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88802aac77e2a015a6f8c3d86238e11b | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/04/report-el-chapos-daughter-claims-he-visited-us-run/81309308/ | Report: El Chapo's daughter claims he visited U.S. on the run | Report: El Chapo's daughter claims he visited U.S. on the run
Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman allegedly slipped into California twice last year to visit relatives while on the run after his daring escape from a Mexican prison, his eldest daughter claims.
Rosa Isela Guzman Ortiz, a U.S. citizen, also alleges in an interview with The Guardian that her father bankrolled the election of senior Mexico politicians.
Guzman Ortiz, who runs a series of small businesses in the U.S., claims corrupt Mexican officials helped her father evade a massive manhunt last year shortly after his interview with Hollywood star Sean Penn.
The 39-year-old daughter of the cartel boss says her father crossed the border in late 2015 to visit relatives and to view a five-bedroom house that he had bought for her in the U.S. In securing the interview, the newspaper agreed not to disclose its location.
“My dad deposited the money in a bank account with a lawyer and a while after he came to see the house, his house. He came twice,” she says.
She declined to explain how he was able to cross the heavily guarded border: “I asked him the same, believe me,” she tells The Guardian.
The elusive drug kingpin was recaptured in January after seven months on the run following his daring escape from a high security Mexican prison through an elaborate, mile-long tunnel.
Earlier this week, Guzman instructed his lawyers to drop efforts to fight extradition to the U.S. apparently in hopes of negotiating a lighter sentence.
The drug lord's third wife is a U.S. citizen and gave birth to twin daughters in southern California in 2011. At the time, then Mexican president Felipe Calderón speculated the fugitive drug kingpin — who was on the run from an earlier prison break — could be hiding north of the border. “He’s not in Mexican territory, and I suppose 'El Chapo' is in U.S. territory,” he told The New York Times.
The Guardian says Guzman Ortiz's identity was verified through several documents including a birth certificate and a Mexican voting card. Her identity was also confirmed by Francisco Villa Gurrola, an evangelical minister in El Chapo’s hometown of Badiraguato, who is a close friend of the drug lord’s 87-year-old mother Consuela Loera, the newspaper says.
The British newspaper says Guzman Ortiz made the claims in a series of interviews that she says were given in consultation with her father. The newspaper said it is the first time she has spoken to the media.
El Chapo's daughter accuses senior Mexican politicians of accepting donations from her father when they ran for office in exchange for turning a blind eye to his prison escapes. “My dad is not a criminal. The government is guilty,” she says.
The newspaper says her claims could not be independently verified and "are likely to be vigorously contested by Mexican and U.S. authorities."
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310998bdc90a77fdc1735838faa284fa | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/08/schools--computer-bomb-threats/81489322/ | Schools more wary of shady computer bomb threats | Schools more wary of shady computer bomb threats
Shortly after he became police chief of Princeton, N.J. in 2014, Nicholas Sutter noticed that schools were reporting a “dramatic increase” in mysterious phone calls. In each of them, a computer-generated voice threatened violence.
Sometimes the voice was recorded and sometimes it was live, but each time it was a digitally synthesized, "robocall" voice. Most of the calls warned that bombs had been planted in schools, or that an active shooter was in the building. The threats never materialized, but police responded anyway.
What was different, Sutter said, was that the calls didn't seem to be your typical kid trying to get out of a trigonometry test or harass a high school principal. They were “very descriptive in their nature, in terms of the destruction that they wanted to cause.”
Most troubling of all, they were coming from outside of Princeton.
“We knew we were dealing with something different,” he said.
Princeton's experience is not unique. Schools across the USA — and across the world — are experiencing a sometimes dramatic uptick in high-tech threats, educators and law enforcement officials say. Those include a rash of bomb-threat calls last January in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia, and a flurry of e-mails last December to schools in New York City, Los Angeles and elsewhere.
In the December case, L.A. officials closed all of the city’s 900 schools for one day, handing 640,000 students a day off just 10 days before Christmas. Police in New York dismissed a nearly identical threat from the same sender as a hoax — Mayor Bill de Blasio called the threat “so generic, so outlandish” that it couldn’t be taken seriously.
But in an era when terrorists target public places such as Paris cafes and theaters and, more recently, a rented banquet hall in San Bernardino, Calif., law enforcement and school officials say they can’t ignore most threats.
“It’s a terroristic threat against our most vulnerable in our society, our children,” Sutter said.
The threats send “panic through a community,” said Ohio school safety consultant Ken Trump, who last year looked at more than 800 violent school threats and found that in 30%, schools were evacuated; in 10% schools were closed.
Last October in Fairfield, Conn., a caller warned of a bomb at a high school and a man with an M16 assault rifle headed to an elementary school. The latter was a so-called “swatting,” designed to trick police into responding. The threats prompted the district, located just 25 miles south of Newtown, Conn., to lock down all 17 schools.
Blame increasingly accessible digital technology, which gives perpetrators the ability to stay anonymous in new and, frankly, strange ways.
In one case last month, an international group using a Russian e-mail address and using the now-suspended Twitter handles @Ev4cuati0nSquad and @SwatTheW0rld claimed responsibility for hoax threats across Australia, with plans to target schools throughout Europe.
“We do these threats because they are funny to us,” a spokesperson for the group, who uses the name Viktor Olyavich, told the tech website Mashable Australia via e-mail. “We don't worry about the consequences, because our main threat-makers are based in Russia and Iran," Olyavich said. The group was placing the calls via a stolen Internet phone account “that has a trove of calling credit,” he said.
The group even offered a price list for its services, payable in non-traceable Bitcoin: $5 for threatening a school or business; $10 for a courthouse or entire school district; $50 for a major sporting event.
“I don’t think that we’re talking about a tremendously sophisticated technology that’s being used, but it’s technology that’s nonetheless difficult to trace,” Sutter, the Princeton police chief, said. Police elsewhere have made arrests in cases that he believes are connected to the Princeton cases. "They were definitely coming from elsewhere," he said.
Amy Klinger, an Ohio-based consultant with the Educator’s School Safety Network, said U.S. schools this year have seen a 143% increase in bomb threats, with about eight to 10 bomb threats per day.
“You can spread out the chaos significantly with the robo-calling,” she said. “The scope of the disruption can be so much greater.”
Though the vast majority turn out to be hoaxes, she said, “You have to evacuate, or you feel you have to evacuate, and you perpetuate it. You get into this vicious circle.”
Like Trump, Klinger said schools need to update their training to deal with the new kinds of threats. Evacuating a school for a bomb threat isn’t the same as a fire drill, for instance: Guiding students to a school parking lot or football stadium could be bringing them to the very place where a bomb is planted, Klinger said.
“If you’re going to evacuate to the stadium, has anybody swept the stadium?” she said.
Contributing: AP; Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo
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8c9c7ed26f42dc76f7442e2f608bc75d | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/12/kaiser-doctors-ponder-delicate-talks-medicare-pays-end--life-counsel/81691540/ | Doctors Ponder Delicate Talks As Medicare Pays for End-Of-Life Counsel | Doctors Ponder Delicate Talks As Medicare Pays for End-Of-Life Counsel
JUPITER, Fla. – She didn’t want to spend the rest of her days seeing doctors, the 91-year-old woman confessed to Dr. Kevin Newfield as he treated a deep wound on her arm.
“You don’t have to, but you have to tell me what you do want,” Newfield replied.
“I’m not afraid of dying. I’m afraid of being 106,” she told the surgeon and her daughter, who was in the room with them.
The woman’s spontaneous admission in Newfield’s south Florida office that January day triggered a 20-minute discussion about living wills, hospice and other end-of-life issues, Newfield said.
An orthopedic surgeon who sometimes performs amputations, Newfield is comfortable having those conversations.
Many doctors are not, but a Medicare policy (Keywords: Advance care planning) that took effect in January could help change that.
Physicians can now bill Medicare $86 for an office-based, end-of-life counseling session with a patient for as long as 30 minutes. Medicare has set no rules on what doctors must discuss during those sessions. Patients can seek guidance on completing advance directives stating if or when they want life support measures such as ventilators and feeding tubes, and how to appoint a family member or friend to make medical decisions on their behalf if they cannot, for instance.
The new policy reflects Americans’ growing interest in planning the last stage of their lives when they may be unable to make their wishes known.
In 2014, the Institute of Medicine, an influential panel of experts, found that the nation’s health system was not adequately dealing with end-of-life care, and among its recommendations was that insurers pay providers for advanced-care planning discussions.
Last September, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll found 89 percent of the public said that doctors should discuss end-of-life care issues with their patients, though just 17 percent of Americans--and 34 percent of people 75 and older--said that they have had such conversations. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
Under the new Medicare policy, doctors can give end-of-life advice during a senior’s annual wellness visit or in a routine office visit. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants can also get paid for having the talks.
“For doctors already providing this counseling the payment is an added benefit and for doctors on the fence about talking about the issue with patients, this may be enough to inspire them to try it,” said Paul Malley, president of Aging with Dignity, a national advocacy group based in Tallahassee, Fla.
Newfield, the Florida surgeon, is less optimistic. He said he doesn’t think the money will cause him to initiate more end-of-life discussions--and that doctors who weren’t doing them before now are unlikely to start. After all, said Newfield, doctors make money by keeping people alive.
The payment idea was first floated in 2009, as part of the congressional debate over the Affordable Care Act. Back then, a proposal to have Medicare pay for such discussions sparked political controversy and fueled concern that they would lead to so-called “death panels” that could influence decisions to avoid medical care. The proposal was quickly dropped.
Medicare’s policy now has broad support from health providers and patient groups, but neither physicians nor the American Medical Association foresee a surge in end-of-life planning among Medicare’s more than 50 million enrollees. The AMA, which supports the reimbursement, estimates Medicare will pay for fewer than 50,000 counseling sessions in 2016.
The numbers may well be held back by the small reimbursement rate for half an hour of counseling, but another obstacle rests with doctors themselves. Many are not trained to offer such advice or they are uncomfortable talking about it with patients.
“Just The First Step,” the journal Health Affairs headlined an article about Medicare’s new policy in its March issue.
“The perception that lack of training could be a major stumbling block to the greater implementation of advance care planning is widely shared,” wrote David Tuller, a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health.
“A lot depends on how you deliver the message and how you go about it,” said Dr. Jay Poonkasem, who specializes in palliative care in Clearwater, Fla.
“We will see more of this counseling, but only if doctors feel more comfortable and are trained in the right way to handle talks about end-of-life and advance care planning.”
Medical schools such as the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and the University of California, San Francisco have recently begun expanding training on the subject.
At UCSF, all medical students are taught how to conduct advance care planning discussions and educational programs also exist for residents, nurses and other physicians at the hospital.
“This kind of training is crucial--one of the things that gets in the way of understanding and using patient preferences is that clinicians are often uncomfortable having these challenging conversations,” said Dr. Robert Wachter, professor and interim chair of UCSF’s Department of Medicine. “The issue of end-of-life conversations is so compelling and fraught--teaching it also allows us to teach about more general communication skills.”
Some doctors admit they could do better.
Dr. Scott Dunn, a family physician in Sandpoint, Idaho, said he regrets not having done more recently to help a 76-year-old patient avoid spending his final weeks in intensive care, connected to machines breathing for him and feeding him. That meant the patient may have needlessly suffered and cost the health system tens of thousands of extra dollars, he said.
“I wish I had taken the time months earlier to have that end-of-life discussion, but I did not,” he said.
Dunn said the incentive payment will entice him to have more such discussions with patients, but they won’t become routine in his practice. “Medicare pays us more to do other stuff.”
Michael Guarino came to a different view after watching his elderly father die last year, weeks after he became unable to move or talk. Guarino decided then that the 800-physician organization of which he is executive director--the Independent Physician Association of Nassau/Suffolk Counties in New York--would include end-of-life discussions for all adult patients.
To guide those discussions, the association’s physicians and nurses use a 12-page booklet called Five Wishes, which outlines how patients can designate someone to make decisions on their behalf if they become unable as well as choose what treatment they want, if any, at the end of their life.
Dr. John Meigs, Jr., a family doctor in Centreville, Ala. and president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians, said he sees value in doctors helping patients prepare for death.
Last July, a stroke left a 95-year-old nursing home patient of his with difficulty speaking and swallowing. The woman’s daughter questioned Meigs’ decision not to give the patient a feeding tube. Meigs reassured the daughter that her mother had made clear she didn’t want that in many talks with him and in her advance directives.
No heroic measures were made and the woman died a few days later.
Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
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eb410f4bdda92cb3340c0e08f78bf2e8 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/15/after-their-child-ended-up-trash-couple-get-28m/81800790/ | After their child ended up in trash, couple to get $28M | After their child ended up in trash, couple to get $28M
(NEWSER) – Catheryne Lucero and Raul Manzano thought the body of their infant son, who died soon after his birth on Sept. 1, 2014, was being cremated.
Instead, his remains ended up in a dumpster behind a gas station in North Miami, Fla., four days later.
Now the couple have been awarded $28 million after a jury determined that the Carey Royal Ram'n Mortuary was negligent in its transport of the child's body, CBS Miami reports.
A homeless man searching for food amid the trash found the baby in a cardboard box. A toe tag provided police with "a big clue," the Miami Herald reported at the time, as it suggested the boy had been dead for some time and perhaps came from a funeral home.
The discovery was heavily covered by the media, and "the really bad part is the parents had been watching the reports ... and were thinking what a tragedy this is," Neal Hirschfeld, their lawyer in the civil trial, tells the Miami Herald. "They were so distraught."
Shortly after the baby was found, Jarren Hood, son of the funeral home owner, told the police that he was supposed to take the body to the crematorium but went home instead; someone then stole the box from his van.
A state panel in May found that Hood "committed negligence, incompetency, or misconduct" during the transport, and the funeral home, which is still in operation, was fined, per Hirschfeld. Hood was charged only with resisting arrest in the incident. (Another funeral home laid out the wrong body.)
This story originally appeared on Newser:
After Their Child Ended Up in the Trash, Parents to Get $28M
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ff86d041f32d3e3cf8be42db7b98386e | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/15/pope-francis-debut-instagram/81832560/ | Pope Francis just posted his first Instagram | Pope Francis just posted his first Instagram
Pope Francis, or franciscus on Instagram, just posted his first photo in which he tells his followers "Pray for me" in nine languages.
The post drew more than 15,000 likes in its first hour, and his handle already has roughly 63,000 followers.This may pale in comparison to his nearly 9 million followers on Twitter, but he's just getting started.
Under his @Pontifex handle on Twitter he wrote: "I am beginning a new journey, on Instagram, to walk with you along the path of mercy and the tenderness of God."
The pope seems on a divine mission to be the most tech savvy Holy See in history.
In late February, the pope met with Kevin Systrom, the CEO and cofounder of Instagram, the photo-sharing app.
"We spoke about the power of images to united people across different cultures and languages," Systrom posted on his Instagram account. "It was by far one of the most memorable experiences of my life!"
In January, Pope Francis met with Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of the parent company of Google, and Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, according to the Vatican.
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1566cdd8d9fc4b6b3ca5b4192e6c5481 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/16/merrick-garland-supreme-court-obama-nominee/81529760/ | Meet Merrick Garland, Obama's SCOTUS nominee | Meet Merrick Garland, Obama's SCOTUS nominee
WASHINGTON — Merrick Garland almost made it to the Supreme Court six years ago, but he was saved for a time when President Obama might need someone palatable to Republicans to replace a conservative justice.
A time like now.
Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit — the most frequent stepping-stone to the Supreme Court — comes straight out of central casting.
Like five current justices as well as the late Antonin Scalia, who he would replace, Garland attended Harvard Law School. Like Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor, he's a former prosecutor. Like Scalia, Chief Justice John Roberts, Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, he comes from the powerful D.C. Circuit court.
Garland isn't even the first Supreme Court nominee to earn undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard, clerk for Judge Henry Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, work at the Justice Department, become a partner at a major Washington, D.C., law firm, and serve on the D.C. Circuit . Roberts did all that.
In his brief Rose Garden remarks Wednesday, a choked-up Garland described his early years as a federal prosecutor, seeking to convince scared mothers and grandmothers to testify against violent gang members.
“Trust that justice will be done in our courts -- without prejudice or partisanship -- is what in large part distinguishes this country from others," he said. His job then as now, he said, was to ensure that "the rule of law would prevail."
That dedication to the craft appears to have persuaded a president who has spent seven years stoking the federal courts with women and minorities. Faced with the opportunity to nominate the court's first Asian American, third African American or fifth woman in history, Obama opted instead for a mild-mannered hiking enthusiast from Chicago who may be more difficult for Republicans to rebuff.
“This is one instance where you can actually believe the hype,” says Justin Driver, a University of Chicago Law School professor who served as a law clerk to Garland a decade ago. "He is a judge's judge."
USA TODAY's 2015 Supreme Court Decision Tracker
LOW PROFILE ON HOT-BUTTON ISSUES
At 63, Garland is much older than most high court nominees. His nearly two decades on the powerful appeals court will give opponents more to parse than those who had only brief tenures on the bench — or in the case of Justice Elena Kagan, who nosed out Garland in 2010, none at all. Yet a search of his record reveals few major decisions, and virtually none on hot-button issues.
"He's not someone who likes to issue sweeping rulings," says David Pozen, a Columbia Law School associate professor who clerked for Garland in 2008-09. "He doesn't favor grand pronouncements that go beyond the case at hand."
The last time Garland went before the Senate, it also was controlled by Republicans, and for a while he endured the same fate he faces now. President Bill Clinton named him to the appeals court in 1995, but his nomination languished through the 1996 election year. Once Clinton won a second term, Garland won confirmation by a 76-23 vote in 1997, with 32 Republicans supporting him.
“He earned overwhelming, bipartisan praise from senators and legal experts alike,” Obama said in nominating Garland Wednesday. During each of his previous Supreme Court searches, the president said, “the one name that has come up repeatedly from Republicans and Democrats alike is Merrick Garland.”
If confirmed — a long shot at the moment, but not unfathomable after Election Day — Garland would be the oldest justice to join the court since Lewis Powell, then 64, in 1972. Powell went on to serve more than 15 years, retiring in 1987.
During 19 years at the D.C. Circuit, Garland has managed to keep a low profile. The court's largely administrative docket has left him without known positions on issues such as abortion or the death penalty.
Merrick Garland: A look at the record
Five things to know about Merrick Garland
He is billed as a moderate — a label that may worry liberal advocacy groups concerned about issues such as abortion rights and gun control. But the label applies more to his method of deciding cases. Like Roberts, he adopts a minimalist approach; like Kagan, he works at persuading more conservative colleagues.
“I think moderate has become kind of code for … someone who is liked by both sides,” says Danielle Gray, a former law clerk became a senior White House advisor and law firm partner.
SCOURING THE RECORD
At the same time, conservatives insist he's a liberal in centrist clothing.
"We sort of know where he's coming from," says Brian Rogers of the conservative group America Rising, which plans to deploy opponents of the nomination across the country when the Senate leaves on recess next week. He cites Garland's limited votes on gun control and "a remarkable record of deference" to federal regulators.
Garland is clearly left of center by one measure. A check of his former law clerks finds 33 who went on to clerk for liberal Supreme Court justices and only 11 for conservatives. Justices who took the most ex-Garland clerks were Stephen Breyer, Ginsburg, Kagan and retired justice John Paul Stevens.
In 2013, he wrote the appeals court's decision ordering the CIA to release information about drone strikes to a federal judge, in a challenge brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. Five years earlier, he ruled that suspects could not be held as enemy combatants without verifiable evidence.
But on criminal law, he has more frequently backed law enforcement over the rights of defendants — an area of law in which Scalia, ironically, sometimes sided with the high court's liberal wing.
One issue he dealt with, at least tangentially, has been guns. In 2007, after a D.C. Circuit panel invalidated the District of Columbia's handgun ban, Garland unsuccessfully favored a rehearing by the full court. The Supreme Court ultimately struck down the ban in a landmark 2008 opinion written by Scalia.
"A basic analysis of Merrick Garland’s judicial record shows that he does not respect our fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense," the National Rifle Association's Chris Cox said in announcing the powerful group's opposition.
During his 1995 confirmation hearings, Garland named former Chief Justice John Marshall, who served from 1801 to 1835, as his role model, echoing a sentiment expressed by Scalia and many others. He also singled out Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes for his writing style — a skill Scalia particularly relished.
At that time and again in 2010, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch praised Garland and predicted he would enjoy broad support among Republicans. But Hatch and nearly all Senate Republicans now insist they will leave Scalia's seat open until a new president is in office.
First Take: Justice Scalia's death will trigger lengthy battle over replacement
Here's how Scalia's death affects Supreme Court rulings this year
'AN OPTIMISTIC GUY'
Before becoming a judge, Garland was a top Justice Department official who directed the government's prosecution of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols for the 1994 bombing that killed 168 people at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He also supervised the investigation of "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski and the bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Garland clerked for Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, who was nominated by President Dwight Eisenhower but, like several GOP nominees, went on to become a liberal stalwart. Between stops at the Justice Department, he rose to become a partner in the law firm Arnold & Porter.
His wife, the former Lynn Rosenman, is the granddaughter of a former New York Supreme Court justice who served as special counsel to Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. The couple has two daughters -- one of whom was hiking Wednesday in a mountainous area so remote it lacked cell service, so she missed her dad's big moment.
One person who didn't miss it was Charlene Wilburn, a second-grade teacher at the low-income J.O. Wilson Elementary School in Washington, D.C., where Garland regularly tutors students. "They love him," Wilburn said. "He's extremely committed."
That sense of commitment will be needed as Garland begins the process Thursday of wooing senators, including at least some Republicans. Those who know him well say he's up to the task.
“He’s an optimistic guy. He’ll follow through the process," Gray says. "I think he has it in him.”
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bf61f5f01dfdc3788329ec2b60f05613 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/21/marijuana-lawsuit-colorado-oklahoma-nebraska-supreme-court/81984006/ | Justices won't hear Nebraska, Oklahoma marijuana dispute with Colorado | Justices won't hear Nebraska, Oklahoma marijuana dispute with Colorado
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court refused Monday to referee a simmering dispute between Colorado and two neighboring states over the cross-border impact of marijuana legalization, heartening legalization advocates who feared the high court could have rolled back their gains.
The justices denied an effort by Oklahoma and Nebraska to bring their grievances about pot-related crime directly to the nation's highest court without seeking to go through lower courts first. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented, saying they would have heard the states' complaint.
"The plaintiff states have alleged significant harms to their sovereign interests caused by another state," Thomas wrote.
The petition had been pending at the Supreme Court for 15 months while the three states and the federal government made their arguments. Oklahoma and Nebraska complained that pot purchased legally in Colorado is being transported illegally into or through their states, overwhelming police and courts dealing with a sudden influx of smugglers. An ounce of high-quality marijuana selling for $200 at a state-licensed Colorado store can fetch three times that on the East Coast black market, police say.
Colorado sued by neighboring states over legal pot
"The state of Colorado authorizes, oversees, protects and profits from a sprawling, $100 million-per-month marijuana growing, processing and retailing organization that exported thousands of pounds of marijuana to some 36 states in 2014," the complaining states argued in their latest brief to the court. "If this entity were based south of our border, the federal government would prosecute it as a drug cartel."
USA TODAY highlighted the flow of marijuana from Colorado into small towns across Nebraska in 2014. It found that felony drug arrests in Chappell, Neb., just 7 miles north of the Colorado border, skyrocketed 400% in three years.
The neighboring states also argued that the Constitution's supremacy clause leaves the issue to the federal government, which still considers marijuana to be an illegal substance. Since their lawsuit was filed, sheriffs from several states and an anti-crime group have sued Colorado in lower courts.
Colorado, where residents voted to legalize marijuana in 2012, argued it is not responsible for the behavior of individual purchasers. The state prohibits interstate commerce of the drug and requires background checks for growers and vendors.
Legalization advocates say the court's decision should prompt Nebraska and Oklahoma to reconsider their approach.
"At the end of the day, if officials in Nebraska and Oklahoma are upset about how much time and resources their police are spending on marijuana cases, as they said in their briefs, they should join Colorado in replacing prohibition with legalization," Tom Angell, the chairman of the Marijuana Majority, said in a statement. "That will allow their criminal justice systems to focus on real crime, and it will generate revenue that can be used to pay for healthcare, education and public safety programs."
Colorado officials argued that Nebraska and Oklahoma were inappropriately trying to influence what voters in the Centennial State had decided for themselves.
"Colorado does not intend, nor has it attempted, to reach across the border to invade the plaintiff states’ sovereign rights," it said in its brief seeking to have the challenge dismissed. "Indeed, it is Colorado’s sovereignty that is at stake here: Nebraska and Oklahoma filed this case in an attempt to reach across their borders and selectively invalidate state laws with which they disagree."
The justices had asked the Obama administration to weigh in, and the Justice Department responded by urging the court to stay out of the case.
"Entertaining the type of dispute at issue here — essentially that one state’s laws make it more likely that third parties will violate federal and state law in another state — would represent a substantial and unwarranted expansion of this court’s original jurisdiction," Solicitor General Donald Verrilli said.
Colorado, Alaska, Oregon, Washington state and Washington, D.C., have legalized adult recreational use, and 23 states and the District of Columbia permit some form of medical use. That’s despite the fact that marijuana remains an illegal drug and Schedule 1 controlled substance at the federal level.
While several legalization advocates hailed Monday's decision as a major victory, California-based cannabis attorney Aaron Herzberg of CalCann Holdings said the court’s action doesn’t actually change anything.
"They’ve simply made a decision to be hands off and to allow the states to experiment…" he said. "It would have been extremely concerning had this Supreme Court taken this case up. We can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that the court system is not going to intervene."
Herzberg said the federal government needs to bring much-needed clarity to the situation, including access to banking and potentially reclassifying marijuana from its current Schedule 1 status. That likely won’t happen until after the presidential election, he predicted.
"There's still huge federal issues that are in the way of this industry succeeding," he said. "We really need to see some leadership on this on the federal front."
The industry is only expected to grow in 2016, particularly if California voters this fall decide to legalize recreational use, according to the newly released 4th Edition State of Legal Marijuana Markets Report from from ArcView Market Research and New Frontier, a cannabis-focused data-analysis firm. Much of the increase is attributed to adult use market sales, which hit $1.3 billion last year. By 2020, adult use and medical marijuana sales are expected to reach nearly $23 billion, triple this year.
The attorneys general of Oklahoma and Nebraska did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
Hughes reported from Denver.
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bb68e6bcd28e7a04e0e9d81e0c03094f | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/22/first-look-group-slams-supreme-court-pick-liberal-extremist/82140624/ | First look: Group slams Supreme Court pick as 'liberal extremist' | First look: Group slams Supreme Court pick as 'liberal extremist'
WASHINGTON – A conservative legal group opposed to President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee is launching a digital ad campaign that paints Merrick Garland as too liberal to serve on the nation’s high court.
The 60-second commercial from the Judicial Crisis Network, shared first with USA TODAY, will appear on social media in Iowa, New Hampshire, Colorado and Indiana — states with closely watched Senate races. It also will hit users in the nation’s capital and two solidly Republican states, West Virginia and North Dakota, to target Democratic senators there.
“Obama and his liberal allies have been working hard to paint Garland as a ‘moderate’ for the Supreme Court,” the ad says. “But there is no painting over the truth: Garland would be a tie-breaking vote for Obama’s big government liberalism. The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Gutted.”
Its news release calls the veteran jurist a "liberal extremist."
The new ad, described as a five-figure buy, highlights the new line of attack emerging from Republicans who have pledged to block his confirmation in the Senate to allow Obama’s successor to fill the vacancy. Opponents to Garland’s appointment have shifted their focus away from November’s presidential election, suggesting instead that Garland’s judicial stances should give Republican senators pause.
“I can’t imagine that a Republican majority in the United States Senate would want to confirm … a nominee opposed by the National Rifle Association,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said over the weekend on Fox News.
Carrie Severino, chief counsel of the Judicial Crisis Network, echoed that theme Tuesday.
“The White House is presenting him as a moderate,” she said of Garland, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. “He’s a reliable liberal vote. A lot of senators will have a hard time explaining to their constituents why they are supporting this nominee.”
Severino’s group already has spent $4 million in their campaign to derail Obama’s high court nominee since the death last month of fiercely conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. The stakes couldn’t be higher: If confirmed by the Senate, Garland would tip the court’s balance on issues ranging from abortion to the limits of presidential power.
Meet Merrick Garland, Obama's SCOTUS nominee
Republican worry their colleagues facing tough re-election battles will break the Senate’s blockade and support hearings and a possible floor vote on the confirmation. Just last week, Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., called on the Senate to “man up and cast a vote” on Garland.
At the same time, the White House and liberal groups are working to make Garland an example in battleground states for what they view as GOP obstructionism.
Administration allies staged protests across the country Monday, targeting Republican senators and plan a rally Wednesday outside the Pittsburgh office of Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, a swing state Republican on the ballot in November. Similar rallies are planned next week in Iowa that focus on Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Among conservative groups’ objections: Garland’s 2007 vote as a member of the appellate court to rehear a split decision by a three-judge panel of the court, striking down Washington’s handgun ban as unconstitutional.
He voted with three other judges to have all members of the court review the decision. The court declined, by a 6-4 vote, hold a full rehearing of the case. Garland's allies argue that voting for a hearing by the entire appeals court doesn’t signal a judge’s position.
Opposing Garland poses big risks for Republicans. A Monmouth University poll released this week shows 69% of Americans believe the Senate should hold hearings on his confirmation. In addition, several prominent figures in the party have praised Garland.
Ken Starr, who oversaw the investigation that led to President Clinton’s impeachment, called him “superbly qualified” for the Supreme Court. Alberto Gonzales, the former U.S. attorney general in the George W. Bush administration, recently penned an op-ed in USA TODAY, warning that “if Americans believe the nominee is not being treated fairly, a lengthy delay could potentially jeopardize control of the Senate.”
Alberto Gonzales: Give Judge Garland a vote
Severino, a former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has not disclosed how much more advertising the group plans to undertake in the months ahead, although she said she expects activity to taper off as voters become more focused on the presidential campaign.
But, she added, “we are certainly prepared to spend whatever we need to spend to make sure the seat is filled by someone who is worthy of Justice Scalia’s legacy.”
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867ca103a464cd053dc42a20c571848f | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/25/anti-discrimination-law-elicits-rebukes-businesses/82247098/ | Anti-discrimination law elicits rebukes from businesses | Anti-discrimination law elicits rebukes from businesses
RALEIGH, N.C. — Corporations expressed disappointment and the NCAA vowed to monitor what North Carolina does next now that the state has banned any local government measures protecting people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
American Airlines, which operates its second-largest hub in Charlotte; IBM and Biogen, which have facilities in the state's Research Triangle; and payments processor PayPal, which had announced plans to hire 400 people in Charlotte only last week, were among major employers condemning the new law Thursday.
The legislature called a special session Wednesday to void a Charlotte ordinance that would have enabled transgender people to legally use restrooms aligned with their gender identity, and would have provided broad protections against discrimination in public accommodations in the state's largest city.
The new law now prevents the state's cities and counties from passing their own anti-discrimination rules, and instead imposes a statewide standard that leaves out sexual orientation and gender identity.
North Carolina is the first state to require public school and university students to use only those bathrooms that match their birth certificates, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures.
The state law "is a clear step backwards. Sad day," tweeted Jim Whitehurst, chief executive of Raleigh-based open-source software company Red Hat.
The economic impact will take time to quantify. There were no immediate threats to withdraw business from the state, which has seen booming growth and an influx of "knowledge workers" in Charlotte and Raleigh, even as rural towns lag behind economically.
Other businesses have voiced support for the measure Republican Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law late Wednesday, a spokesman for his re-election campaign said. Spokesman Ricky Diaz did not respond when asked which businesses backed the governor's decision.
About 200 protesters blocked a downtown Raleigh street in front of the state's Executive Mansion Thursday evening. Police said in a statement that five people were arrested after they sat down in the street and refused orders to disperse.
The five people were charged with blocking traffic and with resisting, delaying or obstructing police officers, Jim Sughrue, a spokesman for the Raleigh Police Department said in a statement. Four of the protesters were from Durham — Jade Brooks, 30; Salma Mirza, 28; Ngoe Tran, 20; and Jessica Jude, 27. The fifth protester was Noah Rubin-Blose, 32, of Hillsborough.
McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor, stays in the mansion while in the state capital but was not there at the time of the protest, spokesman Josh Ellis said.
Demonstrators like Alex Berkman complained that lawmakers acted quickly before Charlotte's example could be adopted by other communities.
"The way that these things work is that one place will pass a law and then another place will pass a law and then we start to build momentum," said Berkman, 29, of Raleigh.
Democrats warned that North Carolina risks losing billions in federal education dollars by conflicting with Title IX anti-discrimination regulations that apply in public schools. Republican lawmakers downplayed the threat Wednesday.
The NCAA, which is scheduled to hold men's basketball tournament games in Greensboro in 2017 and Charlotte in 2018, said it takes diversity into account when it chooses its event sites. The National Basketball Association said it is too early to know if the new law will affect Charlotte hosting the league's all-star game in 2017.
Supporters say the new law protects all people from having to share bathrooms with people who make them feel unsafe. Advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights say it demonizes them with bogus claims about bathroom risks.
"The disappointment, anger and fear many are feeling today is beyond words. What's worse is this will likely not be our last defeat," Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin wrote in an online column Thursday.
Bathroom use has proved to be a potent wedge issue across the country since Houston's anti-discrimination law was overwhelmingly voted down in a referendum last year, but LGBT advocates have had some victories, too. South Dakota's legislature failed to override Gov. Dennis Daugaard's veto of a bill requiring students to use bathrooms corresponding to their birth gender, and a similar bill in Tennessee bill died Tuesday.
The LGBT movement won't likely table the bathroom issue to focus on other areas of discrimination, said Katherine Franke, a Columbia university law professor and director of the school's Gender and Sexuality Law center.
"The issues of discrimination and violence against transgender people in the context of bathrooms are so overwhelming, that to them it is a cutting-edge problem," she said. "Overwhelmingly, it's transgender people who are the victims of violence in the bathroom setting. ... This is a basic human need."
Instead, advocates will likely try to win more acceptance from society about transgender people and their particular challenges, said Dru Levasseur, director of Transgender Rights Project at the civil rights group Lambda Legal. "The LGBT movement is right now focusing its efforts on educating people about who transgender people are, and that is the antidote to this battle," Levasseur said.
The issue won't likely go away as North Carolina's Democratic Attorney General, Roy Cooper, tries to unseat McCrory in November. Republicans see the law as protecting business owners who have a religious objection to gays and lesbians, and political differences with liberal local governments. Democrats see the law as proof that the GOP won't protect minorities.
But corporate America could tip the scale, said Michael Bitzer, political science professor at Catawba College in Salisbury, northeast of Charlotte.
"If businesses are starting to look at North Carolina and says this is not the environment we want to be in, that could have some blowback, and McCrory would be in the bull's-eye," Bitzer said.
Thursday evening, state and national gay-rights advocates joined about 400 people at a Raleigh church to vow to fight on when the General Assembly reconvenes next month and in November at the ballot box to elect Cooper and throw out legislators who voted for the law.
There also will be legal challenges. "We are going to court as soon as possible," said Sarah Preston with the American Civil Liberties Union in North Carolina.
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48b75473381663936effcf96a3d92516 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/25/illinois-prosecutor-wrong-man-convicted-1957-murder-7-year-old-girl/82270214/ | Illinois prosecutor: Wrong man convicted of 1957 murder of 7-year-old girl | Illinois prosecutor: Wrong man convicted of 1957 murder of 7-year-old girl
An Illinois prosecutor on Friday said that new evidence has persuaded him that a 75-year-old man was wrongly convicted in 2012 for the decades-old murder of a 7-year-old girl in the northern Illinois town of Sycamore.
Jack McCullough, a former cop in Washington state who was convicted in a bench trial for the abduction and killing of Maria Ridulph, had long insisted that he wasn't even in Sycamore, about 65 miles from Chicago, when Maria was abducted in December 1957. Her body was found in the nearby town of Galena five months later.
But newly found phone records and other evidence bolster McCullough's defense that he was some 35 miles away from the small farm community at the the time of Maria's abduction and couldn't be responsible, says Richard Schmack, DeKalb County, Ill. State's Attorney.
McCullough, who was 17 at the time of the incident, had long contended that he was at a U.S. Air Force recruitment center in Rockford at the time of the abduction. He said he made a collect call home from a payphone at the Rockford post office asking for a ride home that supported his alibi.
The incident shook the community and captured national attention (even President Dwight Eisenhower took notice of it) as police and the FBI grappled with the case. When McCullough, who was living in the Seattle-area, was charged in 2011, it was believed to have been the oldest cold case ever to go to trial.
"I know that there are people who will never believe that he is not responsible for the crime," said Schmack, who announced his findings after completing a six-month review of the case that was spurred by McCullough's push for a new trial. "Many of these people are my neighbors in Sycamore. But I cannot allow that to sway me from my sworn duty to support the Constitution of the United States, the constitution of the state of Illinois, and to perform faithfully the primary duty of my office: 'To seek justice, not merely to convict.' "
Police had interviewed McCullough, who previously went by the name John Tessier, soon after the killing and said his alibi had checked out. But the Illinois State Police reopened the case in 2010 after getting a tip from McCullough's sister, Janet, who said their mother told her weeks before her death that McCullough had committed the crime.
McCullough is due to appear in court Tuesday in Sycamore, and Schmack said he will not oppose a defense motion to dismiss the conviction. Schmack said that he believes that McCullough, who is serving his life sentence at a correction facility in Pontiac, Ill, could be released "very soon."
Schmack said that while the state's attorney and FBI accepted McCullough's alibi as they investigated Maria's murder in 1957 and 1958, the judge would not allow defense attorneys to present the evidence because it was derived from FBI documents or police reports that could not be substantiated by agents. (At his 2012 trial, prosecutors acknowledged that McCullough may have made a collect call home but disputed that it was made in Rockford. The newly produced phone records pinpoint where the phone call was made.)
"Because all of the police officers were dead and you couldn't call them as witnesses, you couldn't introduce the police reports (under Illinois statute)," Schmack said in a telephone interview Friday after releasing his findings.
But Schmack, who did not head the State's Attorney's Office at the time of McCullough's prosecution, said that the judge failed to consider an "ancient documents exception" in state law that would have allowed the police reports to be considered.
Schmack also noted that when investigators interviewed the family of Maria Ridulph in 1957, her mother recalled having seen the little girl come in for a doll at 6:40 p.m. and Maria's father recalled seeing her come in the house sometime after 6:30 as he watched a television show. Phone records show that McCullough's phone call from Rockford happen at 6:57 p.m.
"He couldn't have been in two places at the same time," Schmack said.
Charles Ridulph, Maria’s older brother, told the Daily Chronicle of DeKalb that Schmack’s explanation was “ridiculous.”
The 2012 conviction of McCullough was also won in part because Kathy Sigman, who was playing with Maria shortly before her abduction, picked out McCullough from a photo lineup that was presented to her by police more than 50 years after the incident when he re-emerged as a suspect.
Schmack, however, said that the photo array that was presented to Sigman was highly prejudicial.
The photos were presented by a police officer who knew which of the six photos was of the suspect, a practice that is now prohibited by Illinois law but wasn't at the time. The photos of the other five in the lineup were of young men wearing suit coats, while the photo of a young McCullough was one that was taken during an evening at a nightclub, Schmack said.
McCullough, who lived near Sigman and Maria at the time of the time of the incident, was also the only one in the photo lineup who was from their neighborhood and would have been familiar to Sigman, Schmack said.
In 1957, a young Sigman identified two other men, one in a photo lineup and one in person, as being close in appearance to the possible kidnapper. One of the men lived in a nearby town, had a history of child molestation and a witness said she saw a truck bearing that man's name leaving the scene. That man's wife served as an alibi and he was never charged, Schmack said.
McCullough would go on to serve as a police officer in Lacy and Milton, Wash. But he was fired from the Milton Police Department after he was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage runaway in a 1982 incident. He was originally charged with statutory rape but later plead guilty to the less serious charge of unlawful communication with a minor.
He was found not guilty in 2012 of raping his half-sister in an incident that had occurred 50 years earlier. His half-sister, who was 14 at the time of the alleged incident, came forward after McCullough emerged in 2010 as the suspect in the Maria Ridulph killing.
"This case is really not about anything in his past history — except whether he is guilty of this crime," Schmack said.
Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad
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3e158ff6f2d14a4f3d9dfe760d67ec95 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/26/north-korea-propaganda-video-depicts-nuclear-attack-washington/82293486/ | North Korea propaganda video depicts nuclear attack on Washington | North Korea propaganda video depicts nuclear attack on Washington
North Korea released a dramatic propaganda video Saturday called "Last Chance" that depicts a nuclear strike on Washington, complete with animation of a missile slamming into the earth near the Lincoln Memorial.
The four-minute video, backed by a hyper musical score reminiscent of TV Westerns of the 1960s, includes a mushroom cloud and an American flag going up in flames.
State media: Kim Jong Un orders more nuke tests
It was posted to the YouTube channel of D.P.R.K. Today, a North Korean website, and includes a rapid-fire catalog of "humiliating defeats" meted out to the United States over the years, including the North’s capture of an American ship, the Pueblo, in 1968.
"If the American imperialists provoke us a bit, we will not hesitate to slap them with a pre-emptive nuclear strike,” read the Korean subtitles in the video, according to The New York Times. “The United States must choose! It’s up to you whether the nation called the United States exists on this planet or not.”
The video comes amid increasing tensions with Pyongyang over repeated missiles tests, a nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch this year. The moves sparked new sanctions by the U.S. and United Nations. North Korea has also repeatedly issued nuclear strike threats against both Seoul and Washington.
North Korea's belligerent rants fall on deaf ears
North Korea warned Saturday that it is ready to strike the South Korean presidential palace unless South Korea's president apologizes for "treason" and "publicly executes" officials responsible for what Pyongyang says are plans to attack its leadership, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported.
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ae8ffde0cf20dee77439d10ec7380925 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/26/reports-police-nabbed-man-hat-brussels-video/82288850/ | Reports: 'Man in hat' in Brussels video arrested, charged | Reports: 'Man in hat' in Brussels video arrested, charged
Belgian prosecutors charged three men for terrorist offenses Saturday, including a man identified by Belgian media as the "man in the hat" shown on surveillance video at Brussels Airport minutes before Tuesday's attacks.
While prosecutors have not officially identified a suspect as the man in the video, they confirmed they have charged a man identified as "Faycal C." for “involvement in a terrorist group, terrorist murder and attempted terrorist murder.”
Belgian state TV and the newspaper Le Soir, using a different spelling, identified the suspect as Faisal Cheffou, a Belgian freelance filmmaker and journalist.
They say he was fingered by a taxi driver who picked up three men on Tuesday, including two of the suicide bombers who blew themselves up at the airport in the terror attacks that killed at least 31 people.
Prosecutors are awaiting DNA evidence before making an official statement on whether they believe they have the third terrorist in custody, RTBF, Belgian state TV, reported. Prosecutors did say that they have searched the latest suspect's home and turned up no weapons or explosives.
In a statement Friday, the prosecutor's office said "Faycal C" was one of three men police detained near the federal prosecutor's office. Eric Van Der Sypt, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office, said the three were picked up while standing "outside our door."
On the surveillance video, the third terrorist, wearing a hat and light-colored clothing on the right, is shown walking beside the two other terrorists. Authorities said the man was pushing a cart with luggage containing a 35-pound bomb that did not detonate. The man fled and has been the main target of a manhunt since the attacks. The bomb was later set off in a controlled explosion.
Prosecutors say two other suspects arrested Thursday and identified as Rabah N. and Aboubakar A. have been charged with “involvement in the activities of a terrorist group,” according to the Associated Press
A fourth man, taken into custody Friday after he was shot by police at a Brussels tram stop, is being held for at least 24 hours longer.
The other two men in the airport surveillance video have been identified as Ibrahim El Bakraoui, 29, seen walking in the middle, and Najim Laachraoui, a bombmaker linked by DNA to the Paris terror attacks in November that killed 130 people. Also identified in the Brussels attacks is Khalid El Bakraoui, 27, Ibrahim's brother, who blew himself up in a subway car at a metro station.
Meanwhile, organizers postponed plans for a march Sunday from the Place de la Bourse in Brussels to the city’s Gare du Nord that was intended as a show of solidarity for the victims of the terror attacks, Belgian state TV reported.
The cancellation followed an appeal by Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon, who said police are too stretched with the investigation into the attacks to provide proper security.
In addition, Brussels Airport officials say flights won’t resume before Tuesday as they assess the damage caused by twin explosions in the terminal. Brussels Airport handles 23.5 million passengers annually. It links Brussels with 226 destinations worldwide and is served by 77 different airlines.
Follow Doug Stanglin on Twitter @dstanglin
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a7bf725dacc11bbc3f5e167a4738a127 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/28/fidel-castro-president-obama-cuba-trip/82347680/ | Fidel Castro to Obama: 'We don't need the empire to give us anything' | Fidel Castro to Obama: 'We don't need the empire to give us anything'
MIAMI — Fidel Castro didn't meet with President Obama during his visit to the island last week, but the retired Cuban leader responded Monday with a long, testy letter that concluded: "We don't need the empire to give us anything."
Castro's missive, titled "Brother Obama," rejected the idea that his country needs U.S. assistance to stay afloat, arguing that Cuba is perfectly capable of producing the food and economic prosperity needed by its 11 million citizens. Responding to Obama's suggestion that his visit should allow both countries to "leave the past behind," Castro bristled, citing the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the five-decade-old economic embargo as realities that can never be forgotten.
"I suppose all of us were at risk of a heart attack upon hearing these words from the President of the United States," Castro wrote in Cuba's state-controlled newspaper, Granma. "Nobody should be under the illusion that the people of this dignified and selfless country will renounce the glory, the rights or the spiritual wealth they have gained with the development of education, science and culture."
First Take: Obama's Cuba experiment
Obama's historic trip to Cuba, the first by a U.S. president in nearly 90 years, was designed to solidify the recently re-established political relationship between the Cold War foes. During the trip, Cuban President Raúl Castro met several times with Obama, conducted a joint press conference hailing the new relationship and seemed at ease and jovial with the U.S. president as they sat and watched a baseball game together.
Cubans ruminate on past and future while listening to Obama speech
Many have wondered how Fidel Castro has been reacting to the rapid changes that have taken place in Cuba since he stepped down due to an illness in 2008. His brother, Raúl, has since changed many aspects of Cuba's communist system, allowing people to own, buy and sell their homes for the first time, allowing half-a-million state workers to become private entrepreneurs, and ultimately shocking everyone by beginning the process of normalizing relations with the U.S.
The revolutionary leader didn't mince words on the final point, mockingly referring to Obama as "our illustrious guest" before dissecting and criticizing various aspects of his speech to the Cuban people.
Castro quoted a section of Obama's address where he discussed the shared history of Cuba and the U.S. — both colonized by Europeans who depended on slaves brought there from Africa. Obama was trying to make the point that people in both countries are descended from slaves and slave-owners, but Castro focused on another population.
"The native populations don't exist at all in Obama's mind," Castro wrote.
Obama also mentioned several challenges facing the U.S., including "racial bias" in communities around the country and within the criminal justice system. Castro ignored that section, instead blasting Obama for failing to recognize the advances in race relations Castro and his government feel they've carried out.
Castro wrote that Obama did not "say that the Revolution swept away racial discrimination, or that pensions and salaries for all Cubans were decreed ... before Mr. Barack Obama was 10 years old."
Frank Mora, the director of the Latin America and Caribbean Center at Florida International University in Miami, summed up his reaction to Castro's letter in two words: "Who cares?"
Mora said the elder Castro is "literally in the history books" and that his influence over Cuban politics has long since passed. He said Raúl Castro can't stop his older brother from arguing on the changes taking place, but is clearly moving on despite Fidel's objections.
"(The letter) made him look pretty insignificant as to where this relationship is heading," Mora said. "He represents a different era, a different stage in the history of the relationship. He's trying to resuscitate the past, but people will ignore it."
(Editor's note: The best way to watch 360-degree content is on your desktop or laptop computer. For viewing on smartphones, download our app, VRstories, from either the App Store or from Google Play. Either navigate using touch or your phone's gyroscopic controls, or view in full VR with a Cardboard viewer.)
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1e36f10cc18e7f0a73ec58cc001882d8 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/29/5-things-you-need-know-tuesday/82340746/ | 5 things you need to know Tuesday | 5 things you need to know Tuesday
One week since Brussels attacks, a 'major test' at airport
Eight hundred airport workers will stage a mock check-in Tuesday at Brussels Airport's temporary facilities set up in the wake of last week's terror attacks. Flights will remain grounded as the "major test" takes place to gauge the effectiveness of the temporary set-up. Many of the world's big airlines have expanded their flexible rebooking policies since bombs killed 35 and injured more than 270 at the airport and a nearby subway station one week ago. The new security measures are being implemented at all Belgian airports.
Hundreds of events across USA to mark 50th anniversary of Vietnam War
The Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday will conduct hundreds of events in facilities across the nation to recognize, honor, and thank U.S. Vietnam vets and their families as part of the ongoing commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald will hold a wreath-laying ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington alongside Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. Over 329 VA medical centers, regional benefit offices, and national cemeteries also will host events. Saigon fell in April 1975. Click through a gallery of historical images below.
Funeral rituals begin for Mother AngelicaThe body of Roman Catholic nun Mother Mary Angelica will be received Tuesday and escorted through the Piazza of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Alabama. The procession is part of the Rite of Reception, a funeral ritual, following the death of Mother Angelica, as she was known by millions. She founded the global Eternal Word Television Network, which has 11 TV networks broadcasting Catholic programming to more than 258 million households in more than 145 counties and territories. She died Easter Sunday at age 92.
Mississippi woman to plead guilty to terror chargesJaelyn Young, a 20-year-old Vicksburg, Miss. woman, will plead guilty Tuesday in federal court to charges of conspiring to support the Islamic State group. Authorities say she and her fiancé tried to go to Syria to join the terrorist organization. She faces up to 20 years in prison, $250 in fines and lifetime probation.
U.S. men's soccer faces must-win World Cup qualifier vs. Guatemala
The U.S. men's national soccer team plays host to Guatemala on Tuesday in a must-win 2018 World Cup qualifying match in Columbus, Ohio. The Americans, who were upset by the Guatemalans 2-0 on Friday in Guatemala City,sit in third-place in Group C with 4 points, trailing first-place Trinidad and Tobago (7 points) and second-place Guatemala (6 points). The U.S. could advance with a win or draw on Tuesday, but a loss would make it almost impossible to qualify for the FIFA tournament. The match will be broadcast on ESPN2.
And the essentials:
Weather: A winter storm will spread snow across portions of the West on Tuesday while the rest of the nation sees mainly quiet weather.
Stocks: U.S. stock futures were lower Tuesday.
TV Tonight: Wondering what to watch tonight? TV critic Robert Bianco looks at Flash, New Girl and The Late Late Show Carpool Karaoke Primetime Special.
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Contributing: The Associated Press
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670546125a30613d1b26e2cf67d058c5 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/31/cdc-lab-worker-infected-salmonella/82481274/ | Latest CDC lab incident involves worker infected with salmonella | Latest CDC lab incident involves worker infected with salmonella
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating how one of its own lab workers became infected with a strain of salmonella that was being used as part of their job, the agency announced Thursday.
The possible lab-acquired infection is the latest in a series of incidents at the Atlanta-based agency, including previous mishandling of specimens of anthrax, Ebola and a deadly strain of avian influenza.
The CDC said the lab worker who was sickened with salmonella had been infected with a strain that has a relatively rare DNA fingerprint. Salmonella, which is usually spread through contaminated food, typically causes diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps that can last from four to seven days.
"The worker is well and back at CDC and, based on what we know now, no other staff were exposed or sick, and there was no release outside the laboratory," the agency said in a press release.
The worker had completed all required safety training and was following standard protocols while performing a procedure on a frozen sample of salmonella in an effort to grow the bacteria, the CDC said. In the days following the procedure, the worker became ill and on March 18 informed the agency they had been diagnosed with a salmonella infection. The agency said it is investigating to see if additional laboratory safeguards are needed to prevent exposures in the future.
Biosafety experts expressed concern about the infection, but praised the CDC for identifying it and notifying the public.
Usatoday
"I think the important thing here is that the CDC learned from its past mistakes and is now practicing transparency," said Scott Becker, executive director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. Becker, who noted that lab work carries risks, said the CDC's new lab safety office will play an important role in reviewing the policies and procedures to determine what happened in the incident.
Sean Kaufman, a biosafety consultant who has testified before Congress, said it's good news that mechanisms were in place to identify when a lab worker got sick. But Kaufman said he remains concerned that CDC has not addressed systemic issues with lab safety.
"Even though CDC has taken steps in the right direction, there continues to be a stream of incidents and accidents," Kaufman said.
Exactly how many lab incidents have occurred at CDC in recent years is unclear because the agency has been slow to release records under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Last year, the CDC told the USA TODAY NETWORK it will take until sometime in 2018 before it will release reports of all incidents that occurred at the agency's labs in Atlanta and Fort Collins, Colo., during 2013 and 2014.
A summary of lab incidents the agency provided to the news organization was incomplete and revealed the CDC lacked a key policy to ensure top agency safety officials received reports of mishaps, despite promises to Congress of reforms.
The USA TODAY NETWORK's "Biolabs in Your Backyard" investigation, published throughout 2015, revealed that incidents at the CDC are among hundreds that have occurred corporate, university, government and military labs nationwide. It also exposed a system of fragmented federal oversight and pervasive secrecy that obscures failings by facilities and regulators. The series has been cited in ongoing congressional investigations and in new transparency reforms called for by White House science and homeland security advisers. In November, the CDC replaced the head of its laboratory regulation program, which inspects biodefense labs nationwide that work with potential bioterror pathogens.
Top U.S. lab regulator replaced in wake of incidents with bioterror pathogens
The CDC's high-profile 2014 incidents involved potential bioterror pathogens like anthrax and Ebola occurred in biosafety level 3 and 4 labs — the two highest safety levels — where scientists wear specialized gear ranging from respirators to full-body, spacesuit-like protection. The new salmonella incident involved a common strain of the bacterium that causes food-borne illnesses and it occurred at a biosafety level 2 lab where workers may only wear gloves, gowns and face masks.
Kaufman said it's important to have a strong culture of safety and attention to detail in all levels of labs to ensure workers don't get sick and potentially spread illness to their families. "There was some sort of breakdown in those procedures and someone got sick," he said of the latest incident.
Read the USA TODAY NETWORK's "Biolabs in Your Backyard" investigation at biolabs.usatoday.com.
Follow investigative reporter Alison Young on Twitter: @alisonannyoung
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1a8fca946658a30832614879137de114 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/31/growth-toll-traffic-outpaces-regular-roads/82472002/ | Growth in toll traffic outpaces regular roads | Growth in toll traffic outpaces regular roads
WASHINGTON – With gas prices low, motorists seem keen to drive and to travel on less congested toll roads even if they cost a little more, according to an industry analysis of Transportation Department statistics obtained by USA TODAY.
Motorists drove nearly 3.15 trillion miles last year – 3.5% or 107 billion miles more than 2014 – to clock in as the most heavily traveled year in U.S. history, according to the Federal Highway Administration. And more drivers than ever chose roads, bridges and tunnels that charge tolls.
The number of trips driven on toll roads, bridges and tunnels rose 7%, according to a study of 31 facilities by the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association. The 5 billion trips through toll facilities surveyed represented 328 million more trips than 2014.
“The 6,000 miles of toll facilities in this country offer a premium service and people are willing to pay for that service,” Pat Jones, the association's CEO, told USA TODAY.
The 31 facilities that responded to the survey account for 80% of the tolls paid nationwide, collecting about $11 billion of $14 billion in tolls, Jones said. The survey found 23 facilities with record traffic and 10 with double-digit growth.
The five biggest gains were at the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority in Florida (25%), North Carolina Department of Transportation (25%), Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority in Austin (23.4%), Georgia’s State Road and Tollway Authority (19.6%) and Washington state Department of Transportation (16%).
"I think it shows that we have a very mobile, active workforce and people see value in using these toll facilities," Jones said.
Congress approves $305B highway bill
Highway-user groups tend to support tolls for creating new roads or lanes, along with bridges and tunnels. But advocacy groups often criticize adding tolls to existing roads.
Sean McNally, spokesman for the American Trucking Associations, said tolls are typically less efficient in collecting money for roads than the gas tax. Tolls also raise safety concerns, either with congestion at collection plazas or by sending traffic onto narrower secondary roads, he said.
About a third of tolls covered the costs of collection, administration and enforcement rather than paying the costs of construction in 2007, according to a Transportation Research Board study in 2011. For comparison, overhead consumed 1% of fuel tax, the report said.
As toll roads switch from employee-staffed toll booths to electronic collection, costs are plunging, Jones said. Administrative costs for electronic toll collection can be as low as 5%. Congress last raised the federal gas tax in 1993 so states that want more money for new projects will often turn to tolls, Jones said.
"I think we will see expansion of existing toll facilities, and I think we will see the creation of new toll facilities," Jones said.
Study: 58,000 U.S. bridges found to be 'structurally deficient'
Greg Cohen, CEO of the American Highway Users Alliance, said toll projects should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. High-occupancy toll lanes for Washington’s Capital Beltway have been well-received, Cohen said. But the justification for a $15 cash toll on Staten Island’s aging Outerbridge Crossing into New York, which opened in 1928, is more questionable, Cohen said.
“Just because we’re driving more, it’s really a sign of the good economy and a lower unemployment rate,” Cohen said. “It doesn’t mean that people necessarily now support toll roads.”
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68018fadab2019193c1b7b294e5e1a1a | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/03/reactions-panama-papers-leak-go-global/82589874/ | Worldwide, jaws drop to 'Panama Papers' leak | Worldwide, jaws drop to 'Panama Papers' leak
Sunday’s jaw-dropping “Panama Papers” leak, which shows a global network of offshore companies helping the wealthy hide their assets, is already being called “the Wikileaks of the mega-rich."
The hashtag #panamapapers topped Twitter on Sunday afternoon. Among those reacting through tweets: Edward Snowden, the 2013 CIA leaker, who said the “Biggest leak in the history of data journalism just went live, and it's about corruption.”
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that the Kremlin had already received “a series of questions in a rude manner” from an organization that he said was trying to smear Putin.
“Journalists and members of other organizations have been actively trying to discredit Putin and this country’s leadership,” Peskov said.
Panama Papers explainer: What you should know
The Washington, D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) said the trove of 11.5 million records details the offshore holdings of a dozen current and former world leaders, as well as businessmen, criminals, celebrities and sports stars. The data span nearly 40 years, from 1977 through the end of 2015, ICIJ said, allowing “a never-before-seen view inside the offshore world — providing a day-to-day, decade-by-decade look at how dark money flows through the global financial system, breeding crime and stripping national treasuries of tax revenues.”
Jim Clarken, the CEO of Oxfam Ireland, tweeted: "As long as tax dodging continues to drain government coffers, there is a human cost."
In Australia, the country's tax office said it was investigating more than 800 wealthy clients of the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca for possible tax evasion, Reuters reported.
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) said it had linked more than 120 of the clients "to an associate offshore service provider located in Hong Kong." ATO Deputy Commissioner Michael Cranston said his office was working with the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Crime Commission and anti-money laundering regulator AUSTRAC.
Iceland’s prime minister, one of several major politicians with alleged links to secret “shell” companies, was expected to face calls for a snap election, Britain’s Guardian reported.
For a few moments, it actually looked as if Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson had resigned outright. The confusion happened when Gunnlaugsson’s predecessor called on him to step down — Google translated the Icelandic “must resign” as "will immediately resign."
The leaked records show that Gunnlaugsson co-owned a company set up in 2007 on the Caribbean island of Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands, to hold investments with his wealthy partner, Anna Pálsdóttir, whom he later married.
Gunnlaugsson on Sunday walked out of an interview with Swedish TV broadcaster SVT, saying, “What are you trying to make up here? This is totally inappropriate,” The Guardian reported.
#PanamaPapers corruption scandal breaks the Internet
Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo
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c377f0ea44ecb3adc63f907ce1137cc9 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/05/san-francisco-passes-nations-most-generous-family-leave-law/82670058/ | San Francisco passes nation's most generous family leave law | San Francisco passes nation's most generous family leave law
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco on Tuesday became the first city in the country to require employers to offer six weeks of fully paid leave for new parents.
The unanimous vote by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors comes a day after New York passed a law requiring up to 12 weeks of partially paid time off for new parents that it funded through a weekly payroll tax.
California already has one of the more expansive laws in the country, requiring that employees receive 55% of their wages for up to six weeks of paid family leave.
The San Francisco ordinance would require businesses with more than 20 employees to plug that gap by paying the remaining 45% of their employees’ wages. It applies to parents of either genders and to both full- and part-time employees who work in the city. The law takes effect January 2017 with a gradual phase in for smaller businesses. Businesses with 35 employees or more must comply by July 1, 2017. Businesses with 20 or more employees have until January 2018.
“Our country’s parental leave policies are woefully behind the rest of the world, and today San Francisco has taken the lead in pushing for better family leave policies for our workers,” the bill's author, Supervisor Scott Wiener, said in a statement after the vote. “We shouldn’t be forcing new mothers and fathers to choose between spending precious bonding time with their children and putting food on the table."
The legislation aims to help low wage workers who often cannot afford to take a pay cut at the same time they are coping with the additional expenses of a new baby, he said.
“These workers are the least likely to have access to employer-provided paid parental leave and they struggle the most with taking a pay cut to stay at home and bond with their child,” Wiener said.
Since California implemented its paid family leave law in 2004, higher income workers have been most likely to take advantage of it, said Jenya Cassidy, director of the California Work & Family Coalition.
Tech companies in the San Francisco area, such as Twitter, Facebook and Google, offer fully paid parental leave for up to 20 weeks. Netflix made news last year when it announced “unlimited” maternity or paternity leave for the first year after a child's birth.
“How do we make it more accessible and more equitable for lower-income workers? We’re hoping something like this would go a long way towards bridging that gap,” she said.
The proposal got a mixed reception from San Francisco's business community.
The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce took a neutral stance on the legislation. The chamber supports expanded parental leave, but said its 2,4000 small business members may find it challenging to meet the financial requirements.
"It’s already a struggle in San Francisco because there’s so many mandates placed on businesses and the city doesn’t differentiate between small and big business,” said Dee Dee Workman, the chamber's vice president of public policy.
San Francisco’s Office of Economic Analysis found the ordinance would likely increase household spending, but that it could also “increase the cost of hiring, slow job creation and replacement.” If both men and women took up the benefits, it could cost San Francisco businesses about $32.3 million annually, the office estimated.
“We’re stuck in a position. If we don’t support it, you’re the bad guys,” said Henry Karnilowicz, president of the San Francisco Council of District Merchants Associations, which has about 4,000 members. He called the city proposal “unfair.”
Karnilowicz said new parents can already take a disability leave and six weeks of partially paid parental leave covered by the state. “It’s something that we feel we already have all these other things, having leave and all that. It’s another burden we don’t need,” he said.
In his last State of the Union address, President Barack Obama chastised Congress for failing to enact a law requiring such leave. "We’re the only advanced country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers.”
In addition to New York and California, New Jersey and Rhode Island have also enacted laws requiring paid leave for new parents.
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d61c453268483e13bbe2b06ad02c2be6 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/05/senators-dhs-propose-tighten-airport-security/82646024/ | Proposal aims to tighten airport, train security after Brussels attacks | Proposal aims to tighten airport, train security after Brussels attacks
Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this story misquoted Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. She said canine teams "made a major difference" in reducing wait times at the Minneapolis airport.
WASHINGTON — Travelers would see tightened airport and train station security, including additional armed officers and better training for law enforcement, under a proposal endorsed by the secretary of Homeland Security on Tuesday in the wake of the Brussels attacks.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., outlined the bid to nearly double the number of armed Transportation Security Administration teams that patrol airports, train stations and other transportation hubs.
Other steps would bolster security in unsecured parts of airports such as the check-in and baggage-claim areas and provide more grant funding to train law-enforcement officers to combat shooters. The proposals are part of Federal Aviation Administration legislation the Senate is debating this week.
"By clamping down against terror threats now, we can avoid the kind of tragedy and devastation that happened overseas," Schumer told reporters at a news conference.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said he called for a more visible presence of armed teams on March 22, the day of the Brussels attacks, and deployed more undercover air marshals on flights.
"We know of no specific credible intel of a plot like the Brussels attack here in the homeland," Johnson said. "However, we remain vigilant, concerned about potential acts of self-radicalized violence by the so-called lone actors here in this country at public places and at public events."
5 things to know about Brussels Airport reopening
Bombings at the Brussels Airport and a downtown subway station killed 32 people and injured at least 270. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Security officials warn it's difficult to protect train stations and airports outside secure areas because they are open and easily accessible. Creating checkpoints at airport and train station doors would be costly and difficult, and terrorists could still attack wherever crowds gathered.
Could Brussels attack happen here?
The Transportation Security Administration, part of Johnson’s department, tightened its screening after federal watchdogs found last year that officers had trouble detecting weapons during tests. Travelers complained loudly about longer security lines that resulted at airports nationwide.
Johnson said screening delays are partly the result of the growth in daily travelers from 1.8 million to 2.2 million. He also said he is trying to halt reductions in TSA officers as part of annual spending bills this year.
"We want to begin to build back that workforce," Johnson said. "Wait times is something that I'm acutely aware of, but I believe we are addressing it."
For example, TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger shifted canine teams between airports because the bomb-sniffing dogs can help screen passengers to move them through lines faster. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said the teams reduced waits at the Minneapolis airport, where they averaged 45 minutes at the busiest times.
"It's made a major difference," Klobuchar said. "It's not often that you can have that gain in efficiency and in security."
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said questions might arise about the cost of the legislation, but tightening security measures are important. "What are our values?" Manchin asked. "What are our priorities?"
TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger is scheduled to testify Wednesday at a Senate hearing.
Congress typically handles Homeland Security legislation separately. But the FAA's current authorization is scheduled to expire July 15, so its legislation could be approved sooner if lawmakers can reach a consensus.
The biggest dispute over the FAA bill is whether to shift air-traffic control from the FAA to a not-for-profit corporation, which the House supports and the Senate bill doesn't include. Both chambers included a variety of consumer-oriented provisions in the legislation, but the versions still must be reconciled.
Senate panel calls for airlines to disclose fees upfront
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7d029e1f08bd42f3f998cf0762140cea | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/06/panama-papers-americans-with-past-financial-crimes/82704788/ | American executives' names surface in Panama Papers | American executives' names surface in Panama Papers
The names of hundreds of Americans have surfaced in the Panama Papers, including a handful of U.S. businessmen accused or convicted by U.S. authorities for ties to financial crimes or Ponzi schemes.
The identities of the Americans emerged from the treasure trove of documents obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the U.S.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and hundreds of other media organizations.
The consortium has so far identified more than 200 people with U.S. addresses who own companies in the leaked data from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. Some appear to be retirees purchasing real estate in places like Costa Rica and Panama, according to the consortium. But there are at least a few Americans in the leaked files who have faced charges for serious financial crimes in the U.S.
Here are some of the Americans who have been charged or convicted of financial crimes that have surfaced in the massive data leak, according to the media consortium. Their identities were first reported by McClatchy Newspapers.
Why Wyoming has star turn in the Panama Papers
Benjamin Wey , a Wall Street financier, was charged in September with securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering for using family members to help him stealthily amass ownership of larger blocks of stock in companies through so-called “reverse merger” transactions between Chinese companies and U.S. shell companies. In the process, he reaped tens of millions of dollars of illegal profit by manipulating the companies’ stock prices, the indictment charges. Prosecutors say he was aided by his banker in Switzerland, Seref Dogan Erbek, who was also charged in the alleged scheme.
The shell companies were incorporated offshore, according to the indictment. McClatchy reports Mossack Fonseca helped set up the offshore companies used in the stock manipulation. Wey in a message via Twitter said that there is no evidence that he's ever owned a foreign account, controlled a foreign account or been a signatory of any account set up by Panamanian law firm.
“Ben Wey fashioned himself a master of industry, but as alleged, he was merely a master of manipulation," said Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Attorney of New York, in announcing Wey's indictment.
Wey, president of the New York Global Group, also made headlines last year when a jury awarded an $18 million verdict to a former intern who had accused Wey of sexual harassment and stalking. (A judge last week said he would give Wey a new damages trial if the plaintiff, Hanna Bouveng, did not agree to reduce damages to $5.65 million, Reuters reported.) The young woman said Wey coerced her into four sexual encounters and then fired her after finding out that she had a boyfriend.
Wey denies that he ever had sex with Bouveng, and says her lawsuit, in which she initially sought $850 million, is an extortion attempt.
Igor Olenicoff, the Russian-born billionaire and commercial real estate mogul, was listed as a shareholder of Olen Oil Management Limited in the leaked data. He was sentenced in 2007 to two years of probation for tax evasion and forced to pay a $52 million fine for failing to declare more than $200 million stashed in offshore shell companies. Olenicoff's California-based firm owns thousands of residential and commercial properties.
In 2014, the real estate tycoon was ordered to pay $450,000 to sculptor Don Wakefield in damages after Olenicoff and his company were found to have cloned several large-scale, abstract sculptures from the artist that were used to decorate various properties.
Robert Miracle, of Bellevue, Wash., was sentenced in 2011 to 13 years in prison and three years of supervised release for mail fraud and tax evasion for his part in a $65 million Ponzi scheme involving an Indonesia oilfield.
Miracle sold shares in Laramie Petroleum, MCube Petroleum, Diski Limited Liability Company, Basilam Limited Liability Company, and Halmahera-Rembang Limited Liability Company. The Washington man and his co-defendents told investors the companies made money from oil field development and services on oil and gas fields in Indonesia. In fact, the proceeds of later investors were being used to pay off the investments of earlier investors, according to the Justice Department.
Between September 2004 and October 2007, Miracle took in more than $65.3 million and paid out $36.7 million in the dividends.
“The bulk of the remaining funds were used to develop oil and gas fields in Indonesia, as well as to pay for a lavish lifestyle for Miracle,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Western District of Washington said in a statement at time of his guilty plea.
Voices: Why Panama Papers won't harm Putin
John Michael “Red" Crim was convicted in Philadelphia in 2008, along with two associates, for being part of a plot in which he recruited investors to use phony trusts to cheat the IRS out of $10 million in revenue.
Crim, co-founder of the Texas-based Commonwealth Trust Company, “encouraged investors to place income and assets into trusts for the purpose of evading federal income taxes,” according the office of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.
The consortium also reports Jonathan Kaplan, a former Massachusetts executive implicated in a bribery scheme more than eight years ago, was among those whose names who surfaced in the papers.
Kaplan in 2008 was sentenced to five years of probation for his part in accepting more than $400,000 in kickbacks from a Jordanian national. Kaplan, vice president of iBasis, a Massachusetts company that supplied prepaid calling cards to retail distributors, allegedly gave favorable pricing, credit terms and inside information to Jordanian national Fares Khraisat, the owner and operator of Zam-Zam Telecard, based in Bridgeport, Conn.
The story behind the massive Panama Papers leak
Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad
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2024bcaed3c6afb559fe838117faca51 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/07/1000-secret-nevada-firms-and-most-trace-2-overseas-addresses/82760186/ | Panama Papers: 1,000 secret Nevada firms, 2 overseas addresses | Panama Papers: 1,000 secret Nevada firms, 2 overseas addresses
A USA TODAY analysis of more than 1,000 American-based companies registered by Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers leak, casts the United States openly into an uncomfortable role: an offshore haven of corporate secrecy for wealthy business operations across the globe.
The analysis found that both Nevada and Wyoming have become secretive havens much like Bermuda and Switzerland have long been. And at least 150 companies set up by Mossack Fonseca in those states have ties to major corruption scandals in Brazil and Argentina.
The corporate records of 1,000-plus Nevada business entities linked to the Panamanian law firm reveal layers of secretive ownership, with few having humans' names behind them, and most tracing back to a tiny number of overseas addresses from Bangkok high rises to post offices on tiny island nations. Only 100 of the Nevada-born corporations have officers with addresses in this country: 90 in Nevada, nine in Florida and one in Delaware.
The financial records show more than 600 of the companies' corporate officers are listed at one of just two addresses in the world, one in Panama and the other Seychelles, a small Indian Ocean archipelago. The addresses, in both countries, are the same as Mossack Fonseca's headquarters.
For about 700 of the American shell companies, the corporate officers are business entities rather than people, meaning no individual is linked to the Nevada firm in state records.
“We shouldn’t be thinking about this as a Panamanian problem,” said Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington, D.C. “We should be thinking about this as a very American problem, and a problem that arguably is worse here in the states than it is in Panama.”
The registered agent for all of the companies in Nevada is M.F. Corporate Services (Nevada) Ltd., a one-employee operation located in an unassuming Las Vegas office suite.
In Argentina, a prosecutor’s 2014 report on the financial dealings of the former and current presidents, Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and an associate, Lázaro Báez, included the names of 150 of the Nevada corporations with Mossack Fonseca links.
The Nevada corporations have also been brought into the separate sprawling nationwide corruption investigation by Brazilian officials, dubbed “Operation Car Wash,” which centers on allegations involving the state oil company Petrobras. The names of least 45 Nevada-based companies and two Wyoming-based companies linked to Mossack Fonseca are listed in investigative documents connected to the Brazil investigation published online by Brazilian prosecutors. Among the documents made public by prosecutors is a slide presentation from Mossack Fonseca’s Brazil office featuring a pie chart of locations it has set up companies.
“Panama, BVI (the British Virgin Islands) and Nevada represent 87% of our active corporations,” the slide states.
Yet another of the Nevada companies, Cross Trading LLC, is involved in a federal criminal case in the U.S. District Court in New York involving officials at FIFA, soccer’s world governing body. The federal criminal complaint alleges a $5 million wire transfer was made from the Miami Bank account of a sports management company to a Swiss bank account held by Cross Trading as part of a set of alleged bribes related to international soccer tournaments.
Cross Trading LLC’s corporate officer, according to Nevada records, is Camille Services S.A., which has an address in an office building in Seychelles, the island nation off the coast of East Africa. The company’s origin and purpose, in the Nevada business records, is completely hidden from public view.
Some of the Nevada companies do identify individual people as officers. A dozen of the companies birthed by the firm's Nevada shell-company factory were controlled by members of one of Thailand’s wealthiest dynasties, the Chirathivat clan that owns a sprawling empire of shopping malls, hotels and real estate developments in every major city in Thailand. Tos Chirathivat, the American-educated chief executive, is listed as an officer in six different Nevada corporations set up by MF Nevada. Another six Nevada firms have had officers that are Tos’ relatives or people associated with the family’s Central Group of Companies, all tracing back to the same Bangkok addresses. The Central Group, which Forbes estimates is already worth almost $12 billion, is expanding across Southeast Asia and into Europe. But it's unclear the purpose of his family's Nevada holdings, which bear names such as Anir One and Consolidated International One.
Beyond that, there are very few individuals that are listed as the officer in more than one of the vaguely-named, nearly untraceable companies. A few are names of people who've shown up in news accounts as operating affiliates or associates of Mossack Fonseca, but who are difficult to locate and therefore couldn't be asked to answer questions about their roles and duties as officers of the companies, or whether they had any beyond being listed on the paperwork filed with the state of Nevada.
In Wyoming, where Mossack Fonseca has also registered about two dozen companies, corporations are even harder to trace. Officers of the companies are not listed in public business records.
The story behind the massive Panama Papers leak
“They’re actively selling this stuff abroad,” Heather Lowe, director of government affairs at Global Financial Integrity, a Washington research group, said of the secrecy offered by a handful of U.S. states.
In a statement responding to recent media coverage of the leaked Panama Papers, Mossack Fonesca defended its practices and said incorporating companies in different jurisdictions is “the normal activity of lawyers and agents around the world.”
On Wednesday, Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office announced it conducted a review in response to the Panama Papers leak and found companies registered by an audit of M.F. Corporate Services Wyoming LLC “failed to maintain the required statutory information for performing the duties of a registered agent under Wyoming law.”
Wyoming added that did not mean it would change how it handles corporate filings. “We are not naive as to the importance of the release of these ‘Panama Papers,’ but we will not compromise the privacy of our customers,” Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Murray said in a statement.
While the Wyoming investigation is ongoing, Nevada officials have remained quiet about the data leak.
In response to questions about Nevada’s reputation for protecting corporate secrecy, Nevada Secretary of State’s Office spokeswoman Kaitlin Barker noted the state’s corporation laws state “a person shall not establish a corporation for any illegal purpose or with the fraudulent intent to conceal any business activity, or lack thereof, from another person or a governmental agency.”
Patricia Amunategui, who runs Mossack Fonseca’s corporation registration operations in Las Vegas and Wyoming, said in a 2014 deposition that very little is required of foreign businesses who want to register a corporation in Nevada.
American executives' names surface in Panama Papers
“Under the Nevada law, they don’t ask you any more,” she said, “just the name and (whether or not) the original of the company is in good standing.”
In its statement, Mossack Fonseca added it has always complied with international protocols including the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, “to assure as is reasonably possible, that the companies we incorporate are not being used for tax evasion, money laundering, terrorist finance or other illicit purposes.”
In her 2014 deposition, Amunategui said she was advised by lawyers to stop signing her name to corporation documents as the secretary of the companies before FATCA took effect in 2015.
“I’m a U.S. person,” she said, “and I want to follow the law.”
Contributing: John Kelly
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4a65d00b32a17783441c9ec59cdbafd7 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/08/sheriff-2-dead-shooting-lackland-afb-texas/82786910/ | 2 dead in apparent murder-suicide at Texas base | 2 dead in apparent murder-suicide at Texas base
SAN ANTONIO — Two people are dead in an apparent murder-suicide after a shooting Friday at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, the Bexar County Sheriff's Office said.
The base was under a complete lockdown after reports of an active shooter around 8:30 a.m. CT.
Less than three hours later, the sheriff's office said the situation was contained and that the shooter is no longer active.
In a news conference at the base, Brig. Gen. Bob LaBrutta, the commander of the 502nd Air Base Wing and Joint Base San Antonio, said two men were found dead in an office on the first floor of building 147 of the Medina Annex, a classroom facility known as Forbes Hall. Two Glock weapons were found at the scene.
Authorities detain man after more shots fired at soldiers
He stressed that the shooting was not an act of terrorism and declined to identify the two men, saying their families must be notified first. The Air Force's Office of Special Investigations is leading the investigation, and the FBI is assisting.
"Right now it does appear to be a murder-suicide situation," said James Keith, spokesman for the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.
Authorities did not release a motive.
"This morning we received one of those calls you never want to receive," LaBrutta said. "The response to this tragic event was overwhelming and was absolutely outstanding. We got to the facility in question in 3 minutes."
Only law enforcement such as security forces and Office of Special Investigations agents are allowed to carry weapons on base, he said. The investigation will look at how the weapons were brought into the facility.
“Allowing everyone to carry personal firearms would make the job of our security professionals much more difficult,” said Dan Hawkins, a spokesman for the base. Security officers must be notified if a personal weapon is being brought onto the installation and the firearm must be registered, in addition to other requirements.
Lackland AFB is part of Joint Base San Antonio. The base is an entry processing point for Air Force enlisted basic training.
Lackland had a basic military training graduation event scheduled for Friday, the Air Force said in a tweet before the news broke of the shooter.
Friday's shooting is the latest to occur at a military facility in Texas in the past several years.
• In January 2015, an Army veteran and former clerk at the veterans' clinic at Fort Bliss in El Paso shot and killed a psychologist, then committed suicide.
• About a year earlier, three soldiers were killed and 16 wounded in an attack at Fort Hood near Killeen by Army Spc. Ivan A. Lopez, who also killed himself.
• And in 2009 in the deadliest attack to occur at a U.S. military installation, 13 people were killed and 31 were wounded in a mass shooting at Fort Hood. Nidal Hasan, a former U.S. Army major, was convicted and sentenced to death in that shooting.
Contributing: Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY; Phillip Swarts, Air Force Times; David Larter, Navy Times; The Associated Press
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e25838243f0326752af16c46f89cfd7f | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/11/eric-smith-again-denied-parole/82876544/ | Eric Smith again denied parole | Eric Smith again denied parole
This story was published April 11, 2016
For the eighth straight time, child killer Eric M. Smith was denied parole.
Smith, who was convicted of killing 4-year-old Derrick Robie in Steuben County in August 1993, went before the parole board last week. The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision on Monday announced that the three-member board again denied Smith's parole.
Smith, now 36, is in the medium-security Collins Correctional Facility in Erie County, about 25 miles south of Buffalo where he is serving nine years to life in prison.
Child killer Eric Smith calls his crime 'horrendous,' 'violent'
2014 Transcript: Read interview with parole board
He was 13 when he lured Derrick Robie into a wooded area near the boy's Savona home. Derrick was walking alone to a summer camp at a nearby park. Smith strangled Derrick, smashed his head with a rock and sodomized him with a stick.
Smith was housed in a juvenile facility until 2001, when he was transferred to state prison. His lawyer at the time tried to persuade a jury that Smith suffered from a mental disorder, but Smith was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to nine years to life in prison.
He is eligible for parole every two years and was first denied parole in August 2002. He is next scheduled to appear before the parole board in April 2018.
VFREILE@Gannett.com
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0819738de31043137022b577c8773468 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/13/billionaire-announces-250-million-cancer-immunotherapy-funding/82821198/ | Tech billionaire announces $250 million in cancer immunotherapy funding | Tech billionaire announces $250 million in cancer immunotherapy funding
WASHINGTON — Cancer immunotherapy will get a hefty dose of its own moonshot Wednesday when a tech billionaire announces he's giving $250 million to six cancer centers nationwide, including Manhattan's Memorial Sloan Kettering and Stanford.
Sean Parker, founder of the music file-sharing service Napster and the founding president of Facebook, says he is putting his money behind cancer immune therapy because it is at a turning point and would benefit from research that is done without regard for the costs.
Immunotherapy, which enhances the body's immune system to kill cancer cells, is best known these days because former president Jimmy Carter was on an immune-based drug treatment when he announced in December that there is no detectable cancer in his body.
Sickly kid to top cancer philanthropist: Tech billionaire raises stakes
Parker's enormous cash infusion is the largest ever for cancer immunotherapy — and one of the largest ever for cancer research — and comes three months after President Obama called for a $1 billion federal cancer research program that he dubbed a “moonshot." The estate of the billionaire shipping magnate Daniel Ludwig donated $540 million to six cancer centers in 2014 and Nike co-founder Phil Knight pledged $500 million to cancer researchers at Oregon Health & Science University in 2013.
Last month, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, Jones Apparel Group founder Sidney Kimmel and other philanthropists announced a $125 million donation for cancer immunotherapy research for the Johns Hopkins University medical school.
The new Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy in San Francisco will fund "high risk best ideas that may not get funded by the government," says Jeffrey Bluestone, a prominent immunologist and former University of California, San Francisco official who now heads the institute.
The institute hopes to improve upon what it calls slow progress in improving cancer survival rates. In the last 20 years, federal data show the the five-year survival rate for lung cancer is up from just over 13% to about 17%.
Currently, immune therapy is only approved "as a treatment of last resort," Parker complains, which he says means it's only used after patients' immune systems are destroyed by chemotherapy and radiation
"I want to make it a front-line treatment," Parker said in an interview here last month. "It would change the whole cost of care downstream."
Just as the White House's moonshot hopes to foster collaboration between typically competing hospitals, Parker's new institute will coordinate research across the six academic cancer centers and other researchers who may be added after additional money is raised. Each of the cancer centers in the consortium agrees it will send top scientists to join the Parker Institute and relinquish considerable control over their research.
Thanks to the funding, Jedd Wolchok, a renowned cancer researcher and oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering, estimates he and his staff spend about a third of their time working to get grant funding and, "now we can use our time to directly make progress."
Some try to manage expectations when it comes to cancer immunotherapy, which led to many sensational reports of what some mistakenly described as Carter's "cure."
Cleveland oncologist Stan Gerson says immunotherapy can lead to "dramatic responses in lethal cancers," but he notes that just 30%-40% of patients benefit, most relapse in one to three years, and little is known about how and why some patients respond and others don't.
"Is it a replacement for everything else we’re doing?” Gerson says of immunotherapy. “Right now we can’t say so ... but this is the time to make investments and pronouncements."
Gerson, who is director of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, estimates that another $10 billion would be needed to get the treatments approved and to patients.
Parker is contributing a quarter of the total moonshot Obama proposed for all cancer research and jump-starting the research in the most promising area right now.
"We want to be focused and we want to go fast." says Parker. "Two words don’t come up often when talking about cancer research are 'focus and fast.'"
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2797fe7f2bd94a9861da7dc573f87084 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/13/world-bank-invests-in-education-for-girls/82988536/ | World Bank: Educate girls for an economic boost | World Bank: Educate girls for an economic boost
WASHINGTON — For this sober group of gray-suited central bankers and finance ministers staggering under a decade of slow or no growth, the message at the World Bank spring meeting was $2.5 billion clear: If they want an economic boost, look to the girls.
The World Bank committed on Wednesday to invest $2.5 billion over five years in education projects to enroll and keep adolescent girls in school, and the argument was unsurprisingly economic.
"You don't have to be an economist here at the World Bank to know that unleashing the full economic potential of half the population can drive the growth and prosperity of nations," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said.
"Investing in girls and women is not only the right thing to do for them as individuals. It's also the smart thing to do for economies," he said.
Aid groups and governments estimate 62 million girls globally do not attend school. Of those, 16 million elementary school age girls never start school. Half of the unschooled girls are adolescents.
A World Bank study found that a girl gains an 18% increase in future earning power with every year of secondary school education. US AID calculates if India enrolled 1% more girls in secondary school, the country’s gross domestic product would rise by $5.5 billion. In Latin America, the World Bank recorded a 30% decrease in the poverty rate when women's participation in the labor market grew 15%, Kim said.
If a country increases the share of women who have completed secondary school by 1%, per capita income grows by 0.3%, Kim said.
"Imagine the potential growth that countries can unleash if we can level the playing field, and if every adolescent girl can complete a full 12 years of education," Kim said.
Getting girls into school in some countries will require both money and a change in attitudes and priorities. Access to school can be limited by cultural barriers, location of schools and something as simple as having proper bathrooms, Kim said. In Nigeria, Kim said, a World Bank Group project in a rural area increased high school completion rates for girls five-fold after the construction of separate latrines for the women and cash transfers for parents who kept their girls in school, he said.
And for some girls, attending school is fraught with danger. The move by the World Bank comes two years after the insurgent, Islamist group Boko Haram, which forbids educations for girls, kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from their dormitory at the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Nigeria. The girls remain missing.
Kim announced the funding as part of the “Let Girls Learn” initiative, launched by President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama last year through US AID. The project began as a public engagement campaign to get girls into primary school. The initiative has now expanded to adolescent girls. The World Bank money will go largely to projects in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, which have the largest number of girls not in school. The organization seeks to get all adolescent girls enrolled in school by 2030.
The first lady, speaking Wednesday in the World Bank's atrium amid the spring meeting gathering, urged world leaders and key policymakers to make gender parity in education a priority.
"When we in invest in girls' education, when we embrace women in the workforce, it benefits all of us," she said. "This investment can only have impact if leaders like you push girls' education to the top of the agenda."
The lack of parity in education for girls should make countries question their values, she said.
"Why do we still too often value girls for their bodies instead of their minds?" she said.
Gender parity, she said, is not just about resources. "It's about whether we truly believe that girls are worth educating in the first place," she said.
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7a35b1e6dd6ae3d14376969255d77b65 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/18/cuba-us-entrepreneur-contract/83045068/ | U.S. talent agent deal with Cuban entrepreneur marks change in business climate | U.S. talent agent deal with Cuban entrepreneur marks change in business climate
MIAMI — A U.S. talent agency signed a contract in Havana on Monday to work with a Cuban entrepreneur, a seemingly simple deal that marks a big change in the relationship between the two countries.
Jonathan Blue, chairman and managing director of the Louisville-based investment firm Blue Equity, made a deal with Pedro Rodriguez, an entrepreneur licensed by the Cuban government to work in the entertainment field. Rodriguez will scout talent in Cuba for Blue's talent company, Blue Entertainment Sports Television, or BEST, which represents broadcasters, models and celebrities.
The deal is not the first time a U.S. company has hired one of Cuba's entrepreneurs, a new segment of the population that works outside of the state-run economy. What's different is both parties' willingness to operate openly in public.
San Francisco-based Airbnb began working with private homeowners in Cuba last year, and U.S. companies have hired Cuban computer programmers, translators and fixers since the two countries announced in Dec. 2014 that they would re-establish diplomatic relations. Most of those deals have stayed deliberately under the radar, says Carlos Saladrigas, a Cuban-American businessman in Miami, and chairman of the Cuba Study Group, who travels frequently to the island and advises companies interested in working there.
Regulations passed by the Obama administration allow U.S. companies to hire Cuban workers, and lets those workers establish bank accounts in the U.S. to make it easier to get paid. Saladrigas said the Cuban government has not kept up with its own changes, leaving Cuban entrepreneurs uncertain if they can legally work for American businesses.
"The difficulty is that in our system, everything is legal unless it is prohibited. In Cuba, everything is prohibited unless it is made legal," said Saladrigas, who has briefed Obama about Cuba and traveled there for the president's historic visit last month. "That leaves Cubans in a legal limbo."
Blue and Rodriguez are not hiding anything. On Monday, they held a signing ceremony and press conference at the José Martí Cultural Society headquarters in Havana announcing the new partnership.
That openness, Saladrigas said, is what makes the deal unique. "That would be a first," said Saladrigas, who was not part of the deal.
Future path in question as Cuba's congress meets
Blue has traveled to Cuba for years, but started looking for ways to expand his business there after President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro announced that the Cold War foes would begin normalizing relations.
Blue said his company, which represents sports broadcasters including Bomani Jones, Lawrence Taylor, and Ronde and Tiki Barber, helped arrange a Havana fashion photo shoot in December. That's where he met Rodriguez, who coordinated the shoot logistics. Blue said the two hit it off immediately, which started the months of research that led to Monday's deal.
Under the agreement, Rodriguez will find artists in Cuba and funnel them to Blue's BEST company, which will then serve as their agents for events in the U.S. and elsewhere. Blue said his firm could also represent the Cuban artists in Cuba, but said they are many limitations there. For example, if one of the artists performs at an event paid for by the Cuban government, Blue could not receive any compensation for that because it would violate U.S. law.
That's why Blue and Rodriguez worked for months to craft a contract that satisfied both U.S. and Cuban law. Blue hired a Miami-based law firm that focuses on Cuba to advise him on U.S. law, and Rodriguez frequently ran the proposals by Cuban officials.
The end result, Blue said, is the start of a long-term presence in a Cuban market filled with all kinds of largely unknown talent.
"We see so much potential in Cuba," Blue said before traveling to Havana for the ceremony. "We've done this all over the world, so Cuba is just such a natural, close market. We're big believers in the long-term potential there."
Obama offers support to Cuban entrepreneurs
Augusto Maxwell, an attorney at the Miami-based Akerman law firm who helped craft the contract, said he's confident the deal will pass legal muster. Regulations passed by the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments since 2014 created a general license that allows U.S. businesses to import goods and services from private entrepreneurs. And while Cuban law doesn't expressly state that Cuban entrepreneurs can work for U.S. companies, Maxwell said Cuban law doesn't prohibit it either.
"This is all new terrain," he said. "We've moved from a situation where Cubans weren't even allowed to enter a hotel room for fear they would come into unauthorized contact with Americans, to one where American companies are welcomed to be in Cuba and Cubans are welcome to provide services to them. This deal is another step in that direction."
Many of the question marks hanging over Cuba's entrepreneurs could be addressed by Cuba's Communist Party Congress, which began Saturday in Havana. But for now, Saladrigas said Blue's new, public deal could pave the way for other companies to take the plunge.
"The good news is that they are happening and they're growing," he said. "It is leaving the Cuban government with few options but to come around to the idea that (these deals) have to be recognized and made legal. I hope they do."
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d19859b0a4ef231ec2fd53e3abb7ff0f | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/19/cuts-public-health-could-hamper-zika-preparation-response/83231358/ | Cuts to public health could hamper Zika preparation, response | Cuts to public health could hamper Zika preparation, response
Recent cuts to public health could hamper the USA's ability to fight the Zika virus, widely expected to arrive here this summer as mosquitoes begin biting.
A report released Tuesday shows the USA reduced spending on public health by hundreds of millions of dollars in the past several years. According to the report from the Trust for America's Health, a non-profit health advocacy group:
"We're not adequately funding state and local health departments," which will provide the "boots on the ground" if Zika cases are diagnosed in the USA this summer, said Richard Hamburg, interim president and CEO at the Trust for America's Health.
Money that could specifically help fight the Zika virus also evaporated. Federal funding to monitor mosquito-borne diseases fell to $9.3 million in 2013 from $23.5 million in 2006, a drop of 60%, according to a 2015 paper in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Although that funding was designed to monitor the mosquitoes that spread West Nile virus, some of the same mosquitoes also transmit Zika. Authors of the report concluded mosquito monitoring "is inadequate in many states to rapidly detect and control outbreaks and to give the public the critical information it needs for prevention."
"Ebola was a wake-up call last year," Hamburg said. "Zika is now a reminder that an infectious disease threat anywhere is a threat everywhere."
President Obama has asked Congress to provide $1.9 billion in emergency funding for Zika. Congressional Republicans have been unwilling to provide the White House with what they call a blank check. For now, Obama has announced he will transfer $510 million of money allocated to find Ebola toward Zika preparation.
Obama's $1.9 billion Zika request: 'Slush fund,' or needed flexibility?
While a jolt of emergency funds could help, the USA would be better prepared with a steady level of higher public health funding, Hamburg said. Funding for public health tends to wax and wane with each crisis, such as the arrival of West Nile virus in 1999, the 2001 anthrax attacks and the 2014 Ebola outbreak.
"We have a long way to go before we have a system that's what we need it to be for containing outbreaks," Hamburg said. "Our tendency is to focus on the newest and most alarming threat, at the expense of maintaining a steady defense against ongoing threats."
Allowing public health spending to fall makes it hard to ramp up the response to each new threat, said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
States and localities lost nearly 20% of their public health staff from 2008 to 2014, a decline of more than 51,000 people, according to reports from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
Zika Q&A: U.S. preps for virus 'scarier than we initially thought'
"Our public health infrastructure has been depleted for so long that we've lost a lot of expertise," Hotez said. "You can't rebuild a health system in one day. It takes time and it takes expertise."
Health departments may be forced to spend money on Zika at the expense of other important services, such as responding to outbreaks of food poisoning, meningitis or vaccine-preventable diseases, said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
"We probably will respond to Zika with some urgency," Osterholm said. "But just know that these other crises are going to take a back seat. The public will get what they pay for in public health."
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04b6109ecd8f844fd9cf620636fda9fe | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/21/rats-several-big-us-cities-seeing-surge-rodent-complaints/83328068/ | Rats! Several big U.S. cities seeing surge in rodent complaints | Rats! Several big U.S. cities seeing surge in rodent complaints
CHICAGO— Some denizens of America’s great cities probably wouldn’t mind a visit from the Pied Piper right about now.
Several major U.S. cities—including Boston, Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.— have seen significant surges in rat complaints from their residents in recent months, according to city data reviewed by USA TODAY.
Grousing about rats has long been city-dweller sport, but the long-tailed, sharp-toothed nuisances have now become so populous and so aggressive that some cities are getting creative in their efforts to stay ahead of rodents even as some frustrated city residents are increasingly taking matters into their own hands.
In Chicago, which historically notches more rat complaints than any other city, residents' reports of rodent activity rose by about 70% in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period last year.
With the city on pace to shatter the more than 41,000 complaints it received in 2012, Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently acknowledged in a radio interview that rats in the Windy City have become “a real problem.”
After several years of a scaled back rodent patrol in Chicago, the Emanuel administration announced this month it will bolster the number of technicians searching for burrows and laying poison from 18 technicians to 28 by next month.
The administration went on a community relations blitz, hanging doorknob leaflets that called on residents to do their part to eliminate food sources for rats by not overfilling dumpsters and cleaning up properly after their dogs.
To further drive home the getting tough-on-rats message, an ordinance recently introduced in Chicago’s city council makes it clear that homeowners who fail to keep their yards free of dog waste, garbage, or other materials that attract rodents could be fined up to $500.The city also began requiring developers to include rat abatement plans as part of any new construction project.
Separately, the Chicago Transit Authority hopes to put an end to rat canoodling with a new bait that targets both male and female rat fertility. Rats reach sexual maturity within weeks after birth.
“We are being very, very aggressive in how we bait, so we can get control of the rodent population before summer gets here,” said Charles Williams, Chicago’s streets and sanitation department commissioner.
Boston touts itself as having one of the most innovative rat abatement programs in the country and historically gets fewer complaints than some of its bigger city counterparts. Still, complaints have nearly tripled in the first quarter of this year – a spike city officials there attribute to last year’s launching of a 311 system that makes it easier for Bostonians to call or use a phone app to report rats and other nuisance complaints to city officials.
The city's Inspectional Service Department tapped researchers from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to help launch a pilot program that uses dry ice to kill rats hiding in burrows in the city.
The dry ice, made of solid carbon dioxide, can be packed into the burrows where it asphyxiates the rats. City officials say it proved effective during their first month of testing, and the method has the added bonus of being less of a danger to humans and other animals than setting out poison.
And at about 50 cents per pound, the initial testing suggests dry ice might be a cheaper instrument for killing rats than rat poison, said Inspectional Service Department Commissioner William "Buddy" Christopher Jr.
Christopher said he’s “not extremely concerned” about the uptick thus far.
“I think our aggressive, pro-active stance is maintaining,” Christopher said. “Our staff stays on top of this. They’re constantly looking for new ways to deal with old problems.”
Washington, D.C., last year could boast of a four-year decline in rat complaints, but now the city is on pace to ruin its good news streak. If complaints continue at the same rate, the city will likely surpass last year’s mark of 2,004. Through April 15, the District’s Department of Health tallied 699 complaints.
The district's Department of Health said mild winters have been good for rodents, but the department insisted it was primed for battle.
“I can assure you that we are ready for them,” department spokesman Ivan Torres said in an email “The DOH is and will continue to strike hard.”
In New York, which has seen complaints to its 311 system soar over the last five years, there has been no relief. Rat complaints jumped by 39% in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period last year. The Big Apple's 311 system tallied more than 15,000 rodent complaints last year, compared to more than 10,600 in 2012.
And San Francisco, where complaints had stabilized over the last five years, now reports a modest increase in the number of rat complaints, so far this year compared to the same period of 2015.
Wrigley Field renovation has rats 'running rampant' in Chicago
All this gnawing, clawing and breeding means business is surging for Orkin, the major national pest control company. Rodent-related business was up 61% in Chicago from 2013 to 2015; 67% in Boston; 174% in San Francisco; 129% in New York City; and 57% in Washington, D.C.
In Chicago, where the prevalence of rats might be most pronounced, residents say the issue is frustrating.
Chicagoan Tim Jacobs told rodent control workers who were baiting burrows in the alley near his home in the city’s Little Italy neighborhood earlier this week that he often sees elderly residents feeding squirrels and pigeons bread crumbs. The older folks don’t take well to the suggestion that the left-behind crumbs could be fueling the rat problem, Jacobs said.
“In the alley here, I'll see them come in and out of the garbage cans,” Jacobs said. “A few times I've lifted the lids up and they've jumped out. It's startling.”
Josie Cruz, deputy commissioner for the city’s streets and sanitation department who was recently appointed to oversee the city’s blitz on rats, commiserates. Whether bread crumbs or a dog’s feces, those food sources lessen the chance that rats will take the poison bait her rat technicians pour down burrows every day in hopes of mitigating the problem.
“I can put out rodenticide (poison) every day in the burrows we find, but unless we cut off the food source….That’s like steak to a hot dog,” Cruz said. “They’re going to take that steak first.”
Louisiana is shrinking, thanks to giant swamp rats
With the addition of the new crews, the city's goal is to dispatch a rat abatement crew to bait an area within five days of receiving the complaint. The city has also turned to big data to try to predict just where they might find rat activity before it’s spotted by residents.
The city’s Department of Innovation and Technology found a likelihood of an increase in rodent complaints within a one week window in areas where residents made calls to 311 for some combination of 31 varied reasons. Most of the requests or complaints—such as requests for a dead animal pickup or a demolition inspection—are easier to correlate with surges in rodent activity.
But the city’s analysts have also found that areas that make requests for block party permits and building code violations inside a structure have also proven to be predictive of rodent complaints.
The city hasn't got its head around why there appears to be correlation between some of these more innocuous inputs, but the data has proven helpful in spotting rat problems, said Brenna Berman, Chicago's chief information officer.
"An academic researcher might want to dig into causes of these things," Berman said. "For the city's purposes, what we care about is making our rodent service as efficient and effective as possible. It's not to say we don't care why these things happen. We do care, but in the short term, the goal is making sure we're as effective and efficient with the funding that we have for rat baiting...We'll dig into those things later."
The problem of rat infestation has been broadly treated by municipalities as a public health issue—rats are vectors for hantavirus, salmonellosis and other diseases. But a recent study from researchers at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health also found that the appearance of rats in low-income neighborhoods could also lead to increased incidents of depression.
In the survey of 448 low-income residents in Baltimore, according to the study published in the March issue of Journal of Community Psychology, those who reported that rats were a big problem where they lived were 72% more likely to experience acute depressive symptoms than those who live in similar low-income neighborhoods where rats were not seen as a big problem.
New York City Rat Complaints On The Rise
Cruz, the Chicago official who heads the city’s rodent control bureau, says the issue is one that plagues both rich and poor in big cities.
“The rats are there because they are feeding on something,” Cruz said. “They’re not there because they like the neighborhood. They are there because of the food source. If you cut off that food source, they’re going to eat rodenticide, and you’re not going to have that problem.”
The city’s approach has left some frustrated.
In the city’s Lakeview neighborhood, Victoria Thomas made dozens of complaints to the city and spent a significant amount of her own cash on poison and trenching to try to stop an inundation of rats that were flooding her shared backyard behind her condo building.
Thomas and her neighbors kept a pristine yard—a treasure in the dense neighborhood where private green space is a rarity. But she said rats attracted by a neighboring building’s yard that was often covered by dog waste made their way into her shared spaced. She said overflowing dumpsters from nearby restaurants also contributed to the issue.
Soon after hitting her nadir—at one point a contractor found approximately 400 rats burrowed when he tried to trench the area between her yard and her neighbors' and another instance when she said a 311 call operator suggested she leave Chicago—Thomas decided to adopt feral cats.
“It was glorious,” said Thomas, who said the cats have made her yard usable again. “They stopped coming over. The (burrow) holes stopped opening up. I love the feral cats.”
While the cats have been effective, Thomas said that their work comes with a less than appealing byproduct: the occasional severed rat head or rodent heart that needs to be scooped out of the lawn.
That inconvenience, Thomas noted, beats living with live rats.
Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad
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6bd9ead6c16a9e557efadcd6b4bae5f2 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/25/us-fight-against-zika-mosquito-depends-local-effort/82787666/ | U.S. fight against Zika mosquito depends on local effort | U.S. fight against Zika mosquito depends on local effort
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the amount of President Obama's emergency Zika request.
As mosquito season descends on millions of Americans who live on the Gulf Coast and in Southern states, the United States has no coordinated, national plan to control the insect that transmits Zika virus.
With no approved Zika vaccine or treatment, experts said the best way to prevent the spread of the virus is to control the mosquito, a species called Aedes aegypti. The stakes are high: If the virus gains a foothold in the USA as it has in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America, children born of infected mothers could suffer catastrophic birth defects. The virus may also increase the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome, which causes paralysis.
Fighting mosquitoes is fundamentally a local battle led by a patchwork of 700 mosquito-control districts and more than 1,000 other programs within local governments. In some cities, mosquito control is handled by sophisticated professionals with multimillion dollar budgets. In other communities, mosquito control is more of an afterthought, tacked onto other programs, such as the parks and recreation.
More than 60 million Americans live in the five states along the Gulf Coast — Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas — which could bear the brunt of Zika outbreaks.
Communities along the Gulf and elsewhere must control their own mosquito populations and cannot depend solely on federal public health agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
"There's not going to be some national team to come in and save you," Osterholm said. "The CDC doesn't have the resources to be in every community. It's not the national health department. That would be like asking the FBI to provide local police service."
President Obama asked Congress for nearly $1.9 billion in emergency Zika funding in February, but Congress has not approved the request. As an emergency measure, Obama transferred $510 million in unspent Ebola funds to the Zika fight, but public health officials said the country will need much more to prepare for and respond to Zika.
The CDC wants communities to draw up Zika action plans and has set up a model program for communities to reference. It will release millions of dollars in grants for Zika planning and response but only to states that submit a "checklist of readiness activities," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.
No one has a specific measure on whether or how well localities are preparing for possible Zika cases, at least until all those action plans come in.
"It is hard to know how ready we are as a country, because there is no one dashboard" to track progress, said Ron Klain, who served as Obama's Ebola "czar" during the Ebola crisis.
Cuts to public health could hamper Zika preparation, response
Many cities are ramping up mosquito control.
Even the best mosquito-control programs have limitations, said Michael Doyle,executive director of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District. In most cities, mosquito control is seriously underfunded, he said.
Almost no one tests mosquito populations to see if they're infected with Zika because the process is so labor-intensive, Doyle said. That means Zika could spread unnoticed among mosquitoes for weeks or months. Communities may not learn they have Zika-carrying mosquitoes until a case is diagnosed in humans.
Mosquito-borne diseases have hit the USA before, but a combination of mosquito control, air conditioning and window screens has been enough to contain them, Doyle said. An outbreak of dengue, a viral disease also spread by Aedes aegypti, hit Hawaii in September, sickening 263 people over the next six months. Dengue broke out along the Texas-Mexico border in 2005 and in Key West in 2009 and 2010.
During Key West's dengue outbreak, mosquito control teams inspected every home once a week, Doyle said. Inspectors poured chemicals into discarded tires to kill larvae breeding in rain water. Every two days, helicopters sprayed Key West with chemicals to kill adult mosquitoes.
Key West limited its dengue outbreak to 88 people because the city spent a lot of money on a relatively small area with unique geography, Doyle said.
The Florida Keys runs one of the most intensive mosquito-control programs in the country. There are 41 inspectors for a community of 75,000 at a cost of $10 million a year, Doyle said. Mosquito-control officials in some of the largest Gulf Coast cities, such as Houston and New Orleans, said they don't have the staff to visit every house.
Keeping mosquitoes at bay preserves the health of both residents and the region's tourism-heavy economy, Doyle said. If Zika comes to Key West, inspectors will be just as aggressive, he said. Inspectors would clean up trash not just at a sick person's home but in a one-block radius around the home. Mosquito control staff would spray insecticides on bushes, under porches and other places where mosquitoes hide.
"Most places in the U.S. have low funding for large areas," Doyle said. "What we do can’t be replicated in the vast majority of the U.S."
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f2d9429f011535c0c8b10032ca33a41e | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/27/ex-speaker-dennis-hastert-faces-sentencing-chicago/83584440/ | Judge sentences 'serial child molester' Hastert to 15 months | Judge sentences 'serial child molester' Hastert to 15 months
CHICAGO — Former House speaker Dennis Hastert, who less than a decade ago stood second in line to the presidency, was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison Wednesday for a bank fraud case linked to allegations he sexually abused teen boys more than 30 years ago.
Federal Judge Thomas Durkin called Hastert, 74, a "serial child molester" and rejected a prosecutor's recommendation of six months in prison on a banking charge that carries a maximum five-year sentence. The court also fined Hastert $250,000 and sentenced him to two years of supervised release after leaving prison. Hastert must register as a sex offender.
"Nothing is more disturbing than having 'serial child molester' and 'Speaker of the House' in the same sentence," Durkin said.
Hastert, who entered court in a wheelchair and needed help standing to address the judge, admitted for the first time mistreating some athletes when he was a high school wrestling coach in Illinois before he began a political career that saw him become the top Republican in Congress.
“I want to apologize to the boys I mistreated,” Hastert said. “They looked (up) at me and I took advantage of them.”
Zachary Fardon, the U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois, said federal guidelines for the charge of illegal structuring of bank withdrawals dictated his office's recommendation for up to a six-month prison term. Hastert pleaded guilty to the charge in October. Fardon noted that Hastert would have faced more serious charges for sex abuse had the statutes of limitation for the criminal sexual misconduct not expired years ago.
The federal guidelines set a maximum sentence for illegal structuring at five years in prison. Prosecutors say Hastert knowingly tried to evade triggering a rule that requires banks to report withdrawals over $10,000 to the IRS, but the money was legally obtained and he paid all appropriate taxes on the funds. Those details direct prosecutors to seek a relatively short sentence under the guidelines.
"We followed the case where it led, we brought the charges we could bring, and through that Mr. Hastert's legacy and legend are gone," Fardon said. "In its place are a broken, humiliated man."
Durkin acknowledged he could not sentence Hastert "for being a child molester" and that his sentence would "pale in comparison" to what the former lawmaker would have faced had he been convicted of state charges for sexual abuse of a child.
Under current Illinois law, Hastert would have faced between three and seven years in state prison if convicted of a single count of sexual misconduct with a minor.
The judge said that the prison term was not intended to be a "death sentence," but made clear that Hastert's age and shaky health should not prevent him from doing time. More than 4,600 inmates federally incarcerated are above the age of 70, roughly the same age that Hastert began making the illegally structured withdrawals to cover up his past wrongdoing, the judge said. Durkin has yet to set a surrender date for when Hastert has to report to prison.
Hastert's lawyer have said that he suffered a small stroke shortly after he pleaded guilty in October, and that he was also hospitalized for a blood infection.
The sentencing completes the spectacular fall of a former small-town high school coach who rose to lead Congress. Hastert was a legendary wrestling coach and social studies teacher at Yorkville for 16 years before launching a political career in the early 1980s that culminated with him being elected as U.S. House speaker.
One former athlete, now 53, testified that he was abused by Hastert, describing a locker room molestation when he was 17 years old.
"Judge, I wanted you to know the pain and suffering he caused me then, and the pain and suffering he causes me today," said Scott Cross, the brother of prominent Illinois politician Tom Cross. USA TODAY normally does not name victims of abuse, but Cross revealed his name in open court.
Defense attorney Thomas Green confirmed that Hastert asked his legal team to reach out to Tom Cross to write a letter on Hastert's behalf. Lawyers for Hastert have said in court papers that Hastert did not recall the incident with Scott Cross.
Sentence Dennis Hastert to prison: Our view
Ex-Speaker Hastert expresses regret, wants probabtion in hush money case
Jolene Burdge, sister of former wrestling manager Steve Reinboldt, told the judge that Hastert abused her now-deceased brother throughout his years at Yorkville High School.
"Don’t be a coward, Mr. Hastert. Tell the truth," she said. "What you did was not misconduct, it was sexual abuse of a minor."
Three other men have come forward and told prosecutors they were also victims of sexual misconduct by Hastert during their time the team.
Hastert acknowledged on Wednesday, for the first time, that he had abused boys under his charge as wrestling coach, but he briefly vacillated when he was asked specifically about his interactions with Reinboldt.
"That was a different situation," said Hastert, before clarifying that he did indeed abuse Reinboldt.
Hastert in October acknowledged the transactions were made as part an effort to pay off a man, known in court documents as "Individual A," for past transgressions.
Individual A, who did not testify Wednesday, told prosecutors that Hastert molested him at a motel as Hastert and a group of boys made their home from an out-of-town wrestling camp. The man told prosecutors he was 14 at the time of the incident.
Hastert, who served 20 years in the U.S. House, eight of them as its highest ranking member, before retiring in 2007, left the Chicago courthouse without talking to reporters. Green issued a statement saying that his client "accepts the sentence imposed by the court" and "deeply apologizes to all those affected by his actions."
Dennis Hastert sued by former student he allegedly molested
Authorities began investigating Hastert for unusual bank withdrawals after the IRS and FBI became suspicious of some large financial transactions.
From 2010 to 2014, Hastert withdrew a total of approximately $1.7 million in cash from multiple bank accounts and gave it to Individual A. The payments were part of what authorities later learned was an off-the-books agreement Hastert made with the man to make amends for the decades-old sexual misconduct.
Officials at Hastert’s bank in Yorkville initially became suspicious of Hastert after conducting a routine audit in April 2012 in which they found he had made seven withdrawals of $50,000. Bank officials said they asked Hastert why he was making such large withdrawals; banks are required to file currency transaction reports for any withdrawal above $10,000.
Hastert told the bank officials that he was withdrawing the cash for investments and to buy stocks. He also told bank officials he wanted to keep his cash deposits under Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insurance limits.
Tom DeLay, ex-CIA director ask judge to go easy on Dennis Hastert
Around July 2012, Hastert started structuring his cash withdrawals in increments of less than $10,000 to try to avoid triggering the bank filing requirement. He made $952,000 in withdrawals in mostly $9,000 increments withdrawn on 106 separate occasions, according to prosecutors.
Bank officials’ suspicions were again raised and they informed Hastert in February 2013 that they intended to close his account because of the suspicious activity. Hastert, however, closed his account before the bank acted.
Meanwhile, the FBI and IRS began looking at suspicious activity by Hastert at a Yorkville bank as well as two other banks where he made large withdrawals.
Voices: Kid-glove treatment for former House speaker?
The former speaker was working at the time as a high-profile lobbyist for the Washington firm Dickstein Shapiro. The amount of cash and Hastert’s background led the federal authorities to further probe whether Hastert was either a perpetrator or victim of some sort of criminal activity, prosecutors said.
When agents initially interviewed Hastert in December 2014, he told them that he was keeping the cash he had been withdrawing in a safe place.
An attorney representing Hastert later told authorities that the former speaker was the victim of an extortion plot by Individual A.
Hastert agreed to allow federal authorities to record conversations he was having with Individual A, so they could try to prove the extortion charge. But it quickly became clear that Hastert had willingly entered an agreement with the former student to pay for his silence.
In their recordings, Individual A even reminded Hastert that he wanted to get lawyers or confidantes of Hastert involved, so they could ensure their agreement was legal, according to court filings.
"You tried to set him up," an agitated Durkin told Hastert. "You tried to frame him."
Individual A received just less than half of the $3.5 million agreement, according to prosecutors. Last week, he filed a $1.8 million suit against Hastert in Kendall County, Ill., charging that Hastert was in breach of contract for failing to fulfill their oral agreement.
Sentence Dennis Hastert to prison: Our view
Individual A says the abuse occurred in a motel room on the way home from a trip to wrestling camp, according to prosecutors. Between 10 and 14 boys were on the trip. Hastert, the only adult on trip, shared a room with the 14-year-old while the other boys stayed in a different room.
Individual A said Hastert touched him inappropriately after suggesting he would massage a groin injury the boy complained about earlier.
Before Wednesday’s sentencing, Hastert’s legal team said that the ex-lawmaker was sorry for his transgressions, but did not address the allegations against him. In fact, his attorneys raised questions in court filings about whether the incident with Individual A amounted to sexual abuse.
While in Congress, Hastert championed strengthening laws to enforce stricter punishment for repeat child predators. Later during his time in Congress, he also faced criticism for failing to aggressively investigate allegations that Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., had written sexually explicit messages to a teenager who was a House page.
Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad
Bacon reported from McLean, Va.
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252a7ee6ec41ce59d4f59ea31fccc06d | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/27/sesame-workshop-ibm-partner-use-watson-preschoolers/83563342/ | Sesame Workshop, IBM partner to use Watson for preschoolers | Sesame Workshop, IBM partner to use Watson for preschoolers
You’ve heard of Tickle-Me Elmo. How about Super-Intelligent Auto-Tutor Elmo?
A new, three-year research partnership between Sesame Workshop and IBM’s Watson division holds the tantalizing possibility of such jaw-dropping educational tools, as early-childhood educators get their hands on what’s arguably one of the world’s most advanced supercomputers.
The partnership, announced Wednesday, focuses on how the Jeopardy-winning computer can use Big Data to help parents and teachers give preschoolers the skills they need to succeed in school.
The effort seeks to develop advanced digital tutors that can interact fully with children, assess their skills — often through a brief conversation — and provide both spoken and written-word responses that help improve their skills.
Previous research has shown that one-on-one tutoring is the most effective way to teach, but most children — especially low-income children — rarely get this opportunity. So researchers will spend the next several years trying to duplicate one-on-one tutoring digitally.
“Imagine a really plush Elmo that engages directly with a child, listens and responds,” said Harriet Green, who manages IBM’s Watson commerce and education efforts, among others. The toy uses the information, in real time, to create activities for the child such as practicing ABCs or counting to a favorite song.
As it interacts, she said, “the toy begins to develop, it begins to adapt to the developmental skills of the child." Once the toy figures out that the child has mastered these skills, it moves on to more advanced lessons.
Jeffrey Dunn, CEO of Sesame Workshop, said Sesame Street, which debuted in 1969, used the power of advanced technology — nearly 50 years ago it was television — to customize learning for young children. Now it’s super-computing. IBM, he said, brings “technological capability that we don’t have.” Sesame brings an engaging curriculum and educational expertise that IBM doesn’t have.
Though it's arguably the most ambitious, it's by no means the first effort to use technology for personalized learning.
For nearly a century, educators have been trying to figure out how to create so-called “teaching machines” to make classrooms more productive. In some cases, the goal was to replace teachers altogether.
The first models, developed as early as the 1920s, operated mechanically and used punch card templates and multiple-choice lessons. One device, originally developed in 1925, actually dispensed Life Savers when a student punched in a correct answer. By the early 1960s, when Ohio State University psychology professor Sidney Pressey began championing it, he said the candies had grown too large for the machine. It dispensed Tums instead.
L. Todd Rose, an informal adviser to the project who teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, said personalized learning has historically had a bigger problem: it relied on an “aggregation approach” to students. So, for instance, after researchers looked at the behavior of large groups of students, educators embraced “learning styles” that weren’t always helpful.
“And then we’re really surprised when it doesn’t predict individual kids’ behavior,” he said.
But a computer like Watson can use more data and more finely tune it, allowing developers to build lessons that more accurately predict how individual learners will react. It can then “adapt in real-time, rather than based on preconceived assumptions.”
He added, “I think it fills a role that doesn’t exist right now, and I think it’ll be really, really valuable in that sense.”
Watson is also powerful enough to help build tools that allow students to be creators themselves, not just passive media recipients.
“It’s never going to replace a human being, but I think the ability to meet a kid where they’re at and keep building their literacy through conversation, rather than just interaction with a screen, I think that’s incredibly powerful.”
Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo
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7040072ffc946f6fbfdd4e3499e0ccfc | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/28/man-hedgehog-suit-nabbed-after-tv-station-bomb-threat/83660280/ | Man in hedgehog suit shot after TV station bomb threat | Man in hedgehog suit shot after TV station bomb threat
A man wearing a surgical mask and sunglasses and dressed as a hedgehog, or possibly a white panda, was shot by police Thursday at a Baltimore TV station after threatening to blow himself up unless the station broadcast his "important information" about a financial scandal.
The WBFF-TV station was evacuated after the man, lingering in the lobby, "displayed what appeared to be wires and other things in his jacket that appeared to be some sort of explosive device," said police spokesman T. J. Smith.
After a lengthy standoff, the man, described as a white male in his 20s, left the building and walked to a nearby street, where he was shot and injured by a police sniper, according to police spokesman T. J. Smith.
Although he dropped to the pavement, he continued to keep a hand in his pocket, raising fears that he might still trigger a bomb. Officers communicated with him through a robot designed to detect explosives, but the man refused to cooperate, police said.
Police eventually approached the man, removed his garb, put him into a van and then left the scene.
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The man had told a TV security guard that he had information similar to the "Panama Papers" offshore banking scandal that he wanted broadcast. Police evacuated the building during an afternoon standoff.
Mike Tomko, news director of WBFF-TV, says he encountered the oddly dressed man in the station's lobby.
"He talked to me and was wearing what appears to be a full-body white panda suit, surgical mask and sunglasses," Tomko said. "He had a flash drive, said he had information he wanted to get on the air. He compared it to the information found in the Panama Papers. I told him, 'I can't let you in, you're going to have to leave the flash drive here and slide it through the opening.' He wouldn't do that. Apparently he had made some threats before."
The flash drive contained videos of the man talking to the camera about what he believed were government conspiracies, WBA:L-TV reports.
Security guard Jourel Apostolidies said the man was wearing a light vest in addition to the animal garb.
The guard said he alerted the station about the need to evacuate staff, then sat down and talked with the man, according to WBAL.
"I'm not going to say I saw a bomb, what I saw was an attempt to make a fake bomb," Apostolidies said.
According to WBBF, a vehicle was set on fire in the TV station parking lot before the bomb threat was made.
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65105e4b404225f8b7eccc2fd423da4c | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/28/survey-northern-states-worst-drunken-driving/83537526/ | These are the most dangerous states for drunken driving | These are the most dangerous states for drunken driving
Fueled by higher-than-average alcohol consumption and plenty of bad weather, Northern states in the Midwest and West are the most dangerous for drunken driving, according to a survey obtained by USA TODAY.
North Dakota ranked first in fatalities and in driving-under-the-influence arrests in 2015, according to the study by CarInsuranceComparison.com, a site that allows people to compare insurance companies.
Montana was second, with the highest cost per fatality and types of laws, according to the report. Idaho, Wisconsin, South Carolina and South Dakota rounded out the riskiest states for impaired driving, according to the study.
“I think that the combination of higher than average alcohol consumption and a higher chance of running into dangerous driving conditions with sleet, snow, and ice during the winter months could be the reason that we're seeing so many of those northern states rank poorly,” Tyler Spraul, who directed the study, told USA TODAY.
Car-insurance study settles it: Montana has worst drivers
The Dakotas, Idaho and Wisconsin each ranked among the highest consumption of alcohol in 2009, according to a study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
In North Dakota, state police and sheriffs are cracking down on underage drinking during the season for prom and graduation this year.”
“If we find them consuming or in possession of alcohol, they could end up in court and ordered to pay fines,” Bismarck Police Lt. Jason Stugelmeyer said this month.
Montana is focused on discouraging impaired driving, after having 33 people die in traffic accidents during January, February and March, which double the number during the same period in 2015. Nearly three-quarters of the state's fatalities during the last decade were because of impaired driving or failing to use seatbelts, according to the state Transportation Department.
The percentage of adults who reported driving after drinking too much during the previous month was 3.4% in Montana, compared to 1.9% nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said from a 2012 survey.
“We are seeing an early surge in fatalities with every indication that things could get worse,” Mike Tooley, state transportation director, said last month.
Meanwhile, Utah, where more than two-thirds of the residents are Mormons who eschew alcohol, ranked lowest for drunken-driving incidents, according to the study. That state was followed closely by Indiana and Florida, which tied, Georgia and Minnesota.
The rankings were based on statistics from the FBI, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the advocacy group Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Kids Count Data Center and DrivingLaws.org.
For example, Mothers Against Drunk Driving reported a $132 billion cost in 2009 from drunken-driving incidents, with about half based on monetary costs and the rest on quality-of-life losses, based on research from the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation.
The categories that contributed to CarInsuranceComparison.com's rankings included:
--Driving fatalities, which counted for 35% of a state’s score. The category counted motorists with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08% or higher, which violates all state laws, and a lesser amount of alcohol.
--Arrests for driving-under-the-influence, which counted for 25% of a state’s score. The category included minors and adults at least 18 years old, divided by the population.
--Penalties for driving-under-the-influence, which counted for 20%v of a state’s score. The category was based on jail time, license suspensions, and maximum fines for first, second and third offenses.
--The cost per fatality, which counted for 10% of a state’s score.
--Types of laws to discourage drunken driving, which counted for 10% of a state’s score.
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7fdc11e21cba8c135838c3fdcf3ed556 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/04/28/zika-outbreak-puerto-rico-grows-endangers-pregnant-women/83640700/ | Zika outbreak in Puerto Rico grows, endangers pregnant women | Zika outbreak in Puerto Rico grows, endangers pregnant women
Nowhere in the U.S. has been hit harder by the Zika outbreak than Puerto Rico, where 570 people have been diagnosed with the virus, including 48 pregnant women.
The true number of Zika cases in Puerto Rico, where the virus is spreading among local mosquitoes, could be much greater. Only about one in five people with Zika develop symptoms, so most of those with the virus are unaware they've been infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Although 426 travelers in the continental U.S. have been diagnosed with Zika after visiting an outbreak zone, the virus is not yet spreading among local mosquitoes on the mainland.
Doctors worry most about the dozens of pregnant women in Puerto Rico who have been infected with Zika, which causes catastrophic birth defects and has been linked to rare cases of paralysis.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who just returned from a two-day visit to Puerto Rico, said her department has awarded $5 million to 20 health centers in Puerto Rico. The money will help expand family planning services, including contraception, outreach and education.
"This problem demands our attention and our continued action," Burwell said Thursday at a press conference.
Puerto Rico is ill-equipped to fight the Zika outbreak or care for any babies born with microcephaly, a Zika-linked birth defect in which babies are born with small heads and incomplete brain development. The island faces a $72 billion debt. The Obama administration has proposed changing Medicaid rules for Puerto Rico to cover more people there.
Zika Q&A: U.S. preps for virus 'scarier than we initially thought'
"We are obviously very concerned about the economy in Puerto Rico," Burwell said.
Obama asked Congress in February for nearly $1.9 billion in emergency Zika funding. Congress has not approved that request, and some Republican leaders criticized it as a "blank check" or "slush fund." Obama transferred $510 million in money formerly earmarked for Ebola for the Zika fight.
But Burwell said additional funds are urgently needed. Some of the money would go toward controlling the mosquitoes that spread the virus, developing a vaccine and caring for pregnant women and their children.
Zika Virus: Full coverage
Doctors will need to follow the children of women with Zika infections, even if they are not born with microcephaly, because it's possible they may suffer from less obvious types of brain damage or other neurological problems. In addition to microcephaly, some children with Zika have been born with eye problems that could impair their vision or even leave them blind.
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4ba040e353a46c11bb4f8260fcb537ae | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/05/19/trumps-tax-troubles/84543538/ | Exclusive: More than 100 lawsuits, disputes over taxes tied to Trump and his companies | Exclusive: More than 100 lawsuits, disputes over taxes tied to Trump and his companies
While Donald J. Trump refuses to release his federal tax returns, saying his tax rate is “none of your business,” a USA TODAY analysis found Trump’s businesses have been involved in at least 100 lawsuits and other disputes related to unpaid taxes or how much tax his businesses owe.
Trump’s companies have been engaged in battles over taxes almost every year from the late 1980s until as recently as March, the analysis of court cases, property records, and other documents across the country shows. At least five Trump companies were issued warrants totaling more than $13,000 for late or unpaid taxes in New York state just since Trump declared his candidacy in June 2015, according to state records. This spring, as Trump flew to campaign rallies around the country aboard his trademark private jet, the state of New York filed a tax warrant to try to collect $8,578 in unpaid taxes from the Trump-owned company that owns the Boeing 757. The company has since paid that tax bill.
As recently as last week, Trump said he was “willing to pay more” taxes personally and that “taxes for the rich will go up somewhat” if he becomes president. But the lawsuits and other tax-related disputes show a different reality for his businesses. They illustrate a pattern of systematically disputing tax bills, arguing for lower property assessments, and in some cases not paying taxes until the government takes additional action. At least three dozen times, Trump companies’ unpaid tax bills have forced the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance to go to local courts to get liens against his properties to try to collect overdue bills. New Jersey also had to go to court for a lien to collect a Trump company’s unpaid tax bill. Eventually, those disputes were resolved, and his companies paid some amount of taxes.
Exclusive: Trump's 3,500 lawsuits unprecedented for a presidential nominee
The disputes surrounding Trump’s business taxes are uncharted territory for the presidential nominee of a major party. The GOP’s 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney, also had extensive business interests as the leader of a private-equity fund. But Trump has a network of complicated real estate and other investments, and some of the tax disputes are ongoing.
Trump has acknowledged that he tries to pay as little taxes as possible, and the public records across the country shed light on how he does it. In documents rarely seen by the public, Trump's businesses regularly minimize the value of his properties for tax purposes. Publicly, including in his presidential financial disclosure report, Trump’s team declares many of those same properties are worth tens of millions of dollars more.
He’s fought tax collectors to lower the assessed values of his luxury golf courses in Briarcliff, N.Y., and Jupiter, Fla. Yet on his presidential financial disclosure report, he valued each at more than $50 million.
USA TODAY’s examination of Trump’s track record as a business taxpayer found not just court actions, but dozens of additional tax disputes with local authorities that didn’t reach the courthouse in states including New York, Nevada, Florida and New Jersey. In some cases, Trump’s businesses have disputed tax assessments; in others, they have simply not paid the tax bill until after the government took additional action.
Ignored New York bills
In New York, for example, there are dozens of tax warrants against Trump businesses. Tax warrants are filed only after the state has exhausted all other options to collect what’s owed.
“You have to ignore us to end up with a tax warrant,” said Geoff Gloak, spokesman for the state Department of Taxation and Finance. “We try to work with taxpayers to resolve the debt, long before it becomes a warrant.”
If the tax warrant is ignored, the state can choose to take the matter to court – and in some cases has.
In addition to the five tax warrants since his announcement, there are additional New York state tax warrants dating to the years before Trump became a candidate, including $1,580 in unpaid taxes in 2010 for Trump Mortgage, his failed mortgage venture, and $1,747 in unpaid taxes in early 2015 against Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, once known as the troubled Trump University, which was later paid.
Among other tax disputes involving Trump entities:
Alan Garten, general counsel to the Trump Organization, said he was unaware of the particulars of the tax warrant cases. He said disputes can arise over how one calculates sales-tax liabilities.
“It happens all the time,” he said. “And some of the charges could have been mistaken.”
Real estate developers often appeal assessments, and Morris Ellison, a commercial real estate tax attorney based in Charleston, S.C., said it’s difficult to compare one organization’s volume of property tax appeals vs. another’s.
USA TODAY exclusive: Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn’t pay his bills
Garten said the companies do what any property owners have the right to do: challenge their property’s assessment to make sure they are fairly taxed.
“We are a business, and we are in the business of making money,” he said. “Why should it be any different if we think the assessment is incorrect? It would be irresponsible if we didn’t. It’s got to be fair.”
Trump has been particularly aggressive by any measure, acknowledging it’s part of his business strategy.
“I fight like hell to pay as little as possible,” he said at a New York news conference announcing his own tax plan in September. “I fight like hell always, because it’s an expense. And you know, I feel ... and I fight. I have the best lawyers and the best accountants, and I fight, and I pay. But it’s an expense.”
Conflicting accounts of worth
Trump’s boasts about his wealth have sometimes undercut his attempts to slash his taxes. In 1985, Trump scooped up Mar-a-Lago, the opulent estate built by Marjorie Merriweather Post in Palm Beach, Fla., for $10 million, bragging in his 1989 book, The Art of the Deal, that it was a sweet deal, worth far more than he paid. When the property was assessed at $11.5 million and later $17 million, Trump objected. Litigation dragged on until 1993 over the tax bills.
A settlement hinged on Trump agreeing not to develop the Mar-a-Lago land into individual lots, said Jay Jacknin, outside counsel for Palm Beach County’s appraisal’s office. Last year, the county assessed the property at about $20 million — though Trump’s federal financial disclosure form values it at “more than $50 million.”
Similarly, just up the road in Jupiter, Fla., Trump bought the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club and Spa in 2012 for a reported $5 million, then renovated it. For the past three years, his team has appealed the assessed value, of $13.7million as of 2015. In his financial disclosure forms, Trump claims that the course on 285 acres is worth “more than $50 million” and that it throws off more than $12 million in revenue.
Value of Trump's golf holdings tough to gauge
In Westchester County, N.Y., Trump has taken an aggressive approach toward the town of Ossining regarding the taxable value of Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor.
The battle gained national prominence, after an investigation in September 2015 by The Journal News, which is part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, of the club’s audacious bid to slash its taxable value by 90%.
Town Assessor Fernando Gonzalez valued the 140-acre complex at $14.3 million (a valuation since increased to $15.1 million) — but Trump’s team countered that it was worth $1.4 million. For perspective, a three-bedroom villa built at Trump National’s 16th hole on a separate tax parcel sold in 2005 for $2.4 million and was recently on the market for almost $2 million.
Trump’s claimed value would slash the $471,000 in taxes he owes to the town, village county and its school district to $47,000.
Residents are outraged. “What he’s claiming is way off,” said Briarcliff Manor homeowner Steve Cohen. “I see people playing there. The club looks fabulous. It certainly isn’t falling into disrepair.”
The Trump team’s lowball valuation follows a pattern similar to other assessment battles. His camp’s estimate appears to be a mere opening bid in a negotiation.
Trump’s attorney, Jeff Rodner, acknowledges that he is sure the property is worth more than the $1.4 million.
“Maybe it’s worth $12 million, maybe $13 million,” Rodner told The Journal News. “Now, my value is my opinion until it’s proven otherwise.”
The Briarcliff property is among 20 developments on Trump’s financial disclosure report that he values at “more than $50 million” — accounting for $1 billion of his net worth that Trump claims totals $10 billion.
Steve Reilly contributed to this report.
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3c26b2d58a86293b6b0de5d34ed5a691 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/05/19/vermilion-parish-superintendent-could-face-termination/84590138/ | ARCHIVES: Vermilion Parish superintendent could face termination | ARCHIVES: Vermilion Parish superintendent could face termination
Note: This story was originally published in 2016.
The professional future of Vermilion Parish Superintendent Jerome Puyau appears murky.
Earlier this week, the district’s school board completed the first of a two-part evaluation of Puyau. The board is now finishing the second part of the evaluation, but some say the superintendent may lack the board support to stay in office.
Board President Anthony Fontana said he has heard concerns that Puyau is intimidating toward some teachers and principals. Fontana does not share those beliefs, calling Puyau “the best superintendent I’ve ever worked for.”
In a Monday interview with television reporters, board member Kibbie Pillette said he does not support Puyau.
RELATED: Vermilion Parish teacher removed from board meeting in handcuffs
“This superintendent is an intimidator,” Pillette said in the interview, aired on KATC-TV3. “That is his style of leadership.”
Pillette did not respond to phone calls for additional comment.
RELATED: Acadiana superintendents move forward with Common Core
Board member Laura LeBeouf said she is concerned about several aspects of district operations, including staffing, finances and what she considers a lack of strategic planning.
Fontana said he believes the negative feedback about Puyau is politically motivated. Based on his conversations with board members, and statements at a special meeting this week, Fontana said he thinks at least four of the board's eight members are in favor of terminating Puyau.
Board attorney Calvin Woodruff said it takes five votes to either renew or terminate Puyau's current contract, which expires in January 2017.
“They have never given a factual basis as to why they don’t like him,” Fontana said. “They have never talked about the good things happening in the school system. He gets no credit for anything.”
In recent years, Vermilion Parish public schools have become a highlight in Louisiana education. Last fall, the district had a 99.5 performance score, its highest ever and enough to place it 11th among Louisiana’s 75 districts. Its graduation rate last year was 93.5 percent, according to state data. Eighty percent of its schools last year received “A” or “B” grades from the state. Multiple Vermilion Parish schools have made national lists for high academic performance.
RELATED: Vermilion Parish schools leading the way
“He can be, and I think he will be the state superintendent of education before long. That’s how good he is,” Fontana said. “We’ve got the top test scores in the Acadiana area. We’ve got the top schools in the Acadiana area. Everybody knows that. I’m hearing from people out of the parish, wanting to know what is going on … It is a vendetta. And it’s been a vendetta since some members got on the board.”
Stacy Landry, the board’s vice-president, said he also supports Puyau.
“I think he’s doing a fine job. He puts his heart and soul in it. He’s extremely dedicated and a very successful leader,” Landry said.
Puyau has worked in Vermilion Parish since 1991, spending nearly 15 years as a teacher and administrator before becoming the district’s supervisor of maintenance in August 2006. He was named superintendent-elect in July 2012, and took over the position permanently in January 2013.
RELATED: Supporters pushing to keep Gueydan High open
Woodruff said that if five board members do not vote to either renew or terminate Puyau's contract, it creates a "stalemate." In that case, Puyau could remain as superintendent after his current contract expires until a replacement is chosen.
Fontana said he anticipates another special board meeting within the next couple of weeks to complete the rest of Puyau’s evaluation.
Puyau did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
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67840a79c5cdd5ba464fa2ad36479b76 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/05/23/airports-ticket-fees-should-fund-tsa-not-deficit-reduction/84793024/ | Airports: Ticket fees should go to TSA to end checkpoint gridlock | Airports: Ticket fees should go to TSA to end checkpoint gridlock
WASHINGTON – Airports are urging Congress to stop diverting $1.25 billion a year in airline ticket fees for deficit reduction rather than providing the money to the Transportation Security Administration, which is struggling with long lines at checkpoints.
Congress voted in 2014 to use 60 cents for deficit reduction from the $5.60 security fee on each flight segment. The diversion totals $1.25 billion this year, which would represent a significant amount for the TSA, which has a $7.5 billion budget.
“We don’t think that’s fair, especially when there’s a crisis with TSA," said Greg Cota, senior director of government affairs at Airports Council International-North America, which held a news conference Monday about ways to reduce checkpoint lines.
The group, which represents 300 airports in the U.S., is urging lawmakers to provide the funding to TSA to shorten lines that have grown to three hours at the busiest times, leaving thousands of travelers missing flights.
The lines are resulting from a confluence of more travelers, fewer TSA officers and tighter security. TSA projected 8% more travelers this summer, while airlines expect a 4% gain. With about 42,500 officers, TSA has about 5,400 fewer than three years ago. And officers are scrutinizing bags more closely after an inspector general report last year found that screeners often failed to detect weapons
“One of the solutions that we have identified is: Stop diverting the portion of the 9/11 passenger security – the fee that all passengers pay as part of their ticket, to provide civil aviation security – to reduce the national debt,” said Christopher Bidwell, the group’s vice president for security. “That is money that TSA could use” for officers or technology.
Airlines for America, an industry group representing most of the largest carriers, has also said the diversion should stop.
“That decision has come home to roost,” said Nicholas Calio, CEO of the airline group. “If Congress wanted to take constructive and well-justified action, it would immediately pass legislation putting that money, paid by airline passengers, where it belongs.”
But it’s unclear whether Congress will change the policy. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., helped arrange the TSA diversion as part of a broader deficit reduction package while he headed the Budget Committee.
The Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security meets Tuesday to debate TSA funding for the year starting Oct. 1, but the House panel hasn’t released its version yet.
TSA lines remain a prominent concern for travelers and lawmakers. The House Homeland Security Committee is holding hearings Wednesday and Thursday on the issue.
Congress approved a TSA request this month to shift $34 million between its accounts in order to hire 768 more officers by June 15 and pay more overtime.
Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, announced May 13 a 10-point plan to cope with checkpoint lines this summer with the funding. But he warned travelers to still expect lines.
TSA takes steps to combat long airport lines, but summer waits are forecast
Johnson has suggested that airlines eliminate checked baggage fees to reduce the number of carry-on bags at checkpoints. Airlines collected a combined $3.8 billion in bag fees last year, according to the Transportation Department.
But airlines contend there is no connection between bag fees and TSA checkpoint lines.
Sharon Pinkerton, senior vice president for legislative and regulatory affairs at Airlines for America, said bag fees have been in place since 2008 and didn’t increase wait times previously. Meanwhile, Chicago Midway airport has suffered 90-minute waits lately, despite the fact that its dominant carrier, Southwest Airlines, doesn’t charge bag fees, she said.
“There is no relationship between bag fees and wait times,” Pinkerton said.
Long TSA line strands 450 fliers overnight as woes expand
To combat long lines, airports and airlines have begun pitching in with workers handling non-security functions at checkpoints such as retrieving bins or telling travelers what to put through X-ray machines.
For example, New York’s John F. Kennedy airport announced Monday it collaborated with 32 airlines to provide $250,000 for staffing at TSA’s checkpoint in Terminal 4. Through Sept. 10, the staffers will direct passengers, regulate the number of carry-on bags and return security bins. Gert-Jan de Graaff, CEO of the company that manages the terminal, said the plan should help 75,000 passengers daily.
Other steps that airports urge include:
• Increasing enrollment in Precheck, by better marketing, posting enrollment hours at airports and perhaps by waiving the $85 fee for five years. The expedited screening allows travelers to keep their shoes on and laptops in bags at checkpoints.
• Allowing federal security directors at airports to make staffing decisions about overtime rather than headquarters.
• Having Congress allow local airport governing boards to increase ticket fees for airport construction from the current $4.50 to $8.50. Airlines oppose this move out of concern it will discourage travel.
"We don’t expect this issue to go away any time soon," said Kevin Burke, CEO of the airports group.
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24ace8faa4855ff98002286807a4d34a | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/05/23/rotc-welcomed-back-ivy-league-schools/32622771/ | ROTC welcomed back at Ivy League schools | ROTC welcomed back at Ivy League schools
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The U.S. military is finding a welcome reception on Ivy League campuses, decades after being kicked off of them amid the tumult of the 1960s antiwar protests.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Monday congratulated the first graduates of Yale’s ROTC program since it was disbanded in 1972, saying the 18 men and women helped “bridge a divide” between the armed forces and society.
Carter, himself a graduate of Yale, hopes to expand ROTC programs on Ivy League campuses, many of which had banished the military around the time of Vietnam-era protests.
“For some of your classmates, you may be the first member of the military they’ve ever gotten to know,” he said in a speech here.
The programs remained off many of the nation's elite campuses, even after Vietnam because of the military’s ban on gays openly serving in the military. The ban was lifted in 2011 and the programs arrived at Yale the following year.
Students say they have received a warm welcome on campus and wear their uniforms openly – a major difference from the Vietnam era when students often invited ridicule if they wore uniforms around campus.
“The climate that was there on campuses when I was in college has really been very much dissipated,” Carter said aboard a military flight to New Haven. Carter arrived at Yale’s campus in 1972 when Yale’s ROTC program was discontinued.
Gabrielle Fong, a Yale student who was commissioned at the ceremony, said the Navy was surprised at the demand for the program among Yale students.
“It proved that our generation is ready to take the pledge to serve,” she said.
Bringing the nation’s elite schools back into the ROTC fold is considered important because it broadens the military’s manpower at a time when only a small percentage of Americans serve in the armed forces.
“We need that diversity of thought,” said Navy Capt. Vernon Kemper, the commander of the Navy ROTC program at Yale.
Increasingly, the all-volunteer force has been drawing from a similar pool of people, many of them from families who have served in the military for generations.
At one time, elite schools, such as Harvard, sent large numbers of its graduates to serve in the armed forces, particularly during wars. Harvard has more Medal of Honor recipients than any other college or university, except for West Point and the Naval Academy.
Since being reintroduced, the ROTC programs remain relatively small outposts at the elite colleges, but students and Pentagon officials expect the numbers to grow. There are 45 students enrolled now in Yale’s Navy ROTC program, one of the largest among the Ivy League campuses.
“We’d like the program to expand,” Carter said. “We’ll make room for that if there are more people who volunteer.”
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e2b16e7f1d07ddc290d0fa3719f99cb2 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/05/27/greenville-4th-fast-food/85025052/ | Greenville: 4th in fast food | Greenville: 4th in fast food
Greenville ranks 4th nationwide for the number of fast food restaurants per capita, according to a new study. It's not exactly "Best Main Street," but according to the study, Greenville was beaten only by two Florida cities and Marietta, Georgia.
Using 2015 census data, and a program called AggData, the study mapped the prevalence of 10 popular fast food restaurants per 100k residents in every state. South Carolina didn't even make it in the top 10, when accounting for the entire state.
Greenville has 123.7 fast food restaurants per 100k residents, according to the study, narrowly beating out Sarasota, FL.
See the full study here.
Elizabeth Sanders is a mobile reporter for The Greenville News. Follow her on Twitter @elizabethwrens
Greenville is a 2016 Playful City
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36d37b0d0c7c46b026cebb25a59769c3 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/05/28/animal-adventure-park-opens-season/85090712/ | Animal Adventure Park opens for the season | Animal Adventure Park opens for the season
Hundreds of animal lovers flocked to Animal Adventure Park on Saturday for the park's 2016 opening day.
Despite blistering hot conditions, animals and humans alike were in good spirits as the park opened its gates for its fourth season.
"With the struggles to get open this year with family issues, weather, construction, to finally get to the day where we get to open those gates, it's a sigh of relief," said park owner Jordan Patch. "As busy as we seem and everyone is running around, this is the fun time."
The park underwent an overhaul in the offseason and features a revamped look with a slew of remodeled exhibits and new animal species. Over the winter and early spring, the park welcomed a variety of animal babies including pot belly piglets, addax antelope, camels, and a black bear cub.
52-year-old Binghamton resident Jim Harrington and his 3-year-old grandson Kian Harrington were among the hundreds of visitors on Saturday.
"In the car on the way over Kian just kept saying, 'I can't wait, I've been waiting for this all winter long," said Harrington, who brings his grandson to the park every couple of weeks during the summer.
The park is now open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with last admission sold at 4 p.m.
Follow Andrew Thayer on Twitter @Andrew_Thayer.
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e26d147149deb4ef26d9ad1259edd043 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/05/29/swimmers-calif-fla-hospitalized-after-shark-bites/85147260/ | Swimmers in Calif., Fla. hospitalized after shark bites | Swimmers in Calif., Fla. hospitalized after shark bites
A woman visiting a popular southern California beach over Memorial Day Weekend was hospitalized late Sunday after she was bitten by a shark, authorities said.
In response to the attack in Newport Beach, Calif., the beach was closed at Corona del Mar State Beach, the Orange County, Calif., Sheriff's Office said.
The victim’s name was not immediately released. The Orange County Register said the attack took place just after 4 p.m. PT
The Newport Beach Fire Department said the woman suffered "traumatic injuries" in the attack, KTLA reported.
In Neptune Beach, Fla., officials on Sunday said a 13-year-old boy swimming in shallow water Sunday afternoon was bitten on the right calf by a shark that was estimated to be five to six feet long.
Neptune Beach police said the boy suffered severe lacerations to his calf and shin, First Coast News reported.
It was the first shark bite of 2016 at Neptune Beach, but the third this month along the so-called First Coast, an area stretching across Florida’s northernmost Atlantic coast.
Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo
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66184cedb32baad2957254c44e99da32 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/05/30/weekend-news-roundup/85151636/ | Biggest news you missed this weekend | Biggest news you missed this weekend
Remembering the fallen on Memorial Day
Memorial Day isn't just an opportunity for a barbecue or beach trip. It's a day honoring American soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. What we think you should read today: 1. Veterans need more than your thanks. 2. The horrible price of war. 3. Honoring those lost is all we can do.
Cincinnati zoo kills gorilla to save boy
The gorilla exhibit is closed indefinitely at the Cincinnati Zoo after authorities killed a gorilla that attacked a 4-year-old boy who fell into the enclosure's moat. Zoo President Thane Maynard said the boy crawled through a barrier Saturday, fell 10 to 12 feet and was grabbed by the zoo's 17-year-old male western lowland gorilla, Harambe. The Cincinnati Fire Department said first responders "witnessed a gorilla who was violently dragging and throwing the child." The zoo shot and killed Harambe. The child was taken to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and was treated for non-life threatening injuries; he has been released and is "doing just fine," his family said.
Iraqi forces enter Fallujah, take on Islamic State
Iraqi troops rolled back into Fallujah on Monday, kicking off a crucial campaign to drive Islamic State militants from one of their last major strongholds in the war-battered country. The advance came as militants, who have suffered a series of military setbacks, continued their strategy of terror. A string of bombings in and around Baghdad, about 40 miles to the east, reportedly left at least 24 people dead.
Flooding, severe weather devastate Texas
Six people died and at least two others were missing Sunday after heavy rains in Texas and Kansas caused severe flooding. Torrential rains caused heavy flash flooding in some parts of the U.S. over the last few days and led to numerous evacuations in southeast Texas, including two prisons. But the threat of severe weather has lessened over the long Memorial Day holiday for many places, though Tropical Depression Bonnie continued to bring rain and wind to North and South Carolina.
Rookie Alexander Rossi wins 100th running of the Indianapolis 500
Running on fumes on the final laps of the race, rookie Alexander Rossi ran out of fuel coming out of Turn 4 — and still managed to win the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. Rossi, a 24-year-old native of California, coasted to the line ahead of Carlos Munoz, Josef Newgarden and Tony Kanaan as late-race fuel strategy led to a wild and tense finish. It was perhaps one of the more unlikely Indy 500 victories, as Rossi has almost no experience in racing on oval tracks after spending several years pursuing a career in Formula One.
U.N.: 700 migrants feared dead in Mediterranean shipwrecks
Horrific stories emerged Sunday about more than 700 migrants who drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea since Wednesday, according to the United Nations refugee agency. Rescuers saved 14,000 people at sea last week, by far the highest weekly number yet this year, said William Spindler, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The International Organization on Migration estimates that 194,611 migrants and refugees entered Europe so far this year, fleeing persecution, war and other hardships in the Middle East and Africa.
Pelicans guard Dejean-Jones fatally shot in Dallas
New Orleans Pelicans guard Bryce Dejean-Jones was fatally shot after breaking down the door to a Dallas apartment, authorities said Saturday. Dejean-Jones was visiting his girlfriend, who lives on the fourth floor. Dejean-Jones went to the third. His agent said he mistakenly broke down the wrong door thinking his girlfriend had locked him out. A man living in the third-floor apartment retrieved a handgun and fired.
Johnny Depp's daughter defends him over abuse allegations
Lily-Rose Depp, Johnny Depp's 17-year-old daughter, defended her dad against allegations of abuse without explicitly saying he is innocent. Since wife Amber Heard was granted a restraining order against Johnny Depp, Lily-Rose posted a screengrab on Instagram on Sunday of a news story that said: "There was no evidence of any crime" and "The person reporting the crime [Heard] did not insist on a report..." Heard filed a domestic abuse restraining order against Depp on Friday after filing for divorce Monday. Heard's filing Friday alleged a history of abuse throughout her relationship with Depp.
Contributing: Associated Press
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7b4251d67ded988fc690e328e2b564ba | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/06/03/5-soldiers-dead-4-still-missing-flood-fort-hood/85347052/ | 4 missing soldiers found dead, 9 killed in total in flood at Fort Hood | 4 missing soldiers found dead, 9 killed in total in flood at Fort Hood
Army aircraft, dogs and rescue watercraft on Friday were searching a 20-mile creek that winds through heavily wooded terrain at Fort Hood Army Base in Texas looking for four soldiers missing a day after their light vehicle overturned in fast-rising floodwaters, killing five soldiers.
On Friday night, the bodies of the four missing soldiers who were swept away in the creek were found, the Associated Press reported.
"This accident is a tragedy — the loss of one soldier is too many," said Fort Hood spokesman Chris Haug said Friday.Three soldiers who were plucked from the swift floodwaters on Thursday were in stable condition, according to officials at the military facility in Killeen, in central Texas. Three of the dead were found shortly after the accident and two more bodies were found Thursday night.
Gen. Robert Abrams, commanding general of Army Forces Command, in a statement, called the deaths a "profound tragedy" and said the focus was now on "search and rescue for the missing soldiers, assistance to the surviving soldiers as well as those in their units, and our full support to all their families.”
Widespread flooding has been reported across Texas because of severe storms and heavy rain, some falling at the rate of 3 inches an hour, that have slammed the state in recent days. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster across 31 counties.
Haug said the soldiers were training aboard a 2 ½-ton truck, known as a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle, when it overturned along Owl Creek, about 70 miles north of Austin. Fort Hood, which covers 214,000 acres, is one of the largest military facilities in the world.
At the time of the accident, Haug said, commanders were in the processing of closing roads because of the danger of flooding. “It was a situation where the rain had come, the water was rising quickly and we were in the process, at the moment of the event, of closing the roads,” he said.
The road the soldiers were using isn’t marked as a low-water crossing, which means it typically is not prone to flooding, said Lt. Col. Sunset Belinsky, a spokeswoman for the 1st Cavalry Division, Army Times reports.
Nearly the entire eastern half of Texas and portions of Oklahoma remained under a flash flood watch or warning Friday as the effects of days of heavy rains linger in creeks and rivers, the Associated Press reported.
The cause of the ongoing rain is a stubborn, slow-moving storm that continues to spin across east-central Texas, drawing Gulf of Mexico moisture onshore, WeatherBug meteorologist Mark Ellinwood said.
Showers and thunderstorms are expected to drench the southern Plains and lower Mississippi Valley through the weekend, the National Weather Service warned. With much of the region already saturated from previous heavy rains, flash flooding will continue to be a major concern.
Contributing: Doyle Rice and Steph Solis in McLean, Va. Follow Doug Stanglin on Twitter @dstanglin
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e9f51bd22b6b049ab172dfaec0b15e33 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/06/05/hanovers-geocaching-tell-me-more/85445828/ | Hanover's GeoCaching? Tell me more! | Hanover's GeoCaching? Tell me more!
Hanover started its second GeoTrail on Saturday, a treasure hunt which features more than 20 locations to unleash your scavenger-hunting skills.
Never heard of it before? Here's a breakdown to help you understand.
What on Earth is a GeoTrail?
A GeoTrail is part of the international GeoCaching treasure hunt, in which participants take part to locate hidden caches. These chaches are collections of artifacts or special items. Main Street Hanover's Geocaching Committee has created its own GeoTrail, or treasure map, for residents and visitors to enjoy.
More details, please
To find the treasure, or "cache," you must use your phone's GPS.
But how does your phone know where to go?
Register at geocaching.com to receive coordinates and location information. In addition, a Geocache app should be downloaded to your smartphone to help you navigate to a cache.
Second Hanover GeoTrail opens Saturday
OK, you registered. Now what?
Before you begin, you need to obtain a passport booklet. You can either go to the Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce to get one or download it here.
A passport is needed because each cache you find has a unique code. You need to log that code in your passport as proof you found the treasure.
In addition to logging your code in your passport, each cache also contains a logbook for adventurers to sign their name. Make sure you do!
Ready, set, hunt
Participants can look forward to finding caches in places like public parks, outside of businesses, at landmarks and even in parking lots.
Those who find at least 18 out of the 20 caches in Hanover's GeoTrail are eligible to receive Main Street Hanover's commemorative geocoin. Although there is no deadline for completing the treasure hunt, only a limited amount of coins are available.
To receive one, return your passport to the Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce in person or through mail.
If you find you missed out on a coin, you can still revel in the fact you took on the geocaching adventure and keep your passport to prove it.
Happy hunting!
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00e8fa8d299736f92648137ef8694bfc | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/06/08/5-things-you-need-to-know-wednesday/85549002/ | 5 things you need to know Wednesday | 5 things you need to know Wednesday
Indian leader Modi to address Congress
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday as he continues his high-profile visit to the nation's capital. Modi's speech comes a day after he met with President Obama at the White House on the two nations' growing economic ties and their shared interest in curbing China's international ambitions. It was the two leaders' seventh visit since Modi took power in 2014. Last month, Modi told The Wall Street Journal that he and Obama "have a special friendship, a special wavelength."
Caitlyn Jenner revisits Olympic glory
Caitlyn Jenner will mark the 40th anniversary of the Olympic decathlon gold medal she won as Bruce Jenner with a cover story in Sports Illustrated. In the story out Wednesday (an online film was released Monday), Jenner reflects on "the legacy of winning the gold medal and its impact on her journey as a transgender woman in the public eye." The magazine featured Jenner on the cover of the Aug. 9, 1976, issue after the Olympic athlete won the gold in Montreal. Jenner later became a reality-TV star on Keeping Up With the Kardashians, and last July she made her debut as a transgender woman on the cover of Vanity Fair.
Man wrongfully convicted of 4 murders to be released
A young Detroit man who was wrongfully convicted of four murders in 2008 may be released from prison Wednesday. A judge on Tuesday threw out the 2008 conviction of Davontae Sanford, who was serving a 37- to 90-year sentence for a quadruple homicide on Detroit's northeast side. Sanford was 14 when he confessed to the hitman-style murders. Sanford, now 23, was cleared after the actual perpetrator, Vincent Smothers, confessed to the quadruple homicide and eight additional murders.
Cavaliers, Warriors face off in Cleveland
If Game 1 of the NBA Finals was a bad loss for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Game 2 was worse. The Golden State Warriors have a 2-0 series lead, and the Cavs face a seemingly impossible task in Game 3 on Wednesday night: take four of the next five games from Golden State, the team that won an NBA-record 73 regular-season games. (Good luck with that.) The Cavaliers definitely need their three-point game back to get there.
CMT Music Awards promises big-name collaborations
Country music fans are in for a treat Wednesday as the 2016 CMT Music Awards will broadcast live from Nashville. Expect to see collaborations including Blake Shelton with the Oak Ridge Boys, Billy Ray Cyrus with Cheap Trick and Little Big Town with Pharrell Williams. Carrie Underwood, Chris Stapleton and Luke Bryan will also perform. The show, hosted by Erin Andrews and J.J. Watt, will air at 8 p.m. ET.
And the essentials:
Weather: Rain will continue to pelt sodden Florida while heat scorches the western U.S.
Stocks: Asian stocks were mixed Wednesday after Japan upgraded its growth estimate and China reported weak but improved trade in May.
TV Tonight: Wondering what to watch tonight? TV critic Robert Bianco looks at the CMT Music Awards, the Joan Baez 75th Birthday Celebration andThe Americans finale.
Be inspired: Young cosplayer with Down syndrome gets sweet surprise from Star Wars group
If you missed Tuesday's news, we’ve got you covered.
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Pop in those headphones and listen to the audio version below:
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f9db9f997f179664f1132c520a312ac8 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/06/11/what-trump-has-said-judge-curiel/85641242/ | What Trump has said about Judge Curiel | What Trump has said about Judge Curiel
Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has accused a federal judge of being biased against him in overseeing class action lawsuits against Trump University, a now-inactive real estate school.
Trump, in February, accused U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel, an Indiana native, of being hostile to Trump because of Curiel’s Mexican heritage.
Trump expanded his criticism in May and June, as Curiel ordered unsealed hundreds of pages in the case that are embarrassing to Trump.
After Trump’s remarks were denounced Tuesday as racist by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Trump issued a statement saying his comments have been misconstrued, but repeating that he is justified in questioning the fairness of the proceedings. He also said he doesn’t intend to comment further.
Trump judge 'a Hoosier and an American'
Here are excerpts from his past statements.
Rally in Bentonville, Ark., Feb. 27, 2016
Donald Trump: “We have a very hostile judge because, to be honest with you, the judge should’ve thrown the case out on summary judgement. But because it was me and because there’s a hostility toward me by the judge, tremendous hostility, beyond belief. I believe he happens to be Spanish, which is fine. He is Hispanic, which is fine. And we haven't asked for recusal, which we may do. But we have a judge who is very hostile. Should’ve been thrown out. Wasn’t thrown out.”
Interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, February 28, 2016
Donald Trump: “I think the judge has been extremely hostile to me. I think it has to do with perhaps the fact that I'm very, very strong on the border. Very, very strong on the border. And he has been extremely hostile to me. This is a case that in our opinion should have been won a long time ago. It's a case that we should have won on summary judgment….we have a very hostile judge. Now, he is Hispanic, I believe. He is a very hostile judge to me. I said it loud and clear.”
Rally in San Diego, Calif., May 27, 2016
Donald Trump: “Everybody says it, but I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He's a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel and he is not doing the right thing….So what happens is the judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great. I think that's fine. You know what? I think the Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump when I give all these jobs, OK? I think they're going to end up… I think they're going to love me…..So I'll be seeing you in November either as president -- and I will say this….I think Judge Curiel should be ashamed of himself. I think it's a disgrace that he's doing this….
I will tell you, this court system -- the judges in this court system, federal court. They ought to look into that Judge Curiel because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace. OK? But we'll come back in November. Wouldn't that be wild if I'm president and I come back to do a civil case?”
Interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper June 3, 2016
Tapper: Is it not -- when Hillary Clinton says this is a racist attack, and you reject that -- if you are saying he can't do his job because of his race, is that not the definition of racism?
Trump: No. I don't think so at all.
Tapper: No?
Trump: No. He's proud of his heritage. I respect him for that.
Tapper: But you're saying you can't do his job because of that.
Trump: Look, he's proud of his heritage, OK? I'm building a wall. Now, I think I'm going to do very well with Hispanics...because I'm going to bring back jobs. And they are going to get jobs. I think I'm going to do very well with Hispanics.
But we are building a wall. He's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico.
The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings, rulings that people can't even believe. This case should have ended years ago on summary judgment. The best lawyers -- I have spoken to so many lawyers -- they said, `This is not a case. This is a case that should have ended.' This judge is giving us unfair rulings. Now, I say. `Why?' Well, I'm building a wall, OK? And it's a wall between Mexico. Not another country.
Tapper: But he's not from Mexico. He's from Indiana.
Trump: He's of Mexican heritage and he's very proud of it.
Campaign statement, June 7, 2016
Trump: “It is unfortunate that my comments have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage. I am friends with and employ thousands of people of Mexican and Hispanic descent. The American justice system relies on fair and impartial judges. All judges should be held to that standard. I do not feel that one’s heritage makes them incapable of being impartial, but, based on the rulings that I have received in the Trump University civil case, I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial….
Due to what I believe are unfair and mistaken rulings in this case and the Judge’s reported associations with certain professional organizations, questions were raised regarding the Obama appointed Judge’s impartiality. It is a fair question. I hope it is not the case.While this lawsuit should have been dismissed, it is now scheduled for trial in November. I do not intend to comment on this matter any further. With all of the thousands of people who have given the courses such high marks and accolades, we will win this case!”
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8f3a54e7c67fa3f97e1e2274554b0033 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/06/13/orlando-nightclub-shooting-touched-ended-many-diverse-lives/85824468/ | Orlando shooting victims summed up America’s diversity | Orlando shooting victims summed up America’s diversity
ORLANDO -- They came, the president would later observe, “to be with friends, to dance, and to sing and to live.’’ Most had that in common, along with their ethnicity, sexuality and youth. But those who gathered at the club Pulse “to live,’’ and died there, also summed up the diversity that makes America America.
They included a Starbucks barista, a UPS man and a gay cruises promoter. One was a telemarketer, another a pharmacy tech. One worked at Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a connection that prompted the author J.K. Rowling to tweet a photo of him in a Hogwarts school tie, with the message, “I can’t stop crying.”
One of the victims had come out to his family earlier this year, with what turned out to be needless worry about their reaction.
And one was a bouncer at the club, where a gunman produced a casualty rate more typical of a Marines assault: 49 dead and more than 50 wounded out of a crowd of maybe 350.
The victims were among those who gathered for a fun night of salsa and merengue at Pulse, “Orlando’s Latin Hotspot,” for an “Upscale Latin Saturdays” event. Most were in their 20s and early 30s.
“The place where they were attacked is more than a nightclub,’’ Obama said. “It is a place of solidarity and empowerment where people have come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds and to advocate for their civil rights.’’
On Monday they were remembered for a personal trademark, like a silly top hat, or a skill, like makeup, or a passion, like mom’s tomato-cheese dip.
One reportedly came to Florida from his native Puerto Rico because, as a gay man, he felt he “couldn’t be himself there.’’
And one was remembered for a chilling final text to his mother from the club restroom: “He’s coming. I’m going to die.’’
That was Eddie Justice, who woke his mother Mina Justice shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday with a text message that began: "Mommy I love you." Those happy words were followed by ones of horror: "In club they shooting."
About 30 minutes later, apparently hiding in a Pulse bathroom, he texted: “He’s coming. I’m gonna die.”
Among the other victims:
Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37, moved to Florida from Puerto Rico, according to his cousin, Thron Crowe, who came to a command center Monday not far from the club to talk with authorities. Wilson “came from Puerto Rico because he was gay and couldn't be himself there,’’ Crowe said. “When he got here he didn't speak a lick of English."
______
Miguel Angel Honorato, 30, was married and had three children, according to his brother, Jose, who had posted this note on Facebook on Sunday: “Come home bro, I’m waiting for you.”
“My brother's wife called me looking for him after she heard the news," Jose said before his brother’s body was identified. "I called his cell phone and he would not answer.’’ Honorato said his brother went to the club with three friends -- all of whom made it out safely.
Miguel managed four restaurants in central Florida, and ran a catering business on the side. More than that, even though Miguel was younger, "He was my mentor and my supporter,'' Jose Honorato said.
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Stanley Almodovar III posted a Snapchat video of himself singing and laughing en route to Pulse on Saturday night. His mother Rosalie Ramos now wishes she had it to remember him by.
She thought her son, a 23-year-old pharmacy technician, was coming home; she’d left a tomato-and-cheese dip waiting for him. “I wish I had that (video) to remember him,” she said.
A friend, Hazel Ramirez, told the Washington Post she also saw the same Snapchat video and learned Sunday afternoon what had happened. Ramirez described Almodovar as “kind, but sassy,” and someone who was comfortable with his own sexual identity. “He was so proud of who he was,” she told the Post. “He would do his makeup better than anyone else.’’
Ramos, 51, was at home early Sunday when her phone rang with news that Stanley was trapped inside the nightclub.
She raced to the scene and waited anxiously behind police cordons through the three-hour standoff between police and the shooter, Omar Mateen. She said Almodovar’s friends told her he’d tried to shield other victims in the club’s bathroom before being shot to death.
What was he like? “He liked to go to parties, he liked to make friends,” Ramos said, holding back tears. “He enjoyed life.”
They moved to Orlando from Massachusetts in 2003. “We came here to have a good life,’’ the mother said. “Then this happened.”
_________
Edward Sotomayor Jr. had a trademark that summed his personality: a silly top hat he used to war on cruises.
David Sotomayor, a self-described drag queen from Chicago, said the two discovered they were cousins after meeting at Orlando’s annual Gay Days festival a decade ago. “He was just always part of the fun,” David Sotomayor said.
Eddie, 34, worked for a company that arranged gay cruises, and often traveled to promote the company’s events. "He was a person you wanted to be with, and he loved travel,'' said another friend, Al Ferguson. After the ISIS-inspired attacks in Paris and Brussels, he said, Sotomayor urged friend to travel to or vacation in those cities -- to show support for victims of terrorism.
________
Juan Ramon Guerrero, who told his cousin Robert Guerrero he was gay about two years ago, worried about how the rest of his family would react when he told them at the beginning of this year. As it turned out, “they were very accepting,” said Guerrero. “As long as he was happy, they were OK with it.”
Robert Guerrero said his cousin, 22, worked as a telemarketer; was happy in a relationship with a man his family eventually regarded as one of their own, and recently began attending the University of Central Florida. Guerrero said his cousin didn’t quite know what he wanted to study, but he was happy just to be in school.
________
Kimberly "K.J." Morris, 37, moved to Orlando a few months ago and had been hired at the Pulse club as a bouncer. “She was really excited to start the job,” an ex-girlfriend, Starr Shelton, said from her home in the Bay Area of northern California. “She told me how she was thrilled to get more involved in the LGBT community there.''
Morris moved to Orlando from Hawaii to take care of her mother and grandmother. She'd previously worked as a bouncer in a club in Northampton, Mass., where she also performed as a drag performer, and hoped also to perform at Pulse once she got established there.
Narvell Benning met Morris when they played basketball together at Post University in Waterbury, Conn: “I can’t think of a time when I did not see a smile on her face.’’
______
Luis Vielma, 22, worked at Universal Studios on one of the rides at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was a good match: “He just wanted to make people smile,” said a co-worker, Olga Glomba.
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Peter Ommy was how everyone knew Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz; it seemed to sum up the 22-year-old’s exuberant, life-of-the party personality. According to his Facebook page, he attended high school in New Jersey and worked at UPS in Orlando; spoke English and Spanish; and once lived in Africa.
His Facebook profile photo from June, 2015, had the gay pride flag superimposed over it to celebrate the Supreme Court's ruling that gay marriage was legal.
“He was a happy person,’’ said his aunt, Sonia Cruz. “If Peter is not at the party, no one wants to go.’’
_____
Eric Ortiz, 36, came to Florida from Puerto Rico, where he earned a communications degree from Univercidad Central de Bayamon, to make a career and a better life. He became a merchandise manager.
"He sacrificed himself a lot for his family," said his former roommate, Abismel Colon Gomez of Orlando. "He loved his brother, and he was always being generous."
______
Omar Ocasio-Capo at first seemed too brash to Claudia Mason, 70, who worked with him the 20-year-old at the Starbucks inside a Kissimmee Target store. But after getting to know him, “I realized he had a very outgoing personality,” Mason told the Sentinel. “Omar got along with everyone. Young, old, male, female, gay or straight, it didn’t matter.’’
Ocasio-Capo was hired as a cashier at Target before moving to Starbucks, and became a great barista, she said. “I think he found his niche,” she said.
What's more, “He was one of the most amazing dancers,” said his sister, Belinette Ocasio-Capo. “He would always call me and say, ‘I’m going to be the next Hollywood star.’''
Amanda Alvear, 25, loved fashion and was infectiously enthusiastic, relatives told the Orlando Sentinel. "People got caught in her wake. Whatever she was doing, that's what they were going to do and have fun doing it," her brother Brian Alvear said. He said she went to gay and lesbian clubs because they were fun and she felt able to be herself there: "She wouldn't want anyone to spread hate for her. She'd rather they spread more love."
Alvear had lost a lot of weight following gastric bypass surgery, according to Sandy Marte, a friend with whom she’d bonded over health and relationship problems. “She was loving, she was caring, she always had an open ear, she always wanted to help people,” Marte said of Alvear. “She had an amazing heart.”
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Leroy Valentin Fernandez recently was hired as a leasing agent for an apartment complex, his friend, Jennifer Rodriguez, told The Associated Press. “He had finally found something he liked. He was taking care of his mom.”
Fernandez, her hair stylist, became one of her best friends. “He was like a brother. He was just really very spirited and always happy, you know?”
Fernandez, 25, recently had been dating an older man, a dancer known by the stage name Eman Valentino. That was Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35, who also died. He left a young son who’d graduated from pre-kindergarten earlier this month. “I have no words to express how proud and happy I am of my little boy,” Rosado had written on Facebook.
A YouTube video shows him dancing as an elegantly dressed Eman Valentino at the Orlando club Parliament House. He wears a cape, tie and gloves and collects tips from the audience between high kicks and spins.
_____
Contributing: J. D. Gallop, Rick Neale and John McCarthy, Florida Today
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9dc135a37227807b59d29d8f3db4f925 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/06/13/pulse-patrons-mateen-drank-club-before/85852008/ | Pulse patrons: Mateen hung out at the club 'for years' | Pulse patrons: Mateen hung out at the club 'for years'
As investigators on Monday scoured the details of Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen's life, several regulars at the Pulse nightclub offered a startling revelation: They had seen Mateen there before, they said, drinking, arguing and talking about his family.
The FBI late Monday told USA TODAY that it was reviewing these eyewitness accounts, but that it wasn't clear whether Mateen's possible visits may have served as efforts to scout the target or whether he was a patron of the club. Orlando Police Chief John Mina on Monday said he had no information about the sightings.
Pulse patron Kevin West said the 29-year-old Mateen even messaged him on and off for a year before the shooting, using a gay chat and dating app called Jack’d, the Los Angeles Times reported.
West said he was dropping off a friend at the club around 1 a.m. Sunday, an hour before the shooting, when he noticed Mateen, whom he knew by sight, crossing the street, wearing a dark cap and carrying a cellphone, according to the paper.
“He walked directly past me. I said, ‘Hey,’ and he turned and said, ‘Hey,’” and nodded his head, West said. “I could tell by the eyes,” the Times reported.
An hour later, Mateen, wielding a 9-mm semiautomatic pistol and .223-caliber rifle, killed 49 people and injured 53 before police shot him dead.
FBI: Orlando gunman not directed by foreign terror group
A federal law enforcement official who is not authorized to comment publicly said late Monday that the FBI was aware of witness reports that placed Mateen at the club on prior occasions and that the bureau was reviewing those accounts.
Another patron, Ty Smith, who also uses the name Aries, told the Orlando Sentinel he'd seen Mateen at the club at least a dozen times.
"Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent," Smith said. "We didn't really talk to him a lot, but I remember him saying things about his dad at times. He told us he had a wife and child."
Chris Callen, another Pulse customer, told the Sentinel he'd seen Mateen in the nightclub and had witnessed his violent outbursts.
"It was definitely him," said Cord Cedeno. "He'd come in for years, and people knew him."
Orlando victims: Their stories
West told the Los Angeles Times that after the shooting, as soon as he saw released photos of Mateen, he went straight to police and turned over his phone and Jack’d log-in information to the FBI.
FBI Director James Comey said investigators were looking at the possibility that Mateen had also scouted Walt Disney World in April as a potential target, the Associated Press reported.
Contributing: Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY. Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo
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51026e26556a38bff048caf293c2a00c | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/06/15/drug-salesmen-arrested-paying-doctors-prescribe-fentanyl/85803100/ | Drug salesmen arrested for paying doctors to prescribe fentanyl | Drug salesmen arrested for paying doctors to prescribe fentanyl
The arrests of two former pharmaceutical salesmen for allegedly paying doctors to prescribe fentanyl, the powerful painkiller that caused pop singer Prince’s fatal overdose, drew a strong reaction from law enforcement and other doctors, who note that pharmaceutical companies have aggressively marketed risky and addictive painkillers in recent years and have paid more than $1 billion to settle charges of illegal marketing.
Doctors wrote nearly 250 million opioid prescriptions in 2013 – enough to provide every American adult with a bottle of pills, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 2 million Americans today are addicted to prescription opioid painkillers; more than 14,000 died from prescription opioid overdoses in 2014.
Fentanyl is the most powerful of all opioids and can be up to 100 times more potent than morphine.
The two salesmen arrested Thursday worked for Arizona-based Insys Therapeutics, whose only approved product, Subsys, is a fast-acting form of fentanyl sprayed under the tongue, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court. While fentanyl patches provide a slow, continuous dose of painkiller, spraying Subsys under the tongue provides relief in as little as five minutes.
The salesmen paid two New York-area physicians a total of $259,000 in kickbacks in 2014, according to the complaint.
Although the complaint doesn't name the physicians, court documents say the doctors wrote a total of more than $6 million in Subsys prescriptions in 2014 — more than all but a few doctors in the country. An Insys manager allegedly knew of the scheme and instructed sales staff to demand that the doctors prescribe “large quantities of fentanyl” in exchange for the money, according to the complaint.
In a statement, Insys said the salesmen are no longer employed by the company, although it didn't say why they left Insys. The company noted that it's against Insys policy to provide money or "items of value" to doctors to encourage them to write prescriptions.
“Our company requires its personnel to undergo specific training on company policies and procedure, which are designed to comply with applicable laws and regulations," Insys said in the statement. "Insys has a compliance program in place with protocols and monitoring that are designed to ensure its sales and marketing practices comply with applicable laws, which the complaint alleges were intentionally ignored and evaded by these former employees. .”
The alleged kickback scheme is “one of the reasons we’re experiencing an epidemic of overdoses and deaths in this country,” said Diego Rodriguez, an FBI assistant director who oversees the New York office, in a statement. According to the charges, the doctors “saw a huge payday that potentially put people’s lives in danger,” he said.
The drug salesmen made the payments appear legal by organizing sham educational seminars at which the doctors were supposed to speak, according to court documents. But the seminars were mostly social gatherings, held at expensive New York restaurants, according to the complaints. After dinner, the salesmen often took the doctors out for drinks at bars and strip clubs, the complaint alleges.
In February, a former Insys saleswoman, Natalie Reed Perhacs, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, including engaging in kickback schemes, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.
In 2015, a Connecticut nurse practitioner pleaded guilty to prescribing Subsys in exchange for $83,000 in kickbacks from Insys, according to the U.S. attorney for Connecticut.
Although a number of opioid manufacturers have been charged with illegal marketing in recent years, Insys “set a new bar in sleaziness,” said Andrew Kolodny, executive director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing.
Drug companies have an ethical responsibility to make sure that patients aren't being addicted by their products, said Arthur Caplan, the director of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York.
"You have this hyper-powerful drug marketed intensely, aggressively and shamelessly without any sense of the addictive and lethal power of what is being sold," said Caplan said.
Insys has been investigated for its marketing practices by Arizona, Oregon, Massachusetts and Illinois, as well as by the U.S. attorney for central California, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Oregon last year became the first government entity to reach a settlement with Insys, which paid the state $1.1 million. Oregon had accused Insys of providing “improper financial incentives” to doctors and aggressively marketing to physicians who weren’t qualified to prescribe Subsys. Oregon’s attorney general also accused Insys of illegally marketing its fentanyl spray for neck and back pain, even though Subsys hasn’t been approved for these conditions.
“It is unconscionable that a company would promote such a powerful drug for off-label uses, as well as misrepresent to doctors the benefits of the drug,” Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said in a statement at the time.
Insys was not named in the new arrest documents. But court filings make clear that the former salesmen worked for Insys. The documents note that the salesmen paid doctors to prescribe a fentanyl spray approved in 2012 for a select group of adult cancer patients: those whose pain can’t be relieved by round-the-clock opioids. Only one product and one company meet that description. Subsys is the company’s only approved medical product.
Very few Subsys prescriptions are going to cancer patients, however, Kolodny said.
Although doctors are allowed to prescribe drugs “off label” for conditions for which they weren’t prescribed, drug companies may not market them for unapproved uses.
Just 7% of Subsys prescriptions this year were written by oncologists, according to Symphony Health Solutions, which analyzes the pharmaceutical industry. Of all fentanyl products on the market — from patches to lozenges, sprays and intravenous forms — at most 8% of prescriptions are written by oncologists.
Subsys' strong sales make it a stand out among fentanyl products.
Although overall fentanyl sales have plateaued in recent years, with 6.5 million prescriptions and $1.4 billion in sales in 2015, sales of Subsys have skyrocketed, according to IMS Health, which tracks the pharmaceutical industry. Subsys sales jumped from $14.2 million in 2012 to $462 million last year; prescriptions grew from 4,528 to 49,063 over the same time.
The opioid era
Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin, led the way in aggressive marketing of dangerous painkillers, said Adriane Fugh-Berman, an associate professor of pharmacology and physiology at the Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington. The pill, which hit the market in 1996, was designed to provide a slow release of medication. But people quickly learned that OxyContin could be crushed for a fast high. Abuse soared.
In 2007, the parent company of Purdue Pharma agreed to pay $600 million in fines and other payments, pleading guilty to criminal charges that it misled the public about the pill’s potential for addiction and abuse.
“The opioids industry has changed the way medicine is practiced,” Fugh-Berman said. “Physicians are much more comfortable giving opioids to people who should never have gotten a prescription for them.”
Opioid prescriptions quadrupled from 1999 to 2014; the number of fatal opioid overdoses quadrupled, as well, according to the CDC.
In an effort to stem the opioid epidemic, the CDC released opioid prescribing guidelines earlier this year, urging doctors to avoid providing them for chronic pain. The FDA also added a “black box” warning – the strongest kind – on all immediate-release opioids, warning of the high risks of addiction and death.
Other opioid manufacturers also have faced criminal charges.
In 2008, the drug company Cephalon paid a $425 million fine and pleaded guilty to marketing three drugs – including a fentanyl lollipop called Actiq – off-label, according to the Department of Justice. Like Subsys, Actiq is approved for a narrow set of adult cancer patients.
But according to the Justice Department, Cephalon promoted its fentanyl product to cancer patients who weren’t used to taking opioids, a practice that increases the risk of overdose. The company also marketed fentanyl for migraines, sickle-cell pain crises, injuries and for patients in need of wound dressing changes.
“Using the mantra ‘pain is pain,’ Cephalon instructed the Actiq sales representatives to focus on physicians other than oncologists, including general practitioners, and to promote this drug for many uses other than breakthrough cancer pain,” the Justice Department said in a press release in 2008.
"These are potentially harmful drugs that were being peddled as if they were, in the case of Actiq, actual lollipops instead of a potent pain medication intended for a specific class of patients," said Laurie Magid, acting U.S. Attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, in the statement. "This company subverted the very process put in place to protect the public from harm, and put patients’ health at risk for nothing more than boosting its bottom line. People have an absolute right to their doctors’ best medical judgement. They need to know the recommendations a doctor makes are not influenced by sales tactics designed to convince the doctor that the drug being prescribed is safe for uses beyond what the FDA has approved."
Cephalon, which was purchased by Teva Pharmaceuticals in 2011, entered into a five-year “corporate integrity agreement” with the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services. The agreement required Cephalon to notify doctors of the settlement and post payments to doctors on its web site.
Black-market fentanyl
The American appetite for powerful opioids is so great that illegal Chinese labs are now making fentanyl, which is being trafficked into the U.S. by Mexican drug dealers, said Rusty Payne, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Drug dealers are now lacing heroin with fentanyl or selling pure fentanyl to people who assume they’re buying heroin, Payne said. Dealers are also pressing fentanyl into pills and passing them off as OxyContin.
The rise in fentanyl has led to a surge in overdose deaths in cities across the country, Payne said. Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl were responsible for the largest increase in overdose deaths in the country from 2013 to 2014, when the rate climbed from 1 death per 100,000 people to 1.8, according to the CDC. Because medical examiners often fail to test for fentanyl, the number of overdoses is likely undercounted, Payne said.
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eaf0be4a623bf2130c2ff00ad1d8b06e | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/06/29/cia-director-attack-istanbul-airport-has-hallmarks-islamic-state-could-happen-us/86533364/ | CIA director: Attack at Istanbul airport has hallmarks of Islamic State, could happen in U.S. | CIA director: Attack at Istanbul airport has hallmarks of Islamic State, could happen in U.S.
The attack Tuesday night at an international airport in Istanbul reeks of the work of the Islamic State terror group and could happen here in the United States, CIA Director John Brennan said in an interview Wednesday.
The agency official told Yahoo! News in fact that the shooting and bombings at Ataturk Airport that left 41 dead should serve as a warning to the United States.
"I am worried from the standpoint of an intelligence professional who looks at the capabilities of Daesh … and their determination to kill as many as people as possible and to carry out attacks abroad," Brennan said, using a term that is an acronym for Islamic State in Arabic. "I’d be surprised if Daesh is not trying to carry out that kind of attack in the United States."
No one has yet stepped forward to take responsibility for the attack, which erupted after three men stepped out of a taxi at the international terminal, gunfire erupted and at least one blew himself up, officials said.
Brennan told Yahoo! News during an interview at CIA headquarters that he believes Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, will eventually try to penetrate American borders. The suspects who carried out fatal shootings in Orlando and in San Bernardino, Calif., were considered by authorities to be Islamic State sympathizers.
In the attack in Turkey, the alleged perpetrators showed a sense of determination, the CIA director said.
"You look at what happened in the Turkish airport, these were suicide vests," Brennan said. "It’s not that difficult to actually construct and fabricate a suicide vest … so if you have a determined enemy and individuals who are not concerned about escape, that they are going into it with a sense that they are going to die, that really does complicate your strategy in terms of preventing attacks."
Vests outfitted with explosives tend to be a tactic employed by Islamic State, he warned.
The U.S. strategy to weaken Isis is to push Syrian President Bashar Assad out of power, Brennan said, but he conceded that Assad is getting stronger rather than weaker in terms of influence.
“Relative to where he was on the battlefield last year, (Assad) is in a better and stronger position," Brennan told Yahoo! News.
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160e28c666f516fb99dbe1d9acb12a15 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/01/house-bill-1523-struck-down/86587988/ | Judge: HB 1523 violates religious neutrality, equal protection | Judge: HB 1523 violates religious neutrality, equal protection
Read full decision at bottom of story.
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves struck down religious objections House Bill 1523 in its entirety late Thursday night, right before the law was planned to go into effect Friday after midnight.
In his 60-page ruling, Reeves wrote that, through HB 1523, the state grants privileges to people who hold certain moral convictions which “violates both the guarantee of religious neutrality and the promise of equal protection of the laws."
The order came days after Reeves blocked part of the bill on Monday, when he issued an injunction barring Mississippi from denying same-sex marriage licenses.
Gov. Phil Bryant responded to the ruling Friday morning, saying he was "disappointed" and looked forward to an "aggressive appeal."
"Like I said when I signed House Bill 1523, the law simply provides religious accommodations granted by many other states and federal law," Bryant said. "I am disappointed Judge Reeves did not recognize that reality. I look forward to an aggressive appeal."
Knol Aust, chairman of Unity Mississippi, spoke against Bryant's planned appeal, saying that it "will further damage our state's financial health and our state's image in the national spotlight."
The following is an excerpt from a statement issued by Miss. Attorney General Jim Hood on Judge Reeves' ruling regarding HB 1523:
“I can't pick my clients, but I can speak for myself as a named defendant in this lawsuit. The fact is that the churchgoing public was duped into believing that HB1523 protected religious freedoms. Our state leaders attempted to mislead pastors into believing that if this bill were not passed, they would have to preside over gay wedding ceremonies. No court case has ever said a pastor did not have discretion to refuse to marry any couple for any reason. I hate to see politicians continue to prey on people who pray, go to church, follow the law and help their fellow man."
Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, the Washington, D.C.-based organization that gave Gov. Bryant its Samuel Adams Religious Freedom Award for signing HB 1523 into law, blasted Reeves' decision.
"While Judge Reeves issued his decree under the cloak of darkness last night, the judge's religious animus against the people of Mississippi is clear as day," said Perkins, "Under this judge's reasoning, any narrowly tailored conscience or religious freedom protections against government persecution would be invalid."
Speaker of the House Phillip Gunn also expressed his disappointment in the ruling.
"I am disappointed in Judge Reeves' ruling on House Bill 1523," Gunn said. "We felt like this was a good bill that focused on protecting religious beliefs, while also protecting the rights of the LGBT community."
The Human Rights Campaign issued a press release Friday morning, saying they "lauded U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves’ decision to block the implementation of Mississippi’s discriminatory and harmful H.B. 1523“
"This legislation was rooted in hate, it targeted the LGBTQ community and it was a deliberate attempt to undermine marriage equality and the dignity of LGBTQ Mississippians who lawmakers have sworn to serve and protect,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “We will continue our fight to ensure that H.B. 1523 is repealed in its entirety.”
“We are glad to see that Judge Carlton Reeves has made clear what we already knew: H.B. 1523 is indefensible, both morally and legally,” said Rob Hill, Mississippi state director for HRC. “For months, Mississippians, the business community, faith leaders and countless others have made clear their opposition to this harmful bill, and we are pleased to see it will not go into effect this week. We will continue to look toward a full repeal of the law, and pursue comprehensive legal protections for all LGBTQ Mississippians.”
When it was signed into law in April by Governor Phil Bryant, HB 1523 aimed to allow clerks to cite religious objections so that they could recuse themselves from granting same-sex couples marriage licenses. In addition, the law incorporated three beliefs that businesses could cite in order to refuse service to clients. The three beliefs included the following: that marriage should only be between one man and one woman, that sexual intercourse should only happen in such a marriage and that one’s gender is assigned at birth and cannot be changed.
The controversial bill, seen by many as discriminatory toward the LGBT community, sparked outrage from numerous organizations, celebrities, and politicians and prompted several states and major cities to ban official travel to Mississippi in protest.
The ACLU of Mississippi celebrated Reeves' decision.
“We are thrilled that Judge Reeves ruled on the right side of history in striking down House Bill 1523 and congratulate our allies who brought these cases," ACLU of Mississippi Executive Director Jennifer Riley-Collins said. "It is a huge victory for the state of Mississippi and the nation. The federal ruling clearly states that HB 1523 is unconstitutional, and now this discriminatory law that unfairly targeted LGBT people will not go into effect. One religious view of marriage should not preclude all others or federal law."
Riley-Collins said the fight for equal rights for the LGBT community will continue.
"While we celebrate this win in the short term, the battle continues to secure full equal rights for LGBT people," she said. "The ACLU of Mississippi will continue to stand firmly against discrimination and in solidarity with the LGBT community. We remain vigilant in the fight for equality and justice for all.”
Friday morning, HRC held a rally on the Capitol steps that drew about 20 people. They were joined by the ACLU, the NAACP, the Mississippi Center for Justice and the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, and a few of the individual plaintiffs in the lawsuit against HB 1523. Before the rally began, attendants shared their joy over Reeves' late night ruling and waved LGBT Pride flags.
"I knew it was gonna happen," said Charlene Smith-Smathers, of Terry, about the ruling, "We've got the power by God, and they aren't gonna take it from us."
Mississippi Human Rights Campaign Director Rob Hill described Reeves' ruling as a "victory," but keeping in mind that Gov. Bryant spoke of a potential appeal to Reeves' order, Hill assured those present that any attempted resurrection of HB1523 would be fought vigorously.
"We are pleased to not see it go into effect today," said Hill, "We will continue though to look forward and work for full repeal of HB 1523 and pursue comprehensive legal protections for all LBTQ Mississippians."
At the end of the rally, Hill led those in attendance in a rally cry, chanting, "No hate in my state."
Reeves' ruling marks the third consecutive victory for attorney Roberta Kaplan, who represented the Campaign for Southern Equality in one of the lawsuits against HB 1523. Previously, Kaplan successfully challenged Mississippi's same-sex marriage ban in late 2014 and the state's ban on adoption by same-sex couples earlier this year.
This story is developing and will be updated throughout the day.
Contact Royce Swayze at 601-961-7240 or rswayze@gannett.com. Follow @royce_swayze on Twitter.
Contact Sarah Fowler at sfowler@gannett.com or 601-961-7303. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
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5e90923eb4b9a13573aba3e02f381da7 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/05/more-than-60-shot-chicago-over-july-4th-weekend/86707218/ | More than 60 shot in Chicago over July 4th weekend | More than 60 shot in Chicago over July 4th weekend
CHICAGO — At least 64 people were shot in the nation’s third largest city over the Independence Day weekend, including four people who were fatally wounded.
The grim violence in Chicago, which has recorded 329 homicides already this year, continued despite stepped up street patrols by the Chicago Police Department and the arrest of 88 gang members in two of the city’s most violent neighborhoods ahead of the holiday weekend.
Chicago, which has tallied more homicides than New York and Los Angeles combined so far this year, tallied fewer gun violence fatalities during this holiday weekend compared to previous years. Last year, police reported 10 killed and 55 wounded during the July 4 weekend, and 16 were killed and 66 were wounded in 2014.
As of early Monday night, three people had been killed and 36 others had been injured, leading Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson to express guarded optimism that the city would see a marked decline in violence for the holiday weekend, historically among the most violent in Chicago.
But following Johnson’s comments, there were more than two dozen shooting incidents late Monday and early Tuesday, mostly on the city’s South and West sides where patrols had been stepped up.
“It’s another example of the fact that we have too many guns on the streets of Chicago and too many people willing to use them,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday.
Chicago Police announce arrests in slayings of six family members
The homicide victims included a man in his 30s who police found shot in his abdomen, another man who was found shot dead in a lot across the street from an elementary school and a 31-year-old man who was killed outside his father’s auto shop. The wounded included a 5-year-old girl and her 8-year-old cousin, who were each shot in the leg as they played with sparklers Monday night, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Chicago records 51 homicides in January, highest toll since 2000
The city tallied 72 homicides for June, and homicides were up nearly 50% for the first half of 2016 compared to the same period last year. The city is on pace to record well over 600 homicides for the year, a bleak yardstick that Chicago last surpassed in 2003.
Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel have blamed lax laws that allow gang members, who are responsible for the bulk of the gun violence, to return to the streets relatively quickly.
In addition to the four people killed in gun violence over the holiday weekend, a fifth person was stabbed to death in the city in what police say was a domestic dispute.
Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter @AamerISmad
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d48da7e6ca79f4e41103f880b29e0266 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/05/trump-atlantic-city-usa-today-network-records-regulators/86717110/ | Trump casino empire dogged by bad bets in Atlantic City | Trump casino empire dogged by bad bets in Atlantic City
ATLANTIC CITY – Donald Trump often boasts he made a lot of money in Atlantic City, despite the repeated failures of his casinos there, but what he does not mention is his casino empire’s repeated run-ins with government regulators over broken promises and violating casino rules.
“The record before us is laced with hyperbole, contradictions and generalities,” then New Jersey Casino Control Commission member Valerie Armstrong said in a 1988 hearing over Trump’s bid to take over Atlantic City’s Taj Mahal. Inconsistencies in Trump’s testimony, Armstrong said, “make it difficult to evaluate adequately the licensee’s fitness for licensure.”
As Hillary Clinton is set to speak Wednesday in Atlantic City about the financial background of Trump’s casinos, records gathered over four months by the USA TODAY Network shine light on an era marked by battles with regulators who often doubted statements by Trump, yet allowed him to keep operating. The review also found Trump’s casinos repeatedly broke state rules, leading to more than a million dollars in fines. The most egregious rule-breaking centered on the casinos’ illicit efforts to cater to high-rollers and last-ditch maneuvers to stave off the financial collapse ahead.
Despite his troubles in New Jersey, Trump eagerly sought to become an international casino mogul, adding an Indiana riverboat and trying to open more casinos in states including Nevada, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Missouri and countries like Canada and New Zealand.
All of this generated a trail of legal paperwork across the country. There are transcripts from days of hearings during which state regulators scrutinized his promises, his finances and his New Jersey casinos’ track record for following the rules. Among the violations: discrimination against employees, illicit gifts to gamblers and an illegal loan from his father.
Exclusive: Trump's 3,500 lawsuits unprecedented for a presidential nominee
New Jersey’s rulings on the casino violations did not implicate Trump personally. Trump’s campaign did not respond to repeated requests for comment over the last two weeks, including an e-mailed list of specific questions.
Beyond the violations, records show Trump repeatedly perplexed state regulators as they pressed him for specifics. He reneged on promises to casino authorities in New Jersey and Indiana. And, as his Atlantic City casinos cycled through multiple bankruptcies, records show some casino regulators in other states were skeptical about his expansion plans.
Trump’s testimony before agencies in four states reveals a figure familiar to the world today: a media-savvy entrepreneur with a taste for luxury and unwavering confidence in his brand.
"There’s a certain impetuousness that he displayed which is public,” said Brian Spector, an attorney who worked for Trump’s casinos. “He wanted his name attached to things that he acquired; he felt his name had an intrinsic value that went beyond the raw value of things. “
In 1986, when Trump was seeking a renewed license for Trump’s Castle, New Jersey commissioners blasted his team for “numerous direct and sharp conflicts” in their testimony.
Standing in the way was Trump’s resistance to fund road improvements, an obligation passed on from the casino’s previous owners. Trump said he had not fully understood the commitment and sued to void it. Over seven days of hearings, the Casino Control Commission and its lawyers attempted to straighten out what Trump knew. “As far as I’m concerned, somebody’s not telling the truth,” commissioner E. Kenneth Burdge said.
Trump backed out of another pledge to the state before the Taj Mahal opened in 1990. Construction vendors were not getting paid and the casino, then owned by Resorts International, was over-budget and behind schedule. Trump pushed to take over, saying he needed full control to get prime financing instead of high-interest, high-risk junk bonds.
“The rates are so high on the junk bonds that they make the company – (a company) that could have been a very good company – they make them junk,” Trump told the state commission at a Feb. 8, 1988, hearing. “So, it’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy almost.”
Trump’s testimony sold himself as a skilled manager who could achieve deals where others failed and get banks to offer better financing. “I mean, the banks call me all the time. It’s easier to finance if Donald Trump owns it.”
Then Trump financed the Taj with exactly what he promised he would not: $675 million in junk bonds at 14% interest, bankruptcy records show.
The Taj missed its first interest payment in 1990. Eleven months later, the casino filed for bankruptcy and Trump gave up 50% of his ownership to bondholders in the restructuring deal.
In December 1990, as Trump’s Castle teetered toward missing an $18 million debt payment, the mogul’s father, Fred C. Trump, illegally loaned the casino $3.5 million by sending an attorney to buy gambling chips that were never used, according to state records. The family bailout broke state law because casino loans must follow strict procedures and come from approved financial sources. Trump’s father was not an approved source.
"We know that the people involved are not just the average run of the mill employees in the house," casino commission member Armstrong said at a 1991 hearing when the state decided to fine the casino $65,000, complaining the identities of some involved were kept secret. “This was something which happened, we know happened that was deliberate, people did it, people planned it, they carried it out and we still don’t know who those people are.”
Trump's Castle and Trump Plaza separately filed for bankruptcy in 1992. The casinos eventually reorganized under Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts and filed again for bankruptcy in 2004 and then reorganized as Trump Entertainment Resorts and filed again for bankruptcy in 2009. Over the years, Trump’s stake in the casinos dropped to 10% before they were either sold or closed. In all, Trump’s Atlantic City casino properties filed for bankruptcy protection five times.
“Seven years ago, I left Atlantic City before it totally cratered,” Trump said in the first GOP debate in August. “And I made a lot of money in Atlantic City. And I’m very proud of it.”
Casino patron Robert Libutti was known for temper tantrums. He’d chuck dice into chandeliers and at security booths, and throw game chips on the casino floor. One state regulator called him “the most obnoxious, abusive persons that we have had in this town,” state records show. Libutti, who died in 2014, was later banned by the state from all Jersey casinos over alleged ties to organized crime. But the premium player gambled thousands at a time and Trump Plaza responded by catering to his desires, even if that meant breaking the law.
State regulators in 1991 found pit bosses at Trump Plaza discriminated against black and female employees by removing them from craps games when Libutti played because they thought he disliked black and female dealers. The casino was fined $200,000 for discrimination.
The Casino Control Commission said while the Plaza had no formal discriminatory policy in place, some lower-level managers reassigned workers based on their race and gender.
“They were more like unwritten rules and regulations and a lot of things that were going on, that were said, were only done to appease customers,” said Newton Brown III, a black worker who told investigators in 1990 that he was reassigned at least five times when Libutti was in the casino.
Spector, an attorney who represented Trump’s casinos then, said an administrative law judge recommended throwing out the discrimination charge, but casino commissioners reversed the decision. State records indicate the practice at Trump Plaza went on for two years.
Employee Cathy Carlino testified at one state hearing that Libutti “started cursing, screaming, banging the table, ‘I don’t want no (expletive) woman here. I don’t need these (expletive) in my game. I told you people before. Get her out of here. Why are you doing this to me?’”
“There are, or ought to be, certain things that a casino hotel cannot sell or provide to a customer in order to assure his continued patronage,” then casino commissioner Steven Perskie said. “These things include honor and decency and simple human courtesy and an unwavering commitment to statutory obligations, including the law against discrimination.”
In November 1991, state regulators again hit Trump’s Atlantic City casinos with fines for catering to Libutti by giving him nine luxury cars – three Ferraris, three Rolls Royce, a Mercedes and two Bentleys – some of which were resold immediately by the leadership. That let him get cash instead of the cars, records show, which violated state law at the time. The deputy attorney general who investigated the case testified Trump’s casino concocted the scheme to keep Libutti’s business.
Trump’s Castle also masked illegal rebates as airfare at least seven times for another customer, according to state records. The casino called the payments “airfare reimbursements,” but amounts were as high as $25,000, far exceeding the cost of a flight to the gambler's home in the Philippines.
"It's really quite startling in the casino industry for a casino to put in a blatantly phony document to justify giving cash to a customer," said I. Nelson Rose, who regularly was called as an expert witness by casinos and the government in gambling cases. Rose called the practice “open fraud.”
The casino was fined $176,000 and employees, including two vice presidents, were fined $53,000 for 23 violations.
The past was a topic for other states where he tried to expand.
Trump went before Nevada gambling regulators in 2004, seeking permission for his Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts to run a Vegas casino. He brushed off his early struggles in Atlantic City, assuring Nevada commissioners the market was improving and Trump casinos in particular were doing well. “I’ve become very much involved in the company over the last six months, and generally, when I get involved in a company, historically they work," he said.
That fall, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts went bankrupt. Trump never opened a Nevada casino.
In 2006, he was telling his story again in Pennsylvania, asking to open a casino in Philadelphia.
USA TODAY exclusive: Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn’t pay his bills
“The Trump brand has just come out and has been considered the No. 1 brand anywhere in the world and in the shortest period of time,” Trump told the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. “We want to take that brand, and we want to take great construction, we want to take a fantastic site and a very important site and a site that is going to do something for a neighborhood that nobody else can compete with.”
Pennsylvania said no. The casino board found no evidence that Trump’s Keystone Redevelopment Partners would bring millions of dollars, jobs and business and was “not convinced that the Trump name would overcome the significant disadvantages of the site,” Pennsylvania records show.
Trump’s Keystone mounted two legal challenges when a competitor that got the license struggled to open and eventually went bankrupt. A state court rejected one Trump case, and a federal judge dismissed another.
Among the last of Trump’s approximately 1,800 casino lawsuits were his fight to get the Trump name taken off the Plaza and Taj Mahal in 2014, when he no longer controlled the casinos.
He left an impression in Atlantic City, though.
Trump is a brand “and he promotes his brand,” said New Jersey state senator Jim Whelan, who was Atlantic City’s mayor in the 1990s. “That’s what he does now, with over-the-top pronouncements and saying outlandish things.”
Exclusive: Trump's 3,500 lawsuits unprecedented for a presidential nominee
USA TODAY exclusive: Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn't pay his bills
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Trump and the Law
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2cc8466b320aadd0f001f26deb9973f6 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/09/hillary-clinton-offers-health-care-proposal-sought-bernie-sanders/86894032/ | Hillary Clinton offers health care proposal sought by Bernie Sanders | Hillary Clinton offers health care proposal sought by Bernie Sanders
WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton on Saturday announced her plan to expand investments in community health care centers, the second of two proposals in a week apparently aimed at courting supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders ahead of his possible endorsement.
The presumptive Democratic nominee's proposal would double funding for primary care services at Federally Qualified Health Centers, which serve populations with limited access to health care. Community health care centers have been a key priority for Sanders, I-Vt., who successfully fought for the inclusion of $11 billion in funding for such centers in the Affordable Care Act of 2010.
Clinton also affirmed her commitment to giving Americans in every state the choice of a "public-option" insurance plan — which she supported during her 2008 presidential campaign and Sanders pushed for during the ACA debate — and allowing people below Medicare age to opt into the programby offering it to those who are 55 and older.
An hour after her health care announcement, Clinton's campaign announced firm details about her Tuesday campaign event in Portsmouth, N.H., where Sanders is expected to endorse his primary campaign rival. The announcement does not mention Sanders.
"We have more work to do to finish our long fight to provide universal, quality, affordable health care to everyone in America," Clinton said in a statement. "Already, the Affordable Care Act has expanded coverage to 20 million Americans. As president, I will make sure Republicans never succeed in their attempts to strip away their care and that the remaining uninsured should be able to get the affordable coverage they need to stay healthy."
Sanders, in a press call timed 15 minutes after Clinton's announcement, said the proposal by Clinton — "working with our campaign" — is an important step forward in expanding access to health care and addressing a crisis in primary health care.
"It will save lives, it will ease suffering, it will improve health care in America and it will cut health care costs," he said. "It is a significant step forward as we advance toward the goal of health care for for all Americans."
The announcement follows a higher education proposal Clinton released Wednesday that Sanders called a “bold initiative” to “revolutionize the funding of higher education in America.” That proposal is designed to eliminate college tuition for working families and reduce debt.
Bernie Sanders applauds Hillary Clinton's education plan
Sanders was asked if he is now in a position to endorse Clinton.
"It’s fair to say that the Clinton campaign and our campaign are coming closer and closer together in trying to address the major issues facing this country, which is what my campaign was all about, and we look forward to continue working with the Clinton campaign and will have more to say in the very near future," he said.
Reports: Sanders likely to endorse Clinton Tuesday
Sanders has long called for a "Medicare-for-all" proposal that would grant all Americans access to health care through a single-payer national program. During the primary campaign, Clinton questioned how he'd pay for his proposal and said she wants to defend and build on the progress made by the Affordable Care Act. She accused him during a debate of wanting to "tear (the ACA) up and start over again," a claim he rejected.
Her proposal Saturday would extend the current mandatory funding for community health centers and expand it by $40 billion over the next 10 years. A Clinton campaign official said the proposal would be fully paid for with savings, innovations and tax reform that closes loopholes and "makes the wealthiest pay their fair share."
Community health centers provide care for about 25 million people in the United States, more than half of whom are Hispanic or African Americans, according to the Clinton campaign. Sanders said the centers offer savings to the overall health care system of $49 billion a year, and access to health care when people need it avoids costly illnesses, hospital stays and trips to the emergency room.
"These are good investments for patients and these are very good investments for taxpayers," he said. He said Clinton's efforts to provide Americans with the choice of a public-option insurance plan and to expand Medicare "will get us closer to the day when everyone in America has access to quality, affordable health care.”
Clinton's announcement came on a day when Democrats in Orlando were finalizing the party platform they will bring to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia later this month.
The 187-member Platform Committee voted down an amendment by a Sanders supporter that would have blocked a vote in Congress on the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed 12-nation trade pact that Sanders says will hurt U.S. workers and the environment. But they approved an amendment by a Clinton representative that, without explicitly opposing the TPP, says that Democrats will oppose trade agreements that do not support good American jobs, raise wages and improve national security.
Platform language aimed at blocking the TPP was a top priority for Sanders. Warren Gunnels, Sanders' policy director, said the campaign is "very disappointed" that the Sanders-backed amendment failed, but he said it's "good news" that virtually everyone who spoke during the debate made it clear they oppose the TPP.
"Sen. Sanders, Sec. Clinton and the overwhelming majority of Democrats agree: the TPP should not come up for a vote after the election," Gunnels said in a statement. "If Democrats are going to prevail in November we must make clear to the American people that we stand firmly against the TPP. We will continue fighting to protect American jobs and to ensure Congress does not pass this disastrous trade agreement."
Sanders has said he is prepared to bring amendments to the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia if the party doesn’t take more progressive stances in its platform. A convention floor fight seems unlikely now, given his confirmation that he is preparing to endorse Clinton.
Sanders seeks platform changes before possible Clinton endorsement
Follow @ngaudiano on Twitter.
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681482a06fc1fb0267fa2675e08c3f5d | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/13/cdc-olympics-unlikely-spread-zika-worldwide/87025336/ | CDC: Olympics unlikely to spread Zika worldwide | CDC: Olympics unlikely to spread Zika worldwide
The 2016 Olympics are highly unlikely to spread Zika worldwide, federal officials said, noting that the 500,000 people expected to travel to Brazil for the August games account for less than 1% of all international travel to Zika-affected areas.
Visitors to Brazil will have a relatively low risk of contracting the mosquito-borne illness because the Olympics will take place during winter in the Southern Hemisphere, according to a new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Paralympic Games will be held in September, when the weather in Brazil also remains cooler and dryer.
Only 19 of the more than 200 countries whose citizens are expected to visit Brazil for the Olympics are vulnerable to Zika outbreaks related to travel to the games, according to the CDC. That's because those countries don't yet have Zika outbreaks, but have climates and mosquito populations that could allow the virus to spread. But because most of those countries already have so much travel to Zika-affected regions, the slight increase in travel to Brazil for the Olympics won't dramatically affect their risk.
Only four countries — Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea and Yemen — have a major risk of Olympics-related Zika outbreaks, according to the CDC. That's because the Olympics will represent the only major travel from those countries to a Zika-infected area. The four nations are expected to send a total of 19 athletes to Rio, who will be accompanied by delegations of 60 additional people.
More than 200 health experts have called for the Olympic games to be canceled because of the risk of Zika spreading worldwide. Brazilian health officials estimate that up to 1.5 million people in that country have been infected with the virus, which can cause devastating birth defects in babies infected while in the womb.
The World Health Organization concluded the Olympics doesn't pose a major risk of spreading Zika.
The CDC continues to warn pregnant women to avoid traveling to Zika-affected areas, including Brazil, because of the risk that the virus will harm their fetuses. Zika can cause devastating brain damage to fetuses, including a condition called microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small skulls and, in most cases, incomplete brain development.
All visitors to the Olympics Games should take steps to prevent mosquito bites, both during their trip and for three weeks after they return home, according to the CDC. Although returning travelers may not feel sick, it's possible they could still be infected with Zika and therefore able to spread the virus to mosquitoes in their home countries. Those mosquitoes could then incubate the virus and begin spreading it to others.
The CDC also cautions people who visit Brazil to take steps to avoid contracting the disease sexually. Men infected with Zika can spread the virus to their sexual partners. It's not known if infected women can spread the disease through sex.
More than 1,100 travel-related Zika cases have been diagnosed in the continental U.S., including 320 cases in pregnant women, according to the CDC.
In Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories, where Zika is spreading among local mosquitoes, doctors have diagnosed 2,534 cases of Zika, including 279 in pregnant women.
The actual number of Zika cases could be much higher. That's because only about 20% of people infected with the virus develop symptoms, which include a rash, fever, joint pain and pink eye.
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b40702dfb1f64516c0ddc1a4d1d4151b | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/18/faa-lifts-flight-restrictions-turkey/87256296/ | FAA lifts flight restrictions to Turkey | FAA lifts flight restrictions to Turkey
The Federal Aviation Administration lifted its restrictions on flights to and from Turkey at 1:45 p.m. Monday.
The FAA had suspended flights on Saturday, one day after an attempted coup rocked the NATO member critical U.S. ally. The FAA occasionally puts restrictions on flights out of safety concerns, such as where military fighting could endanger flights.
But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan thwarted the attempt by the military to overthrow the government. U.S. military flights against the Islamic State resumed Sunday out of the Incirlik air base in Turkey.
The FAA had earlier halted flights to and from Istanbul's Ataturk Airport in June after a bombing at the airport. At least 41 people died and dozens more were injured June 28 when three Islamic State terrorists blew themselves up at the airport.
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aa1f2e4647b57e8478806dc49c765ace | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/20/two-men-allegedly-framed-murder-chicago-cop-released/87343304/ | After 23 years, judge throws out murder conviction for men allegedly framed by Chicago cop | After 23 years, judge throws out murder conviction for men allegedly framed by Chicago cop
CHICAGO — Prosecutors on Wednesday dropped murder charges against two men who spent more than 23 years in prison, but have long insisted they were framed by a Chicago police detective who is at the center of several wrongful conviction probes.
Jose Montanez, 49, and Armando Serrano, 44, were able to walk out of separate Illinois prisons on Wednesday afternoon, just hours after Judge LeRoy Martin agreed to the prosecutor's office request to vacate their convictions for the 1993 murder of Rodrigo Vargas, slain in what authorities said was an armed robbery. Their freedom came more than a decade after the prosecution's star witness recanted his testimony.
The move by the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez comes after a state appellate court ruling issued last month found that "profoundly alarming acts of misconduct in the underlying investigation and prosecution" led to the men's convictions.
It was an about face for Alvarez, who initially resisted a recommendation issued last year by former federal prosecutor Scott Lassar that the prosecutor reopen six cases, including the murder convictions of Montanez and Serrano, that were investigated by police detective Reynaldo Guevara. The cop, who retired more than a decade ago, has faced dozens of allegations of framing or beating confessions out of suspects during his time as a detective in a predominantly Latino neighborhood on the city’s Northwest Side. Lassar’s firm, Sidley Austin, was commissioned by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office to review the allegations.
“Anita Alvarez has indicated a new direction with these Guevara cases,” said Russell Ainsworth, an attorney with the University of Chicago’s Exoneration Project who represented Montanez. “We are now no longer viewing these men as murderers but as the innocent men that they are. Their cases need to be reexamined. There are dozens and dozens of people who are innocent and currently incarcerated because of Detective Guevara’s conduct.”
Facing the prospect of a retrial, Alvarez's office said in a statement that prosecutors "determined that we are unable to meet our burden of proof at this time, so we believe that it is in the best interests of justice to dismiss this case."
Court backs pension for officer accused of torture
The lynchpin of the prosecution of Montanez and Serrano was the testimony of Francisco Vincente, a heroin addict who was facing a long prison sentence on a half-dozen felony charges.
Vincente testified at Montanez and Serrano’s trial that the two men had confessed to the murder. But more than a decade after they were convicted, Vincente recanted his testimony in a sworn statement to journalism students at Northwestern University, saying that he made a false statement to win a lighter sentence. He also reportedly told the journalism students that Guevara brokered the deal and had given him cash and cigarettes for his cooperation.
Two other murder cases involving Guevara have also been overturned. The detective retired more than a decade ago and had refused to testify in Montanez’s and Serrano’s appeals.
In 2009, a federal jury awarded Juan Johnson $21 million after concluding that Guevara intimidated witnesses into implicating Johnson for a 1989 murder outside of a nightclub. Johnson spent 11 years in prison before being acquitted in a retrial.
Days after police-involved shootings, protests continue
The second case Guevara investigated that was later overturned involved Jacques Rivera, who served 20 years in prison for the 1988 shooting death of a teenager in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. The state’s attorney’s office dropped the case after the sole witness, a 13-year-old boy, recanted. Rivera in a civil lawsuit accused Guevara and other officers of pressuring the witness to falsely identify him as the gunman in the killing.
“I hate what he (Guevara) did and I hate what other corrupt officers do, because they destroy families like ours,” said Maria Serrano, the sister of Armando Serrano, after the judge ordered her brother’s release Wednesday. “There are still guys in there that are still going to be suffering until they get freedom . . . I feel like we won’t get full vindication until they are freed as well.”
The image of the Chicago Police Department has been tarnished over the years by allegations of cops torturing and beating suspects. Last year, Emanuel announced a $5.5 million reparations package to victims of rogue police commander Jon Burge, who from the early 1970s to early 1990s has been accused of overseeing the torture and beating of dozens of mostly African-American suspects.
Police brutality cases cost the city more than $500 million in settlements and legal costs over the last decade. The department is now also in the midst of a Justice Department civil rights investigation that was launched last year following the court-ordered release of police video that showed a white police officer shooting an African-American teen, Laquan McDonald, 16 times on a city street.
Alvarez, who announced murder charges against the officer 400 days after the incident, lost a March Democratic primary in which her handling of the McDonald case was the centerpiece of the campaign.
Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter @AamerISmad
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34a1560709eac42ca179dac260f90180 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/23/5-things-you-need-know-weekend/87241984/ | 5 things you need to know this weekend | 5 things you need to know this weekend
Hillary ends the suspense, names Tim Kaine as her VP pick
It took a while but Hillary Clinton finally announced Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate for the Democratic party's ticket on Friday. Kaine, 58, has been high on Clinton's radar because of his extensive governing experience for some time; he is one of just 20 people to have served as a mayor, governor and U.S. senator. Even though he risks exacerbating the divisions in her party, Kaine hopes to deliver the crucial swing state of Virginia that Clinton will need come November. The two are expected to campaign together for the first time Saturday at an appearance in Miami ahead of the Democratic National Convention next week.
Police search for motives behind deadly Munich attack
German authorities are piecing together key details following Friday's fatal shooting rampage at the Bavarian capital that killed at least 9 people and injured 27 others. Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said the suspect, an 18-year-old German-Iranian from Munich, opened fire in a crowded shopping mall and a nearby McDonald’s before killing himself. Police officials later confirmed that the shooter had no connections to the Islamic State or the asylum seeker community. The attack, the third to target civilians in Western Europe in just over a week, follows the deadly assault in Nice and a knife and ax rampage on a train in Bavaria. German Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to meet with her security cabinet on Saturday.
Russia to learn whether its athletes are banned from Rio Olympics
The Summer Games are almost here, but athletic powerhouse Russia could be watching from the sidelines. The International Olympic Committee is expected to rule Sunday on whether to ban all Russian athletes from competing in Rio. The Games begin August 5. The decision comes after the Court of Arbitration for Sport decided Thursday to uphold a ban of the Russian track and field team from this year's Olympics. The entire Russian athletics program is under fire after recent reports of doping across virtually all sports and subsequent cover ups from top officials in the country.
He's baaaaack! NASCAR great Jeff Gordon coming out of retirement
We never thought we'd see him behind the wheel again, but just eight months after an emotional farewell from NASCAR, Jeff Gordon is taking over for a concussed Dale Earnhard Jr. for at least the next two races. Gordon, who for 23 years raced for Hendrick Motorsports and helped make NASCAR a mainstream sport, will take the wheel for the No. 88 car at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway. The winner of four Cup championships, the 44-year-old just happens to be the all-time leader in wins at both Indianapolis (five) and Pocono (six). Follow @jeff_gluck for updates and catch the action Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
Weekend fun arrives at Comic-Con
One of the biggest conventions out there is happening this weekend, and no, we’re not talking about Republicans or Democrats. We’re talking about San Diego Comic-Con, which brings fans, stars and creators from around the world together as Hollywood parades its best nerd-fare. The event, which opened last week with the premiere of Star Trek Beyond, runs through the weekend. Saturday’s events include panels from Warner Bros. (home of DC Comics movies and Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts) and Marvel (home to Iron Man and friends). Past years have seen big trailer debuts, casting announcements and even a concert of Star Wars music. For the latest in nerddery, follow along with USA TODAY all weekend.
And the essentials:
Be inspired: After father flees Iraq, three sons save lives in U.S.
Weekend TV: Wondering what to watch this weekend? TV critic Robert Bianco looks at a Syfy film festival, Looking and The Night Of.
Need a break? Try playing some of our games.
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Contributing: Associated Press
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8ff005f48b70d8f35b55255305cf6893 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/28/man-my-brother-raped-archbishop-apuron/87650568/ | Man: ‘My brother was raped by Archbishop Apuron’ | Man: ‘My brother was raped by Archbishop Apuron’
Strong push for revised bill allowing child sex abuse victims to sue
The younger brother of a man allegedly molested by Archbishop Anthony Apuron told lawmakers Thursday he remembers when his brother, Joseph Anthony “Sonny” Quinata, came home crying.
“Senators, I know my brother was raped by Archbishop Apuron. He was sodomized. He was only 9 years old,” John Michael “Champ” Quinata said as he testified on a bill that would lift the statute of limitations, allowing victims of child sex abuse to sue their alleged perpetrators at any time.
Quinata’s mother, Doris Concepcion, first came forward with abuse allegations against Apuron in May, saying “Sonny” told her, just before he died 11 years ago, that Apuron had molested him in the late 1970s.
Apuron also has been accused of molestation or rape by three other former Agat altar boys — Roy T. Quintanilla, Walter G. Denton and Roland Sondia. Apuron was parish priest at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church at the time of the alleged attacks. The accusers said he assaulted them during sleepovers at the church rectory. Apuron has denied the allegations.
“Pass this bill. Protect the boys and girls and help my brother Sonny, Roy, Roland and Walter, and others like them to go after their abusers and the institutions that protect them or cover for them for their past crimes and to deter any other potential abusers from doing the same,” Champ Quinata said. “Healing cannot begin without justice.”
Former altar boys to Hon: Bring Apuron back to Guam
Champ Quinata said he was 8 years old when Sonny came home one morning, “very upset, angry, in pain and crying,” and “was hurting badly and couldn’t use the bathroom” after spending the night at Apuron’s place in Agat.
That morning, the Quinata brothers made a promise to each other not to reveal to anyone what Apuron had done, he said.
After 38 years, Champ Quinata broke that promise but said he knows that Sonny Quinata is resting well now because his younger brother is speaking on his behalf to seek justice.
Champ Quinata said Apuron raped his older brother more than once.
Apuron accusers urge passage of bill that would lift time limit on molestation lawsuits
Quintanilla and Denton are back in Guam this week to, among other things, testify in support of Sen. Frank Blas Jr.’s Bill 326-33.
Denton, now a resident of Arizona, said Apuron raped him during a sleepover at Apuron’s place in 1977. Quintanilla, now a resident of Hawaii, was the first accuser to come forward, on May 17. He said he was 12 when Apuron sexually abused him during a sleepover at the priest’s house. Sondia, now 54, said Apuron molested him in 1977 in Agat.
“By lifting the statute of limitations, you will allow me and all those who have been raped, molested and sexually abused to feel confident that justice will be served,” Denton told senators.
Champ Quinata said he didn’t know that his brother, before dying in 2005, had revealed the secret to their mother. He only knew about it when Concepcion told her story to the Pacific Daily News, in late May.
After being estranged from each other for a long time, Champ Quinata said he and his mother started talking again when she came back to Guam in June to bring home Sonny’s ashes. Together, they inurned Sonny’s ashes at the Guam Veterans Cemetery.
Apuron said in May that his accusers and their supporters were spreading malicious and calumnious lies, and threatened to sue them.
(Story continues below.)
The Vatican temporarily stripped Apuron of his administrative authority over the Catholic church in Guam and sent Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai to manage the local archdiocese.
Apuron is not charged with any crime, and the statute of limitations in place at the time of the alleged assaults prevents criminal prosecution. Hon and other local church officials have said they didn’t know where Apuron is right now, but that information about the allegations has been forwarded to the Vatican.
Hon retracts Apuron statements, says church should assume any abuse allegation is serious
On July 1, Denton, Sondia, Quintanilla and Concepcion, through their attorney David Lujan, filed a $2 million libel and slander lawsuit against Apuron, the Archdiocese of Agana and up to 50 other individuals for calling them liars when they publicly accused Apuron of sexual abuse.
That lawsuit was amended last Friday to include Hon as defendant, among other things. On Wednesday, Hon retracted and recanted all of Apuron’s statements and said he wants to meet the accusers.
Quintanilla told senators lifting the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse civil cases will encourage and allow victims to come forward to seek and receive justice and closure for their pain and suffering.
“Please do the right thing and lift the time limit on when victims of child sexual abuse may pursue and seek justice and closure,” Quintanilla said.
Sondia said it is difficult as it is to come forward after being sexually abused, let alone having to fight institutional heavyweights just to get a day in court.
“We pray and hope that upon the passage and signing of this bill, other victims will come forward so that they can begin the long road towards healing and recovery,” he said.
All others who testified, including Tim Rohr, Annabelle Cruz, Concerned Catholics of Guam president David Sablan, Mary Lou Garcia Pereda, Andrew Camacho, Gerald Taitano and a few others, also supported the bill’s passage. The public hearing on the bill continues on Monday at 10 a.m.
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89326eebf7d4fe2ce8f1b5b476166dea | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/30/concussions-remain-concern-kids-sports/87716176/ | Concussions remain a concern in kids' sports | Concussions remain a concern in kids' sports
Ready to share carpool duty and spend weekends in the stands watching your athlete? Wait. Before you sign your child up for intense practices, body slams and end zone victory dances, you should know how contact sports can affect your child’s future. We’re not talking just about college scholarships or pro contracts, but potential brain damage.
Mark Cupp, a youth sports coach and father of three in Corona, Calif., knows firsthand how scary it is dealing with the aftermath of a head injury. After his 13-year-old son finished playing his last season of Pop Warner football, he started complaining of headaches, dizzy spells and trouble keeping his balance. Cupp was surprised when the doctor diagnosed his son with post-concussive syndrome.
“There wasn’t one big hit that we can say caused it,” says Cupp. “And the symptoms didn’t start until two months after his last game.”
His son spent the following four months in rehabilitative therapy. “He would wake up and feel foggy. That’s not a safe feeling, and you wouldn’t want your kid to feel like that,” says Cupp. “It kind of breaks your heart.”
Why there’s increasing worry
The long-term effects of concussions were the subject of the movie Concussion, starring Will Smith as pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, who discovers a connection between brain damage and the repeated concussions suffered by NFL players. And the Esquire Network’s reality show Friday Night Tykes centered on the uber-competitive youth football culture in Texas. However, it’s not just pop culture that’s creating concern among parents whose kids play sports.
The recent deaths of NFL players Junior Seau, 43, and Tyler Sash, 27, who were found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disease caused by hits to the head, similar to Alzheimer’s disease, dealt a blow to the football world. Recently, several players have decided to retire early, citing concerns about the impact of football collisions.
Fear of sports-related brain damage isn’t confined to football. Other professional athletes, such as mixed martial arts fighters as well as hockey and soccer players, have found cause for concern. U.S. soccer star Brandi Chastain is leading the Safer Soccer Initiative, a campaign aimed at youth sports hoping to eliminate the practice of making head contact with the ball — a move that accounts for one-third of concussions in youth soccer. Both Chastain and Abby Wambach, a soccer champion who suffered a concussion after heading a ball during a World Cup game, announced they will be donating their brains to researchers looking at how head injuries affect brain health.
Now, a new study by Boston University School of Medicine indicates that youth who have repeated blows to the head (in this case by playing tackle football before the age of 12) may be more likely to develop CTE, which has been shown to lead to a loss of cognitive function for NFL players and boxers years or decades after they’ve retired.
“It used to be thought that young brains had exceptional healing ability. Turns out, young brains probably damage exceptionally easily,” says Steven Miles, professor of medicine and bioethics at the University of Minnesota.
For girls, the risk is doubled, according to a 2011 study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine that evaluated concussion data for athletes in 25 high schools over an 11-year period. It found that girls had about twice the chance of getting a concussion as boys in the same or similar sport (baseball, softball, basketball, soccer). In fact, girls soccer had the second highest rate of concussions overall, ranking just below football.
What schools are doing
In response to mounting evidence that concussions have the potential to cause long-term damage and have a devastating effect on young brains, every state in the U.S. plus Washington, D.C., has passed a “return to play” law, which varies in stringency by state and aims to reduce youth sports concussions.
The law includes rules calling for immediate removal of injured athletes from play, prohibiting same-day activity after a suspected concussion and requiring a doctor’s clearance to return.
Some states also require that awareness materials be provided to kids and their parents, that coaches complete concussion trainings; and in some cases, that athletes undergo baseline testing at the start of the season so, if injured, they can be more accurately assessed.
How to protect your child
Whether you’re considering a new activity for your child or are already a part of a sport squad, you can reduce the likelihood of your child experiencing a head injury.
Ask school officials or the coach what measures are taken to protect athletes.
Also, “parents should look for noncontact sports, especially for children at a younger age,” advises Keith Smith, former cornerback for the NFL’s Detroit Lions and owner of an i9 Sports youth league in the Atlanta area. “Let them develop the skills without the tackling and head-butts.”
But while concussions are a serious problem, don’t let your apprehension sideline your child. Playing sports can help kids stay fit, build character and develop social skills.
“All my life I played sports and I’ve learned so much — how to work hard, how to work with others,” shares Smith. “Everything you do on the field relates to going to the classroom and to working in a job.”
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dbed1ee97867ed68a3e00490ba99344b | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/30/schools-nurture-students-agriculture-interests/87701400/ | Schools nurture students’ agriculture interests | Schools nurture students’ agriculture interests
A dozen students in Meagan Slates’ plant sciences class at Penn Manor High School in Millersville, Pa., cluster in small groups in the school’s greenhouse. In a previous class, they’d trimmed the meristems of coleus plants, and now they’re measuring new growth with rulers. The coleus are among the few plants in the greenhouse after the school’s annual plant sale, but a week earlier, it had been teeming with flowers, vegetables and bedding plants that the students had grown themselves.
“They started at the beginning of the semester planting seeds, transplanted things into different containers and grew them for our plant sale,” says Slates. “They got a feel for how a greenhouse would run.”
Learning by doing is the norm rather than the exception in Penn Manor’s Agriculture Education program.
This hands-on learning approach, plus the opportunity to use state-of-the-art equipment and technology, are big reasons Penn Manor’s program has become increasingly popular.
Many elementary, middle and secondary schools are integrating some form of farming or gardening into their classrooms and cafeterias. The chance to connect kids more closely with science, technology, engineering and mathematics — disciplines known as STEM — and other educational concepts as well as to the food they eat is among the reasons why.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2015 Farm to School Census surveyed more than 42,500 schools in 5,254 districts nationwide. Forty-two percent of those districts reported participating in some farm-to-school activities, such as school gardens, local-food sourcing for students’ meals or curriculum integration.
The roughly 200 students in Penn Manor’s Ag-Ed program also belong to its chapter of the National FFA Organization (formerly Future Farmers of America). While Penn Manor’s and FFA’s goals are to raise the next generation of farmers — the average age of American farmers is 58 years old, and getting older, according to the USDA’s 2012 Census of Agriculture — the field of agriculture affords more than just one career path.
“We try to advertise agriculture education as not just farming,” says Neil Fellenbaum, a teacher in Penn Manor’s Ag-Ed program. “When most people hear the word ‘agriculture,’ they think we’re all going to be farmers, growing and harvesting crops. But agriculture is much, much more than that.”
Agriculture offers a hands-on way to study STEM, and provides an avenue to hundreds of potential careers in biology, chemistry, veterinary science, environmental policy, food science and nutrition, entrepreneurship and more. And the job sector is growing. A recent study by Purdue University estimates about 57,900 new jobs in agriculture- and environmental-related fields will open annually between 2015 and 2020. Right now, thousands of these positions go unfilled.
At Schurz High School, in northwest Chicago’s Old Irving Park neighborhood, a different type of agriculture program is taking root. Marketing executive, trained chef and local resident Jaime Guerrero was searching for a space to expand his home aquaponic and hydroponic farm to accommodate larger quantities of herbs and greens and give back to his community.
At the same time, Schurz principal Dan Kramer was looking for innovative programs that could connect the school to the neighborhood. Kramer took Guerrero on a tour. The last stop was an old shop classroom — dubbed the worst room in the school.
“The teachers all hated it,” Kramer says. “It has very high ceilings, with glass at the top, tons of exposed pipework. It can get very hot in there, and it leaks when it rains. I took Jaime in there, and his eyes just lit up. What he saw was a greenhouse.”
Within two weeks, in October 2015, Guerrero had moved in his equipment, and the Food Science Lab was up and running, using hydroponics and aquaponics to grow lettuces, herbs and microgreens.
The lab splits its weekly harvests between a local food pantry and the school’s cafeteria.
In its pilot year, students worked in the Food Science Lab on a volunteer basis. Next year, the lab will host formal botany and environmental-studies classes. Art, math, language arts and business classes also benefit from its presence on campus, Kramer says.
Already Schurz students are learning valuable STEM skills, from managing the pH of the water to building and maintaining the growing systems. The lab has partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) urban-farming program, called CityFARM. In the past year, MIT has developed “smart farms in a box,” as Guerrero describes them, called food computers. They use robotic systems to control and monitor climate, energy and plant growth inside of a growing chamber. The Schurz students are constructing their own, with MIT’s guidance.
Experiential learning like this is a major component of the Next Generation Science Standards — a series of goals developed by a 26-state consortium and intended to innovate American science curricula by focusing on hands-on, inquiry-based learning and the interconnectedness of the four main branches of science. In-school programs can reach and inspire those typically underrepresented in both STEM and agriculture, namely women and students of color.
Echoing Penn Manor’s Fellenbaum, Guerrero says the mission of the Food Science Lab is to “encourage, nurture and certify the next-gen farmer,” who’s versed in traditional agricultural methods and techniques as well as modern innovations, technology and issues related to sustainability, environmental impact and nutrition.
“This is the future, and if we can get our kids started on it, then we’re doing exactly what we’re supposed to be doing as schools,” says Kramer.
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26a1ef01649aef7dcb9e75444243026c | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/01/florida-announces-10-more-homegrown-zika-cases/87910664/ | New Florida Zika cases prompt Miami travel warning | New Florida Zika cases prompt Miami travel warning
Florida confirmed Monday 10 more homegrown cases of Zika in people infected by local mosquitoes, leading federal health officials to advise women who are pregnant to avoid the area just north of downtown Miami where Zika is spreading.
Women who have visited the Wynwood neighborhood in Miami since June 15 should avoid getting pregnant for at least eight weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Zika, which can cause devastating birth defects, appears to have begun spreading among mosquitoes in this area around June 15.
CDC officials believe this is the first time that the federal health agency has warned people to avoid a community in the continental U.S., said agency spokesman Tom Skinner.
At Florida's request, the CDC is sending an emergency response team to the state to help control the outbreak. Two CDC staff are already working in Florida, with six more planning to join them.
The new Zika cases in Miami bring the number of Zika infections spread by local mosquitoes — as opposed to foreign travel — to 14.
Controlling the cluster of Zika cases is proving difficult, CDC director Tom Frieden said, noting that more diagnoses related to the neighborhood are possible.
"We don't have ideal ways to control the mosquitoes that control Zika," Frieden said. "In Miami, aggressive mosquito control measures don't seem to be working as well as we would have liked."
All pregnant women should take steps to prevent mosquito bites, Frieden said. The mosquito species that spreads Zika, the Aedes aegypti, lives in 30 states, in addition to territories such as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
CDC: All pregnant women should be assessed for Zika exposure
According to the CDC, 1,658 people in the continental U.S. and Hawaii have been diagnosed with Zika. Nearly 20% of those cases have been in Florida.
The true number of Zika cases in the U.S. is likely "many times" higher than these totals, Frieden said, because four of five people with Zika have no symptoms. Those who do develop symptoms tend to have fevers, a rash, pink eye, joint pain and other symptoms.
The local cases in Miami are a major development, because — with the exception of one Zika case related to a lab accident — all of the Zika infections in the U.S. until now have been been diagnosed in people who traveled abroad or in people who had sex with a traveler. Although Zika is largely spread by mosquitoes, both men and women can transmit the virus sexually.
The Florida Zika outbreak so far is limited to a 1-square-mile area just north of downtown Miami, Gov. Rick Scott said Monday. Six of the 10 people infected with Zika had no symptoms and were identified through door-to-door community outreach, according to Florida officials.
Mosquito control staff in Miami have used pyrethroid insecticides, which don't appear to be working, Frieden said. It's possible that the mosquitoes are resistant to the insecticides or that the mosquitoes are breeding in hidden areas that works aren't able to find.
Controlling mosquitoes in an area as diverse as Wynwood, the Miami area where the outbreak is centered, is also challenging, Frieden said.
In the past decade, Wynwood has been transformed from a warehouse district to a bustling artistic enclave, with studios, bars and outdoor restaurants all around. With so many tourists and locals teeming throughout the colorful neighborhood, Wynwood has become one of the most pedestrian-heavy sections of a city where people rarely walk due to the overwhelming heat.
The Design District, just north of Wynwood, has grown into a high-end retail destination with wine tastings luring wealthy clients from South Florida, Latin America and beyond. The streets are lined with restaurants and stores including Bulgari, Fendi, Giorgio Armani, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Prada and Tom Ford.
Tucked in between, Midtown has seen a construction boom with a mega-mall and several high-rise condos to respond to the growing demand of people wanting to move into the revitalized pocket of Miami.
Zika Q&A: What you need to know about the virus
The CDC warned pregnant women to avoid places with ongoing Zika outbreaks, including Puerto Rico, in January. But public health experts say they can't remember the last time that a federal agency told people to avoid a community in the U.S. because of an outbreak.
The last outbreak that led people to avoid an American city may have been polio in the 1940s, said infectious disease expert William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville. Although health officials back then told people to avoid New York City to reduce their risk of polio, that was before the formation of the CDC.
Gov. Scott advised women with questions about Zika to talk to their doctors.
“While we continue to learn more about this virus each day, we know that it is most harmful to pregnant women and their babies," Scott said. "For women who live or work in the impacted area and are either pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant, I urge you to contact your OB/GYN for guidance and to receive a Zika prevention kit."
Frieden said scientists are learning more about Zika every day.
"What we know about Zika is scary," Frieden said. "What we don’t know about Zika is even more unsettling."
Advising travelers to avoid any part of Florida is a sensitive decision, given the importance of tourism for the state's economy. Scott noted that a record 30 million tourists have visited Florida this year.
Zika has been diagnosed in at least 855 pregnant women, with about half of those cases in Puerto Rico, according to the CDC. Thirteen babies in the U.S. have been born with Zika-related birth defects, and seven pregnancies have been lost to miscarriage or abortion due to Zika.
The U.S. has been able to contain past clusters of mosquito-borne diseases with aggressive mosquito control. Those outbreaks have included dengue outbreaks in Texas in 2013 and the Florida Keys in 2009. Federal health officials have predicted that the continental U.S. is likely to experience clusters of Zika cases, but probably won't see the sort of large-scale epidemic that has hit Brazil, where Zika cases have been concentrated in crowded urban slums where residents have no screens or air conditioning.
In Miami, health officials have gone door-to-door to talk to residents about Zika. They've taken samples from more than 200 people who live or work near those diagnosed with Zika, all in Miami-Dade or Broward counties, according to the Florida Department of Health.
Health workers tested close contacts and community members within a 150-meter radius of the area where Zika patients were infected, because that's the maximum distance that the Aedes aegypti mosquito has been known to travel.
In all, Florida health officials have tested more than 2,300 people across the state for Zika since the outbreak began.
The health department has conducted testing for the Zika virus for more than 2,300 people statewide, including travelers who were tested after returning from an area where the virus was spreading widely.
Contributing: Alan Gomez.
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76b665ac33888f6534a86bc0284e2a93 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/01/recent-violence-brings-special-signficance-national-night-out/87925502/ | Recent violence brings special signficance to National Night Out | Recent violence brings special signficance to National Night Out
The nation's recent wave of horrific shootings have brought special significance to this year's National Night Out campaign.
Organizers from the National Association of Town Watch expect about 16,500 communities will be involved with Tuesday's National Night Out, started in 1984 as a way to bring people out on their porches in a symbolic statement against neighborhood crime.
Matt Peskin, executive director Town Watch, said he can feel the "special energy out there" as about 500 new communities registered this year.
“A lot of these people have sat back and watched for the past month the awful events that took place,” Peskin said. “It’s frustrating because there’s not too much an individual citizen can do.”
Among the killings that brought national headlines: a sniper who shot and killed five police officers at a peaceful protest in Dallas after two black men died at the hands of white police officers. Less than two weeks later, a military veteran ambushed and killed three police officers in Baton Rouge.
Thousands of communities will be hosting cookouts, block parties and parades Tuesday to promote police-community relations. This is the 33rd year for National Night Out, always held on the first Tuesday of August.
Police departments across the nation have coordinated their own events. Among them are Minneapolis, a city that was rocked by protests after motorist Philando Castile was fatally shot by a police officer in a neighboring city last month. Minneapolis was ranked number one in 2015 for the quality of its National Night Out campaign.
Minneapolis Police Officer Corey Schmidt said this year will be even bigger than last, with one party expecting more than 5,000 people.
"There have been some things that have happened that have shown police in a negative light," he said. "We want to show the community that we're here for them and support them."
After the killings in Dallas, the city's police department has helped community member Anna Hill plan one event in her small Dolphin Heights neighborhood. Hill, president of the Dolphin Heights Neighborhood Association, is expecting at least 100 community members and local officials to turn out for her hot dog and chili cookout.
“Its important to the community, to the children, the police department and everyone involved,” said Hill, who also runs a summer reading program for children. "Everybody gets a chance to know each other on a different level."
Follow Karina Shedrofsky on Twitter: @karinashed
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a15190ffd948b9876ea4960608ff3fc9 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/08/theres-no-evidence-show-cupping-works-why-so-popular/88432132/ | There's no evidence cupping works. Why is it so popular? | There's no evidence cupping works. Why is it so popular?
Don't be surprised if your friends and neighbors are soon covered in purple spots.
"Cupping" is poised to become the latest fad.
Swimming champion Michael Phelps' use of cupping, a type of alternative medicine intended to ease muscle pain, has attracted nearly as much attention as his latest gold medal.
Cupping, which has been used in traditional Chinese medicine, involves using cups to create suction on the skin. Fans claim that pulling the skin away from the body improves their blood flow. What's not in dispute: The procedure leaves people covered in dark purple marks.
How cupping works and why Olympic athletes use it
Phelps, who won his 19th Olympic medal Sunday, said he relies on cupping to heal sore muscles. And he's not the only one. Track and field competitors in Rio are using it. So are male gymnasts at the Olympics. Celebrities Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston are big fans of the big dots.
But does it actually work?
There's little to no medical evidence that cupping has any benefit, said Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York and a former sideline physician for the New York Jets.
“There are studies on this, but they aren’t well done,” Glatter said.
In 2012, a review of 135 studies on cupping found it had some benefit for shingles, facial paralysis, acne and age-related wear and tear of the spinal disks of the neck. But authors of the review noted that the studies weren’t carefully done, so their results weren’t very valuable.
The review found cupping had no benefit for sore muscles.
That doesn't mean cupping is useless, Glatter said.
Cupping could work as a placebo, giving elite athletes a psychological boost, Glatter said. In other words, cupping works because people think it works. “When people feel better, they may perform better,” Glatter said. “But in terms of performance and power, (Phelps) already got that in the bag.”
While using a suction cup on sore muscles seems harmless, Glatter notes that people who heat the cups could potentially burn themselves. People could also develop infections.“You’re causing tissue injury, and there could be bacteria on the skin,” Glatter said.
Cupping helps heal the USA men's Olympic gymnastics team
But cupping isn't going to turn the average person into an Olympian, Glatter said.
“It’s a hickey, to be honest,” Glatter said. “What you’re getting is a large, circular hickey.”
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099da908a348a610f9cc306e59e17b90 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/15/louisiana-flooding-breaks-area-records/88759214/ | Here's how much rain fell in Louisiana | Here's how much rain fell in Louisiana
Just how much rain fell across southern Louisiana late last week and over the weekend?
Of the 57 areas that reported at least 4 inches of rainfall during the four-day stretch of bad weather form Wednesday through Saturday, the average rainfall was around 11 inches, the greatest amount coming from an area just north of Baton Rouge near Zachary, La. that received just over 26 inches, according to data from the National Weather Service.
The rainfall tally shattered records and pushed rivers to their limits across parts of southern Louisiana and Mississippi. Adding the 57 areas together, which would mean stacking the total from each gauge on top of each other, the numbers topped 630 inches, or over 50 feet, during the four days.
But that simply adds the sums together. Anurag Mishra, an environmental engineer at RESPEC, a consulting firm that deals with environmental issues, said finding the volume, a better measure, would be a more difficult task for the entire area.
Just west of Baton Rouge the town of Livingston, for example, received a total of 25.5 inches in the four days, according to weather service data. That would mean for the town with just over three square miles, over one billion gallons of water fell.
The summed depth from the 57 areas is greater than the height statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial and is almost as deep as the White House is tall.
Tim Destri, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s New Orleans and Baton Rouge office, said the storm is one of the most extreme in recorded history and the area would only be forecast to experience a rainfall event of this magnitude once every 500 years.
In a normal August, Baton Rouge usually gets 2.5 inches of rain from Aug. 1 to Aug. 15, according to weather service data. This year, 21 inches -- more than 8 times as much -- soaked the city since Aug. 1. A weather service office in California said that Louisiana received more rain in the last few days than Bakersfield, Calif. had received in the last 5 and a half years.
Destri said the massive storm system stalled over the area, which is what created the momentous rainfall.
River heights from this storm events have also broken records, Destri said.
In some places, the recorded river height shattered previous records by over 5 feet, which Destri said may also be considered a 500-year event once more accurate measurements can be taken. The instruments used to measure river heights in some places may not have even been able to record the true maximum heights the water levels exceed the instruments' measuring capability.
Follow Ryan Miller on Twitter @MILLERdfillmore
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61c038efa2639a6dbfbad15ccf5bdce4 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/18/short-list-thursday/88940936/ | This Syrian boy is Omran. Will you pay attention now? | This Syrian boy is Omran. Will you pay attention now?
The video everyone should watch
Footage shows a 5-year-old boy, sitting stunned and bloodied in the back of an ambulance. He touches his face, looks down at his hands and wipes them on the orange ambulance chair. His name is Omran Daqneesh, and he's the latest child to become the face of suffering in Syria, which has endured a five-year civil war. Daqneesh was plucked from a scene of nightime chaos and brought to a hospital known only as "M10," after an airstrike in Aleppo destroyed the apartment building where he lived. He was rescued along with his three siblings, ages 1, 6, and 11, and his mother and father. The horror generated by the image of Omran echoes similar global anguish over the pictures of Aylan Kurdi, the drowned Syrian boy whose body was found on a beach in Turkey in 2015. U.S. officials on Thursday said the United States and Russia will try again to stop Syria’s civil war when their top diplomats meet next week in Geneva.
Sorry Not Sorry
Rio Olympics spokesman Mario Andrada has been apologizing a lot during these Games. He's apologized for stray bullets landing in the equestrian center, water turning green in the pool used for diving and water polo and acts of violence. He also apologized to Ryan Lochte and three other U.S. swimmers for what they went through when they were held up at gunpoint. Except Rio police said on Thursday that never happened. So is Mr. Apology now the one owed an apology? He says he doesn't expect one. "Let’s give these kids a break. They made a mistake. It’s part of life. Life goes on." Not all of Brazil would agree.
First candidate to get to Baton Rouge with a planeload of cash wins
Our friends at For the Record ask: What's with the silence from the Clinton and Trump campaigns on the flooding in Louisiana? For Hillary, it would be an opportunity to make a big impression in a state that's solid Trump territory. For Donald, it would be an opportunity to follow words with actions in his outreach to African-Americans — some of the hardest-hit areas are among the state's most predominantly African-American parishes. So far, there haven't been any visits from either candidate, and neither has hinted at any plans to do so. Trump, who has commented on every news event, press release and weather report since last June, hasn't said a word. Clinton tweeted once about it, and when USA TODAY asked for comment, the campaign asked us whether we noticed the tweet. We never thought we'd say this, but ... doesn't Kanye West have any comments here?
This NASA graphic illustrates the devastating rainfall in Louisiana.
A Louisiana newspaper is urging Obama to end his vacation and visit flood sites.
The ‘most gruesome death imaginable'
You've probably heard about this one by now: A 19-year-old college student is accused of killing a Florida couple in a seemingly random and unprovoked attack, biting off pieces of one person’s face. We're learning more about suspect Austin Kelly Harrouff, who had a bizarre social media presence. In his YouTube channel’s description, it says: "I’ve got a psycho side and a normal side. I’ve lost my mind. Help me find it." Recent videos generally focused on bodybuilding rants and karaoke-style cover songs. Local Sheriff William Snyder says the brutal crime has captured the attention of the nation because it could have happened to anyone. "Two people sitting on their couch enjoying a summer night in an upper-class neighborhood on a dead-end street meet the most gruesome death imaginable for doing absolutely nothing," Snyder said. "That's what has people so disturbed." Harrouff is in a Florida hospital and charges are expected soon.
McDonald's Happy Meal #fail
Remember those Fitbit-type things we told you about yesterday? Well, they are no more. McDonald’s pulled "Step It!" fitness trackers from Happy Meals after reports that children experienced "skin irritations" from the toy's wristband. Uh oh. While some questioned what a fitness tracker and fast-food have in common, the band was in line with McDonald's move to push back at critics who say the business provides junk food to kids. Maybe next time.
Extra Bites
If you only read one thing tonight, read this: Louisiana flooding is worst disaster since Sandy, but people aren’t talking about it.
Gawker.com is shutting down.
Latest in #BlackLivesMatter: The Chicago police superintendent is recommending firing seven police officers accused of filing false reports in the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Laquan McDonald.
Former NFL star Darren Sharper is going to prison for 18 years following his guilty pleas in a plot to drug women and rape them.
This 'Brady Bunch' star just sold her Malibu home for $3.9 million. It's 850 square feet. We mean, dollhouse.
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This is a compilation of stories across USA TODAY.
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4a7c72bd8f42314c003ab7fd6ddbd5da | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/21/welfare-reform-20-years-later/88389666/ | Welfare reform 20 years later: What worked, what didn't | Welfare reform 20 years later: What worked, what didn't
April McCray thought she had finally caught a break in late 2005. That’s when the state of Louisiana granted cash assistance to the single mother through the Temporary Assistance of Needy Families (TANF) program. It was her first experience with America's welfare program.
McCray, who had been in and out of work, struggled to make ends meet. This, she hoped, would at least help soften the burden.
But a month later, the state stripped her of the benefits without a clear explanation, she said. Since then, she says Louisiana, which controls state and federally allocated TANF dollars, has denied her requests for assistance several times.
"It gets depressing," said McCray, who in 2016, is still struggling. With three kids and rarely more than a part-time job, she says she needs help she can’t seem to get from a welfare system that was overhauled 20 years ago.
Overhauling welfare was a hallmark of then-President Bill Clinton's time in office. When he signed welfare reform into law on Aug. 22, 1996, he declared at a ceremony in the White House’s Rose Garden that it would "end welfare as we know it."
Twenty years later, few would dispute the accuracy of that prediction. Welfare is, and has been, a vastly different system than it was prior to the law, which gave states wide control over their own welfare programs by allocating to them block grants.
So, two decades later, are those changes working? It depends whom you ask.
TANF’s legacy has divided policy experts, with supporters saying it put an emphasis on work and increased employment among single mothers in the process while also reducing poverty overall. The program's critics say it tore a hole in the safety net for people who remained in poverty and couldn’t find steady work, like McCray.
“(TANF) did shift the emphasis toward work. I think that is something where there has been a lot of agreement,” said Heather Hahn, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. “... As far as whether people are better off, I do think they are, in some cases, worse off.”
What America's welfare system used to be
Welfare didn't exist in America before the Great Depression and Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. It officially came into being as a rule under the Social Security Act in 1935, offering aid to families with dependent children (AFDC).
In establishing the program, the federal government, for the first time, took responsibility for helping children with a parent who was dead, gone or otherwise incapacitated. Previously, those children most likely would have been institutionalized.
The program worked by the government giving funds to the states, which then distributed the money under federal guidelines.
Over several decades, AFDC went through several changes and revisions, perhaps most notably in 1961 when it expanded its definition of a "deprived child" to include one who had an unemployed parent. And, though the benefits were small, many families did end up dependent — and the criticism poured in.
The program was blamed for encouraging unwed mothers, and for discouraging work. It included phaseout rates, meaning that dollars earned meant less dollars in assistance.
Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan chipped away at changes, instituting job training and work requirements for AFDC participants. But by the 1990s, calls were clearly pouring in for change.
Enter Bill Clinton, who championed the most radical overhaul of America's welfare system to date. Clinton, amid a re-election campaign, made reforming the program part of his bid to win back the White House.
When TANF became a law, a lot changed
The newly minted Temporary Assistance for Needy Families put an emphasis on getting people out of poverty and to work.
Under TANF, recipients in most cases are required to participate in work activities for 30 hours a week. Combined with expansions to the Earned Income Tax Credit, a tax credit for people with low- to-moderate-income jobs, TANF succeeded in getting people to work, especially during Clinton’s presidency.
From 1996 to 2000, employment rates among never-married mothers shot from 63% to 76%, according to the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). Additionally, both poverty rates among families with single mothers and overall poverty rates dropped.
"The welfare reform legislation moved us in the right direction by being much more aggressive about employment for the single mother population," said Robert Doar, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who was formerly the commissioner of welfare in New York City.
Employment and poverty rates have leveled off in the long term, which has resulted in disagreement among policy experts about just how effective TANF has been in increasing employment, though most agree that it at least helped move the needle.
Where the law has failed, experts say, is by leaving behind those at the very bottom — the group of people in deep poverty who typically haven’t been able to find work, like McCray.
Studies have found that since TANF was instituted, deep or extreme poverty has increased. A 2011 study by the University of Michigan's National Poverty Center found that families living on less than $2 per person a day more than doubled from 1996 to 2011.
Block grants: The good and the bad
Hahn of the Urban Institute and Liz Schott of the CBPP each attribute the rise in deep poverty largely to TANF. They pointed to three main flaws with the legislation: the block grants don’t adjust for inflation; states have often spent large portions of their TANF dollars on things other than basic assistance; and states sometimes have incentives to cut needy recipients loose from the program.
Since TANF became law, states have received fixed block grants from the federal government. When lawmakers were constructing TANF, Democrats in Congress wanted to include an inflation adjustment for the grants, said Ron Haskins, a Brookings Institution senior fellow who helped draft welfare reform as a staff member on the House Committee on Ways and Means.
An inflation adjustment would have enabled the amount of the block grants to increase along with inflation. But the law passed through a Republican-held Congress without one.
“Remember, in 1996 we were in midst of a huge budget fight, and Republicans were trying to balance the budget and savings were a huge deal,” said Haskins, who considers the reform mostly a success.
Not adjusting for inflation has caused the block grants to erode by about a third since 1996, according to the CBPP. That has essentially reduced the benefits states can give out, as well as the number of families that receive benefits, even as the number of needy families hasn’t been going down.
In addition, states have great flexibility in how they can spend their block grants. The money spent must fit into one of TANF’s four main purposes: assisting needy families; promoting work and marriage; reducing out-of-wedlock pregnancy; and increasing two-parent families.
States have wide discretion in determining what falls under those broad purposes, and that has led to significant spending on things other than core welfare services.
That’s a problem, Hahn said, because providing families with cash or helping parents find jobs are the two most effective ways to lift families out of poverty, since both provide them with incomes. In 2014, the most recent data available, 26% of national TANF spending went toward cash welfare, while only 8% went to work programs, according to the CBPP.
“It doesn’t always have to be about cash, but it should be about getting people to work,” Schott said.
The road ahead
Twenty years after Bill Clinton signed welfare reform, it’s his wife, Hillary Clinton, who could become the next president and have an opportunity to amend the law.
The Clinton campaign did not return an email requesting comment, but the Democratic presidential nominee has indicated on the campaign trail that she would re-examine welfare programs.
In an April interview with WNYC, she said “we have to take a hard look at it” and was critical of the five-year limit that recipients can get benefits.
She was also critical in a June interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein of the “leeway” given to the states and said there should be an expectation that states provide a safety net to those in poverty.
“I think we have to do much more to target federal programs to the poorest,” she said in the interview.
Her opponent, Republican nominee Donald Trump, hasn’t often discussed welfare reform or TANF during his presidential campaign and his campaign didn't return a request for comment. But in his 2011 book, Time to Get Tough, Trump praised welfare reform for emphasizing work and said other welfare programs should follow the same approach.
While discussing welfare in a June interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity, though, Trump said people need even more of an incentive to work — which he would seek to create.
"Right now, they have a disincentive," he said in the interview. "They have an incentive not to work."
Follow Michael Burke on Twitter: @michaelburke47
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006ceae423a44d587458cc0bf5bb494c | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/28/two-men-charged-chicago-shooting-dwyane-wades-cousin/89507362/ | Two men charged in Chicago shooting death of Dwyane Wade's cousin | Two men charged in Chicago shooting death of Dwyane Wade's cousin
CHICAGO — Police charged two brothers who have deep ties to a gang with the shooting death of the cousin of Chicago Bulls star Dwyane Wade, officials said Sunday.
Nykea Aldridge, 32, a mother of four, was pushing a baby stroller Friday afternoon on Chicago's South Side when she was shot. Police said she was not the intended target of the shooting. Aldridge’s child was not struck by the gunfire.
Police said the two men charged with murder — Darwin Sorells, 26, and Derren Sorells, 22 — were both on parole and affiliated with the Gangster Disciples gang. They appeared in court Sunday and were ordered held without bail.
Derren Sorells was just released from prison two weeks before Friday's shooting. He was convicted in 2012 for a motor vehicle theft and escape from custody, but was released early. He had six felony arrests in his background. His brother Darwin Sorells was also on parole for a felony gun charge. He was sentenced to six years in prison in January 2013 and was released from prison earlier this year.
Police said the suspects were targeting a for-hire driver after exchanging unfriendly glances with the man as he drove in the neighborhood. The two later confronted the driver after he walked two women into their building, according to prosecutors. The driver told police the men menaced him and indicated they had guns. They then chased the driver as he ran away, with at least one of the men firing multiple shots that struck Aldridge.
The elder brother told detectives that the younger brother fired the shots, and Derren Sorrells also implicated himself in a statement he gave to police, prosecutors said.
Alrdidge had just left a nearby school, where she had registered one of her children for the upcoming school year.
"This reprehensible act of violence is the example of why we need to change the way we treat habitual offenders in the city of Chicago," police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said. "When will enough be enough? This tragedy isn't just noteworthy because Ms. Aldridge has a famous family member. It's noteworthy because these two offenders are the prime examples of ... repeat gun offenders who don't care who they shoot."
Chicago has seen its murder toll skyrocket this year. The nation's third-largest city has recorded more homicides than New York and Los Angeles combined in 2016. Homicides were up nearly 50% for the first half of 2016 compared to the same period last year. Police have also already recovered 6,000 illegally possessed guns off the streets of Chicago this year.
Chicago Police say the vast majority of victims and assailants are on its Strategic Subject List, a predictive roster that the department generates by crunching arrest information, gang affiliation, shooting patterns and other data. The list includes about 1,400 individuals.
Johnson did not know if the suspects in Aldridge's killing were on the list at the time of the shooting.
Police said they were able to quickly identify and detain Aldridge's suspected killers, because witnesses identified the men as the gunmen. Both men fired their weapons, which authorities have not recovered, but it's unclear if both struck Aldridge.
"The frustrating part is ... we have 1,400 individuals that drive this gun violence in this city," Johnson said. "This isn't a mystery."
Don Cheadle unleashes Twitter storm on Donald Trump
Dozens of people gathered at a Chicago church Sunday for a prayer service to remember Aldridge, The Associated Press reported. Her parents, sister, nieces and nephews wept as they spoke about the woman they said was a gifted writer and "fighter of the family."
Wade, who grew up around Chicago, has been outspoken over the years about the violence in his hometown.
The Bulls guard and his mother, pastor Jolina Wade, took part Thursday in a forum on gun violence hosted by ESPN.
“My cousin was killed today in Chicago. Another act of senseless gun violence. 4 kids lost their mom for NO REASON. Unreal. #EnoughIsEnough,” Wade tweeted Friday.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump weighed in Saturday, claiming the killing of Wade's cousin is a reason why African-American voters will back his candidacy.
"Dwayne Wade's cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago," Trump tweeted Saturday morning, misspelling the basketball player's first name. "Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!"
Trump camp highlights second Wade tweet amid controversy
Voices: In Chicago, gun violence defies comprehension
Trump, who faced scorn on social media over his tweet, later posted a second message offering condolences to Aldridge's family.
"As far as what Mr. Trump said ... 'If you have a magic bullet to stop the violence anywhere, not just in Chicago but in America, then please share it with us," Johnson said. "We'd be glad to take that information and stop this violence."
Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad
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dd7b9c2efb466eba2dcc7f680ec71ec1 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/10/watch-incredibly-moving-911-tattoo-stories/90125184/ | Never Forget: 15 years later, 9/11 tattoos remain strong | Never Forget: 15 years later, 9/11 tattoos remain strong
Fifteen years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, people continue to ink their skin in remembrance. In general, Americans don't like to talk about death, and these tattoos are a conversation starter on that important topic, says bereavement specialist and GriefINK author Susan Salluce. The markings give the tattoo bearer the opportunity to explain the emotions and meaning behind the ink.
Here are some of those stories.
Max Giaccone, 25, lost his father
"Getting the tattoos was definitely a coping mechanism in some ways for me,” he says.
Brian Branco, 50, survivor
“I would have never gotten any tattoos if it wasn’t for September 11 and my need to keep the memory alive of my friends who died that day,” he says.
10 things you may have forgotten about 9/11
The touching stories behind 9/11 tattoos
Evelyn Lugo, 39, survivor
"There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t remember – that I don’t think about it," she says.
Steven Waldron, 41, New York Police Department officer
His tattoo of the 23 New York Police Department officers and two other friends who died on 9/11 is a way "to honor these guys," he says.
Michael Anthony Cascio III, 19, aspiring firefighter
The tattoo “symbolizes strength” and is a tribute to those who respond to emergencies, says Cascio.
Contributing: Sara Snyder, Michael Monday, Rui Ellie Miao
Since 9/11, New York City's skyline has only grown taller
Mystery of flag in iconic 9/11 photo solved
Voices: A beautiful boy is born — and then comes 9/11
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5770dd6f266cb45cfb07ee961fc78e11 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/10/would--reagan-assassin-john-hinckley-jr-released-mental-hospital/90191312/ | John Hinckley Jr. released from mental hospital after more than 30 years | John Hinckley Jr. released from mental hospital after more than 30 years
The man who shot President Ronald Reagan has been released from a mental hospital after more than 30 years of treatment and rehabilitation, and will live with his elderly mother in suburban Virginia.
John W. Hinckley Jr. was released Saturday morning, the Associated Press and Washington Post reported, and will live in Williamsburg, which he has visited multiple times for short trips.
Hinckley, now 61, was 25 when he shot Reagan, a Secret Service agent, a District of Columbia police officer and James Brady, Reagan’s press secretary. Brady died in 2014 from his injuries; the others recovered.
The shooting on March 30, 1981, helped galvanize opposition to the easy availability of handguns and led to the creation of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Hinckley used an insanity defense during his trial, and was committed to a mental hospital for treatment. Hinckley had been permitted to make longer and longer visits to his mother’s home over the past several years, and a federal judge this summer ruled that he was no longer a threat to himself or others.
Hinckley is technically on “convalescent leave” from the hospital, and he’ll continue to be treated and monitored on an out-patient basis, according to the judge’s order.
Hinckley said he stalked and shot Regan in an effort to impress actress Jody Foster. The jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity and he was committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C.
The judge this summer ruled Hinckley, who he said is suffering from arthritis and high blood pressure, has been in remission for at least 20 years. Doctors initially diagnosed Hinckley with major depression and “psychotic disorder not otherwise specified,” and Hinkley tried to kill himself in 1983.
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90038adfcede52c3d8c0d5163c3e2d0d | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/17/5-things-you-need-know-weekend/90305130/ | 5 things you need to know this weekend | 5 things you need to know this weekend
TV’s top prizes up for grabs at 68th Primetime Emmy Awards
The top talent in television will take to the red carpet — and take home the statuettes — Sunday at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles (ABC, 8 ET/5 PT). Jimmy Kimmel, who is up for an award himself, will host for a second time. Game of Thrones, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story and Fargolead the list of top nominees. Across the categories, diversity reigns, (especially compared to the mostly white Oscars) with 18 actors of color receiving nominations. Forgot who wore what last year? Check out the gallery below to see the stars who sizzled on last year’s red carpet.
College football: Key contests on the field, controversy off it
It's only Week 3, but for some college football powerhouses it's do-or-die time. Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Mississippi all fell on opening weekend; another loss will jeopardize their College Football Playoff hopes. The Sooners square off with No. 3 Ohio State; Ole Miss looks for its third consecutive victory against No. 1 Alabama; and the Irish take on No. 8 Michigan State. (See who USA TODAY reporters are picking this week.) Meanwhile, Penn State will court controversy by commemorating the late Joe Paterno for the first time since he was fired in 2011 over the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. Louisville will honor the late great Muhammad Ali.
More open elections to take place in Russia — but Putin's party expected to retain power
At least a dozen opposition candidates will run in Russia’s parliamentary elections Sunday, giving a glimmer of political freedom in the country where President Vladimir Putin has steadily consolidated power and suppressed voices against him. Even so, the Kremlin-backed United Russia and the parties that almost always follow its lead are set remain the overwhelming presence in the State Duma. Fourteen parties will participate in the election, an improvement over only seven that made it on the ballot in 2011. That election sparked mass protests over allegations of vote rigging and unsettled the country. The new system is more open but there is little expectation that the balance in parliament, and therefore Putin's hold, will change significantly.
NASCAR begins its Chase for the Sprint Cup
Drivers, start your engines. The Chase for the Sprint Cup gears up Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway with 16 drivers competing for NASCAR’s championship over 10 races. The Chase, NASCAR’s version of a playoff, comes amid high tensions between racers as Tony Stewart has intentionally wrecked drivers in two consecutive races. Defending champion Kyle Busch holds the top seed in the bracket where drivers will face three rounds of elimination leading up to the final four championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 20.
U.S. to meet with Japan, South Korea after North Korean nuclear test
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry plans to meet with the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers Sunday to discuss the recent North Korean nuclear weapons test. The three nations recently pushed for stronger sanctions to be placed on the communist regime after it conducted its second nuclear test this year. In an emergency meeting, the United Nations Security Council condemned the test, and President Obama warned North Korea that the U.S. would do whatever necessary to defend its allies in the region. The trilateral meeting will take place alongside the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York over the weekend.
And the essentials:
Be inspired: In death, race car driver Bryan Clauson saves thousands of lives.
Weekend TV: Wondering what to watch this weekend? TV critic Robert Bianco looks at the unsolved murder of JonBenet Ramsey and the Emmy Awards.
Need a break? Try playing some of our games.
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Contributing: Associated Press
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cd030e3e6b218e3567573b8e4e071cc2 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/17/nobel-laureate-desmond-tutu-readmitted-hospital/90571440/ | Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu readmitted to hospital | Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu readmitted to hospital
JOHANNESBURG — Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu was readmitted to a South African hospital on Saturday, just days after he left following three weeks of treatment there.
The 84-year-old retired archbishop returned to the hospital “as a precaution after his surgical wound had shown signs of infection,” a family statement quoted Tutu’s wife, Leah, as saying.
Tutu “underwent the surgical procedure 10 days ago to address the cause of recurring infections resulting from past treatment received for prostate cancer,” the statement said.
Tutu, who has been treated for prostate cancer for many years, was also hospitalized several times last year. His family has previously said that the cancer is under control.
He was an outspoken opponent of apartheid, South Africa’s former system of white minority rule, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.
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56451360606307b14ac43d0d85659bed | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/17/texas-border-wall-trump/90503360/ | Texas border residents bristle at Donald Trump's talk of new wall | Texas border residents bristle at Donald Trump's talk of new wall
BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Despite the 18-foot-tall iron security fence cutting through her family’s citrus farm, Bonnie Elbert still sees a relentless flow of undocumented immigrants and smugglers carrying trash bags full of drugs sneaking into this southern tip of the USA.
Elbert considers herself politically conservative and wants lawmakers to do something about illegal immigration. But the proposal to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico to make America safer — a cornerstone of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign — is unrealistic, she said.
“The one we have doesn’t really work,” Elbert said as she drove recently through Loop Farms, more than 700 acres of orange and grapefruit orchards the family has tended since the 1920s. “What makes them think a new one will?”
Trump's proposal to build a 40-foot-high wall across the U.S. border with Mexico and make Mexico pay for it sparked a Twitter clash between the GOP candidate and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
Residents on the border have lived for years with a close facsimile: 650 miles of metal fencing and other barriers erected in 2009 and stretching, in sections, from this Texas border city to the California coast. The fence, created through the 2006 Secure Fence Act, is nearly continuous along the border with Arizona, New Mexico and California, due to long stretches of federal land along the border. But in Texas, the fence is chopped up into multiple sections because the state's border with Mexico is comprised mostly of private property, which is harder to acquire and build on.
Trump has said he needs to build only about 1,000 miles of wall along the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico, due to natural barriers. But the current fence sparked costly legal fights with property owners, disrupted communities that straddle the border and has proven largely ineffective in stemming the flow of undocumented immigrants, according to residents, community leaders and border patrol officials.
Whoever pays for it, a newer, bigger wall would waste more money and be just as futile in preventing illegal crossings, Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez said.
“It’s gibberish,” Martinez said. “It doesn’t prevent people from coming in or drugs from coming in. It’s not a deterrent and it’s not effective.”
He noted that Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, known as El Chapo, tunneled his way out of prison last year before being recaptured by Mexican marines. “We should learn from El Chapo,” he said. “They could always build tunnels.”
Days after the fence went up along the border near McAllen, border agents there realized the smugglers’ answer to the barrier: ladders.
Agents began collecting the 19-foot ladders — some wooden and homemade, others construction-grade aluminum — propped up against the 18-foot fence, said Chris Cabrera, a McAllen-based border patrol agent and vice president of the local chapter of the National Border Patrol Council, the agents’ union.
So many ladders piled up in their station that supervisors told the agents to stop bringing them in, he said. Meanwhile, the flow of immigrants and drugs continued unabated. Apprehensions in the Rio Grande Valley sector of the Border Patrol, which sees the largest number of crossings in the USA, has more than doubled from 60,989 in fiscal year 2009 to 147,257 last fiscal year, according to Border Patrol statistics.
The Border Patrol union has endorsed Trump because of his focus on border security and immigration reform, Cabrera said. But the concept of building a bigger wall without other measures, such as increased manpower and technology, is ill-informed, he said.
“If you’re in the business of selling ladders, it’s a good idea,” Cabrera said. “If you build a bigger wall, they’re going to come with bigger ladders.” He added: “If they’re thinking of putting up a wall as a be-all, end-all ... they’re looking in the wrong place.”
The security fence project also ran into a litany of private property lawsuits and environmental opposition that ran up costs and led to delays, said Denise Gilman, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas-Austin School of Law, who has studied the fence’s impact on the border. Most of the land along the Texas border is privately owned, making it much harder for the federal government to acquire and build on, she said.
After long legal challenges from property owners, federal officials built the fence in sections along the winding Texas border, bypassing some land owned by richer and politically connected owners and building through poorer neighborhoods, she said. A new wall will face similar challenges.
“I was frustrated to see the lessons from the last experience had not been learned effectively,” Gilman said. “It’s important for the public to understand that it’s not going to be possible to build a wall along the entire border.”
The current wall snakes through the Rio Grande Valley just south of Highway 281, at times cutting right through residents' lawns, and through old town Brownsville, where some of the city’s most historic buildings sit. Mark Clark bought his two-story brick building a decade ago and enjoyed the view of the Rio Grande he had from his second-story balcony. Today, the view is of a sprawling, rust-colored fence.
The fence has broken up the continuity and goodwill between Brownsville and Matamoros, its sister city across the river in Mexico, and created an eyesore that rankles most locals, Clark said. Across the river, Mexicans call it “El Berlin,” alluding to the 27-mile concrete wall that once divided East and West Berlin during the Cold War, Clark said.
And the migrants keep coming, he said.
“It’s just embarrassing,” Clark said. “This has been a psychological disaster and a colossal waste of money. When’s it going to end?”
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d9903e1cd164a282f02069ff9cb6afcd | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/18/tips-buying-your-first-car/90540060/ | Tips for buying your first car | Tips for buying your first car
Q: I am about to buy my first car. My credit score is good and I have money to make a down payment. Do you have any tips for a first-time buyer?
A: Buying your first car is a huge event and a moment you will never forget. It can be quite daunting with all the choices that are out in the market. Although you are eager to purchase a car, take some time to really make a sound decision and get the best deal.
Consider the pros and cons of homeownership
How do I reduce my monthly expenses during retirement?
Michael Camacho is president and chief executive officer of Personal Finance Center. He has more than 20 years of experience in retail banking and at financial institutions in Guam and Hawaii. If there is a topic you’d like Michael to cover, please email him atmoneymattersguam@yahoo.com and read past columns at the Money Matters blog atwww.moneymattersguam.wordpress.com.
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befd6b02a881e7010a512a1816d2ba8c | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/18/what-we-know-now-explosion-new-york-chelsea/90614202/ | Explosion in New York City: What we know now | Explosion in New York City: What we know now
A powerful blast from an explosive device injured at least 29 people in New York City's popular Chelsea neighborhood on Saturday night.
What happened?
The explosion came just after 8:30 p.m. ET at 133 W. 23rd St., between Sixth and Seventh Avenue in a neighborhood known for its vibrant nightlife. City officials said police located the explosive device in the street next to a trash bin. The explosion was so powerful it blew out the windows in a nearby building. The city's fire department said none of the victims had life-threatening injuries, but witnesses reported seeing victims cut by shrapnel, metal fragments and glass. All those injured were released from area hospitals by Sunday morning, according to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office.
A second device believed to be a pressure cooker was found on West 27th Street, four blocks from the initial blast on West 23rd. The New York Police Department said it was safely removed by the bomb squad early Sunday.
What caused it?
The explosion was from an apparent homemade device placed in front of a residence for the blind and near a major thoroughfare with many restaurants.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called it a bombing, but said the motivation remains unknown.
A law enforcement official told the Associated Press that the explosion appeared to have come from a construction toolbox in front of a building. Photos from the scene show a twisted and crumpled black metal box.
A second device believed to be a pressure cooker attached wiring and a cellphone and had been placed inside a plastic bag, the AP reported.
Surveillance footage shows what appears to be the same person moving devices into place at the site of the explosion and at the location where the undetonated pressure cooker was discovered.
Was it a terror attack?
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday that investigators so far have not found any connection to international terrorist groups, and there is no further immediate threat to the city.
De Blasio called the incident an "intentional" act, but said the city had received "no specific and credible threat" from any terror organization.
De Blasio also said investigators have so far found no connection to an incident earlier Saturday in Seaside Heights, N.J., in which a pipe bomb exploded near a Marine charity run. In that instance the device was placed in a garbage can. No injuries were reported.
How have police responded?
New York Police Department Commissioner James O'Neill said no individual or group has claimed responsibility, but officials said in a press conference Sunday that the investigation is ongoing.
De Blasio said police presence will be "bigger than ever." One thousand extra state police officers and National Guard troops have been dispatched to patrol subways, bus terminals and airports. K9 units and heavy weapons teams will also be employed throughout the city.
The blast comes as the United Nations General Assembly is meeting in New York, which has also caused increased police presence in the city.
Police are also continuing to collect evidence in the affected area, and a bomb squad is working on the device found on 27th street.
O'Neill said he reviewed one surveillance video footage, and investigators are reviewing more footage recovered from the scene and talking to witnesses.
More on the blast in New York City:
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c75dd114f202453d6b8cc701b8956e5f | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/19/timeline-new-york-new-jersey-bombings/90685308/ | Timeline: New York, New Jersey bombings | Timeline: New York, New Jersey bombings
Here is a timeline of events from the New York and New Jersey attacks so far:
Saturday, Sept. 17
9:35 a.m. (all times ET): A pipe-bomb style device exploded in a garbage can at the start line of a Marine Corps charity race in Seaside Park, N.J., injuring no one. Problems with registration for the Seaside Semper Five 5K, which was scheduled to begin 9:30 a.m., delayed the start of the race and possibly spared many from injury.
8:30 p.m.: A bomb exploded in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City at 133 West 23rd St., between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. The fire department said 29 people were hurt by the blast, but none of the injuries were life-threatening and all those hurt were released from area hospitals by Sunday morning.
A second device believed to be a pressure cooker was found on West 27th Street, four blocks from the initial blast on West 23rd. This device never exploded.
Sunday, Sept. 18
1:23 a.m.: The NYPD announced that the second device was removed from the scene by police. "The suspicious device on West 27 Street in Chelsea has been safely removed by the NYPD Bomb Squad," the police department tweeted.
8:30 p.m.: Christian Bollwage, the mayor of Elizabeth, N.J., said that two men found a bag containing five explosive devices in a trash can outside the Elizabeth train station. The bag had wires and a pipe protruding from it. The men notified Elizabeth police, prompting an investigation.
Late Sunday night: FBI agents conducted a traffic stop just off the Verrazano bridge, which connects Staten Island to Brooklyn. The agency said the stop was related to its investigation of the Chelsea explosion. As many as five people were detained for questioning after the traffic stop, according to ABC News and The New York Post.
Monday, Sept. 19
12:30 a.m.: An FBI bomb squad robot was attempting to disarm one of the devices outside the Elizabeth train station when it exploded. There were no immediate reports of any injuries or damage.
Monday morning: The FBI issued a wanted poster for Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Afghan descent in connection with the explosions in Manhattan and New Jersey. His last known address is listed in Elizabeth, N.J., and the poster warns that Rahami "should be considered armed and dangerous."
Federal authorities conducted a raid at an apartment above a fried chicken restaurant in Elizabeth operated by Rahami's father.
8 a.m.: Authorities issued a cellphone alert via its Notify NYC system about the search for Rahami. It said, "WANTED: Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28-yr-old male. See media for pic. Call 9-1-1 if seen."
11 a.m.: The suspect Rahami was captured following a shootout with Linden, N.J., police just a few miles from the suspect's home in Elizabeth, a federal law enforcement official said. Rahami was wounded in the confrontation.
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ef6dfa4c93921d5f2e8d2d7ecd58171e | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/29/flu-season-how-bad/91286714/ | Flu season: How bad will it be? | Flu season: How bad will it be?
The influenza virus is so unpredictable that it’s still too early to tell how bad the upcoming flu season will be, or whether flu vaccines will work better or worse than usual this year.
That’s why Americans of every age should get vaccinated within the next month, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Tom Frieden, urged at a Thursday morning news conference.
“Although it’s not perfect, the flu vaccine is still the best tool to protect against the flu,” he said.
Frieden got his own flu shot at the conference, insisting as cameras flashed that he did not even feel the needle going in. “Getting vaccinated at your workplace is really convenient,” he quipped.
The one major change this year is that the nasal spray version of the vaccine, sold by MedImmune under the brand name FluMist, will not be available. Studies have shown that it has not adequately protected people in recent years, though no one understands why it suddenly began to fail after a decade of effectiveness, Frieden said.
He said the rest of the industry was able to react quickly to the loss of FluMist, which accounted for about 20 million vaccines last year, and is producing 168 million doses of the shot this year – more than enough to meet expected demand. Frieden added that he hopes a nasal vaccine will be available again once scientists better understand what went wrong and how to fix it.
There are several different types of shots, including extra powerful versions for older people to compensate for their waning immune systems, and a new kind that protects against 4 strains of the flu instead of the usual 3.
Frieden and others at the news conference repeatedly encouraged people of all ages to get vaccinated. Seniors over 65, pregnant women and children under 2 are particularly vulnerable to the flu, which causes 100,000 hospitalizations and an average of 30,000 deaths a year.
Only about 46% of the public was vaccinated last year, he said, although 70% will need to be protected to provide so-called herd immunity and limit widespread transmission.
Frieden said if the vaccination rate increases by just 5% this year over last, it will prevent 800,000 illnesses and 10,000 hospitalizations.
Health care workers have gotten better about getting vaccinated, he said, with over 90% of doctors vaccinated last year. Only about 60% of nursing home workers receive vaccinations – a rate Frieden said he hopes will expand this year.
Even if a healthy child over 2 is unlikely to get extremely ill from the flu, that child could still pass the virus on to a younger sibling or a grandparent who is more vulnerable, said Wendy Sue Swanson, a pediatrician and spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Other ways to prevent the flu include frequent hand-washing, sneezing into your elbow instead of hands, and staying home from work when sick. Taking anti-viral medications at the first sign of flu can help reduce the severity of disease, said William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and professor of Preventive Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
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276d8db245204c29cb47361b596e77b9 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/30/el-cajon-calif-police-release-video-fatal-shooting-olango/91341982/ | El Cajon, Calif., police release video of fatal shooting of Olango | El Cajon, Calif., police release video of fatal shooting of Olango
San Diego-area officials released two videos to reporters on Friday, one of which shows an unarmed black man backing away from a police officer after he was fatally shot Tuesday night in El Cajon, Calif.
The video related to the death of Alfred Olango, 38, was released "for the sake of the well-being of the community" because of misinformation being bandied about, El Cajon Police Chief Jeff Davis said during a news conference.
In the first video, which lasts one minute and 37 seconds and is shot from the drive through of a fast food taco restaurant, Olango is seen backing away from Police Officer Richard Gonzalves and then moving to the side before the video goes black.
In the second video, shot via cell phone by someone who was at the taco restaurant drive through, Olango is seen backing away from Gonzalves before four gunshots are heard and someone is heard screaming. This video lasts perhaps 20 seconds.
Davis said he opted to release the video in conjunction with San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and Mayor Bill Wells.
"This was done in the spirit of community calm and peace," Davis said.
Gonzalves shot Olango and another officer applied a stun gun electronic device after responding to a call of a man behaving erratically. A woman filmed on social media video identifying herself as Olango's sister has said Olango suffered from mental challenges and that she called emergency responders for help but hoped someone with a psychiatric background would respond.
The incident is the latest police-involved shooting to draw national attention and to ignite protests among people questioning the relationship between law enforcement and urban communities. Protests have also erupted in Charlotte, N.C., and Tulsa, Okla., after two separate police shootings of black men in those cities in the last two weeks. The shooting victim in Tulsa was unarmed. There is debate as to whether the shooting victim in Charlotte had a gun.
Police said in a statement posted to the agency website that they would release copies of the video to media who attend a briefing. It was not immediately clear how media or members of the public not at the briefing might access the video.
On Wednesday, police released a statement saying Olango pointed a vape smoking device at them before he was stunned with an electronic device and fatally shot.
El Cajon police: Unarmed black man pointed a vape before fatal shooting
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f7fc9bedf76ac87e80b532adc24fbb36 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/10/04/matthews-path-similar-hazels-1954/91489682/ | Hurricane Matthew’s initial path similar to Hazel’s in 1954 | Hurricane Matthew’s initial path similar to Hazel’s in 1954
Hurricane Hazel was 1954’s deadliest hurricane. It struck the United States near the North and South Carolina border. A comparison of the two storms:
More coverage of Hurricane Matthew
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f7d4201db74a4292ed36302ab86e7bf8 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/10/08/experts-say-few-options-gop-oust-trump/91791464/ | Experts say few options for GOP to oust Trump | Experts say few options for GOP to oust Trump
WASHINGTON – With Election Day only weeks away and with some votes already cast, it’s nearly impossible for Republicans to oust Donald Trump and replace him on the ballot, political experts said Saturday.
“At this point, a vacancy would very likely forfeit the presidency irrevocably,’’ said James Bopp, a former Republican National Committee vice chairman. “I think this is gross speculation … I don’t see any prospect of Trump stepping down and there’s no authority to remove him.’
“It would be politically suicidal for the Republican Party to do that anyway,’’ Bopp said.
Trump has come under fire for sexually aggressive comments he made about women on a leaked video tape. Trump apologized for his 2005 comments but has said he doesn't plan to step down.
"I've never said I'm a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone I'm not," Trump said in a video statement. "I've said and done things I regret, and the words released (Friday) on this more than a decade-old video are one of them."
Late Saturday afternoon he tweeted: “The media and establishment want me out of the race so badly - I WILL NEVER DROP OUT OF THE RACE, WILL NEVER LET MY SUPPORTERS DOWN!’’
Pence 'cannot defend' Trump remarks, skips campaign event
Other than pressure from others, including high-profile Republicans, political experts say there is little the national party can do to force Trump to step down.
“I’m sure the temptation was there a long time ago,’’ said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University. “But it’s much too late. They’re stuck with him.’’
If Republicans were to have tried to replace Trump, it probably should have been by Labor Day at the latest, Baker said.
Even then, Baker said, it would probably have caused “an irreparable rupture in the Republican Party. It would have been a civil war.’’
Bopp said Trump can’t be forced to quit.
“There has been some erroneous stories that the RNC has the power to remove a presidential candidate and they do not. They have no such power,’’ said Bopp, a well-known conservative lawyer based in Indiana. “If a vacancy occurred for whatever reason, which obviously could include resignation, then the RNC does have the power to fill the vacancy.’’
According to the RNC rules, the committee is “authorized and empowered to fill any and all vacancies which may occur by reason of death, declination, or otherwise of the Republican candidate for President of the United States ... as nominated by the national convention, or the Republican National Committee may reconvene the national convention for the purpose of filling any such vacancies.’’
Baker said the issue has more to do with state's ballot deadlines. “As each day goes by the filing date passes for one more state,’’ he said.
Bopp said one issue would be whether a replacement can get on the ballot in 50 states and in Washington, D.C. Laws vary from state to state. “In most states, it’s probably too late,’’ he said.
Trump's groping comments leave campaign in crisis
Another issue, said Bopp, is what happens to the ballots that have already been cast. Early voting is already underway in some states.
“How are those votes to be counted and that is again a state by state issue,’’ he said.
Bopp said in some states the ballot would be counted for the replacement, but in others they wouldn’t be counted at all and be considered “spoiled.’’
“A vacancy at this point would mean a lot of lost votes,’’ he said.
Thirty seven states, plus Washington, D.C., offer some form of early voting, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some begin 45 days before Election Day. Many states also allow mail-in absentee ballots.
With a decentralized voting system, laws vary from state to state, said Albert Samuels, interim dean of the Nelson Mandela College of Government and Social Sciences at Southern University in Louisiana.
“It may be difficult even if they wanted to, to get him off the ballot … and replace him with someone else,’’ he said. “There are some practical difficulties that they may have to confront.’’
If Trump withdraws, the RNC would have to agree on a replacement and then tell voters to ignore the name on the ballot, said Derek Muller, an election law expert at Pepperdine University School of Law.
If the Trump campaign gets more electoral college votes than Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the electors in each state could then cast their votes not for Trump, but for the chosen replacement.
Some states require the electors to vote for the person on the ballot who won the most votes. But Muller said there are few enforcement mechanisms and it’s unlikely secretaries of state would force electors to be bound by a candidate who has dropped out.
“The biggest barrier is getting Trump to drop out,” he said.
Baker said Reince Priebus, chairman of the RNC, would have had to have called state party chairs together weeks ago to push that effort.
“There was a time when national party chairs were very strong… where a party chair could just step in and say, ‘This guy is no good, He’s going to lose it for us. Let’s get him off and replace him,'' Baker said. "But Reince Priebus is a party bureaucrat. He really doesn’t have the power to do that much.’’
Beyond ballot issues, some experts say it may be hard for Trump to recover and for the party do damage control.
“There’s no rule book for this one,’’ Samuels said. “Candidates have done embarrassing things in the past … but to have the video and the audio and now with the internet and with social media – the ability to disseminate this and (voters) to see it over and over and over again – that’s what’s different.’’
But Bopp said Trump should keep the focus on Democratic presidential nominee Clinton.
“He’s already apologized,’’ he said. “I think Hillary Clinton’s actions are much more important than Donald Trump’s words 11 years ago. He’s going to proceed to win the election.’’
Samuels, however, rules out a win for Trump, saying “there’s no way around this.’’
Experts said Republicans are also worried about the impact Trump will have on other GOP candidates on the ballot, particularly those running for the Senate and the House.
“Republicans are just hoping they can contain the damage,’’ Samuels said. “They’re afraid it will have a demobilizing effect – that you see people who just can’t bring themselves to vote for this guy. Republicans are going to have to convince those people to come out’’ and vote for other GOP candidates.
Contributing: David Jackson and Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY
Contact Deborah Barfield Berry at dberry@gannett.com. Twitter: @dberrygannett
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c24fe14fcf8a88c36622121d3d7fb28a | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/10/09/hurricane-matthew-civil-war-weapon/91826418/ | Possible Civil War cannon balls unearthed in S.C. after Matthew | Possible Civil War cannon balls unearthed in S.C. after Matthew
Hurricane Matthew may have unearthed ordnance dating to the Civil War in South Carolina, perhaps leaving a bit of history in the storm's wake, according to the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office.
The city of Folly Beach near Charleston said on its Facebook page that 16 cannon balls were uncovered. The ordnance was scheduled to be detonated at 9 p.m. Sunday.
John and Judy Manzi, who have a home on Little Oak Island on the other side of Folly, went on to the beach Sunday and said a friend uncovered the Civil War-era shells.
“There was a gun emplacement there during the Civil War and this must have been a stack because they were all consolidated together,” he said.
Both exploding shells and non-exploding cannonballs were used in the Civil War.
High tide prevented officials from recovering the cannonballs initially, according to WTOC-TV. An Air Force Explosive Ordnance Team and the Folly Beach Fire Department are helping the sheriff’s office investigate, the station reported.
Folly Beach Island is no stranger to pirates, shipwrecks, the Civil War – or hurricanes, according to the city's website. The island was occupied by 13.000 federal troops in 1863 during the Civil War, and soldiers built roads, forts and an artillery battery, according to the city.
The island served as a strategic base for the Union battle to take Fort Wagner, which guarded Charleston harbor from the neighboring Morris Island. In 1987, construction workers found 14 bodies at the west end of the beach that were determined to be members of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, popularized in the movie Glory.
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5cc59bbac264f9b30f27945a6ab60df7 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/10/14/dot-bans-samsung-galaxy-note-7-flights/92066322/ | Samsung Galaxy Note 7 banned on all U.S. flights due to fire hazard | Samsung Galaxy Note 7 banned on all U.S. flights due to fire hazard
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones will be banned from all airline flights after nearly 100 incidents of the devices overheating and sometimes injuring owners, the Transportation Department announced Friday.
The Federal Aviation Administration previously urged travelers not to turn on the phones, pack them in checked luggage or charge them during a flight. The new ban is effective at noon Saturday, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said.
“We recognize that banning these phones from airlines will inconvenience some passengers, but the safety of all those aboard an aircraft must take priority,” Foxx said. “We are taking this additional step because even one fire incident inflight poses a high risk of severe personal injury and puts many lives at risk.”
Airlines add fire-containment bags as precaution for electronics
The South Korea-based Samsung said it is working to communicate the ban to travelers. The company announced Monday it was halting production of the device after some updated versions of the phones continued to overheat, following a recall of the first version.
“We have encouraged airlines to issue similar communications directly to their passengers," the company said in a statement Friday. "We realize this is an inconvenience but your safety has to remain our top priority.”
The company estimates the recalls will cost it $5.3 billion.
Samsung faces rough patch post-Galaxy Note 7
Elliot Kaye, chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is investigating the phone, said consumers should take advantage of opportunities for a refund on the recalled devices.
Samsung has received 96 U.S. reports of batteries in the devices overheating, including 23 new reports since the Sept. 15 recall, according to the commission. Samsung also has received 13 reports of burns and 47 reports of property damage associated with the phones.
“The fire hazard with the original Note 7 and with the replacement Note 7 is simply too great for anyone to risk it and not respond to this official recall,” Kaye said.
The flight ban means the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is now considered a forbidden hazardous material under the Federal Hazardous Material Regulations, which block airline passengers or crew from traveling with lithium cells or batteries or portable electronic devices that are likely to generate a dangerous amount of heat.
If an airline representative observes a traveler with the device before boarding a flight, the airline must deny boarding to the passenger until the phone is discarded, the department said. Anyone caught trying to sneak a Note 7 on board could face fines and criminal prosecution.
Samsung sweetens pot to get Note 7 owners to return their phone
If a flight crew member identifies that a passenger is in possession of the device in flight, the crew member must instruct the passenger to power off the device, not use or charge the device while aboard the aircraft and disable any features that may turn on the device, such as alarm clocks, the department said.
Some airlines had already begun bolstering training and equipment for dealing with electronics fires during flights. A Samsung phone smoked and popped during boarding of a Southwest Airlines flight Oct. 5, forcing the evacuation of passengers without any injuries.
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4510b3b2e18755cabd101a5100fc0414 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/10/28/dakota-access-pipeline-protests-continue-questions-fairness-emerge/92913148/ | Dakota Access pipeline protests draw contrasts to Bundy | Dakota Access pipeline protests draw contrasts to Bundy
A new day of standoffs against the 1,200-mile Dakota Access pipeline continued on Friday in South Dakota as questions bubbled through social media over the fairness of how protesters were being treated.
The Standing Rock Sioux Native American tribe is suing to stop the pipeline from crossing next to their reservation, where they say it would destroy their sacred sites and negatively affect the water supply. The governors of Iowa and the Dakotas prodded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday to issue the permissions needed to continue construction. The tribe maintained in court that the corps did not consult it properly before moving forward.
The dispute between the tribe and the federal government has now evolved into standoffs that on Thursday escalated into a raid during which more than 140 people were arrested. Hundreds of police wearing riot gear closed in on an encampment of tents and teepees while surveillance helicopters circled overhead. Friday's activity was much more subdued however, as 50 protesters who faced military vehicles and police in riot gear in the morning evolved into quiet by Friday afternoon.
Native Americans from across the country have converged on the area to join the protest.
Scores arrested as police clear Dakota pipeline protesters camp
The escalation of tensions caused many members of the public to take to social media and compare how the Native American protesters have been treated compared to the organizers of a standoff at an Oregon wildlife refuge who all were acquitted of federal charges on Thursday. The hashtag #noDAPL has been trending on Twitter.
"On the same day that a jury acquitted the Bundy brothers and their fellow protesters for taking over federal land in Oregon last January, police in North Dakota today used pepper spray gas and a painful high-pitched siren, and then arrested 117 Native Americans and others for protesting a private oil pipeline across land they say belongs to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe under a 19th-century treaty," Robert Reich, secretary of labor under President Clinton, posted on Facebook very early on Friday. "In other words, it's fine to mount an armed insurrection so your cattle can graze for free on federal land, but not if you want to protect your sacred burial ground or your only source of water from a private for-profit oil pipeline company," he wrote.
"So let me get this correct," Alicia Garza, founder of the Black Lives Matter social movement, posted on Facebook. "If you're white, you can occupy federal property ... and get found not guilty. No teargas, no tanks, no rubber bullets ... If you're indigenous and fighting to protect our earth, and the water we depend on to survive, you get tear gassed, media blackouts, tanks and all that."
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61a764648756bef9647ef6f08ec1acf4 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/10/29/national-cat-day-cat-instagram/92781760/ | It's National Cat Day and here are some of the best cat Instagrams | It's National Cat Day and here are some of the best cat Instagrams
It just happens. Somehow, through no fault of your own and despite a mountain of work, you tap into Instagram and find yourself lost in a sea of never-ending cat photos. For this National Cat Day, we spoke to the "moms" and "dads" of some of our favorite cats to learn what's behind that addictive adorableness.
More than a meme
Mick Szydlowski, of Seattle, might have a cat-celebrity in his house, but he makes one thing clear: Oskar is more than a meme. Oskar, the blind cat, is an inspiration. He even has an award from the National Federation of the Blind to prove it. Szydlowski started an Instagram account featuring Oskar and his brother cat Klaus to show "what it was like living with a special needs cat," he says. It takes a little more patience — and the commitment to keep your cat indoors — but in many cases, he says wannabe cat owners should consider opening their home to a disabled cat.
"I am very consistent with reading the comments that people make on Instagram and Facebook. If someone has a question about adopting a disabled cat, I want to help,” Szydlowski says.
“Sometimes someone will make a pity comment like 'Aw poor thing, I hope he can have an eye transplant or something’ but I let them know he is as happy as any other cat and can do anything he puts his mind to,” Szydlowski says.
Oskar and Klaus have two books — and one of them is about to fly to space on a rocket to be read by a crew member on board the International Space Station and broadcast to classrooms around the world. Really.
An artist and his muse
Hugo Martinez is an artist. And Princess Cheeto is his star subject. Their goal? Make people happy.
"I used to be obsessed with Grumpy Cat and other cats," Martinez says. "I remember how happy these cats would make me — they would totally turn around my day."
When Martinez’s friends surprised him with Cheeto for his birthday his life was changed — in a good way. Through art, he decided to pay it forward.
Last year, Martinez quit his job to photograph Cheeto full time.
"There is so much competition in New York and everyone wants to do the same thing. This is different. I get to combine my passions: photography and the most precious thing that I love: Cheeto.”
Martinez lucked out with Cheeto. She may be sassy, he says, but she’s easy to photograph. "She stay and she’ll pose,” he laughs. But don’t worry — those photos of Cheeto on a city street? They’re composites — different photos edited together. Cheeto’s wellbeing is Martinez’s top concern.
What do Cheeto’s fans love the most? "They love stuff on her head,” he laughs.
Meant to be
When Mike Bridavsky first saw Lil BUB, he knew they were meant to be together. She was the runt of a feral litter in a tool shed in rural Indiana.
"People kept giving up on her because it was obvious that she needed special care,” Bridavsky recalls. Lil BUB has a degenerative bone condition called osteopetrosis. "She’s the only cat in recorded history born with it," Bridavsky says. "I fell in love with her as soon as I saw her. I couldn’t believe she was real.”
Bridavsky didn’t expect Lil BUB to live very long so he took videos and photos of every moment. At first, Bridavsky was noticing comments where people called Lil BUB “retarded” or claimed that she was the result of inbreeding.
Instead of getting frustrated, Bridavsky used the chatter to talk about cat adoption and special needs pets. Now, Lil BUB even has the first national fund for special needs pets: Little BUB’s big fund for the ASPCA. "She’s brought some people out of some serious darkness and tough times," Bridavsky says. "She’s a legend"
The dapper GQ cat
Shrampton’s wardrobe is probably better than yours. After all, his mom Leilani Shimoda is a fashion designer.
"He has a couple costume changes coming for this Halloween,” she says.
Whatever Shrampton is doing, it's working. "Sometimes girls try to flirt with him over DM,” Shimoda laughs."I send little cat emojis and hearts back."
Shimoda says she keeps up Shrampton's Instagram account because it makes people happy. "Some people comment and say 'I was having the worst day, this helped,' or they tag each other and say 'This is us! This is me! This will be us tomorrow.' I love that."
Shrampton does really well posing on set. "I get super mom proud," Shimoda says. "I just love him and have so much fun with him." Having a famous cat is like being part of a special cat-parent community. "We keep in touch and then there are times when we support each other," she says. "It’s funny, you introduce yourself as a cat first. We all know each other by our cats, we are secondary in the friendship."
Those tiny legs can moonwalk
When you look at Albert Baby Cat you’d never imagine that he starred in an episode of Animal Planet's My Cat From Hell. His big problem? He licked too much. It’s an adorable problem that fits an adorable cat. Albert’s human, Christine Look, never expected her blue-eyed, tiny-legged cat to grow to such Internet fame. "When he was a baby he looked very weird,” Look laughs. "He was the runt of the litter. As he grew up he got cuter and cuter.”
Look started Albert Baby Cat’s Instagram about two years ago, for the last year, it’s been her full-time job. In order to make money, Look spends half of her work time searching for brands and communicating with them and setting up campaigns to promote them. The other half of her time is spent taking and editing the photos and videos. "I love Albert so much and I love spending every day with him,” Look says. She's even going to release Albert Baby Cat adult coloring sheets. Next up, Halloween — and Look has some ideas brewing. And don’t tell Albert, but his mom is on the lookout for a buddy for him. Can’t wait to see a photo of Albert and friend? Stay tuned.
The purr-fect pair
If you think one famous cat is a lot to manage, try two. Pookie Methachittiphan lives in Los Angeles with her cats Nala and Coffee. "They are my babies, that’s how I feel about them,” she says. At first her family thought she was crazy, but now that once-shelter cat Nala is one of the most famous cats on Instagram, they're amazed. "My mom calls them her grandchildren,” Methachittiphan laughs.
The Instagram account is becoming a full-time job for Methachittiphan, and that’s OK by her. "I get to be with my pets and spread the word about adoption,” she says.
But, if you want to make your cat a social media star, Methachittiphan has some advice: "You have to be careful what you say ... because sometimes people are like 'why did you do this to your cat?' No one wants to see them uncomfortable.” Methachittiphan says she knows her cats, and there is no need to worry about them being uncomfortable. “Nala likes to wear clothes and she likes the camera. Coffee too. Coffee learned from Nala.” Luna Rose, a 6-month-old Scottish fold mix that Methachittiphan recently adopted, appears to be game, too. She’s already made her Instagram debut.
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2f6c71775b5dd828c20a865f2516c1fd | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/10/30/rolling-stone-publisher-disagreed-with-rape-story-retraction/92999684/ | Rolling Stone publisher disagreed with rape story retraction | Rolling Stone publisher disagreed with rape story retraction
Rolling Stone magazine publisher and co-founder Jann Wenner said in a video deposition that he disagreed with a top editor's decision to retract the article depicting a grisly but discredited tale of gang rape at the University of Virginia.
"I do not stand by it," Wenner said. "We do not retract the whole story."
Wenner said that although the account given by the woman known only as "Jackie" turned out not to be accurate, the bulk of the 2014 story, "A Rape on Campus," is still valid, The Daily Progress reported. Wenner was asked to read the magazine's April 2015 note written by then-Managing Editor Will Dana which said "we are officially retracting 'A Rape on Campus." Wenner said he believes that retraction is "inaccurate."
The video was played Friday at the trial of a defamation lawsuit filed by former dean, Nicole Eramo, who counseled "Jackie." Eramo is suing Rolling Stone for more than $7 million, claiming the article painted her as a "villain." Eramo claims she was depicted as an administrator more interested in protecting the university than in serving the needs of assault victims.
Rolling Stone's attorneys have argued that the magazine believes its portrayal of Eramo and the university's handling of sexual assault cases was well-reported and accurate, despite problems with Jackie's account.
Wenner said the magazine was the "victim" of someone who was "really determined to commit a fraud."
“We screwed up. Bring it on. We suffered,” Wenner said before apologizing to Eramo, according to The Daily Beast. “It was never meant to happen this way to you. And believe me, I’ve suffered as much as you have. But please, my sympathies.”
Author Sabrina Rubin Erdely has defended her reporting efforts and denied she planned from the start to write an attack piece about institutional indifference regarding rape cases at prestigious universities. Lawyers for Eramo pressed Erdely for details on how she reported the article.
Erdely admits she did not interview Jackie's alleged attackers — nor her friends — to corroborate details about the hours after the attack. Erdely also testified Jackie altered details of her story during the reporting process, but Erdely said she dismissed it as confusion common for trauma victims.
Contributing: John Bacon, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
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998b925260a17201f0b703408037b14a | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/10/31/short-list-monday/93051110/ | Carlos Danger really is dangerous | Carlos Danger really is dangerous
Anthony Weiner becomes Hillary Clinton's nightmare
All this time, we thought Anthony Weiner was just Huma Abedin's problem. Turns out he's Hillary Clinton's problem, too. Here's what's happening: FBI Director James Comey said Friday that while the FBI was investigating the former New York congressman's latest sexting scandal, it found new emails that could be pertinent to the previously closed investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of State. Weiner is married to — and currently separated from — Abedin, a longtime Clinton aide who had access to the same device or devices. The FBI obtained a warrant Sunday to begin a review of the emails, but Comey is super vague on what he knows so far. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is saying, "I told you so." Dems are furious and say Comey owes it to the public to reveal more information. Sen. Harry Reid and other Democrats aren't just accusing Comey of making Clinton look bad — they also accuse him of covering up information about Trump and Russian hacking. Carlos Danger just blew up the presidential race. T-minus eight days.
On to another Hilary
Hillary Clinton isn't the only Hillz in the news Monday. Hilary Duff is here, too, and she is SO sorry for her Halloween costume. The star went out in Beverly Hills this weekend with her boyfriend, trainer Jason Walsh, dressed as a pilgrim and a Native American. She had on a short black outfit, and he wore a feather headdress and face paint. Then, Twitter. People called her "ignorant," "racist" and "out of touch." Duff tweeted on Sunday that she messed up and is sorry she offended anyone. Celebs apologizing for racist cultural appropriation is a Halloween tradition. See the stars who actually got it right this year.
Forget everything let's just elect Bill Murray president
The Chicago Cubs are two wins in Cleveland away from the biggest comeback in almost 40 years. The National League champs blocked the Cleveland Indians from out-right winning the World Series on Sunday night, forcing a Game 6 on Tuesday. Besides the Cubs themselves, no one is more pumped about Sunday's win than Bill Murray. The Cubs superfan was caught on the big screen at Wrigley Field, crying and flexing. Hey, when you've been waiting for a World Series win for 108 years, you do you.
What's happening in Mosul
If you don't know what's going on in Mosul right now, you should. For two weeks, Iraqi forces and their Kurdish allies have been converging on Mosul from all directions to drive the Islamic State from Iraq’s second-largest city, the last major city in Iraq held by the group. On Monday, Iraqi special forces advanced on Mosul from the east, taking heavy fire but entering the last Islamic State-held village before the city’s eastern limits and clearing a path that was followed by army units. Since the offensive began, Iraqi forces have made uneven progress. The operation is expected to take weeks, if not months.
Extra Bites
Warren Buffett tells you how to turn $40 into $10 million. Sort of.Michael Phelps is hitched. These photos, tho.
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This is a compilation of stories from across USA TODAY
Contributing: Associated Press
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075455da697193642542fd7ae8e3b11b | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/11/10/faa-restricts-flights-over-trump-pence-residences/93584124/ | FAA to pilots: Don't fly over Trump Tower in NYC | FAA to pilots: Don't fly over Trump Tower in NYC
Trump Tower just got a little more exclusive.
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered pilots to avoid flying over the midtown Manhattan high-rise as a security precaution for president-elect Donald Trump. The flight restriction is necessary for "VIP movement" around town, the agency said.
Flights over Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s residence in Indianapolis are under similar constraints until the vice president-elect moves to the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington.
Thousands across the USA protest Trump victory
Both orders expire Jan. 21, the day after the inauguration. In New York, the directive bars flights below 3,000 feet in midtown Manhattan, mostly in relation to flights out of LaGuardia airport. Military aircraft, the Secret Service and emergency aircraft are exempt. For Pence, the restriction covers flights below 1,500 feet. Both orders also cover drones.
Violation of either restriction could result in the use of deadly military force against the intruding aircraft, the FAA warned.
Obama says he and Trump had 'excellent conversation'
Such orders are routine for presidents and former presidents who live or stay outside the White House. A similar flight prohibition exists for the Texas ranch of George W. Bush. Temporary flight restrictions are also put in place for important figures, such Pope Francis when he visited Philadelphia in September 2015.
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62e92838181db9fbbe4a76644932a001 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/11/25/reports-russian-operation-boosted-fake-news-phenomenon/94424206/ | Reports: Russian operation boosted 'fake news' phenomenon | Reports: Russian operation boosted 'fake news' phenomenon
The "fake news" phenomenon that circulated thousands of phony stories during the election was aided by a sophisticated Russian propaganda effort, according to the Washington Post.
Independent researchers who tracked the bold operation say the goal was to punish Democrat Hillary Clinton, help Republican Donald Trump and undermine faith in American democracy, the newspaper reports.
Two teams of independent researchers found that the Russians exploited American-made technology platforms to attack U.S. democracy at a particularly vulnerable moment in the rancorous campaigns. Among the most-circulated stories were items on Clinton's health and fears about vote rigging.
“They want to essentially erode faith in the U.S. government or U.S. government interests,” said Clint Watts, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute who co-authored a report on Russian propaganda, the Post reports. “This was their standard mode during the Cold War. The problem is that this was hard to do before social media.”
How Facebook plans to crack down on fake news
In an article in the national security online magazine War On The Rocks, Watts, along with with co-authors Andrew Weisburd and J.M. Berger described a multi-pronged operation that bombarded social media with skewed items that then, often unwittingly, showed up in newsfeeds, posts and alternative news sites.
"A small army of social media operatives — a mix of Russian-controlled accounts, useful idiots, and innocent bystanders — are deployed to promote all of this material to unknowing audiences. Some of these are real people, others are bots, and some present themselves as innocent news aggregators, providing 'breaking news alerts' to happenings worldwide or in specific cities," the report says.
Weisburd is a fellow at the Center for Cyber & Homeland Security. Berger is an author and analyst studying extremism and the use of propaganda on social media.
A similar report from PropOrNot, which tracks propaganda, identifies more than 200 websites that regularly pushed Russian propaganda to some 15 million Americans. The analysts found bogus stories pushed on Facebook were viewed more than 213 million times.
Fake news threatens democracy, Obama says
Some items originated from the Russian-funded information services, like RT and Sputnik, which produce both traditional news items and some misleading articles.
"A large-scale information campaign is deceptively injecting Russian propaganda into American public discourse online," ProporNot says on its website. "It operates on both the left and the right, generating thousands of fake news articles, memes, tweets, and videos. Collectively, this propaganda is undermining our public discourse by providing a warped view of the world, where Russia can do no wrong, and America is a corrupt dystopia that is tearing itself apart. It is vital that this effort be exposed for what it is: A coordinated attempt to deceive U.S. citizens into acting in Russia's interests."
RT responded Friday with an article that said the Post was "blasted online" for what it called "its latest hit-piece." It also said the FPRI, where one of the analysts, Watts, is a fellow, was founded in 1955 to mobilize opposition to the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was criticized by Sen. William Fulbright, who was "a vocal opponent of McCarthyism."
Report: Fake election news performed better than real news on Facebook
In October, the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint statement on behalf of the U.S. Intelligence Community accusing the Russian government of directing hacking operations on U.S. political organizations and individuals. Emails and documents hacked from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta surfaced repeatedly on WikiLeaks during the campaign.
Last week, President Obama denounced the attention generated by fake news, saying, “If we are not serious about facts and what’s true and what’s not ... If we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems.”
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51f9783db185d26c358df5159789722a | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/03/hawaii-could-get-another-foot-snow-sunday/94890212/ | Hawaii expected to get 3 feet of snow. You read that right. | Hawaii expected to get 3 feet of snow. You read that right.
Hawaii's highest peak could get up to another foot of snow Sunday, on top of the 2 feet that have fallen since Thursday, the National Weather Service says.
A winter storm warning is in effect for the summits of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea through Saturday evening.
“Then we’re expecting another round on Sunday and Sunday night,” said Matthew Foster, a staff meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu.
The initial storm started on Thursday and was slowing down Saturday, “though some freezing drizzle is still possible,” Foster said.
The next storm is currently about 400 miles west of the island of Kauai and should arrive over the islands sometime on Sunday, Foster said.
“This one won’t be quite as strong when it moves over the Big Island, so we’re putting it as possibly 12 more inches of snow,” he said.
The rest of the island, and all of Hawaii, remains warm if somewhat wet, with heavy rains in some areas that have caused flash flooding.
“The grounds are already saturated now, so it doesn’t take much,” Foster said.
The snow at the peak of Mauna Loa is not uncommon because it is so high, nearly 14,000 feet.
“As long as we have deep enough clouds to support ice crystals, and when you have cold enough temperatures at the summit level, you can get snowfall,” said Foster.
Mauna Loa and its sister peak of Mauna Kea are both volcanos. Mauna Kea is the highest point in the state of Hawaii.
Snow on the peaks is not uncommon in the colder months of the year, though deep snow is rare.
“We’ll probably see three to five snow events a year during the cold season. Some years we might not get any, some years we might get more,” said Foster.
The only other area of Hawaii that gets snow with any regularity is the Haleakalā volcano on Maui, which at about 10,000 feet gets snow once every five years or so, he said.
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3d0017361b4c06ee785acb22292716ee | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/03/least-9-dead-oakland-warehouse-party-fire/94881696/ | Authorities: More than 2 dozen may be dead in Oakland warehouse fire | Authorities: More than 2 dozen may be dead in Oakland warehouse fire
OAKLAND — At least nine people are dead and as many as two-dozen others also may have perished in a massive fire that broke out late Friday in an Oakland warehouse and artists collective in what Mayor Libby Schaaf on Saturday called a "terrible tragedy.''
Alameda County Sheriff's Office spokesman Ray Kelly said it could take at least 48 hours to tally the number of casualties because of the continuing danger posed to firefighters by the unstable and charred remains of the structure in the city's Fruitvale district. The fire, the worst in Oakland in years, broke out during an electronic music party at the warehouse, which had illegally been turned into artists studios and living spaces.
At a late-night press conference, Kelly said nine bodies recovered from the rubble had been sent to the coroner’s office for identification, and that authorities had been able to locate several dozen missing people. He said recovery efforts will continue slowly through the night because of darkness and the unstable infrastructure of the charred building.
“We have to move slow and judiciously,” Kelly said. “We know there are bodies in there that we cannot get to. ... We don’t know how many people were inside when this happened.”
A few hours earlier, Kelly said firefighters had removed four of the nine bodies officials could see when they went into the entrance of the building. These were being fingerprinted, and Oakland officials were working quickly to identify them for the anxious families who are awaiting word of their loved ones.
The Oakland Fire Department is bringing in tractors, bulldozers, trucks and a crane Saturday night to get into the ruined building in a search for the bodies of the dead.
"We're going to have to cut a hole through the building. It's blocked at the entrance so we have to gain access on the other side," Kelly said.
"It's very twisted debris in there. There are wires and beams and wood. It's all fallen in on itself. We're thinking about bringing in cadaver dogs and robots to get into all the crevices," he said.
"This is a devastating scene,'' the mayor said at a briefing Saturday afternoon at a makeshift podium within sight of the building, adding that the investigation and recovery effort would be a "complex'' undertaking.
Schaaf said she had met earlier Saturday with a roomful of people still searching for loved ones but could not say exactly how many may have perished in the blaze.
"It was painful to tell them that it will take a considerable amount of time'' to determine the number of victims, Schaaf said. "Our focus right now is on the victims and their families and ensuring that we have a full accounting for everyone who was impacted by this tragedy."
Oakland Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed told reporters that most of the dead were found on the second floor of the building. She said it took about five hours to put out the blaze in the building, which did not appear to have sprinklers. The building didn’t have a clear exit path, she said.
Pre-fire investigation into safety
The ground floor of the structure had been partitioned into several artist studios and was packed with furniture, mannequins and other objects, said Assistant Fire Chief Mark Hoffman
“It was just a labyrinth of little areas,” he said.
Firefighters were only able to get in about 20 yards before they had to pull back before the building itself was too unsafe. “The walls were moving,” Hoffman said.
Firefighters worked to shore up the building so they could safely search for bodies. The search was able to get underway about 3:30 p.m. Saturday but will likely take days, Schaaf said.
City officials confirmed Saturday that building authorities had opened an investigation just last month into complaints about the safety of the structure. That inquiry was ongoing when the fire struck.
An inspector from Oakland’s Department of Planning had attempted to enter the building on Nov. 17 in response to complaints of illegal building and blight in the lot next door, but was unable to get in, Oakland's Planning and Building Director Darin Ranelletti said Saturday.
Whether the inspector couldn't get in because he was refused entrance or simply because no one was at home wasn’t immediately known.
Fire officials said the search of the building was stymied when the roof collapsed. Because of the precarious state of the structure, officials with the coroner’s office was unable to begin recovering bodies until nearly seven hours after the fire struck. The scent of the smoldering building could be detected from blocks away Saturday afternoon.
"One of the issues was that leading up to the second floor there was only one way up and down," Reed told reporters. "It was my understanding that the stairwell was kind of makeshift, that they put it together with pallets."
Around 1:30 p.m., firefighters began unloading lumber to the building to shore up dangerously damaged walls and ceilings so crews could continue the gruesome task of searching for bodies in the charred remains of the two-story stucco structure.
Drones launched to find victimsKelly said investigators had launched drones with thermal imaging capability over the gutted building to help officials find additional victims.
"Our focus right now is on the victims and their families and ensuring that we have a full accounting for everyone who was impacted by this tragedy."
"
One witness who escaped the blaze, Bob Mule, told the East Bay Times that a friend hurt himself and asked for help getting out. Mule said he tried, but couldn’t do it.
“It was too hot, too much smoke; I had to get out of there,” said Mule, a photographer and artist who lives in the building and suffered minor burns. “I literally felt my skin peeling and my lungs being suffocated by smoke. I couldn’t get the fire extinguisher to work."
About 50 people are believed to have been inside the building at the time of the blaze, according to fire department officials. Kelly said most of the victims were believed to be in their 20s and 30s, and some were thought to be visitors from other countries.
Kelly said the investigation will be slow, because of the state of the scene.
"It's just a task to get through the front door with all the debris and wreckage that's there," Kelly said. "We're slowly making our way in, and we have to go systematically because any misstep on the part of our people could mean they get injured or fall through a floor or have something fall on top of them."
An electronic-music party dubbed Golden Donna 100% Silk was set for Friday night at the warehouse, called "The Ghost Ship” by the artists who used it. Oakland City Councilman Noel Gallo, whose district includes the warehouse, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the building “has been an issue for a number of years.”
“People have been living inside, and the neighbors have complained about it,” he said. “Some of these young people that were in there were underage. They frequently had parties there.”
Friends and family took to social media Saturday to post and seek information on loved ones who might have been there.The sheriff's office has set up a family notification and assistance center at the Alameda County Building. Authorities were asking family and friends who believe they have loved ones who may have been in the warehouse to contact the sheriff's department.
"We are hoping for the best," Terry Ewing, whose girlfriend was planning on attending the party and was among the missing, told the Associated Press.
The Fruitvale neighborhood, where the building is located, has long been a heavily Latino area.
The streets are lined with taco shops and Latin grocery stores and shops for sending money and goods to various countries in Central and South America. It also is home to increasing numbers of artists, musicians and others, of all races and ethnicities many of whom have been priced out of San Francisco. Whether the people who lived in the units in the building’s second floor were new to the area or were long-time residents wasn’t known.
Hushed groups of neighbors gathered at the area in front of the building where it was possible to see the soot-blackened front over the police tape, mostly speaking in Spanish.
Blessed Vorgar, 23, has lived two blocks from the building since she was 12.
"God have mercy on them," she said of those who had died.
Contributing: Jon Swartz in San Mateo, Calif.
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da2fe8af5cbca0aef11cde07ef39cba2 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/05/local-farm-plans-full-service-usda-facility/94694316/ | Local farm plans full-service USDA facility | Local farm plans full-service USDA facility
As Southwest Florida farmers cash out to real estate developers, a Felda couple is building their farm’s future in ethically harvesting, as well as raising, quality meats.
Nicole Kozak and Manny Cruz first carved a niche for Circle C Farm in free-ranging, organically-raised, GMO-free poultry. Starting in 2010, they put some 1,500 laying hens on their Bonita Springs property, and last year got USDA-certified to harvest their birds.
Now they’re hatching a 6,000-square-foot USDA-inspected facility on Circle C’s Felda acreage, just north of Immokalee, that would be a first of its kind for Florida – able to harvest and butcher livestock of any kind.
Not only will the couple be able to harvest their own cows, heritage hogs and lambs, as well as birds, humanely, without trucking them to far-flung places; so will others who want to bring their livestock to Felda for a one-stop service; from large outfits to the family with 4-H kids who’ve raised one or two steer.
“I think there’s a felt need for a high-quality processing center in our region that Circle C could fill,” said Vanessa Bielema, a University of Florida ag extension agent dedicated to sustainable food systems. “Almost every small livestock farmer I talk to either has access issues with distance to processing facilities, or is dissatisfied with the quality they get back.”
Since Upton Sinclair’s 1906 book The Jungle, slaughterhouses have been associated with cruel and unclean practices in the quest for maximum profit. But a tide of small farmers is pushing back.
“Small farmers take pride in raising their animals, and they want to see the process finished in a humane, satisfying way,” Bielema said.
More than 80 percent of Florida’s farms, livestock and otherwise, are modest, family-owned affairs, according to the state’s Department of Agriculture, a pattern repeated across the country.“How we handle animals is very gentle,” Kozak said. “We spend a lot of time, energy and money to make sure they’re cared for, and it shows in the quality of the meat.” On a recent tour of her Felda spread, young lambs tested their legs in a Bahiagrass field; the third generation the couple has bred from a cross of Florida Cracker rams with White Dorper and Katahdin ewes to resist disease – no antibiotics need apply.In another pasture, Red and Black Angus munched on spent grains, delivered twice a week from Fort Myers Brewing Company, while a flock of white broilers waddled up the road to check out the visitors. Being a harvest day, the birds were lifted in small numbers by hand onto a flat-bed trailer, where they puttered, unafraid up to the instant a knife severed the carotid arteries; a one-minute process.
“Some facilities stack the animals, make them wait for hours, and stun or decapitate them,” Kozak explained. “The adrenaline flowing through their bodies can taint the quality of the meat.” Over the resistance of industrial farmers, conscientious consumers and chefs are fueling the market for "clean meats," according to a November Nielsen study. “Six months of a good life and one bad day. It does make a difference,” said Corrinna Hensley, who breeds and raises Yorkshire and Duroc hogs on Lucky Diamond Ranch in Fort Myers.Demand for her pork is so high that Hensley doesn’t need a farmer’s market to promote it, she says -- it sells itself by word of mouth.
“I’m very excited about Circle C’s project because it would give us a place that does it all in the local area,” said Hensley, who currently takes her animals to separate USDA-inspected slaughter and butchering facilities before the meat can be sold.
On top of that, “A lot of places only do beef and pork, so you have to go elsewhere to harvest lamb or chicken,” she added. “Circle C would be an all-meat facility.”
Of 24 USDA-inspected facilities around the state, only 10 process all kinds of red meat, and none do red and white, according to a University of Florida agriculture extension list of companies.
Families across Glades, Hendry, Charlotte, Collier and Lee counties who just want to raise meat for themselves would also be able to use the Circle C plant on weekends.
“Someone you can trust to respect the animal as you do would be amazing,” said Angela Kuckes, whose children raise a 4-H steer every year on Rafter KV Ranch in Bonita Springs. “So you don’t have to wonder, if they’re doing a large number, did you get everything? Did it get mixed up?”
Getting banks to finance the $2.3 million Circle C facility is just one of the challenges.“Banks don’t understand agriculture, so they don't know farming can pay for itself,” Kozak said.Her business plan uses USDA data to show the service gap for small-scale farmers all over the state, whose infrastructure has gone by the wayside as the big farms consolidate.“Most folks at this size don’t have the resources to take it on, but Nicole is great at that," extension agent Bielema said. "She's a real go-getter."
Follow this reporter on Twitter @PatriciaBorns.
Related:
Circle C Farm in Felda is putting a new local face on meat
The Art of Butchery: A dying trade
Three Suns Ranch gives meat a new look in Punta Gorda
For the love of lard, Rosy Tomorrows gives pig fat a good name
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694e8a2a1ee5a9ee3d9ebb28aa3ef9a1 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/09/fda-rgh-strong/95151254/ | FDA scrutinizes reporting procedures at RGH, Strong | FDA scrutinizes reporting procedures at RGH, Strong
Two Rochester hospitals where women underwent gynecological surgery that involved a now-controversial device have been scrutinized for their reporting practices on medical devices in general.
Rochester General and Strong Memorial were among 17 hospitals nationwide inspected since last December by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after the agency learned the hospitals were among several in the nation where patients died from a type of uterine cancer that was spread and worsened after the use of power morcellators, or who died after developing an infection transmitted by a duodenscope used in gastrointestinal procedures.
But the agency found no reports of these device-related deaths in its national database.
Rochester General had at least two incidents from 2009 to 2013 in which patients underwent minimally invasive surgery with power morcellation to remove presumably benign fibroids. Pathology reports later determined that the growths harbored cancer. Strong Memorial had at least one case, in 2012.
Officials at each hospital said they were not told why an inspector visited, but they said the use of power morcellators was not addressed. The officials said the devices were the topic of a subsequent conversation with the FDA. The officials said they had no issues related to the duodenscopes.
According to the FDA, both hospitals promised to correct some part of their reporting system for adverse events related to medical devices. Neither was fined or given any sanction, according to the FDA.
►Read: FDA report to Rochester General
►Read: FDA report to Strong Memorial
The agency charged with the safety of patients and consumers in so many aspects of health and wellness has stated it wants to improve its data on medical devices, and the inspections may be its teachable moment.
Dr. Robert Mayo, chief medical officer for Rochester Regional Health said, “It has us very vigilant and striving to be good partners and reporters to the FDA. But the FDA is going to have to lead this public discussion.” Rochester General is part of Rochester Regional.
Dr. Robert Panzer, chief quality officer at Strong Memorial Hospital, said the review of reporting procedures increases scrutiny on the strategy for using devices. “Anything new that seems promising needs to be studied carefully, but as it starts to be used more broadly, it needs to have a way to gather information across the entire country to learn more.”
What is a morcellator?
To recap: A power morcellator minces tissue into small pieces that can be easily removed through the small incisions used in minimally invasive surgery. Power morcellators do not cause cancer but, if that tissue contains cancer, the centrifugal force of the blades can spread tiny fragments.
However, there is no way to know for sure before surgery that the fibroid is benign. That determination is made after surgery — when the damage may have already been done.
Power morcellators had been used since the 1990s, but it wasn’t until late 2013 that anyone spoke out about a possible connection between the devices and leiomyosarcoma. The alarm came from Dr. Hooman Noorchashm, at that time in Boston, after his wife, Dr. Amy Reed, underwent the procedure at a hospital there and was diagnosed with late-stage cancer. Noorchashm and Reed started a website and national movement to ban power morcellation.
The FDA began acting in the spring of 2014. Unity Hospital was the first in Rochester to stop power morcellation, and the others followed. All still ban power morcellation, although Strong Memorial Hospital allows gynecologic surgeons to use a hand scalpel to cut tissue that is inside a bag.
Why is change needed?
Medications undergo rigorous testing before they reach the market and yet still problems are found when millions of people start taking the drugs. Medical devices do not have such pre-market evaluation.
►READ: Husbands welcome inquiry
Better tracking of devices' outcomes would save lives, said Frank Interlichia. His wife, Linda, had minimally invasive surgery with morcellation at Rochester General in 2013 and died in 2014.
“If doctors had better information, they’d make safer choices,” he said. “If patients had access to the information, they would be able to make informed choices. As it is, unfortunately patients are flying blind.”
Interlichia said he and other families, including George Leuzzi, whose wife, Brenda, underwent minimally invasive surgery with morcellation in 2012 at Strong Memorial and died in 2014, have called on the FDA to do more. He said the agency needs tougher, explicit wording in its regulations and clear consequences for noncompliance.
“We think the FDA hasn’t done much more than take half-measures here,” he said.
Why didn’t anyone know?
The FDA for decades has required hospitals (among other health care facilities) to report deaths and serious injuries related to medical devices. The FDA maintains a database for just that purpose.
Along with other action in 2014, the FDA reiterated to hospitals that they are required to report device-related deaths — and not just when the device malfunctions, as seemed to be the interpretation by many health care facilities.
The agency inspected 17 hospitals after learning that they may have had adverse events related to morcellators or scopes. When the FDA searched its database for reports prior to 2014, it came up empty.
The FDA acknowledged that death or injury could occur years after the fact. “Nevertheless, the FDA considers hospital reporting of device-related patient deaths and serious injuries to be critical to improving the safety of medical devices and improving patient care overall,” spokeswoman Deborah Kotz wrote in response to questions for this article. “We are seeking ways to improve this reporting system by increasing awareness of current medical device reporting requirements and challenges hospitals may face when trying to comply with those requirements.”
In other articles written about the FDA inspections, hospital executives have said they didn’t report morcellators because the device worked as it was designed to do.
“The morcellator never malfunctioned,” said Mayo.
Panzer said the issue was with the surgical approach. “It was the strategy of doing minimally invasive surgery with larger tumors that in hindsight led to these events.”
Surgeons have favored minimally invasive surgery in general to reduce the patient’s risk of infection, reduce blood loss and shorten recovery time. Power morcellation was used by gynecologic surgeons.
Jim Leary’s wife, Barbara, underwent minimally invasive surgery at Rochester General in 2009. She died in 2013.
“When you’re taking a fibroid that you don’t know a 100 percent that it’s not cancerous and you mince it up, you’re spreading that unknown cancer,” he said. “I would disagree with him. There is a problem with that device, especially when you’re throwing cancerous particles about the pelvic cavity.”
Leary said he did not know that a power morcellator was used until he requested the surgical report.
“You’d think all doctors and all physicians would just be upfront and totally and completely open with their patients about what’s going on,” he said.
Why bring this up now?
The publicity by the FDA surrounding its inspections is one development that has brought morcellation back into the spotlight. The other is the recent passage of the 21st Century Cures Act, which some critics said favors the pharmaceutical and medical device industries over patients.
If the critics are justified, then having the FDA shore up what it said are longstanding reporting requirements could provide needed balance. So, too, could passage of the Medical Device Guardians Act, introduced in May by Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, and Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, R-Pennsylvania, which would require doctors to report on certain adverse events with devices.
In addition, the Government Accountability Office is investigating the morcellator situation, and Slaughter said the final report is expected early in 2017.
PSINGER@Gannett.com
Cutting the power on morcellation
Grieving husband pleads with FDA to end morcellation
Surgical procedure gets its day in 'court'
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e625d5826deefb57e12a13582e349eed | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/11/trauma-surgeon-cheatham-orlando-shooting/95179982/ | 49 dead, a 36-hour shift and a daily reminder: Pulse 6 months later | 49 dead, a 36-hour shift and a daily reminder: Pulse 6 months later
Michael Cheatham is reminded of that June 12 morning nearly every day: in the boarded-up nightclub he passes on his way to work, in the lectures he gives to other doctors about the incident, in the frequent therapy sessions he attends with other hospital staffers.
It’s been six months since gunman Omar Mateen opened fire inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, killing 49 patrons and injuring 53 others in one of the deadliest shooting sprees in U.S. history. Mateen was shot and killed by police after a three-hour standoff.
'He's still shooting': Pulse nightclub body-cam footage released
Survivors and families of victims of the massacre are still piecing their lives back together. Cheatham, the trauma surgeon at Orlando Regional Medical Center who worked on many of the survivors, is similarly tied to the event in ways he won’t soon forget.
“You can never, ever be prepared for what we saw that night,” Cheatham, 53, said. “It’s a little difficult for us to put it behind us.”
Orlando as a community has both moved on from that early June morning, when the first frantic 911 calls of the attack started pouring in, and held tight to the memory of that day. After initial plans to turn Pulse into a permanent memorial, the club’s owners recently decided to keep the LGBT club. Club owners plan to host a memorial there Monday honoring the victims.
Pulse nightclub's shooter alternately emotionless, frenzied
Victims and family members were most impacted. But others in the community — doctors, nurses, friends, counselors — have also wrestled with the lingering effects from the shooting, said Wanda Cancel, a mental health counselor who has worked with victims’ families.
"A lot of people could not forget what happened," she said. "And, as a community, it's vitally important we don't forget."
Cheatham spent 36 hours in the hospital's trauma center after the attack, stabilizing bleeding victims, mending bodies torn by high-velocity rifle rounds and operating on victim after victim. In all, hospital staff performed 76 operations on 35 survivors of the shooting.
Based in a large, tourist city prone to the occasional hurricane, hospital staff had trained repeatedly for how to deal with a mass casualty from a natural disaster, which really paid off the night of the shooting, Cheatham said. But the event still presented new challenges, such as how to deal with the volume of family members seeking information about their injured loved ones.
The incident sparked widespread national interest from other hospitals hoping to learn how to deal with such an event. At least once a week, Cheatham or someone from his staff visits a hospital somewhere in the USA and gives a presentation on what they went through and lessons learned. At a recent presentation, after Cheatham had detailed the nature of the wounds he treated and the relentless volume of victims, a colleague from Orlando Regional who was traveling with him pulled him aside and said he had no idea he had faced such a traumatic experience.
"We’re pretty much reliving that morning on a weekly basis," Cheatham said. "But for many hospitals, this was a wake-up call. They needed to plan better."
Cheatham has also traveled to Washington several times to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill and urge them to ease congressional restrictions on gun research. For years, Congress has restricted funding for gun-violence research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just as more research on car crashes helped improve car safety and the treatment of car crash injuries, more studies on gun deaths could help Cheatham and others better react to gunshot victims, he said.
"The data is very limited," he said. "There is a tremendous number of suicides every year because of guns, and we don’t have good data."
Orlando continues to heal with pride festival
For now, Cheatham deals with the daily reminders of that fateful morning. His drive to work takes him up South Orange Avenue and past the Pulse nightclub, now boarded up and lined with colorful murals commemorating the victims. He keeps a small bleeding-control kit (a tourniquet and bandages) clipped to his belt wherever he goes, just in case.
Cheatham says he still attends counseling sessions with other staffers offered at the hospital. Mostly, he thanks the higher power that helped him and his staff save so many lives that morning.
"God was with us that day," he said. "There were way too many miracles to think that there was not a higher power helping us."
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edf9029b2dbf7ccce720b880eb08b4f9 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/12/trump-set-deposition-just-weeks-before-inauguration/95343740/ | Trump set for deposition just weeks before inauguration | Trump set for deposition just weeks before inauguration
President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to testify under oath at Trump Tower in January, just weeks before the inauguration, in lawsuits tied to his Washington D.C. hotel. His lawyers are battling over special conditions Trump is seeking because of his new position.
The deposition is tied to Trump's $10 million lawsuit in the District of Columbia against Topo Atrio, the restaurant that was to be run by celebrity chef José Andrés in the hotel Trump has developed in the Old Post Office building just down the street from the White House. Andrés and the company cancelled the deal after Trump’s presidential campaign announcement in June 2015, saying the candidate's rhetoric was “widely perceived as anti-Hispanic.” Trump sued Andrés and another famed chef who made a similar decision, citing breach of their contracts.
The parties in the 2015 lawsuit had previously agreed that the upcoming deposition would be held the first week of January in Washington. Last week, however, Trump’s attorney’s emailed the restaurant group saying that they disagreed with the length of the deposition — up to seven hours — as well as that the questions that could overlap with a previous deposition. Trump's team also objected to the location in Washington.
Trump’s attorneys argue the deposition needs to take place at Trump Tower in New York City, for “security reasons" in their request to the opposing lawyers. Monday, Trump's top lawyer also cited cost and convenience for the President-elect.
While the restaurant group agreed to relocate the deposition in a filing last week, they protested about the time and topic limits.
“It seems dubious that the President-elect cannot be afforded adequate security in the capital of the United States, but Defendants are willing to accommodate that demand,” Andrés’ attorneys wrote to D.C. Superior Judge Jennifer A. Di Toro. “Defendants cannot, however, accept Trump LLC’s attempt to hamstring Defendants’ questioning of the man who directed the bringing of this lawsuit.”
Given the deposition is just weeks away, the restaurant group asked a D.C. judge for an expedited decision requiring Trump comply with the deposition rules.
“We think the deposition is completely unnecessary. We don’t think there’s any factual dispute that requires the President-elect’s testimony, so we think it’s unneeded,” said Alan Garten, general counsel for Trump and his business interests. “So we asked for there to be some reasonable limits. We don’t think it’s necessary, the issues that concern the President-elect are statements he made at the commencement of the campaign. There’s no dispute about them. So we don’t see what a deposition would accomplish.”
Trump's courtroom baggage follows him to White House
Trump was previously deposed this summer in a parallel lawsuit filed against CZ-National, another restaurant group headed by celebrity chef Geoffrey Zakarian. After failing to convince a judge the videotaped deposition should be sealed, it was released in September to media outlets.
The battles over the restaurant at Trump’s luxury D.C. hotel are among several outstanding legal entanglements. He had at least 75 pending on Election Day, civil lawsuits that will not go away after Inauguration Day.
Also pending are cases brought by a Republican political consultant who said Trump defamed her; a class-action claiming his presidential campaign broke consumer protection laws by sending unsolicited text messages to people’s cellphones; and a suit by a golf club employee who says she was fired over complaining to her bosses about sexual harassment.
Exclusive: Trump's 3,500 lawsuits unprecedented for a presidential nominee
A U.S. District Court judge in Florida ruled last week that a suit against Trump’s golf course in Jupiter could continue — despite another attempt by Trump to get it tossed before he takes the oath of office.
Trump settled the Trump University lawsuits just days after the election for about $25 million to avoid the public trial that was scheduled to begin at the end of November.
On the campaign trail, in recent months, Trump threatened additional lawsuits against journalists and several women who publicly accused Trump of unwanted sexual advances. Trump eased up on those threats in the waning days of the campaign.
Some of the open lawsuits create potential conflict of interest for the President-elect, according to legal experts, presidential historians and others interviewed by USA TODAY during a months-long investigation that tracked more than 4,000 lawsuits involving Trump and his companies.
Trump’s attorneys have previously said that only a couple dozen of the active cases are significant and that they’ll deal with those as any large company deals with them.
Asked Monday if there were other depositions or lawsuit resolutions coming before the inauguration, Garten said, "Not that I know of."
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bb8d9409e76fc9f9e2aac3352fb1cac5 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/13/pizzagate-gunman-attempted-recruit-2-others/95380258/ | 'Pizzagate' gunman attempted to recruit 2 others | 'Pizzagate' gunman attempted to recruit 2 others
WASHINGTON — In the days before a North Carolina man opened fire inside a local pizza restaurant while pursuing a fictitious online conspiracy, the suspect sought to recruit at least two others join him in the bizarre "raid'' of the popular eatery, federal authorities alleged Tuesday.
According to new court documents, Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, began seeking the support of two unidentified associates three days before the Dec. 4 attack at the Comet Ping Pong restaurant, allegedly texting one of them that he was "raiding a pedo ring, possibly sacraficing (sic) the lives of a few for the lives of many.''
Welch allegedly referred to the baseless conspiracy theory that the restaurant was a front for a child sex ring operated by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The information had been part of a fake news campaign targeting Clinton before and after the general election.
Man fires rifle in D.C. restaurant at center of fake-news conspiracy theories
"Standing up against the corrupt system that kidnaps, tortures and rapes babies and children in our own backyard, defending the next generation of kids, our kids, from every having to experience this kind of evil themselves,'' Welch allegedly texted the associate on Dec. 2. "I'm sorry bro, but I'm tired of turning the channel and oping someone does something and being thankful it's not my family ... The world is too afraid to act and I'm too stubborn not to.''
In the early morning hours of Dec. 4, according to court documents, Welch departed alone, leaving his two sleeping children in the care of a friend. While on the road, according to communications allegedly seized from the suspect's cellphone, Welch recorded a video message to his family, telling that he "loved them and that he hoped that he had showed it.''
If he was unable to "tell them'' again of his feelings, he said: "Don't ever forget it.''
Welch was arrested just hours later after firing his AR-15 assault-style rifle multiple times inside the restaurant as he searched the restaurant. In addition to the rifle, the suspect also was allegedly carrying a .38-caliber handgun.
Judge orders D.C. pizzeria shooter held without bond
The new court documents outline a federal charge of transporting a firearm across state lines with the intent to commit a crime. If convicted, Welch faces a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison. He appeared in federal court Tuesday afternoon on the new gun charge. No plea was entered during the brief session; a detention hearing was set for Friday.
In statements to investigators following his arrest, federal authorities allege that he was moved to action by the fake news accounts of the pizza restaurant conspiracy and decided to "investigate'' the reports on his own.
"Welch stated that while he was in the restaurant, he searched for evidence of hidden rooms or tunnels, or child sex-trafficking of any kind,'' according to the court documents. After encountering a locked door, Welch allegedly told authorities that he "became suspicious and attempted to force it open with a butter knife and then by shooting the lock.''
"Welch claimed that after he found no evidence of child sex-trafficking, he exited the restaurant and surrendered himself to police officers ... already on scene.''
The suspect also allegedly acknowledged traveling with a loaded shotgun, which was later recovered from his vehicle. The shotgun was located in the rear hatchback of the Toyota Prius, along with 14 additional rounds of ammunition.
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eeaf667dad75c2717f2d93151c993b71 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/15/emergency-responders-mistakenly-exposed-deadly-ricin/95481004/ | Emergency trainees mistakenly exposed to deadly ricin | Emergency trainees mistakenly exposed to deadly ricin
Because of yet another mix-up with bioterror pathogens, a federal terrorism response training center in Alabama says it mistakenly exposed more than 9,600 firefighters, paramedics and other students to a deadly toxin over the past five years.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Center for Domestic Preparedness blames an outside laboratory for a series of shipping errors since 2011 that resulted in the first-responder training center using in its classes a potentially lethal form of ricin powder. The poison, made from castor beans, is capable of killing at small doses.
The training center says it submitted order forms asking for a type of ricin extract that is unlikely to cause serious harm. But officials from Toxin Technology, the Florida company that sent nine shipments to the center since 2011, told USA TODAY that its ricin products were all accurately labeled as “RCA60” – a scientific name for the whole ricin toxin, which can be deadly.
It’s unclear why training center staff didn’t recognize for years that they were working with a far more dangerous substance. There is no antidote to treat ricin poisoning.
After issuing repeated statements to USA TODAY since Monday solely blaming the vendor, on Thursday FEMA administrator W. Craig Fugate called for the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General to investigate. The training center had already suspended all training with biological agents, which include training with a less-dangerous strain of anthrax.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said he’s stunned that over the past five years the training center never verified that it was receiving the less-toxic ricin product it thought it was ordering.
“It’s beyond careless and outrageous. It's almost malfeasance,” Ridge said.
Nobody was sickened by the exposures, FEMA spokeswoman Alexa Lopez said. Students, who were being trained to detect the presence of biological agents, were wearing protective gear during the exercises. Workers at the Anniston, Ala., training center prepared ricin training materials in special biosafety cabinets designed to protect against exposures.
Still Ridge and other national security experts say the ricin mix-up is just the latest high-profile incident showing lax safety practices at U.S. biodefense facilities. Hundreds of government, military, private and university laboratories nationwide possess potential bioterror pathogens, which the government calls “select agents,” such as those that cause anthrax, botulism and plague. They’re used in scientific research and the development of vaccines, medical treatments and for creating and testing detection and personal protection equipment.
In 2014, CDC mistakes with anthrax specimens that were believed to be killed resulted in dozens of the agency’s lab workers being potentially exposed to the deadly bacteria. In 2015, the Pentagon discovered that an Army lab in Utah had been mistakenly shipping live anthrax – labeled as killed – to dozens of labs in the U.S. and abroad for more than a decade.
Richard Ebright, a biosafety expert at Rutgers University, said what happened at the FEMA training facility with ricin is the latest incident in which “incompetence by a federal agency” has resulted in a mix-up between biological specimens that were thought to be killed or inactivated – yet weren’t.
“The only way those running security agencies will get this message in their heads, is if violators are held accountable,” Ebright said. But that hasn’t happened, he said.
A USA TODAY investigation in 2015 found hundreds of safety incidents at labs nationwide and a lax and secretive system of oversight of potential bioterror pathogens that hides serious incidents from the public.
Inside America's secretive biolabs
“These kinds of things are continually going to happen until biosafety gets elevated to a major level,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior associate at the UPMC Center for Health Security. While the research done into bioterror pathogens is important, the public’s trust and support for it will be eroded if safety isn’t improved, he said.
Investigators from the Federal Select Agent Program, which regulates labs and other facilities that work with potential bioterror pathogens, traveled this week to the company that supplied the ricin to the FEMA training center. The program is jointly run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Neither the CDC nor FEMA would name the vendor that supplied the ricin to the training facility when asked by The Anniston Star, which first revealed the incident, nor to USA TODAY. USA TODAY determined through its reporting the vendor was Toxin Technology in Sarasota, Fla.
Information provided to USA TODAY by officials at Toxin Technology and the FEMA training center conflict in several ways and raise significant questions about how ricin materials were ordered and shipped over the years.
FEMA in its statements has repeatedly said the material mix-up was “due to an error by the supplier” and that the “intended use declaration” forms the training center submitted to the vendor specified the center was seeking “Ricin Chain A.”
The ricin toxin has two components, referred to as A and B chains. The B-chain needs to be present, experts said, to allow the A-chain to enter and damage cells. FEMA officials say their intent was to use the A-chain ricin in its programs because it was safer and would still react with detection equipment during training classes as if it were the more dangerous whole ricin toxin.
“In November 2016, while making a purchase of ricin A-chain for training, staff at FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness recognized an ongoing discrepancy in the documentation related to the type of ricin being provided,” FEMA said in a statement. But the agency wouldn’t provide any details about what kind of documentation and discrepancy was involved.
However the ordering catalog for Toxin Technology does not list any A-chain ricin products – only a whole ricin product. FEMA told USA TODAY the product it ordered wasn’t in the company’s catalog. “It was a specialty product rather than a standard catalog item,” the agency said.
Raoul Reiser, who founded Toxin Technology in 1984 and sold it to a partner about three years ago, told USA TODAY that he remembers supplying A-chain ricin products to the FEMA training facility while he was there.
Reiser said that while the A-chain ricin product wasn’t in Toxin Technology’s catalog, it was purchased by many customers as far away as Singapore who learned about it through word of mouth.
“We never made the ricin at Tox Tech, we were just repackaging and reselling what Vector Labs was selling,” Reiser said. He said Toxin Technology would buy the A-chain ricin in liquid form from the international biological supply company, then turn it into a powdered form for resale.
Yet officials at Vector Laboratories told USA TODAY their records show they never sold A-chain ricin to Toxin Technology – only a product that contained the whole ricin toxin.
David Weber, Vector Labs chief commercial officer, said the company checked its records going back to early 2005 and found the only product it shipped to Toxin Technology on numerous occasions through August was a whole ricin product.
Reiser said he was surprised to hear this. “I was under the impression we were buying the A-chain toxin, not the holotoxin,” he said Wednesday night. He said all of the purchasing was handled at Toxin Technology by Paul Bina.
Bina, who is currently listed on Toxin Technology’s website as vice president and lab manager, said he doesn’t know why Reiser would have been under the impression the product sold by the company was A-chain ricin. Bina told USA TODAY that he was at the company when it first started selling ricin products and it sold only two and both were whole toxin products. They were labeled as RCA60 in the company’s catalog, website and “on all shipping and manufacturing records,” he said.
Bina said: “I instructed to purchase the RCA60 from Vector Labs for this purpose. At no time did we ever have Ricin A Chain and at no time did we ever repackage RCA60 and sell it as Ricin A Chain.”
Bina said that when he left the company in 2010 for a few years, the ricin products were still being correctly identified as “RCA60.” When he returned, Bina said the multiple lots of ricin produced while he was away “were still all correctly identified as ‘RCA60’ on all shipping and manufacturing documents.”
After USA TODAY asked FEMA to produce documents showing how the ricin products it received were labeled, the agency called for the inspector general investigation.
Bill Rose, manager of Toxin Technology, said it is company policy not to discuss its clients. But he told USA TODAY on Thursday that the company is in the process of contacting all recipients of its ricin products to ensure they are aware they received the whole toxin products. But he said that a review of the company’s available sales and shipping records show the information sent with the products correctly showed they were “Ricin RCA60.”
GAO finds more gaps in oversight of bioterror germs studied in U.S. labs
Although ricin is a select agent, under federal regulations, it’s exempt from regulation if it is held in amounts less than 100 mg. So while Toxin Technology is regulated by the select agent program, the FEMA training center – which never possessed more than 70 mg of ricin – is not.
“That makes no sense,” said Ridge, who has been co-chairing a Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense that issued a report calling for strengthening U.S. readiness for bioterrorism and response to emerging disease. The panel, co-chaired by former Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman and sponsored by the Hudson Institute and Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, issued a follow-up report this week noting that Congress still hasn’t done a comprehensive reassessment of the Federal Select Agent Program.
Read USA TODAY's "Biolabs in Your Backyard" investigation at biolabs.usatoday.com.
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aef1f39c38b1b20c062d05c052cf2eaa | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/15/evening-news-roundup-thursday/95466170/ | The Force is with us again. Sort of | The Force is with us again. Sort of
Will audiences embrace the 'Rogue'?
The Force is with us, once again. Audiences get a chance to return to a galaxy far, far away in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, hitting theaters with preview screenings Thursday night and opening nationwide Friday. It's the first of a string of planned "stand-alone" films for the storied franchise. It takes place just before 1977's original Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, following a band of rebels trying to steal the plans to the Death Star. Some old favorites, like Darth Vader, return along with new faces, led by Felicity Jones as rebel Jyn Erso. USA TODAY's Brian Truitt gives it 2½ stars out of 4, saying it was good, but "its main players mostly lack the charm" of earlier Star Wars heroes. Regardless of reviews, it's going to make a Star Destroyer-load of money. If you're still confused how it fits with other Star Wars films, we're here to help.
Children were being abused in gymnastics gyms, but no one knew how widespread the problem was. Until now.
A 12-year-old gymnast molested by an Olympic coach during “therapy” sessions. Children as young as 6 secretly photographed nude by coaches. A coach having almost daily sex with a 14-year-old at one of the country’s most prestigious gyms. At least 368 gymnasts in the past 20 years have alleged some form of sexual abuse at the hands of their coaches, gym owners and other adults working in gymnastics. And it's likely an undercount. IndyStar previously reported that top officials at USA Gymnastics, one of the nation’s most prominent Olympic organizations, failed to alert police to many allegations of sexual abuse. A new IndyStar-USA TODAY Network review of hundreds of police files and court cases across the country has found that the number is far larger than previously known.
Do this now if you're a Yahoo user
Yahoo users, refresh your account passwords. But beware: This is prime time for scammers to prey. The Internet company said as many as 1 billion user accounts may have been compromised in a breach that took place in August 2013. That comes on top of a breach involving as many as 500 million Yahoo users that the company reported in September but took place in 2014. As Yahoo reaches out to users, phishing emails from crooks masquerading as Yahoo may ask people to click on links. Don't. Emails from the real Yahoo won't ask you to do that. And it's time to think about your non-Yahoo accounts that use similar passwords and security questions.
Say aloha to the healthiest state in the country
Bravo, Hawaii. America's favorite island-state took the top spot as the healthiest state in the country, according to the annual America’s Health Rankings report. While Hawaii received high scores for its low percentage of uninsured people and low rates of obesity, it didn’t do so hot in other areas. The Aloha State scored above the national average for excessive drinking. The least healthy state? Mississippi. The Magnolia State fell from 49th to 50th this year, leaving a lot of room for improvement. The report also found some good and bad news: Smoking decreased, but for the first time in the report’s history, cardiovascular deaths increased. Bottom line: We are still living longer, but sicker, and getting sicker sooner. See where your state falls.
Meghan Markle crossed the pond, and paparazzi are watching
The grainy photo barely shows their faces but ohmygosh it's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Tabloids finally caught up with the fifth person in line for the British throne and his American-actress girlfriend as they walked along a busy London street. Despite a public acknowledgement of their relationship by Harry, who wrote a statement in November tinged with anger, saying "a line has been crossed" in the week since the tabloids learned of the relationship, there have been no public photos. The casual stroll may signal they are ready to make the relationship tabloid-official.
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This is a compilation of stories from across USA TODAY
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4dbabfcab17f554676884b336afd8fa2 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/15/fbi-investigating-massive-yahoo-breach/95476610/ | FBI is investigating massive Yahoo breach | FBI is investigating massive Yahoo breach
WASHINGTON—The FBI has launched an investigation into a massive breach of Yahoo's systems that may have resulted in data theft involving more than 1 billion user accounts, the White House said Thursday
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest declined to elaborate on the extent of the inquiry into the 2013 intrusion, the second time this year the company has acknowledged an extensive compromise of data.
In September, Yahoo disclosed a 2014 intrusion involving some 500 million accounts.
Yahoo said in September that evidence linked the 500 million-account hack to a state-sponsored attacker, though it did not identify the government. Responsibility for the larger intrusion has not been determined, and the company believed the two are not linked.
The FBI, which had previously acknowledged it had opened an inquiry related to the company's September disclosure, declined to comment further.
“We take these types of breaches very seriously and will determine how this occurred and who is responsible,'' the FBI said at that time. "We will continue to work with the private sector and share information so they can safeguard their systems against the actions of persistent cyber criminals.”
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e56202162bf974429bf65815b450e140 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/16/indystars-investigation-sexual-abuse-gymnastics-what-we-know/95469994/ | IndyStar's investigation on sexual abuse in gymnastics: What we know | IndyStar's investigation on sexual abuse in gymnastics: What we know
IndyStar has undertaken the first-ever attempt to quantify the scope of sexual abuse in the sport of gymnastics. Reporters also looked into what is behind the abuse — and what can be done to combat it.
IndyStar's investigation — titled Out of Balance — began with a story in August that examined USA Gymnastics' failures to report many allegations of sexual abuse to law enforcement or child welfare agencies. In the second installment published in September, IndyStar uncovered allegations of sexual assault against longtime USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, who was charged in November with three counts of criminal sexual assault of a person under 13 years old.
On Thursday, after nine months of investigating, IndyStar published the latest chapter.
Out of Balance
What we found
At least 368 gymnasts have accused coaches, gym owners and other adults in the sport with sexual misconduct over the last 20 years. That’s one every 20 days. And experts say the actual number is likely much higher. That’s because many victims — research indicates it could be as high as 65-80 percent — never report sexual abuse.
A 20-year toll: 368 gymnasts allege sexual exploitation
Who’s to blame?
Much, but not all, of the abuse involved coaches and gyms that are members of Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics. Parents, athletes and gym owners told IndyStar that they look for leadership from USA Gymnastics because it is the sport’s national governing body, and America’s most prominent gymnastics organization.
USA Gymnastics said athlete safety is a priority and officials find it "appalling that anyone would exploit a young athlete or child." The organization also said “USA Gymnastics is proud of the work it has done to address and guard against child sexual abuse.”
A blind eye to sex abuse: How USA Gymnastics failed to report cases
Escaping scrutiny
Many coaches who are suspected of sexual abuse or grooming behavior — but who have not been criminally charged or convicted — are able to move from gym to gym without detection. That includes some coaches who are members of USA Gymnastics. The organization says it does not track coach firings, and is not responsible for what occurs in member gyms because they are independent businesses.
“It’s not the predator in the bushes you need to worry about,” one victim warned. “It’s those in positions of power and authority … who harm precious and vulnerable children.”
Hands tied?
USA gymnastics officials say the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act limits the actions they can take against coaches because it requires due process before a coach’s membership can be revoked. But advocates for children and athletes disagree.
"Under the Sports Act, USAG can adopt this legal posture, but the law doesn't require a national governing body to adopt this 'hands-off' policy," said Nancy Hogshead-Makar, an Olympic gold-medal swimmer and attorney who is now CEO of the advocacy group Champion Women.
How coaches abuse kids
Experts told IndyStar the same, seemingly positive, qualities that make a coach successful — a close coach-athlete relationship, legitimate authority, blind trust and a successful reputation — can easily be exploited to groom and sexually abuse young athletes. In a study of elite female gymnasts and swimmers abused by their coaches, Gretchen Kerr and Ashley E. Stirling of the University of Toronto found several common themes:
What to do?
Everyone from parents to athletes to gymnastics officials need to be even more vigilant and take more aggressive steps to ensure vulnerable children are safe, experts told IndyStar.
“The most important part of this is that everybody needs to take off the rose-colored glasses and come to the reality that pedophiles are clever, cunning and smart,” said Marci Hamilton, CEO of CHILD USA, a research and advocacy group based at the University of Pennsylvania. “Adults need to stop trusting themselves. If your child is spending too much time with another adult, you may have a problem and you need to wake up to it. If your coach is spending too much time with his athletes or her athletes, you need to figure out what's really going on.”
Hogshead-Makar, the former Olympic gold-medal winner and CEO of Champion Women, said all USA Gymnastics members should be required to notify the organization when they fire a coach for a violation of USA Gymnastics rules regarding athlete safety. She said the governing body also should require gyms to adopt specific safety measures as a condition of membership.
Share your experiences
IndyStar will continue to investigate this topic. If you have information you would like to share, please email investigations@indystar.com or call (317) 444-6262.
Call IndyStar reporter Tim Evans at (317) 444-6204. Follow him on Twitter: @starwatchtim.
Call IndyStar reporter Mark Alesia at (317) 444-6311. Follow him on Twitter: @markalesia.
Call IndyStar reporter Marisa Kwiatkowski at (317) 444-6135. Follow her on Twitter: @IndyMarisaK.
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96b95db5c48d510d2a08c142a6707507 | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/19/women-doctors-hospital-patients/95531520/ | Don't want to die before your time? Get a female doctor | Don't want to die before your time? Get a female doctor
EMBARGOED for 11 a.m. ET MONDAY DEC 19
If you are sick, elderly and in a hospital, you are more likely to survive when your primary doctor during that hospitalization is a woman, a new study shows.
The patients of female doctors are also less likely to be re-hospitalized in the month after discharge, according to the study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
“We found a modest but, I think, clinically important difference in outcomes for patients cared for by female physicians as opposed to male physicians,” said the study’s senior author, Ashish Jha, a professor of health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The researchers estimated that if male physicians could achieve the same results as their female colleagues, they would save an extra 32,000 lives among Medicare patients alone each year -- a feat that would rival wiping out motor vehicle accident deaths nationwide.
Previous studies have found that female physicians are more likely to follow practice guidelines based on scientific evidence. They also spend more time with patients, talk with them in more reassuring and positive ways and ask more questions about their emotional and social well-being.
The Harvard team wanted to find out if such differences translated to better outcomes. So they looked at the records of more than 1.5 million Medicare patients, ages 65 and over, hospitalized for non-surgical care between 2011 and 2014. The average age of the patients was 80.
After adjusting for factors such as each patient's age, gender and income and the doctors’ ages, training and hospital location, they found that 11.07% of patients treated by female internists died within a month, while 11.49% of those treated by male internists did.
Repeat hospitalizations, which can be signs of poorer care, were reported for 15.02% of patients treated by women and 15.57% of those treated by men.
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For patients treated by a female doctor, that translated to a 4% lower relative risk of dying prematurely and a 5% lower relative risk of being readmitted to a hospital within 30 days, the researchers found.
The outcome gaps were seen in patients with a range of illnesses of varying severity. And the findings do not appear to be explained by higher-risk patients choosing male physicians or vice versa, Jha said, because they held up when the researchers looked only at hospital-based doctors who take cases as they come.
The study does not prove that women are better doctors than men, but it does suggest many have professional habits that all doctors could learn from, he said.
“As a male physician, I find that reassuring, because it means there’s something we can do about it,” he said.
Women make up about one third of practicing physicians and half of recent medical school graduates.
They often make less money than male colleagues, something the new research suggests is unjustified, said an editorial written by journal editor Rita Redberg and Anna Parks, both internists at the University of California, San Francisco. They cited a recent study showing women physicians who work in academic settings make 8% less than male colleagues and face other inequities.
“These findings that female internists provide higher quality care for hospitalized patients yet are promoted, supported, and paid less than male peers in the academic setting should push us to create systems that promote equity,” they wrote.
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