. Otherwise I'm going to start thinking about what I'd do if I was in charge of the ceremony and report on that for a couple of hours or so. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jack Lundy writes... The ceremony will bring together more than 40 heads of state and delegations. More than 3,000 young talents from schools, as well as professional artistic groups, will take part in many of the scenes, which include professional dance, ballet, acrobatic and circus performances. More than 6000 costumes have been made for the participants of the show. Russian band t.A.T.u. will perform at the ceremony, producer Konstantin Ernst explaining: "They are one of the few popular Russian bands that are also known in other countries. The Olympic anthem will be performed in Russian by Anna Netrebko, our famous opera diva." Ernst joked that Vladimir Putin won't be copying the Queen and jumping out of a helicopter, as she did during the London 2012 opening ceremony. But he will welcome spectators and declare the Games open. Ernst, saying the ceremony will be two hours and 30 minutes and celebrate Russia's history, continued: "We made the ceremony in such a way that the athletes' march will be more dynamic than before. We have created a special flooring where there is going to be an image of the earth projected. The earth will be rotating and we are going to project the image of the earth from outer space and every time a country is announced the earth will rotate in such a way so we can see the particular part of the earth where that country is. You are going to fall down on to that country and then there will be a ramp opening, and the athletes will appear from the heart of their country's territory and will walk up on to the stadium, which I think is very much in line with ancient Greek tradition. They will arrive at the stadium just like the ancient heroes of Greece, and they will be arriving from the heart of their nation. "We made a mental journey back into the history of Russia, bearing in mind that we would be working for billions of viewers across the globe and we want them to experience this love of Russia. We want to carry a very strong emotional message for this unprecedented international audience." The name of the final torchbearer before the lighting of the Olympic cauldron remains a closely guarded secret. ||||| Travelers heading to Sochi for the Winter Olympics on nonstop flights from the U.S. will have to keep their liquids in their checked baggage. The Department of Homeland Security is temporarily banning all liquids from carry-on bags on nonstop flights from the U.S. to Russia. "As always our security posture, which at all times includes a number of measures both seen and unseen, will continue to respond and appropriately adapt to protect the American people from an ever evolving threat picture," a DHS official said. "These measures include intelligence gathering and analysis, deployment of cutting edge technology, random canine team searches at airports, federal air marshals, federal flight deck officers, temporarily restricting certain items and more security measures both visible and invisible to the public." The ban follows a warning from Homeland Security that terrorists could try to hide explosives in toothpaste tubes to detonate at the Olympics, which officially begin tomorrow. RELATED: Airlines warned of possible Olympics toothpaste bombs Delta Air Lines posted a notice on its website of the temporary ban: "The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has directed that no liquids, gels, aerosols and powders of any size be permitted onboard flights between the United States and the Russian Federation in any passenger cabin of service. These items may be placed in customers' checked baggage. Prescription medications will be allowed. Russian aviation authorities had already banned liquids in carry-on bags on domestic flights. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1dtUBo6 ||||| What time it's on and what to watch out for Alexander Demianchuk / Reuters Fireworks over the Fisht Olympic Stadium at the Olympic Park during a rehearsal of the opening ceremony in Sochi, on Feb. 4, 2014. The Sochi Winter Olympics are set to get underway Thursday — but before the sporting events really start to get heated, there’s a another kind of spectacle to enjoy: The opening ceremony, a time-honored tradition of national pride wherein host countries very literally make a show of one-upping whichever nation held the previous Games. What time is the opening ceremony? The opening ceremony will actually happen Friday, Feb. 7 at 11 a.m. EST, but NBC decided it will delay airing the spectacle in the U.S. until 7:30 p.m. Weirdly, this is actually a day after the athletic competitions begin. How can I watch? If you’ve got a television, you’ll find the opening ceremony on your local NBC affiliate at 7:30 p.m EST. NBC is live-streaming every single Winter Olympics sporting event on its website and mobile apps, but alas, it’s not streaming the opening ceremony. Aereo, if it’s available in your area, provides an Internet-based option for those sans-TV. Otherwise, call up your local sports bar and see if they’re playing the ceremony. What’s Russia got planned? It’s hard to say exactly what’s hiding behind the Iron Curtain. There was a fireworks test this week, so we can safely expect some Putin-approved pyrotechnics. Daniel Ezralow, a Broadway choreographer famous for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, is leading a cast of about 80 professional dancers and hundreds of volunteers in a performance about “20th-century Russia,” he told People, so look out for performers with MAD dance moves, we guess. Russia’s world-famous for its classical composers, and several top contemporaries are expected to play a role in the opening ceremony. Russian pop band t.A.T.u, two teenagers who semi-pretended to be lesbians and were briefly crazy-popular in the mid-2000s, is rumored to be playing, whatever such a thing might say about Russia’s treatment of gay people. No word on an appearance by Springfield, Missouri indie-pop rockers Somebody Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin — but we’re crossing our пальцы. What’s up with the Parade of Nations? The Parade of Nations is one of the best known Olympic spectacles. It’s when all the athletes representing their respective countries in the Games get to walk around an arena decked out in patriotic colors while in alphabetical order by country name. That last part is very important — if a country leaves alphabetical order, it’s automatically disqualified from the Games. Or so I’m told. This year there’s a twist: The countries will be introduced in alphabetical order according to their Russian spelling. Per Olympic tradition, Greece goes first, alphabet be damned. In Sochi, thanks to Cyrillic, Ireland is relieved of its typical role as an awkward buffer between Iran, Iraq and Israel. Russia, as the host nation, will go last. MORE: Game On: Highlights From Day One Who’s carrying the Stars and Stripes? That’ll be 36-year old Todd Lodwick, a Nordic combined skier who’s been to the Olympics six times. And the flame? What’s the deal? Arguably the most important part of the opening ceremonies is the lighting of the official Olympic flame, which symbolizes Prometheus’ theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus (and the 2012 film Prometheus’ theft of my $12.75). Part of Olympics tradition is that the torch makes a relay trip around the world before it’s used to light the flame at the opening ceremonies. Before this year’s games, the Olympic torch (used to light the flame) went on its longest pre-Games relay in Olympic history, traveling to the North Pole, Europe’s highest mountain peak and the International Space Station. Sadly, one torchbearer died of a heart attack shortly after carrying the torch through a part of western Siberia. A double-rumor-with-a-twist this year: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s supposed girlfriend, a former Olympics champion, is rumored to be lighting the Olympic flame this year. This Olympics has more rumors than Fleetwood Mac. How long will this thing be? Previous ceremonies have clocked in at around four hours, or about half the length of the average Lord of the Rings Director’s Cut. Will this be as British as the 2012 opening ceremony? Not even in the slightest. The opening ceremony for 2012′s Summer Olympics had a distinctly British flavor, with polite nods to British history, jokes about Queen Elizabeth and appearances by famous British rockers The Who. Russia’s show, while still largely under wraps, will be much more, well, Russian. Expect classical music, ballerinas and, who knows, maybe even bears. Who’s Russia trying to beat? China. China’s opening ceremony was outstanding. ||||| Fireworks over the Fisht Stadium at the Olympic Park during the rehearsal of the opening ceremony. Much secrecy surrounds the Sochi Olympics opening ceremony, but we know one thing for certain: If the rest of the Games are any indication, then the scale planned by Vladimir Putin’s Olympic Committee will go unmatched in size and pomp. You can expect the ceremony to be a grand retrospective of Russia’s history from medieval times to the present, complete with ancient warriors and modern-day Cossacks, tzars and pop idols, golden-domed cathedrals and make-believe space journeys. What follows is a brief introduction to some of the sights and characters that might make an appearance during Friday’s extravaganza, which airs at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time on NBC.

– The Olympics opening ceremony starts at precisely 11:14am Eastern time today—that's 20:14 in Sochi, meant to "symbolize the year of the first-ever Russian Winter Games," the official press release explains. (NBC won't air the ceremony until 7:30pm Eastern, Time notes.) What to expect? RIA Novosti reports that the multimillion-dollar spectacle is top secret, with participants having been sworn to silence, but we already know a good deal: The Olympic anthem will be sung in Russian by opera singer Anna Netrebko. Russian band tATu will also perform, the Telegraph reports. (Amusingly, the ceremony producer explains that tATu is "one of the few popular Russian bands that are also known in other countries.") Vladimir Putin will be there, of course, to declare the games open. But he won't be parachuting into the ceremony, the producer jokes. As for the final torchbearer and any other special guests, though, those are still secret. (Putin's rumored girlfriend, a past Olympics champ, is whispered to be the one lighting the flame.) The two-and-a-half-hour extravaganza will celebrate Russia's history, and will include more than 40 heads of state and delegations; more than 3,000 school-age participants; professional dance, acrobatic, and circus performers; and more than 6,000 costumes. "It shows all of Russian history, apart from the revolution," says an Olympic Park worker who saw a rehearsal. "There is no Lenin or Stalin." Expect other Russian traditions, like Matryoshka nesting dolls and troika (a carriage driven by three horses), to somehow make an appearance, the Christian Science Monitor reports. There will be a "special flooring" showing a projected image of the Earth that rotates, and athletes will march up "from the heart of their country's territory," the producer says. "They will arrive at the stadium just like the ancient heroes of Greece." The countries are announced in alphabetical order, but this year, they'll be in alphabetical order according to their Russian spelling. Two exceptions: Greece is always announced first, and the host nation last. Needless to say, security at Olympic Park got even tighter today, USA Today reports. No one is allowed in without tickets and credentials, and the number of police and military officers roaming about is rising. And, following a warning about toothpaste explosives, the TSA is banning carry-on liquids on all US-to-Russia flights.

Image copyright Silviu Petrovan/Mihai Leu Image caption A mallard duck closes in on a fledgling black redstart Wild mallard ducks have been observed attacking and eating migratory birds. This has never been documented before and is probably a new behaviour, say scientists. Zoologists at the University of Cambridge filmed a group of mallard ducks hunting other birds on a reservoir in Romania. Two fledglings - a grey wagtail and a black redstart - were chased and swallowed when they landed in the water. Mallards are one of the most abundant types of wild duck, and a common sight in parks and on lakes. The duck normally snacks on seeds, acorns, berries, plants and insects. It has, on occasions, been seen to eat small fish, but bigger vertebrates are normally strictly off the menu. Image copyright Silviu Petrovan/Mihai Leu Image caption The black redstart is captured Dr Silviu Petrovan noticed the unusual behaviour of a group of mallards while he was out bird watching with friends near a national park in southwest Romania. He saw the adult female duck grab the grey wagtail in her beak, and repeatedly submerge it in the water, before eventually eating it. A second bird - a fledgling black redstart - then landed in the water, where it was chased by juvenile mallard ducks. "The poor bird landed on the water and was screaming and trying to navigate itself out of danger," said Dr Petrovan. "Then it was almost instantaneously attacked by the mallards." The bird eventually disappeared - assumed to be drowned or consumed. The scientists could find no record of mallard bird predation in the scientific literature, which suggests such behaviour is both "very rare" and newly-learned. "The mallard was massively struggling to eat that wagtail, presumably because it couldn't actually tear it to pieces because the bill is flattened - it's not designed for ripping prey apart," said Dr Petrovan. "Digesting bones and feathers - that's not something that mallards have really evolved to do." Image copyright Silviu Petrovan/Mihai Leu Image caption The unfortunate grey wagtail is swallowed almost whole Ducks by nature are seldom aggressive and tend not to enjoy novel food. However, mallards in California have been seen to enter the sea to feed on sand crabs, perhaps to find new sources of high-energy protein. The same may be happening at the reservoir, which is largely deep-water. "Potentially there is quite a lot of pressure for those fast-growing juveniles to get animal protein intake, and therefore they are looking at opportunities to supplement that," said Dr Petrovan. "But, the fact that these individuals seem to have learnt how to hunt birds is pretty extraordinary." The findings are published in the journal, Waterbirds. Follow Helen on Twitter. ||||| The Mallard ( Anas platyrhynchos ) is one of the largest and most abundant and widespread duck species in the world, and also the most hunted waterfowl species in Europe with around 4.5 million birds shot annually ( Hirschfeld and Heyd 2005 ). Mallards are widely adaptable, from sedentary or dispersive to fully migratory, and they inhabit almost every wetland type from natural to man-made, including reservoirs, urban parks and irrigation canals ( Carboneras 1992 ). Due to their importance as a game species and as the wild relative of the domestic duck, Mallard diet has been well described. They are regarded as omnivorous, feeding by dabbling in shallow water under 1 m in depth and by grazing on land ( Snow and Perrins 1998 ). Their diet primarily consists of aquatic and terrestrial plants as well as various terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates ( Dessborn et al. 2011 ), but may occasionally include amphibians or fish ( Carboneras 1992 ; Olsen et al. 2011 ). The digestible protein content of the food, especially animal protein from insect larvae, appears to be a major factor for the survival and growth rate of the ducklings ( Street 1978 ). High-protein food is also required by Mallards during egg-laying, whereas other energy-demanding phases rely on food of plant origin to increase fat deposits ( Pehrsson 1984 ). Experimental work on nutrient-poor lakes in Sweden suggested that food limitation and adverse weather are major factors for high duckling mortality and why some lakes have low abundance or even absence of dabbling ducks ( Gunnarson et al. 2004 ). However, even during periods when the requirement for animal protein is at its highest, Mallards focus on aquatic invertebrates, and information on vertebrate predation is generally rarely reported. We report the first documented cases of hunting and consumption of birds by wild Mallards. Methods The Trei Ape reservoir (45° 12′ N, 22° 08′ E), bordering the Semenic-Caras Gorges National Park (Natura 2000 ROSCI0226 site) in southwest Romania, was visited over 6 days in July 2016. The reservoir, created in 1970, is a large, 53-ha freshwater body at 850-m altitude, with a maximum depth around 30 m and a relatively complex structure following river valleys in three main directions. It has moderate usage for tourism activities including camping, rowing and angling, primarily for European chub ( Squalius cephalus), European perch ( Perca fluviatilis ), brown trout ( Salmo trutta fario ) and Zander ( Sander lucioperca ). The edges of the reservoir are largely covered by woodland, mostly deciduous, with beech ( Fagus sylvatica ) and alder ( Alnus glutinosa ), scrub, and conifers, mainly Norway spruce ( Picea abies ). Sheep ( Ovis aries ) summer pastures cover the higher slopes of the northern shore. Most of the reservoir is deep, open water with little or no aquatic vegetation. However, dense and tall riparian vegetation areas exist where the three main streams feed into the lake, and large populations of amphibians, primarily common frog ( Ranatemporaria ) and common toad ( Bufo bufo ), breed in these sections ( Petrovan et al. 2006 ). Small numbers of Mallards (30–50 pairs), Grey Herons ( Ardea cinerea ) and Moorhen ( Gallinula chloropus ) are typically encountered on the water's edge during March–October, together with more occasional observations of species such as Black Stork ( Ciconia nigra ). During May-September, large numbers of summer migrants, especially Black Redstarts ( Phoenicuros ochruros ), Barn Swallows ( Hirundo rustica ), House Martins ( Delichon urbicum ), and Red-backed Shrikes ( Lanius collurio), as well as other resident passerine birds such as Black-birds ( Turdus merula ), breed and raise their young on the edges of the reservoir. The Mallards are not fed by people and generally maintain a large flight distance. Results A group of Mallards ( n = 11) was observed on 17 July 2016 in the eastern part of the lake, in overcast weather with a temperature of 18 °C, starting at 17:30 hr. The group consisted of one adult female with 10 subadults of consistent size, ~2/3 of the adult size and with incompletely formed plumage. Using binoculars and telephoto lenses, we observed the Mallards for ~15 min during their foraging activities at the water's edge. They were vigorously shaking the riparian and scrub vegetation on the bank. Following this activity, the adult Mallard was observed repeatedly shaking its head laterally and compressing a passerine bird in its bill. The bird was identified from pictures and recording video as a Grey Wagtail fledgling with almost complete plumage ( Fig. 1 ). The adult Mallard was repeatedly mobbed by the vocalizing subadults trying to remove parts of the bird carcass, but the adult defended it. The adult Mallard had obvious difficulties with swallowing the whole bird, partly due to the extended wings of the Grey Wagtail. The female Mallard repeatedly submerged the carcass, repositioned it in its bill and tilted its head backward, a process lasting over 10 min until the Grey Wagtail was eventually entirely consumed. During this time, a second bird was flushed from the bankside vegetation by the activity of the subadults shaking the long undergrowth, and landed on the water surface, some 30 m from the bank and 12 m away from the Mallard group. The bird, identified from pictures as a fledgling Black Redstart ( Fig. 2 ), opened its wings and started thrashing on the water's surface giving out distress calls. The Black Redstart was chased by several subadult Mallards and was repeatedly attacked, grabbed and submerged as the ducks tried to swallow it or remove parts of it. Following continuous attacks by between two to five Mallards positioned in a circle, the Black Redstart disappeared, either drowned and submerged or consumed by one or more of the subadults. During the attack, which lasted less than 3 min, the subadult Mallards continued to vocalize in short, repeated calls while trying to take control of the prey. The entire group of Mallards, including the adult female, then emerged onto a floating tree trunk for basking and preening as the group entered a phase of rest. Figure 1. Figure 2. Discussion Remarkably for such a widespread and well-studied species, these are, to our knowledge, the first observations of avian hunting and predation by Mallards. The completely new behavior exhibited by this group is even more significant considering that vertebrate consumption has rarely been described in this species and almost only on fish ( Carboneras 1992 ; Olsen et al. 2011 ). Even Pekin (domestic) ducks ( A. platyrhynchos domesticus ) do not exhibit a tendency for aggressive and predatory behavior in commercial farming compared to other species such as Muscovy Ducks ( Cairina moschata ) ( Riber and Mensh 2008 ). Also, comparing wild and domesticated Mallards in an experimental setting demonstrated that wild Mallards show significant avoidance and reticence toward novel food ( Desforges and Wood-Gush 1975 ), possibly as an indication of either dietary conservatism or neophobia. This fits the wider literature observations of avian predators often avoiding novel insect prey ( Coppinger 1969 ) or reduced predation rates by birds of prey of songbird species with conspicuous plumage ( Götmark 1994 ). However, Mallards have recently been shown to learn to exploit new food sources, such as entering the sea to predate Pacific sand crabs ( Emerita analoga ) in multiple locations in California ( Lafferty et al. 2013 ). The fact that one predation event was conducted solely by the subadults, with great speed and with no hesitation, suggests they were experienced enough in such bird attacks to overcome any dietary conservatism. Yet, it seems unlikely that Mallards would have much success at capturing birds outside of the bird breeding season when fledglings are abundant, both on land and at the water's edge. Innovation during foraging can result in the development of new behaviors or the modification of existing ones to take advantage of new opportunities in the environment, such as the exploitation of new food sources ( Overington et al. 2011 ). If Mallards were limited by the lack of animal protein, for instance due to intense competition for insect larvae by fish introduced for angling ( Hill et al. 1987 ), it is possible that the inclusion of a new, energy-rich food source would offer a significant advantage at a critical time of the year. However, behavior innovation can increase risks, and predation of birds by Mallards could increase transmission of pathogens such as parasites or Salmonella, which has been found to be associated with raptors that predate other bird species ( Tizard 2004 ). Literature Cited Carboneras, C. 1992. Family Anatidae (ducks, geese and swans). Pages 536–628 in Handbook of the Birds of the World, vol. 1: Ostrich to Ducks ( J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott and J. Sargatal, Eds.). Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. Google Scholar Coppinger, R. P. 1969. The effect of experience and novelty on avian feeding behavior with reference to the evolution of warning coloration in butterflies part I: reactions of wild-caught adult blue jays to novel insects. Behaviour 35: 45–59. Google Scholar Desforges, M. F. and D. G. M. Wood-Gush. 1975. A behavioural comparison of domestic and mallard ducks. Habituation and flight reactions. Animal Behaviour 23: 692–697. Google Scholar Dessborn, L., A. L. Brochet, J. Elmberg, P. Legagneux, M. Gauthier-Clerc and M. Guillemain. 2011. Geographical and temporal patterns in the diet of pintail Anas acuta, wigeon Anas penelope, mallard Anas platyrhynchos and teal Anas crecca in the Western Palearctic. European Journal of Wildlife Research 57: 1119–1129. Google Scholar Götmark, F. 1994. Does a novel bright colour patch increase or decrease predation? Red wings reduce predation risk in European blackbirds. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 256: 83–87. Google Scholar Gunnarsson, G., J. Elmberg, K. Sjöberg, H. Pöysä and P. Nummi. 2004. Why are there so many empty lakes? Food limits survival of mallard ducklings. Canadian Journal of Zoology 82: 1698–1703. Google Scholar Hill, D., R. Wright and M. Street. 1987. Survival of mallard ducklings Anas platyrhynchos and competition with fish for invertebrates on a flooded gravel quarry in England. Ibis 129: 159–167. Google Scholar Hirschfeld, A. and A. Heyd. 2005. Mortality of migratory birds caused by hunting in Europe: bag statistics and proposals for the conservation of birds and animal welfare. Berichte zum Vogelschutz 42: 47–74. (In German with English Abstract). Google Scholar Lafferty, K. D., J. P. McLaughlin and J. E. Dugan. 2013. Novel foraging in the swash zone on Pacific sand crabs ( Emerita analoga, Hippidae) by Mallards. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 125: 423–426. Google Scholar Olsen, R. E., R. R. Cox, A. D. Afton and C. D. Ankney. 2011. Diet and gut morphology of male Mallards during winter in North Dakota. Waterbirds. 34: 59– 69. Google Scholar Overington, S. E., L. Cauchard, K. A. Côté and L. Lefebvre. 2011. Innovative foraging behaviour in birds: what characterizes an innovator? Behavioural Processes 87: 274–285. Google Scholar Pehrsson, O. 1984. Relationships of food to spatial and temporal breeding strategies of Mallards in Sweden. Journal of Wildlife Management 48: 322–339. Google Scholar Petrovan, S. O., V. D. Popescu and C. Tetelea. 2006. Monitoring the amphibian fauna in Semenic-Caras Gorges National Park, Romania. Unpublished report prepared for the Rufford Foundation, Societas Herpetologica RomaniaResita, , Romania. Google Scholar Riber, A. B. and J. A. Mench. 2008. Effects of feed- and water-based enrichment on activity and cannibalism in Muscovy ducklings. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 114: 429–440. Google Scholar Snow, D. W. and C. M. Perrins (Eds.). 1998. The birds of the Western Palearctic (concise edition), vol. 1: nonpasserines. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. Google Scholar Street, M. 1978. The role of insects in the diet of Mallard ducklings - an experimental approach. Wildfowl 29: 93–100. Google Scholar Tizard, I. 2004. Salmonellosis in wild birds. Seminars in Avian and Exotic Pet Medicine 13: 50–66. Google Scholar

– You probably thought ducks were cute waddlers who liked to eat your stale bread. Poof, your bubble has been burst. The BBC reports wild mallard ducks have been spotted eating other birds, swallowing one nearly whole, an "extraordinary" behavior that has never been observed before. Zoologist Silviu Petrovan of the University of Cambridge was birdwatching at a reservoir in Romania when he spotted a flock of mallards hunting a fledgling that had landed on the water. A female duck grabbed the grey wagtail in her beak, dunked it several times beneath the water, then ate it, Petrovan says. A black redstart landed soon after and "was almost instantaneously attacked" by 10 juveniles, per the study in the journal Waterbirds. Though mallards in California have been sighted munching on sand crabs, the ducks usually eat plants, insects, and the occasional small fish. As far as scientists can tell, such predatory behavior not involving fish or amphibians has never been seen before. It's not only "very rare" but also likely a new phenomenon, says Petrovan, noting mallards have "not ... really evolved" to digest bones and feathers. "The mallard was massively struggling to eat that wagtail, presumably because it couldn't actually tear it to pieces" due to the design of its bill. So why would a duck eat a bird at all? Petrovan suggests "pressure for those fast-growing juveniles to get animal protein intake." (These birds are probably safe.)

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. ||||| Shutterstock If you've been led to believe that having more sex will make you happier, then we're sorry, but you've been grossly misinformed. The reason for this, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have determined, is because increased frequency of sexual activity leads to a decline in wanting sex, therefore reducing enjoyment. In the first study to examine the connection between sexual frequency and happiness, 128 healthy individuals between the ages of 35 and 65 who were part of a married male-female couple were assigned randomly to one of two groups. The first of these two groups received no instructions on sexual frequency, the second were asked to double their weekly sexual intercourse. Each couple was asked questions on a daily basis during the experiment about their health, their happiness and the enjoyableness of their sex. Those who were instructed to have more sexual intercourse experienced a small, but discernible decrease in their happiness, as well as lower sexual desire and a decrease in sexual enjoyment. This was not necessarily having more sex, the researchers concluded, but because they were asked to do it, rather than initiating it themselves. "Perhaps couples changed the story they told themselves about why they were having sex, from an activity voluntarily engaged in to one that was part of a research study. If we ran the study again, and could afford to do it, we would try to encourage subjects into initiating more sex in ways that put them in a sexy frame of mind, perhaps with babysitting, hotel rooms or Egyptian sheets, rather than directing them to do so," said George Loewenstein, the study's lead author. Ultimately, the researchers believe that while having more sex doesn't make people happier, it will only actively decrease their happiness if they are forced to increase the amount of sex they are having without making that decision themselves. Don't miss "Instead of focusing on increasing sexual frequency to the levels they experienced at the beginning of a relationship, couples may want to work on creating an environment that sparks their desire and makes the sex that they do have even more fun," suggests Tamar Krishnamurti, one of the study's designers. The moral of the story, folks, is that it's all about quality over quantity. ||||| Credit: Charles Rondeau/public domain Countless research and self-help books claim that having more sex will lead to increased happiness, based on the common finding that those having more sex are also happier. However, there are many reasons why one might observe this positive relationship between sex and happiness. Being happy in the first place, for example, might lead someone to have more sex (what researchers call 'reverse causality'), or being healthy might result in being both happier and having more sex. In the first study to examine the causal connection between sexual frequency and happiness, Carnegie Mellon University researchers experimentally assigned some couples to have more sex than others, and observed both group's happiness over a three month period. In a paper published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, they report that simply having more sex did not make couples happier, in part because the increased frequency led to a decline in wanting for and enjoyment of sex. One hundred and twenty eight healthy individuals between the ages of 35-65 who were in married male-female couples participated in the research. The researchers randomly assigned the couples to one of two groups. The first group received no instructions on sexual frequency. The second group was asked to double their weekly sexual intercourse frequency. Each member of the participating couples completed three different types of surveys. At the beginning of the study, they answered questions to establish baselines. Daily during the experimental period, the participants answered questions online to measure health behaviors, happiness levels and the occurrence, type and enjoyableness of sex. The exit survey analyzed whether baseline levels changed over the three-month period. The couples instructed to increase sexual frequency did have more sex. However, it did not lead to increased, but instead to a small decrease, in happiness. Looking further, the researchers found that couples instructed to have more sex reported lower sexual desire and a decrease in sexual enjoyment. It wasn't that actually having more sex led to decreased wanting and liking for sex. Instead, it seemed to be just the fact that they were asked to do it, rather than initiating on their own. "Perhaps couples changed the story they told themselves about why they were having sex, from an activity voluntarily engaged in to one that was part of a research study. If we ran the study again, and could afford to do it, we would try to encourage subjects into initiating more sex in ways that put them in a sexy frame of mind, perhaps with baby-sitting, hotel rooms or Egyptian sheets, rather than directing them to do so," said George Loewenstein, the study's lead investigator and the Herbert A. Simon University Professor of Economics and Psychology in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Despite the study's results, Loewenstein continues to believe that most couples have too little sex for their own good, and thinks that increasing sexual frequency in the right ways can be beneficial. One of the study's designers, Tamar Krishnamurti, suggested that the study's findings may actually help couples to improve their sex lives and their happiness. "The desire to have sex decreases much more quickly than the enjoyment of sex once it's been initiated. Instead of focusing on increasing sexual frequency to the levels they experienced at the beginning of a relationship, couples may want to work on creating an environment that sparks their desire and makes the sex that they do have even more fun," said Krishnamurti, a research scientist in CMU's Department of Engineering and Public Policy. Explore further: Same-sex marriages and heterosexual marriages show similar longevity More information: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, www.journals.elsevier.com/jour … pen-access-articles/

– You've heard the message, seen the magazine covers: Having more sex will make you happier. A new study out of Carnegie Mellon University, however, suggests that the opposite is true, according to a post at Phys.org. In their experiment, researchers asked one group of married couples to have twice as much weekly sex as usual over a three-month period, and they gave no instructions to a second group. All the couples filled out surveys along the way, and, as Bustle notes, "this is where things get weird." Those who had double the amount of sex reported lower levels of sexual enjoyment and happiness at the end of the experiment than they did at the beginning. The lead researcher is the first to acknowledge that the reason might be because the couples were instructed to have more sex as part of a research experiment, not the most thrilling of circumstances. He elaborates, with some oddly specific advice: "If we ran the study again, and could afford to do it, we would try to encourage subjects into initiating more sex in ways that put them in a sexy frame of mind, perhaps with baby-sitting, hotel rooms, or Egyptian sheets, rather than directing them to do so." Another researcher adds that couples should be less focused on numbers and more on creating the right environment when they do have sex. Or as Wired sums up: "The moral of the story, folks, is that it's all about quality over quantity." (Another study finds that millennials will have fewer sexual partners than their parents.)

VMAs 2012: Rihanna RiRi is set to take the stage at MTV's annual awards show. MORE >> It looks like music’s most notoriously on-and-off couple are back on. Rihanna and Chris Brown were spotted at celebrity hotspot Griffin, a New York City nightclub, getting hot and heavy on the dance floor Monday night. An eyewitness exclusively tells Celebuzz the two were “hugging and kissing, and they went to the back of the club alone together.” What other steamy details can we reveal? Rihanna showed up to the nightclub only five minutes after Brown had arrived with Bow Wow (other celebrities in the crowd included Dave Chappelle, Cassidy, Chris Rock and Tyson Beckford.) The 24-year-old and Brown were set up at separate tables, two apart from one another, and our source says Brown immediately “climbed over the center to get to her.” Once 23-year-old Brown made his way over to his ex-girlfriend, he removed his shirt and started “dancing on the table for Rihanna” and the two began “dancing together and being very smitten,” says the eyewitness. The two certainly didn’t hide their affection for one another, as numerous people witnessed their dirty dancing and steamy kissing in the club. Brown left Griffin first at approximately 3:50 a.m.; Rihanna exited only moments later. And what about Brown’s girlfriend, Karrueche Tran? She was nowhere to be seen, according to the eyewitness. A rep for the nightclub confirms to Celebuzz that both Rihanna and Chris Brown were in attendance last night. What do you think of their public hook-up? Sound off in the comments section below. Go around the world and learn where your favorite celebs are today in The Daily’s Buzz’s ‘Globetrotter’ segment. WATCH FULL SEGMENT BELOW. Watch The Daily Buzz each weekday at 4.30 pm ET. ||||| Chris Brown caught sneaking out of Rihanna’s hotel to meet up with girlfriend Karrueche Tran One woman apparently isn't enough for the hot-headed singer. Brown was spotted leaving a Manhattan hotel where ex-girlfriend Rihanna is staying, then heading to another hotel to meet current girlfriend, Karrueche Tran. Chris Brown was spotted sneaking out of ex-girlfriend Rihanna's Manhattan hotel on Tuesday. After he left, Rihanna made her way to a recording studio in SoHo. One woman just isn't enough for singer Chris Brown. The R&B star was spotted sneaking out of ex-girlfriend Rihanna’s Manhattan hotel just before he picked up current girlfriend, model Karrueche Tran, on Tuesday. PHOTOS: RIHANNA'S NAUGHTIEST MOMENTS Brown, 23, left the Gansevoort Park Hotel, where Rihanna is reportedly staying, in a black hoodie, sweatpants and camouflage hat. He was then photographed meeting Tran at another hotel. Around the same time, a smiling Rihanna, 24, was snapped heading from her hotel to a recording studio in SoHo. BROWN & RIHANNA 'CAUGHT KISSING,' DISAPPEARING INTO BATHROOM AT NYC CLUB Late Tuesday, Tran hinted at turmoil on Twitter. “Remember, I said I prefer men,” the 23-year-old wrote, fueling rumors of relationship trouble between her and Brown. Hall/Pena, PacificCoastNews.com/Hall/Pena, PacificCoastNews.com PHOTOS: CHRISTINA AGUILERA'S AMAZING CHANGING BODY The hot-headed singer, arrested in 2009 for brutally beating then-girlfriend Rihanna, was also spotted with his ex Monday night at Meatpacking District nightclub. Club-goers “saw them kissing,” Confidenti@l reported. Brown and Rihanna have been linked several times since their split, reportedly infuriating Tran. [email protected] ||||| Chris Brown & Rihanna Get Physical Go Public andare barely trying to hide it anymore -- getting up close and personal at a NYC nightclub late Monday night ... then carousing at Rihanna's hotel for hours.Chris and Rihanna hit up Griffin nightclub in the Meatpacking District -- we're told they arrived 5 minutes apart, and quickly ended up at the same table. Sources inside the club say the two were all over each other, and even disappeared together in a bathroom for 20 minutes.People inside the club say the duo were kissing and hugging out in the open.The two left the club separately -- but hours later, Chris was spotted leaving the Gansevoort Hotel, where Rihanna was staying.By the way, Tuesday afternoon, Chris' clueless GF Karrueche tweeted that Chris sent her roses, a teddy bear and chocolates -- maybe a lame, "I'm sorry."So we gotta ask ... ||||| Are Rihanna and Chris Brown about to go public with an on-again romance? It certainly seemed that way Wednesday night at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, NYC, where the pair attended Jay-Z's sold-out concert and took no pains to hide their affection. PHOTOS: Rihanna and Chris through the years About a month after their public lip-lock at the MTV Video Music Awards, Rihanna, 24, and ex Brown, 23 were "cuddled up" at the rapper's show, one source tells Us Weekly. "They walked into the VIP section together. He had her arm around her." VIDEO: Rihanna breaks down to Oprah over Chris Another insider adds that the couple (who publicly split in February 2009 after Brown's infamous assault of Rihanna) were seated near Jay-Z's wife Beyonce plus singers Rita Ora and Santigold. "Don't Wake Me Up" singer was spotted kissing Rihanna's cheek, and kept his around her. "They weren't looking like they were expecting people to be shocked at all," the first source says. "Totally casual about it." Adds the second insider: "They looked full on back together." PHOTOS: Rihanna's craziest looks Earlier that evening, both Rihanna and Brown were photographed — separately — leaving the Ganservoort Hotel, where the "S & M" chanteuse has been staying. Making their reunion even more complicated? For over a year, Brown has been dating model Karrueche Tran, with no news of a confirmed split between the pair. After Brown and Rihanna were spotted earlier this week making out at an NYC club, Tran angrily tweeted, "There's a difference between a man and a boy." She added, "I prefer men." Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox! Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now! ||||| Chris Brown is officially back on the market. After a complicated year-long romance, the "Don't Wake Me Up" singer, 23, and aspiring model Karrueche Tran have ended their romance. "I have decided to be single to focus on my career," Brown tells Us Weekly. "I love Karrueche very much but I don't want to see her hurt over my friendship with Rihanna. I'd rather be single allowing us to both be happy in our lives." PHOTOS: Rihanna and Chris' romance Indeed, Tran, 23, entered the public spotlight in February of this year –after Us Weekly broke news that Brown was secretly hooking up with his most famous ex-girlfriend Rihanna, 24. "She definitely chased Chris, and it worked! He was really into her in the beginning," a source told Us at the time of the couple. As reports of Brown and Rihanna's secret trysts continued to emerge throughout 2012, the two women frequently swapped insults over Twitter; according to sources, Tran has long been aware of Brown's cheating. PHOTOS: Stars who've survived abuse Things came to a head last month, when Brown (who assaulted Rihanna in February 2009) kissed Rihanna on the lips in front of a huge crowd at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles. The photographed smooch "totally pissed off" Tran, a source told Us. VIDEO: Rihanna breaks down to Oprah "She felt the kiss was a public slap in the face . . . Seeing him with Rihanna at such a public event made her very angry." (Rihanna also opened up about Brown in an emotional Aug. 19 interview with Oprah Winfrey on Oprah's Next Chapter, calling the singer "the love of my life." This past week, Rihanna and Brown were spotting making out at an NYC club — and having an affectionate date at a Wednesday Jay-Z concert in Brooklyn. Of the announced split, a pal says: "Chris really wants to be free to pursue Rihanna now that she wants him back. They will be together, trust me. I always told you he'd go back to Rihanna in a heartbeat when she was ready." Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox! Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now! ||||| By Amber Goodhand – Radar News Editor Chris Brown was spotted leaving Rihanna‘s New York hotel and the two were later seen hanging out at the same nightclub together, just one night after they were caught making out at a different nightclub and RadarOnline.com has photos and video. PHOTOS: Rihanna & Chris Brown Leave The Same Hotel On The Same Night The two singers were photographed by numerous partygoers at 1OAK in the wee hours of Wednesday morning getting awfully close. “Chris arrived around 2 a.m. with friends and was drinking Champagne,” a source told the New York Post. PHOTOS: Rihanna In August Issue Of Harper’s BAZAAR “Then, around 3 a.m., Rihanna came in with some girlfriends, and then went directly to his table.” And it’s no coincidence that because Rihanna and Chris have been virtually inseparable over the last few days, he has broken up with his long-time girlfriend, Karreuche Tran — as RadarOnline.com was first to report! “Karreuche finally had enough and dumped Chris for good. Karreuche and Chris had been on thin ice for a while, but after he was spotted getting with Nicole Scherzinger in a Los Angeles nightclub recently, and then when reports surfaced that he had hooked up with Rihanna — so she finally dumped him,” a source close to the situation told Radar. PHOTOS: Rihanna And Rob Kardashian Hit The Town Chris confirmed the breakup on Wednesday saying, “I have decided to be single to focus on my career. I love Karrueche very much but I don’t want to see her hurt over my friendship with Rihanna. “I’d rather be single allowing us to both be happy in our lives.” RELATED STORIES: Rihanna Ready To Go To Court To Help Ex-Boyfriend Chris Brown! Chris Brown Tests Positive For Marijuana: Could Face Probation Violation! Dental Disturbia! Rihanna Shows Off Her New Gold ‘Grillz’ Did Chris Brown Get Rihanna’s Battered Face Tattooed On His Neck? ||||| Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Rihanna and Chris Brown were caught together at another New York club, 1Oak, just one night after they were spotted making out — and locking themselves in the bathroom together — at Griffin. Sources told us the troubled off-on lovers reunited at 1Oak at 3 a.m. yesterday morning. PHOTOS: RIHANNA “Chris arrived around 2 a.m. with friends and was drinking Champagne,” while DJ Sam French, Daniel Chetrit and E Rock spun tunes, a source told us. “Then, around 3 a.m., Rihanna came in with some girlfriends, and then went directly to his table.” Sources said the pair continued their public display of affection and left together in an SUV around 4 a.m.

– Rumors of a Chris Brown-Rihanna reunion have been building for months—years, even—but they've really started to ramp up this week. And, conveniently enough, Brown today confirmed it's over between him and girlfriend Karrueche Tran after one year together. "I have decided to be single to focus on my career," Brown tells Us in a statement. "I love Karrueche very much but I don't want to see her hurt over my friendship with Rihanna." Sure, Chris, "friendship." Sure. Tran has never been a fan of Rihanna; the two have sparred over Twitter, and Tran was particularly upset when Brown kissed Rihanna on the lips at the MTV Video Music Awards. Sources say Tran has long known Brown is hooking up with Rihanna behind her back. This week, further evidence emerged that a full-fledged Brown-Rihanna reunion is in the cards: Monday night: They were spotted "hugging and kissing" on the dance floor at a New York nightclub, a source tells Celebuzz. Then "they went to the back of the club alone together." TMZ reports that they were in the bathroom together for 20 minutes, and that Brown was later spotted leaving Rihanna's hotel. (He met up with Tran soon after, the New York Daily News reports.) Tuesday night: Brown and Rihanna were spotted at yet another club together, Radar reports; the New York Post adds that they left together. Last night: They attended a Jay-Z concert in Brooklyn, and sources say they were "cuddled up" in the VIP section and "looked full-on back together." But they were "totally casual about it," not "expecting people to be shocked."

Animals Maintenance of and experiments on animals were approved by the Geneva Canton ethical regulation authority (authorization 1008/3421/1R) and performed according to the Swiss law. Skin structure and Raman spectroscopy We examined the skin (ultra)structure by histology and TEM, using standard procedures, for example, as described in ref. 14. Samples were taken with biopsy pinches (diameter 2 mm) from male skin patches: when comparing skin before and after excitation, biopsies were separated by a maximum distance of 1 cm. For the relaxed state, the biopsy was taken within a few seconds after taking the animal from its cage and immediately placed in fixative. For the excited state, the animal was engaged in a male–male combat and a biopsy was taken again. The colour of skin biopsies was checked after fixation, to ensure that only those samples with well-preserved colours were used for TEM. Semi-thin (2 μm) and ultra-thin (80–90 nm) cross-sections were cut with a diamond knife on a Leica UCT microtome. Ultra-thin sections were viewed with a Tecnai G2 Sphera (FEI) TEM at 120 kV before and after staining with uranyl acetate and lead citrate. Raman spectroscopy16 was performed on melanophores directly on 2 μm cross-sections of skin samples with a home-made micro-Raman system composed of a 50-cm focal length spectrometer coupled to a nitrogen-cooled Princeton charge-coupled device detector and an argon laser (wavelength 514.5 nm) as the excitation source. Nanocrystal measurements For S-iridophores, crystal height, length and spacing between nearest crystals were measured on unstained and stained sections (original magnification × 19,000) of the same skin samples. Distances between nearest crystals were similar for unstained (179.9±30.2, N=85) and stained (180.3±26.9, N=94) sections. A first set of experiments indicated that the average diameter of the more or less spherical ‘holes’ remaining after staining (124.2 nm, N=103) reasonably approximates the average size of intact crystals (length=149.7±15.3 nm, height=94.7±11.5 nm, N=145). Hence, all Supplementary Data were collected on multiple TEM images of stained sections (performed on samples obtained from skin of various colours; Supplementary Table 1). For D-iridophores, white ‘rectangular holes’ (Fig. 1e; corresponding to guanine crystals dissolved during post staining) on × 800 magnification TEM images were fitted (in JMicroVision36) with ellipses and geometric parameters (length, height and orientation) were computed subsequently. We performed Fourier transform analyses (as described in ref. 28), for each skin sample, on large assemblies of 20–30 high-resolution TEM images (1 pixel=15 nm, typical size of a guanine crystal=200 nm) spanning over 100 × 100 μm, that is, about 50 times the length of the longest wavelength investigated inside the material (corresponding to 2.5 μm in vacuum). Each assembly included more than 100,000 crystals. Photometry High-quality photographs and movies were obtained with a high-resolution digital single-lens reflex camera (Nikon D800) and a Panasonic HDC-HS700 video camera, respectively. To analyse each video frame (Supplementary Fig. 2a), RGB band-pass filters were applied (Supplementary Fig. 2b) to select a colour window through which the variations of RGB channels were monitored (Supplementary Fig. 2c). The corresponding RGB numbers of each frame were averaged across the picture (Supplementary Fig. 2d) and normalized over the sum (R+G+B) (Supplementary Fig. 2e), to remove fluctuations of illumination as well as potential global variation in skin reflectivity caused by movements of melanosomes. Next, each channel was normalized from 0 to 1 (Supplementary Fig. 2f), to exclusively measure the variation occurring (in S-iridophores) over a relatively constant background colour (generated by D-iridophores and/or pigments). After transformation of RGB numbers from video into CIE XYZ tristimulus values, we derived the final x and y values that define colour irrespective of its luminance. Experimental traces (dots) are plotted and compared with the model (dashed line) on the CIE chromaticity chart (Figs 1b and 2c). Skin reflectivity in the ultraviolet range, highly relevant for colour perception in reptiles37, 38, is not recorded by RGB photometry. This does not have an impact on our conclusions, as the excellent matching between the modelled photonic response and photometry analyses validates our conclusions. In addition, photometric measurements have been validated with accurate spectroscopic measurements ex vivo (Fig. 2b) and show that XYZ/RGB photometric videography is sufficient to detect the wavelength shift in the reflectivity spectrum. In-vivo measurements of skin reflectivity (including in the ultraviolet range) with spectrometers directly on the animal skin are difficult, mainly because the animals move and because chameleon skin darkens very rapidly when it comes in contact with the optical probe. Optical modelling The symmetry of the close-packed photonic crystals present in the top layer (S-iridophores) of the skin was deduced from direct observations, under TEM, of crystals sectioned in different planes (Fig. 1d). The structural element common to all close-packed structures is a triangular two-dimensional arrangement. Studies of the effect of symmetry variations (pp. 307–308 in ref. 39) have indicated that, for a/λ<1 the optical response is mostly sensitive to the first Fourier component of the dielectric modulation. All close-packed structures have the same first-order Fourier component. To model the photonic structure effect that corresponds to our samples, it is therefore sufficient to choose face-centred cubic crystal symmetry. Crystal diameter (d) and distance between centres of nearest crystals (s) were measured (on about 1,200 individual crystals, Supplementary Table 1) on TEM images as described above and the lattice parameter a was computed as s√2. The first irreducible Brillouin zone (red lined contour in Supplementary Fig. 3b) was meshed and the band energies were computed for each vertex centre using block-iterative frequency-domain methods as implemented in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology photonic band package26. For each direction of light propagation in the structure (that is, each mesh triangle centre at the surface of the Brillouin zone), the reflectivity was set to unity in gapped frequency regions. As no preferential orientation of photonic crystals relative to the skin surface was observed in S-iridophores, the weighted average among all directions was computed using the dimensionless a/λ parameter, where λ refers to the corresponding light wavelength in air and a represents the lattice parameter. The refractive indices of guanine and cytoplasm were set to 1.83 and 1.33, respectively13. Convolution of local and average reflectivity with standard spectral functions returns X, Y and Z colour numbers. Colour of each vertex and the average colour are plotted inside and outside of the irreducible Brillouin zone, respectively. Supplementary Movie 5 shows the evolution of local and average colours as the lattice parameter varies. Reflectivity measurements Reflectivity of skin samples was measured using a monochromatic source and the locked-in detection of a spectroscopic Woollam ellipsometer from 300 to 2,500 nm and with a resolution of 5 nm. Monochromatic light of the source was injected in one channel of a reflection fibre probe (QR400-7-VIS-NIR). The light reflected on the sample (near-normal incidence) was collected by the second optical fibre channel and guided to a silicon photodiode (for visible range) and constrained InGaAs detectors (for the near-infrared range). A white diffuse standard (Ocean Optics WS-1-SL) was used as reference. This set up allowed measurements in air or in a solution with adjustable osmolarity (from Ringer’s 1 × to 6 × , that is, from 236 to 1,416 mOsm). Single-cell videography Photometric videography on individual S-iridophores, were measured with adjustable osmolarity. Osmotic pressure was applied to fresh skin samples taken with biopsy pinches (diameter 2 mm) from white stripes of male panther chameleons. Samples were placed in a Ludin chamber where Ringer’s 1 × solution (236 mOsm) was slowly replaced with Ringer’s 4 × solution (944 mOsm). Full high-definition videos (1,920 × 1,080 pixels) were recorded with a Nikon D800 camera attached to a Leica MZ16 stereoscope. XYZ/RGB evolution of individual S-iridophores were obtained following the normalization procedure described in the ‘Photometry’ section. ||||| Scientists studying chameleon skin have discovered the secret to the lizards' color-changing prowess: Rather than relying purely on pigments, the animals use photonic nanocrystals in their skin to manipulate light with exquisite precision. The findings, described in the journal Nature Communications, showcase the remarkable abilities of these colorful creatures in a whole new light. The male panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis) of Madagascar is an extremely talented shade-shifter. His thick-striped body can go from a blue-green palette to a fiery yellow-red-orange in a matter of minutes, if he wants to show off to an interesting lady lizard or a competing male. When excited, their skin goes through some very specific color switches, the study authors wrote: Green goes to yellow or orange; blue patches turn whitish; and red becomes brighter and more uniform. Still, they’re kind of hard to actually find in the wild – their resting color scheme makes for remarkably effective camouflage. “I assure you: In Madagascar, they are really difficult to spot,” said study coauthor Michel Milinkovitch, a biophysicist at the University of Geneva. A male panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis) changes colors when it sees another adult male. This video is running at 8x speed. The first frame of the movie is shown in the lower-right to compare the color change. A male panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis) changes colors when it sees another adult male. This video is running at 8x speed. The first frame of the movie is shown in the lower-right to compare the color change. See more videos How panther chameleons achieve this completely reversible color change has fascinated scientists, but it’s not all that easy to study these reptiles, Milinkovitch said. For one thing, they’re tough to raise in captivity: Their eggs take 10 months to incubate. Many scientists assumed that the animals’ speedy shade-shifting came from moving pigments around inside of cells called chromatophores, but Milinkovitch and colleagues doubted that explanation. Pigments – including the ones that we have in our own skin and hair -- typically work by absorbing most colors of visible light except one. So a red pigment absorbs most of the wavelengths of visible light and lets only the red wavelengths bounce off of its surface. This video offers a close-up view of chameleon cells as they change color. The researchers made the shades shift by causing the cells to shrink or grow -- and thus, causing the space between each guanine crystal within the cell to contract or expand. This video offers a close-up view of chameleon cells as they change color. The researchers made the shades shift by causing the cells to shrink or grow -- and thus, causing the space between each guanine crystal within the cell to contract or expand. See more videos But chameleons also have iridophores, cells that manipulate color in a very different way. Instead of absorbing light, they use a phenomenon known as structural color, which harnesses a surface's nanoscale geometry to force certain wavelengths of light to bend or bounce in specific ways. Structural color is found across the animal kingdom, from the scintillating sapphire wings of the blue morpho butterfly to the iridescent shades of mother of pearl. Could the iridophores, rather than the pigment-filled chromatophores, be responsible for the color changes? To find out, the researchers studied the panther chameleon’s skin using a number of different methods, including filming the males’ dramatic color changes with photometric videography and analyzing the skin's nanoscale structure using transmission electron microscopy. The scientists identified two layers of skin with iridophores – and the ones in the top layer were filled with tiny nanocrystals of guanine, arranged into lattice formation with very precise spacing between each crystal. The spacing, it turned out, was the key. The scientists took "excited" skin samples from male chameleons who were showing off to each other, and they found that the guanine crystals were spaced much farther apart than they had been in the "resting" state. Each color of visible light has a different wavelength – blues are on the short end, and reds are on the long end (with the other colors arranged in between). So when the guanine crystals have short spaces between them, they reflect the bluer wavelengths. When the crystals are spaced farther apart, they reflect the longer wavelengths – more red wavelengths. Combined with yellow pigment cells (called xanthophores) in the skin, the blues can be seen as greens and the reds as oranges (or plain old yellows). There are also red pigment cells in the skin – those areas look even redder when the chameleons turn their skin on. There was also a second layer of skin filled with larger, less-organized crystals – these seem to be very good at reflecting near-infrared light, which in hot, dry environments, is probably a key survival mechanism to avoid overheating, the researchers said. Milinkovitch said it would be useful to study such photonic crystals in other animals, such as zebrafish (even though they cannot adjust the color by changing the crystals’ geometry). But, he added, “we need to continue investigating the chameleons because part of the answers are there and nowhere else.” For all hues of science news, follow @aminawrite.

– Chameleons may not be the only creatures on the planet capable of shade shifting, but they're probably the best at it—panther chameleons in particular. They can go from green and blue hues to yellow and red ones in a matter of minutes, and scientists say they now think they know how. Reporting in Nature Communications, researchers say that instead of relying on pigments, these reptiles also boast nanocrystals called iridophores beneath their skin, which contract or expand to essentially reflect different levels of light. To study this, the researchers observed the male panther chameleon of Madagascar—which isn't easy given how skilled they are at shade shifting. "I assure you: In Madagascar, they are really difficult to spot," study co-author Michel Milinkovitch, a biophysicist at the University of Geneva, tells the Los Angeles Times. By filming color changes and examining the chameleons' skin using transmission electron microscopy, the scientists were able to see two layers of skin with iridophores. It turns out that tiny guanine nanocrystals boast very specific spacing between each crystal that in turn reflects different layers of light—shorter spacing reflects blue light, longer spacing red. By interacting with yellow pigment cells (xanthophores) in the skin, greens and oranges emerge. What's more, some less-organized crystal spacing may even reflect near-infrared light, helping to cool the chameleons. "We need to continue investigating the chameleons," Milinkovitch adds, "because part of the answers are there and nowhere else." (Chameleons don't necessarily boast longevity.)

Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia said he did "nothing wrong" as he left federal court in Boston Thursday afternoon, following his early morning arrest on charges that he defrauded investors in his company to fuel his "lavish lifestyle." The 26-year-old mayor, who pleaded not guilty to nine counts of wire fraud and four counts of filing false taxes Thursday, emerged from the courthouse with a smile and a message. "I've done nothing wrong. If you look at my track record as mayor all you see is positive results," he told media gathered outside in the rain. "I was elected and re-elected with 65 percent of the vote in Fall River and if you look at those bogus charges or whatever they're called there is not a single thing...I did wrong as the mayor of the city of Fall River." Correia was arrested by FBI and IRS agents at a home in Bridgewater at 6:30 a.m. Thursday. Andrew Lelling, U.S. Attorney for the district of Massachusetts, alleges the mayor spent more than half of the money Massachusetts residents invested in his app SnoOwl on personal items. This included airfare, luxury hotel stays, adult entertainment, dating services, designer clothes, and a Mercedes, prosecutors allege in an indictment. Correia changed from the polo shirt and jeans he wore during his arraignment into a suit before exiting court to speak with more than a dozen reporters. He thanked the agents who arrested him for being "nice." He said he was not angry. "It's not my best Thursday. It's raining," he said. "I don't like to be out in the rain." He said he was headed straight to the office to "get back to serving the people of Fall River." Correia said he will not resign because the charges are not related to his work as mayor. "There is absolutely no reason," to resign, he said. ||||| Fall River Mayor Jasiel F. Correia II calls himself a “classic example of a Fall River kid made good” in an official biography, which highlights his rise from “youth of the year” in 2008 to being elected the youngest mayor in the city’s history in 2015 at age 23. But a federal indictment unsealed Thursday cast an ignominious shadow over Correia’s precocious political ascent with allegations that he stole more than $231,000 from investors in his tech startup and used the money on expensive travel, a Mercedes-Benz sedan, casinos, and adult entertainment. The stolen funds, equal to about six times the median household income in Fall River, were taken from investors in SnoOwl, which Correia founded in 2012, federal prosecutors said. Advertisement Correia is also charged with filing fraudulent tax returns in an effort to conceal the scheme. Prosecutors allege Correia stole about 64 percent of the $363,690 that SnoOwl’s seven investors contributed and spent it before becoming mayor. 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 “Today’s arrest is a shock to many in the city which has prided itself on a tradition of honest government, hard work, and public service,” Harold Shaw, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, said at a news conference. “Yet its mayor was far from honest, selling out his friends and associates for his own personal gain. His actions were underhanded, shameless, and greedy.” FBI agents arrested Correia, 26, in Bridgewater at about 6:30 a.m. Thursday and brought him to Boston, where he appeared in a federal courtroom smiling and wearing leg irons with his hands cuffed behind his back. He pleaded not guilty to nine counts of wire fraud and four counts of filing false tax returns as Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley set unsecured bond of $10,000, a sum Correia would only have to pay if he fails to appear in court. After being set free, Correia changed into a blue suit, red tie, and Fall River lapel pin, and then denied the charges after leaving court. “I’ve done nothing wrong,” said Correia, a Democrat who was reelected last year by a wide margin. “If you look at those bogus charges, whatever they’re called, there’s not a single thing . . . that the US attorney’s office said in that 19-page indictment that I did wrong as the mayor of Fall River.” Advertisement He said he has no plans to resign. “I love the city of Fall River,” said Correia, flanked by his defense attorneys. “I’m going to go back to my office tonight and get back to work serving the people of Fall River.” One of his lawyers, Mark Berthiaume, said Correia established SnoOwl while he was an undergraduate student at Providence College. “This is a business dispute that has no business being in a federal, criminal court,” Berthiaume said. SnoOwl was developing an app that would connect businesses and consumers. The fraud unfolded, prosecutors said, when Correia falsely claimed in his pitch to potential investors that he already built and sold an app called FindIt Networks for a profit. Advertisement A prototype for SnoOwl was built, but the product never made it to market, despite representations Correia made to investors that the company was in good standing and their money was being spent on the app, US Attorney Andrew Lelling said at the news conference. None of the investors have received returns, and investigators believe Correia has spent their money, he said. Correia largely abandoned SnoOwl in 2015 when he launched his mayoral campaign, according to the indictment. “Despite the trappings of a company and whatever technical progress was made on the app product that SnoOwl intended to sell, the company was first and foremost a clever way to defraud well-intentioned investors and fund Correia’s lifestyle,” Lelling said. The first victim listed in the indictment is identified as an orthodontist whose son attended high school with Correia. In January 2013, he invested $50,000 in exchange for equity in SnoOwl. But about a month later, according to the indictment, Correia used $10,000 of that money to buy a 2011 Mercedes-Benz sports sedan. The orthodontist, who sunk a total of $145,000 into SnoOwl, declined to comment Thursday, as did a lawyer for another investor. None of the investors are named in the indictment, though some have come forward in The Herald News, a newspaper in Fall River. Lelling said authorities haven’t found evidence that Correia misused public funds while in office, but stressed the investigation is continuing. Correia also is accused of using $10,000 of the investment money to pay off student loans and finance his political campaign, while other funds paid for charitable donations in his own name, jewelry, restaurants, and designer clothing, the indictment said. While making his first run for mayor three years ago, Correia, then a city councilor, said his stewardship of SnoOwl was proof he was qualified to run Fall River, Lelling said. Former mayor Sam Sutter, whom Correia defeated in 2015, said he had information three years ago that SnoOwl was a failure. “One of the frustrating aspects of the campaign was that a lot of people thought he was a success and had been an entrepreneurial wizard,” Sutter said. “But the exact opposite was true.” Investigators said Correia tried to cover his tracks by filing false tax returns for 2013 and 2014. When Correia learned he was under federal investigation in spring 2017, he directed his accountant to file amended personal tax returns to account “for the diverted investor funds that he had previously failed to report as income,” Lelling said. In January, the Friends of Jasiel F. Correia II Legal Defense Fund was registered with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, records show. The fund has collected more than $76,000, including thousands of dollars donated by Correia’s campaign committee. Among Fall River residents, reaction to Correia’s arrest was mixed. “He’s a thief — that’s what he is,” said Eddie Perriera, 90, shaking his head as he sat with arms folded on a park bench. “This has been going on for years, and they’re just catching on.” Another resident, David Pacheco, 70, said he voted for Correia in 2015, but not last year. “I’m not shocked about this. Money does things to people,” Pacheco said. “At 26 years old, he had the world in the palm of his hand, and the people believed in him.” Some expressed support for Correia. “I love the man,” said a woman who gave only her first name, Lydia . “He’s done a lot of good things for this city that a lot of people aren’t noticing. He’s fixing the streets. He’s fixing the pipes. What more do people want?” A status conference in Correia’s case is scheduled for Dec. 6. As he walked away from the courthouse Thursday afternoon with his lawyers, Correia was followed by journalists shouting questions about reports that he was partying Wednesday night in a Seaport District nightclub. Travis Andersen of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Matt Stout contributed. Laura Crimaldi can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter @lauracrimaldi . Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at [email protected] ||||| FALL RIVER — A defiant Fall River Mayor Jasiel F. Correia II returned to City Hall Friday amid a call from Governor Charlie Baker to relinquish his post while his criminal case is pending and plans by city councilors to hold a special session to discuss the indictment. Baker, who renounced Correia’s endorsement Thursday, released a statement Friday urging the 26-year-old Democratic mayor to hand over the reins of power following his arrest on federal fraud and tax evasion charges. “Governor Baker and Lieutenant Governor Polito believe that in light of these serious allegations, Mayor Correia should act in the best interests of the people of Fall River and step aside until the case is resolved,” the statement from Baker/Polito campaign spokesman Terry MacCormack said. “Ultimately, it is up to residents and voters to decide who is best fit to lead the city.” Advertisement City Council President Cliff Ponte said he’s convening a special meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday to discuss the criminal case against Correia and any proposals from members “regarding the leadership of our city.” 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 Correia was arrested Thursday morning and charged with stealing more than $231,000 from investors in his SnoOwl tech startup. Federal prosecutors said he used the money on expensive travel, a Mercedes-Benz sedan, casinos, and adult entertainment. He is also charged with filing fraudulent tax returns in an effort to conceal the alleged scheme. Prosecutors allege Correia stole about 64 percent of the $363,690 that SnoOwl’s seven investors contributed and spent it before being sworn in as mayor in 2016. He has pleaded not guilty to nine counts of wire fraud and four counts of filing false tax returns. Correia, back on the job Friday morning, insisted he would not resign. “I’m back at work and doing the people’s business,” he said as he walked out of his office and into an elevator. “I was elected to do the job, and it is my job to be the mayor, and, until such time as it isn’t my job, I’m going to continue to do the job.” Advertisement City Councilor Leo Pelletier said Correia should step aside, citing allegations that he spent ill-gotten gains on adult entertainment. “Some of the money he spent and the way he spent it is embarrassing,” said Pelletier, who has served on the council for 30 years. “He’s a college man. He should know better.” The city charter includes a recall process for elected officials and a mechanism for replacing the mayor “by reason of sickness or other cause.” The nine-member City Council has the authority to find Correia “unable to perform the duties of the office” and install its president, Ponte, as acting mayor with a vote of seven councilors, according to the charter. Pelletier, however, said he doesn’t believe enough councilors would vote to force Correia to step aside. The recall process takes too long, he said. Advertisement “You could probably squeeze five [votes] unless the people badger these other guys,” Pelletier said. If Correia is convicted, he would be ousted under the charter. Another councilor, Steven A. Camara, said Correia should decide whether to resign. He said he wouldn’t support a recall or any effort to force Correia to step aside and put an acting mayor in charge of Fall River. “One is innocent until proven guilty,” Camara said. “An indictment is an accusation.” City operations aren’t solely reliant upon Correia, Camara said, noting Fall River has a city administrator and department heads who run different aspects of municipal government. “The mayor is one person,” he said. In 2014, the city ousted Mayor William Flanagan in a recall election and voted in Samuel Sutter, who was then Bristol district attorney. A few months before the vote, Correia, then a city councilor, accused Flanagan of trying to intimidate him. He said Flanagan showed him a gun during a ride in Flanagan’s vehicle, after Correia signed a petition seeking the recall. Correia first ran for mayor in 2015 at age 23, defeating Sutter and becoming the youngest person elected to the post in Fall River’s history. Last year he won reelection by a wide margin. The state Democratic Party declined to say whether Correia should resign. “The charges against Mayor Correia are serious, and the people of Fall River deserve a thorough, fair, and transparent investigation,” Veronica Martinez, the party’s executive director, said in a statement. Asked Friday how he would respond to a city councilor who has called on him to step down, Correia chuckled. “Oh, come on,” he said. “City councilors always talk.” Correia said he has a full agenda and plans to attend events throughout the city. Then he let the elevator doors close, ending the interview. Michael Levenson can be reached at [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter @mlevenson . Laura Crimaldi can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter @lauracrimaldi

– Elected at age 23, arrested three years later: That's the latest on Jasiel Correia, the youngest-ever mayor of Fall River, Mass., and alleged defrauder of investors in a tech startup, the Boston Globe reports. Before turning mayor in 2015, Correia allegedly spent $231,000 in investors' money on everything from a Mercedes-Benz to pricey travel to adult entertainment—then filed fraudulent tax returns to cover his trail. "It's not my best Thursday," he said after pleading not guilty to 13 counts of wire and tax fraud in federal court in Boston, per MassLive. "It's raining. I don't like to be out in the rain." Correia also issued a public denial of sorts: "There is not a single thing ... I did wrong as the mayor of the city of Fall River," he said. Per a federal indictment, Correia lied to investors of the business app SnoOwl by saying he'd created a profitable app before. He then allegedly spent almost two-thirds of their money: $10,000 on a 2011 Mercedes sports sedan, another $10,000 to pay off student loans and boost his political campaign, and other funds on designer clothing, restaurants, jewelry, and charitable donations in his name. None of the seven investors have seen returns. "One of the frustrating aspects of [Correia's first mayoral] campaign was that a lot of people thought he was a success and had been an entrepreneurial wizard," says former mayor Sam Sutter, who lost to Correia in 2015. "But the exact opposite was true." Correia returned to work Friday at City Hall saying he would not resign, per the Globe.

"It is with heavy hearts that we announce our decision to go our separate ways," said the ABC reality stars in a joint statement. Ben Higgins was not Lauren Bushnell's person after all. The Bachelor season 20 star and his winner have officially parted ways after getting engaged on national TV and wrapping their own Freeform spinoff, Ben and Lauren: Happily Ever After?, in November. "It is with heavy hearts that we announce our decision to go our separate ways," the ABC reality stars — one of the most prominent success stories to come out of the show in recent years — revealed to People in a joint statement. "We feel fortunate for the time we had together, and will remain friends with much love and respect for one another. We wish nothing but the best for each other, and ask for your support and understanding at this time." Their cycle of the long-running dating series wrapped in March 2016, after Higgins told his final two contestants, Bushnell and Joelle Fletcher, that he was in love with both of them. Fletcher went on to star in her own season of The Bachelorette, while Higgins and his fiancee moved to Denver and documented their new cohabitation on the franchise's first Freeform spinoff, where plans of a wedding went back and forth and were ultimately put on hold. The experimental show lasted one season, followed by twins Emily and Haley Ferguson's go at it with Freeform's The Twins: Happily Ever After? Ahead of their Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever After spinoff, the pair shared their concerns over returning to reality TV with The Hollywood Reporter. "Our main priority was that our relationship always comes first and if something does ever get in the way," explained Bushnell, "we'll have to have another conversation because that's something that neither of us are going to allow to happen." Love was still in the air between Higgins, 29, and Bushnell, 26, long enough to host the Freeform special Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings that aired earlier this month. The Bachelor franchise returns May 22 with the premiere of the The Bachelorette, starring Texan attorney Rachel Lindsay. The 13th season marks the first in the series' 33-season history to feature a black lead. ||||| News may have hit earlier today that engaged Bachelor stars Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell had split, but if you'd looked at their social media pages, the writing's been on the wall (or the post) for a while... For months, the couple had been plagued with breakup rumors, but Ben insisted they were still very much a couple. However, it's clear on first glance at their Instagram accounts that things were not paradise between this bachelor and his bachelorette. Let's take a stroll through Instagram lane and get an eyeful of the breakup in the making... 1. Lauren's Been Spending Time With Her Single Bachelor Nation Pals... She's been hanging out with Amanda Stanton, who just had a nasty breakup with Josh Murray. Recently single gals love to hang out with other recently single gals...

– The question in the title of Bachelor spinoff Ben and Lauren: Happily Ever After? has been answered, and the answer is "No." Reality TV stars Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell, who got engaged during Season 20 of The Bachelor last year, have split up. "It is with heavy hearts that we announce our decision to go our separate ways," they said in a joint statement to People. "We feel fortunate for the time we had together, and will remain friends with much love and respect for one another." After meeting on The Bachelor—where Higgins told both finalists that he loved them—the couple moved to Denver, where the spinoff documented their lives and attempts to plan a wedding, which was eventually put on hold, the Hollywood Reporter notes. E! Online reports that there had been breakup rumors for months before the announcement, fueled by posts on social media. (Two female contestants on the Australian version of the show ended up dating each other instead of the bachelor.)

New study shows food sound is an important sensory cue in the eating experience New doctor’s orders: No earbuds, no music, and no watching TV while eating. Researchers at Brigham Young University and Colorado State University have found that the noise your food makes while you’re eating can have a significant effect on how much food you eat. The “Crunch Effect,” as they call it, suggests you’re likely to eat less if you’re more conscious of the sound your food makes while you’re eating. Therefore, watching loud TV or listening to loud music while eating can mask eating sounds that keep you in check. “For the most part, consumers and researchers have overlooked food sound as an important sensory cue in the eating experience,” said study coauthor Gina Mohr, an assistant professor of marketing at CSU. “Sound is typically labeled as the forgotten food sense,” adds Ryan Elder, assistant professor of marketing at BYU’s Marriott School of Management. “But if people are more focused on the sound the food makes, it could reduce consumption.” To be clear, the researchers are not talking about the sizzle of bacon, the crack of crème brulee or popcorn popping. The effect comes from the sound of mastication: chewing, chomping, crunching. Elder and Mohr carried out three separate experiments on the effect of that “food sound salience” and found even suggesting people think of eating sounds (through an advertisement) can decrease consumption. The most fascinating experiment discovered people eat less when the sound of the food is more intense. In that study, participants wore headphones playing either loud or quiet noise while they ate snacks. Researchers found the louder noise masked the sound of chewing and subjects in that group ate more—4 pretzels compared to 2.75 pretzels for the “quiet” group. “When you mask the sound of consumption, like when you watch TV while eating, you take away one of those senses and it may cause you to eat more than you would normally,” Elder said. “The effects many not seem huge—one less pretzel—but over the course of a week, month, or year, it could really add up.” Elder and Mohr said the main takeaway for people should be the idea of mindfulness. In other words, being more mindful of not just the taste and physical appearance of food, but also of the sound it makes can help in “nudge” consumers to eat less. So next time you eat, pull out your earbuds and tune into the sweet sounds of your food. The study is newly published in the academic journal Food Quality and Preference. ||||| Listening to yourself chew, chomp, and crunch on food can affect how much of it you eat. Listening to yourself chew, chomp, and crunch on food can affect how much of it you eat. Pexels, Public Domain When you’re munching on carrots and celery in the school cafeteria or work lunchroom, do you ever wonder if other people can hear you? Do you suddenly feel the impulse to eat less to avoid being called a “chomper?” According to a recent study, it’s okay to be a loud eater, it could actually help you adapt better eating habits. Researchers at Brigham Young University (BYU) and Colorado State University (CSU) found the sound your food makes while you’re eating could influence how much of it you actually eat. This is known as the “crunch effect.” “Sound is typically labeled as the forgotten food sense," said Ryan Elder, an assistant professor of marketing at BYU's Marriott School of Management, in the statement. "But if people are more focused on the sound the food makes, it could reduce consumption.” In the study, Elder and his colleagues sought to verify how food sounds could help keep the eating habits of individuals in check throughout a series of experiments. To be clear, the researchers are talking about the effect that comes from the sound of mastication: chewing, chomping, and crunching. In each experiment, the participants only eat about 50 calories of the assigned snack (i.e., cookies, pretzels). They were asked to either think of eating sounds while eating, or to wear headphones that played loud or mellower sounds intended to drown out the intense sounds of chewing certain foods. The findings revealed hearing or even thinking about eating sounds can make us eat less. When people were played an audio advertisement asking them to imagine sounds certain foods make while being chewed, they ate less. The more intense the sound of the mastication, the less they ate. Among those with headphones, participants exposed to the louder background noise meant to drown out loud chewing ate four pretzels, compared to 2.47 pretzels from the group that wasn’t exposed to the extra noise. Here, the loud noise masked the sound of chewing, which led eaters to eat more. Elder emphasized: “The effects many not seem huge — one less pretzel — but over the course of a week, month, or year, it could really add up." A similar 2007 study found the more distracted an eater is, the more likely they are to overeat. Participants who ate while playing Solitaire felt less full after eating twice as many snacks and had a harder time remembering what they are than those who ate without any distractions. Eating in front of the computer or TV will only lead to “mindless eating,” or overindulgence. Most people wouldn’t consider sound as an important sensory component during eating, compared to taste and sight. Previous research has focused on how extrinsic factors like environment and mood affects eating habits, but never intrinsic, like sound. Having this information could help people develop and stick with healthy food habits. Now, munching on popcorn at the movies, before the previews, could help you keep food cravings in check. Unlike eating popcorn while the movie plays, the “silence” before the previews does not mask the munching sound. The “crunch” effect will allow you to be mindful of your surroundings and make healthier and sound food choices. People can apply the concept of mindful eating to their daily routine. Paying attention to the experience of eating and drinking, both inside and outside the body, can make you more attuned to your body’s needs. You can ask yourself “Where in the body do I feel hungry? In my stomach or in my mind?” This will be able to put the situation into perspective. So, should you eat in silence to avoid overeating? Not necessarily. Rather, the key takeaway is to be hyperaware of all your food’s sensory properties. Your senses are the best tools for mindful eating. Understanding your relationship with food means knowing when you’re full and when you’re eating in excess. Source: Elder RS and Mohr GS. The crunch effect: Food sound salience as a consumption monitoring cue. Food Quality and Preference. 2016. ||||| The seed for this crawl was a list of every host in the Wayback Machine This crawl was run at a level 1 (URLs including their embeds, plus the URLs of all outbound links including their embeds) The WARC files associated with this crawl are not currently available to the general public. ||||| While a growing body of research explores the impact of normative and environmental extrinsic factors on food consumption quantity, less attention is given to the intrinsic cues, or sensory properties, of the food being consumed. Our research contributes to this growing literature by examining the effect of food sound salience (i.e., the sound that a food makes during mastication) on consumption quantity. Specifically, we show that increased attention to the sound the food makes, or food sound salience, may serve as a consumption monitoring cue leading to reduced consumption. Across three studies, we show a consistent negative relationship between the salience of a food’s sound and food intake. Our research highlights the importance of intrinsic auditory food cues on consumption. Our findings are valuable to both researchers interested in understanding how sensory cues are connected to consumption and marketers utilizing sound in their communications to consumers.

– The hot new dieting fad could soon be eating in complete silence. A new study from researchers at Brigham Young and Colorado State found that people who can hear the sounds of their own eating—chewing, swallowing, and so forth—tend to eat less. Ergo, listening to music or watching TV during meals could lead to unintentional overeating, according to a press release. The Huffington Post UK reports researchers conducted three experiments to show the power of what they call the Crunch Effect. In one, for example, subjects listening to loud noises on headphones ate more pretzels (4) than subjects listening to quiet noises (2.75). Researchers believe that's because the sound of eating may be a "consumption monitoring cue" for our bodies. Sound is an important part of eating, but its exact role hasn't been studied much. "For the most part, consumers and researchers have overlooked food sound as an important sensory cue in the eating experience," study coauthor Gina Mohr says in the press release. Medical Daily reports the study's results reinforce those of a 2007 study that found people who are distracted while eating tend to eat more. "If people are more focused on the sound the food makes, it could reduce consumption," BYU's Ryan Elder says in the press release. But that doesn't necessarily mean we should all be eating in silence. "The key takeaway is to be hyperaware of all your food’s sensory properties," Medical Daily states. "Your senses are the best tools for mindful eating." (Meanwhile, being tired may make you snack like a pot smoker.)

Mikey Welsh 1971-2011 Dear friends and fans, It saddens me and the guys in Weezer so much to say that our beautiful, creative, hilarious and sweet friend Mikey Welsh has passed away at the very young age of 40. A unique talent, a deeply loving friend and father, and a great artist is gone, but we will never forget him. His chapter in the weezer story ('98 - '01) was vital, essential, wild, and amazing. Mikey was never one to shy away from the absurd, dangerous or strange, and he did so with a gusto few others had. No one had quite the stage presence of Mikey, nor have there been many who pulled the types of shenanigans he did at shows. If it rocked, he had to try it - and he always found a way to pull it off. When he emerged from his nervous breakdown that spelled his exit from the rock n roll world, he took on a new role as an astonishing and pure visual artist. It was a glorious flowering of a talent he always possessed, but he had chosen to rock out first, paint later. Our more recent meet-ups at weezer shows, including recently at the Weezer/Flaming Lips show at Jones Beach were always a great time. We will miss him terribly. Our deepest heartfelt condolences go out to his family and friends. The world has lost a truly one of a kind guy. ...Tomorrow we play the RIOTfest in Chicago as planned - Mikey was planning on attending this show and we were looking forward to seeing him again. As sad as it is to think about, we know Mikey would never want the rock stopped on his account - quite the contrary in fact. While we wont see him, we know he will be there rocking out with us! Mikey's website: see his art. Mikey's Facebook page - see more art, and his writings - including some wild weez related stories from back in the day... Mikeys Twitter page. "...hello hello.. so i'm going on my first vacation in quite a long time.. very stoked.. first i'm off to nashville, to be photographed working on a big painting by a very good friend of mine [we'll get some shots up here eventually] .. and then off to chicago, to see the mighty =w= rock out.. i'm excited to see the boys, hang out and have some fun.. so everyone take care.. i'll be posting some weird random sh*t up here [as usual] over the next 9 days or so..... love--m." ---from Mikeys Facebook page, 10/01/11 Photo above taken in Nashville October 3rd by Mikey's friend Jordan Vittitow. ||||| Authorities say a drug overdose is suspected in the death of former Weezer bass player Mikey Welsh, who was found in a Chicago hotel room Saturday afternoon. Welsh, 40, was found unresponsive on the floor after failing to check out of his room at the Raffaello Hotel, 201 East Delaware Place at 1 p.m. Saturday, according to Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak. Hotel staff found him. Police said a cleaning crew tried to open the door to Welsh's hotel room and was unable to get in, thinking maybe luggage was blocking the entrance. Another hotel employee then pushed the door open and saw Welsh lying unresponsive near the door, police said. Hotel staffers called 911 shortly before Welsh was pronounced dead. Welsh was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:50 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. The cause of death was pending toxicology results, but authorities said narcotics are suspected. Police said prescription drugs were found in Welsh's hotel room along with a ziplock-type bag containing white powder, which was suspected to be heroin. Weezer is in town for the Chicago RiotFest tonight, according to the band's web page, and Welsh was expected to catch their show. Welsh, 40, of Burlington, Vt., performed with Weezer from 1998 to 2001, leaving after suffering a nervous breakdown, according to the band's website. He eventually established himself in a second career as a painter. "I'm taking a break from music," he told MetroWest Daily News in 2002. "I really feel the need to reinvent myself and move on, and I couldn't be happier painting. Music is still an important part of my life, but I really have no desire to actually play it." The group's "Weezerpedia" page carried a note this morning that read, "As many of you may have heard, Mikey Welsh has passed away. "The news was announced via his official Facebook page earlier in the evening. Understanding that many here are grieving, Weezerpedia has created a digital eulogy page for Mikey Welsh where fans can post stories, pictures, or thoughts. R.I.P. Mikey." Scott Shriner, the band's current bassist, posted a short note to his Twitter account at about 12 a.m. Sunday. "Really bummed about Mikey. My heart goes out to his family and friends. Such a talent... he made a special mark on the world with his art. [email protected]

– Former Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh has been found dead in a Chicago hotel room at age 40, reports the Chicago Tribune. Police suspect a drug overdose is involved. Welsh was found unresponsive yesterday afternoon after he failed to check out of his room at 1pm; he was reportedly in town to watch his former band play tonight. Current bassist Scott Shriner tweeted this morning: "Really bummed about Mikey. My heart goes out to his family and friends. Such a talent... he made a special mark on the world with his art." "As many of you may have heard, Mikey Welsh has passed away," the band posted online. "Understanding that many here are grieving, Weezerpedia has created a digital eulogy page for Mikey Welsh where fans can post stories, pictures, or thoughts. R.I.P. Mikey."

FHRITP stands for "fuck her right in the pussy". The very popular phrase started January 4th 2014 by John Cain when he uploaded a video of a news reporter saying that he would fuck a missing Northern Kentucky 20 year old woman if she was ever found. The video quickly went viral and had over 1 million views by the next day. Within days of uploading the video, several radio & TV shows talked about what the reporter said on LIVE TV. The video was featured on RWJ where it was debunked as a fake video. The video was made and produced by Cain himself titled "Reporter fired for remarks about missing woman on LIVE TV" Fred, the guy known as "the fuck her right in the pussy guy" was featured in a video on the 13th of Febuary 2014 when he ran up to a news reporter and yeld the phrase on LIVE TV after grabbing the reporters mic and catching her by surprise. Fred became an overnight sensation. People couldn't get enough of the old man in the hoodie & sunglasses. Fred was just getting started. On May 19th 2014, he struck again but this time it was during an interview on a story about an oil spill. When the reporter asked Fred to describe what he saw, the meme was born when he said "I was sitting on my front porch, grabbed a beer, and fuck her right in the pussy". You could almost hear the BOOM when the internet exploded around the world! Fred appeared in 3 other videos involving the NEWS. The FHRITP phrase was so funny that even celeberties Cheech & Chong, Katy Perry, Tosh.0, & so many more, loved and posted the videos to their facebook fan pages. Freds first video IT WAS ALL A HOAX! On January 4th 2015, (one year after FHRITP was born) John Cain uploaded a video showing the outtakes of all FHRITP videos. That video quickly went viral and actually crashed the site LIVELEAK.com as everyone was trying to see for themselves that it was all fake. News stations around the world interviewed Cain about the fame and money that was made from just a few videos and a phrase that everybody knows. That didn't stop the on going support as people from around the world interrupted their local tv stations by yelling the phase. It still goes on to this day. ||||| A provincial court judge in St. John's has ruled it could be illegal to shout a sexist slur at female reporters, but not in the case of what happened to NTV reporter Heather Gillis last year outside the city dump. It was never a question of whether Justin Penton hurled the words at Gillis while she was interviewing St. John's Mayor Danny Breen at the Robin Hood Bay waste management facility in April 2017. The issue for the judge was whether or not it constituted a crime in that context. Gillis reported she was "humiliated, embarrassed and disgusted" by the comments. Breen said it made him uncomfortable. But Judge Colin Flynn ruled an emotional disturbance does not meet the criteria for a charge of disturbing the peace. "Something more than emotional upset and a momentary interruption in a conversation is needed to constitute the criminal offence," Flynn wrote in his decision. Penton did not appear in court on Tuesday for the decision. Last April, Gillis had just finished interviewing Breen, who was a city councillor at the time, and was following up with a few off-camera questions. Penton drove by in his truck and yelled "F--k her in the p---y" on his way into the dump. NTV journalist Heather Gillis snapped this photo of the truck from which Justin Penton yelled obscenities at her. (Heather Gillis/Twitter) The phrase is an internet meme made popular in a series of YouTube videos in 2014. Since then, reporters all over North America have been on the receiving end of men yelling it into their cameras. In this case, Penton omitted the word "right," but the judge used the phrases interchangeably in court. Fed up with it, Gillis waited for the truck to return and snapped a photo of the licence plate. After she posted it on social media, Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Const. Joe Smyth reached out to her and said it may warrant criminal charges if she filed a complaint. After running the plate number, Smyth paid Penton a visit. He was immediately apologetic and admitted to yelling at Gillis, the court heard. However, Penton pleaded not guilty, with his lawyer arguing he did not cause a public disturbance. My decision on the facts of this case does not mean that these noted words can be said … with impunity. - Judge Colin Flynn Prior cases have set a precedent, where an incident must disturb the "ordinary and customary" workings of a public place in order to be considered criminal, the judge's ruling reads. Flynn said Penton yelling the words at Gillis at the dump — which was closed that day — did not cause any interference with that "ordinary and customary use of the premises." When Flynn dismissed the charge, Gillis got up and walked out of the courtroom. On the way out, she could be heard saying, "This is ridiculous." Judge says it's not fair game Gillis was not available for an interview, but testified in court this was not the first time she had the phrase yelled at her. Breen also said it wasn't the first time he'd heard it yelled while being interviewed. On Tuesday, Breen took to Twitter to commend Gillis. "You should be proud of the stand you took for yourself and for your colleagues. Although the decision is disappointing, you have brought attention to this behaviour that unfortunately is far too common," the St. John's mayor tweeted. <a href="https://twitter.com/HGillisNTV?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HGillisNTV</a> you should be proud of the stand you took for yourself and for your colleagues..although the decision is disappointing you have brought attention to this behaviour that unfortunately is far too common. <a href="https://t.co/S8waLuPLWk">https://t.co/S8waLuPLWk</a> —@DannyBreenNL In his closing remarks, the judge said this doesn't mean people are free to yell it whenever they want and also suggested Canada could add emotional disturbance to the list of what constitutes a public disturbance. "My decision on the facts of this case does not mean that these noted words can be said to persons, in particular female reporters out doing their jobs, with impunity," Flynn said. "It very much depends on the circumstances and context of the case whether such words would attract criminal liability. On the facts of this case, they do not." ||||| ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — A notorious sexist slur aimed at a reporter in St. John's, N.L., was vulgar and offensive but not a crime under the circumstances, a judge ruled Tuesday. Provincial court Judge Colin Flynn dismissed the single charge against Justin Penton, 28, of causing a public disturbance. Penton acknowledged he yelled a phrase commonly abbreviated to FHITP at NTV reporter Heather Gillis last April as she taped an interview outside the St. John's dump. But Flynn ruled the incident — part of a crass phenomenon that has plagued journalists in the United States and Canada since it started as an online prank in 2014 — did not meet legal precedents for interfering with the public peace. "Something more than emotional upset and a momentary interruption in a conversation is needed to constitute the criminal offence of causing a disturbance in a public place. And that more is not present in this case," Flynn wrote. "It was a vulgar and offensive comment which was offensive to all right thinking people, but is not caught by the criminal law as presently enacted." Flynn noted it's open to Parliament to broaden the law as was done in England where statutes protect against intentional harassment but also "alarm or distress." The judge also said his ruling on the specific facts "does not mean that these noted words can be said to persons, in particular female reporters out doing their jobs, with impunity." Flynn said it depends on context and circumstances. Gillis said in an emailed statement she understands the judge has to work within the law but is disappointed in the ruling. Calgary police charged a man in 2015 after a female journalist covering bad hockey fan behaviour had the phrase hurled at her from a truck. She got the licence plate. The man, who was not named, was charged with stunting under the Traffic Safety Act — a non-criminal offence defined as distracting, startling or interfering with other users of a roadway. It now carries a $543 fine. Mark Dwyer, NTV news director, said the process wasn't easy for Gillis. "She's a very proud journalist and we just admire that she stood up for herself and brought it forward," he said in an interview. "Another reporter who is in our newsroom just last night had that same obscenity yelled at them during a live hit at city hall. It continues, unfortunately. In our newsroom, almost every female reporter has been subjected to it." Gillis testified she was "humiliated, embarrassed and disgusted" with the remark, particularly because it happened as she was interviewing then city councillor Danny Breen, now the mayor of St. John's. She posted a widely shared photo of the truck to Twitter, saying she was "publicly shaming" the heckler. Gillis then received a message from the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary saying they'd follow up if she wished to make a complaint about what police said could be crime. She did. Breen testified it wasn't the first time he'd been in the middle of an interview with a reporter interrupted by the same slur. Penton's lawyer Ellen O'Gorman said the case goes to the heart of criminal law. "The purpose of criminal law is not to police politeness or protect us from hurt feelings," she said in an emailed statement. "It's not illegal in our country to shout or swear or make vulgar, insensitive comments to another person. But, if your shouting and swearing causes a disturbance, you could be charged under the same section of the Criminal Code." Criminal charges are a blunt tool where a "nuanced conversation" about changing attitudes and behaviours is needed, O'Gorman said. "I can tell you that Mr. Penton would not recommend that anyone repeat his conduct," she said, adding he feels remorse and embarrassment for what he said and how it affected Gillis. "It was an action that was thoughtless in the moment but ended up giving him a great many sleepless nights." St. John's lawyer Melissa Royle, who was not involved in the case, said it speaks to a lag in the law. "I was disheartened but not really surprised," she said in an interview. "The judge can only apply the law as it currently stands." "I think it's really important that this conversation is happening — whether it's Parliament, whether it's judge-made law, that something happens to say this behaviour is not okay." Co-workers showed their support for Gillis on social media. "She was steadfast in her effort to show that ignorance, misogyny and degrading slurs hurled at (often) female reporters will not be tolerated," NTV reporter Jodi Cooke said on Twitter. "It's offensive. It's wrong. Heather demanded accountability. We all have to."

– Since 2014, pranksters have yelled an obscene phrase—commonly referred to by its acronym, FHRITP—at reporters in an effort to get the phrase, "f--- her right in the p----," featured live on television. (You can view the prank's history here, but be warned that the site contains profanity.) At least one man has lost his job over uttering the phrase, and authorities have warned it could lead to criminal charges in some cases. But a case involving the phrase was dismissed Tuesday by a judge in Canada, who found it's not always illegal to shout the phrase at female reporters, the CBC reports. Justin Penton, 28, yelled 'f--- her in the p----" at reporter Heather Gillis last year as she interviewed the mayor of St. John's and he drove by them in his truck. Gillis took a picture of Penton's license plate and ultimately criminal charges were filed against him. A provincial court judge in St. John's found that while it could be illegal to shout the phrase at someone, in this case the circumstances did not merit a charge of disturbing the peace. "Something more than emotional upset and a momentary interruption in a conversation is needed to constitute the criminal offense," he wrote in his decision. Rather, Penton would have needed to disturb the "ordinary and customary" proceedings of a public place in order for him to have committed a crime, the judge said. (On the day in question, the dump where Gillis was interviewing the mayor was closed.) Gillis could be heard calling the judge's ruling "ridiculous." The mayor she had been interviewing at the time of the incident called the judge's decision "disappointing." The judge himself noted that while not criminal, Penton's outburst was "vulgar and offensive," Metro News reports.

PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) — A Princeton University employee and marijuana legalization activist who said he was told to choose between his job and using medical marijuana is on paid leave as the university works to figure out accommodations for his disability. Don DeZarn, 48, of East Windsor, said Tuesday that Princeton officials told him he could not work in his job as senior operations manager of campus dining and use medical marijuana. DeZarn said he hasn't used medical marijuana while working, but had let university officials know about it if he ever needed to use it for an "emergency situation." Princeton officials, however, said he was not cornered into a decision between his health and his job. Princeton spokesman Martin Mbugua said DeZarn was placed on paid leave and invited to discuss "reasonable accommodations" for his disability. The university met with him Tuesday to go over that process. Mbugua declined to give examples of the accommodations because they vary in each case. The U.S. Navy veteran said he is prescribed medical marijuana for inflammatory bowel disease and post-traumatic stress disorder. He is running as a New Jersey congressional candidate for the Legalize Marijuana Party and said he hasn't shied away from talking about the subject. "I haven't hid from that issue," he said. "I consider myself an activist." Under state law, employers do not have to accommodate medical marijuana use in the workplace, but it's unclear whether they can bar employees from using medical marijuana outside of work. When asked for clarification on the law, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Health said in an email that the department has "no comment beyond what is stated in the law." ||||| PRINCETON — The Princeton University employee who was told he would lose his job if he participated in the state’s medical marijuana program has been placed on paid administrative leave until the sides can come to an agreement over “reasonable accommodations.” Don DeZarn, an East Windsor resident, returned to work today at Princeton’s campus dining department for the first time in nearly two weeks, after he informed the university that he would be purchasing and using medical marijuana to treat symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease and post-traumatic stress disorder. While his direct supervisors approved of his plan, a public safety official informed him that he could not work for Princeton while using the drug, even if he smoked marijuana at home. “It’s the best job I’ve ever had. It’s a great place to work. I’m just hopeful that this whole thing has just been an oversight on someone’s part,” DeZarn said yesterday. “I hope somebody up the chain of command will look at what I’m requesting and have an open mind and some common sense.” DeZarn arrived at work at 6 a.m. yesterday and met with the university’s human resources team at 8:30 a.m., who talked him through the process to request accommodations under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. After being placed on leave, DeZarn was directed to leave campus, he said. Princeton spokesmen Martin Mbugua and Mike Caddell yesterday said the university would research options of providing reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. “Princeton University is committed to providing reasonable accommodation for employees who have a disability,” Caddell said. “The individual met with University administrators this morning to discuss the process.” “He remains on paid leave while the university works with him through an interactive reasonable accommodation process,” Mbugua said. In a Facebook post DeZarn wrote on Monday night, he said he would face whatever repercussions came from continuing in the medical marijuana program. “I have decided that I will return to work at my regular position tomorrow and will conduct myself just like any other university employee,” DeZarn said. “When it becomes necessary to medicate with a medicine prescribed to me by a licensed physician, I will do just that.” DeZarn has been a vocal marijuana proponent over the last two years as a political candidate, including an independent Congressional run in the 12th District this year and a Libertarian campaign in the 14th Legislative District in 2013. While on the campaign trail last year, DeZarn was twice arrested on possession charges while attending marijuana legalization protests in Philadelphia. But while DeZarn has said senior administrators have often complimented him on his support of the topic, human resources officials yesterday reiterated their position regarding the drug: Under the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, employers aren’t required to allow workers to use the drug in the workplace. “The law seems to support an employer’s right to maintain a drug-free workplace, including prohibiting the use of marijuana during work hours as well as working while under the influence of marijuana,” university vice president Lianne Sullivan-Crowley wrote in an Aug. 27 letter. DeZarn said he was prescribed a specific strain of marijuana that contains low amounts of THC, the intoxicating component of the drug, and higher amounts of CBD, an ingredient which studies have shown helps spasms, including those suffered by irritable bowel disease patients. Editor's note: This article has been updated to include from Don DeZarn and Princeton University. Mike Davis may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @byMikeDavis. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.

– Don DeZarn is a Navy veteran who suffers PTSD, a candidate for New Jersey state office, a member of the Legalize Marijuana Party, and a user of medical marijuana. He's also the senior operations manager of campus dining at Princeton University, which is taking exception to that last part of his resume, reports the Times of Trenton. Princeton, which told DeZarn to choose between his job and his weed, put DeZarn on paid leave yesterday as the two sides try to come to what Princeton terms "reasonable accommodations." DeZarn says he smokes at home, not on the job, and that he'd let Princeton know if he ever had an "emergency situation." But as the AP notes, that raises a legal gray area: Under state law, Princeton doesn't have to let DeZarn toke up for medical reasons while he's on the job, or, as a university vice president puts it, work "while under the influence of marijuana." But whether that control extends to his personal time is unclear. DeZarn, who's loud and proud about his status as an advocate for legal pot, clearly hopes things go his way. "It’s the best job I’ve ever had," he says. "I hope somebody up the chain of command will look at what I’m requesting and have an open mind and some common sense." (Click to read about how couples who smoke pot together seem to have less trouble.)

Thick, off-the-scale smog shrouded eastern China for the second time in about two weeks Tuesday, forcing airlines to cancel flights because of poor visibility and prompting Beijing to temporarily shut factories and curtail fleets of government cars. Chinese security personnel march in thick haze near the portrait of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong in Beijing Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. Extremely high pollution levels shrouded eastern China for the second... (Associated Press) A couple wearing protective masks poses for a self portrait in thick haze on Tiananmen Square in Beijing Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. Extremely high pollution levels shrouded eastern China for the second time... (Associated Press) Visitors stand on Tiananmen Square across from a portrait of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong in thick haze in Beijing Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. Extremely high pollution levels shrouded eastern China for... (Associated Press) A man wears a mask on Tiananmen Square in thick haze in Beijing Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. Extremely high pollution levels shrouded eastern China for the second time in about two weeks Tuesday, forcing airlines... (Associated Press) The capital was a colorless scene. Street lamps and the outlines of buildings receded into a white haze as pedestrians donned face masks to guard against the caustic air. The flight cancellations stranded passengers during the first week of the country's peak, six-week period for travel surrounding the Chinese New Year on Feb. 10. The U.S. Embassy reported an hourly peak level of PM2.5 _ tiny particulate matter that can penetrate deep into the lungs _ at 526 micrograms per cubic meter, or "beyond index," and more than 20 times higher than World Health Organization safety levels over a 24-hour period. Liu Peng, an employee at a financial institution in Beijing, said he will keep his newborn baby indoors. "It's really bad for your health, obviously," Liu said. "I bike to work every day and always wear a mask. The pollution in recent years is probably due to the increase in private cars and government cars." Visibility was less than 100 meters (100 yards) in some areas of eastern China, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. More than 100 flights were canceled in the eastern city of Zhengzhou, 33 in Beijing, 20 in Qingdao and 13 in Jinan. Every year, China's transport system bursts at the seams as tens of millions of people travel for the Lunar New Year holiday, in the world's largest seasonal migration of people. Ren Haiqiang, a bank worker in his early 30s, said he had booked tickets to fly out of Beijing on Thursday to visit family in the coastal city of Dalian, but now worried about flight cancellations. "Traveling over the holiday is already a huge hassle, along with all the gift-giving and family visits. We thought flying would be the best way to avoid the crush, but if the weather continues like this we'll be in real trouble," Ren said as he waited in line at a bakery in downtown Beijing. Beijing's city government ordered 103 heavily polluting factories to suspend production and told government departments and state-owned enterprises to reduce their use of cars by a third, Xinhua said. The measures last until Thursday. Beijing's official readings for PM2.5 were lower than the embassy's _ 433 micrograms per cubic meter at one point in the afternoon_ but even that level is considered "severe" and prompted the city government to advise residents to stay indoors as much as possible. The government said that because there was no wind, the smog probably would not dissipate quickly. Patients seeking treatment for respiratory ailments rose by about 30 percent over the past month at the Jiangong Hospital in downtown Beijing, Emergency Department chief Cui Qifeng said. "People tend to catch colds or suffer from lung infections during the days with heavily polluted air," he said. Air pollution has long been a problem in Beijing, but the country has been more open about releasing statistics on PM2.5 _ considered a more accurate reflection of air quality than other pollutants _ only since early last year. The city hit its highest readings on Jan. 12, when U.S. Embassy readings of PM2.5 reached as high as 886 micrograms per cubic meter. Celebrity real estate developer Pan Shiyi, who has previously pushed for cities to publish more detailed air quality data and who is a delegate to Beijing's legislature, called Tuesday morning for a "Clean Air Act." By late afternoon, his online poll had received more than 29,000 votes, with 99 percent in favor. On Monday, Wang Anshun was elected Beijing's mayor after telling lawmakers the municipal government should make more efforts to fight air pollution, according to Xinhua. Last week, he announced plans to remove 180,000 older vehicles from the city's roads and promote government cars and heating systems that use clean energy. ___ Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen and researcher Flora Ji contributed to this report. ||||| Photographer Goran Tomasevic captures the moment two Syrian rebels are hit by sniper fire in Damascus. BEIJING | BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing temporarily shut down 103 heavily polluting factories and took 30 percent of government vehicles off roads to combat dangerously high air pollution, state media reported on Tuesday, but the capital's air remained hazardous despite the measures. Air quality in Beijing has mostly stayed above "very unhealthy" and "hazardous" levels for about two weeks. On Tuesday, it hit 517 on an index maintained by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which described the pollution as "Beyond Index". Pollution in Beijing regularly exceeds 500 on an index that measures particulate matter in the air with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers. Above 300 is considered hazardous, while the World Health Organisation recommends a daily level of no more than 20. Earlier this month pollution hit a record, 30-45 times above recommended safety levels, blanketing the city in a thick, noxious cloud that grounded flights and forced people indoors. Beijing's pollution problem has caused widespread public outrage, alarming the ruling Communist Party, which has failed to rein in pollution despite repeated pledges to get tough. Premier Wen Jiabao told top leaders at a forum that the "recent fog and haze have affected the people's normal life and health". "We should take effective measures to speed up the enhancement of our industrial structure, push for energy conservation and build an ecological civilisation," Wen was quoted as saying on state television. "Use actions so that the people can see hope." State news agency Xinhua said the Beijing municipal government held an urgent meeting on Tuesday "for the emergency work of controlling the heavy air pollution". "All counties, departments, businesses and institutions should take the lead in suspending the service of 30 percent of official vehicles," Xinhua said. Beijing would also shut down 103 heavily polluting businesses. But the emergency measures only last until Thursday. The government has already announced that it would take 180,000 old vehicles off the roads in Beijing this year and control the "excessive" growth of new car sales in the city. (Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Michael Perry)

– Once again, air pollution in Beijing is literally off the charts. It's gotten so bad that airlines have had to cancel flights as locals wear face masks for protection, and state news says it's difficult to see beyond 100 yards in sections of eastern China. Airborne particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers has hit 526 micrograms per cubic meter, the US embassy says. That's "beyond index" (the scale goes to 500), and more than 20 times what the World Health Organization calls safe, the AP reports. The government has closed 103 factories and cut its vehicle use by 30%, Reuters adds. Over the past two weeks, pollution levels have largely held to dangerous numbers; the WHO says anything above 20 isn't healthy, while above 300 is "hazardous." It's a particularly bad time for flights to be canceled, with travel peaking around the Chinese New Year on Feb. 10.

WASHINGTON—It's hard to picture someone mindlessly ingesting three McDonald's Quarter Pounders with 12 pats of butter while watching a movie. But according to new laboratory analyses commissioned by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, that food is nutritionally comparable to what you’d find in a medium popcorn and soda combo at Regal, the country’s biggest movie theater chain: 1,610 calories and three days’ worth—60 grams—of saturated fat. (Nutrition aside, that combo costs $12—for raw ingredients that must cost Regal pennies.) "Regal and AMC are our nominees for Best Supporting Actor in the Obesity Epidemic," said CSPI senior nutritionist Jayne Hurley. "Who expects about 1,500 calories and three days’ worth of heart-stopping fat in a popcorn and soda combo? That’s the saturated fat of a stick of butter and the calories of two sticks of butter. You might think you’re getting Bambi, but you’re really getting Godzilla." A medium combo at Regal has 1,610 calories and 60 grams of saturated fat. That's roughly the saturated fat of a stick of butter and the calories of two sticks of butter. Photo Credit: Stephen Schmidt Regal says that its medium popcorn has 720 calories and that its large has 960. But CSPI's lab tests found that those numbers were understated. Regal’s medium and large sizes each had 1,200 calories and, thanks to being popped in coconut oil, 60 grams of saturated fat. (The large size looks bigger, thanks to its titanic tub, but it costs a dollar more and comes with a free refill.) A "small" at Regal has 670 calories and 34 grams of saturated fat. That’s about as many calories as a Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pepperoni Pizza—except the popcorn has three times the saturated fat. Even shared with another person, that size provides nearly an entire day’s worth of the kind of fat that clogs arteries and promotes heart disease. And every tablespoon of "buttery" oil topping adds another 130 calories. Asking for topping is like asking for oil on French fries or potato chips, according to CSPI. AMC, the second largest theater chain, also pops in coconut oil but has smaller serving sizes. Its large popcorn has 1,030 calories and 57 grams of saturated fat. That's like eating a pound of baby back ribs topped with a scoop of Häagen-Dazs ice cream—except that the popcorn has an additional day’s worth of saturated fat. A medium has 590 calories and 33 grams of saturated fat; and a small has 370 calories and a day’s worth—20 grams—of saturated fat. (Like Regal, AMC reports calorie counts lower than those returned in CSPI's lab tests.) Third-largest Cinemark pops in heart-healthy canola oil. A large has 910 calories with 4 grams of saturated fat; a medium has 760 calories and 3 grams of saturated fat; and a small has 420 calories and 2 grams of saturated fat. Though popping in canola gives this chain’s popcorn far less saturated fat than its competitors, it's almost as high in calories and has the most sodium—about twice as much as Regal or AMC. With 1,500 milligrams of sodium—a day's worth of sodium for most people—a large popcorn without topping from Cinemark will be less likely to clog your arteries but more likely to elevate your blood pressure. And while Cinemark uses a "buttery" oil topping similar to the toppings used at Regal and AMC, at some outlets, particularly in the West, it uses a topping made with real butter. That version has 9 grams—half a day’s worth—of saturated fat per tablespoon. CSPI also took a look at the sodas and candies sold at the movies. A small non-diet soda ranges from 150 calories at Cinemark to 300 calories at Regal. Mediums have 300 calories at AMC and Cinemark and 400 calories at Regal. With 33 teaspoons of sugar in nearly 2 quarts—54 ounces—Regal has the most outsized large soda, with 500 empty calories. Eating an 8-ounce bag of Reese's Pieces is like eating a 16-ounce T-bone steak and a buttered baked potato. Photo Credit: Stephen Schmidt The oversized boxes and bags (four to five ounces) of candy sold at movie chains are universally high in calories. A 5-ounce bag of Twizzlers has 460 calories and 15 teaspoons of sugar. A 7-ounce box of Nerds has 790 calories and 46 teaspoons of sugar. Chocolate candies like Butterfinger Minis, Raisinets, Sno-Caps, or M&M's have between 400 and 500 calories and at least a half day’s worth of saturated fat. An 8-ounce bag of Reese's Pieces is just a cup of candy. But with 1,160 calories and 35 grams of saturated fat, it's like eating a 16-ounce T-bone steak plus a buttered baked potato. "Sitting through a two-hour movie isn't exactly like climbing Mt. Everest," Hurley said. "Why do theaters think they need to feed us like it is?" The study, published as the cover story in the December issue of Nutrition Action Healthletter, updates a famous exposé the group conducted 15 years ago. For Regal and AMC, CSPI tested samples from theaters in the Washington, D.C., area. For Cinemark, samples came from Texas, Illinois, and Maryland. ||||| A medium-sized popcorn and medium soda at the nation's largest movie chain pack the nutritional equivalent of three Quarter Pounders topped with 12 pats of butter, according to a report released today by the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest.The group's second look at movie theater concessions -- the last was 15 years ago -- found little had changed in a decade and a half, despite theaters' attempts to reformulate.CSPI bought multiple servings of popcorn from the three largest movie chains, Regal Entertainment Group, AMC and Cinemark, and had them analyzed in an independent lab.It found that a Regal medium popcorn -- 20 cups -- contains 1,200 calories, 60 grams of saturated fat, and 980 milligrams of sodium. That's without the buttery topping that can be drizzled -- or poured -- on the popcorn, which adds another 200 calories and 3 grams of saturated fat per 1.5 tablespoons.An AMC medium popcorn did better because of its smaller size -- nine cups -- at 590 calories and 33 grams of saturated fat, and a 14-cup Cinemark medium was 760 calories and just 3 grams of saturated fat (in both cases, before adding buttery topping).One problem is that Regal and AMC, the two largest chains, pop their popcorn in coconut oil, which is about 90% saturated fat, noted Jayne Hurley, senior nutritionist at Washington-based CSPI.Cinemark, the third-largest chain, now pops its corn in canola oil, which explains its much lower saturated fat levels."Cinemark gets a thumbs-up for switching," Hurley said.In two positive steps, trans fatty acids were not found in the samples, Hurley added, and theaters have stopped using hydrogenated oils in the butter-flavored toppings.The study, published in the December issue of CSPI's Nutrition Action HealthLetter, found that in several cases the theater company calorie counts were lower than the numbers revealed in the study.For example, Regal's figure of 720 calories for a medium popcorn was considerably lower than the one determined by CSPI. (The company declined to comment beyond a general statement.)Several chains either did not respond to requests for comment or said they would have no comment. Regal, in its statement, said that movie popcorn is not meant to be daily fare and that it acknowledges some of the food it sells is healthier than others."According to the most recent statistics from the Motion Picture Assn. of America, the average American attends six movies a year," Regal said. "Theater popcorn and movie snacks are viewed as a treat and not intended to be part of a regular diet."It's unclear if consumers would storm the concession stand for low-cal popcorn anyway. After the 1994 popcorn report, "many cinema operators responded by offering their patrons additional choices, such as air-popped popcorn," the National Assn. of Theatre Owners said in a statement."After very little time, movie patrons in droves made their voices heard -- they wanted the traditional popcorn back."

– Figure 1,600 calories, 60 grams of saturated fat, and 980 milligrams of sodium—that’s what you’re eating when you scarf down a medium helping of movie popcorn at the nation's biggest theater chain. Add a soda and it’s the equivalent of eating a pound of baby back ribs and a scoop of ice cream, or three Quarter Pounders with a stick and a half of butter, an analysis by a nutrition watchdog group says. In many cases, calorie counts are significantly higher than those posted in theaters. Regal, the No. 1 chain, and AMC cook their popcorn in coconut oil, which is 90% saturated fat, while Cinemark gets better grades—relatively speaking—for using canola oil, reports the LA Times.

Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. ||||| The much-loved English actor, who made his name on the small screen before taking on the mantle of 007, has passed away in Switzerland Irreverent and knowing as James Bond: Sir Roger Moore obituary Read more He was the epitome of the suave English gent, quipping sweatlessly in a bespoke three-piece suit, who enjoyed an acting career spanning eight decades. On Tuesday, Roger Moore’s children announced his death at the age of 89 in Switzerland, saying: “he passed away today ... after a short but brave battle with cancer”. Moore was best known for playing the third incarnation of James Bond as well as his roles in hit shows The Saint and The Persuaders. He also devoted a lot of his time to humanitarian work, becoming a Unicef goodwill ambassador in 1991. The actor was born in London in 1927 and, after working as a model in the early 50s, he signed a seven-year contract with MGM. His early movies weren’t particularly memorable, from Interrupted Melody to The King’s Thief, and it was a move to the small screen that brought Moore his first taste of success. “During my early acting years I was told that to succeed you needed personality, talent and luck in equal measure,” Moore said to the Guardian in 2014. “I contest that. For me it’s been 99% luck. It’s no good being talented and not being in the right place at the right time.” His first break in TV came in romantic adventure Ivanhoe which was the start of a set of hit shows for Moore, including western Maverick and crime shows The Saint and The Persuaders. The success of The Saint gave Moore an opening in Hollywood yet the resulting spy movies failed to ignite the box office. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Roger Moore with Jane Seymour in his first Bond film Live and Let Die in 1973. Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar Moore had been approached to play the character of James Bond but scheduling conflicts with his television roles meant that he was never available. When Connery had stepped down from the role for good, Moore was asked again and made his first Bond film in 1973, the well-received Live and Let Die. He went onto star in another six films as 007 over a period of 12 years, making him the longest running actor in the role. When he finally retired from the role in 1985, he was 58. “Being eternally known as Bond has no downside,” Moore told the Guardian. “People often call me ‘Mr Bond’ when we’re out and I don’t mind a bit. Why would I?” After handing over the reins to Timothy Dalton, Moore took a break from the spotlight and didn’t make another film until 1990. From then on, his acting work became sparse, including small roles in Spice World and Boat Trip. Roger Moore: ‘Being eternally known as James Bond has no down side’ Read more In 1999, Moore was awarded a CBE which then became a knighthood in 2003, given to him for his charity work. Moore’s decision to become a Unicef goodwill ambassador was actually based on his friendship with Audrey Hepburn, who had also worked with the same charity. “The knighthood for my humanitarian work meant more than if it had been for my acting,” Moore said to the Guardian. “I’m sure some people would say, “What does an actor know about world issues?” But [working for Unicef] I’ve become an expert on things from the causes of dwarfism to the benefits of breastfeeding. I feel very privileged.” Moore also wrote two books about his time as Bond as well as two autobiographies, the most recent of which was 2014’s Last Man Standing. When asked by Time in 2012 who his favourite Bond was, he changed his mind from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Roger Moore and his wife, Kristina Tholstrup, at a charity event in 2009. Photograph: REBECCA NADEN/PA “You can either grow old gracefully or begrudgingly,” he said to GQ in 2008. “I chose both.” Moore is survived by his wife, Kristina Tholstrup, and three children. • Roger Moore: a life in pictures • Share your Roger Moore tributes and stories ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Sir Roger Moore has died at the age of 89 following "a short but brave battle with cancer" Actor Sir Roger Moore, best known for playing James Bond, has died aged 89, his family has announced. He played the famous spy in seven Bond films including Live and Let Die and A View to a Kill. Sir Roger's family confirmed the news on Twitter, saying he had died after "a short but brave battle with cancer". The statement, from his children, read: "Thank you Pops for being you, and being so very special to so many people." "With the heaviest of hearts, we must share the awful news that our father, Sir Roger Moore, passed away today. We are all devastated," they said in a Twitter post. The actor took the character of James Bond in a more humorous direction than his predecessor Sean Connery. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Sir Roger is survived by his three children and wife Kristina Tholstrup Sir Roger's Bond was calm and suave - a smooth operator who could seemingly get himself out of a tricky situation with ease. The veteran star, who died in Switzerland, will have a private funeral in Monaco in accordance with his wishes, his children said. "The love with which he was surrounded in his final days was so great it cannot be quantified in words alone," read the statement from Deborah, Geoffrey and Christian. "Our thoughts must now turn to supporting Kristina [Tholstrup, his wife] at this difficult time." The statement added: "We know our own love and admiration will be magnified many times over, across the world, by people who knew him for his films, his television shows and his passionate work for UNICEF which he considered to be his greatest achievement. Along with his famous Bond role, Moore was also known for TV series The Persuaders and The Saint. Sir Roger was also well known for his humanitarian work - he was introduced to Unicef by the late Audrey Hepburn and was appointed as a goodwill ambassador in 1991. Tributes paid Russell Crowe led the tributes to the actor on Twitter, writing simply: "Roger Moore, loved him." Michael Caine said: "I am truly sad and think I will be in tears if I talk about him. "Roger was the perfect gentlemen, adored by all his friends." Michael Ball said: "My dearest uncle Roger has passed on. What a sad, sad day this is. "Loved the bones of him. Generous, funny, beautiful and kind." Mia Farrow wrote: "Few are as kind & giving as was Roger Moore. Loving thoughts with his family & friends," while Boy George added: "RIP Sir Roger Moore. He was the king of cool." Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Sir Roger's Bond credits include Moonraker, Octopussy and Live and Let Die Duran Duran, who sang the Bond theme song for A View To A Kill, simply tweeted: RIP Roger. In a statement, fellow Unicef ambassador and actor Ewan McGregor said: "Thank you, Roger, for having championed so tirelessly the rights of all children for the last 26 years. "You've shown that we all have the power to make a change to the lives of the most vulnerable children." Frank Gardner, the BBC's security correspondent, recalled how he and Sir Roger had become good friends in recent years. "He even watched me ski past his chalet in Crans-Montana [Switzerland] while sipping a drink on his balcony," he said. "He had a wonderful sense of humour and I will miss his jokes by email. We had lunch together only a few months ago and even after all these years he seemed surprised that his career had been as successful as it evidently was. We will miss him." Moore's Bond movies Live and Let Die (1973) The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) Moonraker (1979) For Your Eyes Only (1981) Octopussy (1983) A View to a Kill (1985) Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. ||||| Roger Moore, the Suave James Bond in Seven Films, Dies at 89 The Englishman also was debonair as Simon Templar on the British TV series 'The Saint.' “I would have loved to have played a real baddie,” he once said. Roger Moore, the handsome Londoner who portrayed James Bond in seven films with a cartoonish, cheeky charm and probably for a bit too long, has died. He was 89. A message from his children, shared Tuesday on the actor's official Twitter account, read, "It is with a heavy heart that we must announce our loving father, Sir Roger Moore, has passed away today in Switzerland after a short but brave battle with cancer." Before Bond, Moore made his reputation as a suave leading man on the television series Maverick, The Saint and The Persuaders. After George Lazenby was done as 007 in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), Moore took on the guise of the superspy in Live and Let Die (1973) and stayed for The Man With the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983) and A View to a Kill (1985), which hit theaters when he was nearly 58. He said it was his choice to leave the franchise. His Bond was more of a charmer than a fighter, more of a stirrer than was the shaker embodied by the first Bond, Scotsman Sean Connery. Moore took on the role with a grain of salt, not to mention cigars — as part of his contract, he reportedly was given unlimited Montecristos during production. “My personality is entirely different than previous Bonds. I’m not that cold-blooded killer type. Which is why I play it mostly for laughs,” he once said. Moore’s devilish smile and famously cocked eyebrow made his Bond a more polished, albeit less pugnacious, chap than former bodybuilder Connery’s robust warrior. The late Amy Winehouse apparently was a fan. On her song “You Know I’m No Good” from the 2006 album Back to Black, she sings, “By the time I’m out the door, you tear men down like Roger Moore.” “I probably just rhymed with door,” he once said. “Or she couldn’t find anything to rhyme with Connery.” Moore and Connery each played Bond seven times — Moore bedded a total of 19 beauties, by one count — and his films earned more than $1 billion at the box office. But he considered himself to be the fourth-best 007, trailing Connery, Daniel Craig and Lazenby. And after leaving the series, he acted only sporadically. "Roger was a beloved part of the MGM family for decades and leaves behind a legacy of iconic film and television performances that will be revered for generations to come," studio chairman and CEO Gary Barber said in a statement. Moore starred for six seasons as the slick Simon Templar, who makes a living stealing from crooks, in the popular 1962-69 series The Saint, which aired in the U.K. on ITV and in the U.S. on NBC (an international hit, it sold to more than 80 countries.) In a 2014 interview, Moore lamented the fact that he pretty much always played the good guy. “I wasn’t an Albert Finney or a Tom Courtenay,” he said. “I didn’t have their natural talent, I had to work quite hard at acting. My life’s been all right, but people like that get to play wonderful parts. I spent my life playing heroes because I looked like one. Practically everything I’ve been offered didn’t require much beyond looking like me. I would have loved to have played a real baddie.” Roger George Moore was born Oct. 14, 1927, in Stockwell, England, south of the River Thames in London. An only child, he was evacuated as a teen during World War II to Worthing, Sussex, in southern England while his father remained in London, serving as a police constable who sketched crime scenes. His first job was with Publicity Pictures Production, a film company in London, which specialized in animated cartoons. He worked as a tracer and filler-in, made tea and ran errands. After he was fired, a friend suggested he could make some easy money serving as an extra on Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), then filming outside London. He played a Roman soldier in a crowd scene in the film that starred Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh, and the experience put his life on a new course. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (with future Miss Moneypenny Lois Maxwell), and by the end of the first term, he managed to get into a West End production of The Italian Straw Hat. Moore quickly landed more parts, including a role in another West End Theater production, The Circle of Chalk. In 1945, Moore was drafted and entered officer training school. He was sent to Germany after winning his commission, commanding a small supply depot. During his tour of duty, he joined the Combined Services Entertainment Unit in Hamburg, doing traveling shows throughout Europe. Upon his discharge, Moore landed a role in the musical comedy Trotti True (1949) but then experienced a long period of unemployment. During this time, he joined a repertory company, the Intimate Theatre; performed in such plays as Noel Coward’s Easy Virtue; and supported himself as a model for things like knitwear and toothpaste. After he understudied for David Tomlinson in a West End production of The Little Hut, Moore moved to Hollywood and within days got a role on a 1953 episode of the live NBC anthology series Robert Montgomery Presents. He played a tennis player who is the object of Elizabeth Taylor’s flirtation in the MGM drama The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), followed by parts in such films as the biopic Interrupted Melody (1955), starring Eleanor Parker and Glenn Ford; The King’s Thief (1955), with Ann Blyth and David Niven; Diane (1956) with Lana Turner; and The Miracle (1959), with Carroll Baker. Moore’s pretty-boy looks and confident manner elicited comparisons to a young Errol Flynn, and he landed his first starring role, portraying the title knight in the U.S.-British swashbuckling TV series Ivanhoe. He played swindler Silky Harris on the 1959-60 ABC series The Alaskans, and when James Garner quit Maverick in a breach-of-contract dispute, Moore stepped in as cousin Beauregarde “Beau” Maverick, even going so far as to wear the costumes that Garner had left behind. He would later quit the show as well. Disillusioned with television in the U.S., Moore starred in The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961) with Angie Dickinson and returned to England to make Romulus and the Sabines (1961), an Italian film about the founding of Rome. His co-star was Italian actress Luisa Mattioli, whom he married in 1969, after his divorce from singer Dorothy Squires was finalized. They had three children together before divorcing in 1996. British media mogul Lew Grade wanted Moore to star as Templar, the character created by author Leslie Charteris and played on the big screen by George Sanders in the 1940s (and by Val Kilmer in a 1997 film). His savoir faire was perfect for the part, and Moore became an international celebrity. Grade also signed him to star in the big-screen thrillers Crossplot (1969) and The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970) — he considered the latter to be his best film — and then approached him with another TV series, The Persuaders! Moore played English nobleman Lord Brett Sinclair opposite Tony Curtis as rogue New Yorker Danny Wilde, and the mismatched pair solved crimes in exotic locations in the 1971 ITV-ABC series. Around that time, Moore also served as the European managing director of Brut Productions, the show-business wing of Faberge cosmetic works. Working around his 007 assignments, Moore appeared in Shout at the Devil (1976) with Lee Marvin, The Wild Geese (1978) with Richard Burton, The Sea Wolves (1980) with Gregory Peck and David Niven and The Cannonball Run (1981) with Burt Reynolds. He also starred in the 1976 NBC movie Sherlock Holmes in New York (Patrick Macnee played Dr. Watson and John Huston was Professor Moriarty). In 1999, Moore was awarded the Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II, and knighthood followed in 2003. He spent the past several years doing charity work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. "With the passing of Sir Roger Moore, the world has lost one of its great champions for children — and the entire UNICEF family has lost a great friend," UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake said in a statement. "In his most famous roles as an actor, Sir Roger was the epitome of cool sophistication; but in his work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, he was a passionate – and highly persuasive – advocate for children. He once said that it was up to all of us to give children a more peaceful future. Together with [his wife] Lady Kristina, he worked very hard to do so." He married Kristina in 2002. His survivors also include his children Deborah, Geoffrey and Christian. To describe his version of Bond in relation to others, Moore told NPR in November 2014: “I look like a comedic lover, and Sean in particular, and Daniel Craig now, they are killers. They look like killers. I wouldn’t like to meet Daniel Craig on a dark night if I’d said anything bad about him. “George [Lazenby], Timothy [Dalton] and Pierce [Brosnan], we’ve been together, the four of us. But Sean, Sean really was sort of not that enamored of being confused with James Bond all the time. Sean … damn good actor, but he felt that he was only being remembered for Bond. I personally don’t give a damn. I just want to be remembered as somebody who paid his debts.”

– Actor Roger Moore, most famous for his starring role as James Bond in seven 007 flicks, has died at age 89. "With the heaviest of hearts, we must share the awful news that our father, Sir Roger Moore, passed away today," said his family in a statement. It added that he died in Switzerland after a short battle with cancer, though no other details were provided. Among the Bond films in which he starred were Live and Let Die and the Spy Who Loved Me, notes the BBC. Moore starred as Bond longer than any actor so far, a 12-year stretch from 1973 to 1985. The Guardian remembers him as "the epitome of the suave English gent, quipping sweatlessly in a bespoke three-piece suit." (See some of those quips in this video.) Moore, however, had a long career beyond Bond, including roles in the hit TV shows The Saint and The Persuaders. He also was known for his humanitarian work, becoming a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in 1991. Moore received a knighthood for his charity work in 2003, thus becoming Sir Roger Moore. The Hollywood Reporter says Moore's Bond was "more of a charmer than a fighter," especially in contrast to the original Sean Connery take. And it seems Moore agreed with that: “My personality is entirely different than previous Bonds," he once said. "I’m not that cold-blooded killer type. Which is why I play it mostly for laughs."

Olympic boxing medallist and world champion Mary Kom is launching a self-defence smartphone app and a free SMS-based service designed to help women in India feel safe outside on the streets. The app is being built in partnership with Vodafone as part of its global mobile "Firsts" programme, and will be available soon. It will give women hints and tips on things they can do to protect themselves, including punching and kicking techniques, as well as using things they might have to hand, such as long nails, against attackers. The app will also provide helpline numbers for women who have been attacked. Crimes against women are thought to be vastly under-reported throughout the country. Although violence against women in India was brought to the attention of the world following the horrific gang-rape and murder of a woman in Dehli in 2012, it has long been and continues to be a problem in both urban and rural areas. "We are really affected as women," Kom tells Wired.co.uk. "Day by day the crime increases." It's quite rare for women in India to possess the kind of self-defence skills that Kom has learnt through her boxing training. "I started learning boxing in 2000. When I was small I used to win fighting games. I was inspired by Mohammed Ali," she says. It is now Kom's ambition to set up the first women's fight club in India, and with the help of Vodafone, she has already run a self-defence camp for women in her native state of Manipur, which she says has gone down well. "Most of the women are really excited and really happy to learn something," she says. "The women are learning techniques like the one-two step, so I think that will be helpful in the future. And if they keep training that will really help them protect themselves." The idea is to eventually make sure all women throughout India, even those who live in rural areas or can't afford smartphones, can get access to some of Kom's device. "It is a great opportunity for me to help women especially, to give tips that might help in the future," she says. Being able to access self-defence information is one thing, but Forbes reports that orders are piling in for India's lightweight revolver, designed especially to help women defend themselves. It is sad that it should have to fall to women to educate themselves in defence techniques or that they should feel like they have to carry weapons in order to defend themselves against violence, but the dangers faced in India cannot be underestimated and in some areas women do not feel safe to walk the streets alone. Amnesty International, among others, has called upon Indian authorities to ensure fairer trials in cases of violence against women. "There must be concerted efforts to change the discriminatory attitudes towards women and girls which lie at the root of the violence. These measures will take hard work, but will be more effective in the long run in making India safer for women," said Tara Rao, director of Amnesty International India, in a statement last September. ||||| Inquiries are pouring in and orders are piling up for India’s first light-weight revolver specially designed for women, a $2,000-firearm weighing 500 grams. Production is already underway in the Indian Ordnance Factory belonging to India’s defense ministry in Kanpur in central India. The handy 0.32 bore revolver is made of the lighter titanium alloy, has a cylinder which can be easily flicked open with a button to insert bullets and can be snapped back shut just as effortlessly. The trigger pull is lighter. “It is easy to handle and fits nicely in a lady’s purse,” said Sartaj Singh, chairman of the Ordnance Factory Board of India’s Ministry of Defence. The factory has already totted up a 100 orders within days of opening the booking. Over three quarters of these orders have been placed by women. The weapon’s launch comes amidst rising sexual violence against women in India, a country where civilian weapons are uncommon and women carrying weapons is almost unheard of. But times are changing: the gruesome gang rape of a young woman in a moving bus in Delhi a year ago, named the Nirbhaya case, led to a massive countrywide protest against sexual violence against women. The newly launched weapon is called Nirbheek. Both words mean ‘fearless’ in Hindi. The Indian Ordnance Factory, whose main job is to manufacture weapons for India’s defense needs, expects a robust demand for Nirbheek. “The scenario today is such that a carrying a revolver can be a big deterrent,” said Singh who expects that the revolver will compete with those of Western weapon makers like Ruger and Smith & Wesson. The factory believes export orders will start coming in soon too. “But we want to first cater to the demand from within the country,” said Abdul Hameed, general manager of the factory.

– In a country where sexual violence is widespread and vastly under-reported, Olympic boxer Mary Kom is working to make women feel safe on the streets again. She has launched a smartphone app and text service to give Indian women tips on how to fight off attackers, Wired reports. The five-time world champion has also launched a self-defense camp for women and hopes all women in India will soon be able to access her advice. "Most of the women are really happy and excited to learn something," she says. But while Kom hopes the spread of self-defense skills will make a difference, India's state-owned gun maker is offering a deadlier solution, Forbes finds. The Indian Ordnance Factory has unveiled the "Nirbheek" lightweight revolver designed especially for women. "It is easy to handle and fits nicely in a lady's purse," says an official at the factory, which has already had plenty of orders for the $2,000 firearm.

Lieberman on his exit: Politics changed, I didn't By Aaron Blake Sen. Joe Lieberman announced Wednesday that he will not seek reelection in 2012, saying his politics don't fit in today's political spectrum. In announcing his impending exit, the former Democratic vice presidential nominee who became an independent five years ago defended his record by saying that he was doing what he thought was right, regardless of party. The Connecticut senator blamed his problems with the Democratic base on the changing politics of the day rather than his own changing politics, pointing to himself as a John F. Kennedy kind of Democrat. "The politics of President Kennedy -- patriotic service to country, support of civil rights and social justice, pro-growth economic and tax policies, and a strong national defense -- are still my politics," Lieberman said. "So maybe that means that JFK wouldn't fit into any of today's partisan political boxes neatly." Lieberman, characteristically, wasn't backing down from the controversial stands he's made over the years. While discussing his accomplishments on the Senate Homeland Security Committee (where he still serves as chairman), he alluded briefly to the liberation of Iraq and Afghanistan "from brutally repressive, anti-American dictatorships. "Along the way, I have not always fit comfortably into conventional political boxes -- maybe you've noticed that -- Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative," said Lieberman, who still caucuses with Democrats and remains registered as one. "I have always thought that my first responsibility is not to serve a political party but to serve my constituents, my state, and my country, and then to work across party lines to make sure good things get done for them." Lieberman's problems with his party began with his full-throated support for the war in Iraq early last decade, and he lost a 2006 Democratic primary based largely on that issue. He went on to run as an independent and has since referred to himself as an "independent Democrat." His willingness to stir the pot within his caucus and with the Democratic base has continued to hurt his standing with the liberal base -- a reality that already had two well-known Democrats eyeing the Democratic primary to run against him. Former Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz (D) jumped in the race Tuesday, and Rep. Chris Murphy (D) is expected to follow suit soon. Lieberman was considered one of the more vulnerable senators who are up for reelection in 2010, and Republicans were also looking to take him down. Former Rep. Rob Simmons and former wrestling executive Linda McMahon are both considering repeat bids after falling short in 2010. The pressure from the right might have made things even tougher for Lieberman, who won in 2006 thanks to a large amount of support from Republicans, who didn't have a viable nominee of their own. Lieberman had even entertained the idea of running as a Republican, with the other options being another independent run or a return to the Democratic primary. In the end, though, he said he has served long enough and shrugged off the notion that he has been forced out. "So what else is new? It probably would be a difficult campaign for me, but I've run many difficult campaigns before," Lieberman said. "I've never shied from a good fight, and I never will." News of Lieberman's retirement broke late Tuesday, just hours after another chairman, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) announced his own exit. Democrats are favored to hold the seat in Connecticut, while Republicans have a prime pickup opportunity in North Dakota. ||||| So this is what it's come to for Joe Lieberman. Faced with meager poll numbers across the board, the man who once came within a few hundred accidental Buchanan votes of the vice presidency is now set to announce his retirement from the Senate after four terms. Like any proud politician, he'll probably frame his departure as a voluntary act and insist that he could have won if he'd toughed it out. But make no mistake: When it came to his reelection prospects in 2012, Lieberman -- just like his longtime colleague Chris Dodd last year -- was simply out of options. He could run as a Democrat, he could run as Republican, he could run as an independent, but each path led to the same glum place. So he's hanging it up instead. While his role as Al Gore's running-mate in 2000 earned him a spot in history (the first Jew ever to appear on a major party's national ticket), it's the decade that followed that campaign that figures to define Lieberman's political legacy. By embracing the Iraq War from the beginning and refusing to let go even as Americans -- and Democrats in particular -- turned on it, Lieberman earned pariah status within his own party, was stripped of its backing in his 2006 reelection campaign, and has spent the four years since as an "independent Democrat" who seems to delight in poking sticks in the left's eye. So it's hardly surprising that, for instance, the Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas is now expressing satisfaction "that America and Connecticut will soon be rid of this useless sack of crap." If you know how it started, it was almost inevitable that Lieberman's Senate career would end this way. In theory, there shouldn't have been much room for a Democrat to run for the Senate in Connecticut in 1988. True, the seat that would be up belonged to a Republican. But the Republican in question was Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. -- the kind of Republican for whom the term RINO was invented. Elected in something of a fluke in 1970, Weicker was one of the last of the authentic Rockefeller Republicans still standing after the Reagan revolution. A staunch supporter of abortion rights, gay rights, and school busing, he'd scored points with liberals early in his first term by refusing to toe the Nixon administration's line on the Watergate select committee. As the Reagan era dawned, Weicker found himself positively isolated in his party, battling the White House -- and an overwhelming majority of Republicans on Capitol Hill -- on school prayer, civil rights, Central America, and funding for education, AIDS research and the homelessness programs, to pick just a few areas. In its 1986 rankings, the venerable Americans for Democratic Action rated Weicker the most liberal Republican in the Senate, by far -- and 20 percentage points more liberal than his fellow Connecticut senator, a Democrat named Chris Dodd. To the extent Weicker was in jeopardy as ’88 approached, the thinking went, it would be within his party. In his previous reelection campaign in 1982, he’d faced an initially formidable challenge from his right, with Prescott Bush, Jr. -- the brother of then-Vice President George H.W. Bush and the son of Prescott Bush, who’d represented the state in the Senate from 1952 to 1963 -- seeking to grab the GOP nomination from him. Early polls put Bush ahead by more than 20 points, but Weicker engineered a surprisingly dominant victory at the state party convention that July, keyed by fears that nominating a conservative candidate would cost the party a winnable Senate race like it had in 1980, when Republicans had nominated James Buckley. ("Weicker the winner" was the incumbent’s slogan. Shortly after the convention, Bush dropped out and Weicker went on to win a third term. In the run-up to ’88, conservatives in Connecticut sought to organize another primary challenge, stirring speculation that Weicker might end up bolting the party to run as an independent or even a Democrat. But their plans fizzled toward the end of 1987, when state Senator Tom Scott opted not to run, citing need to raise $1.5 million. There would be no need for Weicker to switch parties; the Republican nomination – and, it was widely assumed, a relatively easy path to a fourth term -- was all his. It was against this backdrop that, on the day before Thanksgiving 1987, Connecticut’s Democratic attorney general announced that he’d challenge Weicker. Lieberman was 45 years old and had been eying Washington for a while, having lost a 1980 congressional race to Republican Larry DeNardis. Two years after that, he’d bounced back to win the A.G.'s post, and in the 1986 general election, he'd won more votes than any other Democrat on the statewide ticket, including Governor William O’Neill. Still, conventional wisdom had it that he’d be a sacrificial lamb against Weicker – that the race might help him build name recognition for a subsequent run for statewide office, but that the prospects of victory were remote because, as the New York Times put it, he would be facing "a Republican who has won strong support from unaffiliated voters and Democrats." ''I don't kid myself,'' Lieberman said. ''I'm an underdog. But it's a winnable race. This is an incumbent a lot of people don't like. There are lot of people who feel that 18 years is enough for a senator.'' Most political observers took this as hot air, but they probably should have known better. After all, even after surviving the Bush scare in '82, Weicker had only defeated his Democratic opponent, Rep. Toby Moffett, by 30,000 votes. And while some of that narrow margin could be chalked up to the national political climate -- soaring unemployment that stirred a midterm backlash against virtually anyone who shared President Reagan’s party label -- Weicker’s margins hadn’t been particularly impressive in 1976 or 1970, either. He had plenty of fans in Connecticut, but he was hardly the invincible pol many took him for. But the real reason Lieberman was formidable was that, unlike every other big name Democrat in Connecticut, he was actually well-positioned to capitalize on Weicker’s liberalism. An unapologetic proponent of capital punishment (then a hot button issue, with crime rates soaring), he sided with the Reagan White House on aid to the Nicaraguan Contras, advocated a hawkish foreign policy, and played up his devout religious faith, leading some in the anti-abortion community to conclude that he shared their views. Another Democratic candidate would have worried about Weicker eating into his liberal base, but Lieberman set out to claim all of the turf to the incumbent’s right. Weicker had made plenty of powerful enemies on the right, and without a candidate of their own on the GOP side, many of them began gravitating toward Lieberman -- most notably William F. Buckley, Jr., who was then still running the National Review. Buckley, along with his brother James and son Christopher, organized an anti-Weicker PAC and devoted himself – and his magazine -- to electing Lieberman. “Does Lowell Weicker make you sick?” asked one 1988 headline in the National Review. ''We want to pass the word that it's O.K. to vote for the other guy or stay at home,'' Buckley told the New York Times. Buckley’s Lieberman cheerleading captured perfectly the upside-down nature of Connecticut’s 1988 Senate race, which also featured an enthusiastic endorsement of the Republican incumbent from the National Organization for Women. With polls showing him more popular among Democrats than Republicans, Weicker sought to make his estrangement from the GOP a general election asset. He showed up at the August Republican convention in New Orleans -- just to make it more dramatic when he announced that he was rejecting the party’s official platform. He lamented that religious conservatives like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were turning the GOP "into a one-note party," and adopted a new campaign slogan: "Nobody’s man but yours." Steadily, Lieberman cut into Weicker’s lead. The Democrat’s fundraising was especially impressive, allowing him to air ads earlier and to stay on the air throughout the fall. He aggressively targeted Connecticut’s blue collar "Reagan Democrats," stressing his death penalty and foreign policy positions, and lampooned Weicker as a lazy, out-of-touch windbag. In one devastating Lieberman ad, Weicker was depicted as a sleeping bear who might occasionally raise his head to growl but who was mostly content to snooze. Riffing on Weicker’s slogan, Lieberman told crowds that the incumbent was simply "nobody’s man." By the end of October the race was dead even. So was the result on Election Day. As the returns trickled in, neither candidate was able to establish a clear lead. Only when virtually every precinct had reported did it become clear that Lieberman had eked out a victory, by about 10,000 votes. Any one of several factors could have put him over the top, including a late surge in the state by Michael Dukakis, the Democrats’ presidential nominee. Dukakis had trailed badly in the weeks before the vote, but ended up holding Bush to a five-point margin -- potentially lifting downballot candidates like Lieberman. Plus, Weicker seemed to underperform in what should have been his base: the affluent, culturally liberal cities and towns in Fairfield County, Connecticut’s Gold Coast. Here, the culprit may well have been Lieberman’s attacks on Weicker for missing Senate votes and (supposedly) losing touch with his home state. But the biggest single factor, it seemed, was Lieberman’s remarkable success in the state’s working class, culturally conservative areas -- particularly in the Naugatuck Valley near Waterbury. The same voters who had rejected the Democratic Party in favor of Reagan in 1980 and 1984 (and, in the case of the Naugatuck Valley, who had elected a fiercely conservative 27-year-old congressman named John Rowland in 1984) returned to the Democratic fold in 1988 to vote for the more conservative candidate: Joe Lieberman. Weicker conceded the race with surprising grace (perhaps because he was already thinking ahead to 1990, when he waged a comeback bid for governor and won), while Lieberman headed off to Washington, where nearly two decades later he’d settle into the same role nationally that he first perfected in Connecticut back in 1988: Every Republican’s favorite Democrat. ||||| My corner of Connecticut was covered in ice today, until news broke of Sen. Joe Lieberman's impending retirement. Magically, a warm glow spread. It was a delicious feeling: the end of the reign of the politician I despise most. Why do I loathe, loathe, loathe my 68-year-old four-term senator? My feelings are all the stronger for being fairly irrational. Lieberman's views are closer to mine than many politicians on whom I don't expend one iota of emotional energy. This, of course, is his power: He never loses his power to disappoint. Then there is the spectacle of it all: After each act of grand or petty betrayal, each time he turned on his former supporters, the Democratic Party and the Obama administration came back begging for more. Throughout the last Congress, he never let anyone forget he was the 60th vote. It wasn't always so, at least not to me. When I first moved to Connecticut in 1989, during Lieberman's first term, he seemed entirely unobjectionable. In 1998, after I moved to the state a second time, I went to hear him speak. In 2001, I wrote a respectful piece for the Washington Post (I can't find it online) about how Lieberman's observance of Jewish law, as Al Gore's running mate, had offered a welcome means for thinking about the accommodation of religious differences. What was I thinking? How did I miss the sanctimony beneath the kippah? As my friend Caleb puts it, "Even when he was a good liberal Democrat (coming up through the state legislature and as attorney general in the '70s and '80s, for example), it was driven, I am sure, by opportunism rather than conviction." Another friend, Judy Chevalier, burned up her iPad tonight when I asked her to enumerate why she hates Joe Lieberman. She ticked off a half-dozen reasons and then said, "The thing is, I did not come up with most of these myself. They come from many rounds of playing the peculiar Connecticut liberal cocktail party game 'I hated Joe Lieberman before you hated Joe Lieberman.' " Longtime Lieberman haters, she says, look all the way back to 1993, when Lieberman led a hedge-fund-friendly charge in the Senate against the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which at the time wanted to close the accounting loophole that let corporations duck the recording of stock options on their balance sheets. Advertisement More old-timer liberal grudges against Lieberman: He denounced Bill Clinton in 1998 over Monica Lewinsky, a gift to the president's enemies. He selfishly held on to his Senate seat in 2000 when he ran with Gore; if they'd won, Lieberman's replacement would have been appointed by a Republican governor. A creative grudge from Caleb: Lieberman failed to bury Dick Cheney in the vice-presidential debate in 2000 because "he clearly had no interest in showing the public what kind of leader Cheney really would be." Judy points out that in 2006, Lieberman opposed an effort to require all hospitals, including Catholic ones, to make the morning after pill available to rape victims. He said glibly, "In Connecticut, it shouldn't take more than a short ride to get to another hospital." On to the more familiar recent history: Lieberman's unrequited, unquenchable love for the Iraq war. (All the more misguided if, as my friend David thinks, Lieberman saw his hawkishness as in the service of Israel and Jewish identity in America.) His romance with John McCain, which won him a speaking role at the 2008 Republican National Convention. His irritating, me-me-me flirtation with caucusing with the Republicans after he lost his Democratic primary to Ned Lamont and then won the 2006 general election running as an Independent. In 2009, it was Lieberman who held the health care bill hostage so he could kill the Democrats' proposal to let people get health insurance coverage by buying into Medicare—even though, as Ezra Klein points out, he'd endorsed the same proposal months earlier. Ezra calls Lieberman "erratic and seemingly unprincipled" during the health care debate but then gives him credit for delivering one of the handful of swing votes that allowed the bill to pass. I am not willing to be so forgiving. Should his vote have been so hard to get? Was this all about pleasing the Connecticut insurance companies? And then there's more: In July, Lieberman swaggered about a possible U.S. strike against Iran. In September, he was the one leading the way toward extending the Bush tax cuts for every last millionaire. This brings back the memory of the kiss George Bush gave him at the 2005 State of the Union address. And then, most infuriating of all, Lieberman ended the last Congress by doing something good. He resurrected the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" in the Senate last month. Afterward he said, "America became an even greater and stronger country today." I couldn't agree more. On Salon, Alex Pareene said that it was still OK to hate Joe Lieberman, but for a moment, I wobbled. Would I have to forgive Lieberman, however grudgingly? The answer is no. Pareene stiffened my spine by bringing up one sin I'd forgotten: After the arrest of Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, Lieberman proposed a bill that would have automatically stripped Americans of citizenship for being charged—not convicted—with a terrorist act. Add that one to the list. And surely I've left out various Lieberman lows you should alert me to in the comments. Dave Weigel says that Lieberman could not have won a fifth term in 2012 because at 31 percent last October, his approval ratings were too low. Maybe so, but now I realize I've missed my chance to vote against him. My friend Leslie says that her vote for him in the primaries in 2006 is the vote she regrets most; I wasn't living in Connecticut that year. Even Lieberman's retirement announcement is an irritant. I'll never get to throw the bum out. Like Slate on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Like Slate Politics on Facebook. Follow Slate on Twitter. Like This Story Follow Slate's Politics ||||| 5 years ago Washington (CNN) - Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, tells CNN he believes his good friend Joe Lieberman would make a good defense secretary for President Obama, calling him "one of the most informed members of the Senate on national security issues and homeland security issues." McCain was answering a question from CNN in a telephone interview about whether the president should consider picking Lieberman for the post, since Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said he wants to leave this year. "You know its funny you mention it," responded McCain, "I really hope that the president would consider him. I hadn't thought about it but I sure hope, whatever happens, he will play a major role on national security issues," said McCain. Lieberman, who already had a rocky relationship with Democrats after running for his Senate seat in 2006 as Independent after losing a Democratic primary, angered many in his former party by campaigning constantly with McCain in his 2008 presidential bid. Fury at Lieberman erupted in Democratic circles when he spoke at the Republican convention and not only expressed support for McCain, but also said he did not think Obama was ready to be president. McCain suggested that shouldn't stop the president from considering Lieberman for his cabinet now. "I know one thing, that the president has reached out to people that otherwise, maybe a couple of years ago, he wouldn't have given serious consideration," said McCain, "but I can't divine the views of the president." With sadness in his voice, the Arizona Republican called Lieberman "the most decent man that I have ever known in the Senate. He lives his religion and is the most generous spirit." "He's not going to go into retirement, he just wants to do other things, and I'll miss him every single day," said McCain. McCain said that Lieberman told him that he is "tired" after 40 years in public service, and admitted that "he knew he had a tough re-election fight" had he chosen to run for a fifth Senate term. McCain said he will miss their close friendship and camaraderie in the Senate, but also said Lieberman's retirement will create a "vacancy on national security issues, the Middle East in particular." In his 2008 presidential campaign, McCain came close to tapping the 2000 Democratic Vice Presidential nominee as his GOP running mate. "Certainly he was very seriously considered, and we chose Sarah Palin instead, but certainly had our most serious consideration and a lot of that had to do with my friendship and respect for him," McCain recounted to CNN.

– Joe Lieberman today confirmed what everybody knew: He's not running for Senate re-election in 2012. Some quotes from the Connecticut independent's news conference, as collected by the Washington Post: "Along the way, I have not always fit comfortably into conventional political boxes—maybe you've noticed that—Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. I have always thought that my first responsibility is not to serve a political party but to serve my constituents, my state, and my country, and then to work across party lines to make sure good things get done for them." "The politics of President Kennedy—patriotic service to country, support of civil rights and social justice, pro-growth economic and tax policies, and a strong national defense—are still my politics. So maybe that means that JFK wouldn't fit into any of today's partisan political boxes neatly." Some first reactions: Steve Kornacki, Salon: "He could run as a Democrat, he could run as Republican, he could run as an independent, but each path led to the same glum place. So he's hanging it up instead." It's fitting that it ends this way, given that he perfected the role of "Every Republican's favorite Democrat" when he first ran in 1988, then settled into that role in the Senate. Click for full analysis. Emily Bazelon, Slate: Echoing a familiar sentiment on the left, she explains why she "loathes" Lieberman, including his ardent support for the Iraq war and his holding the "health care bill hostage." His pivotal support of repealing "Don't Ask" didn't come close to making up for the rest. Click for full column. John McCain: He tells CNN that he hopes President Obama will make Lieberman defense secretary if Robert Gates leaves. He's "one of the most informed members of the Senate on national security issues and homeland security issues."

Five striking teachers out on the Ambridge Area School District picket line dropped their signs to run inside a burning house across nearby and rescue three people inside, including a former student. Advertisement Ambridge firefighters battled the six-alarm fire in bitter cold with help from neighboring towns Thursday. It was a handful of striking Ambridge teachers protesting by the schools across Duss Avenue who got the occupants out. "We were picketing and a lady across the street started shouting, 'Call 911!'" said Paul Hladio, one of the striking Ambridge teachers. "Instantaneously, I dropped my sign and ran across the street," said teacher Karen DeMarco. "I just see her sprint across the road, almost get hit by a car," said Jeff Modrovich, another striking teacher who joined in the rescue, along with Pete Keller and Todd Hartman. The Ambridge teachers put themselves in danger to get inside the burning house. "There was smoke pouring out of the roof, and we were pounding. I was pounding the front door, and eventually I think the front door just kicked through," DeMarco told Pittsburgh's Action News 4. "I've never run into a building before that was on fire," Hladio said. "She's already in the front door, I'm yelling, 'Anybody in the house, get out!' you know, 'It's on fire!'" Modrovich said. Then the teachers found three people who lived in the home: one, elderly; one of them with medical oxygen; one, a woman whom they once taught. "Kayla's a former student of mine and I just felt I had to do something to get that family out," DeMarco said. "The grandfather, elderly, he had had trouble walking," Modrovich said. "We made sure we got the oxygen out or turned it off and made sure to help them out of the building," Hladio said. Once they were all out of the house, they saw the fire get worse. "After a couple of minutes, you saw the flames shooting out of the roof," Modrovich said. "If the teachers wouldn't have been here, somebody wouldn't have observed that, there's a chance somebody could have been very seriously injured or even worse," said Ambridge Fire Chief Rob Gottschalk. No one was injured and there's no word on the cause of the fire. The fire chief believes the house is a total loss. ||||| Updated: Dec 15, 2016 - 7:15 PM AMBRIDGE, Pa. - Two teachers are credited with saving a family from their burning home. The teachers were walking the picket lines near Ambridge High School on Duss Avenue when several of them noticed a cloud of smoke rising in the sky about a block awake. Karen DeMarco put down her strike poster, ran to the home and started pounding on the front door. “I just see her spring across the road, almost get hit by a car,” said teacher Jeff Morovich, who was also on the picket line. “Then I see a resident coming down 8th Street yelling, ‘Call 911.’” The teachers didn’t wait for firefighters to arrive. They knocked down a door and went into the home. “We found the lady of the house sitting in the one room, and there was several oxygen tanks there,” DeMarco said. “We felt that we needed to get her out with the oxygen tanks. There was a daughter there and a grandfather there.” Two other teachers carried out the oxygen tanks before they had a chance to explode. When firefighters arrived, flames were coming from the roof, but three people who lived in the home were safe. Because power lines were in the way of ladder trucks, Duquesne Light was called to shut off power to the area. About 50 homes were affected. A warming center was set up at the Ambridge Fire Station, but the borough manager told Channel 11’s Damany Lewis that nobody used the shelter. When things settled down, DeMarco said she recognized one of the people she helped to save. “Kayla’s a former student of mine, and I just felt that I had to do something to get that family out,” she said. “I’d do that for anybody. I just wanted to see them safe for the holiday season.” The cause of the fire was not known. The house is a total loss. ||||| In case you missed it, there was good public access news from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last week, when the court affirmed the public's right to access videos gathered by police on the job. Unfortunately, that right is likely to be short-lived, because of Senate Bill 560. ||||| AMBRIDGE, Pa. (KDKA/AP) – Approximately 190 Ambridge Area School District teachers are on strike. Schools are closed Tuesday after educators in the Beaver County district walked off the job following months of contract negotiations. The school board and teachers’ union remain at odds over salaries and health benefits. “The board has made what we believe to be a very fair salary offer, which includes compensation beyond the increases in the salary scale,” Ambridge Area School District solicitor Ira Weiss said. “The district has also made a very realistic proposal on the teachers’ contribution to health care.” A last-ditch marathon negotiation session between Ambridge Area School District and a teacher’s union took place behind auditorium doors Monday. Around 9:15 p.m., it was announced that negotiations had broken down and that teachers would be going on strike. The teachers’ contract expired in June 2015. “The District, if you read what is on their website, have seemed to dig their heels in and claiming that our proposals are going to bankrupt them, while in reality our proposals are very reasonable,” Chris Konkus with the Ambridge Area Education Association said. The District says it is in a very severe financial situation, facing a $1.5 million deficit. It says it will be very difficult to fund the proposal it has already made, let alone any increase. The state Education Department decided Wednesday that teachers must return to work on Jan. 4. So far, no new talks are scheduled. Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter (TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

– A family in Pennsylvania was saved from a fire thanks to some sharp-eyed teachers—and the Ambridge Area School District's failure to agree to a new contract with their union. The striking teachers were walking the picket line Thursday morning when they spotted smoke rising from a house about a block away, dropped their pickets signs, and ran to help. Science teacher Karen DeMarco tells WPXI that after there was no answer when they banged on a door, they knocked it down instead of waiting for firefighters to arrive. "We found the lady of the house sitting in the one room, and there was several oxygen tanks there," DeMarco says. “We felt that we needed to get her out with the oxygen tanks. There was a daughter there and a grandfather there." "Everybody got out," says music teacher Todd Hartman. Physical education teacher Jeff Modrovich and special education teacher Peter Keller also helped save the family from the fire, which ended up as a six-alarm blaze that destroyed the house, the Beaver County Times reports. "If the teachers wouldn't have been here, somebody wouldn't have observed that, there's a chance somebody could have been very seriously injured or even worse," says Ambridge Fire Chief Rob Gottschalk. DeMarco tells WTAE that the younger woman they rescued from the house turned out to be one of her former students. CBS reports that the teachers, who have been without a contract for almost 18 months, walked off the job Tuesday after negotiations broke down Monday night. (Motorists in Florida formed a human chain to save a man from a burning vehicle.)

A Nova Scotia family is reeling after a funeral home presented them with two wrong bodies — only then to learn their loved one had been mistakenly cremated. "It's just like a horror story," one family member told CBC News. The chairman of the board responsible for overseeing funeral directors in Nova Scotia confirms an investigation is underway into the "mistake" last month at the Serenity Funeral Home in Berwick, located in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley. Bennett died at age 65 on Dec. 20, 2017, after a lengthy illness. (Bennett family) Sandra Bennett died on Dec. 20 at age 65 after a lengthy illness. Her visitation was scheduled for a week later, Dec. 27, with her funeral to follow on the same day. But nothing went as planned, and the experience left family members angry, traumatized and wondering how there could be a mix up involving at least three bodies. CBC News has tried repeatedly to contact the funeral home's owner, Anthony (Tony) Facey, but he has not responded. His lawyer, Bernie Conway, said he has advised his client not to comment and offered a brief statement via email. "Rest assured, Serenity Funeral Home takes utmost pride in the services it provides and takes this matter very seriously," Conway said. Wrong body wearing woman's clothes Before Bennett's open-casket visitation was set to begin, family members say Bennett's widower, Gary, pointed out to funeral home staff that the body of the woman in the casket was not his wife. After some discussion, that casket was wheeled out and another brought in. That one also did not contain his wife's body, but the deceased woman was wearing Bennett's clothes, according to family members. After both bodies were taken away, funeral home staff returned to explain that Bennett's body had been mistakenly cremated. Bennett's family bought a plot and gravestone at this cemetery, where her cremated remains were buried. (Yvonne Colbert/CBC) Bennett's family members spoke to CBC News on the condition they not be identified, as they are concerned about the impact on potential litigation. CBC also spoke to the son of one of the deceased that Serenity confused with Bennett. The son also did not want his name used but said just before his mother's funeral four days after Bennett's visitation, funeral home staff pulled his family aside and said his mother — who wanted to be cremated — had accidentally been embalmed and displayed as someone else. While that family was surprised, he said his mother's final wish was ultimately honoured. It's not known why the funeral home waited four days to tell the family about the mix up. The son expressed concern and sympathy for Bennett's family, saying repeatedly how badly he felt for them. 'Next to impossible' Serenity is one of only a handful of privately owned funeral businesses in Nova Scotia, operating funeral homes in the communities of New Ross, Berwick, Wolfville and Coldbrook. The company's website boasts it has the only crematorium in the Annapolis Valley. "We serve everyone as though we have loved them and known them all our lives," Serenity's website reads. Under a list of frequently asked questions about cremation, the site also states that "all reputable cremation providers use rigorous sets of operation procedures and policies to maximize their level of service, which minimizes the risk of human errors." It goes on to say "there are labels that are used to make sure it is next to impossible to receive the incorrect remains." When CBC News contacted the Berwick location on Monday, the general manager said they had been advised by their lawyer not to comment. He went on to say they "can't fix it" but they are waiting for the Bennett family lawyer to contact their company lawyer. 'Very concerning' Funeral home complaints in the province are handled by the Nova Scotia Board of Registration of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, which is investigating. The funeral home contacted the board "immediately upon discovering of this mishap," said board chairman Adam Tipert, who called the situation "definitely very concerning" and a "hot-point priority" for the board. Tipert said, however, he was not aware of three bodies being involved. He said the funeral home told them there were "two individuals, not three." Offering "sincere condolences" to the families involved, Tipert said it is important for the board to "find out exactly what is going on." Some funeral homes in Nova Scotia require that a family member identify the deceased before the cremation process begins, he said, and with more and more people opting for cremation, he recommends that families make that request. ||||| A Nova Scotia family grieving the loss of a relative said they were stunned when they went to a local funeral home for her service only to be presented with the bodies of two other women – and then told their loved one had accidentally been cremated. Relatives of Sandra Bennett say they arrived at the Serenity Funeral Home in Berwick on Dec. 27 for a visitation following her death a week earlier after a prolonged illness. READ: Hundreds of bodies are going unclaimed in Ontario and Quebec They say they had planned to have an open casket service, but when they looked inside they saw the body of another woman dressed in Bennett’s clothing. “I was shocked,” Bennett’s sister, Carolyn Dominey, said Wednesday. “It’s like they degraded my sister’s body against her wishes.” Dominey and her daughter, JoAnne, said staff at the funeral home insisted the woman in the casket was in fact Bennett. When they realized it wasn’t, the family says they were presented with another body in the casket purchased by Bennett’s husband, Gary. Again, it was not Bennett. “(I thought) this can’t be true. This is something you hear about on a TV show or somewhere in the States, but not in a small community,” JoAnne Dominey said from her mother’s home. “No one needs to go through this, especially over the holidays. It’s hard enough losing a loved one without this happening. I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through this.” JoAnne Dominey said the family was then told Bennett was mistakenly cremated. But, she says it’s not clear that the ashes they were given were actually those of Bennett. “They weren’t sure if it was even her ashes,” she said. “We still don’t know.” Serenity Funeral Home did not respond to a request for comment. Gary Bennett did not want to comment on the matter, saying it was too emotional and “like going through a nightmare.” His lawyer, Paul Walter, said in an email that his firm was in the process of gathering information and arranging meetings with affected family members. “This has been unquestionably, an horrific experience for Gary and his family – an experience that no grieving family should ever have to go through,” he said in the email. “We intend to take all appropriate legal measures to ensure that the individuals whom we represent are fully and fairly compensated for the negative impact this ordeal has had and continues to have on their lives.” WATCH: B.C. family angry over funeral home’s mistake The agency that regulates funeral homes in Nova Scotia is investigating the bizarre mix-up and says it is likely the first time they have looked into such a case. Adam Tipert, chairman of the Nova Scotia Board of Registration of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, said they are examining how the home handled Bennett’s remains and ultimately how the 65-year-old woman was cremated, despite wishes from her family that that not take place. Tipert said they were notified of the matter by the funeral home and are in the preliminary stages of gathering information on the chain of custody for her body, what discussions were held with the family and what documentation was in place. He said multiple documents are required for a legal cremation and that they explicitly spell out what the wishes are for the deceased. “Clearly what we’re dealing with here is human error, so you can have all the permits and documents in the right order but if you’re putting them with the wrong remains … they can’t guarantee that you still have the right body,” he said. “There’s room for error.” Tipert said the priority for the board, which mandates professional conduct for the sector, is the welfare of the families affected by the unusual mix-up while trying to ensure it does not happen again. “The funeral sector is granted a responsibility of lending professional guidance and direction to families at the most difficult time and when an error like this occurs it has certainly removed the opportunity for them to properly grieve,” he said. “It’s very difficult for the families and that’s why the board wants to take an active approach in looking into what the possible outcomes might be.” He said the board has the authority to suspend or revoke licences at funeral homes if it found that professional standards were not met.

– The first body the funeral home showed them wasn't Sandra Bennett. Neither was the second. CBC reports a Canadian funeral home is under investigation after Bennett's family says it mistakenly cremated her body after she died in December at the age of 65 and then presented two other bodies as their loved one. During Bennett's visitation a week after her death, Bennett's husband pointed out that the body being displayed at Serenity Funeral Home in Novia Scotia wasn't his late wife. Bennett's sister says staff were adamant the body belonged to Bennett before eventually relenting and bringing in a second body, according to the Canadian Press. The second body, while dressed in Bennett's clothes, was also not Bennett. Bennett's family says the funeral home finally admitted to accidentally cremating Bennett's body. They say the whole thing has been "just like a horror story." Serenity owner Anthony Facey isn't commenting, but a lawyer says the funeral home "takes this matter very seriously." Adam Tipert, chairperson of the Nova Scotia Board of Registration of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, tells CBC the situation is "definitely very concerning." He says the funeral home only admitted to two bodies being involved, not three, and the board needs to "find out exactly what is going on." A section on the Serenity Funeral Home website reads: "There are labels that are used to make sure it is next to impossible to receive the incorrect remains."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, facing growing pressure to call early elections, is expected to take a far more cautious tack in the conservative government's second budget on Tuesday after a politically disastrous plan last year. Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey were savaged in 2014 for handing down a budget that aimed to slash spending on social welfare programs in order to reign in spiraling deficits. Both have promised that Tuesday's budget will be "boring" in comparison, favoring tax breaks for small business owners and new family benefits over big-ticket structural items to address a collapse in revenue as a decade-long mining boom winds down. Australian Conservatives Readying for DO OR DIE Second Budget Two and a half years after a video of a band of Louisville teens posted an all-percussion version of Ozzy Osbourne 's "Crazy Train" on YouTube – racking up over 800,000 views in the process – the Black Sabbath singer has finally gotten around to watching the video. Osbourne was so moved by the performance that instead of simply hitting "like" on the unique version of his Blizzard of Ozz single, the Courier-Journal reports he sent a $10,000 check to support the Louisville Leopard Percussionists. You'll Never Guess What This Youtube Video Inspires Ozzy Osbourne to Do! When Philip Astley started the first circus in England in 1768 , he used the ring to exhibit his horse tricks, with a few jugglers, acrobats and clowns on the side. Circuses grew from a small traveling show to a three ring affair in 1881, when P. T. Barnum debuted P.T. Barnum's Museum, Menagerie & Circus, which featured many different acts and the world's largest elephant. Kanye West made a surprise on-court appearance at Chicago's United Center during his hometown Bulls' Game Four matchup versus the Cleveland Cavaliers. After the rapper announced the contest's starting lineup prior to tip-off, Bleacher Reports writes West staged an impromptu performance of his latest single "All Day" at center court during a timeout with 3:23 remaining in the first quarter. West, a huge basketball fan, was also shown sitting next to Bulls great Scottie Pippen during the game. You'll Never Guess What Kayne Did at Sundays Chicago Bulls Game Hope Solo' s husband Jerramy Stevens caught a huge break Sunday getting released from jail. JUST 3 Days after surrendering for a 30 day sentence for his Team USA soccer van DUI. Stevens was arrested in Manhattan Beach, CA in January while driving a team USA soccer van with his wife Hope Solo in the vehicle. Stevens is now on 4 years probation and must complete a 2-year outpatient alcohol treatment program in Washington. British Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday ruled out giving Scotland another independence referendum despite spectacular gains by Scottish nationalists in a UK-wide election, saying Scots had "emphatically" rejected a breakaway only last year. Cameron, who was re-elected with a surprise outright majority last week, said he would ensure that further powers would be granted to Scotland according to an existing plan. "There isn't going to be another referendum," he said, saying the pro-independence Scottish National Party, which won 56 of 59 parliamentary seats in Scotland last week, had made clear that election was not about securing another vote. Film and theater director Mike Leigh's operatic debut with Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance" immerses us in a world of innocent fun where the morals of Britain's Victorian era are gently lampooned while avoiding tiresome moralizing. The comic opera features tender-hearted pirates who will not attack anyone who claims to be an orphan while our hero Frederic joined their ranks as a small boy after his hard-of-hearing nursery maid was told to have him apprenticed as a pilot. Like mother, like daughter! Beyoncé was one of many celebrities to share heartfelt messages and family pictures on Mother's Day Sunday afternoon. But being the Queen Bey that she is, the "Crazy in Love" singer decided to step it up in her own unique way. On the left side of her split photo just posted, Beyoncé worked pigtails at a very young age while standing next to mom Tina Knowles. Fast-forward decades later and Mrs. Jay Z shared the same pose with her daughter Blue Ivy Carter. Beyoncé and Blue Ivy Look Like Twins in Mother's Day Throwback Post. Tom Brady is finally getting some support from an NFL player who's NOT his teammate -- with Jacksonville Jaguars star Marcedes Lewis saying he hopes the league goes easy on him because he's "America's Child." The Wells report was released last week implicating Brady as a main culprit in the DeflateGate scandal which came to light before the Super Bowl this past season. A powerful typhoon is heading toward Tokyo after lashing southern Japan, where it killed at least one U.S. airman on Okinawa island and left two others missing. The Meteorological Agency said Typhoon Phanfone was off the coast of Shikoku in southwestern Japan on Sunday night, local time, packing winds of up to 90 miles per hour, after hitting the southern regions of Okinawa and Kyushu. Reuters reported the typhoon was downgraded from the status of super typhoon. Air Force members were washed away by high waves Sunday, with one found dead and the other two still missing. Strong typhoon Phanfone slammed into Japan Monday, packing gusting winds and huge waves that swept three US military officials out to sea in another stark reminder of the country's vulnerability to nature. Just over a week after a volcano killed dozens of hikers when it erupted without warning, winds of up to 180 kilometres (112 miles) per hour whipped ashore, bringing heavy rain and travel chaos throughout a swathe of the archipelago. The storm whirled over Tokyo at around 11:00 am (0200 GMT) and then headed northeast, dumping rain further up the coast of Honshu while its eye moved out over the Pacific Ocean. Seven people were left dead or missing, including the three US military officials who had been photographing the storm, Japanese police and coast guards said. Typhoon Phanfone grounded more than 600 flights, and caused the cancellation of dozens of bullet train services, leaving travellers stranded in stations. The leading edge of the storm brought a nasty commute to Tokyo's morning rush hour, with hundreds of thousands of office workers caught up in the driving rain that lashed the streets. Localised flooding was reported while television footage showed around 15 of the 20-metre (66-foot) high poles holding up the netting at a golf driving range had collapsed, crashing into houses in Chiba, east of Tokyo. The storm also battered Japan's auto industries. Toyota Motor temporarily suspended operations at its 12 factories in Aichi, central Japan, due to the impact of the typhoon on its parts supplies, a company spokeswoman said, adding that production lines reopened by Monday evening. View gallery Vehicles advance through a flooded street in Chiba, near Tokyo, Monday, Oct. 6, 2014. A powerful typ … - Risk of further flooding - The weather agency warned that even as the storm passed out to sea landslides and floods were still a risk in a country where a relatively wet summer brought numerous landslides, including in Hiroshima where more than 70 people died. In the central Japanese prefecture of Shizuoka, more than 50,000 people were ordered to evacuate their homes, while around 1.7 million others were advised to take refuge, local authorities said. Three US military officials were engulfed by high waves triggered by the storm on the southern island of Okinawa. "Three officials were taking pictures with high waves whipped up by the typhoon in the background," a local police spokesman said. "One has been found dead, with the two others still missing," he said early Monday. A 21-year-old surfer was also missing in the Pacific off Fujisawa, southwest of Tokyo, a coast guard spokesman said. And rescuers were searching through the mess left by two separate landslides in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, where two people were missing. A junior high school boy had also disappeared after being swamped by high waves on the coast at Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, a city official said. About 57 people were injured across the country in storm-related accidents, public broadcaster NHK said. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on the northeastern Pacific coast, said it had halted ground and sea operations, and bundled away cables and hoses. "We are also patrolling and checking where water may flow in," a company spokesman said. In the mountainous centre of the country, the typhoon meant the suspension of the search for the bodies of at least 12 hikers believed to be lying on the still-smouldering Mount Ontake. The mountain has already yielded 51. The volcano was packed with walkers when it burst angrily to life on September 27, with many there to witness the spectacular colours of the countryside as summer turned to autumn. The eruption was Japan's deadliest in almost 90 years and nearly 1,000 troops, firefighters and police have participated in a search made treacherous by the gases still rising from the peak, as well as a knee-deep layer of sticky ash. "We want to resume operations as soon as possible when weather permits," said an official of the crisis management office of Nagano, where the volcano sits. ||||| Strong typhoon Phanfone made landfall in central Japan on Monday, slamming into the archipelago with winds of 180 kilometres (112 miles) per hour and making a beeline for Tokyo, the country's meteorological agency said. The storm has already left four people dead or missing, including three US military officials, according to Japanese police and coast guards. "Typhoon No 18 made landfall near Hamamatsu City" and was heading towards the Tokyo metropolitan area, an agency official told AFP by telephone. Typhoon Phanfone has also grounded more than 600 flights and forced Japanese authorities to suspend a search for the bodies of those still missing more than a week after a volcano erupted, claiming dozens of lives. The leading edge of the typhoon was whipping rain and strong winds through Tokyo's morning rush hour. The storm system was estimated to be 200 kilometres (124 miles) southwest of the capital at 8:00 am (2300 GMT on Sunday) and moving northeast at 45 kilometres per hour, the weather agency said. The agency warned that landslides, floods, high waves and heavy rains could hit a large swathe of the archipelago, where a relatively wet summer brought numerous landslides, including in Hiroshima where at least 70 people died. Local governments in many areas issued evacuation advisories to more than 300,000 residents, according to public broadcaster NHK said. The first fatalities of Phanfone had already been recorded. Three US military officials were engulfed by high waves triggered by the storm on the southern island of Okinawa. "Three officials were taking pictures with high waves whipped up by the typhoon in the background," a spokesman at local police said. "One has been found dead, with the two others still missing," he said early Monday. A 21-year-old surfer was also missing in the Pacific off Fujisawa, southwest of Tokyo, a coast guard spokesman said. About 10 people were injured across the nation in storm-related accidents, NHK said. At least 608 flights were grounded on Monday because of the winds after 216 flights were cancelled on Sunday, the network said. Meanwhile, the search was suspended for the bodies of at least 12 hikers believed to be lying on the still-smouldering Mount Ontake, from where 51 have already been retrieved. The volcano was packed with walkers when it burst angrily to life on September 27, with many there to witness the spectacular colours of the countryside at the arrival of autumn. The eruption is Japan's deadliest in almost 90 years and nearly 1,000 troops, firefighters and police have participated in a search made treacherous by the gases still rising from the peak, as well as a knee-deep layer of sticky ash. "We want to resume operations as soon as possible when weather permits," said an official of the crisis management office of Nagano, where the volcano sits. si-mis/hg/st ||||| Story highlights More than 1.2 million people were advised to evacuate to shelters, officials say Two U.S. airmen missing, one dead after they were swept from beach on Okinawa A Japanese surfer is also missing after disappearing in waves near Tokyo suburb Typhoon Phanfone hit central Japan on Monday, disrupting air and train travel Two U.S. airmen and a Japanese surfer remained missing Monday after a powerful typhoon swept past the southern part of the country. The two airmen were among four who were washed out to sea as a group of them took photos of big waves on a beach on the island of Okinawa on Sunday afternoon, according to the Japanese Coast Guard. One airman managed to make it back to the beach, but another was found in the water and confirmed dead later Sunday, the coast guard said. The search for the two missing men was hampered by rough seas, said Kadena Air Base, the U.S. military installation where they were serving. Just Watched Typhoon Phanfone makes landfall in Japan replay More Videos ... Typhoon Phanfone makes landfall in Japan 03:36 PLAY VIDEO All three names are being withheld until the Air Force can notify next of kin. Surfer goes missing near Tokyo The seas were churned up by Typhoon Phanfone, which made landfall in central Japan early Monday. It packed sustained winds as strong as 130 kph (81 mph) when it hit land near the city of Hamamatsu, after having moved up the country's southeastern coastline. A 21-year-old university student went missing at lunchtime Sunday while surfing off the coast of Fujisawa, a beach suburb of Tokyo, the coast guard said. Unleashing fierce winds and torrential rain, the typhoon brought widespread disruption to Tokyo and other areas near its path. Thirty-nine people have been injured, authorities said. Hundreds of flights canceled More than 1.2 million people throughout a wide area of central and eastern Japan have been advised to evacuate to shelters, Japanese fire and rescue officials said Monday. More than 7,000 others have been ordered to relocate. Air transport was paralyzed, with more than 400 domestic flights canceled, affecting more than 50,000 people. Bullet trains between Tokyo and Osaka, Japan's second biggest city, were also disrupted. Elementary and junior high schools in large areas of central Japan were closed to avoid the heavy rain and strong winds. The storm had moved out into the Pacific Ocean by Monday afternoon, and meteorologists said conditions should improve by nightfall. Risk of mudslides But the typhoon left behind the danger of mudslides and flooding in mountainous areas. Officials have expressed particular concern about the situation at Mount Ontake, a volcano that suddenly erupted last weekend, killing dozens of hikers. The typhoon has caused search efforts to be suspended for about a dozen people who remain missing on the volcano, the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported. The high accumulation of volcanic ash on the mountain, combined with the forecast of heavy rain, increases the danger of mudslides.

– The story of the three American airmen swept out to sea as Typhoon Phanfone pummeled Okinawa yesterday carries this coda: They "were taking pictures with high waves whipped up by the typhoon in the background," a local police rep tells AFP. They were apparently part of a group taking pictures, adds CNN; a total of four airmen were actually washed out to sea, but one managed to make his way back to shore. One was confirmed dead yesterday, while the other two remain missing. A 21-year-old surfer and a junior high schooler are also missing, as are two people lost in mudslides; some 57 people have been injured due to the storm, and more than 600 flights have been grounded, Yahoo reports.

When Lisa Morrise gave birth to her youngest daughter Kirsten, doctors told her the baby was experiencing serious respiratory problems but they weren't sure why. "She just wasn't getting enough oxygen," Morrise told CBS News. "She had a purple and bluish tinge to her color." Morrise later learned that Kirsten was born with Pierre Robin Sequence, a rare set of abnormalities affecting the head and face, consisting of a small lower jaw, a tongue placed further back than normal, and cleft palate which obstructs breathing and swallowing. The condition affects an estimated one in every 8,500 to 20,000 babies and requires immediate resuscitation at birth. Kirsten Morrise was born Feb. 15, 1993, bluish in color and retracting at the sternum, making an extra effort to move air. Lisa Morrise But since Kirsten's condition wasn't immediately diagnosed, she did not get the treatment she needed. Once doctors determined she was breathing, they sent her to the normal nursery, but two hours later a nurse noticed Kirsten was still under distress and rushed her to the NICU. There, she was diagnosed and treated correctly, but Morrise believes that the two hours in which Kirsten did not have sufficient oxygen was a factor in her developing mild cerebral palsy. Kirsten's story is just one of many who have suffered as a result of a diagnostic error. Such inaccurate or delayed diagnoses are far from uncommon and urgently need to be addressed by the medical community, according to a new report released today by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. In fact, most people will experience at least one diagnostic error -- an inaccurate or delayed diagnosis -- in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences, the authors report. The paper is a continuation of the Institute of Medicine's Quality Chasm Series. The committee that wrote the study found that data on diagnostic errors are sparse, there are few measures to accurately track them and most errors are found only in retrospect. "Despite the pervasiveness of diagnostic error and the risk for patient harm, they have been largely unappreciated within the quality safety movement in health care and this cannot and must not continue," Dr. Victor Dzau, the president of the National Academy of Medicine, said in a press conference this morning. "The time has come to address diagnostic errors," Dr. Mark Graber, founder and president of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, told CBS News. His organization petitioned the IOM to undertake an investigation of diagnostic errors. "Diagnostic errors are nothing new, they've been happening all along and this report emphasizes how significant they are," he said The report identified several common causes for diagnostic errors, including: Inadequate collaboration and communication among clinicians, patients, and their families Limited feedback to doctors about the accuracy of diagnoses A culture that discourages transparency and disclosure of diagnostic errors, which impedes attempts to learn and improve in the medical community As health care continues to grow more complex, experts say the problem of diagnostic errors will likely worsen unless steps are taken to address it. The committee makes several recommendations, but admits it's a complicated problem to solve. "Diagnosis is a collective effort that often involves a team of health care professionals -- from primary care physicians, to nurses, to pathologists and radiologists," Dr. John R. Ball, committee chair and executive vice president emeritus of the American College of Physicians, said in a statement. "The stereotype of a single physician contemplating a patient case and discerning a diagnosis is not always accurate, and a diagnostic error is not always due to human error. Therefore, to make the changes necessary to reduce diagnostic errors in our health care system, we have to look more broadly at improving the entire process of how a diagnosis made." The committee first calls for patients and their families to be more involved in the diagnostic process. To help them do so, they say doctors and health care organizations should provide patients with greater opportunities to learn about diagnosis. They should also get improved access to electronic health records, including clinical notes and test results. The report says it's important to create an environment where patients and their family can share feedback and concerns about possible diagnostic errors. Currently, most health care organizations do not have systems in place to identify diagnostic errors, and the culture of many of these organizations discourages such identification, the authors say. They recommend reforms to the medical liability system, to help encourage transparency and disclosure of diagnostic errors in an effort to learn from them and prevent them from happening again. Currently, fear of lawsuits often has the effect of discouraging doctors or health care organizations from admitting problems to patients. In Morrise's case, she never received confirmation from the hospital that Kirsten's delayed diagnosis was the cause of further health problems. But years later, she learned from the nurses who had cared for her daughter that after the incident, yearly training was implemented in identifying the signs of Pierre Robin Sequence and how to administer appropriate treatment. "That was difficult for me to process because I realized in that moment that the hospital had known that they had made a mistake, and what took years for me to figure out what the impact had been, they had known and never said anything," Morrise said. Kirsten Morrise during a hike in Brighton, Utah in August 2015. Lisa Morrise Kirsten, now 22 and a student at Utah State studying social work, has undergone a total of 44 surgeries and spent a large part of her life with a tracheotomy tube. After three major procedures, she can now breathe fairly well. Both she and her mother have become patient advocates, giving regular talks on the subject and working with local hospitals to provide the patients' perspective on improving care. The authors of the report also highlight the importance of medical education reform in preventing diagnostic errors. They call for changes to the curriculum emphasizing clinical reasoning, teamwork, communication and diagnostic testing. Additionally, they say it's important to improve health information technology and support for both health care professionals and patients. "In the end improving the diagnostic process is not only possible, but it does represent a moral professional public health imperative," Ball said. "Achieving the goal will require a significant re-envisioning of the diagnostic process and widespread commitment to change." ||||| A daily crawl of more than 200,000 home pages of news sites, including the pages linked from those home pages. Site list provided by The GDELT Project 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. Date: Sept. 22, 2015 prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" / Urgent Change Needed to Improve Diagnosis in Health Care or Diagnostic Errors Will Likely Worsen, Says New Report WASHINGTON – Most people will experience at least one diagnostic error -- an inaccurate or delayed diagnosis -- in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The committee that conducted the study and wrote the report found that although getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care, efforts to improve diagnosis and reduce diagnostic errors have been quite limited. Improving diagnosis is a complex challenge, partly because making a diagnosis is a collaborative and inherently inexact process that may unfold over time and across different health care settings. To improve diagnosis and reduce errors, the committee called for more effective teamwork among health care professionals, patients, and families; enhanced training for health care professionals; more emphasis on identifying and learning from diagnostic errors and near misses in clinical practice; a payment and care delivery environment that supports the diagnostic process; and a dedicated focus on new research. This report is a continuation of the Institute of Medicine’s Quality Chasm Series , which includes reports such as To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System , Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century , and Preventing Medication Errors . “These landmark IOM reports reverberated throughout the health care community and were the impetus for system-wide improvements in patient safety and quality care,” said Victor J. Dzau, president of the National Academy of Medicine. “But this latest report is a serious wake-up call that we still have a long way to go. Diagnostic errors are a significant contributor to patient harm that has received far too little attention until now. I am confident that Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, like the earlier reports in the IOM series, will have a profound effect not only on the way our health care system operates but also on the lives of patients.” Data on diagnostic errors are sparse, few reliable measures exist, and errors are often found in retrospect, the committee found. However, from the available evidence, the committee determined that diagnostic errors stem from a wide variety of causes that include inadequate collaboration and communication among clinicians, patients, and their families; a health care work system ill-designed to support the diagnostic process; limited feedback to clinicians about the accuracy of diagnoses; and a culture that discourages transparency and disclosure of diagnostic errors, which impedes attempts to learn and improve. Errors will likely worsen as the delivery of health care and the diagnostic process continue to increase in complexity, the committee concluded. To improve diagnosis, a significant re-envisioning of the diagnostic process and a widespread commitment to change from a variety of stakeholders will be required. “Diagnosis is a collective effort that often involves a team of health care professionals -- from primary care physicians, to nurses, to pathologists and radiologists,” said John R. Ball, chair of the committee and executive vice president emeritus, American College of Physicians. “The stereotype of a single physician contemplating a patient case and discerning a diagnosis is not always accurate, and a diagnostic error is not always due to human error. Therefore, to make the changes necessary to reduce diagnostic errors in our health care system, we have to look more broadly at improving the entire process of how a diagnosis made.” Critical partners in improving the diagnostic process are patients and their families, because they contribute valuable input that informs diagnosis and decisions about their care. To help them actively engage in the process, the committee recommended that health care organizations and professionals provide patients with opportunities to learn about diagnosis, as well as improved access to electronic health records, including clinical notes and test results. In addition, health care organizations and professionals should create environments in which patients and families are comfortable sharing feedback and concerns about possible diagnostic errors. Few health care organizations have processes in place to identify diagnostic errors and near misses in clinical practice. However, collecting this information, learning from these experiences, and implementing changes are critical for achieving progress. The culture of health care organizations can also discourage identification and learning. Therefore, the committee called for these institutions to promote a non-punitive culture that values open discussions and feedback on diagnostic performance. Reforms to the medical liability system are needed to make health care safer by encouraging transparency and disclosure of diagnostic errors. States, in collaboration with other stakeholders, should promote a legal environment that facilitates the timely identification, disclosure, and learning from diagnostic errors. Voluntary reporting efforts should also be encouraged and evaluated for their effectiveness. Payment and care delivery models also likely influence the diagnostic process and the occurrence of diagnostic errors, but information about their impact is limited and this is an important area for research, the committee said. It recommended changes to fee-for-service payment to improve collaboration and emphasize important tasks in the diagnostic process. For example, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and other payers should create codes and provide coverage for evaluation and management activities, such as time spent by pathologists and radiologists in advising treating physicians on testing for specific patients. Moreover, payers should reduce distortions in the fee schedule that place greater emphasis on procedure-oriented care than on cognitive-oriented care, because they may be diverting attention from important tasks in diagnosis, such as preforming a thorough clinical history, interview, and physical exam, or decision making in the diagnostic process. Additionally, the committee recommended that health care professional education and training emphasize clinical reasoning, teamwork, communication, and diagnostic testing. The committee also urged better alignment of health information technology with the diagnostic process. Furthermore, federal agencies should develop a coordinated research agenda on the diagnostic process and diagnostic errors by the end of 2016. The report presents resources to help patients better engage in the diagnostic process. One resource, a checklist for getting the right diagnosis, advises patients about how to effectively tell their story, be a good historian, keep good records, be an informed consumer, take charge of managing their health care, follow up with their clinicians, and encourage clinicians to think about other potential explanations for their illness. The study was sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American College of Radiology, American Society for Clinical Pathology, Cautious Patient Foundation, College of American Pathologists, The Doctors Company Foundation, Janet and Barry Lang, Kaiser Permanente National Community Benefit Fund at the East Bay Community Foundation, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. The Academies operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. For more information, visit http://national-academies.org . A committee roster follows. Social Media: #improvingdiagnosis http://nas.edu/improvingdiagnosis Resources: Report in Brief List of Recommendations Select Figures Resources for Improving Communications PDF of Communication Resources Video Contacts: Jennifer Walsh, Senior Media Relations Officer Chelsea Dickson, Media Relations Associate Office of News and Public Information 202-334-2138; e-mail [email protected] http://www.nas.edu/newsroom/index.html Twitter: @NASciences RSS feed: http://www.nationalacademies.org/rss/index.html Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalacademyofsciences/sets Pre-publication copies of Improving Diagnosis in Health Care are available from the National Academies Press on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu or by calling 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242. Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above). THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE Institute of Medicine Board on Health Care Services Committee on Diagnostic Error in Medicine John R. Ball, M.D., J.D.* (chair) Executive Vice President Emeritus American College of Physicians Asheville, N.C. Elisabeth Belmont, J.D. Corporate Counsel MaineHealth Portland Robert A. Berenson, M.D. Institute Fellow The Urban Institute Washington, D.C. Pascale Carayon, Ph.D. Proctor & Gamble Bascom Professor in Total Quality Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Director Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement University of Wisconsin Madison Christine K. Cassel, M.D.* President and CEO National Quality Forum Washington, D.C. Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D.* Chief Medical Officer Veterans Health Administration Washington, D.C. Michael B. Cohen, M.D. Medical Director Anatomic Pathology and Oncology Division ARUP Laboratories, Professor and Vice Chair for Faculty Development and Ombudperson, Health Sciences Center University of Utah Salt Lake City Patrick Croskerry, M.D., Ph.D., FRCP(Edin) Professor of Emergency Medicine Director, Critical Thinking Program Dalhousie University Medical School Dalhousie University Nova Scotia, Canada Thomas H. Gallagher, M.D. Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Medicine Director, Hospital Medicine Program and Center for Scholarship in Patient Care Quality Improvement, Safety and Value University of Washington Seattle Christine A. Goeschel, Sc.D., M.P.A., M.P.S., R.N., F.A.A.N. Assistant Vice President for Quality Medstar Health Columbia, Md. Mark L. Graber, M.D. Senior Fellow RTI International Plymouth, Mass. Hedvig Hricak, M.D., Ph.D.* Chair Department of Radiology Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center New York City Anupam B. Jena, M.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor Health Care Policy and Medicine Harvard Medical School; and Assistant Physician Massachusetts General Hospital Boston Ashish K. Jha, M.D., M.P.H.* K.T. Li Professor of International Health, and Director Harvard Global Health Institute Department of Health Policy and Management Harvard School of Public Health Boston Michael Laposata, M.D., Ph.D. Professor and Chair Department of Pathology University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston Kathryn M. McDonald, M.M. Executive Director and Senior Scholar Center for Health Policy and Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research Stanford University Stanford, Calif. Elizabeth A. McGlynn, Ph.D.* Director Center for Effectiveness and Safety Research Kaiser Permanente Pasadena, Calif. Michelle Rogers, Ph.D. Associate Professor College of Computing and Informatics Drexel University Philadelphia Urmimala Sarkar, M.D., M.P.H. Associate Professor Division of General Internal Medicine University of California, and Primary Care Physician San Francisco General Hospital San Francisco George E. Thibault, M.D.* President Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, and Daniel D. Federman Professor of Medicine and Medical Education Emeritus Harvard Medical School New York City John B. Wong, M.D. Chief Division of Clinical Decision Making Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies School of Medicine Tufts University Boston STAFF Erin Balogh Study Director _________________________ *Member, National Academy of Medicine # # # ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. Most Americans will get a wrong or late diagnosis in their lifetimes, a new report finds — often with devastating effects. It’s almost impossible to quantify, but the problem is serious, and the lack of a coherent medical system helps keep it under the radar, the National Academy of Medicine finds in a new report. The solution involves getting pathologists and radiologists more actively involved in a patient’s diagnosis, the Academy, formerly the Institute of Medicine, recommends. It's also calling for changes to medical malpractice laws so professionals aren’t afraid to own up to mistakes, and going back to doing autopsies, culture changes at hospitals, clinics and institutions and better use of technology. “Everyone will experience one meaningful diagnostic error in their lifetime,” Dr. John Ball, chairman of the Committee on Diagnostic Error in Medicine, which wrote the report, told NBC News. “Everyone will experience one meaningful diagnostic error in their lifetime." “We simply don’t know what the incidence of it is. We need to study it more to be able to do anything about it. It’s an under-represented, understudied area in medicine and we need to shine a light on it.” According to the report: At least 5 percent of U.S. adults who seek outpatient care each year experience a diagnostic error. Postmortem exams suggest diagnostic errors contribute to 10 percent of patient deaths. Medical records suggest diagnostic errors account for 6 to 17 percent of adverse events in hospitals. Sometimes people suffer from more than one error. Susan Sheridan of Boise, Idaho, lost her husband to a late cancer diagnosis and has a permanently disabled son because no one noticed his serious jaundice as a newborn. She knew something was badly wrong soon after her son Cal, who is now 20, was born. He was a little jaundiced, which is normal for a newborn, but Sheridan noticed more alarming symptoms. “When he was about three or four days old, he began to show signs of being super sleepy,” Sheridan said. He’d been a strong feeder, but was weak and floppy. Sheridan called St. Luke’s Hospital in Boise, where Cal had been born, for advice. “They said, ‘Are you a first time mom?’ I said yeah. They said, ‘Don’t worry — this is normal’,” Sheridan said. She remained worried and her pediatrician reluctantly told her to bring Cal in. “He was so yellow he was turning a kind of orange color. The receptionist called him the pumpkin baby because he was so yellow orange,” Sheridan said. These are all classic signs of too-high bilirubin. Newborns have tiny livers that cannot easily process this compound. When levels get too high, bilirubin can damage the brain. Many hospitals now routinely test for it, but in 1995, when Cal was born, it had fallen out of fashion. Cal was given an antibiotic for an ear infection and sent home. His bilirubin continued to soar, damaging his brain. A level of 20 is considered dangerous. Cal’s was 34. It’s easy to treat by putting the baby under special lights for a few days or, if it gets worse, with a blood transfusion. Time after time Sheridan’s worries were dismissed, even as she begged for help. Cal developed kernicterus, the brain damage caused by bilirubin. His body arched backwards and he wailed and trembled. Sheridan demanded that a neurologist examine Cal. But the neurologist, too, failed to see the danger. Sheridan and her husband Pat did not give up. They eventually got Cal diagnosed and treated at the University of Washington. But it was too late. “Cal has really significant cerebral palsy,” Sheridan, who is now 55, said. “He can walk with a walker. He is very speech impaired, hearing impaired. His eyes kind of shoot all over the place.” He will require lifetime care. The Sheridans settled with St. Luke. “What happened to Cal is unacceptable,” Sheridan said. Sheridan became a patient activist and testified in Washington about the need for better diagnosis of jaundice, and some guidelines to prevent such errors from happening again. She works with the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, which pressed for Tuesday's report. The report calls for guidelines, too, and better training. Hospitals, healthcare systems, organizations and others should “develop and deploy approaches to identify, learn from, and reduce diagnostic errors and near misses in clinical practice,” the report recommends. “If people are afraid to speak up, then bad things can continue to happen." Ball says it’s important to create a culture where hospitals and doctors should feel free to admit their mistakes. “If people are afraid to speak up, then bad things can continue to happen,” he said. The Institute of Medicine called for this same culture of confession in its landmark 1998 report on medical errors that found tens of thousands of Americans die from medical mistakes such as botched surgery or infections acquired in the hospital. Almost unbelievably, the country’s disjointed medical system struck the Sheridan family again. As Susan embarked on a new career advocating for better patient involvement, Patrick developed a pain in his neck. Doctors prescribed physical therapy, offered pain pills, tried acupuncture. Nothing helped. An orthopedic specialist ordered an MRI scan and found a mass on his spine. “We went to a very well-known hospital in Arizona,” Sheridan said. A surgeon got the tumor out and told the Sheridans it was benign. But Susan didn’t trust this, not after what she went through with Cal. “I asked for the surgical report and pathology and got (a frozen section of tissue from the tumor),” she said. She took everything to their own general practitioner. “What we didn’t know is that the pathologist had ordered additional stains, that he was doing additional testing on my husband’s tumor,” she said. “It was a significant, aggressive tumor.” The pathologist faxed his report to Sheridan’s doctor 23 days later. “It got put into my husband’s chart without the doctor ever seeing it,” Sheridan said. Her family celebrated what they thought was Patrick’s recovery, little suspecting that malignant tumor cells were spreading in his body. Six months later, the pain was back. It was sarcoma. “During the six months of non-treatment, the tumor metastasized and penetrated his spinal cord,” Sheridan said. Patrick went to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for round after round of surgery and chemotherapy. “He didn’t make it,” she said. “That diagnostic error ended his life.” Patrick died in 2002, at 45. “He said he knew it was cancer and he thought everyone else did. I guess that he trusted the system would close the loop somehow." Why didn’t the pathologist make sure the neurosurgeon saw the report about the tumor? “What if he had picked up the phone and called the doctor and say, ‘We have got something bad on our hands’?” Sheridan asked. She even asked the pathologist directly. “He said he knew it was cancer and he thought everyone else did. I guess that he trusted the system would close the loop somehow,” she said. “I learned that doctors don’t get reimbursed or paid for talking to each other. Our system prevents the doctors from talking to each other." Tuesday’s report addresses this issue directly. Right now, they’re not encouraged or paid to do so. But they should be, Ball says. The report calls for this type of consultation to be paid for, and given its own medical code for billing the insurance company. “Radiologists and pathologists need to be much more involved in clinical care,” Ball said. “There are 30,000 diagnostic tests (and) 10,000 of those are molecular tests. No single physician can figure out which tests do I use on this particular patient.” The report also calls for a return to the lost art of the autopsy, another procedure that doctors and hospitals have dropped. Patients are almost certainly dying of missed diagnoses, and no one knows, the report says. “The incidence of autopsies is falling off tremendously, in part because it’s not paid for and in large part because people think that the diagnostic technologies that we have now have supplanted the autopsy, that we should know ahead of time what the patient had,” Ball said. Electronic medical records will help, if and when they ever become widely used, the report says. But there’s still not a system that ensures one hospital’s system can talk to another’s, and many doctors are reluctant to use even basic electronic tools. "Our system prevents the doctors from talking to each other." The Affordable Care Act’s provisions to encourage teams to get paid for caring for patients, instead of getting reimbursed piecemeal for each test, each visit and each diagnosis, should also help, Ball says. Sheridan, who is now director of patient engagement for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), wants more. “Our healthcare system…I have no clue who is in charge,” she said. “I assumed somebody was in charge of keeping us safe.” And there needs to be a body keeping tabs on errors. “There is no place for us to report when things go wrong,” Sheridan said. “The first thing I wanted to do was tell somebody, so they could make sure that will never happen again.”

– Virtually all Americans will at some point receive a wrong diagnosis or a delayed one, a new report from the National Academy of Medicine finds. "Everyone will experience one meaningful diagnostic error in their lifetime," the chairman of the committee that wrote the report tells NBC News. The stats are troubling: At least 5% of US adults in outpatient care each year are victims of a diagnostic error, with 6% to 17% of "adverse events" in hospitals and 10% of patient deaths occurring due to these mistakes, per medical and postmortem records. The solution, according to the report, includes embracing more communication with pathologists and radiologists, better harnessing of technology, and bringing back autopsies. There should also be more transparency and encouragement of disclosure, the report notes, so doctors won't be hesitant to reveal errors because they're afraid of malpractice suits, per CBS News. No one knows this better than Susan Sheridan, a patient-involvement advocate from Idaho whose 20-year-old son is permanently disabled because of a jaundice misdiagnosis when he was an infant, and whose husband died of cancer because of a diagnosis received too late. "Our healthcare system … I have no clue who is in charge," she tells NBC. "I assumed somebody was in charge of keeping us safe." The president of the National Academy of Medicine says in a release that this report "is a serious wake-up call" and that "diagnostic errors are a significant contributor to patient harm that has received far too little attention until now." (A mistaken brain surgery, unnecessary chemo, and erroneous mastectomies all had devastating consequences.)

Article Excerpt JACKSON HOLE, Wyo.—A defiant Ben Bernanke sought to shoot down criticism of the Federal Reserve's easy-money policies and strengthen the case for new efforts by the central bank to bring down what he described as gravely high unemployment. Markets have been on edge for months about whether the Fed will launch another large bond-buying program. Fed Chairman Bernanke, speaking Friday at the central bank's annual retreat here, offered a vigorous defense of the Fed's $2.3 trillion in bond purchases since 2008, estimating they helped lead to more than two million jobs—and signaled that he is strongly considering another installment. "Central ... ||||| Photo Advertisement Continue reading the main story JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, delivered a detailed and forceful argument on Friday for new steps to stimulate the economy, reinforcing earlier indications that the Fed is on the verge of action. Calling the persistently high rate of unemployment a “grave concern,” language that several experts described as unusually strong, Mr. Bernanke made clear that a recent run of tepid rather than terrible economic data had not altered the Fed’s will to act, because the pace of growth remained too slow to reduce the number of people who lack jobs. The federal government said on Wednesday that the economy expanded at an annual rate of 1.7 percent in the second quarter, slightly higher than its initial estimate of 1.5 percent but lackluster in normal times. A measure of consumer confidence hit a three-month high on Friday, but that, too, was impressive only in comparison with the immediate past. The government will release a preliminary estimate of August job growth next week; it is expected to show that the unemployment rate remains above 8 percent. Mr. Bernanke said that the Fed’s efforts over the last several years had helped to hasten economic recovery, that there was a clear need for additional action and that the likely benefits of new steps to stimulate growth outweighed the potential costs. “It is important to achieve further progress, particularly in the labor market,” Mr. Bernanke said. “Taking due account of the uncertainties and limits of its policy tools, the Federal Reserve will provide additional policy accommodation as needed to promote a stronger economic recovery and sustained improvement in labor market conditions in a context of price stability.” In setting the stage for action when the Fed’s policy-making committee meets in two weeks, Mr. Bernanke appeared to defy political pressure from Republicans to refrain from new measures. Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, has said such action would be counterproductive, and has pledged to replace Mr. Bernanke at the earliest opportunity. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “Policies from Congress, not more short-term stimulus from the Fed, are the ingredients necessary for restoring growth in the American economy,” Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, said in a statement after Mr. Bernanke’s speech. On the other hand, Democrats welcomed Mr. Bernanke’s remarks. There is little prospect that Fed action will lift the economy before the election, but party officials fear the opposite possibility — that inaction could undermine economic confidence — and so they greeted the speech with relief. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said Mr. Bernanke “should not let any political backlash deter him from following through and doing the right thing.” Mr. Bernanke did not announce any new steps in his speech, delivered here before an annual monetary policy conference organized by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Nor did he indicate which steps were most likely, a reticence that reflects his desire not to give details ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee, which convenes in two weeks. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Advertisement Continue reading the main story Some analysts expect the Fed to announce a new round of asset purchases after that meeting, further expanding its holdings of Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities to reduce borrowing costs and spur investment. Others expect that it will instead announce its intent to keep its benchmark interest rate near zero beyond its current forecast of late 2014. Jan Hatzius, chief United States economist at Goldman Sachs, said he was now convinced that the Fed would extend its forecast, because Mr. Bernanke described benefits but not costs of that approach. He said he also expected the Fed to announce new asset purchases, but not necessarily in September. The speech, he said, made the Fed’s intentions clear, “but it still doesn’t really tell you the timing.” Stocks fell slightly after the release of Mr. Bernanke’s remarks, then climbed again. Commodities like gold and oil also increased. Mr. Bernanke devoted much of his speech to asset purchases. He said past rounds of purchases had produced “economically meaningful” benefits, contributing to lower borrowing costs for corporations and a general rise in stock prices. He cited one study that found that the combined effect of the Fed’s three rounds of asset purchases raised output by 3 percent and increased employment by two million jobs. He provided a shorter description of the benefits of policy forecasts. In both cases, after reviewing the costs of existing actions and the potential consequences of doing more, Mr. Bernanke rendered a clear verdict on the balance. “The costs of nontraditional policies, when considered carefully, appear manageable, implying that we should not rule out further use of such policies if economic conditions warrant,” he told the audience of central bankers, fiscal policy makers and academic economists gathered at the Jackson Lake Lodge in the middle of Grand Teton National Park for the annual policy conference. The Fed has sent signals in recent months that it is preparing to take new action to stimulate the economy. Its policy-making committee said after its most recent meeting in early August that it would “provide additional accommodation as needed.” Since that meeting, the depressed housing market has shown signs of modest revival. But worries about fiscal policy have intensified, and Europe remains on a low boil. Mr. Bernanke’s verdict on Friday was unambiguous: “The economic situation obviously is far from satisfactory,” he said. And his description of the high unemployment rate as a “grave concern” drew particular notice from his well-versed audience. “It goes well beyond normal central bank expressions of the need to bring unemployment down,” said Alan S. Blinder, an economics professor at Princeton University and a former Fed vice chairman. “It is an interesting question for someone to research if any central banker has ever made a statement that strong” about unemployment. In addition to asset purchases and forward guidance, the account of the most recent meeting mentioned two other options. The Fed could lower the interest rate it pays banks on reserves kept at the Fed, which might push some money into circulation. It could also seek to provide low-cost financing for certain kinds of lending, like mortgage loans, emulating a program recently begun by the Bank of England. Several Fed officials have said they would like to replace the time horizon for current policy with a trigger tied to economic data, declaring, for example, that the Fed is likely to keep interest rates near zero until the unemployment rate falls below a specified level, or until economic output exceeds a certain threshold. The internal debate underscored a striking contrast with Mr. Bernanke’s speech at this same conference in 2010, when he gave the first indication that the Fed would embark on a second round of asset purchases. Then, Mr. Bernanke devoted most of his remarks to establishing the need for action, largely taking for granted that the Fed had the power to improve the economy. On Friday, it was the need for action that Mr. Bernanke took for granted. The question now is how much more the Fed can do.

– Ben Bernanke left little doubt today that the Fed would soon resort to yet more attempts to inject money into the economy. In a speech at Jackson Hole, Bernanke said unemployment was still "a grave concern" because it inflicts both "enormous suffering" on the people and "structural damage on our economy that could last for years," the Wall Street Journal reports. "The Federal Reserve will provide additional policy accommodations as needed to promote a stronger economic recovery and sustained improvement in the labor market," Bernanke promised. Though he didn't announce any specific new action, or even a timetable for when that action might come, many analysts assume it'll be at the Fed's next policy-making committee meeting on Sept. 12-13, the New York Times reports. Benanke also defended the Fed's past asset-purchasing programs, saying they provided "economically meaningful" benefits, and that the costs "appear manageable." The markets liked the speech—the Dow was up about 140 points at 11am.

After posting an 84 percent decline in profit Thursday, SeaWorld Entertainment assured analysts better days are ahead. Discounting, lower attendance — partly from controversy over killer whales in captivity — and increased marketing expenses took their toll on profit in the quarter that ended June 30. Though SeaWorld missed analysts' expectations, investors appeared calmed by executives' comments. The stock closed at $18.14, up 4.2 percent. "We acknowledge we still have much work ahead of us," Chief Executive Officer Joel Manby told analysts. "Let me assure you that we remain steadfast in our efforts to overcome these challenges and improve the performance of the company." SeaWorld will continue offering discounts to lure visitors to its 11 theme parks and water parks. Those promotions cut into revenues. However, SeaWorld's base prices have recently increased. Also, the company became heavily promotional in the latter half of last year. This past quarter, "our discounts were going up against kind of nondiscounted numbers last year," said Marc Swanson, SeaWorld's chief accounting officer, in a conference call with analysts. "Going forward we expect that dynamic to improve a little bit." The calendar will also help. Labor Day will be later this year, providing more peak-season visitors to seasonal parks. Halloween will fall on a Saturday, another attendance booster. The company reaffirmed its prior statements that it expects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to be between flat and up 3 percent for 2015. "I think that perception [is] that perhaps the worst is over," said Tuna Amobi, an analyst with S&P Capital IQ. "Investors are always looking ahead." The company noted that attendance increased overall at its Florida attractions — the namesake Orlando park, Aquatica, Discovery Cove, Busch Gardens and Adventure Island — but did not give details on individual parks. In Florida, though, SeaWorld says its big issue is competition from Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando. It used to be that a visit to SeaWorld was a natural extension of a trip to Orlando to visit Disney. But as Universal has grown in dominance, the investment community believes "you're not getting the same spillover dynamics that you used to get," Jason Bazinet, an analyst with Citi Research, told executives Thursday. "The industry structure has just sort of changed in a three-player market." "It is certainly an issue that we're studying hard," Manby said. "We're making sure we have our place." SeaWorld's net income for the quarter declined to $5.8 million from $37.4 million the previous year. Much of that decline — about $20 million — came from debt-restructuring costs. Adjusted earnings per share were 22 cents, down from 43 cents last year. Analysts had expected 40 cents. The company said it continues to cut costs, though it offered few specifics. Swanson cited the closing of Gwazi, a wooden roller coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa, that was costly to run and "underutilized." Attendance decreased 1.6 percent to 6.5 million visitors. Revenue dropped to $391.6 million from $405.2 million. The company said the timing of Easter, heavy rain in Texas and "brand challenges" stemming from its killer whales all dampened visitation. Controversy over whales in captivity had an effect in California, SeaWorld said. SeaWorld continues to suffer the negative effects of keeping whales in captivity, an issue that the 2013 documentary "Blackfish" brought into the mainstream. Following SeaWorld's earnings, both People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Animal Welfare Institute issued statements saying the disappointing results show that the tide of public opinion has turned against having orcas perform for entertainment. SeaWorld has launched a marketing campaign that includes TV and print ads highlighting its care of killer whales. "The TV ads we've been running definitely drive a positive sentiment for the company and offset some of the negatives out there," Manby said, citing research SeaWorld has conducted. "When people get the facts about the company, it definitely neutralizes or improves their sentiment about us." Amobi said the campaign appears to have been "a modest success." [email protected] or 407-420-5240 ||||| SeaWorld has suffered a 84% collapse in profits as customers have deserted the controversial aquatic theme park company following claims it mistreated orca whales. The company, which trains dolphins and killer whales to perform tricks in front of stadiums full of spectators, on Thursday reported declines in attendance, sales and profits because of “continued brand challenges”. SeaWorld has been in the headlines since the 2013 documentary Blackfish detailed claims that its treatment of orca whales provoked violent behaviour contributing to the deaths of three people. Following the release of the documentary, attendance collapsed and the company lost more than half of its market value on Wall Street and its former CEO was forced out. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A clip from the documentary Blackfish, which tells the story of a performing killer whale that allegedly caused several deaths while working as part of a live show The company has since launched a nationwide marketing campaign to combat animal rights activist claims that, among other things, captive orcas die at younger age than their wild counterparts. Despite cutting ticket prices and spending $10m on the marketing blitz, which features its veterinarians caring for whales, SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby was forced to admit that the company is still struggling to convince the public that it treats its whales well. “We realize we have much work ahead of us to recover more of our attendance base, increase revenue and improve our performance as returning to historical performance levels will take time and investment,” Manby said on Thursday. “On the reputation side, early feedback on our campaign has been positive, however, we recognize that fully resolving our brand challenges in California will require sustained focus and commitment to correct misinformation.” “We will continue to fight with the facts, because the facts are on our side,” he said on a conference call with reporters and analysts on Thursday. Mandy, who joined the company as CEO four months ago to help the company rehabilitate itself, said he would set out his vision for the future of the company at a special event on 6 November. Already in the pipeline are plans for a new shark exhibition in Orlando and an attraction in San Antonio that will allow customers to swim with dolphins in a “naturalistic” setting. The company’s financial report released on Thursday showed net income in the second quarter dropped from $37.4m in 2014 to $5.8m in 2015, a 84% decrease. Revenue fell from $405m to $392m. Attendance dropped by more than 100,000 from 6.58 million to 6.48 million. Analysts will now be closely watching SeaWorld’s sales and attendance numbers in the third quarter, which is traditionally the company’s most profitable and covers the summer vacation season. Attendance may suffer from a fresh scandal last month, in which a SeaWorld employee was found to have infiltrated animal rights protest groups against the company. Jared Goodman, director of animal law for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), which has been leading campaigns against SeaWorld, said: “SeaWorld is in the midst of a spying scandal, animals are dying in its tanks, and tens of thousands of people have opposed its bid to build a new orca prison, so it should come as no surprise that SeaWorld’s quarterly earnings have plummeted yet again in the second quarter. Families just don’t want to buy tickets to see orcas going insane inside tiny tanks, and SeaWorld’s profits, like the orcas, won’t recover until the abusement park empties its tanks and builds coastal sanctuaries.” SeaWorld’s shares, which were worth $39 in 2013, were changing hands for just under $18 on Thursday.

– Animal-rights activists celebrated a victory yesterday after SeaWorld announced an 84% drop in profits in the wake of continued controversy over its treatment of captive orcas. The Guardian reports SeaWorld's second-quarter income plummeted from $37.4 million to $5.8 million year-over-year. The company, which operates 11 theme and water parks, cites bad weather in Texas, the poor timing of Easter, and "continued brand challenges" for its poor performance, according to the Orlando Sentinel. That last item refers to the public response to the 2013 documentary Blackfish, which put a spotlight on SeaWorld's treatment of its killer whales and resulted in a drop in attendance and torpedoed the company's CEO. Despite declining profits at SeaWorld, which one PETA director calls an "orca prison" and "abusement park," the company's recently installed CEO said he believes it's on the right track, the Guardian reports. Though it discounted ticket prices and ran a $10 million marketing campaign to combat the influence of Blackfish, attendance dropped 1.6% in the second quarter. Still, the company expects earnings to be unchanged or even slightly up in 2015 when all is said and done. The calendar will be on its side for the rest of the year, as Labor Day comes late and Halloween is on a Saturday, notes the Sentinel. But its former glory is a ways away: Shares traded at less than $18 yesterday, down from $39 in 2013.

Here is a verbatim statement just issued by the University of Mississippi: At the request of Chancellor Dan Jones, the university’s Alumni Association has offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of two individuals involved in an early morning incident on The University of Mississippi campus. The University Police Department (UPD) is looking for two men who were seen early Sunday morning near the James Meredith statue, which commemorates the 1962 integration of the university. One of the men was reported to have been wearing camouflage pants. The statue had been draped with a noose and an old Georgia state flag, and the men were heard shouting racial slurs. Jones condemned the action as contrary to the beliefs and values of the university community. “These individuals chose our university’s most visible symbol of unity and educational accessibility to express their disagreement with our values. Their ideas have no place here, and our response will be an even greater commitment to promoting the values that are engraved on the statue – Courage, Knowledge, Opportunity, and Perseverance.” Assistant to the Chancellor for Multicultural Affairs Don Cole reiterated the creed that the university stands by. “This is particularly painful because the James Meredith statue has become a gathering place for students to discuss many things, including the tenets of our creed, which calls for dignity and respect for all people.” UPD has initiated a rigorous investigation and alerted Oxford Police. Anyone with information concerning the investigation is urged to contact UPD at 662-915-7234. Contact: PR Director Danny Blanton, 662-915-1678, [email protected] For more information about the University of Mississippi, visit http://news.olemiss.edu or sign up for our RSS feed at http://rebs.ms/umnewsrss. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter at http://rebs.ms/UMsocial. ||||| According to The Daily Mississippian, the student-run newspaper at Ole Miss, a noose was found on Sunday morning around the neck of the school's James Meredith statue. A pre-2003 Georgia state flag, which featured the "stars and bars" of the Confederacy, was also draped around the statue's shoulders. Meredith became the school's first black student in 1962. Authorities are investigating the incident and the Ole Miss Alumni Association has offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, but University Police Chief Calvin Sellers told TPM they "don't have much" in the way of leads. A contractor who was performing maintenance on the campus library when the incident is believed to have taken place — between 6:30 and 7 a.m. on Sunday, according to Sellers — said he saw two white males in the area, but didn't see them at the statue. The contractor said that the two individuals were shouting racially charged rhetoric like "white power" and the N-word, and both were wearing camouflage attire. But the latter detail probably doesn't help much. "Well, in Mississippi it's not unusual for guys to be dressed in camouflage," Sellers told TPM in a phone interview. Sellers said the surveillance footage that authorities have at the moment isn't very revealing, although there was a camera situated at the main entrance to the campus. That footage hasn't yet been reviewed but unless the suspects entered the campus in a vehicle, Sellers said they're relying on a "hope and a prayer." The camera, Sellers said, could capture a license number, but likely couldn't provide a definitive picture of the suspects.

– After a noose and a Confederate flag were found early Sunday on a statue of the University of Mississippi's first black student, James Meredith, Ole Miss is now looking for two men who, according to a witness, were shouting racial slurs while vandalizing the statue. The FBI is also investigating, the New York Times reports. Yesterday, students held a vigil at the 2006 statue. "The actions done in the cowardly dark will never diminish the light of James Meredith’s legacy nor our creed," read one sign. The university's chancellor weighed in on the attack: "These individuals chose our university’s most visible symbol of unity and educational accessibility to express their disagreement with our values," said Daniel Jones. The Ole Miss alumni association is offering $25,000 for information on the case. But as of yesterday, university police had little to go on, the chief told Talking Points Memo.

JERUSALEM — Three Israeli teenagers were missing in the West Bank and were presumed to have been kidnapped, Israeli military officials said on Friday. The episode added a new layer of tensions to Israel’s already strained relations with the Palestinians after the collapse this year of American-brokered peace talks and Israel’s rejection of the newly formed Palestinian government. Although occasional violence in the West Bank has continued to claim victims on both sides, the successful abduction of Israelis has been rare in recent years. But the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, said it had foiled more than 60 planned abductions in the West Bank since the beginning of 2013, arresting suspected Palestinian perpetrators before they could carry out their plans. The Israeli military was conducting intensive searches in the West Bank, focused on the Hebron area. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was consulting with the defense minister and other top security officials, according to a statement from his office. It added that Israel considers the Palestinian Authority responsible for the safety of the missing youths. After hours of rumors and a news blackout of the episode imposed by Israeli security services, the chief military spokesman announced shortly after 5 p.m. that Israeli forces had been searching for the three boys since before dawn. Brig. Gen. Motti Almoz gave few details, citing security concerns. According to initial reports the three teenagers were last heard of on Thursday night as they made their way to a hitchhiking station at Alon Shvut in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem. This episode comes at a delicate time, less than two weeks after the establishment of the new Palestinian government that resulted from a reconciliation pact between the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is dominated by the mainstream Fatah movement, and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that dominates Gaza. Israel refuses to negotiate with the government, which is made up of politically independent ministers, on the grounds that it is backed by Hamas. The militant group, which also has a presence in the West Bank, refuses to recognize Israel and is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and Europe. Israel has said it would maintain contact with the Palestinian Authority on security issues and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has pledged to continue security coordination with Israel. It was not immediately clear whether the sides were working together on the case of the missing youths. Palestinian militant leaders have called for the abduction of Israeli soldiers as hostages to be traded for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel’s Army Radio routinely broadcasts announcements warning soldiers against hitchhiking. Last September an Israeli soldier, Sgt. Tomer Hazan, 20, was killed by a Palestinian man with whom the sergeant worked at a restaurant in Israel. Security officials said the Palestinian man had lured the sergeant to the West Bank and killed him in the hope of trading his body for a brother imprisoned in Israel. ||||| Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that the three teenage yeshiva students missing since Thursday night were kidnapped by terrorists. In his first on-camera statement since Eyal Yifrah, 19, from Elad, Gilad Shaar, 16, from Talmon and Naftali Fraenkel, 16, from Nof Ayalon went missing, Netanyahu said he could not elaborate on the search, but that the kidnapping shows the real results of the Hamas-Fatah unity government, and held the Palestinian government responsible for their fates. Earlier, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said that the security forces' working assumption is that the three are still alive. The IDF thinks the kidnappers may be attempting to leave Israeli territory, via Jordan. Security forces are investigating whether a stolen Israeli vehicle, which was found burnt near the West Bank city of Hebron, is linked to the kidnapping. Palestinian firefighters were alerted about the burning car at 3 A.M. on Friday. Two of the teens, students at the Makor Chaim yeshiva in the religious kibbutz of Kfar Etzion, were thought to be hitchhiking to Modi'in, a city halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. When they did not arrive home or make contact with their families, the yeshiva informed the authorities. The third was a student at the Shavey Hevron yeshiva in Hebron. Naftali Fraenkel is an American citizen, according to Channel 10. Live updates: 11:12 P.M. IDF strikes Gaza targets in response to rockets Saturday evening. 10:42 P.M. Prayer rally for the safety of the kidnapped teens to be held overnight Saturday at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. 10:40 P.M. Mohammad Madani, a member of Fatah's Central Committee and the chairman of the Committee for Interaction with Israeli Society, denounced what he called Netanyahu's cynical attempt to place responsibility for the abduction on the PA and Abbas. Madani emphasized that the kidnapping took place in Area C, which is under exclusive Israeli control and completely out of the jurisdiction of the PA security forces. "Netanyahu is trying to pass the trouble of the government in Israel to the Palestinian Authority, crying crocodile tears over the peace process that he himself suspended," Madani said. 10:37 P.M. Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau sends message to Pope Francis, asking him to urge Palestinian Authority leaders to help release the missing teens. 10:04 P.M. One of the missing teenagers, Gilad, called his parents on Thursday night and told them that he was on his way home. The family says that after he failed to get home, they thought that his phone probably run out of battery and assumed that he is staying with his grandparents. When they realized that no one had knowledge of his whereabouts, they tried looking for him and eventually notified the authorities at about 3 A.M. 9:50 P.M. Netanyahu is blaming Palestinian President Abbas for the suspected kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers, but the fact remains, writes Haaretz analyst Zvi Bar'el, that Abbas is Israel's only strategic asset. 9:00 P.M. In his first on-camera statement, Netanyahu says Israel will do everything in its power to locate the three missing teens. Due to the nature of the situation, the prime minister says he cannot elaborate on the search, but adds that he "can only say that our boys were kidnapped by a terrorist organization." Netanyahu says he expects the Palestinian Authority to do whatever it can to help locate them. "This is the PA's responsibility. We hold the PA responsible for any attack coming from its territory, either the West Bank or Gaza… the terrorists originated from Palestinian territory and the PA is responsible." The prime minister says that this incident demonstrates what he was saying in recent months, "that the deal with Hamas brings about serious consequences." He also says that contrary to what some in the international community are saying, "the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and the PA will not bring peace. " In face of the regional turmoil, Netanyahu adds: "Time and time again we find that we can only rely on ourselves." Defense Minister Ya'alon says, "We won't accept a kidnapping attempt." He also says he wants to strengthen the families of the kidnapped teens, and added that Israel will "use any means as we do in order to prevent terror attacks." IDF chief Benny Gantz says the military will do everything to bring the three youths back, while also keeping an eye of Israel's other fronts, whether in Gaza or Lebanon and Syria. 8:36 P.M. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird issues a statement condemning the suspected kidnapping. “Canada is deeply concerned by reports that three Israeli teenagers may have been kidnapped in the West Bank, and condemns those aiming to instigate conflict. We urge the Palestinian security authorities, who have been trained through Canadian and U.S. leadership, to make every effort to investigate this incident and work diligently to ensure the safe return of these children to their families. We call for the immediate release of the three Israeli teenagers. Whoever has taken this action must be found and brought to justice.” 8:33 P.M. "Once we realized that Gilad was nowhere to be found, the mood became heavy… We held a prayer, adults and children, and laid tefillin (hoping) for the situation to end well," Gilad's uncle, from Talmon, told Channel 10. 7:32 P.M. Osama Hamdan, a member of Hamas' politburo, says that if in fact the three Israelis were kidnapped, the Palestinians should make it a national issue in order to get the best result, and not let just a small faction negotiate the release of Palestinian prisoners on its own. Hamdan is the highest-ranking Hamas official to speak about the suspected kidnapping. Haaretz correspondent Jack Khoury stresses that most of those in Hamas to speak on the matter are political figures based outside of Gaza. 7:01 P.M. Former Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin said in a Facebook post that Israel's policy of trading abducted soldiers for terrorists only encourages more hostage-taking. In an implied criticism of Minister Naftali Bennett and his Habayit Hayehudi party, the former top security service official says Israel is better off freezing construction in the settlements than freeing Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism. 6:30 P.M. A rocket fired from Gaza exploded in Hof Ashkelon Regional Council's jurisdiction, no injuries or damage reported. 5:29 P.M. GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon issues an order declaring the Beit Guvrin area, located west of Hebron, a closed military zone. 5:01 P.M. Netanyahu will visit the Shin Bet security service's situation room and the Kiryah, the IDF's Tel Aviv headquarters, for a security briefing. Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ya'alon and IDF chief Benny Gantz will then give an on-camera statement about the suspected kidnapping. The statement is scheduled for Saturday at 8:45 P.M. 4:55 P.M. Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the Government coordinator in the territories, notified the Palestinian Authority that Palestinian residents of Hebron between the ages of 20 and 50 will not be allowed to enter Jordan through the Allenby Bridge crossing. 3:35 P.M.: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene the security cabinet tonight to discuss the three missing teens. 3:05 P.M.: IDF releases the names of the teens. They are Eyal Yifrah, 19, Naftali Fraenkel, 16, and Gilad Shaar, 16. 1:50 P.M.: The working assumption is that the kidnapped boys are alive, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon tells reporters. "The occurrence of kidnapping attempts is not new. We managed to prevent over 30 such efforts in 2013, and 14 to date in 2014. This incident managed to slip through our radars. But we will not rest until we get our hands on the terrorists behind this." Ya'alon did not take any questions. 1:10 P.M.: Top IDF brass end meeting in Hebron, decide to call in entire Paratroopers brigade, along with several other units, to area being sweeped. 11:27 A.M. IDF strikes south Gaza strip in response to morning's firing of rocket toward Israel. 11:36 A.M.: There is no indication of whether the teens who are thought to be kidnapped are alive or dead, a senior IDF officer says. Speaking to reporters, the officer adds,"We are heading toward a lengthy event, not an event that will last hours." The officer confirms that several arrests were made overnight in the Hebron area. "There are several leads being investigated following the arrests, but it is still very early." 11 A.M.: PM Netanyahu will shortly hold a meeting with Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, Shin Bet security service head Yoram Cohen, and other top security officials, sources in the PM's office say. 10 A.M.: The IDF is reinforcing its presence in the Hebron region. Battalions from the paratroopers and Kfir divisions have been transferred to the area. IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, head of operations directorate Yoav Har Even, and GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon are conferring in Hebron. 8:30 A.M.: Palestinian civilians report that IDF forces have been conducting intensive sweeps throughout the Hebron region overnight, including several neighborhoods in the city of Hebron and in the villages of Tufah, Bnei Naim, Yata, Halhul, Beit Ayoun, and Doura. According to Palestinian sources, several arrests have been made in connection to the supposed kidnapping. Several locations named by the Shin Bet security services as places the boys might be kept at have been discounted by the military overnight. "Everything we are doing now, and in the coming hours, is an attempt to go back and retrace what happened there in that area, and understand where they are now and what happened to them," says a senior IDF official. IDF Spokesman Moti Almoz said during a press briefing that forces have been searching for the teens since Friday morning, and cautioned against speculation and rumors that have been circulating all day on Israeli social media. 'PA responsible for well-being of the kidnapped' Prime Minister Netanyahu held an emergency meeting Friday afternoon at the Kirya, the IDF's Tel Aviv headquarters. Among the officials taking part in the meeting were Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharanovich, Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. According to an official statement from the Prime Minister's Office, "Israel sees the PA as responsible for the well-being of the kidnapped," adding that Netanyahu spoke with the families of the three missing teens and pledged he would do all in his power to locate them. Social Banners - Twitter "I know you are suffering," Netanyahu told the families. "Be strong, the State of Israel will make every effort for your sons, and I promise to remain in contact with you." Netanyahu orders government ministers not to give interviews on the matter. The Palestinian Authority responds to Netanyahu's statement, saying the PA "is not responsible for the security of settlers." Adnan Dmeiri, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority security services, notes that the three are believed to have been kidnapped from Gush Etzion, an area "under Israeli security control," the Palestinian news agency Maan reports. A senior Fatah official tells Haaretz the Palestinian security services will do everything they can to help find the missing Israelis. "The three were kidnapped in Area C, which is under full Israeli security control. The Palestinian Authority returned in recent years dozens of Israeli citizens who entered Authority territory by accident or deliberately to prove the principle of the sanctity of life," said Mohamed Almadani, and adds: "I wish the Israeli government would show responsibility and commitment to human rights on the issue of the hunger-striking detainees." Yeshiva forbids hitchhiking Students at Mekor Chaim told Haaretz that the yeshiva has a clear policy forbidding hitchhiking. "The administration is very strict on this topic, it's a red line that every student knows. Students are forbidden from leaving without permission, and it is absolutely not allowed to catch rides outside of the Kibbutz's gate." Pupils caught hitching rides risk expulsion from the yeshiva, they said. Some 300 pupils study at the yeshiva, which is a leading educational institution for Israel's national-religious public. Several rabbis and public figures send their boys there. U.S. citizenship U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro has also been briefed that one of the missing teens reportedly holds U.S. citizenship. An official from the U.S. State Department said, "We hope the three teens will be returned to their families safely." Deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said that the U.S. is working with Israel and the Palestinian Authority to help resolve the crisis. Earlier on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry spoke on the phone with Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. On Friday evening, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni informally met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. At the meeting, Livni asked Kerry to approach Abbas and the Palestinian Authority in order to bring about the release of the teens. Livni is in London for the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, an international conference on war crimes and violence against women in conflict areas. Netanyahu additionally spoke with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday, and told him that Abbas is responsible for the well-being of the missing teens. "What has happened on the ground since the inclusion of Hamas in the Palestinian government is detrimental. This is the result of letting in a murderous terror organization," Netanyahu said. Shin Bet warnings The Shin Bet security service has warned in recent weeks of increasingly frequent attempts to kidnap Israeli soldiers and citizens in the West Bank. According to Shin Bet data, in the past nine months there have been 11 cases of Palestinians incarcerated in Israel making contact with operatives in the West Bank in an attempt to carry out kidnappings. In September, Israeli soldier Tomer Hazan was kidnapped and killed by two Palestinians who had invited him to the West Bank. Prosecutors say the kidnapping was part a plan to bring about the release of the killers' brother, in prison in Israel. ||||| A Palestinian Authority spokesman denounced Israel for Adnan Dmeiri said the PA was not responsible for the safety of settlers and had no way to prevent the possible kidnapping of the teenagers. The PA “is used to accusations from [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu’s arbitrary government, which does not want to commit to any agreement and wants to damage all relations with Palestinians,” he was quoted as saying. Earlier on Friday, Israeli government officials said they were holding Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Israeli soldiers patrol the West Bank City of Hebron June 13, 2014. (photo credit: REUTERS) An Israeli soldier (R) stands guard next to Palestinians near the West Bank city of Hebron June 13, 2014.. (photo credit: REUTERS) Palestinians hurl stones at Israeli troops near the West Bank City of Hebron June 13, 2014. (photo credit: REUTERS) An Israeli security officer walks next to a truck carrying a burnt car in the West Bank City of Hebron June 13, 2014.. (photo credit: REUTERS) Israeli forces searching for three Jewish teenagers who went missing. (photo credit: REUTERS) Israeli forces searching for three Jewish teenagers who went missing. (photo credit: REUTERS) Israeli forces searching for three Jewish teenagers who went missing. (photo credit: REUTERS) A Palestinian Authority spokesman denounced Israel for blaming the new Fatah-Hamas unity government for the disappearance of three settlers in the West Bank, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported Friday night.Adnan Dmeiri said the PA was not responsible for the safety of settlers and had no way to prevent the possible kidnapping of the teenagers.The PA “is used to accusations from [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu’s arbitrary government, which does not want to commit to any agreement and wants to damage all relations with Palestinians,” he was quoted as saying.Earlier on Friday, Israeli government officials said they were holding Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas responsible for the fate of the three students. They also said they were holding the unity government responsible for the students' well-being. Dmeiri was quoted as saying that the PA had no information about the missing settlers, noting that Gush Etzion, the settlement from which the teenagers are believed to have disappeared, “is under Israeli security control.” He added that, "the PA is not responsible for the security of settlers.” Dmeiri also told Ma'an he was unaware of any cooperation with Israel in the search for the settlers. Netanyahu convened senior defense officials for a second meeting late Friday hours after authorities launched a frantic search for three yeshiva students who went missing in the West Bank on Thursday. Israeli defense officials probing the disappearance of three Jewish teens in the West Bank are operating under the working assumption that Palestinian militants kidnapped the youths in order to trade them for terrorists incarcerated in Israeli prisons, Channel 2 reported on Friday. According to the report, defense officials are waiting for intelligence leads or indications from the alleged captors in order to determine the next steps. An extremist Salafist organization in the West Bank claimed responsibility for kidnapping three missing Israeli youths, Channel 10 is reporting. The organization, Dawlat al-Islam, released a statement saying that the abductions were aimed at taking revenge against Israel for the killing of three of their operatives in the West Bank months ago. There has been no official confirmation of the claim's veracity. Security forces fear that three teenage yeshiva boys, all 16 years of age, were kidnapped in the West Bank after they went missing from a hitchhiking spot in the Gush Etzion area Thursday night. The youths went missing during the course of Thursday night and security forces are conducting sweeping searches of the area. Share on facebook Share on twitter Israel says it holds the Palestinian Authority responsible for the well-being of the missing youths.The Jerusalem Post has learned that one of the three is an American citizen. US Ambassador Dan Shapiro has been briefed on the situation.The army said on Friday that it was seeking intelligence leads that could shed light on the fate of the missing youths. The IDF said that it was holding routine situational assessments with other security arms in order to ascertain the whereabouts of the missing yeshiva students.While they do strongly fear the boys were kidnapped, security forces have not yet been able to rule out all other possibilities police said.Meanwhile, security forces have also placed roadblocks on roadways leading to the border with Egypt and the Gaza Strip for fear that this event is a kidnapping by Islamist extremists who may seek to transfer the three Israelis to Gaza.According to reports, the IDF and the Shin Bet security service are in touch with their counterparts in the Palestinian Authority security apparatus in an effort to advance the search.A torched car that was found alongside a highway in the vicinity of the search. Investigators towed away the car and will begin examining the remains in an effort to determine whether there is any connection to the missing students search.Police were in touch with the families and said that they have no reason to believe that the teenagers decided to go missing on their own, or run away from home or their yeshiva.A spokesman for one of the families, said that the missing teen was with a friend when he disappeared. He was making his normal trek home for Shabbat from his high-school yeshiva, Makor Chaim in Kfar Etzion, as he does every week.He called his father around from the hitching post and said he had already left school. Initially his father did not worry, because his son often took his time coming home and sometimes did not arrive until late at night.But after midnight, the father called his son's phone. When he could not reach him by 2 a.m. he personally went to the police station. Until morning, the father held out hope, that his son had gone to a friend's home to sleep. A series of SMS message in the morning, revealed that this was not the case.Palestinian media on Friday reported that a large number of Israeli forces had been deployed to the Hebron vicinity in search of the boys who went missing earlier in the morning.Palestinian news agency Ma'an cited sources in the vicinity as saying Israeli forces had raided various home in the city of Dura, located southwest of Hebron, in search of the missing boys.

– Israeli forces are conducting an intense search in the West Bank for three male teenagers they think were kidnapped by Palestinian militants, reports the Jerusalem Post. One of the teens is a US citizen, but not much else is known about him. Two of the teens are age 16 and the third is 19, and they were reportedly hitchhiking home last night when snatched near Hebron, reports Haaretz. The best guess is that militants will try to use them in a swap for prisoners held in Israeli jails. Israeli police got a cell phone call from one of the youths about 10pm yesterday, and though he didn't speak, the noise in the background suggested they were in trouble, reports the New York Times. The only lead is the discovery of stolen, burnt car in the area. Benjamin Netanyahu, who has met with his senior leaders on the case, says he holds the Palestinian Authority responsible for the boys' safety. The development comes less than two weeks after Palestinians formed a new government, though Israel thinks it's controlled by Hamas and refuses to negotiate on anything beyond security issues.

OSLO, Norway — Norwegian police have formally accused several foreign nationals over a 1993 attack on the Norwegian publisher of “The Satanic Verses,” thus preventing the statute of limitations from closing the case. The National Criminal Investigation Service said Tuesday “foreign nationals who are not in Norway” were suspected of “attempted murder” in the attack on William Nygaard. But the agency did not specify their number, identity or nationality. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up William Nygaard was seriously wounded when he was shot three times in the back near his home in Oslo on October 11 1993. No one was arrested for the attack, but police believe it was linked to the 1989 publication of the Norwegian version of Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” by a publishing house that Nygaard ran. This latest move by the police prevents the usual 25-year statute of limitations closing the case. It would have taken effect on October 11. “I am relieved and pleased with the development in this case, not least that the authorities and the police say the attack appears to have targeted freedom of expression,” 75-year-old Nygaard said. The case led to diplomatic tensions between Norway and Iran in the 1990s. After the 1988 publication of the “Satanic Verses,” deemed blasphemous by some in the Muslim world, Iran’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a “fatwa” calling for the death of Salman Rushdie and his editors. ||||| OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian police have filed accusations against several suspects in the 1993 shooting of author Salman Rushdie’s Norwegian publisher, the National Criminal Investigation Service said on Tuesday. Police said the move was purely procedural, to keep the case active before a statute of limitations ban comes into force on the shooting’s 25th anniversary on Oct. 11. Iran’s then Supreme Leader, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, in 1989 calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie and others associated with his book “The Satanic Verses” for its alleged blasphemy. Publisher William Nygaard was severely wounded in the subsequent attack outside his home in Oslo. Police said on Tuesday the suspects were foreign citizens who lived abroad but did not name them. “We will do everything that’s realistically possible to solve this case,” police said in a statement. Nygaard was not immediately available for comment. Under Norwegian law, people facing accusations have the right to a lawyer. Formal charges, if they come, are filed at a later stage. Khomeini’s successor as Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in 2005 that the fatwa was still valid. ||||| OSLO — William Nygaard, publisher of the Norwegian edition of Salman Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses,” was shot three times and left for dead outside his home in a quiet suburb of Oslo on the morning of Oct. 11, 1993. Twenty-five years later, just two days before a deadline that would have foreclosed prosecution, the Norwegian police have at last filed charges in the shooting of Mr. Nygaard, who recovered from his wounds. And the authorities stated what many people had always taken for granted: that the attack had to do with Mr. Rushdie’s book, which infuriated Muslims around the world — a theory that the police played down a generation ago. “We have no reason to believe there is any other motive for the attempted killing than the publication of ‘The Satanic Verses,’ ” said Ida Dahl Nilssen, a spokeswoman for Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service. The shooting was about more than an attack on one man, she said, it was a violent attempt to shut down free speech. But the charges, announced on Tuesday, remain steeped in uncertainty, leaving it unclear how close the authorities really are to holding anyone responsible for one of Norway’s most notorious unsolved crimes. Officials have refused to say publicly what evidence they have or how many people have been charged, or to disclose the suspects’ names, nationalities or current locations.

– Police in Norway just made a move to keep alive the investigation into a 25-year-old shooting that captured the world's attention, reports Reuters. Back in 1993, the man who published Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses in Norway was shot three times outside his home. William Nygaard survived, but no arrests were ever made. This week—two days before a deadline that would have forced police to close the case—authorities finally filed charges, reports the New York Times. However, they're releasing few details, not specifying how many people are charged, their names, or what, if any, evidence exists. About the only thing authorities will say is that they think the shooting is indeed related to the controversy over Rushdie's book and that the suspects are "foreign nationals who are not in Norway," per the AFP. "This is good news, and one can hope that this 25-year-old case will now finally advance," Rushdie said in a statement, though he criticized the withholding of names and nationalities of the suspects. Nygaard, now 75, also praised the development and said he has no regrets about his decision to publish. As for his unexpected survival despite being shot three times: "I used to be a very good Norwegian ski jumper," he said. Rushdie's book first came out in 1988, and Iran's supreme leader at the time considered it so blasphemous to Islam that he issued a fatwa on Rushdie that forced the author into hiding and remains in effect to this day. As recently as 2016, groups in Iran raised $600,000 to beef up a bounty already estimated to be $4 million.

Bill Keller’s column in The Times on Monday about Lisa Bonchek Adams has generated a great deal of negative response. Xeni Jardin, the well-known writer who blogs on Boing Boing, sometimes about her own experience with cancer, was outraged, calling it bullying. Ms. Adams herself responded this way on Twitter: I don’t know why I, a person dedicated to education and personal choice by cancer patients, have been so mischaracterized as lay in hospital — Lisa Bonchek Adams (@AdamsLisa) 13 Jan 14 And a reader, Ximena Pena, who wrote that she has breast cancer, included this among her several objections: “The piece lacks empathy. It is an open attack on someone who has decided to be open about her treatment to help people with my diagnosis.” A particularly tough takedown came from Zeynep Tufekci, writing in Medium. She wrote that Mr. Keller “has something he wants to say about how end of life is perhaps unwisely prolonged by small, painful amounts with massive technological intervention in this country so projects this situation to Lisa Adams – except that is not applicable in this case. Lisa Adams is not prolonging her last few weeks with a cascade of interventions. She’s getting treatment for pain in her bones – the type of tumors that won’t kill her till they spread elsewhere which may be soon or may be years away.” One of the odd aspects of the column is that it follows, by just days, a column about Ms. Adams by Mr. Keller’s wife, Emma Gilbey Keller, who writes for The Guardian. Ms. Keller’s piece was also criticized, and she added a line at the bottom that said she regretted not letting Ms. Adams know in advance that the post was coming. Now the piece has been removed from the site, “pending investigation.” The Guardian told iMediaEthics that the piece was “inconsistent with The Guardian editorial code.” That negative response was not universal. My email on Monday included correspondence from those who defended the column. And the comments under the column itself include many positive ones. But for most of those who have been in touch with me, the subject matter is intensely personal. And for those who know and admire Ms. Adams, that personal reaction is multiplied. I asked Mr. Keller, a former executive editor of The Times, to respond. He wrote to me, noting that “it’s clear the column touched a nerve, particularly among her devoted following.” He added: Some of the reaction (especially on Twitter, which as a medium encourages reflexes rather than reflection) has been raw, and some (especially in comments posted to the article online, where there is space for nuance) has been thoughtful and valuable. I tried to be clear in the column that I respect Lisa Adams’s choices, and I meant it. I wish every cancer victim could have those options – to fight with all the resources of medicine, or not. By living her disease in such a public way, by turning her hospital room into a classroom, she invites us to think about and debate some big, contentious issues. I think some readers have misread my point, and some – the most vociferous – seem to believe that anything short of an unqualified “right on, Lisa!” is inhumane or sacrilegious. But I’ve heard from readers who understood the point and found it worth grappling with. I followed up with a question about the similarity of his piece to that of his wife’s in The Guardian, making the point that many critics see the two pieces together as a sort of double-pronged slam, greater together than the sum of their parts. He answered: I only learned of Lisa Adams’s story because of Emma, who follows the subject of breast cancer with personal interest. (See her Guardian piece from 2012.) She told me she was planning to write about Lisa for The Guardian. Normally I would have left the subject alone, or put it off until later, but it turned out Emma and I had different angles on the subject. She was interested in it as a new frontier in social media – a woman living every intimate detail of her disease in such a public way, and why readers are so drawn to such unsparing self-revelation. Except for the snarky headline, which Emma didn’t write, I thought she wrote a sensitive and provocative piece, clearly aimed at stimulating a reader discussion of this hyper-transparent world we inhabit. (She responded to the backlash in The Guardian’s comments section.) My interest, as I said in the column, was in the continuing debate in American medicine about how aggressively to fight terminal diseases if the fight may mean trading quality of life for quantity. My view is that this is a highly personal choice that should be made by patients in consultation with their families and physicians. It is not always presented that way to patients. I don’t think either of the Keller pieces was a “slam” of Lisa Adams or her choices. As a columnist, Mr. Keller – by definition – has a great deal of free rein. As I’ve written before, Times opinion editors very rarely intrude on that process by steering a writer away from a topic or killing a column before it runs. It’s a columnist’s job, in short, to have an opinion and to speak it freely. That’s as it should be. I don’t make a practice of commenting on whether I agree with columnists, or if I like their columns in general or on a particular day, whether it’s David Brooks on pot-smoking or Maureen Dowd on Chris Christie. That is pretty clearly not my job as public editor. In this case, I’ll go so far as to say that there are issues here of tone and sensitivity. For example, when Ms. Adams has made it so abundantly clear in her own work that she objects to the use of fighting metaphors in describing experiences with cancer, it was regrettable to use them throughout a column about her, starting with the first sentence. It suggests that Mr. Keller didn’t make a full effort to understand the point of view of the person he’s writing about on the very big and public stage that is The Times. And although I haven’t read all of Ms. Adams’s writing, readers are complaining about other examples of this disconnect. The Times should consider publishing some opposing points of view, possibly in the form of an Op-Ed column from a contributor. In addition, Mr. Keller’s views here fall within what journalists would call “fair comment” only to the extent that they are based on facts. A line often attributed to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the former New York senator, makes this point well: “You’re entitled to your own opinion; you’re not entitled to your own facts. “ Anything that’s not accurate must be corrected, and one such correction – concerning Ms. Adams’s number of children – has already been made to Mr. Keller’s column. Many readers are making the point that Ms. Adams’s cancer metastasized in 2012. Mr. Keller suggests in his lead sentence (“Lisa Bonchek Adams has spent the last seven years in a fierce and very public cage fight with death”) that the known seriousness of the disease came much earlier. ||||| Last week at the Guardian, the writer Emma Gilbey Keller wondered aloud, “Forget funeral selfies. What are the ethics of tweeting a terminal illness?” Her commentary centered on the public presence of Lisa Bonchek Adams, who has blogged and tweeted her way through treatment for metastatic breast cancer. “As her condition declined, her tweets amped up both in frequency and intensity. I couldn’t stop reading — I even set up a dedicated @adamslisa column in Tweetdeck – but I felt embarrassed at my voyeurism,” Keller explained. “Should there be boundaries in this kind of experience? Is there such a thing as TMI? Are her tweets a grim equivalent of deathbed selfies, one step further than funeral selfies? Why am I so obsessed?” Keller’s rhetorical questions were met with anger and hurt from her audience, including Adams, and the Guardian has since removed the entire column, but not before she passed the obsession on to her husband, former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller. In the Times today, Mr. Keller picked up where his wife left off, likening Adams’s treatment and personal writing to “a military campaign” and contrasting her cancer fight with that of his father-in-law’s: “His death seemed to me a humane and honorable alternative to the frantic medical trench warfare that often makes an expensive misery of death in America,” Keller wrote. I've written extensively on my hatred of war metaphors and cancer. — Lisa Bonchek Adams (@AdamsLisa) January 13, 2014 His point, like his wife’s, is underinformed and muddled in a mess of condescension toward Adams’s suffering and her work. In addition to factual errors, he described Adams as “a cheerleader for cancer research,” noting the research fund she helped start, but added, “Beyond that, whether her campaign has been a public service is a more complicated question.” Her writing was described as pecking, and so on: “The words of disease become words my brain gravitates to,” she pecked the other day after a blast of radiation. […] … any reader can see that Adams’s online omnipresence has given her a sense of purpose, a measure of control in a tumultuous time, and the comfort of a loyal, protective online community. Social media have become a kind of self-medication. […] Her digital presence is no doubt a comfort to many of her followers. On the other hand, as cancer experts I consulted pointed out, Adams is the standard-bearer for an approach to cancer that honors the warrior, that may raise false hopes, and that, implicitly, seems to peg patients like my father-in-law as failures. Adams responded in a huge, emotional string of critical tweets: I don't know why I, a person dedicated to education and personal choice by cancer patients, have been so mischaracterized as lay in hospital — Lisa Bonchek Adams (@AdamsLisa) January 13, 2014 my dear family should not be subjected to this. Hope some of you can help me get this fixed. — Lisa Bonchek Adams (@AdamsLisa) January 13, 2014 As did Jeopardy! celeb Ken Jennings and Boing Boing blogger Xeni Jardin, who has written extensively about her own breast cancer: Terrified I might get cancer, because what if Bill and Emma Keller yell at me. — Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) January 13, 2014 God forbid a person with metastatic cancer cope with it by telling people what it feels like and how the science works. — Xeni Jardin (@xeni) January 13, 2014 Let the little lady peck her Tweets and receive her silly treatment. Real men know how to do cancer right: by dying offline. — Xeni Jardin (@xeni) January 13, 2014 Even before her husband doubled-down on the unnecessary second-guessing, Ms. Keller’s column had problems. “Since this article was published two days ago, there’s been a lot of negative comment on Twitter and below the line. Lisa Adams herself was upset by it,” Emma Keller amended in an update on Friday. “I had been in communication with her a number of times in recent weeks; given her health, I could have given her advance warning about the article and should have told her that I planned to quote from our conversations. I regret not doing so.” The piece has since been taken down for quoting the private correspondence, “pending investigation.” But beyond the potential journalistic malfeasance, the larger issue remains the discounting of one woman’s vast and varied experiences to make more general, misguided points about the types of treatment available or our culture’s urge to “overshare.” Adams is very much alive and has found an audience that values her personal journey as more than just voyeurism. Instead of using their respective positions of power to wrestle awkwardly with something that makes them uncomfortable, the Kellers could attempt to consider Adams’s online presence on its own terms, or just unsubscribe. Update: “Some of the reaction (especially on Twitter, which as a medium encourages reflexes rather than reflection) has been raw, and some (especially in comments posted to the article online, where there is space for nuance) has been thoughtful and valuable,” Bill Keller told Times public editor Margaret Sullivan, who took on the issue in a post this afternoon. “I think some readers have misread my point, and some – the most vociferous – seem to believe that anything short of an unqualified ‘right on, Lisa!’ is inhumane or sacrilegious. But I’ve heard from readers who understood the point and found it worth grappling with.” ||||| Unranked media power couple Bill and Emma Keller have discovered a question so pressing, so important to our time that they both felt the need to write a column in their respective papers about it in the same week. Is Lisa Bonchek Adams, a stage four cancer patient, having cancer wrong? According to the Kellers, the answer is "yes." The biggest problem in their views, seems to be that Adams — who is aggressively blogging and tweeting about every aspect of illness and treatment — just won't be quiet about having cancer. Emma Keller, who has had cancer herself, published a critical op-ed in the Guardian last Wednesday about Adams's Twitter feed. In it, Keller seems to be concerned about whether Adams's decision to publicly discuss her diagnosis and treatment is "dignified," both for Adams (who "is dying," according to Keller, even though this is a characterization Adams rejects), and for Emma Keller personally. You see, a particularly intense series of updates from Adams apparently ruined the Kellers' Christmas, because Emma couldn't stop reading what Adams wrote, and that gives her complicated feelings: She could hardly breathe, her lungs were filled with copious amounts of fluid causing her to be bedridden over Christmas. As her condition declined, her tweets amped up both in frequency and intensity. I couldn't stop reading – I even set up a dedicated @adamslisa column in Tweetdeck – but I felt embarrassed at my voyeurism. Should there be boundaries in this kind of experience? Is there such a thing as TMI? Are her tweets a grim equivalent of deathbed selfies, one step further than funeral selfies? Why am I so obsessed? But the Kellers' concern with how Adams is doing cancer actually goes deeper than Emma's reading habits. Keller's Sunday New York Times piece goes after the aggressive, no-holds-barred manner in which Adams has decided to pursue treatment for the disease. She is willing to try anything, no matter how risky, if it might prolong her life, instead of a more peaceful pain management and palliative approach that others have chose, like Keller's father-in-law. He died from cancer in the U.K., and Keller decides to compare Adams's approach (which he characterizes as "her decision to treat her terminal disease as a military campaign") unfavorably to that of his father-in-law's: [In the U.K.] more routinely than in the United States, patients are offered the option of being unplugged from everything except pain killers and allowed to slip peacefully from life. His death seemed to me a humane and honorable alternative to the frantic medical trench warfare that often makes an expensive misery of death in America. For the record, the "military" metaphors Keller repeatedly associates with Adams's approach to treatment and choice to be public about it is a metaphor Adams herself soundly rejects. To hear it from the Kellers, Adams's public engagement with cancer invites "judgement" as the "ethical questions abound," as Emma writes. Or, as Bill posits, "her decision to live her cancer onstage invites us to think about it, debate it, learn from it." Not only is it incorrect to assume that Adams's writing comes with an RSVP for judgement from Team Keller, it also appears that the Kellers aren't even looking closely at what they're attacking. For instance, Keller states that Adams has two children at home. According to her Twitter bio, Adams actually has three. They are young — 15, 11, and 7, as of last November. Although it should be obvious, it seems that the Kellers forgot to notice that Adams is neither Bill Keller's father-in-law, nor is she a generic idea of a cancer patient. She is a person, pursuing treatment to extend her life, so that she can spend as much of it as possible with her kids. That is a different thing from refusing palliative — or pain management — care at the end of one's life, as Bill Keller seems to believe (erroneously) that Adams is doing. And then there's Bill Keller's mini-investigative mission into the parts of Adams's medical treatment and prognosis that remain confidential. Keller apparently asked both Adams and her hospital to detail the financial costs of her treatment, so he could weigh it more accurately against his own assessment of whether it's worth it or not: "Whether or not this excellent care has added months or years to her life, as she clearly believes, is a medical judgment, and her doctors, bound by privacy rules, won’t say," he writes. The insinuation is that her choice to continue to treat her cancer after her stage four diagnoses "may raise false hopes." Keller thinks that such an approach "implicitly, seems to peg patients like my father-in-law as failures." Except, is not what Adams is doing, as Adams herself said in response: Again, let me make it clear. honest discussion and acceptance of the reality of diagnosis is what I have always been doing. READ MY WORK. — Lisa Bonchek Adams (@AdamsLisa) January 13, 2014 I've been doing exactly what he supports all along. If he'd actually been reading the posts. — Lisa Bonchek Adams (@AdamsLisa) January 13, 2014 Others have rightly responded with anger to the tag-team cancer-explaining (or "cansplaining," as Megan Garber put it in the Atlantic). Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin — who live-tweeted her own cancer diagnosis — took on Bill Keller's piece in particular. Her whole Twitter response to Keller is worth a read. But here are a few highlights: Problems I have w Bill Keller's bullying NYT oped about @AdamsLisa, which oddly mirrors & follows his wife's earlier Guardian shitfest: — Xeni Jardin (@xeni) January 13, 2014 14) “Lisa Adams’s choice is in a sense the opposite” of “my father-in-law’s calm death.” SHE'S ALIVE AS YOU CAN TELL BY HER FUCKING TWEETS. — Xeni Jardin (@xeni) January 13, 2014 15) “there is something enviable about going gently” LADIES WITH METS SHOULD BE SEEN AND NOT HEARD. — Xeni Jardin (@xeni) January 13, 2014 False hopes my ass! I remember the day she called me before my mastectomy, with pragmatic, calm, not-fun info. She told me a story. — Xeni Jardin (@xeni) January 13, 2014 I am appalled on every level by Bill Keller's oped piece about @AdamsLisa. Astonishing. — Susan Orlean (@susanorlean) January 13, 2014 Meanwhile, Adams has taken a break from addressing the Kellers' concerns about Adams's life choices, because she is in the middle of a round of treatment . Luckily, she's got plenty of people online to respond for her. Update: The Guardian has since removed the piece in question by Emma Keller, "because it is inconsistent with the Guardian editorial code."

– A pair of columns questioning a woman's very public battle with Stage IV breast cancer are lighting up the Internet. Former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller and his wife, writer Emma Gilbey Keller, both wrote pieces on Lisa Bonchek Adams, who is chronicling her fight via Twitter and her blog. Emma Keller's column (with a headline that compared Bonchek Adams' social media postings to "funeral selfies"), posted last week, was removed from the Guardian's website yesterday amid all the furor; Bill Keller's column was published in the Times yesterday. Both Kellers weigh various questions that seem to come down to this: Is Bonchek Adams engaging in "TMI"? And would it be better for someone like her to opt for a peaceful, quiet death instead of "heroic measures"? A sample of the reactions: "[Emma] Keller seems to be concerned about whether Adams's decision to publicly discuss her diagnosis and treatment is 'dignified,' both for Adams ... and for Emma Keller personally. You see, a particularly intense series of updates from Adams apparently ruined the Kellers' Christmas, because Emma couldn't stop reading what Adams wrote, and that gives her complicated feelings," writes Abby Ohlheiser for The Wire. Ohlheiser refers to the Keller columns as "tag-team concern trolling," and goes on to quote the relevant portion of Emma Keller's piece: "As her condition declined, her tweets amped up both in frequency and intensity. I couldn't stop reading—I even set up a dedicated @adamslisa column in Tweetdeck—but I felt embarrassed at my voyeurism. Should there be boundaries in this kind of experience? Is there such a thing as TMI? Are her tweets a grim equivalent of deathbed selfies, one step further than funeral selfies?" As for Bill Keller's column, "His point, like his wife's, is underinformed and muddled in a mess of condescension toward Adams's suffering and her work," writes Joe Coscarelli for Daily Intel. "Instead of using their respective positions of power to wrestle awkwardly with something that makes them uncomfortable, the Kellers could attempt to consider Adams' online presence on its own terms, or just unsubscribe." There's much, much more—but in a response to the uproar posted on the Times website yesterday, Bill Keller insists he's also "heard from readers who understood the point and found it worth grappling with."

It released a statement today declaring that it had "unanimously" agreed to abandon attempts to seek an injunction against the Occupy London activists. The decision suggests that former dean, the Rt Rev Graeme Knowles, who stepped down yesterday, was the only member of the cathedral's Chapter whom still supported the action. The statement said his resignation had provided an "opportunity to reassess the situation", with fresh input from the Bishop of London, Dr Richard Chartres, who has been parachuted in to take control of cathedral operations. It went on: "Members of Chapter this morning have met with representatives from the protest camp to demonstrate that St Paul's intends to engage directly and constructively with both the protesters and the moral and ethical issues they wish to address, without the threat of forcible eviction hanging over both the camp and the church." St Paul's said it had appointed an investment banker, Ken Costa, 62, to lead a new initiative "reconnecting the financial with the ethical" which will involve various Church and City figures, including the recently resigned Rev Dr Giles Fraser, former Canon Chancellor. Dr Chartres said: "The alarm bells are ringing all over the world. St Paul's has now heard that call. Today's decision means that the doors are most emphatically open to engage with matters concerning not only those encamped around the Cathedral but millions of others in this country and around the globe. "I am delighted that Ken Costa has agreed to spearhead this new initiative which has the opportunity to make a profound difference." Meanwhile, the City of London Corporation was expected to serve notice on the protesters, giving them 48 hours to clear the makeshift campsite before their eviction is sought in the High Court. The Corporation's legal action is based upon the blockage of public highways. The cathedral's action would have been separate, focusing on the issue of trespass on private land. In his first comments on the protest yesterday, the Archbishop of Canterbury admitted "urgent issues" had been raised. Dr Rowan Williams said: "The events of the last couple of weeks have shown very clearly how decisions made in good faith by good people under unusual pressure can have utterly unforeseen and unwelcome consequences, and the clergy of St Paul's deserve our understanding in these circumstances. "Graeme Knowles has been a very distinguished Dean of St Paul's, who has done a great deal to strengthen the pastoral and intellectual life of the cathedral and its involvement in the life of London. "The urgent larger issues raised by the protesters at St Paul's remain very much on the table and we need – as a church and as society as a whole – to work to make sure that they are properly addressed." On resigning, Dean Knowles said: "The past fortnight has been a testing time for the chapter and for me personally. "It has become increasingly clear to me that, as criticism of the cathedral has mounted in the press, media and in public opinion, my position as Dean of St Paul's was becoming untenable. "In order to give the opportunity for a fresh approach to the complex and vital questions facing St Paul's, I have thought it best to stand down as Dean, to allow new leadership to be exercised.” The Occupy London movement has issued a statement saying their protest was about "social justice, real democracy and challenging the unsustainable financial system that punishes the many and privileges the few". Their continuing protest came as at least 12 people were arrested last night after a large group of protesters clashed with police outside the Houses of Parliament over plans to criminalise squatting. ||||| A senior clergyman resigned Monday over St. Paul's Cathedral's handling of anticapitalist protesters camped outside the church, the second cleric lost to an increasingly tense standoff involving God, mammon and their earthly representatives.Graeme Knowles said his position as dean of the cathedral "was becoming untenable" in the face of mounting criticism of the way St. Paul's has responded to the tent camp that has sprouted outside its imposing porticoed entrance near the banks of the Thames.The protesters, organized by the London offshoot of Occupy Wall Street , have been on the spot for more than two weeks but now face eviction by the City of London, the historic downtown area that is home to Britain's financial district. Officials with City of London Corp., which owns some of the property, served the demonstrators with orders to leave within 48 hours, but Occupy London is likely to lodge a court appeal to stay.The battle of wills has transfixed the country and put St. Paul's in an awkward position. It was never the target of the protesters, but when their original plan to swarm the nearby London Stock Exchange was stymied by police Oct. 15, they pitched their tents outside the church instead. They've maintained a peaceful, orderly presence there since, complete with food service, latrines and even a tent reserved for meditation.But church leaders have taken an increasingly hard line against the camp, while hastening to add that they share many of the social concerns and criticisms the protesters have raised.Last week, Giles Fraser, a high-profile cleric who had welcomed the demonstrators, stepped down as canon chancellor because of his colleagues' toughened stance and his fear that the tent camp might be uprooted by force.The cathedral's most controversial move was to shut its doors for several days, blaming protesters for creating health and safety hazards that church officials did not fully explain. It was the first time since the Luftwaffe blitzed London during World War II that St. Paul's was closed to worshipers.Critics called it a cynical ploy to shame protesters into packing up. They also accused the church of being as concerned about securing access for tourists, who shell out more than $20 a pop to visit, as for the devout who attend services.And some commentators have berated the church for missing an opportunity to stand together with the poor and marginalized.In a statement announcing his resignation Monday, Knowles said the situation had put everyone at the cathedral "under a great deal of strain" and that St. Paul's needed a new dean to deal with "what would appear to be some insurmountable issues." The position of dean is such a senior one within the Church of England that the resignation has to be formally submitted to the queen. Rowan Williams , the archbishop of Canterbury , said in a statement that "the urgent larger issues raised by the protesters at St Paul's remain very much on the table, and we need — as a church and as society as a whole — to work to make sure that they are properly addressed."Together with Westminster Abbey , the domed cathedral is Britain's most famous house of worship. Built in the 17th century by the architect Christopher Wren, it was the site of the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer According to the Bible, the church's patron saint, the apostle Paul, was by trade a tent maker.

– Occupy London is turning into a big mess: Another senior clergyman resigned yesterday over the controversy surrounding protesters at St. Paul's Cathedral. Graeme Knowles, dean of the cathedral, said that in the face of rising criticism over the church’s response, his position “was becoming untenable.” St. Paul’s, which became the protesters’ base on Oct. 15 after they were unable to occupy the London Stock Exchange, has been criticized for its hard line against the demonstration, the Los Angeles Times reports. In the wake of Knowles' resignation, however, the church announced that it would abandon plans to boot the Occupiers. Though church leaders have professed to sharing many of the protesters’ concerns, they had continued to ask the Occupiers to leave, and even closed the cathedral for four days. A high-profile cleric and part-time chaplain has also already stepped down. In his resignation statement, Knowles said that the issues facing the church “appear to be … insurmountable." The city of London today ordered protesters to vacate the site within 48 hours or face eviction, the Telegraph reports, but the Occupiers will likely appeal in court for the right to remain.

A suitemate of a student who claims she was gang-raped at a University of Virginia fraternity party says that the alleged victim's story is "not a hoax, a lie or a scheme" - despite new questions about the woman's account. In a letter published in the school's newspaper, Emily Clark says she has no concrete evidence to prove that her friend -- given the pseudonym "Jackie" in a Rolling Stone article -- was sexually assaulted but described a noticeable change in her roommate. "Jackie never mentioned anything about her assault to us until much later," Clark writes. "But I, as well as others, noticed Jackie becoming more and more withdrawn and depressed." Clark's letter comes after Rolling Stone changed its apology over the story about the alleged gang rape, telling readers the mistakes were the magazine's fault, not the alleged victim's. The magazine said that it shouldn't have agreed to Jackie's request not to contact the alleged assailants to get their side of the story, out of sensitivity to her. "These mistakes are on Rolling Stone, not on Jackie," wrote the magazine's managing editor, Will Dana. "We apologize to anyone who was affected by the story and we will continue to investigate the events of that evening." The decision not to contact the alleged rapists as well as many of Jackie's friends prompted criticism from other news organizations. Last month's sensational story made Jackie's case an example of what many called a culture of sexual violence hiding in plain sight at U.Va., one of the nation's leading public universities. The story claimed that too many people on the Charlottesville, Virginia, campus put protecting the school's image and their own reputations above seeking justice for sex crimes. The allegations rocked the campus and elevated the issue of sexual assault, leading to protests, a suspension of fraternity activities and an emergency Board of Visitors meeting. Dana's updated message added some details calling into question the magazine's original story. He noted that Phi Kappa Psi has denied the assault, and said it didn't host an event on the night Jackie alleged she was raped. And Dana said that Jackie is now unsure that the man who allegedly lured her into a room to be gang-raped by seven men, identified as "Drew," was a member of Phi Kappa Psi. In her letter to the university community, Clark says even if details of Jackie's story were incorrect or misreported by the writer, "the blame should never fall on the victim's shoulders." "While I cannot say what happened that night, and I cannot prove the validity of every tiny aspect of her story to you, I can tell you that this story is not a hoax, a lie or a scheme," Clark writes. "Something terrible happened to Jackie at the hands of several men who have yet to receive any repercussions." Meanwhile, three national Greek organizations released a statement to "CBS This Morning" calling for the school to "immediately reinstate operations for all fraternity and sorority organizations on campus and issue an apology for its actions." The statement said that "the school's decision to suspend hurt the reputation of thousands of outstanding student leaders." CBS News correspondent Julianna Goldman reports that while Rolling Stone and university officials continue to investigate, students remain committed to the alleged victim's story. "I think UVA has an opportunity to get it right," said student Sandra Menendez. "We absolutely need to stand with Jackie." ||||| Fellow Wahoos, My name is Emily, and I was Jackie’s suitemate first year. I am writing to you in regards to Rolling Stone’s recent statement of “misplaced trust” in Jackie. I feel this statement is backwards, as it seems it was Jackie who misplaced her trust in Rolling Stone. I fully support Jackie, and I believe wholeheartedly that she went through a traumatizing sexual assault. I remember my first semester here, and I remember Jackie’s. Jackie came to UVA bright, happy and bubbly. She was kind, funny, outgoing, friendly, and a pleasant person to be around. That all notably changed by December 2012, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Our suite bonded that first semester and talked many times about the new troubles we were facing in college. Jackie never mentioned anything about her assault to us until much later. But I, as well as others, noticed Jackie becoming more and more withdrawn and depressed. I remember her alarm going off every morning. I always assumed she had gone to class and forgot to turn off her later alarms. Being the lazy freshman I was, I tended to roll over in bed and pay no mind to it, hoping somebody else would turn it off, and remind Jackie about it once she got back from class. If I had known Jackie wasn’t going to class, that she was curled up in bed without the will to turn off the alarm, things would have been much different. I remember second semester, she shared a Netflix account with me and I noticed how much TV she was watching — hours and hours of shows that seemed to get darker and darker as time went on. I wondered how she had time, with homework and school, and I wondered if she was okay. I didn’t ask. I wish I had. In December 2012, Jackie broke down. All of a sudden she was going home and none of us knew why. It was right before finals, and I couldn’t believe she was leaving. She was distraught, and only said she needed to go home. Her teachers had given her allowance to take her finals over break. At that point, we knew something big had happened. I didn’t know until this year with the publication of Rolling Stone’s article how bad that time was for her. Sometime that year I remember her letting it slip to me that she had had a terrible experience at a party. I remember her telling me that multiple men had assaulted her at this party. She didn’t say anything more. It seemed that was all she’d allow herself to say. I wish I had done something sooner. I wish I had known how to help. But I applaud Jackie for telling her story, now two years later. It was a story that needed to be told. However, the articles released in the past few days have been troubling to me, and the responses to them even more so. While I cannot say what happened that night, and I cannot prove the validity of every tiny aspect of her story to you, I can tell you that this story is not a hoax, a lie or a scheme. Something terrible happened to Jackie at the hands of several men who have yet to receive any repercussions. Whether the details are correct or not, and whether the reporting was faulty, or the hazy memories of a traumatizing night got skewed…the blame should never fall on the victim’s shoulders. Jackie is a victim, as are so many others, men and women, young and old. So many stories have gone untold and so many perpetrators have been allowed to walk free. There is fear among us, and there is pain after these past few weeks of turmoil. But there is also hope, which has been manifested in a multitude of protests, speeches, and groups formed. There is a support growing among students and faculty that has never been seen before. The number of conversations occurring about rape, rights, consent and justice is astounding and inspiring, but talking only goes so far. As we approach this much-needed winter break I urge you to continue to support your fellow wahoos; do not let this issue die. Speak up when you see something happening that does not feel right; act when you have a chance to stop something terrible. Talk with your friends, let them know you support them, and that no reputation matters more than their own safety and basic human rights. Let them know you’ll stand by them and that their stories do matter. Walk your friends home, look out for one another, do not turn your back on a fellow student. Discourage those who have caved to peer pressure which encourages them to devalue another human being. Support the efforts of the groups leading change in the wake of this tough semester: One Less, Not on Our Grounds (#HoosGotYourBack), Help Save the Next Girl, and Buddies on Call. Let the nation know we are not a scandal school, but a school that does not tolerate injustice. We are in the public eye right now, and we can either let that cripple us, and shove us back into the mold of a perfect institution, or we can recognize that we have flaws, but that we work to reconcile them. Sexual assault is not just a UVA issue, but UVA is where this issue has come to the forefront. The University of Virginia is a school historically known for its powerful student body. The Hoos of UVA have always rallied when a change was needed. We still stand as one of the top schools in the nation, and we can be the face of change. Let us be an example, and not a failure. Let us stand with survivors. Emily Clark SEAS '16 ||||| CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.— It was a near-unanimous reaction: shock, but not surprise. Disgust, but not doubt. Those were the feelings that characterized the endless conversations I had as a University of Virginia student following the Nov. 19 release of Sabrina Rubin Erdely’s article, “A Rape on Campus,” in Rolling Stone. “There was this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach in [reading] the whole thing,” fourth-year student Anna Burke told me. “I have never been through something like that myself, but it was a refrain I had heard before. There was a sort of familiar sadness to it.” There was some anger at what many perceived as mischaracterizations of student life, student standards of integrity and the University administration. But in speaking to students across the grounds — men and women, Greek and non-Greek, first and fourth years — not one sought to challenge the validity of then-first-year student Jackie’s rape, either as a whole or in part. In all honesty, I didn’t either. Then, suddenly, the story fell apart. After a wave of media criticism questioned Erdely for failing to interview the alleged perpetrators of the assault, the University’s Phi Kappa Psi chapter released a statement pushing back on the allegations, citing specific factual inconsistencies. Not long after, Rolling Stone posted a statement admitting there may be discrepancies in the story, withdrawing their unilateral support. Their trust in Jackie, they said, had been “misplaced.” Misplaced is a good word for how I feel right now. Two weeks into a process of healing and concerted action, the only shared conviction now is one of profound uncertainty. The campus — relatively oversaturated with emotion after a semester of significant trauma — feels as if it is on stand-by, poised in anticipation of where the next torrent of news will take us. I am drained. I am confused. But I keep returning to one question. If everyone here believed Jackie’s story until yesterday — a story in which she is violently raped by seven men at a fraternity house as part of a planned initiation ritual — should we not still be concerned? There was something in that story which stuck. And that means something. The University of Virginia — like most American universities — has a problem with rape. Current estimates, cited earlier this year by Vice President Joe Biden, hold that one in five women will be sexually assaulted while in college. That means that in my 200-person politics lecture, roughly a full row will be filled with survivors. In my 20-person major seminar, there are at least two. That is not a calculus I should have to work out in the margins of my Marx-Engels reader. What does it say that we read an article in which an 18-year-old girl was pinned down, graphically violated by multiple people in a house we pass almost every day — and we thought, “That just may be right?” “If we are being honest with ourselves, no matter if specifics of the article are true, …reading the article as a college student, you were thinking, ‘This could happen,’” said Rex Humphries, a second-year who pledged a fraternity last spring. Your first reaction is not, ‘This is preposterous.” I asked if he thought Jackie’s story could be true. He paused and said, “Yes.” For 17 days, we by and large believed Jackie’s story, maintaining only a few fragments of doubt. We were frustrated by the repeated use of the “Rugby Road” song, which appeared to make fun of the rape culture on campus but which most students, in fact, had never heard. We were angered by the portrayal of administrators we had worked with and personally trusted. We were slightly apprehensive at the article’s claim the rape had taken place as part of pledging, noting that pledging takes place in the spring and not the fall. But on the whole, we did not question Jackie herself. And that’s because, when we sorted through Erdely’s snide tone and some small missteps, we found something in that article that struck a chord with us. This is not to say that it does not matter whether or not Jackie’s story is accurate. There is now a police investigation into the incident. Brothers of Phi Kappa Psi were moved out of their house after students threw bricks through the windows. Dean Nicole Eramo has received death threats. And it is becoming increasingly clear that the story that blew the lid off campus sexual assault has some major, major holes. Ultimately, though, from where I sit in Charlottesville, to let fact checking define the narrative would be a huge mistake. “These events undoubtedly do occur here,” first-year Maddie Rita told me. “And while this report has clearly had factual flaws as well as rhetorical missteps, there are plenty of other fully corroborated accounts not only at this university, but at every university around the country.” Only eight to nine percent of sexual assault reports, at most, are later determined false. This statistic will not change, even if Jackie does lie with the minority. One of five women will be assaulted while in college. One case, however prolific, does not change how it felt to lie in my friend’s bed and have her tell me through tears what her “first time” was really like. That same friend, a few days after the article was released, publicly identified herself as a survivor for the first time. People were talking, and the issue — which too often hides in locked dorm rooms, in upstairs bedrooms and the dark corners of a fraternity basement — was finally being thrust out into the open. Survivors felt comfortable sharing their stories, and there was hope that reporting would increase. With the crux of the story now wholly in doubt, this progress is threatened. Where we had the opportunity to move 20 steps forward, I fear we will be pushed 20 steps back. “I’m worried that because of the inconsistencies in this story, this will challenge the precedent of believing a survivor,” said fourth-year student Gianfranco Villar, a member of all-male sexual assault peer education group 1 in 4. “This belief is vital to improving reporting rates and maintaining a survivor’s health. It is very disappointing.” It is no accident that the article came out, and it became apparent almost immediately that there were very tangible things we needed to discuss. Yes, the story was sensational. But even the most sensational story, it seems, can contain frightening elements of truth.

– "I was Jackie’s suitemate first year. I fully support Jackie, and I believe wholeheartedly that she went through a traumatizing sexual assault." So writes Emily Clark in a letter posted last night to the University of Virginia's Cavalier Daily. Clark goes on to describe Jackie's evolution from "bright, happy, and bubbly" to "withdrawn and depressed"—unable to get out of bed to shut off an alarm clock and watching ever-darker selections in endless hours of Netflix, eventually leaving school before December finals in 2012. "I remember her letting it slip to me that she had had a terrible experience at a party. I remember her telling me that multiple men had assaulted her at this party." To be clear, Clark herself wasn't at the party, and says that "while I cannot say what happened that night, and I cannot prove the validity of every tiny aspect of her story to you, I can tell you that this story is not a hoax, a lie, or a scheme. Something terrible happened to Jackie at the hands of several men who have yet to receive any repercussions." No matter the details, the reporting, or the recollections perhaps skewed by trauma, Clark writes, "the blame should never fall on the victim's shoulders. Jackie is a victim." Clark is not the only voice of support: UVa student Julia Horowitz wrote a piece called "Why we believed Jackie's story" for Politico, writing, "Yes, the story was sensational. But even the most sensational story, it seems, can contain frightening elements of truth." Another student tells CBS: "I think UVa has an opportunity to get it right. We absolutely need to stand with Jackie." Clark's full piece is here.

Seven people attempted suicide by drinking a poisonous liquid outside the gates of the China Youth Daily in Beijing yesterday morning, the newspaper said on its social media account. Pictures circulated online showed five men and two women lying on the pavement outside the newspaper building. A stream of white foam could be seen running out of one man's mouth in the pictures. All seven were taken to hospital, and police were investigating the case, the Daily said. Southern Metropolis Daily reported that the seven had drunk pesticide and were petitioners from Qingyang in Sihong county in eastern Jiangsu province. Their land was seized by the local government and they were petitioning because they were not satisfied with the compensation the authorities paid, the newspaper said. "Too many houses were forcibly demolished in Qingyang and a local court has ruled the demolition as illegal," Wang Jinshan, another petitioner from the same town, told the South China Morning Post. The seven were held in an illegally run detention centre, or "black jail", after they took their petitions to a higher level of government, Southern Metropolis Daily said. An official from Jiangsu was guarding the emergency room where two of the petitioners were being treated, stopping journalists from going in yesterday, The Beijing News reported. The injuries the seven suffered were no longer life threatening, according to the newspaper. Human rights group say that petitioning, which goes back to imperial times, often leads to people with complaints being held in illegal detention centres by the authorities. People can petition for years without their grievances being addressed and they occasionally resort to extreme measures to draw public attention to their cases. ||||| 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.

– Twelve people in China have highlighted their grievances by swallowing pesticide in public and falling to the ground, frothing at the mouth, the Telegraph reports. In one incident, a group of seven people from Jiangsu province (all from the same family, says the Daily Mail) went outside a newspaper office in Beijing Wednesday morning and drank the pesticide. One told a journalist from the state-run paper that they were protesting against local officials who had thrown them off their property and destroyed their home five years ago. They received little or no compensation, depending on which report you read. "We had no other option but to resort to this to make ourselves heard," said the wife of a 58-year-old protester. "We’ve been driven to homelessness. We’ve been driven into a corner—the government gave us no way out." She said her husband had gone to Nanjing to protest and was tossed into an illegal "black jail" for three days without sleep, food, or water. In another incident, five protesters came to Beijing and drank pesticide over a complaint that wasn't reported. Among the first protesters, four are still in life-threatening condition, but nothing is known of the latter five. Petitioning goes back centuries in China, where millions of people travel to Beijing every year to voice grievances, but rarely make headway with officials.

Facebook is expected to unveil its long-awaited location-services product tomorrow at an event at Facebook HQ. What will it do? How will it work? We don't know for sure, and the location/mobile industry-types we've bothered about it are either short on details or pretending they are. But here's one potential way Facebook's location concept might work, based on our conversations: Every physical store or business would receive a Facebook "Page" the same way movies, bands, TV shows, brands, celebrities, etc. have today. You could "check-in" to that Page using Facebook. You might also potentially be able to check-in from other location-based services, such as Foursquare, Yelp, Loopt, Gowalla, etc., or push your check-ins to those services. It doesn't seem like there would be any sort of game elements to Facebook's location product -- no "mayor," "duke," "badges," etc. That seems too silly for Facebook. Facebook's main goal would be to get local merchants into maintaining and promoting their Facebook pages, while then potentially advertising on Facebook. In this sense, Facebook's location service could be a bigger threat to Google and Yelp than Foursquare, which has been focused so far on the mobile-app aspects of its service, and not the web. Facebook's other big goal would be to pull in a massive amount of location data and do cool stuff with it. Again, if this is it, it sounds like Facebook's location service could be a bigger threat to Google and Yelp than Foursquare, especially if you'd be able to check-in to Facebook pages from the Foursquare app, or push your Facebook check-ins out to Foursquare. And if Facebook were actually interested in attacking the big sites that generate revenue, it would be smart to go after Google and Yelp -- and not Foursquare, which has buzz and is gaining in popularity, but doesn't make much money and doesn't have huge-scale, well-organized merchant participation. But the devil is in the details, and we won't know all of those until tomorrow. Earlier: Here's How Shopkick Works -- That New "Foursquare For Shopping" iPhone App ||||| Facebook is expected to unveil on Wednesday a new location-sharing feature for the social network's 500 million users. Reports about Facebook developing a location-based feature have been circulating for some time. Facebook has also been making references to a potential location feature. In March, Facebook said it had some ideas for about adding new location features that would go beyond just sharing your location in a Facebook update or wall post. But despite all the rumblings about location, Facebook has yet to unveil such a service. In fact, it's unclear if location really is what Facebook plans to discuss at its upcoming press event. However, a "multitude" of anonymous sources have reportedly told All Things D's Kara Swisher that geo-location is definitely on the docket for Wednesday. Details are scarce about what Facebook's new location service would be like, but it's likely the main way you'd share your location would be through your mobile device. Beyond that, here are five issues Facebook should address during its press event on Wednesday. Play Nice With Third Parties News that Facebook may be getting into the location game has many wondering what the implications will be for location-sharing services such as Foursquare and Gowalla. Both services use your mobile device's GPS feature to share your location with your friends when visiting cafes, bars, malls, and other public places. Sharing your location is known as a check-in, and users typically earn points, virtual rewards and other incentives that encourage frequent check-ins. Foursquare has been the most aggressive location service in recent months among location services. The company has signed deals with Bravo television, registered more than 100 million check-ins, and encouraged small business owners to reward their Foursquare mayors -- the person who has checked-in the most at a particular location using Foursquare -- with happy hour specials, retail discounts, giveaways and other prizes. Despite their burgeoning popularity, it's unclear whether smaller location services would remain popular if Facebook (with its 500 million-strong membership) got into location sharing. However, recent rumors suggest Facebook's location feature would somehow integrate with existing location services. Platform Facebook's location feature is expected to be included with Facebook Platform -- the software framework third parties use to integrate products, such as Farmville, with Facebook. It's possible, then, that location services like Gowalla and Foursquare could just hook into Facebook's location feature via Platform. This also means current Facebook Platform services including quizzes and social games such as Frontierville could include location features into existing products. It's also possible that external Websites and services using Platform such as Meebo, the Huffington Post and Tapulous could take advantage of location services. Privacy You can't add a new service to Facebook without talking about privacy, and a feature that can reveal your location would be no exception. Facebook is often the target of criticisms over how it treats user privacy. Recent privacy debacles have addressed how difficult it is for a user to manage privacy on Facebook, and on concern about the Instant Personalization service launched at Facebook's F8 developer conference earlier this year. Key questions regarding Facebook's location feature: How easy would it be for users to opt out of the service? Would Facebook location be opt-in or opt-out by default? Will Facebook consider your location publicly available information or encourage users to set their location to public? Also, will Facebook automatically reveal a person's location, or would you have to expressly share your location on a case-by-case basis? Deals or No Deals? ||||| A collection of news and social media from the lead-up to the Referendum for Independence from the Iraqi state held in the Kurdish region of Iraq on September 25, 2017. The collection captures the websites of news outlets in the Kurdish region of Iraq representing the various political parties and social media account of individuals prominent in discussions of the referendum. ||||| All Things Digital report that Facebook has been sending out invitations to select media outlets inviting them to a mysterious press conference later today (Wednesday 18th). The new feature is expected to be a direct competitor to the popular geo-location check-in application Foursquare which has been in the works for some time. It wasn’t too long ago that the social network considered buying up Foursquare which never made it through. So, in true modern day competitive style, Facebook decided to make its own. An API will be opened up to allow third-party developers to create check-in applications for a range of devices and platforms to enable others to capitalise upon this brand new feature. Facebook, especially in light of the numerous serious privacy issues over the last year, will now be entrusted by you, the user, to your location data. Really? This apparantly is not a joke. Geo-location has been a gimick over the last few years, with mobile devices becoming equipped with GPS technology and the sat-nav software which has enabled users to find where they are and where to go. Flipping it round though, some bright spark reversed the concept of GPS to enable location based features like local shops, bars, and landmarks. Since then, the ‘Foursquare revolution’ has taken a community and social spirit. But looking through a random selection of my Twitter followers, which opened up location based features this time last year, opens an insight into the darker side of knowing exactly where someone is at any one time. To post my home address and postcode on the web is dangerous enough as it is. To have my phone which constantly kicks out my exact location down to a square metre is terrifying. Granted, I’m not a celebrity nor a major public figure, but I’ve had plenty of death threats over the last couple of years and frankly, I take the privacy of my personal information very seriously. And now for a social network which has already had serious flaws in its privacy policies, exploits and holes where data can be leaked or be made public, and a CEO which takes user data in a blasé fashion by calling users “dumb” for trusting him, I am beyond apprehensive. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has documented the changes in Facebook’s privacy policies since 2005, where originally your data remained as yours and eroded away to the point where not only everything you submitted became theirs, but even your uploaded content would not be deleted from their servers. Even after the major overhaul of the site’s privacy settings, many argued that the new settings intended to share more of the user’s data with everybody and was heavily criticised by the Canadian government and a Norwegian consumer protection agency. If I could cut Facebook out of my life without the risk of social exclusion, I would. Personally this is yet another feature which could be exploited and taken advantage of - more likely to be in Facebook’s gain in some way, and nothing good can come from this. The company has a repugnant track record with user data, information and privacy. Need I say more? Would you trust Facebook with your geo-location data?

– Looks like Facebook is a fan (ha!) of Foursquare. The social networking giant is expected to announce a Foursquare-inspired, location-based feature at today's press conference at HQ, reports BusinessWeek. Some things to consider ahead of the rumored launch: Purpose: The verdict is still out on whether Facebook's new offering will tap into the gaming model popularized by Foursquare, or just stick to sharing location details with friends, notes Reuters. Game angle: Business Insider is guessing that there won't be mayors or badges. "That seems too silly for Facebook," notes Dan Frommer. Privacy: Key questions: How easy will it be to opt-out? Will your location be public? What are the default settings? Should we be scared? Considering Facebook's serious privacy flaws and the fact that its CEO has called users "dumb" for trusting him, "I am beyond apprehensive," writes Zack Whittaker for ZDNet. Who else should be scared? It's possible that every physical store will get a page, just like bands and awesome news sites do now, meaning the service "could be a bigger threat to Google and Yelp than Foursquare," notes Frommer. Click here for more things to watch for.

Shortly after pleading not guilty Tuesday to charges related to sensational allegations of hush money payments and lying to federal agents, former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert stood in a packed federal courtroom in downtown Chicago looking extremely uncomfortable. As the judge left the bench and Hastert's high-powered attorneys conferred with prosecutors, Hastert, once one of Illinois' most prominent politicians, remained by himself near the lectern, his shoulders hunched, arms hanging limp at his sides. After a moment, he turned toward the gallery where dozens of reporters and spectators were filing out and pursed his lips. Minutes later, a wild scene unfolded as Hastert and his attorneys were whisked through the lobby of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse amid a crush of television news cameras and photographers. Escorted by about a dozen federal Homeland Security agents, Hastert didn't say a word to the media, ducking into a black Lincoln Town Car that sped north on Dearborn Street as passersby stopped to stare. His lawyers had no comment either. The frenzy surrounding the 73-year-old Republican powerhouse's first court appearance since his stunning indictment nearly two weeks ago stood in stark contrast to the routine proceedings in court, where Hastert formally acknowledged the charges and entered a not guilty plea through his attorneys. Standing at the lectern in a dark gray suit and blue tie, Hastert answered, "Yes, sir," several times in a barely audible voice as U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin asked him if he understood the charges and the terms and conditions of his bail. The answers marked Hastert's first public words since the indictment was unsealed May 28 alleging he had agreed to pay $3.5 million to a longtime acquaintance to conceal wrongdoing from Hastert's days as a high school teacher and wrestling coach in Yorkville. According to the charges, Hastert had already paid $1.7 million to the acquaintance, identified only as Individual A, then lied about it when the FBI questioned him in December. Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert through the years. His withdrawals from banks caught the attention of authorities. The indictment alleges that Hastert made 15 withdrawals of $50,000 apiece over nearly two years but then began illegally structuring the withdrawals in increments of less than $10,000 to avoid federal reporting requirements. While the carefully worded, seven-page indictment only hinted at Hastert's dark past, federal law enforcement sources have said Hastert was making the payments to conceal sexual abuse of a Yorkville High School student. The FBI also interviewed a second person who raised similar allegations of sexual abuse against Hastert, corroborating the account of Individual A, sources said. Since the charges were filed, a onetime Yorkville resident took to national television to allege Hastert sexually abused her now-deceased brother while he was a student. None of those allegations are part of the indictment. As the details have trickled out, Hastert remained silent and away from public view for 12 days. Even the identity of his attorney wasn't confirmed until Monday afternoon when Thomas Green and John Gallo of the law firm of Sidley Austin LLC filed their official appearances with the court. Dennis Hastert arrives at Sidley Austin in Chicago on Tuesday morning. (Jeff Coen, Chicago Tribune) Dennis Hastert arrives at Sidley Austin in Chicago on Tuesday morning. (Jeff Coen, Chicago Tribune) SEE MORE VIDEOS Hastert's long-awaited day in court began about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, when he was spotted by reporters leaving his sprawling estate in far west suburban Plano in the hired black Lincoln. About an hour later, he arrived at Sidley Austin's Loop offices two blocks north of the courthouse, ignoring reporters who shouted questions through the vehicle's closed window. Shortly before 1 p.m., the Town Car pulled up in front of the courthouse and Hastert emerged amid a scrum of cameramen and reporters, with Gallo clearing the way with a forearm. Several Homeland Security officers escorted Hastert through the revolving doors and the line for the metal detector. The former speaker did not respond to shouts for comment, including one person who yelled, "Who is Individual A?" As Hastert neared the elevator bank, a national television news reporter stopped one of his lawyers to talk, leaving Hastert standing by himself. After briefly getting in an elevator car with a Tribune and Sun-Times reporter, Hastert exited the car when another attorney motioned to him that they needed to go to the 11th floor to meet with the pretrial services department. Outside Durkin's 14th-floor courtroom, meanwhile, a long line of people stretched down the hall hoping to attend the arraignment. A nearby courtroom was set up to handle the overflow crowd. Shortly after members of the media had been ushered in, filling up the jury box and at least one half of the gallery, Hastert walked into the courtroom about 1:45 p.m. For 15 awkward minutes before the hearing began, Hastert sat at the defense table, his eyes darting to the ceiling and then down to his hands as reporters observed him and scribbled notes. Later, as the attorneys conferred with each other, Hastert sat by himself, staring straight ahead. The 20-minute arraignment hearing was highlighted by Durkin addressing head-on some potential conflict-of-interest issues that arose after he was randomly selected as the judge to hear the high-profile case. The judge noted — as reported by the Tribune last week — that he had made two donations totaling $1,500 to Hastert's campaign more than a decade ago while he was a private attorney at the Mayer Brown law firm in Chicago. He also said he had written an email in the mid-1990s to a Hastert staffer as part of his effort at the time to be appointed to the federal bench. "But nothing came of it," said Durkin, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama only a few years ago. Durkin acknowledged his brother is Jim Durkin, the current Republican leader of the Illinois House, but he said Hastert "is not a personal friend of my brother" and the relationship would have no bearing on him overseeing the case. In addition, the judge said he had worked at the same law firm as Hastert's son, Ethan, including working closely on one matter together in 2011. "We were friendly business colleagues, but I do not consider him a personal friend," Durkin said. The judge said he had "no doubt" he could be impartial in the case. Still, federal statute calls for him to step aside if his impartiality "might reasonably be questioned," he noted. By that standard, Durkin said he would recuse himself from the case unless both sides agree to keep him on as judge. He asked the parties to make that decision by Thursday afternoon. "I will not be offended whatever the result, I assure you," the judge said. If Durkin was disqualified — a rare step in federal court — another judge would then be randomly assigned to the case. ||||| CHICAGO — After days of silence, J. Dennis Hastert, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he illegally structured bank withdrawals and lied to the authorities about millions of dollars he had promised to pay someone for misconduct that occurred decades ago. In a dark pinstripe suit and with his familiar helmet of gray hair, Mr. Hastert, 73, stood slightly stooped before the judge, flanked by lawyers, quietly answering the judge’s questions with a simple “yes” or “yes, sir.” It was the first time the once-powerful former congressman had appeared in public since the charges were announced last month, and he was met with a chaotic crush of news media in the federal courthouse here. Aside from entering a not guilty plea, Mr. Hastert and his lawyers offered no further sense of their response to the charges, which are narrowly focused around financial transactions but which have raised a cloud of allegations of sexual misconduct for a man who had receded from public life. The provisions of his release were routine yet stark for a man whose career arc had carried him from revered, small-town wrestling coach to the Illinois Statehouse and on to one of the top leadership posts in Congress. In addition to posting a $4,500 bond, Mr. Hastert was ordered to surrender his passport, remain in the continental United States, advise the court of any change in his address, and remove guns from his home within two weeks. ||||| Hastert pleads not guilty The former House speaker emerged after more than a week in seclusion. CHICAGO — After more than a week in seclusion, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert pleaded not guilty Tuesday to two criminal charges that he violated federal banking law and lied to FBI agents as they investigated his alleged agreement to pay $3.5 million in hush money to cover up a past transgression. Hastert, who became the longest-serving Republican speaker before the GOP lost the House in 2006, was released after entering the plea in front of U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin at an afternoon hearing, which raised questions about whether Durkin will continue or the case will be reassigned to another judge. Story Continued Below Hastert, 73, looked much as he did during the height of his power, slightly stooped and with a shock of gray hair as he trudged into the packed courtroom clad in a dark pinstripe suit and blue tie. He stood in front of the judge’s bench throughout the roughly 15-minute hearing, softly answering the judge’s questions — usually with “Yes, sir.” Hastert’s lead defense attorney, Tom Green, spoke for Hastert when it came time to offer a plea. “The defendant enters a plea of not guilty to both counts of the indictment, your honor,” Green said. Before the hearing, the ex-speaker turned criminal defendant spent more than an hour behind closed doors on another floor of the courthouse, going through the usual booking process, which involves fingerprinting, mug shots and providing a swab of DNA for a massive federal database. The well-traveled Hastert also surrendered his passport, Green said. Durkin, who was randomly assigned to the case, announced at the hearing that he was provisionally recusing himself due to several personal and family ties to Hastert, Hastert’s relatives and the Republican Party, as well as lawyers on both the defense and prosecution teams. Reading for several minutes from a prepared statement, Durkin outlined the links created by Illinois politics and his professional history as a prosecutor and lawyer in private practice. “As far as I can recall, I have never met the defendant,” the judge said. He quickly noted that — as POLITICO first reported — he made donations to Hastert’s reelection campaigns in 2002 and 2004. “These contributions were made while I was a private citizen, after leaving the U.S. attorney’s office and before I became a federal judge,” Durkin said. He said the donations were “made through” a fellow lawyer at Mayer Brown, the law firm where Durkin then worked. The judge went on to note that he worked for a time with Hastert’s son Ethan, who is also a partner at Mayer Brown. Durkin said there was “one matter” they were both assigned to that resulted in he and Ethan Hastert taking three or four work trips together. Their relationship was “friendly,” but they are not “personal friends,” the judge said. Durkin also disclosed that he emailed one of Dennis Hastert’s staffers in the mid-’90s in a bid to secure a judgeship. Durkin’s nomination to the bench did not come until about 20 years later, when President Barack Obama tapped him in 2013. The judge also noted that his brother Jim is the Republican minority leader of the Illinois House. “I’ve never met the defendant through Jim,” the judge said. “The defendant is not a good friend of my brother.” After outlining his ties to the lawyers on both sides of the case, Durkin said all the connections he listed wouldn’t affect his judgment in the case. “I have no doubt I can be impartial in this matter. If I had any such doubt, I would have disqualified myself on the day it was assigned to me,” the judge said. However, the judge went on to say he was “not so naive” as to think that others might not question his impartiality, so he officially recused himself from the case. Still, the recusal could turn out to be short-lived. Durkin said such recusals can be waived if both sides agree. He also set up a confidential process for them to weigh in that should keep him from knowing who effectively vetoed his involvement, if either or both sides do. The judge set a tight deadline of Thursday afternoon for the defense and prosecution to make up their minds. “I don’t want this issue to linger,” Durkin said. Many lawyers expect both sides to agree to keep the judge on the case. Durkin set a $4,500 unsecured bond as a condition of release for the former speaker, instructing Hastert to surrender his passport and firearms within two weeks, as well as to provide a DNA sample and avoid others associated with the case. On his way in and out of the courthouse, Hastert faced a chaotic maelstrom of TV cameras and journalists pressing him to comment on news reports that the “misconduct” he allegedly was trying to cover up involved sexual misconduct with a student when Hastert worked decades ago as a high school teacher and wrestling coach. AP photo On the eve of the hearing, Hastert shifted his legal team by tapping D.C. white-collar specialist Green and a former federal prosecutor in Chicago, John Gallo. The two attorneys, both with the law firm Sidley Austin, replaced another prominent defense lawyer, Barry Levine of Dickstein Shapiro — the same firm Hastert resigned from as a lobbyist when the charges were announced late last month. While Green is known for high-profile defense roles in the Iran-Contra investigation, legal insiders say that if the case moves toward a plea bargain, Gallo and other former prosecutors at Sidley’s Chicago office could play key roles in negotiating a deal. Gallo’s familiarity with the prosecutors on the case, Steven Block and Carrie Hamilton, was evident as the lawyers chatted informally before the hearing began. Green’s novelty to the case and the prosecution team was clear Tuesday as he introduced himself to the prosecutors for the first time. Hastert sat quietly at the defense table during that wait, alternately folding his hands and laying them flat on the table. The atmosphere was awkward as dozens of journalists — some, because of limited space, seated in the jury box directly facing the former speaker — watched Hastert intently and silently for about 15 minutes as everyone awaited the scheduled start of the hearing. Neither the former speaker nor his lawyers commented as they entered and left a federal courthouse that in recent years has seen the prosecution and conviction on corruption charges of a slew of major Illinois political figures, including former Govs. George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich. Aside from the not guilty pleas he offered Tuesday, Hastert has not publicly addressed the charges since his May 28 indictment. But in a brief interview with POLITICO several days before the charges were filed, he denied wrongdoing and maintained that his finances were not the subject of a federal investigation. At Tuesday’s hearing, the defense waived a formal reading of the indictment, which alleges Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million to an undisclosed individual and forked over $1.7 million of that before the charges were filed. Nearly $1 million of that was withdrawn from the former speaker’s bank accounts in increments of just under $10,000 after bankers warned him that larger cash withdrawals would trigger reports to the authorities, the indictment claims. Prosecutors said little during the session, but when the judge asked for details of the potential penalties, Block noted Hastert could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each of the two felony counts. However, judges usually impose sentences in accordance with federal guidelines that call for more lenient punishment for offenders with no serious criminal record. A plea deal could also reduce Hastert’s sentence. Many criminal defense lawyers believe such a deal is probable because a jury is not likely to look favorably on a defendant trying to cover up alleged sexual abuse of a student. One of the charges brought against Hastert — structuring cash transactions to avoid federal reporting requirements — is unpopular among defense lawyers and libertarians because it can render routine cash banking transactions in increments of just under $10,000 illegal even if the reason for the cash payments or withdrawals is lawful. Critics contend that prosecutors use the structuring law to bring charges or force guilty pleas from defendants when the government lacks proof to make a case for drug trafficking or tax evasion. Some judges have reacted skeptically when the feds have brought cases in which there is no charge that the underlying conduct was illegal. The nature of Hastert’s reported relationship with the acquaintance who allegedly received the hush money is unclear, but experts say the statute of limitations in Illinois for a criminal prosecution on sexual abuse from the 1970s expired long ago. Hastert, who as speaker was once second in line to the presidency, resigned his House seat in 2007 after he lost the speaker’s post due to the Democrats’ victory in 2006. He is the highest-ranking current or former federal official to face criminal prosecution since Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973 and pleaded guilty to a felony tax evasion charge. Nick Gass contributed to this report from Arlington, Virginia.

– Dennis Hastert has finally made a public statement about the allegations against him: not guilty. The former House speaker made the plea today at a federal courthouse in Chicago, reports the Chicago Tribune. Hastert, who is accused of making illegal cash withdrawals from his bank accounts, has largely been in seclusion since the news broke, notes Politico. He reportedly was paying hush money to cover up allegations that he molested a male high school student decades ago. (This woman says her late brother was molested, too.) Hastert, 73, didn't address reporters' shouted questions as Homeland Security officers escorted him into the courthouse. The New York Times gets into detail: "After making his way through the building’s revolving doors, Mr. Hastert walked slowly, his body slightly hunched, toward the metal detector. A courthouse security officer used a wand on him after the metal detector sounded when he walked through." He was later released on a $4,500 bond, reports the Washington Post. Hastert faces up to 5 years in prison and $250,000 in fines on each of the two felony counts against him. (He's got a high-profile lawyer, however.)

Image copyright Getty Images Open heart surgery appears to be safer in the afternoon because of the body's internal clock, scientists have said. The body clock - or circadian rhythm - is the reason we want to sleep at night, but it also drives huge changes in the way our bodies work. The research, published in the Lancet, suggests the heart is stronger and better able to withstand surgery in the afternoon than the morning. And it says the difference is not down to surgeons being tired in the morning. Doctors need to stop the heart to perform operations including heart valve replacements. This puts the organ under stress as the flow of oxygen to the heart tissue is reduced. The doctors and researchers looked for complications including heart attacks, heart failure or death after surgery. They found: 54 out of 298 morning patients had adverse events 28 out of 298 afternoon patients had adverse events Afternoon patients had around half the risk of complications One major event would be avoided for every 11 patients operated on in the afternoon One of those involved in the research, Prof Bart Staels, from the Institut Pasteur de Lille, told the BBC News website: "We don't want to frighten people from having surgery - it's life saving." He also said it would be impossible for hospitals to conduct surgery only after lunch. But Prof Staels added: "If we can identify patients at highest risk, they will definitely benefit from being pushed into the afternoon and that would be reasonable." Obesity and type 2 diabetes have been shown to increase the risk of complications after surgery. Heart health is already known to fluctuate over the course of a day. The risk of a heart attack or stroke is highest first thing in the morning, while the heart and lungs work at their peak in the afternoon. Dr John O'Neill, from the UK Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology, said: "Scientifically it is not hugely surprising, because just like every other cell in the body, heart cells have circadian rhythms that orchestrate their activity. "Our cardiovascular system has the greatest output around mid/late-afternoon, which explains why professional athletes usually record their best performances around this time." Other possible explanations for the findings included surgeons being tired in the morning or their own body clock affecting their surgical skill, particularly if they are not "morning people". But Prof Staels said the researchers had gone to great lengths to show that the difference in survival rates was not down to the surgeons. The French team also experimented on cardiac tissue samples from patients and showed they beat more readily in the afternoon. And an analysis of the DNA in the samples found 287 genes whose activity showed a circadian rhythm - waxing and waning during the day. They then moved into mice and used experimental drugs to alter the activity of one of those genes and seemed to be able to reduce the risk of death. Prof Staels said: "We believe we have identified a potential way to circumvent the disturbing observation that operations in the morning lead to more complications." However, that will require more research to confirm. The researchers are also investigating whether circadian rhythms have an impact on survival in other types of surgery. Dr Mike Knapton, from the British Heart Foundation, said: "Thousands of people now have open heart surgery in the UK. If this finding can be replicated in other hospitals this could be helpful to surgeons planning their operating list, for non-urgent heart surgery. Follow James on Twitter. ||||| Nobody wants to have open heart surgery. But if you do, you want to have it in that afternoon. That's the conclusion of a major new study that found there is a significantly higher risk of damage for people having surgery in the morning. And it's all because of the body clock, or circadian rhythms, which help keep us regulated through the day. It decides when we wake up, sleep and eat – and how ready we are to recover from major surgery. The new study, published in the Lancet, found that there are almost 300 genes that link the body clock to heart damage. And it found that there is a link between a person's body clock and how at risk they are of undergoing heart damage and major events like heart attacks after having heart surgery. Science news in pictures 20 show all Science news in pictures 1/20 Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary 2/20 A 3D reconstruction of an African grey parrot post euthanasia Included in Wellcome Image Awards, this 3D image of an African grey parrot shows the highly intricate system of blood vessels. Scott Birch. Wellcome Images 3/20 Baby Hawaiian bobtail squid Another Wellcome Images Award winner, this time of baby Hawaiian bobtail squid. The black ink sac and light organ in the centre of the squid’s mantle cavity can be clearly seen. Macroscopic Solutions. Wellcome Images 4/20 Skeletons of 5,000-year-old Chinese ‘giants’ discovered by archaeologists The people are thought to have been unusually tall and strong. The tallest of the skeletons uncovered measured at 1.9m YouTube 5/20 Nasa discovers 75,000 mile-wide hole in the Sun Sunspots are caused by interactions with the Sun’s magnetic field and are cooler areas on the star’s surface. Nasa 6/20 View(active tab) Apple News Breaking news email Edit Revisions Workflow Clear Cache NewsScience 132 million-year-old dinosaur fossil found at factory in Surrey Paleontologists Sarah Moore and Jamie Jordan believe they have discovered a Iguanodon dinosaur, a herbivore that was around three metres tall and 10 metres long Cambridge Photographers/Wienerberger 7/20 Discovering life on Mars is less likely as researchers find toxic chemicals on its surface The Echus Chasma, one of the largest water source regions on Mars Getty Images 8/20 The Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest in the United States and third largest in the world, is seen in Yellowstone National Park. The park is famous for its geothermal activity – which includes its spectacular, flowing springs as well as the famous "Old Faithful" geyser that sprays water out every hour or so. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart 9/20 An iris clip fitted onto the eye This images is apart of the Wellcome Images Awards and shows how an artificial intraocular lens is fitted onto the eye. Used for conditions such as myopia and cataracts. Cambridge University Hospitals NHS FT. Wellcome Images 10/20 The Syrian civil war has caused the first ever withdrawal from the 'doomsday bank' Researchers in the Middle East have asked for seeds including those of wheat, barley and grasses, all of which are chosen because especially resistant to dry conditions. It is the first withdrawal from the bank, which was built in 2008. Those researchers would normally request the seeds from a bank in Aleppo. But that centre has been damaged by the war — while some of its functions continue, and its cold storage still works, it has been unable to provide the seeds that are needed by the rest of the Middle East, as it once did. 11/20 Scientists find exactly what human corpses smell like New research has become the first to isolate the particular scent of human death, describing the various chemicals that are emitted by corpses in an attempt to help find them in the future. The researchers hope that the findings are the first step towards working on a synthetic smell that could train cadaver dogs to be able to more accurately find human bodies, or to eventually developing electronic devices that can look for the scent themselves. 12/20 Black hole captured eating a star then vomiting it back out Astronomers have captured a black hole eating a star and then sicking a bit of it back up for the first time ever. The scientists tracked a star about as big as our sun as it was pulled from its normal path and into that of a supermassive black hole before being eaten up. They then saw a high-speed flare get thrust out, escaping from the rim of the black hole. Scientists have seen black holes killing and swallowing stars. And the jets have been seen before.But a new study shows the first time that they have captured the hot flare that comes out just afterwards. And the flare and then swallowed star have not been linked together before 13/20 Dog-sized horned dinosaur fossil found shows east-west evolutionary divide in North America A British scientist has uncovered the fossil of a dog-sized horned dinosaur that roamed eastern North America up to 100 million years ago. The fragment of jaw bone provides evidence of an east-west divide in the evolution of dinosaurs on the North American continent. During the Late Cretaceous period, 66 to 100 million years ago, the land mass was split into two continents by a shallow sea. This sea, the Western Interior Seaway, ran from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. Dinosaurs living in the western continent, called Laramidia, were similar to those found in Asia 14/20 'Male and female brains' aren't real Brains cannot be categorised into female and male, according to the first study to look at sex differences in the whole brain. Specific parts of the brain do show sex differences, but individual brains rarely have all “male” traits or all “female” traits. Some characteristics are more common in women, while some are more common in men, and some are common in both men and women, according to the study 15/20 Life on Earth appeared hundreds of millions of years earlier than previously thought Life may have come to earth 4.1 billion years ago, hundreds of millions of years earlier than we knew. The discovery, made using graphite that was trapped in ancient crystals, could mean that life began "almost instantaneously" after the Earth was formed. The researchers behind it have described the discovery as “a potentially transformational scientific advance”. Previously, life on Earth was understood to have begun when the inner solar system was hit by a massive bombardment from space, which also formed the moon's craters 16/20 Nasa confirms Mars water discovery Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae — or dark patches — on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. 17/20 Earth could be at risk of meteor impacts Earth could be in danger as our galaxy throws out comets that could hurtle towards us and wipe us out, scientists have warned. Scientists have previously presumed that we are in a relatively safe period for meteor impacts, which are linked with the journey of our sun and its planets, including Earth, through the Milky Way. But some orbits might be more upset than we know, and there is evidence of recent activity, which could mean that we are passing through another meteor shower. Showers of meteors periodically pass through the area where the Earth is, as gravitational disturbances upset the Oort Cloud, which is a shell of icy objects on the edge of the solar system. They happen on a 26-million year cycle, scientists have said, which coincide with mass extinctions over the last 260-million years 18/20 Genetically-engineered, extra-muscular dogs Chinese scientists have created genetically-engineered, extra-muscular dogs, after editing the genes of the animals for the first time. The scientists create beagles that have double the amount of muscle mass by deleting a certain gene, reports the MIT Technology Review. The mutant dogs have “more muscles and are expected to have stronger running ability, which is good for hunting, police (military) applications”, Liangxue Lai, one of the researchers on the project. Now the team hope to go on to create other modified dogs, including those that are engineered to have human diseases like muscular dystrophy or Parkinson’s. Since dogs’ anatomy is similar to those of humans’, intentionally creating dogs with certain human genetic traits could allow scientists to further understand how they occur 19/20 Researchers discover 'lost world' of arctic dinosaurs Scientists say that the new dinosaur, known as Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis, “challenges everything we thought about a dinosaur’s physiology”. Florida State University professor of biological science Greg Erickson said: “It creates this natural question. How did they survive up here?” 20/20 A team of filmmakers in the US have made the first ever scale model of the Solar System in a Nevada desert Illustrations of the Earth and moon show the two to be quite close together, Mr Overstreet said. This is inaccurate, the reason being that these images are not to scale. Study author Professor David Montaigne, University of Lille, France, said: "Our study found that post-surgery heart damage is more common among people who have heart surgery in the morning, compared to the afternoon. "Our findings suggest this is because part of the biological mechanism behind the damage is affected by a person's circadian clock and the underlying genes that control it. "As a result, moving heart surgery to the afternoon may help to reduce a person's risk of heart damage after surgery." Researchers looked at the medical records of 596 people who had heart valve replacement surgery including half who had surgery in the morning, half in the afternoon. They checked for any major cardiac events such as a heart attack, heart failure or death from heart disease in this research which took place between January 2009 to December 2015. They found that 28 out of 298 afternoon patients had adverse events while 54 out of 298 morning patients experienced such events. The researchers suggest this could equate to one major event being avoided for every 11 patients who have afternoon surgery and that people who had surgery in the afternoon had a 50% lower risk of a major cardiac event, compared with people who had surgery in the morning. The team also tracked the health of 88 patients who were randomly scheduled for heart valve replacement surgery in the morning or afternoon between January 2016 to February 2017. Those who had afternoon surgery had lower levels of heart tissue damage after surgery, compared with morning surgery patients, according to the researchers. Tests on heart tissue samples from 30 of the patients - including 14 who had morning surgery and 16 from the afternoon surgery group - showed that the afternoon surgery samples more quickly regained their ability to contract when put in conditions similar to the heart refilling with blood. Genetic analysis of these samples also showed that 287 genes linked to the circadian clock were more active in the afternoon surgery sample. The researchers believe this suggests the heart is subject to the body's circadian clock and the post-surgery results highlight that the heart is maybe weaker at repairing in the morning than in the afternoon. Larger trials are need to test the findings. Professor Michel Ovize, Hopital Louis Pradel, France, said the scientists have "clearly shown that circadian rhythm is of clinical importance in aortic valve replacement surgery" but that more research is needed. He added: "Even before we have drugs available to regulate the circadian clock, one might propose that high-risk patients should preferentially be operated on in the afternoon." Additional reporting by agencies

– Should you ever need heart surgery, it might be worth pressing for an afternoon appointment. New research in the Lancet finds patients who undergo morning heart surgery are twice as likely to suffer heart issues and other complications as patients who have surgery in the afternoon, per the BBC. It's not that doctors are drowsy in the morning and therefore prone to mistakes. Rather, researchers say the body's circadian rhythm regulates genes that are in top form and better able to handle stress in the afternoon, a fact that also explains why one's risk of heart attack is highest in the morning. To discover this, researchers conducted several studies, one monitoring 596 patients who underwent an aortic valve replacement, half in the morning, half in the afternoon. After 17 months, they found 18% of morning patients had suffered a major adverse cardiac event, acute heart failure, cardiovascular death, or a heart attack during the operation, compared to 9% of afternoon patients. Morning patients also had twice the risk of other complications, per the study, which identified 287 genes linking the body clock to heart health, reports the Independent. A second study also found morning patients had significantly higher levels of troponin, a measure of heart damage, per the New York Times. This doesn't mean morning surgeries should be avoided, but "we should identify patients at high risk for complications—those with diabetes or other metabolic risks, for example—and operate on those in the afternoon," a study author tells the Times.

This study was financially supported by the Graduate Cluster Industrial Biotechnology (CLIB). The authors are thankful to the thesis students for their excellent help during the laboratory work: Dirk Münker, David Dannheisig and Madeleine Dorsch. We are also grateful to Parijat Kusari for critically reading this manuscript. Studies were conducted with the permission of No. 4584989 issued by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM), Germany. Supporting information Supplementary Table 1: List of microorganisms used for expression of THCAS. Supplementary Table 2: List of plasmids. Supplementary Fig. 1: Screening of P. pastoris clones—volumetric THCAS activity; cultures were inoculated at 0.105 gCDW l−1. Cultures were grown at 200 rpm and 20 °C. Methanol was added every 24 h at 0.5 % (v/v). Values are calculated from biological duplicates. Supplementary Fig. 2: Screening of P. pastoris clones—specific THCAS activity; cultures were inoculated at 0.105 gCDW l−1. Cultures were grown at 200 rpm and 20 °C. Methanol was added every 24 h at 0.5 % (v/v). Values are calculated from biological duplicates. Supplementary Fig. 3: Expression of THCAS using PP2_HC; Cultures were grown in 3-baffled shake-flasks at 200 rpm and 10 °C. Methanol was added every 24 h at 0.5 % (v/v). Data points represent the means of three biological replicates with two technical replicates and error bars represent the standard deviation. Supplementary Fig. 4: Expression of THCAS using PP2_HC; Cultures were grown in 3-baffled shake-flasks at 200 rpm and 20 °C. Methanol was added every 24 h at 0.5 % (v/v). Data points represent the means of three biological replicates with two technical replicates and error bars represent the standard deviation. Supplementary Fig. 5: Expression of THCAS using PP2_HC; Cultures were grown in 3-baffled shake-flasks at 200 rpm and 25 °C. Methanol was added every 24 h at 0.5 % (v/v). Data points represent the means of three biological replicates with two technical replicates and error bars represent the standard deviation. ||||| THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the chemical responsible for most of marijuana's psychological effects. It acts much like the cannabinoid chemicals made naturally by the body, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Cannabinoid receptors are concentrated in certain areas of the brain associated with thinking, memory, pleasure, coordination and time perception. THC attaches to these receptors and activates them and affects a person's memory, pleasure, movements, thinking, concentration, coordination, and sensory and time perception, according to NIDA. THC is one of many compounds found in the resin secreted by glands of the marijuana plant. More of these glands are found around the reproductive organs of the plant than on any other area of the plant. Other compounds unique to marijuana, called cannabinoids, are present in this resin. One cannabinoid, CBD is nonpsychoactive, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, and actually blocks the high associated with THC. THC stimulates cells in the brain to release dopamine, creating euphoria, according to NIDA. It also interferes with how information is processed in the hippocampus, which is part of the brain responsible for forming new memories. THC can induce hallucinations, change thinking and cause delusions. On average, the effects last about two hours, and kick in 10 to 30 minutes after ingestion. Psychomotor impairment may continue after the perceived high has stopped, however. "In some cases, reported side effects of THC include elation, anxiety, tachycardia, short-term memory recall issues, sedation, relaxation, pain-relief and many more," said A.J. Fabrizio, a marijuana chemistry expert at Terra Tech Corp, a California agricultural company focused on local farming and medical cannabis. However, he said, a study in the British Journal of Pharmacology found that other types of cannabinoids, as well as terpenes (compounds that produce flavor and fragrance in plants), can modulate and reduce negative effects. The effects of marijuana make it a popular drug. In fact, it is considered one of the most commonly used illicit drugs in the world. But these effects also concern mental health advocates. THC can trigger a relapse in schizophrenic symptoms, according to NIDA. Another possible risk of consuming THC comes in the form of impaired motor skills. Marijuana may impair driving or similar tasks for approximately three hours after consumption and it is the second-most common psychoactive substance found in drivers, after alcohol, reports the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. People taking medical marijuana are instructed not to drive until it has been established that they can tolerate it and conduct motor tasks successfully. The use of marijuana may cause problems for younger people, and long-term problems. "Some of the side effects of THC include a decrease in IQ, memory and cognition, especially in younger people," said Dr. Damon Raskin, medical director at Cliffside Malibu Treatment Center. "However, the jury is still out on long-term effects, as not enough research has been done on it yet. There is some speculation that it could impair fertility in men and women and also compromise a person's airways, but the studies are still not clear." A study by the University of Montreal published in the journal Development and Psychopathology in 2016 found that early use of marijuana can affect teens. Smokers that start around age 14 do worse on some cognitive tests than non-smokers. The study on almost 300 students found that pot smokers also have a higher school dropout rate. Those that waited to start around age 17 did not seem to have the same impairments. NIDA reports that rats exposed to THC before birth, soon after birth or during adolescence have shown problems with specific learning and memory tasks later in life. The drug can also have drug interactions with certain medications. According to the National Cancer Institute, marijuana has been used for medicinal purposes for more than 3,000 years. As of early 2017, more than half of the United States has legalized the use of medicinal marijuana. Several states have also legalized the drug for recreational use, as well. THC can be extracted from marijuana, or synthesized, as is the case for the FDA-approved drug dronabinol. Dronabinol is used to treat or prevent the nausea and vomiting associated with cancer medicines and to increase the appetites of people with AIDS, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. It is a light yellow resinous oil. Other studies are showing more evidence that, when used properly, THC has many additional medical benefits. For example, THC may be able to improve memory when taken in small doses, according to a 2016 study on mice. People tout marijuana as a better drug than prescription pills because it is "all-natural." That may not be true. "Just because something is considered 'natural' doesn't mean it's healthy," Raskin said. "For example, poison oak can be harmful. Just because it grows in the ground doesn't mean it's good for you or healthy." Edibles, foods containing THC, have become a large problem in states that have legalized pot because of overdosing. "Edibles can lead to overdose sometimes because people often ingest a full serving of a cookie instead of a diagnosed smaller amount," Raskin said. "I mean, who eats a half a cookie? It is easier to swallow a cookie and it's very attractive to younger people or those who don't want to inhale it in a smoke form." Raskin also explained that edibles are extremely high in potency, and when ingested in the gastrointestinal tract, the drug can last longer and with greater intensity. "The effect from inhaling THC will last 45 minutes to a few hours, but edibles can last for six to eight hours and are more likely to lead to a trip to the ER with an overdose," he said. When THC is exposed to air, it degrades into cannabinol, a cannabinoid that has its own psychological effects. THC concentration also depends on the cultivation of the marijuana plant, known scientifically as Cannabis sativa L. A type of cannabis that has a minimal amount of THC, as low as 0.5 percent, is hemp, according to the North American Industrial Hemp Council. Hemp is used for industrial and medical purposes. Some strains of cannabis can have as little as 0.3 percent THC by weight. In other strains, THC makes up 20 percent of the weight in a sample. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that the average THC concentration in marijuana is 1 to 5 percent; in hashish, it is 5 to 15 percent, and in hashish oil, it averages 20 percent. THC in recreational doses of marijuana is highly variable and the lower the THC content in the marijuana, the more the user must consume to produce the desired effects. Additional reporting by contributing writers Jessie Szalay and Lauren Cox. Additional resources

– Synthesized versions of tetrahydrocannabinol—that's THC, the active ingredient in marijuana—already exist in pill form and are used to treat nausea, vomiting, and appetite loss that often follows cancer treatments or appears in patients with AIDS. But a new process out of Germany could offer a less expensive, easier way to create this cannabis component from scratch, with nary a marijuana leaf in sight: genetically engineering it from yeast, the New York Times reports. Biochemists at the Technical University of Dortmund say in a paper published in the Biotechnology Letters journal that by using the yeast, a consistent supply of THC for medicinal purposes could be generated without growing pot. "This is something that could literally change the lives of millions of people," the CEO of a company that produces yeasts for THC and cannabidiol—another compound used for medicinal purposes—tells the Times. Japanese experimenters were among the first to eke out one of the necessary THC enzymes from yeast nearly a decade ago, and since then, less expensive and quicker DNA technology has helped scientists across the board find the rest of the genes needed to make THC. Right now only a small amount of THC can be generated from the yeasts, though scientists are working on boosting that production with some finagling of the gene-engineering process. And yeast does have one big competitor when it comes to producing THC: marijuana itself, with some varieties containing an ample 30% THC content by dry weight, the Times notes. "Right now, we have a plant [that's] essentially the Ferrari of the plant world when it comes to producing the chemical of interest," a professor who helped out with earlier gene-sequencing efforts tells the paper. "Cannabis is hard to beat." (Hemp isn't pot, by the way—and there's just one gene that separates them.)

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(Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post) A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin. “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy. Before the conversation, McCarthy and Ryan had emerged from separate talks at the Capitol with Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladi­mir Groysman, who had described a Kremlin tactic of financing populist politicians to undercut Eastern European democratic institutions. News had just broken the day before in The Washington Post that Russian government hackers had penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee, prompting McCarthy to shift the conversation from Russian meddling in Europe to events closer to home. Some of the lawmakers laughed at McCarthy’s comment. Then McCarthy quickly added: “Swear to God.” Ryan instructed his Republican lieutenants to keep the conversation private, saying: “No leaks. . . . This is how we know we’re a real family here.” The remarks remained secret for nearly a year. [Read the transcript of the conversation among GOP leaders obtained by The Post] The conversation provides a glimpse at the internal views of GOP leaders who now find themselves under mounting pressure over the conduct of President Trump. The exchange shows that the Republican leadership in the House privately discussed Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election and Trump’s relationship to Putin, but wanted to keep their concerns secret. It is difficult to tell from the recording the extent to which the remarks were meant to be taken literally. The House leadership has so far stood by the White House as it has lurched from one crisis to another, much of the turmoil fueled by contacts between Trump or his associates with Russia. House Republican leaders have so far resisted calls for the appointment of an independent commission or a special prosecutor to investigate Russian interference, though pressure has been mounting on them to do so after Trump’s firing of FBI Director James B. Comey and the disclosure that the president shared intelligence with Russian diplomats. Late Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein announced he had appointed Robert S. Mueller III, a former prosecutor who served as the FBI director from 2001 to 2013, as special counsel to oversee the Russia probe. [Deputy attorney general appoints special counsel to oversee probe of Russian interference in election] Evan McMullin, who in his role as policy director to the House Republican Conference participated in the June 15 conversation, said: “It’s true that Majority Leader McCarthy said that he thought candidate Trump was on the Kremlin’s payroll. Speaker Ryan was concerned about that leaking.” McMullin ran for president last year as an independent and has been a vocal critic of Trump. When initially asked to comment on the exchange, Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Ryan, said: “That never happened,” and Matt Sparks, a spokesman for McCarthy, said: “The idea that McCarthy would assert this is absurd and false.” After being told that The Post would cite a recording of the exchange, Buck, speaking for the GOP House leadership, said: “This entire year-old exchange was clearly an attempt at humor. No one believed the majority leader was seriously asserting that Donald Trump or any of our members were being paid by the Russians. What’s more, the speaker and leadership team have repeatedly spoken out against Russia’s interference in our election, and the House continues to investigate that activity.” “This was a failed attempt at humor,” Sparks said. Ken Grubbs, a spokesman for Rohrabacher, said the congressman has been a consistent advocate of “working closer with the Russians to combat radical Islamism. The congressman doesn’t need to be paid to come to such a necessary conclusion.” When McCarthy voiced his assessment of whom Putin supports, suspicions were only beginning to swirl around Trump’s alleged Russia ties. At the time, U.S. intelligence agencies knew that the Russians had hacked the DNC and other institutions, but Moscow had yet to start publicly releasing damaging emails through WikiLeaks to undermine Trump’s Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton. An FBI counterintelligence investigation into Russian efforts to influence the presidential election would open the following month, in late July, Comey has said in testimony to Congress. Trump has sought to play down contacts between his campaign and the Russians, dismissing as a “witch hunt” the FBI and congressional investigations into Russian efforts to aid Trump and any possible coordination between the Kremlin and his associates. Trump denies any coordination with Moscow took place. Presidential candidate Trump’s embrace of Putin and calls for closer cooperation with Moscow put him at odds with the House Republican caucus, whose members have long advocated a harder line on Russia, with the exception of Rohrabacher and a few others. Among GOP leaders in the House, McCarthy stood out as a Putin critic who in 2015 called for the imposition of “more severe” sanctions for its actions in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. In May 2016, McCarthy signed up to serve as a Trump delegate at the Republican National Convention, breaking ranks with Ryan, who said he still was not ready to endorse the candidate. McCarthy’s relationship with Trump became so close that the president would sometimes refer to him as “my Kevin.” Trump was by then the lone Republican remaining in the contest for the nomination. Though Ryan continued to hold out, Trump picked up endorsements from the remaining GOP leaders in the House, including Rep. Steve Scalise, the majority whip from Louisiana, and Republican Conference Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) — both of whom took part in the June 15 conversation. Ryan announced on June 2 that he would vote for Trump to help “unite the party so we can win in the fall” but continued to clash with the candidate, including over Putin. While Trump sought to cast Putin as a better leader than then-President Obama, Ryan dubbed him an “aggressor” who didn’t share U.S. interests. On the same day as Ryan’s endorsement, Clinton stepped up her attacks on Trump over his public statements praising Putin. “If Donald gets his way, they’ll be celebrating in the Kremlin,” she said. Ukrainian officials were unnerved by Trump’s statements in support of Putin. Republicans, they had believed, were supposed to be tougher on Russia. When Trump named Paul Manafort as his campaign manager in April 2016, alarm bells in Kiev started ringing even louder. Manafort was already well known in Ukraine because of his influential role as a political consultant to Viktor Yanukovych, the country’s former Kremlin-friendly ruler until a popular uprising forced him to flee to Russia. Manafort had also consulted for a powerful Russian businessman with close ties to the Kremlin. “Ukraine was, in a sense, a testing ground for Manafort,” said Ukrainian political scientist Taras Berezovets, who became a grudging admirer of Manafort’s skills in the “dark arts” of political stagecraft while Berezovets was working for one of Yanukovych’s political rivals. At the urging of Manafort, Yanukovych campaigned with populist slogans labeling NATO a “menace” and casting “elites” in the Ukrainian capital as out of touch, Berezovets said. Trump struck similar themes during the 2016 campaign. The FBI is now investigating whether Manafort, who stepped down as Trump’s campaign manager in August, received off-the-books payments from Yanukovych’s party, U.S. officials said. As part of that investigation, FBI agents recently took possession of a newly discovered document that allegedly details payments totaling $750,000. Ukrainian lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko, who first disclosed the new document, declined to comment on his contacts with the FBI. A spokesman for Manafort has said that Trump’s former campaign manager has not been contacted by the FBI. Manafort has also disputed the authenticity of the newly discovered document. Groysman, on an official visit to Washington, met separately with Ryan and McCarthy on June 15 at the Capitol. He told them how the Russians meddled in European politics and called for “unity” in addressing the threat, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials. Ryan issued a statement after the meeting saying, “the United States stands with Ukraine as it works to rebuild its economy and confront Russian aggression.” Later, Ryan spoke privately with McCarthy, Rodgers, Scalise and Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), the deputy whip, among others. 1 of 41 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × As Paul Ryan opts out of reelection bid, we revisit his career in photos View Photos A look at the Wisconsin Republican’s life and career in politics. Caption A look at the Wisconsin Republican’s life and career in politics. Feb. 2, 2016 House Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin speaks in Washington. J. Scott Applewhite/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. Ryan mentioned his meeting with Groysman, prompting Rodgers to ask: “How are things going in Ukraine?” according to the recording. The situation was difficult, Ryan said. Groysman, he said, had told him that Russian-backed forces were firing 30 to 40 artillery shells into Ukrainian territory every day. And the prime minister described Russian tactics that include “financing our populists, financing people in our governments to undo our governments.” Ryan said Russia’s goal was to “turn Ukraine against itself.” Groysman underlined Russia’s intentions, saying, “They’re just going to roll right through us and go to the Baltics and everyone else,” according to Ryan’s summary of the prime minister’s remarks in the recording. “Yes,” Rodgers said in agreement, noting that the Russians were funding nongovernmental organizations across Europe as part of a wider “propaganda war.” “Maniacal,” Ryan said. “And guess, guess who’s the only one taking a strong stand up against it? We are.” Rodgers disagreed. “We’re not . . . we’re not . . . but, we’re not,” she said. That’s when McCarthy brought the conversation about Russian meddling around to the DNC hack, Trump and Rohrabacher. “I’ll guarantee you that’s what it is. . . . The Russians hacked the DNC and got the opp [opposition] research that they had on Trump,” McCarthy said with a laugh. Ryan asked who the Russians “delivered” the opposition research to. “There’s . . . there’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy said, drawing some laughter. “Swear to God,” McCarthy added. “This is an off the record,” Ryan said. Some lawmakers laughed at that. “No leaks, all right?,” Ryan said, adding: “This is how we know we’re a real family here.” “That’s how you know that we’re tight,” Scalise said. “What’s said in the family stays in the family,” Ryan added. Andrew Roth in Moscow, Michael Birnbaum in Brussels and Robert Costa in Washington contributed to this report. Read more: Political chaos in Washington is a return on investment for Moscow White House offers shifting explanations of Trump’s disclosures to Russians Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador ||||| Alex Wong/Getty Images Kevin McCarthy Alex Wong/Getty Images Kevin McCarthy (CNN) - House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy says his assertion last year that Russian President Vladimir Putin was paying President Donald Trump was merely a bad attempt at humor. "It was a bad attempt at a joke," McCarthy told reporters leaving the House floor Wednesday, minutes after The Washington Post reported his comments from a private Capitol Hill conversation during the 2016 campaign. "That's all there is to it," McCarthy added. "No one believes it to be true." The Post reported McCarthy said in a conversation with fellow Republican leaders: "There's two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump," according to a recording of the June 2016 exchange. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a California Republican who is a staunch defender of Putin. Lawmakers laughed at McCarthy's comment, the Post reported, and then he added, "swear to God." McCarthy and Ryan's aides initially denied the story, which McCarthy said was because "no one even remembers it transpiring." "You don't have a sense of humor anymore? People aren't supposed to be able to laugh?" McCarthy said Wednesday when asked why he'd joke about that. "There's a reason why I'm not a comedian." The Post story was posted almost simultaneously with the news that the Department of Justice was appointing former FBI Director Robert Mueller was named as special counsel to oversee the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. ||||| Last year, after a meeting with the Ukranian prime minister, the #2 Republican in the House turned to Paul Ryan and said, “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” That’s from Rep. Kevin McCarthy, and it’s apparently what he thought back in June after Trump had won the Republican nomination. Ryan quickly shushed him, but the Washington Post found out about it today: When initially asked to comment on the exchange, Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Ryan, said: “That never happened,” and Matt Sparks, a spokesman for McCarthy, said: “The idea that McCarthy would assert this is absurd and false.” After being told that The Post would cite a recording of the exchange, Buck, speaking for the GOP House leadership, said: “This entire year-old exchange was clearly an attempt at humor. No one believed the majority leader was seriously asserting that Donald Trump or any of our members were being paid by the Russians. What’s more, the speaker and leadership team have repeatedly spoken out against Russia’s interference in our election, and the House continues to investigate that activity.” Good on Adam Entous of the Post for getting a response from both men before they knew he had a recording. It’s good for the public to understand how shamelessly and effortlessly they’ll flatly lie about anything they think they can get away with. Anyway, the current explanation is that this was all just a big joke.1 That’s also the latest excuse making the rounds for Trump asking James Comey to kill the Russia investigation.2 There sure are a lot of jokers in the Republican Party these days. UPDATE: The transcript is here. McCarthy says, “There’s…there’s two people, I think, Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump…[laughter]…swear to God.” Then there’s more laughter. So yeah, it sounds like it was just a joke, though probably in a “funny cuz it’s true” sort of sense. 1Actually, I can buy this. McCarthy’s comment really does sound like dark humor. Still, even if he didn’t mean it literally, it shows just what he thought about Trump and the Russians. In humor, veritas. 2This is pretty ridiculous in the case of Trump, since as near as I can tell he has no sense of humor and never laughs about anything. That’s probably because he’s too busy obsessing about how badly everyone treats him. ||||| In a week of significant bombshells dropping every evening, this one is a dud. The Washington Post has obtained a recording of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy telling colleagues last year that he believed Donald Trump -- by then the presumptive GOP presidential nominee -- was on the payroll of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Post calls it an "explosive assertion," but is that a remotely fair characterization? Color me highly skeptical. Buried deep in the story is a transcript of the exchange, which reads very much like joking banter, replete with multiple references to laughter: Three mentions of laughter in a very short passage. So maybe not a super-serious "bombshell" allegation? pic.twitter.com/29uLpdn7Xh — Guy Benson (@guypbenson) May 17, 2017 Liberals who pounced on this story seem especially invested in two details: First, that a spokesman for Paul Ryan "lied" by denying that the conversation had ever taken place, only reversing course after he was told there was a recording of it. And second, that Ryan urged his colleagues not to leak that nugget after the laughter subsided. Obvious explanations for both immediately spring to mind. For instance, perhaps a Congressional aide might forget about a fleeting chuckle-fest, and would instinctively deny that the House Majority Leader had seriously alleged that Trump is a Russian agent. Ding, ding, ding: Goodness, I don’t lie. Period. What was presented to me originally was far different than what they ultimately presented: an obvious joke. — Brendan Buck (@BrendanBuck) May 17, 2017 Gee, and why might Paul Ryan have admonished members that the joke had been made in an off-the-record setting (drawing additional laughter)? Perhaps because he knew that the GOP was already going to struggle to heal over Trump's nomination, and that an out-of-context leak about a Republican leader "attacking" Trump could be blown out of proportion by an unserious and hysterical media. It would seem as though the Speaker's concerns were justified, wouldn't it? Here's NBC News grilling McCarthy, who seems bemused and incredulous that this is even a real thing: Kevin McCarthy to NBC News on @washingtonpost story: “Don't you have a sense of humor anymore? People aren't supposed to be able to laugh?” pic.twitter.com/ff7606Qtal — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 17, 2017 The transcript mentions multiple rounds of laughter as the back-and-forth unfolds. The Post's reporters say they listened to and verified the tape, so I'll leave you with a crazy idea: How about releasing it to the public so we can judge the tone and context for ourselves, rather than being breathlessly informed about "explosive assertions"? C'mon. There's lots of real news this week, guys. Cover it. That whole "Putin pays Trump" thing. Obviously a joke. Media needs to get a grip. pic.twitter.com/I6ElWqvrQi — ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) May 18, 2017 - As I was saying...

– The Washington Post has another front-pager on President Trump in regard to Russia: It dug up a recording from June 2016, a month before Trump clinched the nomination, in which House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy tells a few fellow House members he thinks Trump is on Vladimir Putin's payroll. McCarthy, however, now says it was a bad joke. The Post hasn't made the recording available, but it has a transcript in which McCarthy is quoted as saying, “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” referring to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican. The comment is met by laughter, and McCarthy adds, "Swear to God." At that point, House speaker Paul Ryan interjects and asks that nobody leak the conversation. "This is how we know we’re a real family here.” Spokesmen for McCarthy and Ryan initially denied the exchange, then said it was clearly a joke when told there was a recording. The Post story acknowledges "it is difficult to tell from the recording the extent to which the remarks were meant to be taken literally," and McCarthy himself tells NBC News: "It was a bad attempt at a joke. That's all there is to it." Another bombshell? Not everybody thinks so: From the left: Kevin Drum at Mother Jones writes that he can buy the explanation of it being a joke. "McCarthy's comment really does sound like dark humor. Still, even if he didn't mean it literally, it shows just what he thought about Trump and the Russians. In humor, veritas." From the right: In a week of scoops, this is a "dud," writes Guy Benson at Townhall. For one thing, he thinks the Post should release the recording so people can judge tone for themselves because it reads like a "fleeting chuckle-fest" among lawmakers. As for Ryan's no-leak request, it makes sense he wouldn't want an out-of-context joke making headlines just as Trump's dicey relations with GOP leaders (including himself) were starting to heal.

AP Photo Boehner: I might sue Obama over Iran deal Speaker John Boehner said Thursday he might sue President Barack Obama again. The Ohio Republican said Obama has not turned over the entirety of the Iran agreement for congressional review as mandated by law. Boehner said legal action is “an option that’s very possible.” Story Continued Below “If you read the provisions in [the congressional review law], it’s pretty clear that the president has not complied,” Boehner said Thursday during his weekly news conference. “Because it makes clear that any side agreements and any other type of an agreement — including those that do not directly involve us — must be turned over as part of it. I do not believe that he’s complied.” The speaker said the agreement is "worse than anything I could’ve ever imagined." House Republicans have a pending lawsuit against Obamacare, which a judge ruled this week can proceed. Congress lacks the votes to stop the Iran agreement, but a lawsuit is one way for Boehner to prolong the fight over the nuclear accord. The House will vote Thursday and Friday on several pieces of legislation related to the pact, including an up-or-down vote on approving the deal, and another to rebuke Obama for not submitting so-called side deals between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran. The agreement will be in place by Sept. 17. Boehner also said the House might vote on disapproving the agreement, a move that would bring it in line with the Senate, which is set to vote Thursday on whether to proceed on a measure to disapprove of the pact. ||||| WASHINGTON -- House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday that all options are on the table in the fight to stop the Iran nuclear deal from moving forward, including suing the president. Boehner said a lawsuit against President Barack Obama over the deal is "an option that is very possible.” Just hours after returning from summer recess, Boehner found himself in the middle of a revolt mounted by conservative members of his caucus who want to delay a vote on a resolution of disapproval on the Iran deal, insisting the administration broke the law. After an afternoon meeting on Wednesday, Republicans emerged with a new strategy on how to handle votes on the deal, deciding to hold three instead of one. The first vote, which is expected Thursday, will be on a resolution stating Obama did not submit all the documents related to the Iran deal and therefore the 60-day congressional review period has yet to start. A possible lawsuit would be based on that premise. House Republicans argue the administration did not send over all of the documents, specifically ones from the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, on the deal, which aims to curb Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The documents in question are two confidential agreements between Iran and the IAEA relating to the agency's investigation into whether Iran pursued nuclear weapons development activity in the past. These agreements were reached at the same time as the broader agreement between Iran, the U.S. and five world powers, but are separate from the main nuclear accord. Because of confidentiality protocols, the IAEA will not share the text of these two agreements with other states, including the U.S. "Clearly, our members do not believe the president has complied with the law," Boehner said. At this point, the legislative debate over the accord is essentially symbolic. Supporters of the deal and the administration have started their victory lap, knowing the fate of the pact is assured with 42 senators backing it the upper chamber. ||||| The House on Friday rejected a resolution to approve the Iran nuclear deal, with the vote underscoring how controversial the accord has been with President Obama’s own party. While most Democrats voted to approve the nuclear bargain, 25 voted against it, creating a wedge that Republicans hope to use to their advantage in the 2016 elections. Every Republican voted against the resolution, with the exception of libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who voted "present." The tally was 162-269. ADVERTISEMENT While the failure of the resolution will not prevent the nuclear pact from taking effect, the vote serves as a rebuke of Obama, who has staked his foreign policy legacy on defusing the Iranian threat through diplomacy. Friday’s vote fell on the anniversary as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, something Republicans were quick to highlight on the House floor as they accused Democrats of backing a “bad deal” that will jeopardize national security and Israel. "Do not sacrifice the safety, the security and the stability of 300 million Americans for the legacy of one man," implored Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) as he stood next to a poster of the Twin Towers burning on Sept. 11, 2001. After the resolution of approval failed, the House passed legislation 247-186 that would prevent Obama from lifting sanctions against Iran. That measure would expire on his successor’s first full day in office in January 2017. The day before the House votes, Senate Democrats blocked a resolution disapproving the Iran deal, leaving Republicans without a clear path forward for stopping the deal. Senate Republicans have vowed to hold more votes on Iran next week. The Democrats in the House who opposed the Iran deal were a mix of lawmakers with different backgrounds and political situations. Some of them represent Jewish constituencies, face tough reelection races next year or identify as centrists. The 25 Democrats who voted against approving the Iran deal were Reps. Brad Ashford (Neb.), Brendan Boyle (Pa.), Tony Cardenas (Calif.), Ted Deutch (Fla.), Eliot Engel (N.Y.), Lois Frankel Lois Jane FrankelOcasio-Cortez storms Washington, winning headlines but rankling some colleagues Pelosi allies rage over tactics of opponents Pelosi allies push back on proposed Speaker nominee rule change MORE (Fla.), Gwen Graham (Fla.), Gene Green Raymond (Gene) Eugene GreenTexas New Members 2019 Two Democrats become first Texas Latinas to serve in Congress Latina Leaders to Watch 2018 MORE (Texas), Alcee Hastings (Fla.), Steve Israel (N.Y.), Ted Lieu (Calif.), Dan Lipinski (Ill.), Nita Lowey (N.Y.), Carolyn Maloney (N.Y.), Grace Meng (N.Y.), Grace Napolitano (Calif.), Donald Norcross (N.J.), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Kathleen Rice (N.Y.), David Scott (Ga.), Brad Sherman (Calif.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), Albio Sires (N.J.), Juan Vargas (Calif.) and Filemon Vela (Texas). But despite the defections, enough Democrats voted to support the deal to deprive the GOP of a veto-proof majority. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) worked closely with the White House to whip Democrats who were on the fence. Passage of a resolution against the nuclear deal would prevent Obama from lifting economic sanctions on Iran, which is a crucial part of the agreement. Pelosi's efforts ultimately won out over intense lobbying from groups opposed to the deal, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Republicans have been unanimously opposed to the Iran deal from the beginning. But House GOP leaders had to change course on their original plan of voting on a resolution of disapproval against the deal after an intraparty revolt. Conservatives rallied around a proposal from Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) stipulating that the House would not vote on the Iran deal until the Obama administration provides Congress with the text of side deals between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Obama administration says it does not have any copy of deals between Iran and the IAEA. The agency routinely keeps agreements about nuclear inspections confidential, which the administration says is crucial for completing its mission. But with Democrats entrenched behind Obama’s accord, Republicans sought to highlight the existence of the side deals to hammer the administration. “The president ought to release to the American people the details of these secret side agreements right now or withdraw this entire proposal,” said House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.). The House passed a resolution Thursday arguing that Obama didn’t provide Congress with all documents pertaining to the Iran deal in violation of the congressional review law passed earlier this year. Under the congressional review law, Congress has 60 days to review and vote on the Iran deal before Obama can begin lifting sanctions against Iran. In return for the sanctions relief, Iran has agreed to scale back its nuclear program and let international inspectors in for the first time. House and Senate GOP leaders have stated since July — when the deal was first announced — that the 60-day review period would close on Sept. 17. But House GOP leaders are now siding with conservatives who argue the review period never really started since Congress didn’t receive all of the documents. Speaker John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerMomentum for earmarks grows with Dem majority Cannabis company says CBS refused to run its Super Bowl ad advocating for medical marijuana Breaking the impasse on shutdown, border security MORE (R-Ohio) indicated at a Thursday news conference that litigation against President Obama over the side deals is “very possible.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellOn The Money: Trump agrees to end shutdown without wall funding | Senate quickly clears short-term funding measure | House to vote tonight | Federal workers could get back pay within days | Dems take victory lap Shutdown ends without funding for Trump’s border wall Senate expected to pass bill to end shutdown on Friday MORE (R-Ky.) has scheduled another vote on the Iran deal disapproval resolution when the chamber returns next week. The outcome, however, is unlikely to change, with 42 Democrats preventing a resolution from passing. The White House, meanwhile, mocked the vote held on Friday by House Republicans. “Like many decisions that are made on Tuesday night at Tortilla Coast, they seem like a great idea after a couple of margaritas,” spokesman Josh Earnest said, referring to a Capitol Hill restaurant popular with conservatives. “But when faced with the scrutiny of the light of day, they don’t seem quite as realistic.” Earnest expressed confidence a lawsuit would not block the U.S. from implementing the agreement. “We obviously feel quite confident in our ability to move forward with the rest of the international community to implement this agreement.” - This story was last updated at 1:42 p.m.

– With Republicans running out of ways to stop the looming Iran nuclear deal from becoming a reality, John Boehner is entertaining the idea of suing President Obama. The House speaker, who described the deal as "worse than anything I could've ever imagined," said yesterday a lawsuit is "an option that’s very possible," Politico reports. At issue is Republicans' complaint that Obama didn't hand over every document relating to the deal for them to review, specifically leaving out agreements between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran, according to the Huffington Post. But, the Hill reports the administration claims it doesn't even have those documents because the agency keeps them confidential. Regardless, the House passed a resolution yesterday stating Obama didn't give it every necessary document related to the Iran deal, which would see the country scale back its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. The House passed another resolution rejecting the deal today and has more votes scheduled for next week. However, these votes are all "essentially symbolic," as the Iran deal has the support of 42 Democrats in the Senate, according to HuffPo. The Hill reports that leaves Republicans with no clear way to stop the Iran deal. But Boehner isn't giving in yet. "This debate is far from over," the House speaker said yesterday. "It is just beginning."

KCBS-TV Channel 2 reporter Serene Branson smiled uneasily. She was back in the newsroom Thursday for the first time since becoming an instant — and reluctant — media sensation after she had infamously garbled her words during a live report at the Grammy Awards But the 31-year-old journalist wasn't going back to work just yet. Instead she was back to be interviewed by her anchor, Pat Harvey, and to finally view the 17-second clip that triggered ridicule, concern and speculation that she'd suffered an on-air stroke or worse. She had deliberately avoided the clip, fearing it would only aggravate her stress as doctors raced to determine the medical cause behind the misfire.Eyeing a monitor in the newsroom, Branson quietly observed the report in which she began speaking incoherently. She felt a chill as she watched herself trying so hard to be professional but realizing that something was horribly wrong."One thing I've learned when working as a journalist is that when people are uncomfortable or unhappy, they react differently to what they're truly feeling," she said. "That was me feeling a little uncomfortable at what happened to me. I consider myself a perfectionist. And there I was, frustrated and terrified because the words I wanted to come out were not coming out."Branson's chill seemed to pass quickly — aided by warm embraces from her colleagues — after she learned from doctors that her condition had been caused by a "migraine with aura." Dr. Neil Martin, chief of neurosurgery at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center , said the symptoms resemble those of a stroke and can include weakness, loss of vision, difficulty speaking and headache."I'm fine, wonderful," Branson said. "I'm feeling like my old self. I want to turn this into a positive, to let people know I'm OK, and that there is treatment for conditions like this. My doctor believes this was an isolated incident.""My mother has had them," she added. "And I'm really eager and anxious to get back to work and concentrate on reporting on stories, not being the story."That story began around 9 p.m. Sunday. Branson remembered how hard she had worked filing live reports from the Grammys show from Staples Center . A few hours later, she noticed something was amiss."My eyes were tired," she said. "I started to feel nauseous and dizzy." Though she wasn't in pain, she recalled that her "head was pounding. I was very uncomfortable."As she started her report, she knew something was wrong. "As soon as I opened my mouth," she said, "I was like watching myself in a movie. I knew what I wanted to say, but I couldn't say it."When the report ended, field producer Kerry Maller and others converged on her. "I felt like I was going to collapse," Branson said. "I was terrified. My right cheek went numb, then my right hand."Paramedics arrived. "They checked my vital signs and I began to regain my speech," said Branson, who remembered feeling better by this time. "They kept asking me if I wanted to go to the hospital, and I just kept saying, 'I want to go home.' I was in a cocktail dress in the back of an ambulance, and all I wanted to do was go home. I was cold and exhausted."Finally, the paramedics released her and a friend drove her home. "I was so out of it that I went right to sleep," she said.A call from her mother woke her up the next morning. Her mother persuaded her to go to the hospital.By then, friends warned her that her story had exploded on the Internet. At the time, Branson simply hoped that it wouldn't end up on YouTube . "I'm a self-professed news junkie, but I avoided the news Monday and Tuesday," she said. "I just thought the stress would make it worse."Now, with a positive diagnosis, Branson said she wants to help others who might have the same condition. But she also knows she now must deal with her instant celebrity.After talking to Harvey for Thursday's late-night newscast, Branson was scheduled to appear Friday on CBS' "The Early Show" and later on "The Talk." Meanwhile, "Entertainment Tonight" and other media outlets have been clamoring for interviews."This is so surreal," she said. "It is all a bit overwhelming. I'm always used to pursuing stories. I'm really not used to being pursued."Steve Mauldin, president and general manager of KCBS and its sister station KCAL, said Thursday: "From top to bottom, our No. 1 concern was Serene's well-being. She's family and a consummate professional. Now she has a greater sense of confidence and knows what she's dealing with. We look forward to her returning, and we're glad she made it through in such a positive way."Branson's goal is to return to her job as a general assignment reporter."This will all blow over," she said. "I'm looking forward to covering the Oscars ." ||||| Sponsored Links Maybe it wasn't a stroke after all.The Los Angeles Times reports that Serene Branson's doctor, a neurosurgeon at UCLA, says the television reporter suffered a "complex migraine" that caused her to garble her speech as she delivered a report from the Grammy Awards on Sunday.The medical community had been at pains to explain what happened to the reporter, with some doctors suggesting that Branson might have suffered an on-air stroke. Video of Branson's report went viral in the hours after it ran.Surge Desk dug a little deeper on the phenomenon commonly known as complex migraines and learned the following.In fact, the complex migraine, also known as a complicated migraine, has many symptoms that are similar to stroke , such as slurred words, paralysis of the eye muscles and loss of vision.A paper published in Harvard Health Publications reports that the term "complex migraine" has fallen out of favor, because the treatments for, and causes of, migraines are the same regardless of symptoms.The Mayo Clinic states that the causes of migraines are not generally understood, but a variety of factors can trigger them, including changes in hormone levels and blood chemistry, alterations of sleeping patterns and stress.There are a variety of treatments. WebMD suggests using analgesics, such as over-the-counter pain medications, to handle pain after onset of the headache, and a wide variety of possible preventive medications, including anti-depressants, anti-seizure medicines and high blood pressure treatments.The migraine can be avoided by being aware of typical triggers. The National Institutes of Health recommends keeping a food diary to trace whether a change in your diet might prevent migraines.

– It wasn’t a stroke that caused Serene Branson’s unintelligible reporting on Grammy night—it was a migraine. Specifically, a complex migraine known as a “migraine with aura,” whose symptoms can mimic stroke symptoms, her doctor tells the Los Angeles Times. But the CBS reporter, who viewed the now infamous clip of herself for the first time yesterday, says she’s now “fine, wonderful,” though her instant (and reluctant) celebrity has been “a bit overwhelming.” In her first interview since the incident, back on her own station, Branson says she got a headache while working and felt “nauseous and dizzy.” She was “frustrated and terrified” during the report: “I was like watching myself in a movie. I knew what I wanted to say, but I couldn’t say it.” Afterward, "I felt like I was going to collapse. My right cheek went numb, then my right hand." But her doctor thinks it was an isolated incident, and she is looking forward to getting back to work and “reporting on the stories, not being the story,” she says. “This will all blow over. I’m looking forward to covering the Oscars.” Click for more on complex migraines.

In this photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense group known as the White Helmets, Syrians inspect damaged buildings after airstrikes by government helicopters on the rebel-held Aleppo neighborhood... (Associated Press) In this photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense group known as the White Helmets, Syrians inspect damaged buildings after airstrikes by government helicopters on the rebel-held Aleppo neighborhood of Mashhad, Syria, Tuesday Sept. 27, 2016. With diplomacy in tatters and a month left to go before U.S.... (Associated Press) In this photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense group known as the White Helmets, Syrians inspect damaged buildings after airstrikes by government helicopters on the rebel-held Aleppo neighborhood of Mashhad, Syria, Tuesday Sept. 27, 2016. With diplomacy in tatters and a month left to go before U.S.... (Associated Press) In this photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense group known as the White Helmets, Syrians inspect damaged buildings after airstrikes by government helicopters on the rebel-held Aleppo neighborhood... (Associated Press) BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the civil war in Syria (all times local): 6:45 p.m. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon says the situation in rebel-held parts of Aleppo is worse than a "slaughterhouse" and implicitly accuses Syria and Russia of committing war crimes. He spoke to a U.N. Security Council meeting Wednesday on health care in armed conflict as two more hospitals were struck in the city's besieged east. Without naming countries, Ban said "those using ever more destructive weapons know exactly what they are doing — they know they are committing war crimes." The Syrian government announced the offensive to retake rebel-held eastern Aleppo, and the only countries carrying out airstrikes are Syria and Russia. Ban said "hospitals, clinics, ambulances and medical staff in Aleppo are under attack around the clock." He said there must be "action," and "accountability," saying "international law is clear. Medical workers, facilities and transport must be protected. The wounded and sick, civilians and fighters alike, must be spared. Deliberate attacks on hospitals are war crimes." ___ 6:15 p.m. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is threatening to cut off all contacts with Moscow over Syria, unless Russian and Syrian government attacks on Aleppo end. The State Department says Kerry issued the ultimatum in a Wednesday telephone call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Kerry's spokesman, John Kirby, says Kerry expressed grave concern over Russian and Syrian government attacks on hospitals, water supplies and other civilian infrastructure in Aleppo. He says Kerry told Lavrov that the U.S. holds Russia responsible for the use of incendiary and bunker-buster bombs in an urban area. Kerry told Lavrov the U.S. was preparing to "suspend U.S.-Russia bilateral engagement on Syria," including on a proposed counterterrorism partnership, "unless Russia takes immediate steps to end the assault on Aleppo" and restore a cease-fire. ___ 3:45 p.m. An international relief NGO says bombardment is the leading cause of forced displacement in Syria. In a study published Wednesday, France-based Handicap International called the widespread use of shelling, rocket fire, and bombardment the "overriding factor" behind the tidal wave of displacement that has characterized the Syrian war. The report cited interviews with refugees and patterns of bombardment and fatalities. The U.N. says the 5 ½-year war has driven some 11 million Syrians from their homes. Handicap International says many are fleeing the fear of injury and death, destruction to their homes and businesses, and infrastructure collapse. It attributes over 60 percent of the civilian fatalities in Syria to explosive weapons. ___ 11:45 a.m. Pope Francis has decried the assault on the Syrian city of Aleppo, saying those responsible for the bombing must answer to God. Francis said at his public audience Wednesday in St. Peter's Square that he's "united in suffering through prayer and spiritual closeness" to Aleppo's people. He expressed "deep pain and strong worry for what's happening," saying "children and elderly ... everyone is dying." He called for utmost efforts to protect civilians in Syria's civil war, raging since 2011. Francis said: "I appeal to the consciences of those responsible for the bombing that they must give a reckoning to God" for their actions. The Syrian government and its Russian allies have unleashed a major assault on the ancient city. ___ 11:30 a.m. Medical officials say airstrikes have severely damaged two hospitals in eastern rebel-held Aleppo, leading to the death of two seriously ill patients. The airstrikes early Wednesday hit the M2 and M10 hospitals, knocking out generators and cutting off water supplies, putting them temporarily out of service. Mohammed Abu Rajab, head of M10 hospital, the largest of eight hospitals in eastern Aleppo, says two patients died because they could not be kept alive. He says the intensive care unit was severely damaged. Adham Sahloul, of the Syrian American Medical Society, based in Gaziantep, Turkey, confirmed the strikes and described them as deliberate. He says government forces know the location of both facilities. The closures leave eastern Aleppo with six functioning hospitals, only three of which are capable of dealing with emergencies

– Secretary of State John Kerry is threatening to cut off all contact with Moscow over Syria, unless Russian and Syrian government attacks on Aleppo end, the AP reports. The State Department says Kerry issued the ultimatum in a Wednesday telephone call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Kerry's spokesperson, John Kirby, says Kerry expressed grave concern over Russian and Syrian government attacks on hospitals, water supplies, and other civilian infrastructure in Aleppo. He says Kerry told Lavrov the US holds Russia responsible for the use of incendiary and bunker-buster bombs in an urban area. Kerry told Lavrov the US was preparing to "suspend US-Russia bilateral engagement on Syria," including on a proposed counterterrorism partnership, "unless Russia takes immediate steps to end the assault on Aleppo" and restore a ceasefire. UN chief Ban Ki-moon says the situation in rebel-held parts of Aleppo is worse than a "slaughterhouse" and implicitly accuses Syria and Russia of committing war crimes, the AP reports. Without naming countries, Ban said Wednesday that "those using ever more destructive weapons know exactly what they are doing—they know they are committing war crimes." The Syrian government announced the offensive to retake rebel-held eastern Aleppo, and the only countries carrying out airstrikes are Syria and Russia. Ban said "hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and medical staff in Aleppo are under attack around the clock." "International law is clear," he said. "Medical workers, facilities and transport must be protected. The wounded and sick, civilians and fighters alike, must be spared. Deliberate attacks on hospitals are war crimes."

Representative Joe Wilson, the South Carolina Republican who gained a measure of infamy after shouting “you lie” at President Barack Obama during a joint session of Congress in 2009, had that memorable catchphrase hurled back at him by a group of his constituents at a town hall event on Monday. The audience at the event, held at Aiken Technical College in Graniteville, S.C., near the state’s western border, was antagonistic from the start, booing audibly as he stepped to the lectern. But the conflict between Mr. Wilson and the crowd came to a head toward the end of the 40-minute question-and-answer period, when he responded to a question about Mr. Obama’s health care law. After he said the law was delaying and denying health services to its intended recipients, the rest of his comments were drowned out, as the crowd began to chant “you lie” in unison. The cheer continued for about 20 seconds. A video of the event was posted on Facebook Live. ||||| Charleston, SC (29403) Today Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Low 53F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Low 53F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch. ||||| News 12 NBC 26 News At 11 | Monday, April 10, 2017 AIKEN COUNTY, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) -- A South Carolina Congressman got an earful Monday night from the people he serves across the region. Republican Joe Wilson held a town hall meeting with folks at Aiken Technical College Monday where the Republicans' plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act drew some cheers and plenty of boos and criticism. While he stopped to talk before and after the meeting, there were some not in favor of what he had to say. Boos and chants fill the gym while cell phone videos roll at Congressman Joe Wilson's town hall meeting at Aiken Tech. The State's Second Congressional Representative spoke about several issues and topics throughout the evening, but his stand on healthcare drew the most jeers from the crowd of over 100. Among them is William Leaphart, who lives in Lexington but has family ties to the area. He says he arrived at the town hall with hopes of talking with his representative, but ended up leaving with more questions than answers. "He was pretty evasive on a whole bunch of issues, especially with healthcare," Leaphart says. "He just gave a whole bunch of different talking points but nothing really new about solutions for people in the second Congressional District." Leaphart and many others say the biggest talking point of the night also has the biggest impact. "I think people are so concerned about healthcare," Leaphart says, "just because the government tried to take it away and I think a lot of people don't really know what they have or what they're going to miss until it's about to be taken away. And we see that they tried to do it and it really didn't work, so I think that struck a nerve with a whole bunch of people." Boos were loud and long, even as the Republican tried to provide more context to his answers about climate change, illegal immigration, cyber-security and the War in Syria. Wilson did draw support folks like Brandon Knight during the meeting and says folks who kept their boos going through his answers are hard to reason with on any issue. "I believe a lot of the people who was here tonight wasn't here to listen to Congressman Wilson. They was here to cause a disturbance, chaos, disrupt the meeting," Knight says. "They weren't here to actually listen to solutions, what he had to say. I just believe they had their own agenda." The crowd cheered after several of the Congressman's answers. Among them included denying man-made resources are adding to global warming, being against Planned Parenthood and his endorsement of the clean coal industry, potential open-carry gun laws and the Keystone Pipeline. He did draw cheers from the crowd after saying he's against gerrymandering while also being in support of alternative resources like nuclear energy, more support for America’s veterans and allowing all legal immigrants to come to America. But he drew more boos after saying anyone staying here illegally should be deported back to their country. Knight, from North Augusta, says the healthcare was also his biggest concern coming into the meeting and says he's all for a new plan that will save him and his family more money. "The Affordable Care Act hasn't been very affordable to me because my premiums have gone up, the care's gone down," Knight says. "I've got friends and family in the same situation, so it's obviously not working for the working middle class." Congressman Wilson says he, President Trump and other House Republicans are still fighting for change even after the new American Health Care Act recently failed to get a vote. He says while others around the country are still in favor, he says there's a better plan out there. "My concern about Obamacare is that we have already seen skyrocketing premiums, we have seen deductibles become unapproachable to work with," Congressman Wilson says. "People have lost their doctors, they have lost insurance, they have lost their jobs. We can do better." The South Carolina congressman says the new plan focuses on taking big government out of the picture. He says he's been working with former Georgia 6th Congressional District Representative and current U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price in leading a physician’s study group into what plan would be best for the country. "By having the ability of buying insurance across state lines, association health plans and by increasing the ability of health savings accounts, we would provide choice that Obamacare simply has not presented," the Congressman says. "And it wouldn't impact employment, it would give them more choice as well." At one point, the crowd used Wilson's own words against him, the same words he used against President Obama during his State of the Union address. “You lie, you lie,” the crowd chanted after addressing his stance on healthcare. While he and other Republicans work for change, it may be a tough sell here at home. The Congressman spent an hour addressing questions written by audience members before the meeting, but did not take any questions asked by members during the meeting itself. He also spent time talking about his support for newly-nominated Supreme Court Justice Neil Gursuch, as well as endorsing President Trump's recent decision to send airstrikes against Syria in response to last week's chemical attacks.

– Rep. Joe Wilson, the congressman notorious for yelling "You lie" at former President Obama as he addressed Congress in 2009, had his words used against him by constituents in his South Carolina district Monday. Wilson, the latest Republican to face a hostile reception at a town-hall meeting, drew boos and chants of "You lie" as well as cheers when he spoke about plans to repeal and replace ObamaCare, WRDW reports. He was also booed after saying anybody in the US illegally should be deported, though the crowd at Aiken Technical College reacted more positively when he said he is against Planned Parenthood and does not believe human activity is contributing to climate change. Wilson, who voted against extending the Violence Against Women Act in 2013, also faced chants of "You lie" when he said he fully supported enforcement of laws against domestic violence, the Post and Courier reports. Other Republican members of Congress have been skipping such events and Wilson's supporters said he deserved credit for facing his critics, though local pharmacist Julie Edwards, one of the most prominent anti-Wilson voices at the event, did not agree. "I think it's a shame that other senators and congressmen are not showing up," she told the New York Times. "But I'm not going to give him a gold star for showing up and doing his job."

FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2015 file photo, TransCanada's Keystone pipeline facilities are seen in Hardisty, Alberta. The Keystone XL oil pipeline won't use American steel in its construction, despite what... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2015 file photo, TransCanada's Keystone pipeline facilities are seen in Hardisty, Alberta. The Keystone XL oil pipeline won't use American steel in its construction, despite what President Donald Trump says. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday that's due... (Associated Press) PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The Keystone XL oil pipeline won't use American steel in its construction, despite what President Donald Trump says. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday that's due to language in a presidential directive Trump issued in January. The directive applies to new pipelines or those under repair. Sanders said it would be hard to do an about-face on Keystone because it's already under construction and the steel has been acquired. Trump said as recently as last week that Keystone and the Dakota Access pipeline must use American steel "or we're not building one." Trump used his executive powers shortly after taking office to greenlight the two pipeline projects that had been blocked by President Barack Obama. The Keystone pipeline would run from Canada to refineries in the Gulf Coast. The Dakota Access line would move North Dakota oil to Illinois, and that project is nearly complete. ||||| The Keystone XL oil pipeline does not need to be made from U.S. steel, despite an executive order by President Donald Trump days after he took office requiring domestic steel in new pipelines, the White House said on Friday. "It's specific to new pipelines or those that are being repaired," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters on Air Force One, when asked about a report by Politico that Keystone would not need to use U.S. steel, despite Trump's executive order issued on Jan. 24. "Since this one is already currently under construction, the steel is already literally sitting there, it's hard to go back. Everything moving forward would fall under that executive order," Sanders said. The southern leg of the Keystone project is completed and started pumping oil in 2013. Some pipe segments that could be used for Keystone XL, which would bring 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to Nebraska, have already been built. Former Democratic president Barack Obama rejected TransCanada Corp.'s multi-billion dollar Keystone XL pipeline, saying it would not benefit U.S. drivers and would contribute emissions linked to global warming. Then Trump's order expedited the path forward for TransCanada to reapply to build the line. In a statement, TransCanada struck a cautiously optimistic tone. "We continue to be encouraged as our Presidential Permit application makes its way through the approval process," the company said. "This project will support U.S. energy security, create thousands of well-paying U.S. jobs and provide substantial economic benefits." Economists told Reuters days after Trump issued the order on U.S. steel requirements that it had many loopholes, would not be easily enforceable, and could violate international trade law. Even if there were no loopholes, U.S. steelmakers would receive negligible benefit from Keystone XL, because they have limited ability to meet the stringent materials requirements for the project. The office of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday said it welcomes the allowance of non-U.S. steel, calling it a "recognition that the integrated Canadian and U.S. steel industries are mutually beneficial." Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said on Twitter that allowing non-U.S. steel was "important for companies like Evraz Steel," a local subsidiary of Russia's Evraz PLC, which had signed on to provide 24 per cent of the steel before Keystone XL's rejection by Obama. ||||| The Keystone XL pipeline won’t be required to use American-made steel to earn construction approval from the Trump administration, the White House said Friday, despite President Donald Trump’s repeated claims. The president’s executive order mandating the use of U.S. steel is “specific to new pipelines or those that are being repaired,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday. “Since this one is already current, under construction, the steel is already literally sitting there, it would be hard to go back,” she said. That’s welcome news to TransCanada Corp. as its moves forward with the $8 billion project. The pipeline would span 1,179 miles (1,897 kilometers) from Alberta through three states -- Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska -- before connecting to an existing network feeding crude to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries. The line would carry as much as 830,000 barrels of oil a day, including some from North Dakota’s Bakken shale. In 2012, the company said it expected half of the 821,000 tons of steel needed to construct the pipeline to be produced inside of the United States. The remainder of the steel was expected to be imported from Canada, Italy, and India. Public Comments But exempting Keystone XL from the president’s requirement to use American steel would seem to fly in the face of Trump’s public comments. Trump has repeatedly boasted that he forced pipeline companies to agree to use U.S. steel in their projects. During a Feb. 23 meeting with manufacturing CEOs at the White House, Trump told U.S. Steel Corp chief executive Mario Longhi that “the pipe is coming from the U.S.” for the Keystone project, as well as Energy Transfer Partners LP’s Dakota Access pipeline. “We put you heavy into the pipeline business because we approved, as you know, the Keystone Pipeline and Dakota,” Trump told Longhi. “But they have to buy -- meaning, steel, so I’ll say U.S. Steel -- but steel made in this country and pipelines made in this country.” During a Feb. 16 press conference, the president said that in exchange for using “the powers of government to make that pipeline happen” the administration “want them to use American steel.” American Steel “And they’re willing to do that, but nobody ever asked before I came along,” he said. “Even this order was drawn and they didn’t say that. And I’m reading the order, I’m saying, why aren’t we using American steel? And they said, that’s a good idea. We put it in.” He repeated the claim a day later during a tour of a Boeing Co. plant in South Carolina. “You probably saw the Keystone pipeline I approved recently, and the Dakota,” Trump said. “And I’m getting ready to sign the bill. I said, where is the pipe made? And they told me not here. I said, that’s good -- add a little sentence that you have to buy American steel. And you know what? That’s the way it is. It’s the way it’s going to be.” Trump told a similar story later that weekend at a Feb. 18 rally in Melbourne, Florida. Noting that he had had moved to “begin the construction” of the Keystone and Dakota projects, Trump said that as he was about to sign the order, he asked who would be manufacturing the pipe. “Something this audience understands very well, right?” Trump said. “Simple question. The lawyers put this very complex document in front. I said, who makes the pipe? They said, sir, it can be made anywhere. I said, not anymore. So I put a little clause on the bottom: The pipe has to be made in the United States of America if we’re going to have pipelines.” Under Construction Keep up with the best of Bloomberg Politics. Get our newsletter daily. A White House official who would only discuss the pipeline issue on the condition of anonymity said the Commerce Department was working on a plan for the president’s order requiring U.S. steel, so the administration couldn’t implement it until that effort had completed. Moreover, the official said, because the Keystone XL pipeline is currently under construction it does not count as a new, retrofitted, repaired, or expanded pipeline. Asked about the issue, TransCanada issued a statement saying it continued “to be encouraged as our Presidential Permit application makes its way through the approval process.” “This project will support U.S. energy security, create thousands of well-paying U.S. jobs and provide substantial economic benefits,” the company said. Canada’s U.S. ambassador, David MacNaughton, said Friday in an interview that negotiations on Keystone’s route are going "extremely well" with federal authorities and "I don’t see any big hurdles" from the Trump administration. He called the outlook for the project "very positive." ||||| “The Keystone XL pipeline is currently in the process of being constructed, so it does not count as a new, retrofitted, repaired, or expanded pipeline,” the White House spokeswoman said. | Getty White House: Keystone exempt from 'Buy American' requirements The Keystone XL Pipeline will not be subject to President Donald Trump's executive order requiring infrastructure projects to be built with American steel, a White House spokeswoman said today. Trump signed the order calling for the Commerce Department to develop a plan for U.S. steel to be used in “all new pipelines, as well as retrofitted, repaired or expanded pipelines” inside the U.S. projects “to the maximum extent possible.” Story Continued Below By the White House’s judgment, that description would not include Keystone XL, which developer TransCanada first proposed in 2008. “The Keystone XL Pipeline is currently in the process of being constructed, so it does not count as a new, retrofitted, repaired or expanded pipeline,” the White House spokeswoman said. That interpretation removes one potential hurdle for Keystone, and it clarifies shifting rhetoric from Trump on the order. “We put you heavy into the pipeline business because we approved, as you know, the Keystone Pipeline, but they have to buy ... steel made in this country and pipelines made in this country,” Trump told U.S. Steel Chief Executive Mario Longhi at a Feb. 23 meeting. However, in his address to Congress earlier this week, Trump spoke of the order in the same sentence as Keystone but carefully described it as directing "that new American pipelines be made with American steel." Removing the steel condition could help persuade TransCanada to fully drop the $15 billion NAFTA complaint against the U.S., which it suspended earlier this week. A TransCanada spokesman declined today to comment on the NAFTA lawsuit.

– President Trump's "Buy American" order calling for American steel to be used in American pipeline projects doesn't cover the Canadian, Italian, and Indian steel being used in the Keystone XL Pipeline project. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Friday that Trump's order applies to "new, retrofitted, repaired, or expanded pipelines," but Keystone is "currently in the process of being constructed, so it does not count as a new, retrofitted, repaired, or expanded pipeline," Politico reports. She added that since "the steel is already literally sitting there, it would be hard to go back." Trump revived the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects with days of taking office, and the AP notes that as recently as last week, he said American steel must be used "or we're not building one." Bloomberg reports that the president repeated the pledge to build Keystone XL with American steel at several rallies last month, boasting that he had demanded the clause before signing the order. Around half the 821,000 tons of steel needed for the project is expected to come from outside the US. Justin Trudeau's office praised the allowance of non-American steel in a statement Friday, calling it a "recognition that the integrated Canadian and US steel industries are mutually beneficial," the CBC reports.

Get your garlic, crosses and stakes ready: a bloodsucking vampire is on the loose. In this Nov. 30, 2012 photo villager Mico Matic, displays garlic that he carries in his pockets, in the village of Zarozje, near the Serbian town of Bajina Basta. Get your garlic, wooden crosses and... (Associated Press) In this Nov. 30, 2012 photo is a grave of a villager in the village of Zarozje, near the Serbian town of Bajina Basta. Get your garlic, wooden crosses and stakes ready: a bloodsucking vampire is on the... (Associated Press) In this Nov. 30, 2012 photo a woman walks on the road, in the village of Zarozje, near the Serbian town of Bajina Basta. Get your garlic, wooden crosses and stakes ready: a bloodsucking vampire is on... (Associated Press) In this Nov. 30, 2012 photo Milka Prokic is seen at twilight with a garland of garlic and a wooden stake, in the village of Zarozje, near the Serbian town of Bajina Basta. Get your garlic, wooden crosses... (Associated Press) Or so say villagers in the tiny western Serbian hamlet of Zarozje, nestled between lush green mountain slopes and spooky thick forests. They say rumors that a legendary vampire ghost has awakened are spreading fear _ and a potential tourist opportunity _ through the remote village. A local council warned villagers to put garlic in their pockets and place wooden crosses in their rooms to ward off vampires, although it appeared designed more to attract visitors to the impoverished region bordering Bosnia. Many of the villagers are aware that Sava Savanovic, Serbia's most famous vampire, is a fairy tale. Still, they say, better to take it seriously than risk succumbing to the vampire's fangs. "The story of Sava Savanovic is a legend, but strange things did occur in these parts back in the old days," said 55-year-old housewife Milka Prokic, holding a string of garlic in one hand and a large wooden stake in another, as an appropriately moody mist rose above the surrounding hills. "We have inherited this legend from our ancestors, and we keep it alive for the younger generations." Vampire legends have played a prominent part in the Balkans for centuries _ most prominently Dracula from Romania's Transylvania region. In the 18th century, the legends sometimes triggered mass hysteria and even public executions of those accused of being vampires. Sava Savanovic, described by the Zarozje villagers as Serbia's first vampire, reputedly drank the blood of those who came to the small shack in the dense oak tree forest to mill their grain on the clear mountain Rogatica river. The wooden mill collapsed a few months ago _ allegedly angering the vampire, who is now looking for a new place to hang his cape. Some locals claim they can hear steps cracking dry forest leaves and strange sounds coming from the rocky mountain peaks where the vampire was purportedly killed with a sharp stake that pierced his heart _ but managed to survive in spirit as a butterfly. "One should always remain calm, it's important not to frighten him, you shouldn't make fun of him," said villager Mico Matic, 56, whose house is not far from the collapsed mill. "He is just one of the neighbors, you do your best to be on friendly terms with him," he said with a wry smile, displaying garlic from both of his trouser pockets. Some locals say it's easy for strangers to laugh at them, but they truly believe. "Five people have recently died one after another in our small community, one hanging himself," said Miodrag Vujetic, a local municipal council member. "This is not by accident." Vujetic, however, said that "whatever is true about Sava," locals should use the legend to promote tourism. "If Romanians could profit on the Dracula legend with the tourists visiting Transylvania, why can't we do the same with Sava?" Richard Sugg, a lecturer in Renaissance Studies at the U.K.'s University of Durham and an expert on the vampire legends, said the fear could be very real. Stress can bring on nightmares, which makes people's feelings of dread even worse. "The tourists think it is fun _ and the Serbian locals think it's terrifying," he said. ||||| North Korean historical institute 'declares it has discovered unicorn lair belonging to founder of ancient kingdom’ In yet another outlandish claim to come out of North Korea historians have allegedly announced that they have unearthed a unicorn lair. A report released by the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences claims that archaeologists discovered the lair of the mythical animal just outside a temple in the capital Pyongyang. And, unsurprisingly, the lair - according to the report - means that Pyongyang was the focal point of an ancient, united Korea. Odd: The unicorn lair has apparently been discovered just outside Yongmyong temple on Moran Hill, in the capital Pyongyang OTHER UNUSUAL CLAIMS TO COME OUT OF NORTH KOREA At the women's World Cup of football in 2011 the North Koreans put their poor performance down to being struck by lightning. Five of their players later tested positive for steroids. Most of the more unusual claims stem from former leader Kim Jong-il and his biographer. According to the book he reportedly warned the public in North Korea that he could control the weather with his mood. He also claimed his birth had been prophesied and was heralded with a double rainbow and a new star in the heavens. Years late Kim was apparently very busy during university writing no fewer than 1,500 books in three years and composing six operas. But it wasn't just the arts he took a keen interest in. Apparently, in his first and only ever round of golf he shot 38-under with 11 holes in one. Satisfied with his performance, he reportedly immediately declared his retirement from the sport. In what appears to be a suggestion of superiority over nearby enemies South Korea, the report says: 'The discovery of the unicorn lair, associated with legend about King Tongmyong, proves that Pyongyang was a capital city of Ancient Korea as well as Koguryo Kingdom.' The dubious report, released by the state news agency, says the lair clearly belonged to King Tongmyong, founder of the ancient Korean kingdom Koguryo . It goes on to say: 'A rectangular rock carved with words "Unicorn Lair" stands in front of the lair. 'The carved words are believed to date back to the period of Koryo Kingdom (918-1392) . 'The temple served as a relief palace for King Tongmyong, in which there is the lair of his unicorn.' Jo Hui Sung, director of the Institute, told KCNA, the state news agency, that the findings is in keeping with the country's history. He said: 'Korea’s history books deal with the unicorn, considered to be ridden by King Tongmyong, and its lair. 'The Sogyong (Pyongyang) chapter of the old book �?Koryo History’, said Ulmil Pavilion is on the top of Mt. Kumsu, with Yongmyong Temple, one of Pyongyang’s eight scenic spots, beneath it. 'The temple served as a relief palace for King Tongmyong, in which there is the lair of his unicorn.' The legend of unicorns is thought to have stemmed from European folklore, in which the animal resembles a white horse with a single horn. Until the 19th century the beast, considered a symbol of purity and grace, was still thought to exist - even by academics and theologians. But since then there has been little to suggest that there are lairs elsewhere in the world. Discovery: Archaeologists in North Korea have apparently discovered a unicorn lair in the heart of Pyongyang Bold claims: Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was at the centre of some other dubious claims before his death The unbelievable news does however follow a number of bizarre claims to come out of the country. It has been suggested, however, that the release of the story could be in retaliation against a spoof North Korea related story which tricked a newspaper in China.

– North Korea not only has a sexy leader—it also lays claim to a bona fide unicorn lair, the Daily Mail reports. The very serious-sounding History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences released a report about it, saying the unicorn's refuge was outside a temple in Pyongyang. Conveniently, the report added that the lair—which is associated with an ancient legend—proves Pyongyang once played a key role in a united Korea. How did they spot the lair? It has "a rectangular rock carved with words 'Unicorn Lair'" sitting outside, the report said. North Koreans aren't the only ones dipping into old stories: Villagers in the Serbian town of Zarozje say a vampire has been stalking the area since its home, a grain mill, fell over a few months ago, the AP reports. Locals seem divided about whether it's real or just an attempt to boost tourism in an impoverished area, but the legend of blood-sucking Sava Savanovic does date back centuries. "If Romanians could profit on the Dracula legend with the tourists visiting Transylvania, why can't we do the same with Sava?" says a local council member.

Sophia celebrates her ninth consecutive year as the top choice for girls, while Jackson remains the most popular name for boys for six years running. Oliver and Layla both jumped into the top 10, pushing out Logan and Zoe. The fastest climbers of 2018 include Everly, Isla, Leo, and Carson. Click on a name below to find its popularity over time, common sibling names, and more. Plus, get ideas from this year's list of alternatives to popular baby names, discover the hottest baby-naming trends, and see our predictions for up-and-coming names. Note: To capture true popularity, our exclusive baby names list combines names that sound the same but have multiple spellings (like Sophia and Sofia, or Jackson and Jaxon). Our data comes from more than 742,000 parents who shared their baby's name with us in 2018. ||||| Parents are naming their kids after Instagram filters! Credit: 20th Century Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection Color Us surprised! Instagram has inspired parents to name their children after the popular platform’s filters, according to the annual BabyCenter Baby Names Survey released on Tuesday, Dec. 1. For boys, the names Lux and Ludwig — two filters that have increased in popularity by 75 percent and 42 percent, respectively, since last year — were the most popular. Other filters that parents chose for their boys’ names included Amaro, Reyes, Hudson, and Kelvin. For girls, the names Valencia, Juno, and Willow were the most popular this year. “We were a little surprised by this,” Linda Murray, editor-in-chief of BabyCenter, told TODAY Parents. “But there’s this beautiful thing that happens with an Instagram filter. You take these precious moments in your life and it makes them even more beautiful, it enhances them. I think people just have really warm feelings about that and these names come into their consciousness.” Still, not every Instagram filter is translating to a child’s name. “No one’s naming their baby X-Pro II,” Murray joked. “They’re looking for something unique, but not unheard of.” According to BabyCenter, almost 75 percent of new moms use their phones to share photos of their children, with 30 percent sharing pics daily. Tell Us: What do you think of this trend? Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics, and more delivered straight to your inbox!

– In news sure to provoke heavy sighing and eye-rolling from people who like to complain about kids today: Kids today are now being named after Instagram filters, Us Weekly reports. In fact, Today calls it "one of the hottest baby name trends of 2015." So who are these new Insta-children? According to BabyCenter's list of top baby names released Tuesday, the name Lux is 75% more popular for boys than last year, while Ludwig is 42% more popular. Other filter names—Amaro (26%), Reyes (10%), Hudson (4%), and Kelvin (3%)—are also rising in popularity for boys. Meanwhile on the girls' side, Juno ("makes outdoor photos especially gorgeous") is up 30% in popularity, Valencia ("gives pictures a soft, warm glow") is up 26%, and Willow is up 13%. BabyCenter reports one of the reasons for the increase in filter-inspired names is the amount of time new parents spend on social media. According to Us Weekly, 75% of new moms use their phones to share baby photos, with 30% doing so daily. "There’s this beautiful thing that happens with an Instagram filter," BabyCenter's editor-in-chief tells Today. "You take these precious moments in your life and it makes them even more beautiful, it enhances them. I think people just have really warm feelings about that." However that doesn't hold true for every filter. BabyCenter reports Sierra, Walden, and Lark—all names of Instagram filters—are becoming less popular human names.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced her support for gay marriage Monday, putting her in line with other potential Democratic presidential candidates on a social issue that is rapidly gaining public approval. Clinton made the announcement in an online video released Monday morning by the gay rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign. She says in the five-minute video that gays and lesbians are "full and equal citizens and deserve the rights of citizenship." "That includes marriage," she says, adding that she backs gay marriage both "personally and as a matter of policy and law." Clinton's announcement is certain to further fuel the already rampant speculation that she is considering another run for president in 2016. Other possible Democratic contenders _ including Vice President Joe Biden, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley _ all back the right of same-sex couples to marry. Polls show that public opinion on gay marriage has shifted perhaps more rapidly than on any other major issue in recent times. In Gallup polling last November, 53 percent of adult Americans said same-sex marriages should be granted the same status as traditional marriages, while 46 percent felt they should not be valid. In 1996, when Gallup first asked about gay marriages, 27 percent felt they should be valid. ||||| 5 years ago Washington (CNN) – Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced for the first time Monday she supports marriage rights for same-sex couples, saying that "gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights." "America is at its best when we champion the freedom and dignity of every human being," Clinton said in a video produced by the Human Rights Campaign, a pro-same-sex marriage advocacy group. The former first lady, U.S. senator, and 2008 presidential candidate had previously backed civil unions and partner benefits for same-sex couples, but had stopped short of a full endorsement for marriage. That was the position of most Democratic primary candidates that year, including President Barack Obama. During her tenure as secretary of state, Clinton avoided taking political positions, as is customary for the role. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, wrote in an opinion article last week that he supported the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, the law he signed in 1996 that defines marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman. It also denies federal benefits to same-sex couples in the nine states where same-sex couples can now legally wed. In the video released Monday, Hillary Clinton said her time traveling the world as America's top diplomat "inspired and challenged me to think anew about who we are, and the values we represent to the world." Those values, she said, must include full equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans to marry. "Full and equal citizens and deserve the rights of citizenship," she said. "That includes marriage. That's why I support marriage for lesbian and gay couples. I support it personally and as a matter of policy and law." Clinton had previously hinted at her support for marriage rights, speaking favorably of New York's law permitting marriages between same-sex couples. It also brings her in line with major figures in the Democratic Party, including Obama, who came out in support of marriage rights last May. Democrats also included a plank in their party platform at last summer's convention supporting same-sex marriage. Clinton's public backing of same-sex marriage comes as the Supreme Court prepares to tackle the issue this spring. Last year the high court agreed to hear two constitutional challenges to state and federal laws dealing with the recognition of gay and lesbian couples to legally wed. Oral arguments will be held on March 26 and 27, with a ruling by late June. In her video, Clinton called marriage "a fundamental building block of our society," and with a knowing laugh, called marriage "a great joy and yes, a great responsibility." "A few years ago, Bill and I celebrated as our own daughter married the love of her life, and I wish every parent that same joy," she said.

– Hillary Clinton publicly got behind gay marriage today, reports CNN, proclaiming that "gay rights are human rights" in a Human Rights Campaign video. "America is at its best when we champion the freedom and dignity of every human being. That's who we are," she says. "It's in our DNA." The announcement, while hardly surprising, puts her in line with other Democrats eying a run for the Oval Office in 2016, notes the AP.

Dept Palaeobiol./Swedish Museum of Natural History The remains of long, thin cells preserved inside the 50-million-year-old fossilized cocoon of an unknown worm species represent the oldest animal sperm ever found, say researchers at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. Benjamin Bomfleur and his colleagues spotted the sperm fragments when they used an electron microscope to examine the inner surface of the cocoon fossil, which had been collected by an Argentinian expedition on Seymour Island, which lies off the Antarctic Peninsula. Their findings are published today in Biology Letters1. Because of their delicate nature, sperm cells are very rarely found in fossils. The previous oldest animal sperm was from springtails preserved in Baltic amber, about 40 million years old2. (Plant sperm fossils go back further, to 400-million-year-old specimens from early land plants in Scotland3.) Surprising discovery Bomfleur says that the discovery was a surprise — “we laughed”, he says, on seeing the microscope images — “but in retrospect, it makes sense that you would find them as common inclusions in fossil cocoons”. The cocoons are secreted by some worms, including earthworms and leeches, which deposit sperm and eggs inside. Each cocoon then hardens to form a protective case for the developing embryos. The researchers do not know what kind of worm left the sperm. Scanning electron microscope images show helical structures resembling drill-bits and beaded tails, which are characteristic of sperm produced by crayfish worms, leech-like creatures that live on freshwater lobsters. But these animals are found only in the Northern Hemisphere, so it would be surprising if they had existed in Antarctica 50 million years ago, Bomfleur says. “It could be an extinct relative with similar types of sperm.” There will be no extractable DNA left in the sperm fragments, Bomfleur adds, because the chemical make-up of the organic material would have changed from its original composition over such a long time. But his team expect that the cells they saw under the microscope are not merely mineralized outer casts of the original cell’s shape, but will retain their inner structure. Taxonomic tool The structure of sperm cells has been studied for decades as a way of determining evolutionary relationships between worm species. The team did not have access to ultra-high-resolution instruments that might reveal more detail about the sperm’s microstructure than can be seen under the electron microscope. But if the fine structure of sperm is commonly preserved inside cocoons and can be imaged, Bomfleur thinks that future studies could provide important insights into the evolution of the kinds of worms that secrete cocoons. “If it should turn out that we can get this information, all of a sudden we would basically unlock an entire fossil record for a group that hardly had any identifiable fossils before,” he says. Soft-bodied microorganisms that do not usually fossilize, including nematodes4, have also been found preserved inside cocoons, but few researchers have studied them. Jakob Vinther, who studies invertebrate evolution at the University of Bristol, UK, agrees that cocoon fossils could represent an underexplored avenue for understanding the origin of earthworms and leeches. “I think we might have a really interesting system here that can be sort of a hidden window to the past,” he says. “There could be a lot of potential hidden gems inside those cocoons.” ||||| It's time to call Guinness World Records: Researchers on an Antarctic expedition have uncovered sperm cells dating to a whopping 50 million years ago, making these the oldest known animal sperm cells, a new study finds. The researchers found the sperm fragments embedded within the walls of a fossilized cocoon. The scientists said they suspect that an ancient relative of worms or leeches likely created the cocoon while mating, and released its sperm inside. The sperm became trapped in the cocoon before the enclosure's walls hardened, the researchers said. Just as amber can entrap and preserve insects, the cocoon preserved the sperm cells while fossilizing over millions of years, the researchers said. [See Images of the Oldest Petrified Sperm from an Ostracod] "Because sperm cells are so short-lived and fragile, they are vanishingly rare in the fossil record," said lead author Benjamin Bomfleur, a paleontologist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. "Our discovery of sperm in a leech cocoon from Antarctica is the oldest record of fossil animal sperm and one of only a tiny number of such fossils in the geological record." The researchers discovered the cocoon while sieving sediments for small vertebrate remains during an expedition in Antarctica, Bomfleur said. The research team then used a scanning electron microscope to examine the fossil's surface, and the particles on it, at very high magnifications, he said. Researchers found the fossilized cocoon at this snowy location in Antarctica. Credit: Federico Degrange The scientists also used high-power X-rays from a particle accelerator in Switzerland to image the cocoon's internal structure. These analyses revealed that the cocoon held bacteria and sperm cells, Bomfleur said. However, the early Eocene specimen didn't hold entire sperm cells, just pieces of them. "All we found are fragments of the drill-bit–shaped 'head regions,' ornamented midpiece regions that presumably contain the nuclei, and very long, whiplike tails, some attached to the midpiece regions," Bomfleur told Live Science in an email. It's challenging to compare sperm fragments to the sperm of modern species, but the drill-bit-shaped head regions "do appear strikingly similar to those of this one peculiar group of leechlike worms that is today only found living symbiotically on crayfish in the Northern Hemisphere," Bomfleur said. He added that the next-oldest known fossil of animal sperm is also from the Eocene, dating to about 40 million years ago. Researchers found that specimen, which belonged to a relative of insects called a springtail, in a piece of Baltic amber, Bomfleur said. However, the oldest known fossil sperm cell doesn't belong to an animal, but to a plant called a chert found in Scotland. The plant dates to the early Devonian, about 410 million years ago, Bomfleur said. The new study is a "well-done investigation," said Renate Matzke-Karasz, a geobiologist at Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Germany. The finding of the "entombed micro-treasures" may help illuminate the family tree of worms and leeches, of which little is known because fossils of these soft-bodied creatures are rare, Matzke-Karasz said. "I am sure a broader search for more such fossils will help create a clearer view on the evolution of these animals," she said. The study will be published online Wednesday (July 15) in the journal Biology Letters. Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. ||||| Spermatozoon A 50 million year old spermatozoon (sperm cell) found in Antarctica. Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History We all know about how mosquitos trapped in amber: Can lead to dinosaur biker gangs: (Or, at the very least, awesome memes) But what about worm sperm trapped in a cocoon? It probably won't lead to insane theme parks with a death wish, but it could change our understanding of ancient microbes. In a paper published today in Biology Letters, Benjamin Bomfleur and his colleagues announced the discovery of 50 million year old sperm cells found in a cocoon in Antarctica. This is the oldest animal sperm ever discovered, but what's really exciting is where it was found: in a tiny cocoon in Antarctica. These cocoons aren't like cocoons used by butterflies to make their lovely transformation from lowly caterpillar to gorgeous winged creature. Instead these cocoons are integral to the mating process of many different species of worm and leech. After mating, the worms secrete a sticky gel like cocoon that contains the egg and sperm. Over time, it hardens, trapping the cells inside. Leech Diagram Benjamin Bomfleur ||||| A fossilized sperm cell (Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History) Benjamin Bomfleur can’t help but laugh a little when talking about this latest, record-setting discovery. “A 50-million-year-old worm sperm from Antarctica?” he said between chuckles. “Who would have thought that’s possible?” And yet, what Bomfleur, of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and other researchers stumbled upon was a serious discovery: the oldest animal sperm ever found. As it goes with many great discoveries, this wasn’t what they were looking for. While on an expedition on Seymour Island in the Antarctic, Thomas Mörs, a paleobiologist at the same museum, was looking for signs of small mammal bones when he discovered a fossilized cocoon. Remembering that cocoons like this often carried notable remains of plants, he passed it along to Bomfleur, a fellow palaeobiologist. Bomfleur took it and started looking for plant remains. That’s when he noticed the long, fragile remains of what appeared to be a sperm. No expert in sperm himself, Bomfleur sent pictures of the specimen along to Marco Ferraguti, who happens to be an expert in annelid sperm. Through radiometric dating, it was determined that the cocoon and its contents were at least 50 million years old, making the sperm the “oldest fossil animal spermatozoa yet identified.” After comparing the pictures with his “enormous collection” of sperm pictures, Ferraguti determined the specimen was likely the product of a “crayfish worm.” Now retired, Ferraguti made a point of mentioning that he finds it amusing that he gets to be part of such an eye-catching study because, while in the field, he found it “really, really difficult to tell people the work [he does] is interesting.” What allowed this sperm to survive for so long was the biology of its creator. The ancient worm secretes a cocoon, about 2 millimeters around, which then typically serves as a protective housing for an egg and sperm when the worm reproduces. The cocoon is formed by a sticky mucus that takes several days to harden, but once it does, biological material, such as sperm, can be trapped along its walls. General location of Cocoon fossil. (Federico Degrange) This can preserve all kinds of different materials for centuries. Bomfleur likened it to amber preservation, though it’s unlikely this could be used for the creation of a Spielberg-esque, Jurassic worm (sorry). “These things are — they are flexible,” Mörs said, comparing the cocoon to similar fossils typically formed by plants. “I didn’t expect at the beginning that these were from animals.” The downside, Bomfleur said, is that the sperm was not completely intact. It was broken into fragments, making it difficult to learn much about the anatomy of this specific worm. However, the research team also found remnants of clam shells and small animals within this cocoon. The evolutionary history of Citellata (earthworms, leeches, etc.) is largely unknown, the team wrote in their paper, which was published in Biology Letters this week. Finding remnants of this type of species in the Northern Hemisphere is particularly rare, the study said, indicating that the evolutionary history of these worms is more complex than once thought. More importantly, Bomfleur explained that though worms themselves don’t fossilize well, sperm can be a better clue as to the creator of a given cocoon. This discovery should encourage future researchers to look for similar structures. “I think we might have a really interesting system here that can be sort of a hidden window to the past,” Jakob Vinther, who studies invertebrate evolution at the University of Bristol, told Nature. “There could be a lot of potential hidden gems inside those cocoons.” While fossilized sperms are a rare find, Seymour Island is a known hot spot of noteworthy fossils, Mörs said — he’s been there three times already. The only part of Antarctica that is completely free of ice cover, the island is a perfect location for extraction. Mörs said other fossils originating from the mainland of the continent often wash up onto the island, bringing a variety of fossils, including small mammal bones and shark teeth. More from Morning Mix How a precocious 11-year-old girl gave Pluto its name Why India’s religious rituals too often end in deadly mass stampedes

– They were looking for mammal bones, but scientists exploring an island in the Antarctic instead stumbled across an unexpected milestone—the world's oldest animal sperm. They found it inside a fossilized cocoon made by some type of worm (possibly a crayfish worm) 50 million years ago, reports Nature. It beats by 10 million years the previous record-holder, a specimen from an insect relative called the springtail. “A 50-million-year-old worm sperm from Antarctica?” Benjamin Bomfleur of the Swedish Museum of Natural History marvels to the Washington Post of his team's discovery. “Who would have thought that’s possible?” These types of cocoons aren't of the butterfly variety but were instead used in the mating process, explains Popular Science. They're secreted by the worms to hold the sperm and egg, and they often trap other things inside as they harden. "That's what makes this research so exciting," writes Mary Beth Griggs. "By taking a closer look at the cocoons, researchers can get a better idea of what kinds of microorganisms were around in the past." Because sperm cells are so delicate, it's rare to find any this old. Still, the age doesn't come close to the oldest sperm on record, reports Live Science. That hails from a plant found in Scotland and goes back 410 million years. (A bioethicist thinks men should freeze sperm samples at age 18.)

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 ||||| Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Novelist Bret Easton Ellis has some inspired casting ideas for a planned “American Psycho” remake. “I have warned Lionsgate that I will not approve a new version of ‘American Psycho’ unless it stars Scott Disick or Miles Fisher,” Ellis tweeted, adding, “I am waiting for Scott Disick to ask: ‘Who in the hell is Bret Easton Ellis?’ ” Word leaked that Lionsgate has an updated “Psycho” script by a David Fincher disciple named Noble Jones. Scarily slick Disick plays himself on “Kourtney & Kim Take New York,” while Fisher is the “J. Edgar” actor who grabbed attention for making an “American Psycho” music video set to the Talking Heads’ “This Must Be the Place.” ||||| Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries continued to prove just how on different pages a married couple can be on "Kourtney and Kim Take New York" (Sun., 10PM ET on E!). Kris didn't take it very well when Kim said, "I'm never moving to Minnesota. Ever." This was because she had made a deal with him that when he was done playing, he could choose their home for half the year and she would choose the other half. It would appear Kim had second thoughts about that. "How am I going to have my career and live in Minnesota?" she asked. She then said she wanted to raise her kids in LA, because "That's where I'm from. That's all I know." Kris' counter to that was that there was no guarantee she'd still have a career after she has kids and they start growing up. "No one will probably care about you. Let's be honest," he said.

– If you are somehow not already creeped out by Kourtney Kardashian's boyfriend and babydaddy Scott Disick, this should do the trick: None other than Bret Easton Ellis himself wants Disick for the planned American Psycho remake, the New York Post reports. "I have warned Lionsgate that I will not approve a new version of 'American Psycho' unless it stars SCOTT DISICK or MILES FISHER," Ellis recently tweeted, continuing, "I am waiting for Scott Disick to ask: 'Who in the hell is Bret Easton Ellis?'" "Not going to happen, I know just who u r!" Disick quickly responded. He had earlier expressed his excitement at the announcement of the remake, tweeting, "best news i have ever heard! i hope they call me!" If you don't quite see the resemblance between Disick and Ellis' sociopathic killer Patrick Bateman, who apparently serves as Disick's style icon, perhaps this video will shed some light. In other news related to the Kardashian clan, there was much Kim-and-Kris drama on last night's episode of Kourtney & Kim Take New York. (Spoiler alert: It doesn't end well for the couple.) Click for one of the clips.

House Republican leaders plunged into damage control mode Monday after a brutal budgetary assessment of their Obamacare replacement threatened to upend Senate GOP support and armed their critics on the left. Speaker Paul Ryan’s team quickly pinpointed rosier elements of the report by the Congressional Budget Office, from cost savings to lower premiums. But the bottom line — that the number of uninsured Americans would climb by 24 million within a decade — threatened to upend the GOP leadership’s fragile efforts to unite congressional Republicans around the plan. Story Continued Below “Can’t sugarcoat it. Doesn’t look good,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.). “The CBO score was, shall we say, an eye-popper.” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas sought to distance the Senate from the House bill, saying “we expect to do better” than the results that CBO showed. “The House is going to continue to work on the bill to try and build support for it. But until they do, there’s not much for the Senate to do,” Cornyn said. Asked about conservative predictions this bill can’t pass the Senate, he said: “It’s premature to talk about that.” That’s to say nothing of centrists spooked by the CBO results. Though conservatives have been the most vocally resistant to the plan so far, the new figures underscore the danger that moderate Republicans who hail from states that embraced Obamacare’s massive Medicaid expansion face if they support the bill. This contingent of House Republicans has been mostly muted about the bill so far and has been viewed by leadership allies as likely to fall in line. The CBO score is a new obstacle for Republicans hoping to coalesce around a health care vision. “I’m concerned about the Medicaid population. That’s the biggest part of the coverage for Ohio,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who has emerged as a protector of his state’s decision to expand Medicaid. Late Monday, one House Republican — Virginia Rep. Rob Wittmann — announced that the would be opposing the health care bill even though he supports repealing Obamacare. "After reviewing this legislation and receiving the Congressional Budget Office score today, it is clear that this bill is not consistent with the repeal and replace principles for which I stand," he said in a statement. "I do not think this bill will do what is necessary for the short and long-term best interests of Virginians and therefore, I must oppose it." Portman, a budget wonk who has been wary of the House plan, argued that the CBO didn’t take into account all the flexibility that the House bill would allow for. But he did not sound like he was closer to publicly supporting the proposal. Democrats, sensing the danger for Republicans, are already threatening to make the eye-popping number of uninsured people a fixture of the health care debate on Capitol Hill. Deep cuts to Medicaid and a spike in premiums for older Americans are also certain to become fodder for critics of the plan. And many of the positive aspects of the report — like an estimated 10 percent decline in premium growth over a decade — were quickly overshadowed by the brutal estimate of the uninsured. “Every single House Republican owns this catastrophic bill and should be prepared for backlash at the ballot box, particularly given the anticipated loss of coverage for 14 million people as early as next year,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Tyler Law. House leaders, meanwhile, made the case that the budget assessment was good news. Ryan immediately praised it and said in a statement that it “confirms” that the GOP plan — titled the American Health Care Act — “will lower premiums and improve access to quality, affordable care.” “If you read this entire report, I’m pretty encouraged by it. It actually exceeded my expectations,” Ryan said Monday evening on Fox News. A top aide, Brendan Buck, wrote a series of tweets that pointed to more positive aspects of the report. He highlighted an estimated 10 percent reduction in premium growth by 2026, the elimination of Obamacare’s taxes to the tune of $883 billion and the bill’s potential to reduce the deficit. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) argued that the CBO’s score was incomplete because it does not include parts of the GOP plan not included in the current repeal bill. Republicans have long said their replacement would take place in three phases: the repeal bill itself, moves by the Health and Human Services Department to deregulate the insurance industry and additional health care bills that would allow people to purchase insurance across state lines. “The Congressional Budget Office has not yet analyzed our entire proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare, and today’s score reflects only a portion of the actions we will take to roll back red tape, free markets and empower consumers,” Walden said. President Donald Trump’s top health adviser, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, said administration officials “strenuously disagree” with the report. Republicans have noted that the CBO predicted more people would be covered by Obamacare in its assessment half-decade ago; those forecasts, however, came up short. But those reassurances appeared to do little to calm senators’ nerves. “We’ve got work to do here,” said Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), who had raised concerns about the bill’s effect on Medicaid. Asked about the 24 million increase in the number of Americans CBO says could be uninsured in 2026, Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said: “Naturally, I’m concerned.” Price will visit with Senate Republicans on Tuesday to explain how the Trump administration can help mitigate the problems some centrists have with the GOP health care plan. But Republican leaders said that in at least one respect, the effort to cobble together a majority to pass the bill got easier: convincing conservatives. POLITICO Pulse newsletter Get the latest on the health care fight, every weekday 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. “The money-saving numbers are pretty strong. And a lot of the opposition seemed to come from people who thought there wasn’t enough reform in terms of spending,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, a former House leader and now No. 5 in Senate leadership. “In terms of coverage, we need to get a better sense of what Health and Human Services can do.” Still, the Missouri Republican admitted that the CBO number was “troublesome” to the party’s efforts. Even aspects of the report that Republican leaders praised included potential pitfalls. Though the report found premium growth that would decline on average by 10 percent over the course of a decade, it also emphasized that those reductions would disproportionately benefit younger people, while older Americans could see sharp spikes. A likely snow day for Congress on Tuesday is all but certain to keep attention trained on the mounting challenges for Republicans working to pass their Obamacare replacement. ||||| Non-partisan budget office says replacement for Affordable Care Act would leave millions uninsured but reduce federal deficit by $337bn in first 10 years As many as 24 million Americans risk losing health coverage over the next decade under the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said on Monday. The report predicts a dramatic loss of healthcare coverage over the next decade if Congress enacts the Republican healthcare proposal, which has faced criticism from across the political spectrum and from nearly every sector of the healthcare industry. An estimated 52 million people would be uninsured in 2026, compared with the 28 million who would lack insurance that year under the current law, according to the report. President Donald Trump, who supports the Republican plan, has promised that his plan would provide “insurance for everybody”. The congressional analysts estimate that the Republican healthcare proposal could reduce the federal budget by $337bn over 10 years, with the largest savings coming from cuts to the federal Medicaid program and “Obamacare” tax credits for people who buy insurance individually. Republicans were bracing for an unfavorable accounting from the budget office on Monday, as the bill, called the American Health Care Act, faces intensifying opposition from conservatives, Democrats, consumer interest groups and nearly every sector of the US healthcare industry. Reacting to the report, health and human services secretary, Tom Price, said the CBO score is “just not believable” and the White House “strenuously” disagrees with its conclusion. He said the analysis only accounted for one phase of the three-pronged plan, which the White House believes would cover more Americans than the report estimated. The House speaker, Paul Ryan, said the report confirms that his plan will “lower premiums and improve access to quality”, indicating that Republicans intend to press ahead with the legislation despite the sizable loss of coverage. “Our plan is not about forcing people to buy expensive, one-size-fits-all coverage,” Ryan said in a statement. “It is about giving people more choices and better access to a plan they want and can afford. When people have more choices, costs go down.” But Senator Susan Collins called the report a “cause for alarm” and urged her colleagues to slow down and revisit the replacement plan. “This is an extremely important debate with significant implications for millions of Americans,” the Republican said. “We need to spend the time necessary to get this right.” In the run-up to the publication of the CBO report, many Republicans began casting the expected drop in coverage as a consequence of having more choice. “The one thing I’m certain will happen is CBO will say, ‘Well, gosh, not as many people will get coverage,’” Ryan said on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday. “You know why? Because this isn’t a government mandate.” The report also concluded that barring Planned Parenthood from receiving federal dollars would amount to $234m less in Medicaid spending over 10 years. But about a third of those savings, the report warned, would be wiped out by unintended pregnancies caused when low-income or rural women lose access to contraceptive services. Planned Parenthood receives Medicaid reimbursements for providing STI and contraceptive services, but not abortions, to low-income patients at no cost. In addition to increased spending on births, the report found, there would be unpredictable costs associated with the children, who could qualify for Medicaid and other federal programs. Democrats, who had criticized Republicans for rushing the bill through key House committees before the CBO score was released, seized on the report’s findings and called on Republicans to drop the bill. “The CBO report should be a knockout blow for Republicans in Congress,” the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, told reporters during a joint press conference with the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, on Monday. “They should heed this warning and turn back from their plan that would be a disaster for the country.” Pelosi echoed Schumer. “In terms of insurance coverage it’s immoral, in terms of giving money to the rich at the expense of working families it is indecent and wrong,” Pelosi said, adding: “I hope that they would pull the bill. It’s really the only decent thing to do.” “It is abundantly clear why congressional Republicans wanted to rush their healthcare bill through committee during two middle-of-the-night markups – they know it is a fundamentally bad deal for Americans,” said the House Democratic caucus chairman, Joe Crowley of New York. “Donald Trump’s ‘insurance for everybody’ pledge was a big fat lie,” the Democratic National Committee chairman, Tom Perez, said in a statement. The ACHA seeks to radically transform and cut Medicaid, one of America’s largest social safety nets; end requirements for Americans to purchase healthcare; allow insurance companies to charge the old five times more than the young; expand tax-free health savings accounts; cut taxes that would disproportionately benefit the wealthy; and shrink subsidies that benefit the middle class. At the same time, it allows insurance companies to levy a 30% surcharge on anyone who does not have insurance for more than two months, meant to incentivize people to keep insurance. Repealing Obamacare: the healthcare people can least afford to lose Read more When the ACA was passed, it sought to insure all Americans and standardize health benefits. The law passed consumer protections, expanded Medicaid to single adults and established subsidized marketplaces for individuals to buy insurance. Though the GOP plan would scrap many of the existing law’s critical provisions, it keeps a handful of its most popular ones: a requirement that insurers cover the sick, allowing young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance, and a ban on lifetime coverage caps. During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump touted a replacement plan that would “cover everybody”. Earlier on Monday, Trump invited a group of people – referred to by the administration as “victims of Obamacare” – to the White House to share their recount their negative experiences with the healthcare law. Among those Trump heard from during the listening session was a cattle rancher who said the increasing healthcare rates are hurting her family business and a stay-at-home mom who was forced to re-enter the workforce because the increase in the premium for their family insurance was unaffordable. Trump promised the table that the Republican plan would ensure “access for everyone”, a departure from his earlier promise to create universal healthcare. However, that access would come with a price for some groups, the CBO predicted. Changes in the Republican bill could cause monthly costs for older, poorer Americans to rise dramatically. For example, a 64-year-old earning $26,500 a year would have annual out-of-pocket costs increase by $14,600, from $1,700 a year under current law. By contrast, young people could see annual costs drop. A 21-year-old earning the same amount of money would pay just $1,450 out-of-pocket, a $250 decrease from current law. With the GOP having only a two-vote majority in the Senate, the bill needs to bring warring factions together to pass, assuming Democrats uniformly oppose the bill. Yet conservatives remain staunchly opposed to the legislation in its current form, dubbing it “Obamacare lite”. Heritage Action for America, one of the most influential conservative opponents of the Republican healthcare law, cast doubt on whether the bill has enough votes to pass the House. “The biggest fear I have – what keeps me up at night – is that Republicans pass a healthcare bill that keeps the fundamental architecture of Obamacare,” Michael Needham, the CEO of Heritage Action, told reporters on Monday. “Then, in 2020 or 2024, the American people look at the mess and vote in a Democrat who says the answer is single-payer healthcare.” “I would say to my friends in the House of Representatives with whom I serve: ‘Do not walk the plank and vote for a bill that cannot pass the Senate and then have to face the consequences of that vote,’” Tom Cotton, a Republican senator for Arkansas, told ABC. “If they vote for this bill, they’re going to put the House majority at risk next year.” Trump supporters in the heartland fear being left behind by GOP health plan Read more Equally as blunt, Rand Paul, a Republican senator for Kentucky, said of Ryan’s plan: “He will not have the votes.” A handful of GOP senators have criticized the bill for not protecting Medicaid beneficiaries, and two Republican senators have objected to the provision stripping Planned Parenthood of federal funding. House Republicans have pressed ahead quickly with the bill, which was unveiled last week. The healthcare plan was approved by two key House committees last week after all-night debates and despite objections from Democrats, who argued that it was critical to know the findings of the CBO report first. The proposal will next head to the House budget committee. A preliminary assessment from the ratings agency S&P Global suggested between two million and four million people who are insured through the individual insurance market under the healthcare law could lose coverage, as well as between four million and six million people who are currently enrolled in Medicaid. At the same time, as debate on the ACA has heated up its popularity hit a historic high in February, according to findings from the Pew Research Center and the latest Kaiser Health Tracking poll. The result is the highest level of support for the law in the 60 tracking polls Kaiser Health has conducted since 2010. Molly Redden contributed to this report ||||| The Republican health care plan being considered by Congress will significantly increase the number of uninsured people, but save the federal government hundreds of billions of dollars, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. Here are the key findings from the report. The number of uninsured will grow by 24 million in 10 years. While President Trump promised “insurance for everybody,” the C.B.O. projects that if the Republican plan took effect today, 14 million more people would be uninsured next year, and by 2026, the number of uninsured would be about double what it is today. That means that in 10 years, the number of uninsured Americans would be closer to what it was before the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature health law, took effect. Number of uninsured under the Republican plan Before Obamacare 57 million In 2026 52 million Now 27 million Projected 2013 2016 2020 2026 Before Obamacare 57 million In 2026 52 million Now 27 million Projected 2013 2016 2020 2026 Before Obamacare 57 million In 2026 52 million Now 27 million PROJECTED 2013 2016 2020 2026 Several main changes under the Republicans’ proposal would cause fewer people to have insurance. It would substantially cut funding for Medicaid, which covers low-income Americans, and reduce the value of tax credits that individuals use to buy health insurance, pricing many out of the market. It would also repeal the individual mandate, which requires all Americans to obtain health insurance if they can afford it, or else face penalties. The mandate, which many Republicans criticize, was created to keep insurance affordable for those who are older or sick. Without the mandate, many healthy people are expected to drop coverage, driving up prices for those who need it most, and ultimately causing even more people to drop out of the individual market. To calculate how many people would be uninsured under the Republican plan, the C.B.O., a nonpartisan agency of economists and statisticians, also had to estimate what would happen if the Affordable Care Act were not repealed. Number of uninsured if the current health law is not repealed The report concluded that after 10 years, the Republican plan would create 24 million additional uninsured people — the difference between the number of uninsured under the proposed plan and the number if the Affordable Care Act is not repealed. The plan would reduce the federal deficit by $337 billion over 10 years. The Republican plan would save the federal government $337 billion by 2026, with the largest savings coming from cuts to Medicaid spending as well as reduced spending on tax credits for middle-income insurance buyers. Projected cumulative change in deficit under the Republican plan +$56 billion $0 -$42 billion -$100 -$165 billion -$200 -$300 billion In 2026 -$337 billion 2017 2019 2022 2024 2026 +$56 billion $0 -$42 billion -$100 -$165 billion -$200 In 2026 -$337 billion -$300 billion 2017 2019 2022 2024 2026 The savings would have been substantially larger, but Republicans would also eliminate about $600 billion in taxes imposed under the Affordable Care Act, including taxes on investment income, prescription drugs and indoor tanning. 14 million fewer people will be enrolled in Medicaid in 10 years. The largest group of people to be affected by the Republican plan would be those with Medicaid coverage. Most of the declines would start in 2020, when the changes to the program would take effect. Number of people who would lose Medicaid coverage under the Republican plan 0 -4 -8 -9 million -12 In 2026 -14 million -16 million 2017 2020 2022 2024 2026 0 -4 -8 -9 million -12 In 2026 -14 million -16 million 2017 2020 2022 2024 2026 Under the current health care law, 31 states and the District of Columbia expanded Medicaid to cover low-income Americans without children, a group that previously found it difficult to afford insurance. Several states that expanded their Medicaid programs could reverse course if the Republican plan became law. The Republican plan does not repeal the expansion but would reduce funding for enrollees who gained access to Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The G.O.P. plan would also limit funding for all enrollees by giving states a fixed sum per enrollee, rather than making an open-ended commitment to provide funding based on need. Republican leaders have long argued that fixing federal funding for Medicaid would ultimately produce significant savings in the federal budget, and the C.B.O. estimates that changes to Medicaid would decrease direct spending by $880 billion over 10 years. Premiums will rise by 15 to 20 percent in the first couple of years, but decrease in 2020. Republican lawmakers cite rising premiums as a main reason for repealing the Affordable Care Act. The C.B.O. estimates that after an initial rise in average premiums, there would be an overall decrease beginning in 2020. By 2026, average premiums would be about 10 percent lower than under the current law. But the change in premiums would be significantly different, depending on age, because the Republican plan calls for charging more for older Americans than allowed under the current law. One of the biggest reasons premiums will go down is because insurance will become expensive for older people, causing them to leave the market, improving the risk pool. Under the Republican plan, the premium for a typical low-income 64-year-old, after subsidies, would jump to $14,600 a year, from $1,700 a year, but rise slightly for a 40-year-old with the same income. Net premium for a single individual with annual income of $26,500 Age Under Obamacare Under new plan 21 years old $1,700 $1,450 40 years old $1,700 $2,400 64 years old $1,700 $14,600 While premiums have risen under the current law, it shielded many Americans from increases because a majority of those buying insurance through the marketplaces received tax subsidies from the federal government. The subsidies were on a sliding scale according to income, to help offset some of the costs for middle-income Americans. The Republican plan, however, changes the way premium subsidies are calculated: they would be distributed by age, instead of income. That means that middle-income Americans earning just above the cutoff for Obamacare subsidies would get substantially more help paying for their health insurance. Net premium for a single individual with annual income of $68,200 Age Under Obamacare Under new plan 21 years old $5,100 $1,450 40 years old $6,500 $2,400 64 years old $15,300 $14,600 But experts say that tax credits for those earning more won’t have a meaningful effect in reducing the number of uninsured because most high-earners are already insured anyway. 7 million fewer people will be covered by their employers. About two million fewer people will be covered through work in 2020 under the Republican plan. By 2026, that number will be seven million, according to the C.B.O. That’s largely because fewer employers would offer coverage with the repeal of the employer mandate, which required large employers to offer affordable health insurance. ||||| Senate Republicans are showing fresh signs of concern about a House bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare after an analysis projected that tens of millions would become uninsured under the legislation. GOP senators stressed that they were still digesting the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis but signaled that they expect the House bill will likely need to be changed in light of the report. “At the end of the day we should pause and try to improve the product in the light of the CBO analysis rather than just rejecting it,” Sen. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamGOP lawmaker wants to force vote on bill protecting DACA recipients GOP chairmen: Comey may have cleared Clinton before interviewing her North Korea turns up the heat on Trump MORE (R-S.C.) told reporters. The CBO is projecting that under the House repeal and replace plan, the number of uninsured people would grow by 14 million in 2018, with that number rising to 24 million in a decade. Sen. John McCainJohn Sidney McCainMcCain urges USDA to delay catfish inspections The Hill's 12:30 Report Book tours are testing ground for 2020 race MORE (R-Ariz.) said he would wait until the House finishes changing the legislation to make a final decision, but said he was “always” concerned about individuals losing their health insurance. “I'm concerned more ...[about] what the House bill will do to Arizona especially since they expanded Medicaid,” he said. The CBO found that the spike in the number of uninsured Americans would largely be tied to the proposed changes to Medicaid. The House bill both ends the extra federal funds for the expansion of Medicaid and caps overall federal spending for the program, both of which CBO says would lead to people losing coverage. Pressed if he thought the House bill was dead on arrival in the upper chamber, McCain suggested that he was waiting to see what changes are made. "I'll have to wait until the House finishes ... before I make a judgement." House GOP leadership is pushing legislation, known as the American Health Care Act, that would dismantle core provisions of ObamaCare, including the Medicaid expansion, and put in place a new tax credit to help people buy insurance. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellTrump and Republicans have to make the tax code great again Mnuchin: More tax details coming shortly Federal debt increase wasn't what Americans had in mind when they voted GOP MORE (R-Ky.) said late last week that senators would have the chance to amend the legislation before it gets a final vote in the Senate, but that has done little to quell public criticism of the bill from his caucus. In a Monday evening statement, he said, “The takeaway from today’s announcement is clear: the Congressional Budget Office agrees that the American Health Care Act will ultimately lower premiums and increase access to care." He dinged the CBO report as "incomplete" and said it "only considers one piece of our three-prong approach." "And because this CBO report paints only a third of the picture, its statistics on coverage are obviously premature," he added. But Sen. Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsThe Memo: Trump allies say he needs a GOP scalp Maine’s GOP governor: Collins ‘unlikely’ to win gubernatorial primary Veteran launches Dem congressional bid in Maine MORE (R-Maine) said the CBO's findings should be a "cause for alarm" for lawmakers. "It should prompt the House to slow down and reconsider certain provisions of the bill," she said in a statement. "We need to spend the time necessary to get this right." Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who is pitching an alternative ObamaCare repeal and replace bill with Collins, told reporters on Monday that the CBO score is “awful.” The CBO analysis drew an immediate wave of criticism against the House bill from congressional Democrats. Reacting to the office’s analysis, Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersSanders returning to Colbert next week The Hill's 12:30 Report Democrats need a roster like the Patriots to make waves in 2018 MORE (I-Vt.) told reporters that under the House legislation “thousands of Americans will die.” But top Republicans showed no signs of backing away from the bill, which is still considered the main vehicle for ObamaCare repeal and replacement. Speaker Paul Ryan Paul RyanTrump to cut pay raises for government workers Trump and Republicans have to make the tax code great again Mnuchin: More tax details coming shortly MORE (R-Wis.) touted the analysis’s findings that the House bill would decrease premiums, reduce the deficit and provide tax relief. “I recognize and appreciate concerns about making sure people have access to coverage," he said in a statement. "[O]ur plan is not about forcing people to buy expensive, one-size-fits-all coverage. It is about giving people more choices and better access to a plan they want and can afford." Sen. John Cornyn John CornynSenate panel expected to hold hearing on immigration visas Conservative leader: Don't tie Harvey relief to debt ceiling Cruz rips Christie after Harvey criticism: He is 'desperate' for media spotlight MORE (R-Texas) separately told reporters that the CBO analysis “doesn’t include the whole picture.” "The CBO says that the main reason why those numbers go up is because people aren't punished for failing to buy government approved health insurance policies. So when you give people the freedom to choose what they think is good for them and their family, then some of them are going to choose not to buy it,” he said. Some Republicans, as well as Trump officials, publicly questioned the legitimacy of the CBO’s past findings in the wake of its report on the House bill. Graham, however, argued that his GOP colleagues should spending time reviewing and trying to address the the budget office’s findings. "We like the CBO when they agree with us,” the South Carolina senator told reporters. “When they don't, they're a bunch of losers." — Jessie Hellmann contributed. Updated 8:03 p.m. ||||| (Sarah Parnass,Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post) House Republicans’ proposal to rewrite federal health-care law would more than reverse the gains the Affordable Care Act has made in the number of Americans with health insurance, while curbing the federal deficit, according to a widely anticipated forecast by congressional analysts. The analysis, released late Monday afternoon by the Congressional Budget Office, predicts that 24 million fewer people would have coverage a decade from now than if the Affordable Care Act remains intact, nearly doubling the share of Americans who are uninsured from 10 percent to 19 percent. The office projects the number of uninsured people would jump 14 million after the first year But the GOP legislation, which has been speeding through House committees since it was introduced a week ago, would lower the deficit by $337 billion during that time, primarily by lessening spending on Medicaid and government aid for people buying health plans on their own. The report predicted that premiums would be 15 percent to 20 percent higher in the first year compared with those under the Affordable Care Act but 10 percent lower on average after 2026. By and large, older Americans would pay “substantially” more and younger Americans less. The 37-page report provides the most tangible evidence to date of the human and fiscal impact of the House GOP’s American Health Care Act. It also undermines President Trump’s pledge that no Americans would lose coverage under a Republican remake of the Affordable Care Act, which was enacted by a Democratic Congress in 2010. View Graphic What’s next for the Obamacare replacement bill The report’s arrival produced starkly different tacks from the White House and Capitol Hill — with top aides to the president immediately seeking to discredit it while the House’s Republican leaders praised the report for reinforcing their argument that the plan curbs federal spending and gives Americans the freedom to be insured or not — their choice. “Just absurd,” was the way Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, responded to the forecast, while Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said, “The CBO report’s coverage numbers defy logic.” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), meanwhile, said in a Fox News interview that the report “exceeded” his expectations, and he jumped on its prediction of a smaller deficit to try to assuage the chamber’s most conservative members, many of whom oppose the idea of new tax credits to help some Americans buy coverage on their own. Declaring that the plans would usher in “the most fundamental entitlement reform in a generation,” Ryan said the legislation “is about giving people more choices and better access to a plan they want and can afford. When people have more choices, costs go down. That’s what this report shows.” Despite that sales pitch, early signs emerged Monday night that the Congressional Budget Office report was not helping to solidify GOP support. Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) announced he would oppose the bill. “I do believe that we can enact meaningful health care reforms that put the patient and health care provider back at the center of our health care system, but this bill is not the right answer,” he said in a Facebook post. Wittman’s stance could represent a new front of dissent among House Republicans. A six-term member who leads a House Armed Services subcommittee and represents a district that favored Trump by 12 percentage points, Wittman is neither a hard-right firebrand nor a wary moderate from a Medicaid expansion state. Rather, he is the sort of mainstream conservative that Ryan is counting on to toe the party line and pass the bill. The release of the analysis marks the beginning of a new phase in the debate over the week-old health-care bill, which is moving through the House despite opposition from many Republicans, Democrats and major sectors of the U.S. health-care industry. Democrats used the report’s findings to continue excoriating the House GOP plan. “The CBO score shows just how empty the president’s promises, that everyone will be covered and costs will go down, have been,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). “This should be a looming stop sign for the Republicans’ repeal effort.” The analysis predicts that the number of people without health coverage would rise to 52 million by 2026, compared with 28 million if the Affordable Care Act remains intact. That erosion would mean that about 1 in 5 U.S. residents would be uninsured by 2026 — compared to 1 in 10 uninsured now and 1 in 6 who were uninsured before the Affordable Care Act was enacted. The reduction in the number of insured people would result from three factors. A provision rescinding the penalty imposed on the uninsured could prompt many Americans to drop their health plans. After that, tax credits that are less generous than current subsidies could make insurance unaffordable to more people. Finally, some states may undo the expansion of their Medicaid programs. [The GOP’s dramatic change in strategy to pass its health-care law] The conservative House Freedom Caucus did not immediately respond to the report. Moderate Republicans expressed concerns about the number of people who would lose coverage, foreshadowing possible problems for the legislation if it reaches the Senate. “These kinds of estimates are going to cause revisions in the bill, almost certainly,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). “I don’t think that the bill that is being considered now is the bill that ultimately will be the one that we vote on in the Senate.” In its current form, the House GOP proposal would administer Medicaid by giving each state a fixed amount of funding per person in the program rather than covering a fixed percentage of its Medicaid costs, no matter how high. The plan would also replace the Affordable Care Act’s federal insurance subsidies with age- and income-based tax credits, which would involve considerably less spending, the report shows. While the deficit would be lower, the legislation also would reduce federal revenue by $592 billion by 2026 by repealing several taxes that the Affordable Care Act created to help pay for more people to get insurance — notably taxes on high-income Americans, hospitals and health insurers. “They are implementing the biggest transfer of wealth in our history,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters Monday. “In terms of insurance coverage, it’s immoral. In terms of giving money to the rich at the expense of working families, it is indecent and wrong.” The White House has spent the past week engaged in a charm offensive aimed at bringing conservatives on board, as well as an effort to discredit the Congressional Budget Office before it released numbers. The Affordable Care Act has increased coverage by 20 million to 22 million — almost half of those through the insurance markets the law created for people who cannot get affordable coverage through a job, and the rest through an expansion of Medicaid in 31 states and the District of Columbia. On Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said Republicans “obviously” want to “improve those coverage numbers.” But Cornyn noted that, by eliminating the penalty for violating the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most Americans carry insurance, “some people are going to make the decision not to buy it.” The elimination of that penalty would account for the immediate increase in the uninsured. The estimates projected a significant drop in Medicaid enrollment. Next year, the forecast says, about 5 million fewer people would be on Medicaid. By 2026, the program’s rolls would shrink by nearly 15 million — almost 1 in 4 of the 68 million currently in the program. The Congressional Budget Office also predicted substantial disparities in the effect the legislation would have on insurance premiums for younger versus older consumers. If the GOP plan is enacted, a 21-year-old making $68,200 would pay an average of $1,450 for a year’s worth of insurance premiums after the new tax credits, compared with $5,100 under the current law. On the other hand, the cost of a year’s worth of premiums would stay about the same for a 64-year-old at the same income level. For a 64-year-old making $26,500, the cost would rise sharply, from $1,700 to $14,600. (Daron Taylor/The Washington Post) Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) criticized the plan’s approach to the elderly. “I’m not an attack person — you know that,” he said. “I don’t just attack because you’re on the other side of the aisle. But how can you look at yourself and say, ‘Okay, I’ll help the person who needs help the least, the wealthiest people, with more tax cuts, because I’m going to be taking away from the elderly population?’ ” The analysis also forecast a reduction in the number of Americans who get insurance through their employers, in part because the new tax credits would be available to people with higher incomes than with the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies. Some employers would also drop coverage, the Congressional Budget Office projected. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician and strong Affordable Care Act critic in the Senate, sounded apprehensive about the report’s implications. “President Trump said that he wants as many people covered as under Obamacare,” Cassidy said. “He said that health care should be affordable. If there’s 14 million people losing insurance, of course it’s concerning. I try to avoid hyperbole and adjectives, but it’s concerning.” Abby Phillip, Sean Sullivan and David Weigel contributed to this report. Read more at PowerPost

– The Republican Party was on damage control Monday after the release of a Congressional Budget Office report warning that 14 million people would lose coverage under the House's plan to replace ObamaCare, Politico reports. As some moderates backed away from the plan, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said White House officials "strenuously disagree" with the "not believable" CBO report, which predicts that 24 million fewer Americans will have health insurance a decade from now if the House health care plan replaces the Affordable Care Act. A roundup of coverage: House Speaker Paul Ryan went for a glass-half-full approach and highlighted the report's prediction of a smaller deficit, the Washington Post reports. The bill is about "giving people more choices and better access to a plan they want and can afford," Ryan said. "When people have more choices, costs go down." Top Republicans showed no sign of backing away from the bill after the report, though some GOP senators expressed deep misgivings, the Hill reports. Sen. Bill Cassidy called the CBO score "awful," while others said they would wait for the House's final version. Sen. Lindsey Graham said the chamber would work to improve the House product, not reject it. Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi held a joint press conference and called for the House bill to be dumped, the Guardian reports. "In terms of insurance coverage it's immoral, in terms of giving money to the rich at the expense of working families it is indecent and wrong," Pelosi said. House Republican Rob Wittman said he's opposing the House bill because of the CBO report. "It is clear that this bill is not consistent with the repeal and replace principles for which I stand," he said in a statement posted on Facebook. "I do not think this bill will do what is necessary for the short and long-term best interests of Virginians and therefore, I must oppose it." The New York Times takes a look at the report's findings and at who will be most affected by the House health bill. Those most likely to lose health insurance under the plan are low-income people without children who gained Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Vox has six charts explaining the CBO report, which it describes as "devastating" for the GOP health care plan.

Vacation photographs often capture perfect moments in favorite places. Send us your best ones by July 16 for a chance to win up to $1,000 in our Destinations Photo Contest. The top photographs submitted will also be featured in a national publication reaching more than 1 million households. ||||| DIETRICH, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho judge has sentenced a high school football player to three years of probation and 300 hours of community service after prosecutors said he took part in a brutal locker room assault on a black football player in a small Idaho town. The Times-News (http://bit.ly/2l9aA6f ) reports that District Court Judge Randy Stoker issued his decision Friday. John R.K. Howard of Keller, Texas, was originally charged with sexually assaulting his classmate after prosecutors said he kicked a coat hanger into the victim's rectum during the October 2015 incident at Dietrich High School. But in December, Howard pleaded guilty to felony injury to a child as part of a modified guilty plea, in which he acknowledged he would be found guilty in a trial but maintained his innocence. ___ Information from: The Times-News, http://www.magicvalley.com

– An Idaho judge has sentenced a high school football player to three years of probation and 300 hours of community service after prosecutors said he took part in a brutal locker room assault on a black football player in a small Idaho town, the AP reports. According to the Times-News, John Howard of Keller, Texas, was originally charged with sexually assaulting his classmate after prosecutors said he kicked a coat hanger into the victim's rectum during the October 2015 incident at Dietrich High School. But in December, Howard pleaded guilty to felony injury to a child as part of a modified guilty plea, in which he acknowledged he would be found guilty in a trial but maintained his innocence. District Court Judge Randy Stoker issued his decision Friday.

A woman was in critical condition after a swarm of bees attacked her and stung her more than 200 times. Hetty Chang reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Monday, July 16, 2018. (Published Tuesday, July 17, 2018) A woman remains hospitalized in critical condition after suffering over 200 bee stings in Lake Forest Monday morning, the Orange County Fire Authority said. When firefighters arrived to the 23000 block of Buckland Lane, they found "hundreds of bees" attached to the victim, OCFA Cpt. Tony Bommarito said. "Basically, she was literally covered from head to toe," he said. "Her face was completely covered with bees." Because of that, first responders bypassed normal protocols and jumped right in to save the woman without their usual protective gear. OC Woman Stung Hundreds of Times by Massive Bee Swarm A housekeeper showing up to work at a Lake Forest home Monday morning was greeted by a swarm of angry bees. She is now in critical condition after being stung over 200 times. Kim Baldonado reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Monday, July 16, 2018. (Published Monday, July 16, 2018) "[The bees] were almost in clusters," said Ryan Wilson, one of the OCFA paramedics who responded to the scene. "Maybe the size of a golf ball all over her... she had them on her face, around her mouth, around her ears, her neck and her hair." The firefighters grabbed a carbon dioxide spray, sprayed the woman to repel as many bees as they could, and tried to carry her to safety, Bommarito said. She was described as "barely conscious" by the time she was rescued. "They made an excellent decision today," Bommarito said. "Unfortunately, they weren't fully protected." Wilson and three other firefighters were stung in the process. Two were transported to Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, Bommarito said. They were in stable condition and later released, and are already back on duty. A witness who was also stung was later hospitalized when she was having trouble breathing. A bee company was called in and was later seen removing buckets full of bees and beehives from the area. The victim, a cleaning woman in her mid-50s who worked in a nearby house, was in much graver condition due to the sheer number of stings she suffered, according to Bommarito. Despite the firefighters' best efforts, she was still covered in bees when she arrived at the emergency room. Her son, however, said she was expected to survive. "When you get somebody stung hundreds of times, [bees] injecting that venom, you're gonna have a serious issue," Bommarito said. "Anybody, allergy or not, is gonna be in serious condition after that." ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video A woman was critically injured after being stung “hundreds of times” by a swarm of bees in Lake Forest Monday morning, and three others — including two firefighters — were also injured, officials said. The incident occurred about 10:25 a.m. when firefighters responded to a report of a bee sting in the 23000 block of Buckland Lane, the Orange County Fire Authority tweeted. The woman was basically covered with bees from head to toe when officials arrived, said Ryan Wilson, one of the four firefighters credited with saving her life. “As we approached her — I got maybe 15, 20 feet from her — and I could see clumps of bees all over her body,” Wilson told KTLA. Several hundred were on her face alone, “in her hair, just kind of intertwined and kind of engulfed her whole head,” Wilson said. “They were in sheets, kind of, attached to her all over — in her ear, her neck.” The swarm was so severe that firefighters didn't have time to put the special safety gear on that they would normally wear while responding to such incidents, according to Fire Authority Capt. Tony Bommarito. “They got out, they started felling the bees, they saw the patient down this cul-de-sac completely covered — her face was completely covered with bees," he said. They grabbed an extinguisher in an effort to remove the bulk of the bees off of the victim, then “basically dragged” her to a safe area about 200 yards away. “She was kind of just struck over with fear, and I kept grabbing her, telling her, ‘Let’s go,’ and she had bees all over her arms," Wilson said. "So we made the decision just to grab her, and take off and get out of the area, because we didn’t know where the bees were coming from.” The woman, a 48-year-old housekeeper named Maria, had gone out to a vehicle to grab cleaning supplies when she was attacked, according to the homeowner. The victim was stung at least 200 times, fire officials said, and she was taken to a hospital in critical condition. A beekeeper who removed the hive estimated there were between 60,000 and 80,000 bees. The woman was intubated an the intensive care unit Monday night, her family told firefighters, but was expected to recover and be released within the next few days. The firefighters were also stung “multiple times” and taken to a hospital in stable condition, but returned to work later Monday afternoon. A few hours after, an ambulance was sent to the home to transport the homeowner, who was also stung but didn't feel or complain about symptoms until later. Her condition was not immediately known. KTLA's Erika Martin contributed to this report. Please enable Javascript to watch this video ||||| A woman was in critical condition Monday, July 16, after she was stung hundreds of times by bees in Lake Forest, and two firefighters were hospitalized after also getting stung several times while trying to help her. Firefighters found the woman, in her 50s, covered in bees, about 10:30 a.m., Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Tony Bommarito said. They sprayed the woman with a carbon-dioxide extinguisher after finding her outside a home in the 23000 block of Buckland Lane. “Usually when there’s time, (the firefighters) are able to fully put on their gear,” he said. “But this time they just went in to try to get the bees off of her.” Lake Forest Bee Swarm: Large bee hive within the bushes being removed by bee expert. pic.twitter.com/YanPJojx0S — OCFA PIO (@OCFA_PIO) July 16, 2018 The victim was a housekeeper who had walked out to her vehicle to retrieve some cleaning items when she was stung by bees from a bee hive near the car. The woman was stung up to 200 times, primarily on her arms, neck and face, Bommarito said. Late Monday, the OCFA said in a tweet that according to her son, the woman was doing better and was expected to survive. Two firefighters were taken to a hospital to be treated for bee stings, with one given medication due to an allergic reaction. Both were released later in the day, and returned to work, Bommarito said. Authorities found a large bee hive within bushes that was removed by a beekeeper.

– "Her face was completely covered with bees." So said a captain with the Orange County Fire Authority of a woman who was stung more than 200 times on Monday. Cpt. Tony Bommarito tells NBC Southern California she was essentially covered head to toe. The scene in Lake Forest was so bad that responders opted against protocol and didn't suit up in protective gear before coming to the aid of the woman, identified by KTLA as a 48-year-old named Maria. They used carbon dioxide spray in an attempt to get the bees to release and carried her, "barely conscious," from the scene. A paramedic and three firefighters suffered stings themselves, two badly enough to be briefly hospitalized themselves. As for the primary victim, the Orange County Register reports she's a housekeeper who had gone to get cleaning supplies from her car, which was parked near the hive. She is expected to survive. NBC Southern California describes a bee company as later "removing buckets full of bees and beehives from the area." KTLA reports the removal company estimated the hive held as many as 80,000 bees. (This hiker died after being smothered by bees.)

PLEASANTON, Calif. (CN) — A gag gift that a black employee did not find funny has landed a Bay Area construction company owner in court, for giving her a photo of himself dressed as Donald Trump in front of a Confederate flag, inside a rhinestone purse also emblazoned with the Stars and Bars. Tishay Wright sued Southland Construction Management and its supervisors and co-owners Kenneth and Anita Hayden on Thursday in Alameda County Court, on 12 causes of action, including racial discrimination and harassment, retaliation, assault and battery and wrongful firing. Wright, a project administrator at the Pleasanton business, says that Kenneth Hayden retaliated for her objecting to his calling her a “bitch�? by giving her a rhinestone purse at the company Christmas party, emblazoned with the Confederate flag. Inside the purse, she says, were photographs of Kenneth Hayden dressed as Trump, and his wife as a Trump supporter, both posing in front of Confederate flags hung above Wright’s desk. The slogans “The Southland Shall Rise Again�? and “Make Southland Great Again�? were written on the flags in capital letters. In one photograph, the gift purse hung from Anita Hayden’s shoulder. Wright “returned home in tears after opening the gift, horrified, humiliated and deeply fearful that the owners of Southland would go to these lengths to silence and intimidate her after her multiple complaints to management,�? she says in the complaint. Her “shock and horror over the purse and pictures depicting racist symbolism and a hostile potential violent message caused her to become increasingly nauseous and anxiety-ridden.�? Southland could not be reached for comment after business hours Thursday. Wright, who began working for Southland in 2015, says the Haydens used racist language openly and regularly around their employees, with “we’ll just make the Mexicans do it�? a common refrain. When the Haydens were unhappy with their work, they would say Mexicans are lazy and would work for beer, according to the complaint. Wright says Kenneth Hayden told a Sikh intern to “go get your people before they blow something up.�? Wright says the Haydens gave her the purse as payback after she complained to management that Kenneth Hayden had called her and another female employee into his office and told them: “Ya’ll are my bitches and you’re going to take notes for the smaller projects coming up.�? When she objected to the language, she says, Kenneth Hayden told her: “This is the way I talk and if you don’t like it and can’t work with me then you don’t have to.�? The Haydens then reduced her job responsibilities, taking her off a large project and effectively demoting her to a receptionist, she says. They fired her in March, she says, after she told Anita Hayden it was unacceptable to give a black employee the gifts they had given her. She seeks damages and punitive damages, for charges that include racial and gender harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She is represented by Christopher Dolan in San Francisco, who could not be reached for comment after hours Thursday. Like this: Like Loading... ||||| Dolan Law Firm posted in Case News on San Francisco, CA – June 8, 2017 – The Dolan Law Firm, on behalf of their client, Ms. Tishay Wright, filed suit today against Southland Construction Management Inc. and its owners Kenneth & Anita Hayden for racial discrimination and harassment. Ms. Wright, an African American woman, was repeatedly subject to unwanted racial commentary, stereotypes and differential treatment because of her race and gender. The lawsuit claims that Kenneth Hayden, Southland’s CEO, and Anita Hayden, its CFO, in addition to unwanted racist comments, decorated the office with photographs of President Trump and Confederate flags stating “THE SOUTHLAND SHALL RISE AGAIN.” Proud of their handiwork, The Haydens had photographs taken of themselves in front of the offensive symbol of slavery with Kenneth dressed as Donald Trump and Anita photographed appearing to be a Trump supporter with a confederate flag purse strung over her shoulder. The purse was later given to Ms. Wright by Mr. Hayden as a Christmas gift at the company Christmas Party with the offensive photos of him and his wife inside. Ms. Wright stated she was bringing the lawsuit, “Because no one should be treated this way in America in the year 2017. This is not Alabama in the 1940’s. This country is going backwards and it has to stop.” Her lawyer Christopher Dolan stated, “This is just a sign of how people feel empowered by our current President, and his racist and sexist statements about women and minorities, to blatantly harass and discriminate against others. The message couldn’t be any clearer: ‘I stand with Trump and I’m racist. If you don’t like it then get out of my business and out of my country.’ Gratefully we still have the courts and civil rights lawyers to stop those like the Haydens and President Trump and hold them accountable.” Legal Resources: Wright v Southland Construction Complaint Copyright Notice: The above photos that were given to Ms. Wright and the subject of this lawsuit may be used for informational purposes as well discussions and reports on the lawsuit. We request you state that the photos were provided by the Dolan Law Firm or that the Dolan Law Firm was the source of the photos. Thank you. About the Dolan Law Firm The Dolan Law Firm lawyers fight to safeguard the rights of employees across California. We are committed to obtaining compensation for the harm our clients suffered and making lasting changes in company practices. We are proud to have assisted our clients in ensuring that their employers implement hiring, pay, promotion, and evaluation practices that are fair and transparent for all employees. ||||| Racial bias alleged at construction firm An African American project manager at a Pleasanton construction company filed a racial-discrimination and harassment lawsuit Thursday against her former bosses, alleging they gave her photos of themselves dressed in President Trump-related costumes and posing with Confederate flags. Tishay Wright filed the suit in Alameda County Superior Court, charging that the offensive behavior of the owners of Southland Construction was part of a pattern of harassment against women and minorities. “I kept being told by my family to not be afraid to speak up,” Wright said of the decision to bring the lawsuit. “I come from Berkeley, Calif. — I’ve never encountered anything like this.” Wright was hired at the company in June 2015; she alleged that the two years she worked there were punctuated by incidents that created a hostile work environment. In one, she said, her employers gave her photos of themselves posing at her desk with Confederate flags emblazoned with the words “the Southland shall rise again.” Tishay Wright said her former boss Kenneth Hayden gave her this photo of himself dressed as President Trump in front of a Confederate flag. Tishay Wright said her former boss Kenneth Hayden gave her this photo of himself dressed as President Trump in front of a Confederate flag. Tishay Wright said her former boss Kenneth Hayden gave her this photo of Anita Hayden. Tishay Wright said her former boss Kenneth Hayden gave her this photo of Anita Hayden. Tishay Wright’s lawyer, Christopher Dolan, talks about the lawsuit at The Dolan Law Firm in San Francisco. Tishay Wright’s lawyer, Christopher Dolan, talks about the lawsuit at The Dolan Law Firm in San Francisco. Photo: Dolan Law Firm Tishay Wright holds the purse she says she was given by her former employers. Tishay Wright holds the purse she says she was given by her former employers. Photo: Dolan Law Firm window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-5', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 5', target_type: 'mix' }); _taboola.push({flush: true}); Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Racial bias alleged at construction firm 1 / 5 Back to Gallery She said she Googled the Confederate flag in disbelief, just to make sure that really was what the images showed. “I couldn’t believe what I had received from my bosses,” Wright said tearfully. “It takes me back to slavery days. I am not a slave.” Wright alleged that Southland co-owners Anita and Kenneth Hayden became hostile to her after she complained about Kenneth Hayden allegedly telling her and another female employee, “Y’all are my bitches and you’re going to take notes for the smaller projects coming up.” Then, at a “white elephant” gift exchange at a company Christmas party, the lawsuit alleges, Kenneth Hayden did not allow Wright to pick her present, instead giving her a separate, wrapped gift. When she got back to her car, Wright claims, she discovered the bag contained a Confederate flag purse with photos of her bosses dressed as President Trump and a Trump supporter posing with Confederate flags. Wright also alleges her employers would make racially insensitive comments like, “We’ll just let the Mexicans do it,” and joked that Mexican workers could be paid in beer. She is seeking undisclosed punitive and compensatory damages. Southland Construction did not immediately respond for a request for comment on the allegations. Wright’s lawyer, Christopher Dolan, said the case has symbolic importance and “shows what’s going wrong with this country.” “I’ve dealt with discrimination cases, race-based cases,” Dolan said. “I’ve never dealt with something so offensive, so proud to inflict an injurious message on another person.” Filipa Ioannou is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @obioannoukenobi

– A black employee at a Bay Area-based construction firm is suing the company for racial discrimination and harassment, alleging that her supervisor gave her Confederate-themed gifts at a holiday party before firing her in March. Tishay Wright, a former project administrator at Southland Construction Management, claims the gifts were retaliation from boss and co-owner Kenneth Hayden after Wright objected to him calling her and another female employee “my bitches,” Courthouse News reports. According to SF Gate, the suit says Hayden stopped Wright from picking a present at an anonymous company Christmas exchange and handed her a special wrapped gift. Inside she found a Confederate flag-decorated purse with photos inside of Hayden dressed as President Trump sitting before a Confederate flag and posters reading “The Southland Shall Rise Again” and “Make Southland Great Again.” “I couldn’t believe what I had received from my bosses,” Wright says. “It takes me back to slavery days. I am not a slave.” Wright claims she was fired in March after telling co-owner Anita Hayden that the gifts were inappropriate. The suit alleges further discriminatory workplace behavior by the Haydens, claiming that along with reducing her responsibilities after she complained about Kenneth’s language, the supervisors used racist rhetoric, including telling a Sikh intern to “go get your people before they blow something up" and often joking that Mexican workers could be paid in beer. Southland Construction has yet to issue a statement regarding the complaint filed on Thursday. “I kept being told by my family to not be afraid to speak up,” says Wright, who hails from liberal Berkeley, where she “never encountered anything like this.”

Story highlights There were 939 hate groups in 2013, Southern Poverty Law Center says That represents a 7% decline from 2012 Trend among Ku Klux Klan is leaving the Internet Far-right extremist groups had been on the rise, particularly in reaction to President Obama's election in 2008 and the financial crisis around the same time. But now, hate group prevalence is taking a downward turn, according to a report released Tuesday. The number of hate groups declined 7% from 2012 to 2013, the Southern Poverty Law Center said in the report. "We had four years of spectacular growth of the radical right," said Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Now, it "seems to be turning a corner." It's unclear whether the decline will continue, Potok said. There were 1,007 groups in 2012 and 939 last year, but those numbers are still substantially higher than in 1999, when there were only 457 such groups. "Patriot" groups in particular saw a significant drop, falling 19% from 1,360 groups in 2012 to 1,096 in 2013. These anti-government groups had been strengthening in numbers substantially; there were only 149 of them in 2008. JUST WATCHED Mom defends son's KKK costume Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Mom defends son's KKK costume 01:29 JUST WATCHED KKK sues Georgia to 'Adopt-a-Highway' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH KKK sues Georgia to 'Adopt-a-Highway' 01:57 The report attributed the overall declines in hate groups to factors such as Obama's re-election, an improving economy and law enforcement crackdowns. "In other words, the same groups that were galvanized by Obama's first election and swelled dramatically as a result, were demoralized by his re-election, which seemed to signal that their battle was lost despite enormous effort," Potok wrote in the report. Reasons for the trend Mainstream politicians have also adopted right-wing extremist issues, which could be another reason for the drop. Laws in Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Tennessee aim to stop Islamic Shariah law from being imposed on American courts, the report said, even though that could not happen under the Constitution. State legislatures also have passed or considered laws that try to "nullify" federal legislation, which courts have repeatedly found to be unconstitutional, the report said. This "nullification" idea dates to the defense of slavery before the Civil War, resurrected "by Southern states resisting school desegregation and the civil rights movement." Extremist groups also suffered because of their own internal dynamics, the report said, citing the National Alliance, which has gone from 1,400 people to under 100 since its founder died in 2002. The law center attributed the decline of this group -- which used to be the best organized in America -- to "its new leader's ineptitude and the SPLC's exposure of a series of embarrassing secrets about the group and its leaders." But although fewer groups may be active, violence and terrorism stemming from them are still very much present, Potok said. "When the groups are more out of step with public opinion, when they are weaker and more weakly led, is often when you see followers strike out violently," he said. For instance, a self-described member of the Ku Klux Klan and an accomplice were arrested and charged with conspiracy to provide material support for use of a weapon of mass destruction last year, according to the criminal complaint. Federal officials said they were planning to develop a mobile X-ray system that would be used kill people whom they deemed "undesirable." Feds nab KKK member, accomplice for lethal X-ray plot Some geographic areas are more concentrated with extremist groups than others. California has the distinction of being the state with the most number of hate groups -- 77 -- followed by Florida with 58 and Texas with 57, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center's interactive map. A move toward secrecy Besides the obvious clash of values, there's an emerging trend among some extremist groups that runs counter to mainstream American society: leaving the Internet. In some ways, that's not surprising, Potok said, because the more serious groups have always been underground. Ku Klux Klan groups "held steady" with 163 chapters in 2013, but they are dampening their online presence, the report said. They appear to be leaving the Internet "in an apparent bid to regain the secrecy that marked their heyday." A major specific group that ditched their digital presence is the United White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which has 30 "klaverns" (chapters), the report said. More recently, the 10-chapter Fraternal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan declared that it had "gone underground so we can be more productive in our struggle. The only way you will be able to contact us from now on is through the old way, word of mouth," according to the report. The group added, according to the report: "We are everywhere." ||||| Potok noted in the report that groups on the far right were "demoralized" by President Obama's reelection. Their inability to stop growing support for controversial issues such as gay marriage and marijuana legalization has also been frustrating. And last year's congressional inaction on gun control and immigration reform removed two issues that would have given the groups something to fight. In fact, the center said, several anti-LGBT groups shifted their focus to fighting gay rights abroad.

– Tough times for the far right? The number of militias, skinhead gangs, and other extremist groups in the US dropped last year for the first time since 1999, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The hate-group watchdog found that the number of extreme-right groups dropped around 14% to 2,035, though it says the fall followed "four years of explosive growth," reports CNN. The number of organizations classed as hate groups dropped 7% to 939—up from just 457 in 1999. "Patriot" groups dropped by 19% to 1,096, but there were only 149 such groups in 2008. The drop is owed to many factors, including internal squabbles, legal troubles, the improving economy, widespread demoralization at President Obama's re-election—and the adoption of some extremist policies by mainstream politicians, the SPLC says. But despite the drop in numbers, the center warns that far-right extremists are still a serious threat, reports the Los Angeles Times. "The radical right is growing leaner and meaner," a senior fellow at the center says. "The numbers are down somewhat, but the potential for violence remains high."

As sensational reports about Lamar Odom‘s drug addiction swirl, the NBA star believes the Kardashian family leaked negative stories about his alleged use of crack cocaine, but he doesn’t believe his wife Khloe Kardashian has had any role in the negative stories being made public, RadarOnline.com is exclusively reporting. Lamar “absolutely believes Khloe’s family has been leaking stories to the tabloid press about his drug use, and his trip to rehab last year. Khloe has been very private about Lamar’s drug addiction, as she had done for the past year,” a family insider exclusively told Radar. “The last thing Lamar needs is for his battle to get sober made public. Khloe is also extremely angry that details about Lamar’s past trip to rehab and recent failed intervention were published on various gossip websites.” Now that Lamar’s alleged drug use is out in the open, “he will be obviously be subjected to increased drug testing by the NBA which has a very tough policy on using illegal substances and steroids,” the insider continued. Inside Khloe Kardashian & Lamar Odom’s Crumbling Marriage: The Couple Tried Counseling ‘For Months’ — Before His Serial Affairs “Lamar is a free agent, and of course, that could hurt his chances of being signed by an NBA team. Basketball is Lamar’s life, and it’s been hard for him to go from being a starter, to the sixth man sitting on the bench.” As Radar previously reported, the Kardashian family fears Lamar has become hooked on the drugs OxyContin and Ambien and even secretly went to rehab last August. Khloe and Lamar have been in marriage counseling until he abruptly stopped in June — around the time he began an alleged six-week affair with California lawyer Polina Polonsky. Her tawdry tale followed Lamar’s first accuser, Jennifer Richardson, who claims she met Lamar in January 2012 at the Stadium Strip Club in Washington, D.C., after he played a game for the Dallas Mavericks. GALLERY: Dumped, Deceived and Devastated – 50 Stars Betrayed By Their Men The pair reportedly rekindled their flirtation after a chance meeting in the lobby of the Charlotte, N.C., Ritz Carlton Hotel, eleven months later. Meanwhile, ESPN is reporting that Lamar is holed up in a Los Angeles hotel, as friends urge him to get help. Lamar’s sports agent shot down a report from over the weekend that he had been missing for 72 hours. “Lamar is not missing. His wife knows exactly where he is. Playing in the NBA is still very much a part of Lamar’s plans,” his agent, Jeff Schwartz told ESPN. ||||| Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom have taken a giant step toward an unlikely reconciliation after the reality star allowed her troubled husband to move back — for now — into the couple’s multi-million dollar mansion, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned. Odom, 33, was spotted late on Monday afternoon driving into the gated community where he and Khloe, 29, live. A source close to the couple confirmed to Radar that he was still at the Tarzana, Calif., home as of Tuesday afternoon. The apparent reunion followed Odom’s ultimatum to his wife of four years, as we first reported. “Let me move back into the house or I am going to file for divorce,” the ex-Los Angeles Clipper star told Khloe, according to a source. PHOTOS: The Costliest Celebrity Divorces In the wake of two women coming forward to sensationally claim that he had bedded them, the two-time NBA championship star had moved into a hotel while Kardashian lived at the marital home. She had been “refusing to let Lamar even set foot in the house right now,” the source said. But Odom had grown “tired of living in hotels” and threatened to “file for divorce because he is tired of the situation.” Tellingly, Kardashian was also spotted on Tuesday wearing her wedding ring, just four days after taking it off. Odom returned home after a failed intervention by teammates from the Los Angeles Clippers, his former team the Los Angeles Lakers and agent Jeff Schwartz on Monday afternoon at a Los Angeles hotel, who all encouraged him to seek treatment for an addiction to OxyContin. GALLERY: Hollywood Divorce Lawyers Tell All — Prostitutes, Cross Dressing, Drugs & More Shocking Split Secrets The dramatic talks lasted three hours during which Odom appeared to be under the influence of a substance, a source inside the room said. “There was a bit of time it appeared that Lamar was going to admit publicly his addiction and go to rehab, again,” the source told Radar. “But then, he abruptly bolted from the hotel and left the premises.” We now know he returned home. ||||| Lamar Odom RETURNS HOME TO KHLOE 'Listening to Reason' Lamar Odom -- RETURNS HOME TO KHLOE KARDASHIAN ... 'Listening to Reason' EXCLUSIVE has finally returned home ... with... but he remains undecided about seeking treatment for drug addiction, TMZ has learned.Odom returned to his L.A. pad Monday after going off the grid for several days. Sources tell us both Lamar and Khloe are inside the home and addressing some serious issues, including Lamar's out-of-control crack problem.We're told there's still no talk of divorce -- and Khloe is determined to help Lamar get his life back on track.One source tells us Lamar is "open to reason and listening to the people who love him the most" ... a drastic change from a week ago, when L.O. rejected an attempted intervention.We're told no decision has been made on possible treatment, but Lamar is "receptive."Lamar seemed to be in good spirits Monday night -- when he was spotted out on a gas run near the home and stopped to pose for a photo with a young fan.We know ... several of Lamar's NBA friends have tried to reach out to him, but it seems for the most part, L.O. is keeping to himself.

– Good news for those of us who still believe in true love: Lamar Odom is back home with wife Khloe Kardashian, TMZ reports. To catch you up, Lamar reportedly went missing after skipping out on a drug intervention Khloe wanted to throw him, but then it turned out he was just hiding out with friends in a hotel. Despite rumors that the marriage has gone down the tubes, TMZ says they're not discussing divorce, and a source says Odom is "open to reason" as far as his drug problems go. He's supposedly "receptive" to treatment, but still undecided. Radar has a slightly less romantic take on the whole thing; it reports that Odom's return home followed an ultimatum he gave Kardashian: "Let me move back into the house or I am going to file for divorce." Radar also claims Lamar blames the Kardashians, but not Khloe herself, for leaking all the recent stories about his drug abuse. Odom "absolutely believes Khloe’s family has been leaking stories to the tabloid press," a source says. "Khloe is also extremely angry that details about Lamar’s past trip to rehab and recent failed intervention were published on various gossip websites."

Mandiant provided an advance copy of its report to The New York Times , saying it hoped to “bring visibility to the issues addressed in the report.” Times reporters then tested the conclusions with other experts, both inside and outside government, who have examined links between the hacking groups and the army (Mandiant was hired by The New York Times Company to investigate a sophisticated Chinese-origin attack on its news operations, but concluded it was not the work of Comment Crew, but another Chinese group. The firm is not currently working for the Times Company but it is in discussions about a business relationship.) While Comment Crew has drained terabytes of data from companies like Coca-Cola , increasingly its focus is on companies involved in the critical infrastructure of the United States — its electrical power grid, gas lines and waterworks. According to the security researchers, one target was a company with remote access to more than 60 percent of oil and gas pipelines in North America . The unit was also among those that attacked the computer security firm RSA, whose computer codes protect confidential corporate and government databases. Contacted Monday, officials at the Chinese embassy in Washington again insisted that their government does not engage in computer hacking, and that such activity is illegal. They describe China itself as a victim of computer hacking, and point out, accurately, that there are many hacking groups inside the United States. But in recent years the Chinese attacks have grown significantly, security researchers say. Mandiant has detected more than 140 Comment Crew intrusions since 2006. American intelligence agencies and private security firms that track many of the 20 or so other Chinese groups every day say those groups appear to be contractors with links to the unit. And the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday that the allegations were ‘‘unprofessional.’’ ‘‘Making unfounded accusations based on preliminary results is both irresponsible and unprofessional, and is not helpful for the resolution of the relevant problem,’’ said Hong Lei, a ministry spokesman. ‘‘China resolutely opposes hacking actions and has established relevant laws and regulations and taken strict law enforcement measures to defend against online hacking activities.’’ While the unit’s existence and operations are considered a Chinese state secret, Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan , the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview that the Mandiant report was “completely consistent with the type of activity the Intelligence Committee has been seeing for some time.” The White House said it was “aware” of the Mandiant report, and Tommy Vietor, the spokesman for the National Security Council , said, “We have repeatedly raised our concerns at the highest levels about cybertheft with senior Chinese officials, including in the military, and we will continue to do so.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story The United States government is planning to begin a more aggressive defense against Chinese hacking groups, starting on Tuesday. Under a directive signed by President Obama last week, the government plans to share with American Internet providers information it has gathered about the unique digital signatures of the largest of the groups, including Comment Crew and others emanating from near where Unit 61398 is based. But the government warnings will not explicitly link those groups, or the giant computer servers they use, to the Chinese army. The question of whether to publicly name the unit and accuse it of widespread theft is the subject of ongoing debate. “There are huge diplomatic sensitivities here,” said one intelligence official, with frustration in his voice. But Obama administration officials say they are planning to tell China’s new leaders in coming weeks that the volume and sophistication of the attacks have become so intense that they threaten the fundamental relationship between Washington and Beijing . The United States government also has cyberwarriors. Working with Israel , the United States has used malicious software called Stuxnet to disrupt Iran ’s uranium enrichment program. But government officials insist they operate under strict, if classified, rules that bar using offensive weapons for nonmilitary purposes or stealing corporate data. Photo The United States finds itself in something of an asymmetrical digital war with China. “In the cold war, we were focused every day on the nuclear command centers around Moscow ,” one senior defense official said recently. “Today, it’s fair to say that we worry as much about the computer servers in Shanghai.” A Shadowy Unit Unit 61398 — formally, the 2nd Bureau of the People’s Liberation Army’s General Staff Department’s 3rd Department — exists almost nowhere in official Chinese military descriptions. Yet intelligence analysts who have studied the group say it is the central element of Chinese computer espionage. The unit was described in 2011 as the “premier entity targeting the United States and Canada , most likely focusing on political, economic, and military-related intelligence” by the Project 2049 Institute, a nongovernmental organization in Virginia that studies security and policy issues in Asia . While the Obama administration has never publicly discussed the Chinese unit’s activities, a secret State Department cable written the day before Barack Obama was elected president in November 2008 described at length American concerns about the group’s attacks on government sites. (At the time American intelligence agencies called the unit “Byzantine Candor,” a code word dropped after the cable was published by WikiLeaks .) Advertisement Continue reading the main story The Defense Department and the State Department were particular targets, the cable said, describing how the group’s intruders send e-mails, called “spearphishing” attacks, that placed malware on target computers once the recipient clicked on them. From there, they were inside the systems. American officials say that a combination of diplomatic concerns and the desire to follow the unit’s activities have kept the government from going public. But Mandiant’s report is forcing the issue into public view. For more than six years, Mandiant tracked the actions of Comment Crew, so named for the attackers’ penchant for embedding hidden code or comments into Web pages. Based on the digital crumbs the group left behind — its attackers have been known to use the same malware, Web domains, Internet protocol addresses, hacking tools and techniques across attacks — Mandiant followed 141 attacks by the group, which it called “A.P.T. 1” for Advanced Persistent Threat 1. “But those are only the ones we could easily identify,” said Mr. Mandia. Other security experts estimate that the group is responsible for thousands of attacks. As Mandiant mapped the Internet protocol addresses and other bits of digital evidence, it all led back to the edges of Pudong district of Shanghai, right around the Unit 61398 headquarters. The group’s report, along with 3,000 addresses and other indicators that can be used to identify the source of attacks, concludes “the totality of the evidence” leads to the conclusion that “A.P.T. 1 is Unit 61398.” Mandiant discovered that two sets of I.P. addresses used in the attacks were registered in the same neighborhood as Unit 61398’s building. “It’s where more than 90 percent of the attacks we followed come from,” said Mr. Mandia. The only other possibility, the report concludes with a touch of sarcasm, is that “a secret, resourced organization full of mainland Chinese speakers with direct access to Shanghai-based telecommunications infrastructure is engaged in a multiyear enterprise-scale computer espionage campaign right outside of Unit 61398’s gates.” The most fascinating elements of the Mandiant report follow the keystroke-by-keystroke actions of several of the hackers who the firm believes work for the P.L.A. Mandiant tracked their activities from inside the computer systems of American companies they were invading. The companies had given Mandiant investigators full access to rid them of the Chinese spies. 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. One of the most visible hackers it followed is UglyGorilla, who first appeared on a Chinese military forum in January 2004, asking whether China has a “similar force” to the “cyber army” being set up by the American military. Advertisement Continue reading the main story By 2007 UglyGorilla was turning out a suite of malware with what the report called a “clearly identifiable signature.” Another hacker, called “DOTA” by Mandiant, created e-mail accounts that were used to plant malware. That hacker was tracked frequently using a password that appeared to be based on his military unit’s designation. DOTA and UglyGorilla both used the same I.P. addresses linked back to Unit 61398’s neighborhood. Mandiant discovered several cases in which attackers logged into their Facebook and Twitter accounts to get around China’s firewall that blocks ordinary citizen’s access, making it easier to track down their real identities. Mandiant also discovered an internal China Telecom memo discussing the state-owned telecom company’s decision to install high-speed fiber-optic lines for Unit 61398’s headquarters. China’s defense ministry has denied that it is responsible for initiating attacks. “It is unprofessional and groundless to accuse the Chinese military of launching cyberattacks without any conclusive evidence,” it said last month, one of the statements that prompted Mandiant to make public its evidence. Escalating Attacks Mandiant believes Unit 61398 conducted sporadic attacks on American corporate and government computer networks; the earliest it found was in 2006. Two years ago the numbers spiked. Mandiant discovered some of the intrusions were long-running. On average the group would stay inside a network, stealing data and passwords, for a year; in one case it had access for four years and 10 months. Mandiant has watched the group as it has stolen technology blueprints, manufacturing processes, clinical trial results, pricing documents, negotiation strategies and other proprietary information from more than 100 of its clients, mostly in the United States. Mandiant identified attacks on 20 industries, from military contractors to chemical plants, mining companies and satellite and telecommunications corporations. Video Mandiant’s report does not name the victims, who usually insist on anonymity. A 2009 attack on Coca-Cola coincided with the beverage giant’s failed attempt to acquire the China Huiyuan Juice Group for $2.4 billion, according to people with knowledge of the results of the company’s investigation. As Coca-Cola executives were negotiating what would have been the largest foreign purchase of a Chinese company, Comment Crew was busy rummaging through their computers in an apparent effort to learn more about Coca-Cola’s negotiation strategy. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The attack on Coca-Cola began, like hundreds before it, with a seemingly innocuous e-mail to an executive that was, in fact, a spearphishing attack. When the executive clicked on a malicious link in the e-mail, it gave the attackers a foothold inside Coca-Cola’s network. From inside, they sent confidential company files through a maze of computers back to Shanghai, on a weekly basis, unnoticed. Two years later, Comment Crew was one of at least three Chinese-based groups to mount a similar attack on RSA, the computer security company owned by EMC , a large technology company. It is best known for its SecurID token, carried by employees at United States intelligence agencies, military contractors and many major companies. (The New York Times also uses the firm’s tokens to allow access to its e-mail and production systems remotely.) RSA has offered to replace SecurID tokens for customers and said it had added new layers of security to its products. As in the Coca-Cola case, the attack began with a targeted, cleverly fashioned poisoned e-mail to an RSA employee. Two months later, hackers breached Lockheed Martin , the nation’s largest defense contractor, partly by using the information they gleaned from the RSA attack. Mandiant is not the only private firm tracking Comment Crew. In 2011, Joe Stewart, a Dell SecureWorks researcher, was analyzing malware used in the RSA attack when he discovered that the attackers had used a hacker tool to mask their true location. When he reverse-engineered the tool, he found that the vast majority of stolen data had been transferred to the same range of I.P. addresses that Mandiant later identified in Shanghai. Dell SecureWorks says it believed Comment Crew includes the same group of attackers behind Operation Shady RAT, an extensive computer espionage campaign uncovered in 2011 in which more than 70 organizations over a five-year period, including the United Nations , government agencies in the United States, Canada, South Korea , Taiwan and Vietnam were targeted. Infrastructure at Risk What most worries American investigators is that the latest set of attacks believed coming from Unit 61398 focus not just on stealing information, but obtaining the ability to manipulate American critical infrastructure: the power grids and other utilities. Staff at Digital Bond, a small security firm that specializes in those industrial-control computers, said that last June Comment Crew unsuccessfully attacked it. A part-time employee at Digital Bond received an e-mail that appeared to come from his boss, Dale Peterson. The e-mail, in perfect English, discussed security weaknesses in critical infrastructure systems, and asked the employee to click a link to a document for more information. Mr. Peterson caught the e-mail and shared it with other researchers, who found the link contained a remote-access tool that would have given the attackers control over the employee’s computer and potentially given them a front-row seat to confidential information about Digital Bond’s clients, which include a major water project, a power plant and a mining company. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Jaime Blasco, a security researcher at AlienVault, analyzed the computer servers used in the attack, which led him to other victims, including the Chertoff Group. That firm, headed by the former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security , Michael Chertoff , has run simulations of an extensive digital attack on the United States. Other attacks were made on a contractor for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency , and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, a lobbying group that represents companies that make components for power grids. Those organizations confirmed they were attacked but have said they prevented attackers from gaining access to their network. Mr. Blasco said that, based on the forensics, all the victims had been hit by Comment Crew. But the most troubling attack to date, security experts say, was a successful invasion of the Canadian arm of Telvent. The company, now owned by Schneider Electric, designs software that gives oil and gas pipeline companies and power grid operators remote access to valves, switches and security systems. Telvent keeps detailed blueprints on more than half of all the oil and gas pipelines in North and South America , and has access to their systems. In September, Telvent Canada told customers that attackers had broken into its systems and taken project files. That access was immediately cut, so that the intruders could not take command of the systems. Martin Hanna, a Schneider Electric spokesman, did not return requests for comment, but security researchers who studied the malware used in the attack, including Mr. Stewart at Dell SecureWorks and Mr. Blasco at AlienVault, confirmed that the perpetrators were the Comment Crew. “This is terrifying because — forget about the country — if someone hired me and told me they wanted to have the offensive capability to take out as many critical systems as possible, I would be going after the vendors and do things like what happened to Telvent,“ Mr. Peterson of Digital Bond said. “It’s the holy grail.” Mr. Obama alluded to this concern in the State of the Union speech, without mentioning China or any other nation. “We know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets,” he said. “Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, our air-traffic control systems. We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing.” Mr. Obama faces a vexing choice: In a sprawling, vital relationship with China, is it worth a major confrontation between the world’s largest and second largest economy over computer hacking? A few years ago, administration officials say, the theft of intellectual property was an annoyance, resulting in the loss of billions of dollars of revenue. But clearly something has changed. The mounting evidence of state sponsorship, the increasing boldness of Unit 61398, and the growing threat to American infrastructure are leading officials to conclude that a far stronger response is necessary. “Right now there is no incentive for the Chinese to stop doing this,” said Mr. Rogers, the House intelligence chairman. “If we don’t create a high price, it’s only going to keep accelerating.” ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's John Sudworth was detained while filming the reported hub of the hacking operation A secretive branch of China's military is probably one of the world's "most prolific cyber espionage groups", a US cyber security firm has said. Mandiant said Unit 61398 was believed to have "systematically stolen hundreds of terabytes of data" from at least 141 organisations around the world. The White House said it has taken its concerns about cyber-theft to the highest levels of China's government. China has denied hacking and questioned Mandiant's report. "Hacking attacks are transnational and anonymous," said foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei. "Determining their origins are extremely difficult. We don't know how the evidence in this so-called report can be tenable. Mr Hong added that Beijing "firmly opposes hacking", has taken steps to prevent it and is also a victim of cyber attacks. In an indication of the military sensitivity around the Shanghai site pinpointed by the report as home to the hacking group, the BBC's John Sudworth and his camera crew were briefly detained by soldiers when they went to film the facility. They were only released once they had handed over their footage. 'Extensive campaign' In its unusually detailed report, US-based computer security company Mandiant said it had investigated hundreds of data breaches since 2004, most of which it attributed to what it termed "Advanced Persistent Threat" actors. Analysis The scale of the Chinese hacking alleged by the computer security firm Mandiant is striking. Until now the bulk of this hacking has been a digital version of old-fashioned industrial espionage - stealing designs and company secrets. But there is a more sinister side to this activity as well. Chinese hackers are alleged to have a growing interest in gaining access to key parts of the US infrastructure - gas lines, power grids and waterworks. President Barack Obama himself warned during his recent State of the Union address that the nature of the cyber threat was changing. Gaining access to critical systems is the key. Once inside the digital perimeter - especially if the intrusion is not identified, there is the possibility of causing real physical damage to the infrastructure that the computers control. The details it had uncovered, it said, "convince us that the groups conducting these activities are based primarily in China and that the Chinese government is aware of them". The most prolific of these actors is APT1, which Mandiant says is "a single organisation of operators that has conducted a cyber espionage campaign against a broad range of victims since at least 2006". "From our observations, it is one of the most prolific cyber espionage groups in terms of the sheer quantity of information stolen," it said, adding that it was "likely government-sponsored and one of the most persistent of China's cyber threat actors". "We believe that APT1 is able to wage such a long-running and extensive cyber espionage campaign in large part because it receives direct government support," said Mandiant. The firm said it had traced the hacking activities of APT1 to the site of 12-storey building in the Pudong area of Shanghai. It said that Unit 61398 of the People's Liberation Army "is also located in precisely the same area" and that the actors had similar "missions, capabilities and resources". Among the findings about APT1 in the report were that it: is staffed by hundreds, possibly thousands, of proficient English speakers with advanced computer security and networking skills has hacked into 141 companies across 20 industries, 87% based in English-speaking countries, and is able to steal from dozens of networks simultaneously has stolen hundreds of terabytes of information including blueprints, business plans, pricing documents, user credentials, emails and contact lists stayed inside hacked networks for an average of 356 days, with the longest lasting 1,764 days targeted industries identified by China as strategically important under its Five Year Plan for economic growth 'Groundless' Unit 61398 has for some time been suspected by the US of being central to China's cyber espionage programme, the New York Times reports. Mandiant admitted there could be one alternative explanation for its findings: that "a secret, resourced organisation full of mainland Chinese speakers with direct access to Shanghai-based telecommunications infrastructure is engaged in a multi-year, enterprise scale computer espionage campaign right outside of Unit 61398's gates, performing tasks similar to Unit 61398's known mission". Several governments, foreign companies and organisations have said in the past they suspect China of carrying out extensive cyber espionage over periods of several years. On Tuesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that the Obama administration had "repeatedly raised our concerns at the highest levels about cyber theft with senior Chinese officials including in the military and we will continue to do so". Mr Carney declined to comment specifically on the contents of the report. Last month, the New York Times said its systems had been infiltrated over a period of four months, after it wrote a report on the alleged wealth of China's outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao. Mandiant, which the paper hired to investigate, traced the hack to China. However, the paper said its breach had been attributed to a different group. The Wall Street Journal also reported a China-based hack. At the time, China's foreign ministry dismissed the New York Times accusations as "groundless", saying that to "conclude without hard evidence that China participated in such hacking attacks is totally irresponsible".

– A Shanghai-based unit of China's People's Liberation Army has liberated vast amounts of data from the US and other countries in a huge cyber-spying effort over the last seven years, according to a report from computer security firm Mandiant. PLA Unit 61398—known to some victims as the "Comment Crew"—is probably "one of the world's most prolific cyber-espionage groups," according to Mandiant, which has traced thousands of cyberattacks to an area around a 12-story building used by the unit, the BBC reports. Analysts believe the unit employs hundreds, possibly thousands of people fluent in English and skilled in computer programming. Other security firms—and US intelligence agencies—also believe that the Chinese military is behind the cyberattacks, which have increasingly focused on critical US infrastructure. "Either they are coming from inside Unit 61398," Mandiant's chief executive tells the New York Times, "or the people who run the most-controlled, most-monitored Internet networks in the world are clueless about thousands of people generating attacks from this one neighborhood." White House officials say they are aware of the Mandiant report and plan to warn Beijing that the volume of the attacks threatens to seriously damage US-China relations.

Glenn Beck, Vince Vaughn, Peter Billingsley Launch Reality Show Yes, the kid from "A Christmas Story" is in business with Glenn Beck Tim Molloy Follow @TimAMolloy By Glenn Beck is launching a reality show with Vince Vaughn and Peter Billingsley to find great documentary filmmakers. Vaughn is one of Hollywood's highest profile conservatives, and a recent Ron Paul supporter. Billingsley, a producer and director who often works with Vaughn, is always celebrated this time of year for his childhood role in the classic film "A Christmas Story" (left). The new reality show, called "Pursuit of Truth," will air on Beck's TheBlazeTV. It will feature documentaries submitted to the show as it seeks "the world's next great documentary filmmaker." Twenty competitors will see the ultimate prize of financing and worldwide distribution. "I am proud to announce that Vince Vaughn and I are going to be the executive producers," Beck said on his Wednesday radio show, according to Politico. "That should make everybody's head spin. What the hell is Vince Vaughn doing with a crazy man? I know, that's what my friends say. Glenn, what are you doing with the crazy man Vince Vaughn? Yes. It's great, isn't it? I love it." As you may have guessed, the conservative commentator just might be especially enthusiastic about films that critique the federal government and left-wing ideology. “I’d like to see the stuff just isn’t done,” Beck said. “And done right. And done without conspiracy. I’d love to see something on the Federal Reserve, the game that’s being played there. I would love to see something on why capitalism is actually a good thing, why it’s not a bad thing.” Billingley added in a statement: “Getting any film beyond the idea stage has become increasingly difficult these days, especially for documentary filmmakers that want to shine a light and make a difference. Our goal is to create a powerful annual platform to help filmmakers tell important and engaging stories.” Filmmakers can submit their work at the new show's website until Jan. 31. The show will air in the spring. "Whether you are a fledgling, aspiring, experienced or first time filmmaker, with a great idea for a documentary film, this is your chance of a lifetime -- to get your feature documentary film financed and distributed to a worldwide audience," the site says. Also, don't shoot your eye out. The films will be reviewed by Vaughn, Billingsley, Beck and Go Go Luckey Entertainment's Gary Auerbach. ||||| Glenn Beck on Wednesday announced that he is teaming up with actor Vince Vaughn to produce a new reality show set to debut next year on Beck's TheBlaze TV. “Pursuit of Truth” will pit 20 documentary filmmakers in a competition for financing and distribution for their film. Beck’s TheBlaze TV, Vaughn and Peter Billingsley’s Wild West Productions and Gary Auerbach’s Go Go Luckey Entertainment are behind the nine episode series, which will launch on TheBlaze TV in spring 2013. (Also on POLITICO: Rubio: Science, faith 'not inconsistent' on earth) "I am proud to announce that Vince Vaughn and I are going to be the executive producers," Beck said on his Wednesday radio show. "That should make everybody's head spin. What the hell is Vince Vaughn doing with a crazy man? I know, that's what my friends say. Glenn, what are you doing with the crazy man Vince Vaughn? Yes. It's great, isn't it? I love it." “I’d like to see the stuff just isn’t done,” Beck said later on the show. “And done right. And done without conspiracy. I’d love to see something on the Federal Reserve, the game that’s being played there. I would love to see something on why capitalism is actually a good thing, why it’s not a bad thing.” (Earlier on POLITICO: Glenn Beck visits Romney rally in Iowa) Beck, Vaughn, Billingsley and Auerbach will review the applications from aspiring documentary filmmakers, according to the show’s website. “I’m looking for somebody that really wants to change the course of America by telling the truth that you think is never, ever told,” Beck said. Read more about: Glenn Beck, Vince Vaughn

– The newest entry in the world of reality shows probably isn't what you expected: Glenn Beck is teaming with actor and director Vince Vaughn to create a competition for documentary filmmakers, reports Politico. The Pursuit of Truth will air on Beck's TheBlaze TV sometime next year, with 20 filmmakers competing against each other. Also involved is producer Peter Billingsley, better known to the world as the kid in A Christmas Story. "What the hell is Vince Vaughn doing with a crazy man?" Beck said on his radio show today. "I know, that's what my friends say. Glenn, what are you doing with the crazy man Vince Vaughn? Yes. It's great, isn't it?" (The Wrap notes that Vaughn is "one of Hollywood's highest profile conservatives.") Beck added a bit on what to expect: "I’d love to see something on the Federal Reserve, the game that’s being played there. I would love to see something on why capitalism is actually a good thing, why it’s not a bad thing.”

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Bond has been revoked for a man questioned in connection with a mass shooting in Wilkinsburg. On Wednesday, Robert Thomas, 27, and three others were arrested on various charges, including possession of narcotics with intent to deliver and receiving stolen property in the form of firearms. Meanwhile, survivor Lamont Powell had a court appearance on an outstanding charge. While in custody, Thomas was questioned about the Wilkinsburg shooting that left five adults and an unborn child dead. At a bond hearing this morning, Thomas arrived in the courtroom of Judge David Cashman. He was accompanied by at least six Allegheny County sheriff’s deputies. The bond hearing directly involved the drug and weapons case in which Thomas is accused of having access to both heroin and six weapons, including an assault weapon. But, the prosecution also put the detective on the stand who testified about police interest in Thomas, as the prosecution argued that Thomas is a flight risk and a danger to the community. Judge Cashman agreed and revoked his bond. Thomas is among four people questioned this week about the Wilkinsburg shootings, including Cheron Shelton, 29, who was questioned a week ago and again this week. Thomas’s attorney thinks investigators are rushing to judgment, particularly as it relates to his client. “I think that some names were brought up, some old cases were looked up and the individuals that have recharged now a third time were brought in and questioned. And because they’re not cooperating, because I don’t believe any of those individuals have any idea what happened, none of them are involved, especially my client and they want them to talk and they’re not because they don’t have anything to do with it and they’re not providing information that the Commonwealth thinks that they have but they don’t have,” attorney Casey White said. Police went to an apartment in Wilkinsburg to serve some warrants, including one for Shelton. When they went inside the home and searched the residence, they found various guns in the front bedroom including an assault rifle, various handguns and a revolver. They also found ammunition. In the middle living room, police say they found $8,402 in cash and a prescription. In the kitchen, police found heroin and drug paraphernalia. At the end of March, Shelton was arrested for charges stemming from a March 12 search of a home in Homewood in which weapons and ammunition were seized. He was questioned about the Wilkinsburg mass shooting at that time as well. On Wednesday, he was questioned for a second time. Police have not called Shelton a suspect in the Wilkinsburg case, but are still investigating whether or not he’s connected. Police have been looking at the possibility that two gunmen were sent to Wilkinsburg to carry out what’s being described as an alleged “revenge killing.” Police say one suspect, armed with the handgun, approached a backyard barbecue on Franklin Avenue from one direction and started shooting. Then, as the approximately 15 people at the party tried to run inside the home, the second gunman walked up to the crime scene from a small alley on the other side of the house. That suspect began shooting with an AK-47-style rifle. A total of 49 shell casings were recovered. The victims were identified as: Jerry Shelton, 35 Tina Shelton, 37 Brittany Powell, 27 Chanetta Powell, 25 Shada Mahone, 26 Chanetta was eight months pregnant when she was murdered. Stay With KDKA.com For More Details Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter ||||| PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pittsburgh man arrested a third time on drug and weapons charges stemming from a police search three years ago is a suspect in a cookout ambush last month that killed five adults and an unborn child, a detective testified Thursday. Allegheny County Detective Steve Hitchings testified at a bond hearing that Robert Thomas is a suspect in the March 9 cookout shootings in Wilkinsburg and has been told he's a suspect, KDKA-TV first reported Thursday. Common Pleas Judge David Cashman agreed with the prosecution and found that Thomas was a danger to the community and a flight risk and revoked his bond, meaning Thomas will be jailed while the drug charges are pending. Hitchings' testimony was the first time any law enforcement official has named a suspect in the cookout shootings. The 27-year-old Thomas and three other people were arrested Wednesday night on drug and weapons charges stemming from the search of a home in Wilkinsburg in February 2013. All four were questioned about the cookout shootings, but they haven't been charged in it. Defense attorney Casey White said he's not sure why Thomas is being questioned or called a suspect in the killings. "I can't really comment on the specifics of what the commonwealth's investigation is," White told The Associated Press. "I just know my client is innocent of any wrongdoing as to the homicides that occurred on March 9 of this year." Chanetta Powell, 25, who was 8-months pregnant; and four others, Jerry Shelton, 35; Tina Shelton, 37; Brittany Powell, 27; and Shada Mahone, 26, were slain during the backyard cookout. Powell's unborn child also died. One gunman walked up an alley near the backyard and fired shots from a .40-caliber pistol toward about 15 cookout guests, who then ran toward the back door of the home for cover, authorities say. They were then mowed down by a second gunman firing an assault-style rifle, which also critically wounded Lamont Powell, 24, who District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. has said may have been the intended target. His sister, Brittany Powell, was hosting the cookout. No one's been charged with the shootings and, except for vague references that the shooting might stem from bad blood involving unspecified individuals from the nearby Homewood neighborhood, authorities haven't discussed a motive. The drug arrests Wednesday stem from the Feb. 21, 2013 search of a home for two men wanted on probation violations. While there, county police say, they found an assault-type rifle, several other guns — all of which were stolen — as well as suspected heroin and drug paraphernalia. Court records show a district judge in Wilkinsburg twice dismissed the charges against Thomas and the others — in March and in July 2013 — because prosecutors weren't ready to proceed with a preliminary hearing. The charges were refiled after authorities finally tested the substance found at the residence and determined Monday that it was heroin, according to court records. White, Thomas' defense attorney, said it appears authorities are trying to squeeze the suspects for information on last month's shootings by arresting them a third time for the 2013 search. "I think that some names were brought up, some old cases were looked at and the individuals that have been recharged now a third time were brought in and questioned" about the shootings, White told KDKA. The drug suspects aren't cooperating in the shooting investigation "because I don't believe any of those individuals have any idea what happened, none of them are involved, especially my client," White said.

– A Pittsburgh man arrested a third time on drug and weapons charges stemming from a police search three years ago is a suspect in a cookout ambush last month that killed five adults and an unborn child, a detective testified Thursday. Allegheny County Detective Steve Hitchings testified at a bond hearing that Robert Thomas is a suspect in the March 9 cookout shootings in Wilkinsburg and has been told he's a suspect, KDKA-TV first reported Thursday. Common Pleas Judge David Cashman agreed with the prosecution and found that Thomas was a danger to the community and a flight risk and revoked his bond, meaning Thomas will be jailed while the drug charges are pending. Hitchings' testimony was the first time any law enforcement official has named a suspect in the cookout shootings, the AP reports. The 27-year-old Thomas and three other people were arrested Wednesday night on drug and weapons charges stemming from the search of a home in Wilkinsburg in February 2013. All four were questioned about the cookout shootings, but they haven't been charged in it. Defense attorney Casey White said he's not sure why Thomas is being questioned or called a suspect in the killings. "I can't really comment on the specifics of what the commonwealth's investigation is," White told the AP. "I just know my client is innocent of any wrongdoing as to the homicides that occurred on March 9 of this year." No one's been charged with the shootings and, except for vague references that the shooting might stem from bad blood involving unspecified individuals from the nearby Homewood neighborhood, authorities haven't discussed a motive. Click for more on the recent arrests.

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. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — Two women have now passed the Army's grueling Ranger test, and even tougher and more dangerous jobs could lie ahead. The military services are poised to allow women to serve in most front-line combat jobs, including special operations forces, senior officials told The Associated Press. RETRANSMISSION TO REMOVE THE REFERENCE TO THE ARMY RANGERS. THESE WOMEN ARE NOT TRAINING IN THE RANGERS PROGRAM - FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2013 file photo, U.S. Navy Master-at-Arms Third Class Danielle... (Associated Press) Based on early talks, officials say the Army, Navy and Air Force likely will not seek exceptions that close any jobs to women. Marine Corps leaders, they say, have expressed concerns about allowing women to serve in infantry jobs and yet may seek an exception. The services are wrapping up reviews and must make their recommendations to Defense Secretary Ash Carter this fall. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the internal debate. Even if Marine leaders object, they are likely to meet resistance from senior Navy and Defense Department officials who want the military to be united on this issue. Undercutting the Marines' reservations is that Special Operations Command is likely to allow women to compete for the most demanding military commando jobs — including the Navy SEALs and the Army's Delta Force — though with the knowledge that it may be years before women even try to enter those fields. Women have been steadily moving into previously all-male jobs across the military, including as members of the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, best known as the helicopter crews that flew Navy SEALs into Osama bin Laden's compound. Women are also now serving on Navy submarines and in Army artillery units. Friday will mark another milestone as the two women graduate at Fort Benning, Georgia, from the Ranger school, a physically and mentally demanding two-month combat leadership course. Completing the course lets the two women wear the coveted Ranger black-and-gold tab, but it does not let them become members of the Ranger regiment. Neither woman has been publicly identified by the military. Longer term, the uncertainty of the Marine decision underscores the wrenching debates going on within the military over the changing role of women, and it reflects the individual identities of the services and how they view their warrior ethos. Only a handful of jobs in the Navy and Air Force are currently closed to women. Last year the Navy considered seeking an exception that would have prohibited women from serving on older guided missile frigates, mine-countermeasure ships and patrol coast craft. Some argued that those ships, which are due to be phased out in coming years, would need millions of dollars in construction to add facilities for women and it wasn't worth the expense. But Navy Secretary Ray Mabus withdrew that plan in a memo late last month that was obtained by the AP. Officials said Navy leaders concluded that since women can serve in all the same jobs on other ships no real exclusion existed. The Army and Marine Corps, however, have thousands of infantry, artillery and armor jobs that are currently closed to women. There has been a lot of study and debate over whether to open those positions, because they often involve fighting in small units on the front lines, doing physically punishing tasks. The Marine Corps set up a task force this year to set gender-neutral job standards and determine whether incorporating women into small squads affected unit cohesion or combat readiness. Companies made up of all men and mixes of men and women spent up to three months in California performing a broad range of unit tasks and going through detailed scientific evaluations to see how they did. Senior leaders are reviewing those results. Army leaders did similar scientific analysis, reviewing all tasks needed to do the combat jobs and have been creating gender-neutral standards that troops will have to meet in order to qualify. Meanwhile, however, the Army began to slowly open some combat positions, including artillery jobs, to women. In recent days, officials familiar with the discussions said they believe the Army will allow women to seek infantry and armor jobs as well. Gen. Ray Odierno, who retired last week as Army chief of staff, hinted at that conclusion. "In order to best manage your talent, you have to pick the best people who can perform to the standards that we have established," Odierno said. "If you can meet the standards that we've established, then you should be able to perform in that (position). And I think that's where we're headed." In January 2013 then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey signed an order wiping away generations of limits on women fighting for their country, ordering a quarter-million positions open regardless of gender. They called for sweeping reviews of the physical requirements for combat jobs and gave the military services until January 2016 to argue if any positions should remain closed to women. Throughout the process, all the services have made it clear they will not reduce any standards to allow women to qualify for the most demanding jobs. But they reviewed the requirements for the various combat posts to make sure they were directly related to tasks that had to be done as part of the jobs. During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, thousands of women served and fought, and about 160 died. Dempsey told reporters during that 2013 news conference that he did not rule out women serving as members of special operations forces, although it might be years before they actually qualified. "I think we all believe that there will be women who can meet those standards," he said.

– Navy SEALs go through some of the toughest military training in the world, and the Navy's top officer believes any woman who can get through it has earned a place on the elite force. "Why shouldn't anybody who can meet these [standards] be accepted? And the answer is, there is no reason," Adm. Jon Greenert tells Defense News. "So we're on a track to say, 'Hey look, anybody who can meet the gender non-specific standards, then you can become a SEAL.'" The admiral says Rear Adm. Brian Losey, chief of the Naval Special Warfare Command, agrees with him, though no timeline has been set for when women can start training. An overview of SEAL training, which describes Stage 3's "Hell Week" as "the ultimate test of a man's will," can be seen here. The News notes that it's not clear how many women will sign up if the Navy does integrate training, as there is an "exceedingly low" percentage of women in other specialized Navy roles—only seven of the Navy's 1,153 divers are women. The military services are conducting reviews on which combat roles should remain closed to women, and sources tell the AP that the Army, Navy, and Air Force aren't expected to seek exceptions, though the Marine Corps may seek to keep women out of some infantry roles. (Two women have made military history by passing Army Ranger training.)

Beyond the currency issue, a provision attached to the trade promotion authority bill to block trade preferences to countries involved in human trafficking would effectively exclude Malaysia, which is on the State Department’s list of worst offenders. Another provision to crack down on child labor could stop American candy makers from importing cocoa from Africa. While the Obama administration’s greatest concern was with the Democrats, challenges also could come from the right. Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky and a presidential candidate, said he would vote against giving Mr. Obama fast-track authority. Democrats have united around demands that trade promotion authority — which would allow the White House to present the trade deal for a straight up-or-down vote, without amendments — be paired with a series of other measures, not only to crack down on currency manipulation, but also to assist workers displaced by globalization, tighten child labor law and fortify the government’s response to unfair trade practices. White House officials have said the Pacific trade accord cannot be completed without that authority. After the vote, the president summoned to the White House 10 Senate Democrats whom he believes he can ultimately win over, including Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon who was a co-author of the bill he helped filibuster, and Mr. Carper, his lone Democrat supporter on Tuesday’s vote. Republicans were equally adamant that accelerated authority not be saddled with many of those demands. “This is not a game. This is about trying to accomplish something important for the country that happens to be the president’s No. 1 domestic priority,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and majority leader, said. At the heart of Democrats’ demands is a measure that would force the government to respond when trading partners artificially depress the value of their currency to make their exports cheaper and United States exports more expensive. But if Democrats successfully force Mr. McConnell to include that currency measure in the trade promotion bill, the international negotiations could collapse, administration officials say. ||||| Sen. Warren On The 'Tilted Process' Of Asia Trade Bill Enlarge this image toggle caption Mark Wilson/Getty Images Mark Wilson/Getty Images The Senate could begin debate Tuesday on a bill that would give President Obama fast-track authority to complete a Pacific Rim trade agreement. The Trans-Pacific Partnership has become the president's signature trade initiative, but it is also very unpopular with Democrats. Leading the charge from the left against the deal in Congress is Sen. Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts. She says the TPP could result in the watering down of Wall Street regulations put in place by the Dodd-Frank Act, after the 2008 financial crisis. The president has called Warren's interpretation "absolutely wrong." He told Yahoo News recently it was "pure speculation. She and I taught law school, and one of the things you do as a law professor is spin out hypotheticals and this is all hypothetical. Speculative." Sen. Warren spoke with NPR's Steve Inskeep about her objection to the deal, the secrecy she says it has been held in and why she said it's a "tilted process" that has yielded a "tilted result." Interview Highlights On her main objections to the bill I don't think they are hypothetical, I think I've been out there just talking about the facts. Look, I have three objections. The first is that the president is asking us to vote to grease the skids on a trade deal that has largely been negotiated, but that is still held in secret. The second is that we know that corporations under this deal are going to get to sue countries for regulations they don't like and that the decisions are not going to be made by courts, they're going to be made by private lawyers. And the third problem is that he wants us to vote on a six-year, grease-the-skids deal. On the investor-state dispute mechanism that would help resolve disputes between countries Keep in mind, if there's a labor violation, if somebody doesn't stick with the human rights promises they made, the consequence of that is not that they get to go to a private group, and get special enforcement. Nope, they gotta go to their own government and try to get it enforced. So, what's happening with ISDS is that the world has changed. Those things were in place, gosh, for a long time dating back to the 1950s. But back in the beginning they were used very rarely, fewer than 100 times in more than 50 years, but the corporate lawyers figured out how to make these things very valuable for big corporations. ... What really happens here is that big, multi-national corporations can look around and say "I don't like those regulations. I could make more money if I could beat down new regulations." On concerns about the secrecy of the deal I have been able to go to a special, secured room. I can't take any electronic devices, no computer, no iPhone. I can't even walk out with paper notes. I can go and read about the agreement but I cannot come out in public and talk about any of the specifics. The press can't see it; the public can't see it. But I will tell you this, there are some folks who have seen it. There are 28 working groups that have helped shape the trade deal and in those 28 working groups there are more than 500 people. It turns out that 85 percent of them are either corporate executives — senior corporate executives — or lobbyists for the industries that are being affected. The way I see this, that's a tilted process, and a tilted process yields a tilted result. ||||| Washington (CNN) President Barack Obama is privately working with Senate Democrats to find a way forward for his free trade initiative. After Democrats banded together to rebuke their own party's President on a key trade bill Tuesday afternoon, Obama huddled with some of those senators -- including several who have publicly expressed support for the bill, called trade promotion authority -- to "discuss a path forward for this legislation," an administration official said. Obama is scrambling to save his biggest legislative priority in his remaining years in the White House. The bill, trade negotiators say, is necessary before the 11 other countries participating in the talks will agree to finalize the Trans-Pacific Partnership. "The President reiterated his view, which he has shared in numerous similar conversations with members over the past several weeks, that passing TPA is an important step toward finalizing the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- the most progressive trade agreement in our history, which levels the playing field for American workers and puts in place new, high-standards environmental, labor, and human rights protections," the administration official said. It became clear that Obama would suffer a major setback Tuesday afternoon when roughly 14 pro-trade Democrats emerged from a meeting with other Senate Democrats saying they wouldn't vote to take up the trade bill -- which then failed on a 52-45 vote.

– Senate Democrats have struck down a measure that would have helped President Obama settle a trade pact with Asian countries, the New York Times reports. Sixty votes were needed to pass a measure to launch debate on Obama's "trade promotion authority"—but it was blocked thanks to a 52-45 vote. Democrats are calling for additional measures before they'll provide such authority as Obama pushes for passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Senators in his party want to address currency manipulation, child labor laws, and the possibility of job losses, among other concerns, before the trade deal is agreed, the Times notes. "We can't keep pushing through trade deals that benefit multinational companies at the expense of workers," Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren told NPR this morning, as CNN notes. Among those who opposed the measure was Democratic co-sponsor Ron Wyden of Oregon. Majority leader Mitch McConnell called the vote "shocking": "What we've just witnessed here is the Democratic Senate shut down the opportunity to debate the top economic priority of the Democratic president of the United States." Obama could now be stuck between a rock and a hard place: He might have to accept Democrats' provisions to pass the measure—but doing so could spell disaster for the trade negotiations themselves, the Times reports.

Founder & Trade Mark Owner · 1969 to present Design & Develop new Tink's Hunting Products also Host and Produce a TV Series on Adventure Bowhunting Worldwide-Runs Operation Bows and Heroes training Wounded Soldiers & recent Vets. ||||| A Texas politician has roadkill on his platform — and wants it on residents’ plates. Tink Nathan is running against four others for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives, and while they’re all Republicans, Nathan has one very unique agenda: overturn the state’s law against collecting roadkill. Under the heading, “Tink on the Issues,” on the candidate's website, Nathan said he plans to “revamp the Texas wildlife code to allow people to use road kill deer for human use.” This goal is listed before his pro-gun, pro-education and pro-border security promises. While collecting and eating roadkill is legal in some states, Texas banned “engaging in the collection of any animal life on public roads or the right-of-way of public roads” in 2007, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife. Nathan argued on his Facebook page that in one year, in one Texas county, Department of Transportation employees removed more than 1,400 deer from the roadways, in an operation that was costly to taxpayers. Plus, “That meat goes to waste. Why not utilize it," he told The Associated Press. Nathan might have an unlikely ally in his corner. The animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) says on their website that eating roadkill is more humane than eating animals that come from the “slaughter line” because “perhaps the animals never knew what hit them.” — Elisha Fieldstadt ||||| Texas Parks and Wildlife says it does not want to get involved in state politics, but it is fairly certain that eating road kill is not good for you, 1200 WOAI news reports. Tink Nathan, who owns Tink’s Deer Scent Company and a hunting video firm in Centerpoint is running for State Representative from the Hill Country and one of his campaign planks is to allow Texans to eat critters that they run over with their car. "There are obvious public safety and health officials with people stopping on the road to harvest dead animals," TPWD spokesman Mike Cox told 1200 WOAI news. "They could be struck by other vehicles." Nathan points out that eating road kill was legal in Texas until six years ago, and other states allow the practice. Most of Nathan's campaign is more traditional Republican, including supporting tax cuts, second Amendment rights, and tort reform. But it is the road kill plank which has won him nationwide attention. Nathan is running for the State Representative District 53 seat being vacated by Harvey Hilderbran, who is running for State Comptroller. The district runs from Medina County all the way to the Mexican border west of Junction. But Cox says allowing motorists to stop on the highway and eat deer that their car has just hit is not a good idea from a safety or a culinary standpoint. "Easting dead animals could result in serious health issues for anyone who did something like that," he said.

– Is your average roadkill a stomach-churning mess, or tonight's dinner? A Texas politician says it will become the latter if he wins a seat in the Texas House of Representatives and succeeds in pushing his agenda, NBC News reports. Tink Nathan, a 72-year-old Republican, wants to rescind the state's law against gathering roadkill. "That meat goes to waste. Why not utilize it?" he asks the San Antonio Express-News. "Certainly not all of it could be saved. Nobody will take it if it's stinking," but "axis [deer] venison sells for $26 a pound." On his Facebook page, Nathan says the Department of Transportation collected more than 1,400 deer from roads in a year in a single Texas county—a costly operation. But Texas Park and Wildlife argues that gathering squished animals for dinner is both a health and safety hazard. People collecting roadkill "could be struck by other vehicles," a TPWD spokesman tells WOAI. And "eating dead animals could result in serious health issues for anyone who did something like that." Some states do allow it, but Texas banned the practice in 2007.

The ongoing measles outbreak in the United States has reached a record for any year since the disease was eliminated in this country 14 years ago, with 288 cases of the potentially deadly infection reported in 18 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. The largest measles clusters are in Ohio (138 confirmed cases), California (60) and New York (26), according to the CDC. Almost all — 97 percent — have been brought into the country by travelers, mainly Americans, who contracted the infection abroad. About half of those were people who picked it up in the Philippines, where a large measles outbreak has affected more than 32,000 people, causing 41 deaths, since January alone, said Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. In this country, the biggest outbreak is centered in the Amish community in Ohio, where many of the residents are unvaccinated, the CDC reported. In Virginia, two cases were confirmed earlier this month. "This is a wake-up call for travelers and parents to make sure vaccinations are up to date," Schuchat said. "Measles vaccine is very safe and effective and measles can be serious," she added. "It's very infectious." Forty-three of the people in this country who have come down with measles required hospitalization, most often for pneumonia, she said. No deaths have been reported here. Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease that generally affects young children, causing fever, a runny nose, a cough and a distinctive rash all over the body. This year, however, more than half the people who have come down with it are 20 years old or older, according to CDC data. About one in 10 children also gets an ear infection and one in 20 comes down with pneumonia. A person with measles is contagious as long as four days before the symptoms are apparent. Parents and even physicians who haven't seen measles in years may be unaware of the early warning signs. The largest number of confirmed cases of measles since the infection was eliminated in the United States in 2000 occurred in 2011, when 220 were recorded. The CDC hasn't seen this many cases so early in the year since 1994, when 764 people were infected by this time, Schuchat said. In the past 20 years, a concerted public health campaign, especially among lower-income families, has made measles outbreaks rare in the United States. But an estimated 20 million people are infected in Europe, Asia, Africa and elsewhere each year, and 122,000 of them die. In the United States, the number of people who choose not to be immunized for religious, philosophical or personal reasons has begun to become a public health problem, Schuchat said. Others are unaware of, or unable to get, vaccinations before they arrive in the United States. A small number of adults can lose their immunity over time and may need to be re-vaccinated. Authorities aren't sure how the Amish community in Ohio contracted the disease, but Schuchat said they believe that people traveling to conduct faith-based work abroad are involved. According to the CDC, 40 importations of the infection were attributed to unvaccinated U.S. travelers returning from abroad. Steven Nolt, a history professor at Goshen College in Indiana who has written about the Amish, said some groups do travel to places such as Kenya, Ukraine and Central America to do mission or relief work. He said many Amish do vaccinate themselves and their chidren, but others refuse. Some, Nolt said, have a "more traditional, conservative, old-fashioned way of life and set of sensibilities that views medicine as something that is used to heal or cure, rather than to prevent" disease. Others have a "theologically informed...sense that we should place our trust in God and not in vaccines." Schuchat urged anyone who isn't sure whether his or her immunizations are up to date to get another dose of the vaccine, especially if traveling to places like the Philippines or doing health care work. Though the vaccine generally isn't given to children before the first birthday, infants traveling abroad can be inoculated with one dose as young as six months, Schuchat said. The vaccine is generally administered in two doses a few years apart. People whose immune systems are suppressed and pregnant women should not receive the vaccine, she said. Adults born before 1957 likely had the measles and should be immune, she added. The vaccine became available in 1963. Related: Potential measles exposure in Fairfax, Loudoun counties Va. health officials report second confirmed measles case CDC reports biggest measles outbreak since 1996 Woman’s cancer killed by measles virus A vaccinated person contracted and passed on the measles ||||| The number of measles cases in the U.S. has hit a new high since the highly contagious disease was officially declared eliminated 14 years ago, in the latest sign of a troubling resurgence. The 288 cases reported in 18 states as of May 23 is the highest number of cases in the first five months of the year since 1994, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Nearly all of the cases were linked to foreign travel by unvaccinated people, and many had been in the Philippines, where a large outbreak has...

– The tide of measles stories is growing stronger—and more dismal: The CDC yesterday revealed that some 288 cases have been recorded across 18 states in the first five months of this year, making 2014's outbreak the biggest in 20 years. Things are worst in Ohio, with the CDC logging 138 cases there; California has seen 60 and New York 26, the Washington Post reports. But another non-US location is a big factor in the story: the Philippines. Some 97% of the cases are related to foreign travel by people who haven't been vaccinated, and about half visited the Philippines, where 32,000 people have been infected since January. To wit, the Ohio outbreak started with two members of the Amish community who contracted the highly contagious disease on a humanitarian aid trip to the Philippines in March then infected others at home. "This scenario is the one that I've had the most nightmares about," an Ohio health commissioner tells the Wall Street Journal, adding some Amish communities are refusing immunization. Officials across the country are now trying to make it more difficult for parents to exempt kids from vaccinations, and free clinics have been set up, but some still avoid the needle. "This is not an insignificant illness," warns a medical director. "This is an illness that is well worth avoiding." (The US eliminated measles in 2000, but that never meant we were measles-free.)

LONDON (Reuters) - Iran's oil exports have fallen by an estimated 40 percent since the start of the year as Western sanctions tear into the country's vital oil industry, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday. The agency, which represents the interests of major consuming nations, said preliminary indications suggested exports - the lifeblood of Iran's economy - fell to 1.5 million barrels per day in April-May from 2.5 million at end 2011. "In months ahead, Iran may need to shut in production volumes if export markets remain similarly constrained and storage fills up," the IEA said in its monthly report. It said it believed Iran was still producing 3.3 million bpd, down from 3.5 million last year and stockpiling unsold oil. Tehran has denied it is experiencing problems with oil sales [ID:nL5E8HCK1I] despite mounting evidence its major customers, including China, are turning down offers of cheap crude under pressure from Washington to cut trade ties. [ID:nL3E8HC39L] On Monday the U.S. government, which aims to choke off Tehran's oil revenue and force a halt to nuclear development it believes is aimed at making weapons, said India, South Korea, Japan and Turkey have made significant cuts to oil imports from Iran. Iran says its nuclear program is for civilian purposes. The European Union will impose a full embargo on Iran's oil from July 1. The measure will also effectively cut off tanker insurance, a major problem for Asian buyers who traditionally account for the bulk of Iran's oil sales. The IEA report came out days ahead of nuclear talks in Moscow between Iran and world powers - the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, of which Iran is a member, will meet in Vienna this week to discuss production running at a multi-year highs. U.S. ally Saudi Arabia has been stepping up supply to replace lost Iranian barrels. Earlier this year, oil prices rallied to $128 a barrel, their highest since 2008, on fears of a loss of Iranian production. But they have since fallen below $100 per barrel on signs of slowing economic growth in China, weak U.S. data and an escalation in Europe's debt crisis. The IEA said the world was better supplied with oil now than in recent years but warned against calling it an over-supplied market. "Nobody knows exactly how oil supplies will develop this summer. Memories are indeed short: crude prices remain very high in historical terms, and are acting as a drag on household and government budgets in OECD and emerging markets alike." The IEA said other bullish factors for oil prices included power sector oil demand this summer and stockpiling by major non-OECD economies including China, which have been accumulating crude in the past months ahead of the Iranian embargo. The agency left its global oil demand growth forecast broadly unchanged at 820,000 bpd. Its view contrasted with reports by OPEC and the U.S. government which said on Tuesday that global oil markets could loosen further in the second half of the year. The IEA said its demand estimate for OPEC's oil also remained broadly unchanged although it was 1 million bpd higher for the second half of 2012 at 30.9 million bpd. The figure was still 1 million bpd higher than OPEC's current production levels. (Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov; editing by Janet McBride) ||||| Dow Jones Reprints: This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit www.djreprints.com

– Iran says it has begun building a nuclear submarine—a move which conveniently gives it an excuse to enrich uranium to above weapons grade. An Iranian rear admiral announced the project in Iran's state-run Fars News Agency yesterday, and went out of his way to remind reporters that powering submarines is a civilian nuclear application available to all countries. The US and Israel have been worried Iran would try the sub gambit for months, according to the Wall Street Journal. "One of the few if only civilian pretexts for weapon-grade uranium are nuclear submarines, so it was fairly predictable," one expert says, though he adds that "the gap between Iran's bluster and its capabilities … is wider than the Strait of Hormuz." But Iran is paying dearly for that bluster. Thanks to sanctions, oil exports have fallen about 40%, to just 1.5 million barrels per day, Reuters reports. Experts believe Iran is still producing 3.3 million barrels a day, and stockpiling the excess oil.

CLEVELAND - Police are investigating the theft of seven guns swiped from a Cleveland home sometime early Tuesday morning. A mom and her two children were asleep upstairs when she said the thief or thieves broke into the home and cleaned out two gun cabinets. "They're ready for a war, we were ready for a war," said Teena Brayen Brayen and her family are doomsday preppers. "We're preppers, we believe in preparing for what could happen," said Brayen. Brayen said that her kids left the side door unlocked and the burglar walked right inside. Five shotguns, a high-powered rifle, and a pellet gun were all stolen. But, that's not all. A bug out bag was taken. That's a portable kit that contains items needed to survive a disaster. "Rice, beans, ammo, a thousand dollars worth of ammo, smoke grenades, 12 machete knives," were all taken said Brayen. A bullet proof vest was also taken. Brayen is concerned that the guns are now in the wrong hands. "I don't want to see people get hurt because of what people took out of my home, " she said. If you have any information about the crime, call the 5th District at 216-623-5500. ||||| 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. ||||| Thieves stole a high-powered rifle and 5 shotguns from the home of a family of doomsday preppers in Cleveland. https://t.co/GpRehDMFi0 pic.twitter.com/fGbEBFtorb — The Trace (@teamtrace) November 23, 2016 A brief glance at the robin’s egg blue, two-story home on the east side of Cleveland — complete with a low white fence around the raised porch and a grassy front yard covered by leaves — and you would not think it contained a small arsenal. Until, that is, you realized it was inhabited by members of the Three Percenters, a militia group, which named itself for the claim that only 3 percent of the population fought in the American Revolution. On its website, the group referred to itself as a “structured group of United patriots willing to protect our rights against a tyrannical government and foreign invaders.” The group seems particularly concerned with “Big Government,” a concept often associated with those identifying as liberal (a group toward which the Three Percenters show particularly animosity). As its website stated: The states are losing control, federal judges are overruling the people, liberals and democrats are determined to disarm citizens, and the political climate is aggressive and leaning toward socialism. Our founding fathers warned us about this with their intentional laws written into the constitution and the bill of rights. Three Percenters are ex and current military, police, and trained civilians that will stand up and fight if our rights are infringed in any way. To prepare for the explosive event of fighting for their rights, many affiliated with the movement stockpile everything from food and water (to prepare for doomsday) to weapons, ammunition and explosives (to prepare for battle). (For context, Jon Ritzheimer, who was a central figure in armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in Oregon, is a Three Percenter.) Teena Brayen, who recently moved with her family from New York to that azure home with her husband and two children, counts herself among this group. As such, she stocked up in preparation for anything she might have to do, from feeding a starving family if the supply chain gets cut to fighting off an invading force. In her own words, “We’re preppers, we believe in preparing for what could happen. … We were war-ready.” As Brayen explained to WJW-TV, “Should we be invaded by another country and not able to go get food or should something happen to where our food supply chain or our community would come into any type of harm’s way, we have a way to supply for ourselves and the community around us.” An inherent aspect of this belief system is that such weaponry is best handled by those in the militia, which is why Tuesday’s events have caused concern for Brayen. She may have been prepared for an attack by the government, but she was not prepared for a home burglary. When she went to sleep on Monday night, she thought the house was secure. But now she thinks one of her two young children had left the side door unlocked. That evening, she says she told police, the house was broken into, and the arsenal was raided. Police are investigating the burglary, the Associated Press reported, but they have not said much to the news media about it. Brayen, though, has been open with a few local TV stations. She said she is worried for her neighbors, as whoever broke into her home is now armed to the teeth with guns, knives and smoke grenades. “They have seven guns, seven,” Brayen told WJW. Among the stolen items: five shotguns, a high-powered rifle, a pellet gun, at least one bulletproof vest, a bugout bag containing rice and beans, more than $1,000 in ammunition, smoke grenades, and 12 machetes. Brayen told the station that one of those guns, which she said “looks like a sniper rifle,” is powerful enough to pierce not just body armor but the exterior of an automobile. Brayen was deeply shaken by the experience and was worried about what the weapons might be used for. She said she is particularly worried about “our military personnel, especially, and our police officers because they wear bulletproof vests.” “We have a gun out there that can pierce them and go through cars,” she told WJW. “All you have got to do is aim it. They took all of our ammo. With the ammunition that they’ve got, they’re good for a good year with that ammunition.” More generally, she simply does not want harm to befall anyone. “They’re ready for a war,” Brayen, nearly in tears, told ABC. “I don’t want to see anybody get hurt by what people took out of my home.” More from Morning Mix ‘After the beating’: Moroccan TV airs makeup tips for hiding domestic violence Wayne State University police officer dies after being shot in head Dalai Lama, long friendly with U.S. presidents, says he has ‘no worries’ about Trump ||||| Every damn day I talk to people who don’t understand what the 2nd Amendment means so I’m going to break it down for you, explain in terms even a Liberal can understand…whether they choose to admit it remains to be seen. The 2nd amendment. “A WELL REGULATED MILITIA,… (The first thing people need to understand is what “well regulated” meant in the 17 and 1800’s . It didn’t mean the same thing as to what people think it means now. Today, Regulated means, to control or direct according to rule, principle, or law. In the 17 and 1800’s Regulated meant, to put or maintain in order. So, when our founders wrote the 2nd Amendment and used “A Well Regulated” for the first 3 words, they were referring to “a well armed and well trained” militia, not that the government should, needs or has the authority to dictate what types of firearms we can and cannot KEEP, or where we have the right to BEAR them. People nowadays think it means that the government has the right to regulate our firearms but any rational intelligent person would understand that if it meant what they thought it meant back when our founders wrote it today it would contradict with the “shall not be infringed” part, right?… but we’ll get to that in a minute, but first lets discuss what an actual militia is and isn’t. The “militia” was not a standing army like the U.S. Army now or even the Colonial Army or Colonial Regulars during the revolution. They were every day ordinary citizens that could be called up at a moments notice in a time of need. They could fight with the regular Army or oppose them if they were ever to became tyrannical. The militias were all volunteer and were under no contractual obligation nor were they paid unless asked to stand or fight a long side the regular Army, but they could leave anytime and were under no oath or contract to stay. The Militias were not controlled by local, state or the federal governments, as I said, it was all volunteer but every citizens duty to be armed and ready. Now, Liberals/Democrats and those who oppose the second amendment would like everyone to believe that National Guard is the Militia…and they would be wrong. Why? Because one, the National Guard is in fact a Branch of the U.S. Army and they are under contract with their state governments, the federal government and receive a paycheck from the government which is the very definition of a “Standing Army”. Our founders intended for our militias to NOT be controlled by the government because if the government EVER became tyrannical they wanted a “citizens militia” to be able to take the power back, by force if necessary, and give it back to the people. …BEING NECESSARY TO THE SECURITY OF A FREE STATE THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE, TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS, SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.” Now the citizens, Well Armed and Well Trained, and uncontrolled militia was necessary for the security of a free state…even if that meant against our own government and in order for the security of a free state the “people” needed to be armed and be able to retain that “RIGHT” to be armed without any interference or infringement from the government…period… our founders knew and understood that if the people lost that right a free state was no longer guaranteed. Now to KEEP means in your home, to BEAR means wear it on your body…your chest, hip, leg, under your arm or even in your waist band, which I wouldn’t do, but hey to each his own….to bear means you can carry a gun in public…period! Last but not least is my favorite, those four little words gun grabbers, liberals and traitor politicians hate to hear…SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED! Politicians are always talking about how they can ratify any amendment in the Constitution and I don’t disagree…except for the 2nd Amendment. Why? Because it’s the only amendment in the Constitution that has those four words that makes Liberals cringe, SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED! Just like well regulated Liberals obviously don’t know what infringe[d] means either and the meaning of the word infringed hasn’t changed since the 1700’s but for the sake of argument here’s the definition so Liberals will better understand what infringed means. INFRINGED 1. To transgress or exceed the limits of; violate: infringe a contract; infringe a patent or a right. 2. To encroach on someone or something; engage in trespassing: 1. (tr) to violate or break (a law, an agreement, etc) 2. (intr; foll by on or upon) to encroach or trespass I honestly think no matter how many times we explain it to Liberals either their minds are so warped or they just don’t care so I really don’t think me explaining this to them really matters. They’re willing to give up all of their rights and ours, yes all of our rights, because they’re weak and scared…but they all love to point out that they have a First Amendment “right” to speak out against the Second Amendment but they’re too stupid to realize that the first amendment won’t last very long without the second amendment to protect it…nor will any other amendments. Sooooo….if this breakdown of the 2nd Amendment does anything or helps anyone to better understand it, maybe it’ll wake up all those intelligent and rational people who’ve been lied to, deceived and betrayed by the Main Stream Media, the sellouts who refer to themselves as journalist and our very own government. And if it doesn’t, well, there’s enough of us who do understand what the Second Amendment clearly states and those of us who will die defending it and have no problem making the other person(s) die who try to take it from us. Understand people, no man, group of men, organization, like the U.N….another country nor our own has the right to take, INFRINGE, on our right to KEEP and BEAR ARMS and anyone who tries will be met with deadly force. Your fear of us owning and carrying firearms does not trump our right to KEEP and BEAR them…understand, if the thought of us law abiding citizens owning and carrying firearms scares you, then what will happen if anyone tries to disarm us should terrify you. ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video CLEVELAND-- They call themselves doomsday preppers, but members of a Cleveland family were not prepared when burglars broke into their home early Tuesday morning. Teena Brayen and her husband are part of a militia group known at the Three Percenters. They consider it their duty to oppose any effort by the government to intrude on their personal liberties. They are also prepared for Armageddon. "Should we be invaded by another country and not able to go get food or should something happen to where our food supply chain or our community would come into any type of harm's way, we have a way to supply for ourselves and the community around us," Teena Brayen said. The family, who recently moved from New York to Cleveland, said burglars broke into their home off of St. Clair Avenue early Monday morning while they were asleep. The thieves cleaned out two of their gun cases. They also got away with a bag of machetes, ammunition and food rations. "These guys are prepared for war now, they have seven guns, seven," Brayen said. The Brayens said they believe when they moved on Oct. 28, the thieves saw them carrying the weapons inside. The burglars also took body armor. Now, the Brayens are worried that as a result of their doomsday preparations, others are in danger. "Our military personnel, especially, and our police officers because they wear bullet proof vests. We have a gun out there that can pierce them and go through cars. All you have got to do is aim it. They took all of our ammo. With the ammunition that they've got, they're good for a good year with that ammunition."

– A Cleveland couple was ready for the apocalypse—but apparently not for thieves. Teena Brayen says burglars broke into her home early Tuesday while her family was sleeping and made off with five shotguns, a high-powered rifle, a pellet gun, $1,000 worth of ammunition, 12 machetes, smoke grenades, a bulletproof vest, and food rations, reports ABC5. Brayen and her husband are members of militia group Three Percenters—a name based on the claim that just 3% of the US population fought in the American Revolution, per the Washington Post—and hoped to use the supplies to protect and provide for themselves in the event of catastrophe, or perhaps invasion by another country, Brayen tells Fox 8. Brayen, who believes thieves saw the family moving weapons into their Cleveland home when they moved from New York a month ago, says she fears for "military personnel, especially, and our police officers" as one of the weapons taken "looks like a sniper rifle" and can pierce bulletproof vests and even cars. "They're ready for a war," she says of the thieves. "We were war-ready." Brayen adds she believed the weapons and gear were secure when she went to sleep on Monday night, but now suspects one of her two children left a door to the home unlocked. "I don't want to see anybody get hurt by what people took out of my home," she says. Police are investigating, reports the AP.

Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, a division of Pfizer Inc., is voluntarily recalling one lot of Children’s Advil® Suspension Bubble Gum Flavored 4 FL OZ Bottle because of customer complaints that the dosage cup provided is marked in teaspoons and the instructions on the label are described in milliliters (mL). Pfizer concluded that the use of the product with an unmatched dosage cup marked in teaspoons rather than milliliters has a chance of being associated with potential overdose. The most common symptoms associated with ibuprofen overdose include nausea, vomiting, headache, drowsiness, blurred vision and dizziness. Children’s Advil® Suspension Bubble Gum Flavored 4 FL OZ Bottle temporarily reduces fever, relieves minor aches and pains due to the common cold, flu, sore throat, headaches and toothaches. Children’s Advil® Suspension Bubble Gum Flavored 4 FL OZ Bottle, NDC 0573-0207-30, lot R51129 was distributed nationwide to wholesalers, distributors and retailers in the United States from May 2018 through June 2018. Children’s Advil® Suspension Bubble Gum Flavored 4 FL OZ Bottle Lot and Packaging Information NDC Lot Number Expiration Date SKU UPC Configuration/Count 0573-0207-30 R51129 11/20 F005730207300 3-0573-0207-30-0 4 FL OZ (120 ml) Bottle 36 bottles/case Pfizer, Inc. places the utmost emphasis on patient safety and product quality at every step in the manufacturing and supply chain process. Pfizer, Inc. has notified wholesalers, distributors and retailers to arrange for return of any recalled product. Wholesalers, distributors and retailers with an existing inventory of the lot being recalled, should stop use and distribution and quarantine the product immediately. Wholesalers, distributors and retailers that have further distributed the recalled product should notify any accounts or additional locations which may have received the recalled product from them. For instructions on returning product or additional assistance, call Stericycle at 1-800-805-3093 between the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday. If consumers have questions regarding this recall or to report an adverse event, please contact the Pfizer Consumer Healthcare Information Line at 1-800-88-Advil (1-800-882-3845). Their hours of operation are Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm EST. Consumers should contact their healthcare provider if they have experienced any problems that may be related to taking or using this drug product. Adverse reactions or quality problems associated with the use of this product may be reported to FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program either by phone, on line, by regular mail or by fax. Complete and submit the report Online: www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm Regular Mail or Fax: Download form www.fda.gov/MedWatch/getforms.htm or call 1-800-332-1088 to request a reporting form, then complete and return to the address on the pre-addressed form, or submit by fax to 1-800-FDA-0178. This recall is being executed with the knowledge of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. ### ||||| Pills in Prescription Bottle (Photo: Owaki/Kulla, Getty Images/Corbis RM Stills) ATLANTA – Pfizer Consumer Healthcare says they are voluntarily recalling one specific lot of Children's Advil Suspension Bubble Gum flavor. According to the alert, the dosage cup provided in the package is marked in teaspoons, while the instructions on the label are described in milliliters. This could potentially make it easy for an overdose to occur upon use of the product. The particular lot in question is: Children's Advil Suspension Bubble Gum Flavored 4fl. oz. Bottle GTIN #: 3-0573-0207-30-0 Lot #: R51129 Expiration Date: 11/20 The most common symptoms associated with ibuprofen overdose include nausea, vomiting, headache, drowsiness, blurred vision, and dizziness. Consumers who have purchased this product are encouraged to return it to the store where they purchased it for a full refund. Anyone with additional questions or concerns should contact Pfizer Consumer Healthcare's Information line at 800-882-3845. Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2widDlf

– Check your bottle of Children's Advil: Pfizer is recalling one lot of Children's Advil Suspension Bubble Gum flavor because while the label instructions describe dosages in milliliters, the dosage cup is marked in teaspoons. That puts users at risk of overdosing, Pfizer says in a press release. The recall is a voluntary one, and anyone who purchased the lot in question can get a full refund, USA Today reports. More details on how to identify whether your bottle is affected can be found at the FDA's website.