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Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is unfazed by China's slowing economy. Even with China growing at its slowest pace in 25 years, Starbucks is planning to open more than one new store a day for the next five years in the world's second largest economy. "I think if you look at the 45 year history of our company ... one of the things that we've done really well is that we've always played the long game," Schultz told CNN in an interview in Shanghai on Wednesday. By 2021, Starbucks (SBUX) aims to have nearly 5,000 stores across China. Related: China's economy holds steady -- but for how long? It's been a long road already for the coffee giant in the world's most populous nation, where it opened its first store 17 years ago. "We had to educate and teach many Chinese about what coffee was -- the coffee ritual, what a latte was," Schultz said. "So in the early years, we did not make money." His critics on Wall Street and elsewhere said Starbucks "was never going to succeed in China," he recalled. But his patience paid off. "If you look five years ago, most of our business, believe it or not, was expats and tourists in China," he said. "Today, it's mostly Chinese." Related: Hillary Clinton will win U.S. election, says Starbucks CEO Schultz expects China to eventually overtake the U.S. as the company's largest market, although he hasn't said exactly when. (It's already No. 2.) "One of things I think we've done very well is we've invested significantly ahead of the growth curve -- in people, in systems," he told CNN. "We just finished a fantastic year in China where the results are as strong as they've ever been." Such talk is enviable for huge U.S. firms that have failed to get into China -- like Facebook (FB) and Netflix (NFLX) -- or been pushed out -- like Uber and Google (GOOG). Schultz says it helps that Starbucks is selling coffee, and not active in a more sensitive market. "We're not in a high tech business, so we're not trying to change behavior in terms of technology," he said. Related: Billionaire says Chinese real estate is 'biggest bubble in history' Other big American brands that had enjoyed years of success selling food and drink in China are now faring less well. KFC, which is owned by Yum Brands (YUM), is spinning off its China business and bringing in outside investors. McDonalds (MCD) is also looking for a partner to take over the franchise of its China stores. "They have other challenges ... I can't speak for them," Schultz said, ruling out the possibility of Starbucks following a similar path. "Whether we're in a small city or a large city, we think that the way in which we can be successful is if the stores are operated by Starbucks people," he said. "We believe that the future of Starbucks in China is still very early." -- Reed Alexander contributed to this report. \|\|\|\|\| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites.	– How many black forest lattes can the Chinese drink? Starbucks is hoping the answer is a lot. CEO Howard Schultz tells CNNMoney the coffee giant is planning to open more than one new store each day in China over the next five years. The projection to have almost 5,000 stores across the country by 2021 comes despite the fact that growth in China has slowed to its lowest levels in a quarter-century. Unphased by that economic forecast, Schultz says Starbucks is looking far into the future. "I think if you look at the 45-year history of our company ... one of the things that we've done really well is that we've always played the long game," Schultz says. He adds that tourists and expats made up the majority of Starbucks customers in China only five years ago. "Today," he says, "it's mostly Chinese. " China is the chain's second-largest market, after the US. Schultz says he expects that standing to flip as more Chinese discover menu items like cranberry white chocolate mochas. When the first Starbucks opened 17 years ago in China, the locals had no idea the addictive value of a cup of Joe—or how much better one could be topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. "We had to educate and teach many Chinese about what coffee was—the coffee ritual, what a latte was," Schultz said. "So in the early years, we did not make money." Other businesses like KFC and McDonald's haven't fared as well in recent times in the world's second-largest economy, and both have sought outside investors, per CNNMoney. (A class-action lawsuit says Starbucks lattes lack milk.)
Confectionery giant Nestle has failed to convince European judges that it has the right to trademark the shape of its four-finger KitKat bar in the UK. The European Court of Justice said that the company had to demonstrate the public relied on the shape alone to identify the snack. The judges concluded this was difficult to prove if goods also showed a brand name such as KitKat. Rival Cadbury has battled to prevent Nestle obtaining the trademark. Both Nestle and Cadbury said they were "pleased" with the ruling. The case will now return to the UK High Court for a final decision. Nestle claimed that in the 80 years since the chocolate bar was introduced, the four fingers have become almost completely associated with KitKats. In June, a senior European court lawyer, the advocate-general, disagreed saying such a trademark did not comply with European law. Nestle has not sought to trademark the two-fingered bar. Sally Britton, intellectual property lawyer at Mishcon de Reya, said that Nestle was likely to continue arguing its case, "even if, as now appears likely, the English court decides that the KitKat shape should not be registered as a trade mark". She said Nestle had experience of trying to register difficult marks. It took more than 40 years for it to register the slogan "Have a Break" as a trade mark, finally succeeding in 2006, she added. Image caption Norway's "Kvikk Lunsj" looks similar to the KitKat and is available in some parts of the UK Chocolate wars Wednesday's ruling is the latest development in a more than 10-year legal battle between Nestle and Cadbury, which started when Cadbury tried to trademark the purple colour it uses on its Cadbury chocolate wrappers. Nestle objected and finally had the original decision allowing Cadbury to trademark the colour overturned in 2013. Now it would appear Cadbury, which is owned by US company Mondelez International, has scored a significant but not final victory in the continuing chocolate war. It has always argued the shape alone was not distinctive enough for consumers to associate it with the rival snack. A bar called the Kvikk Lunsj, meaning "quick lunch", launched in Norway in 1937 is available in some UK shops, and although less well known, looks similar to the four-finger KitKat. A ruling in favour of Nestle would stop other confectionery producers making chocolate bars of the same shape or size. \|\|\|\|\| The origin of the name The Kit Kat name originates from the late 17th century in London, when a literary club met at a pie shop owned by pastry chef Christoppher Catling. The group was called the Kit Kat club and took its name from an abbreviated version of the owner's name. \|\|\|\|\| SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share Tweet Post Email Photographer: Jason Adlen/Bloomberg Photographer: Jason Adlen/Bloomberg Nestle SA may find it harder to convince U.K. judges that the shape of its KitKat chocolate bar is distinct enough to trademark after the European Union’s top tribunal set strict limits on what qualifies for the status. For a shape to deserve a trademark, owners must prove that consumers can recognize the product exclusively by that characteristic, and not in combination with another trademarked aspect, the EU Court of Justice said in a ruling Wednesday. The judgment gave both sides an opportunity to claim victory. The EU court decision will help guide a U.K. tribunal handling a clash between Cadbury, the U.K.’s biggest chocolate maker, and Nestle over the Swiss company’s 2010 application to trademark the four-fingered chocolate bar, which brought in 40 million pounds ($61.7 million) a year between 2008 and 2010 in the U.K. Cadbury separately is fighting an EU trademark Nestle got for the shape of its chocolate bar in 2006 in a case that’s been pending in a lower EU court since 2013. Any decision will determine whether or not the trademark is valid. The KitKat was first sold in Britain in 1935 by Rowntree & Co., with the shape changing very little since then. Nestle, the world’s biggest food company, bought Rowntree Plc in 1998. The U.K. Trade Marks Registry turned down the application to protect the shape of the chocolate bar in the U.K. in 2013 following the opposition from Cadbury. The EU court Wednesday said trademark protection can’t be given if a shape “contains three essential features, one of which results from the nature of the goods themselves and two of which are necessary to obtain a technical result.” Vevey, Switzerland-based Nestle said it was “pleased with the decision” and “now looks forward to the decision of the U.K. High Court.” Mondelez International Inc., which owns Cadbury, said in an e-mailed statement that the court’s ruling “is in line with our contention that the shape of the KitKat bar is not distinctive enough to be protected as a trademark.” Nestle won a U.K. Court of Appeal ruling in October 2013 blocking Cadbury from obtaining a trademark for the color purple it uses to package its milk chocolate. The case is: C-215/14, Societe de Produits Nestle SA v. Cadbury UK Ltd.	– It started with a candy wrapper and ended (for now) in a courtroom. Nestle's attempts to trademark the shape of its "four-fingered" KitKat have been rejected by the European Court of Justice, which ruled that shape alone isn't enough to recognize it as a KitKat, the BBC reports. The decision was a setback for Nestle—which manages the brand overseas; Hershey is licensed to sell the brand here in the US—and a victory for Cadbury, which was trying to block the trademark. The ruling means that, for now, other candy companies can make similar-looking chocolate bars. Nestle, which reaped more than $60 million a year from 2008 to 2010 in the UK from KitKat, argued that the four-fingered design has become inextricably associated with the KitKat brand over the past eight decades, Bloomberg notes. But Cadbury said the shape wasn't enough to make a consumer automatically think "KitKat," and the court agreed. The BBC even notes that in Norway, a lesser-known chocolate bar called Kvikk Lunsj ("quick lunch") has been around for nearly as long as KitKat. The fight between the two confectionary giants is the second major brouhaha they've had in recent years: In 2013, Nestle managed to block Cadbury's attempts to trademark its signature purple-colored chocolate wrappers, per Bloomberg. KitKat case now heads back to the UK High Court, which will render a final decision. (Claims of excess lead in Nestle noodles led to a major recall in India.)
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Ariel Castro appeared silently in court Thursday, his head down, as he was arraigned on four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape, accused of holding the women captive in his Cleveland home. Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Lauren Moore ordered Castro held on $8 million bond -- $2 million for each of the three women and the child born to Amanda Berry before they were freed Monday evening. Hours later, the top prosecutor in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, announced he'd press for more charges -- "for each and every act of sexual violence ... each day of kidnapping, every felonious assault (and) all his attempted murders." Furthermore, Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said he'd try to persuade a grand jury to indict the 52-year-old Castro for "aggravated murder" for the termination of his captives' pregnancies. He cited a state law that a person can be charged with murder -- a conviction that could lead to the death penalty in Ohio -- for killing unborn children. Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Amanda Berry speaks in a video released on YouTube on Monday, July 8, thanking people for support and privacy. Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight escaped from a Cleveland home on May 6, 2013, after being held captive for nearly a decade. Hide Caption 1 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Amanda Berry vanished a few blocks from her Cleveland home on April 21, 2003. She was 16. Hide Caption 2 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Gina DeJesus speaks in the YouTube video. Hide Caption 3 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Georgina "Gina" DeJesus was last seen in Cleveland on April 2, 2004, on her way home from school. She was 14 when she went missing. Hide Caption 4 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Michelle Knight speaks in the YouTube video. Hide Caption 5 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Knight was last seen on August 22, 2002, when she was 21. Hide Caption 6 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Photos: Kidnapped teens found decade later – In a handwritten note, Knight thanked Cleveland police for their efforts, saying she was overwhelmed with the support she had received from "complete strangers." The note was posted Wednesday, July 31, on the police's Second District Community Relations Committee Facebook page. Hide Caption 7 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Residents gather outside a community meeting at Immanuel Lutheran Church on Thursday, May 9, to talk about the kidnapping case in Cleveland . Balloons were released as part of the ceremony. Hide Caption 8 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – FBI agents and other law enforcement officers stand outside suspect Ariel Castro's home in Cleveland on May 9. Castro, a former school bus driver, has been accused of holding three women captive for a decade in his house. He has also been charged with rape. Hide Caption 9 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Castro hangs his head low while talking with his public defender, Kathleen DeMetz, during his arraignment on May 9. Hide Caption 10 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Ada Colon prays during a vigil held in honor of the kidnapping victims in Cleveland on Wednesday, May 8. Hide Caption 11 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Relatives of kidnapping victim Georgina "Gina" DeJesus hug after she returned to her parents' home in Cleveland on May 8. Hide Caption 12 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Friends and neighbors cheer as a car carrying Amanda Berry arrives at her sister's house in Cleveland on May 8. Hide Caption 13 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Gina DeJesus gives a thumbs up as she arrives at her family's house in Cleveland on May 8. Hide Caption 14 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Ariel Castro was charged on May 8 with kidnapping the three women. Hide Caption 15 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – The family house of Gina DeJesus has been decorated by well-wishers on Tuesday, May 7. Hide Caption 16 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Friends and relatives gather in front of the family house of DeJesus on May 7. Hide Caption 17 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Well-wishers visit the home of the sister of Amanda Berry on Monday, May 6. Hide Caption 18 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Investigators remove evidence from the house on Seymour Avenue in Cleveland where the three women were held. Hide Caption 19 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – An FBI forensics team meets outside the house where three women were held as they investigate the property. Hide Caption 20 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – An FBI forensics team member removes evidence from the house. Hide Caption 21 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – A relative of DeJesus brings balloons to the home of Amanda Berry's sister in Cleveland on May 7. Hide Caption 22 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Children hold a sign and balloons in the yard of Gina DeJesus' family home in Cleveland on May 7. Hide Caption 23 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Bystanders and media gather on May 7 along Seymour Avenue in Cleveland near the house where the three women were held captive. Hide Caption 24 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – A bystander shows the front page of The Plain Dealer newspaper to a friend outside of the house on Seymour Avenue on May 7. Hide Caption 25 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Cleveland Deputy Chief of Police Ed Tomba, center, speaks at a news conference to address details of the developments. Hide Caption 26 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – The house where the three women were held captive in Cleveland was the home of Ariel Castro, who was arrested and is being held pending charges in the case. Hide Caption 27 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – FBI agents remove evidence from the house May 7. Hide Caption 28 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – A police officer stands in front of the broken front door of the house on May 7, where the kidnapped women escaped. Hide Caption 29 of 30 Photos: Photos: Kidnapped teens rescued Kidnapped teens found decade later – Neighbor Charles Ramsey talks to media as people congratulate him on helping the kidnapped women escape on Monday, May 6. He helped knock down the door after he heard screaming inside. Hide Caption 30 of 30 JUST WATCHED Disturbing ties between Castro and victims Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Disturbing ties between Castro and victims 03:06 JUST WATCHED Kidnapping victim's aunt: God heard us Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Kidnapping victim's aunt: God heard us 03:43 JUST WATCHED Officer reflects on Castro encounter Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Officer reflects on Castro encounter 04:12 According to an initial incident report obtained by CNN, Michelle Knight said she became pregnant at least five times while in Castro's 1,400-square-foot home . When that happened, she told investigators, Castro "starved her for at least two weeks, then he repeatedly punched her in the stomach until she miscarried." It is not known how many times, if any, the other two women got pregnant only to miscarry. One of them, Berry, gave birth to a daughter while in captivity. That's just one of the brutal tales reported so far about the women's captivity, which McGinty described as "beyond comprehension." "The child kidnapper operated a torture chamber and private prison in the heart of the city," he told reporters. "The horrific brutality and torture that the victims endured for a decade is beyond comprehension." Castro's own mother is among those trying to make sense of the horror. "I have a sick son who has done something serious," she told Univision and Telemundo. "I'm suffering very much. I ask for forgiveness from those mothers; may those girls forgive me." Source: Writings detail actions, reasons behind them So what was going through the suspect's mind, when he allegedly lured three women into a car between 2002 and 2004, took them to his home three miles away and held them there -- where they were chained, threatened and repeatedly sexually assaulted? Neither Castro, his attorneys nor police have spelled out a motive publicly. The suspect has talked with investigators, confessing to some of the actions of which he's accused, said a law enforcement source closely involved with the investigation. The source did not describe precisely what Castro confessed to when he was interrogated. Plus, investigators have asked the state crime lab to expedite tests to create a DNA profile of Castro -- something that typically takes 20 days, but should be back Friday -- said Ohio Attorney General's office spokesman Dan Tierney. They're also poring over evidence, including more than 200 items seized from Castro's Seymour Avenue home. Among them are writings authorities believe were written by the suspect, said two law enforcement sources closely involved in the case. Those contain "specific detailing of actions and reasons behind actions" tied to the women's abduction and their kidnapper's behavior toward them, one of the law enforcement sources said. The author cites his own history of abuse by family members as justification. JUST WATCHED Castro's daughter doesn't want to see him Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Castro's daughter doesn't want to see him 04:25 JUST WATCHED Source: Women helped each other survive Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Source: Women helped each other survive 01:57 JUST WATCHED Neighbor's insight into Castro's life Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Neighbor's insight into Castro's life 04:35 JUST WATCHED Dr. Drew: This guy is a monster Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Dr. Drew: This guy is a monster 03:20 The source -- who described the "pretty lengthy" writings as "more of a diary" -- said they included talk of suicide, though that's just one of many aspects. Authorities are working "meticulously" to see whether others were involved in the kidnapping plot. Two of Castro's brothers, Pedro and Onil, were initially arrested in the case only to be released Thursday -- after appearing in court on unrelated cases -- when investigators found nothing, including from the victims' interviews, linking them to the abductions. One of his daughters, Angie Gregg, told CNN that she "just wanted to die" upon hearing her father had been implicated. But looking back, she thinks there were signs of something awry -- such as how her father "kept his house locked down so tight" and would sometimes leave mysteriously for an hour or so, then return, with "no explanation." "Everything's making sense now," Gregg said. "It's all adding up, and I'm just disgusted." Source: Death threat if newborn died According to the initial incident report, the women said Castro first chained them in the basement but later let them live upstairs on the second floor. The women went outside only twice during their ordeal -- and just "briefly" at that, Cleveland Public Safety Director Martin Flask said. Most of the time the three would be in different rooms, though they interacted occasionally and came to "rely on each other for survival," said a law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the investigation. One thing they could count on was that their alleged captor wouldn't let them out. Castro would often test his captives by pretending to leave, the law enforcement source said. Then he'd suddenly return; if there were indications any of the women had moved, they'd be disciplined. While Knight told investigators Castro forced her to miscarry her own unborn children, she said he ordered her to deliver Berry's child, according to a police source familiar with the investigation. The baby was delivered in a plastic tub or pool in order to contain the afterbirth and amniotic fluid, the source said. Panic ensued soon after. The child stopped breathing, and everyone started screaming, the source said, citing accounts by the young women. Knight said Castro threatened to kill her if the baby did not survive, the initial police report states. "What's most incredible here is that this girl who knows nothing about childbirth was able to deliver a baby that is now a healthy 6-year-old," the source said. 'I don't think she would have lived very much longer' JUST WATCHED Ohio victims detail life in captivity Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Ohio victims detail life in captivity 03:16 JUST WATCHED Ohio AG: Castro case is not a slam dunk Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Ohio AG: Castro case is not a slam dunk 04:14 JUST WATCHED Mom: Hope is hard to hold onto Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Mom: Hope is hard to hold onto 03:10 Knight remained hospitalized in good condition Thursday, said MetroHealth Medical Center spokeswoman Tina Shaerban-Arundel. The others held -- Berry, her 6-year-old daughter and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus -- are back with relatives. FBI specialists who talked with them feel they "desperately need space and time," said McGinty. "These victims need to be decompressed," he said. "They need a chance to heal before we seek further in-depth evidence from them." Those close to them, as well as residents of Cleveland and beyond, are trying to make sense of the alleged depravity. One of them is Arlene Castro, the suspect's daughter and once a very good friend of DeJesus. She was interviewed on an "America's Most Wanted" segment in 2005 talking about how she'd been with DeJesus, hoping to spend the afternoon with her, shortly before her abduction. Speaking Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America," she said she last spoke with her father late last month, adding the two had never been close. Whatever their relationship, she insisted, "I had no idea" what was happening. "I'm really disappointed, embarrassed, mainly devastated," Arlene Castro said. "... I would like to say that I'm absolutely so, so sorry." Fern Gentry said on CNN's "Starting Point" Thursday that hearing Berry, her granddaughter, was alive 10 years after her disappearance was the "most important thing that ever happened in my life." Gentry, who spoke to Berry by phone from her Tennessee home Tuesday, said she's grateful for all involved in the case -- from police to helpful neighbors -- and that her granddaughter can now live her life. "If she hadn't got out, I don't think she would have lived very much longer," Gentry said.	– One reason it took the women in the Cleveland kidnapping case so long to escape to the world just outside their door? Ariel Castro would "test" them for just such a scenario, reports CNN. According to a law enforcement source, he would pretend to leave the house then return suddenly to check if any of the women had moved, punishing them if they had. Even though the women watched the search efforts and vigils held for them on TV, they eventually "succumbed [to] their reality," says the source. Additionally, Berry's child, Jocelyn, was not told Michelle Knight's or Gina DeJesus' real names, in case she mentioned them when Castro took her out of the house, WKYC reports. When Berry did make her brave escape, she was afraid to break the locked storm door open in case this was another "test." A police report details their rescuers' arrival on the scene: "As we neared the top of the steps, Officer Espada hollered out, 'Cleveland Police,' at which time ... Knight ran and threw herself into (Officer) Espada's arms," says the report. "We then asked if there was anyone else upstairs with her, when (DeJesus) came out of the bedroom." WKYC notes that a public fund has been set up to provide services for the women. Castro, who has been formally charged, is due in court today.
This Comedy Central spoof of the classic children's book 'Goodnight Moon' marks Newt Gingrich's resignation from the presidential race. The once presidential candidate hopeful Newt Gingrich, who officially dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination today (May 2), famously advocated establishing a moon colony as part of his plan for NASA. Now, to commemorate the suspension of his campaign, television Channel Comedy Central has released a spoof on the classic children's book "Goodnight Moon." Comedy Central presented the spoof, dubbed "Goodnight Moon Colony," as an image gallery of seven slides representing pages in the mock children's book. "Our storybook farewell to Newt Gingrich's campaign, which we'll always remember for its nuanced policy positions and bold vision of... ah, screw it. We'll remember the moon colony thing," the introduction to the gallery reads on Comedy Central's "Indecision" website. The gallery shows an illustration of Gingrich in bed with a large base clearly visible on the round moon shining through his bedroom window. The scene mimics the artwork in the 1947 Margaret Wise Brown picture book illustrated by Clement Hurd. Other slides in the gallery bid "goodnight" to famous statements made by Gingrich during the campaign, such as "Goodnight, Dirty Unwashed Occupy Wall Street Protestors," referencing Gingrich's dismissal of the anti-corporate-greed activists, and "Goodnight, Bankrupt Health Care Think Tank," a dig at the fact that the Center for Health Transformation, which Gingrich founded in 2003, went under. Gingrich announced his moon colony vision for permanent lunar base during a campaign speech Jan. 25 on Florida's Space Coast. If elected, he would direct NASA to establish a manned lunar base by 2020, with trips to Mars following later. "By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon, and it will be American," Gingrich said at the time. Yet space experts questioned the feasibility of the plan's timeline and economics, especially given that Gingrich also promised to slim down NASA's bureaucracy and reduce the agency's budget. The leading Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, has said he would boost the ties between NASA and private space companies if elected, and would convene a a coalition of leaders from the military, academia and business to determine a course for the U.S. space agency. Comedy Central hosts the political satire programs "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report." You can follow assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. \|\|\|\|\| The seed for this crawl was a list of every host in the Wayback Machine This crawl was run at a level 1 (URLs including their embeds, plus the URLs of all outbound links including their embeds) The WARC files associated with this crawl are not currently available to the general public.	– Now that Newt Gingrich has finally, finally, finally dropped out of the presidential race, Comedy Central bids him adieu with an inspired take on a classic children’s book. It’s a "storybook farewell to Newt Gingrich's campaign, which we'll always remember for its nuanced policy positions and bold vision of ... ah, screw it. We'll remember the moon colony thing," reads the introduction to "Goodnight Moon Colony," spotted by Space.com. The "book," actually a series of slides, also says goodnight to other classics from the Gingrich campaign, including the "food stamp president" and "poll numbers showing beyond a reasonable doubt that Newt Gingrich will win the nomination." The artwork is the highlight, particularly the last page, showing Gingrich in bed with the moon base visible from his window in a spoof of the classic Clement Hurd illustrations in Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon. Click to see for yourself.
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain The driver of a Spanish train that derailed, killing at least 80 people, was under police guard in hospital on Thursday after the dramatic accident which an official source said was caused by excessive speed. The eight-carriage train came off the tracks, hit a wall and caught fire just outside the pilgrimage destination Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night. It was one of Europe's worst rail disasters. The source had knowledge of the official investigation into a crash which brought misery to Santiago on Thursday, the day when it should have celebrated one of Europe's biggest Christian festivals. Authorities canceled festivities as the city went into mourning. The Galicia regional supreme court said in a statement the judge investigating the accident had ordered police to take a statement from the driver. He was being formally investigated and under police guard but not under arrest, the court said. He was in hospital but it was not clear what kind of injuries he had suffered. Video footage from a security camera showed the train, with 247 people on board, hurtling into a concrete wall at the side of the track as carriages jack-knifed and the engine overturned. One local official described the aftermath of the crash as like a scene from hell, with bodies strewn next to the tracks. The impact was so huge one carriage flew several meters into the air and landed on the other side of a high concrete barrier. Around 94 people were injured, 35 of them, including four children, in a serious condition, the deputy head of the regional government said. "We heard a massive noise and we went down the tracks. I helped get a few injured and bodies out of the train. I went into one of the cars but I'd rather not tell you what I saw there," Ricardo Martinez, a 47-year old baker from Santiago de Compostela, told Reuters. Newspaper accounts cited witnesses as saying the driver, Francisco Jose Garzon, who had helped rescue victims, shouted into a phone: "I've derailed! What do I do?". The 52-year-old had been a train driver for 30 years, said a spokeswoman for Renfe, the state train company. A court source told Reuters there was one driver on the train. Previously, a Galicia government source had said there were two. TRAIN HIT BEND AT SPEED El Pais newspaper said the driver told the railway station by radio after being trapped in his cabin that the train entered the bend at 190 kilometers per hour (120 mph). An official source said the speed limit on that stretch of twin track, laid in 2011, was 80 kph. "We're only human! We're only human!" the driver told the station, the newspaper said, citing sources close to the investigation. "I hope there are no dead, because this will weigh on my conscience." Investigators were trying to find out why the train was going so fast and why security devices to keep speed within permitted limits had not slowed the train. Operated by state-owned company Renfe, the train was built by Bombardier and Talgo and was around five years old. It had almost the maximum number of passengers. Spain's rail safety record is better than the European average, ranking 18th out of 27 countries in terms of railway deaths per kilometers traveled, the European Railway Agency said. There were 218 train accidents in Spain between 2008-2011, well below the EU average of 426 for the same period. Firefighters called off a strike to help with the disaster, while hospital staff, many operating on reduced salaries because of spending cuts in recession-hit Spain, worked overtime to tend the injured. The disaster happened at 8.41 p.m. (2:41 p.m. ET) on the eve of a festival dedicated to St. James, one of Jesus's 12 disciples, whose remains are said to rest in Santiago's centuries-old cathedral. The apostle's shrine is the destination of the famous El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage across the Pyrenees, which has been followed by Christians since the Middle Ages. "The main mass (in the cathedral) was transformed from a mass of joy into a mass of mourning," said Italian pilgrim Irene Valsangiacomo. KING, PM VISIT One U.S. citizen died in the crash and five were injured, the State Department said in Washington. Mexico said one of its nationals was among the dead. At least one British citizen was injured, a British embassy spokesman said. People from several other countries were believed to be among the passengers. People living nearby ran to the site to help emergency workers tend to the wounded. Ana Taboada, a 29-year-old hospital worker, was one of the first on the scene. "When the dust lifted I saw corpses. I didn't make it down to the track, because I was helping the passengers that were coming up the embankment," she told Reuters. "I saw a man trying to break a window with a stone to help those inside get out." Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in Santiago de Compostela, the capital of Galicia region, visited the site and the main hospital on Thursday. He declared three days of official national mourning for the victims of the disaster. King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia also went to Santiago and visited the injured in hospital. "All of Spain is united in grief with the bereaved families," the king said. Both Renfe and state-owned Adif, which is in charge of the tracks, opened an investigation into the derailment. Passenger Ricardo Montesco told Cadena Ser radio station the train approached the curve at high speed, twisted and the carriages piled up one on top of the other. "A lot of people were squashed on the bottom. We tried to squeeze out of the bottom of the wagons to get out and we realized the train was burning. ... I was in the second carriage and there was fire. ... I saw corpses," he said. Clinics in Santiago de Compostela were overwhelmed with people flocking to give blood, while hotels organized free rooms for relatives. Madrid sent forensic scientists and hospital staff to the scene on special flights. Allianz Seguros, owned by Germany's Allianz, owns the insurance contract for loss suffered by Renfe passengers, a company spokeswoman told Reuters. The contract does not cover Renfe's trains. The company had sent experts to the scene. The disaster stirred memories of a train bombing in Madrid in 2004, carried out by Islamist militants, that killed 191 people, although officials do not suspect an attack this time. Spain is struggling to emerge from a long-running recession marked by government-driven austerity to bring its deeply indebted finances into order. But Adif, the state railways infrastructure company, told Reuters no budget cuts had been implemented on maintenance of the line, which connects La Coruna, Santiago de Compostela and Ourense and was inaugurated in 2011. It said more than 100 million euros a year were being spent on track maintenance in Spain. (Additional reporting by Inmaculada Sanz, Sonya Dowsett, Sarah White, Andres Gonzalez, Blanca Rodriguez, Julien Toyer, Emma Pinedo, Raquel Castillo, Robert Hetz; Writing by Sonya Dowsett and Julien Toyer and Elisabeth O'Leary,; editing by Barry Moody and Andrew Heavens) \|\|\|\|\| Death toll rises to 80, including one American. Train driver who boasted about speeding is under investigation after video shows dramatic derailment. Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on July 24. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, killing dozens. (Photo: Antonio Hernandez, El correo Gallego/AP) Story Highlights Train from Madrid may have been traveling 89 to 119 mph in 50-mph zone All eight carriages left tracks, and four overturned Accident happened in Santiago de Compostela in the Galicia region The train that derailed on a curve Wednesday night in northwestern Spain may have been traveling at more than twice the speed limit, media outlets reported Thursday. The veteran driver, who was injured, is being formally investigated amid reports that he had bragged on Facebook about routinely speeding. Officials said he did not test positive for alcohol or drugs. Authorities and rail experts cautioned that speed-control systems might also have failed. The Associated Press analyzed video of the crash and said the train was going between 89 mph and 119 mph on the stretch of track that has a limit of about 50 mph. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo also reported that the train may have approached speeds of up to 119 mph before it flew off the tracks and smashed into a retaining wall. The U.S. State Department said that one American was among the 80 who died. The Galician government said 94 others remained hospitalized, with 31, including four children, in critical condition. Five Americans were among the injured, the State Department said, without releasing details. The Reuters news agency reported that the driver, Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, is in police custody in the hospital, where he is being treated for unspecified injuries. He took over the controls from another driver about 65 miles before the crash, said the state railway, Renfe. Garzon, 52, has worked for Renfe for 30 years. He became an assistant driver in 2000 and a fully qualified driver in 2003. He enjoyed going fast. The New York Times reported that until it was deleted Thursday morning, Garzon's Facebook page "included a photograph and exchanges that portrayed a taste for speed, and perhaps even recklessness." A March 2012 photo showed a speedometer topped out at 124 mph. "I'm at the limit and I can't go any faster or they will give me a fine," he wrote. Responding to a friend's quip about speeding, the Times said, Garzon wrote in all caps: "Imagine what a rush it would be traveling alongside the Civil Guard, and passing them so that their speed traps go off. Hehe, that would be quite a fine for Renfe, hehe." Garzon had worked the Madrid-to-Ferrol run for more than a year, Renfe said. His express train Wednesday was carrying 218 passengers when it left the tracks at 8:41 p.m. local time (2:41 p.m. ET) about 2.5 miles from the station at Santiago de Compostela. The train carried five crewmembers. One driver who was trapped radioed the rail station that the train was traveling 120 mph when it entered the bend, sources told the Spanish newspaper El Pais. "We're only human! We're only human!" the driver reportedly said. "I hope there are no dead, because this will fall on my conscience." All eight carriages derailed, and four overturned. TV images showed one car torn apart, another on fire and blanket-covered bodies besides the wrecked carriages. Hadley Malcolm hosts USA NOW for July 25, 2013, covering the recent train crash in Spain that killed scores of people. USA TODAY, USA NOW, Kaveh Rezaei, "A lot of people were squashed on the bottom. We tried to squeeze out of the bottom of the wagons to get out and we realized the train was burning," passenger Ricardo Montesco told radio station Cadena SER. "I was in the second wagon and there was fire. I saw corpses." The president of the Galicia region, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, described the scene as "Dante-esque." An 18-year Mormon missionary from Utah told the Associated Press he blacked out after the train lifted in the air like a roller coaster. Stephen Ward, of Bountiful, found himself caked in blood and heard cries and screams when he came to, thinking it was all a dream. He was discharged Thursday. Officials canceled festivities planned for Thursday in Santiago de Compostela to celebrate St James, one of Jesus' 12 apostles whose remains are claimed to buried there. Officials said many of the travelers likely were pilgrims headed to the city, about 60 miles south of Ferrol. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy Brey, who was born in Santiago de Compostola, toured the crash scene Thursday alongside rescue workers and visited the injured and their families at a nearby hospital. He declared three days of official mourning. "For a native of Santiago, like me, this is the saddest day," he said. King Carlos, the country's head of state, and Queen Sofia also visited the hospital. It was Spain's deadliest train accident since 1972, when a train collided with a bus in southwest Spain, killing 86 people and injuring 112. Two weeks ago in France, six people died when several cars of a train packed ahead of the Bastille Day holiday in a station outside Paris. Officials blamed a faulty track. Contributing: The Associated Press &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;!--iframe--&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; The train company said Thursday that there does not appear to have been a technical fault with the train. The train company said Thursday that there does not appear to have been a technical fault with the train. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/17Ff6h4 \|\|\|\|\| Story highlights Survivor says the crash site looked like a scene from hell Victim: "Suddenly there was a curve, the suitcases fell and everything went dark" Death toll at 80, spokeswoman for Spanish government in Galicia region tells CNN Crash may be linked to train going too fast, transport minister tells radio station The train races into view, and in the space of a heartbeat, the cars derail and crash into a wall of concrete, flipping onto their sides and skidding along the track with terrifying speed and force. Security footage shows the horror of the moment an express train derailed as it hurtled around a curve in northwestern Spain on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the Spanish government in the Galicia region, speaking on routine condition of anonymity, confirmed 80 people have died in the crash. A woman from Arlington, Virginia, is among the dead. And at least five other U.S. citizens were injured, Deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said. Flames burst out of one train car as another car was snapped in half after the crash. Rescue crews and fellow passengers pulled bodies through broken windows and pried open doors as stunned survivors looked on. Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Wreckage of the front locomotive of a derailed train stands on the road while workers repair the railway on Sunday, July 28, in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. A spokeswoman for the Galician regional government said that at least 79 people were confirmed dead in the train crash. It occurred on the eve of a public holiday, when more people than usual may have been traveling in the region. Hide Caption 1 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Train driver Francisco Jose Garzon is taken from a police station to the Preliminary Court in Santiago de Compostela on July 28. Hide Caption 2 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, second from left, and Galicia's regional President Alberto Nunez Feijoo, right, visit the site of the derailment on Friday, July 26. Hide Caption 3 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Injured people are evacuated at the site of the July 24 train accident. The driver of the train is being held, Spanish police said July 26. Hide Caption 4 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – A train car is lifted Thursday, July 25, at Angrois near Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The train derailed as it hurtled around a curve at high speed on Wednesday, July 24. Hide Caption 5 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Emergency personnel work at the crash scene July 25. An investigation into the cause of the derailment is under way. Hide Caption 6 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, center, visits the crash site July 25 with Public Works Minister Ana Pastor, right, and Alberto Nunez Feijoo, head of the regional government in Galicia. The latter declared seven days of mourning for victims of the crash. Hide Caption 7 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – A relative of one of the passengers waits to hear news in Santiago de Compostela on July 25. Hide Caption 8 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Other relatives of passengers wait for information in Santiago de Compostela on July 25. Hide Caption 9 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Rescue workers inspect a carriage in the wreckage July 25. Hide Caption 10 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – A general view of the derailment in northwestern Spain on July 25. Hide Caption 11 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Emergency workers at the derailment scene July 25. Hide Caption 12 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Emergency personnel evacuate a man at the scene July 25. Hide Caption 13 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Emergency workers help passengers July 25. Hide Caption 14 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Women wait for news about crash victims in Santiago de Compostela on July 25. Hide Caption 15 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Teams at the crash site July 25 expect to find more bodies, an official says. Hide Caption 16 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – The train was on its way from Madrid to the town of Ferrol with more than 200 passengers aboard. Hide Caption 17 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Train driver Francisco Jose Garzon, identified by Spanish newspapers El Pais and El Mundo, is helped from the scene by a police officer. Hide Caption 18 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – The state railway company said the train derailed on a curve as it was approaching the train station in Santiago de Compostela. Hide Caption 19 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Emergency workers climb on top of the wreckage as they help free injured passengers from the crash. Hide Caption 20 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – While it was unclear how fast the train was going at the time of the crash, it was capable of reaching up to 155 mph. Hide Caption 21 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Rescuers work to pull victims from the derailed cars. Hide Caption 22 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – One person at the scene said he saw several passengers and witnesses helping get people out of the mangled cars. Hide Caption 23 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Rescuers work to clear a derailed car. Hide Caption 24 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – "The efforts now center on searching for bodies and victims that could still be alive in the wreckage of the cars," journalist Ignacio Carballo from the Voz de Galicia newspaper told CNN en Español. Hide Caption 25 of 26 Photos: Photos: Deadly train crash in Spain Deadly train crash in Spain – Officials said blood donations were needed as a result of the crash. Hide Caption 26 of 26 JUST WATCHED Watch Spain's deadly train crash Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Watch Spain's deadly train crash 02:00 JUST WATCHED Speed possibly a factor in train crash Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Speed possibly a factor in train crash 02:38 JUST WATCHED Witness: Crash 'like a horror movie' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Witness: Crash 'like a horror movie' 00:53 Investigations into the cause of the crash continue, but suggestions that the train was traveling too fast appear to be gaining weight. The train driver is being questioned by police and is under formal investigation, said Maria Pardo Rios, a spokeswoman for the Galicia regional supreme court. "He is not being charged by a judge at the moment -- it is all at a police level," she said. Of the scores of people injured in the crash, 95 remained hospitalized Thursday, officials said. Thirty-two adults were in critical condition. Most of the deaths happened at the scene, Rios said. In Spain, judges typically record deaths that take place outside of hospitals. Judicial teams are still at the crash site and expect to find more bodies, she told CNN on Thursday morning. Interim charge d'affaires Luis G. Moreno at the embassy said it was in touch "with families of some injured American citizens." "We are deeply shocked by the news of last night's train crash in Galicia. Our hearts and prayers are with the friends and families of the victims," he said Thursday. UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said one British citizen was injured. The crash came on the eve of a public holiday held to mark the region's saint's day. Local officials canceled festivities planned for Wednesday night and Thursday across Galicia. Train's speed questioned The state railway, Renfe, said the train crashed on a curve several kilometers from the train station in the city of Santiago de Compostela, a popular tourist destination. The train was nearing the end of a six-hour trip from Madrid to the town of Ferrol in northwest Spain when it derailed at 8:41 p.m. Wednesday, the railway said. JUST WATCHED Expert: Speed may not be only factor Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Expert: Speed may not be only factor 03:19 JUST WATCHED CNN iReporter describes train crash site Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH CNN iReporter describes train crash site 04:15 JUST WATCHED iReporter: We saw trains split in half Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH iReporter: We saw trains split in half 02:02 It was unclear how fast the train was traveling when it crashed. It was capable of going up to 250 kilometers per hour (155 mph), said Julio Hermida, a spokesman for the state railway. The driver, who suffered minor injuries, told police the train had entered the bend too fast, TVE reported. The driver has worked for the company for the last 30 years, a spokesman for the railway confirmed to CNN. In 2000, the driver started working as a train driver assistant, and in 2003 began working as a train driver, a job the driver has held since. Rafael Catala, secretary of state for transport and housing, told Spanish radio network Cadena SER that the "tragedy appears to be linked to the train going too fast," but that the reasons for that are not yet known. Spanish news agency Efe and national daily El Pais cited sources within the investigation as saying that the driver had said the train was going at about 190 kilometers per hour, and that the limit on that curve was 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph.) The president of Renfe, Julio Gomez-Pomar, told radio station COPE on Thursday that the train had undergone a routine inspection that same morning. "The train did not have an operating problem," he said. "The maintenance and control record of the train was perfect." Mourning declared Spain's King Juan Carlos visited a hospital in Santiago de Compostela where victims injured in Wednesday's train accident are recovering. "All Spaniards, we are united at this time. ... Really all Spaniards join in the pain of the families of the dead," he said. "We hope that the wounded will recover, little by little." The royal family canceled all events scheduled for the day out of respect for the day of mourning, the royal household told CNN. Alberto Nunez Feijoo, head of the regional government in Galicia, declared seven days of mourning in the region for victims of the tragedy. In a speech, he said "all of the community cries about the tragedy that we are living, we cry for the victims, we cry for the unease and sadness of the families." Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy viewed the scene of devastation Thursday morning and visited some of the hospitalized crash victims. Rajoy, who is from the area, told a news conference there was a "huge challenge" ahead, not least in identifying all those killed and informing their families, and he praised the response of everyone who has helped after the crash. Two investigations are under way, he said, adding, "We want to establish what happened." Rajoy declared three days of national mourning to honor the victims of the crash. The prime minister came under fire in Spanish media after a condolences message for the train crash victims posted by his office late Wednesday included a paragraph apparently "copied and pasted" from a statement previously sent to victims of an earthquake in Gansu, China. ''I would like to express my deepest condolences for the loss of human lives and the material damage from the earthquake that has occurred in Gansu has caused," the note said. Victim: 'Everything went dark' One victim, speaking from a hospital bed with his arm in a sling, told CNN affiliate Atlas that it seemed like train was going fast. "But we didn't know what was the maximum speed, so I thought it was normal," he said, "And suddenly there was a curve, the suitcases fell, and everything went dark. And I hit my head a ton of times, and 10 seconds later I was wedged between seats, and I had people's legs on top of me." As he waited for rescuers to pull him from the wreckage, he heard other passengers yelling. "I heard little children screaming. ... I also heard two girls that yelled out, one supporting the other," he said. Rescuers came through it and helped the 18-year-old from Bountiful, Utah, get out. He waited for hours while victims with more serious injuries were taken to the hospital. As he watched rescue crews carry the dead and wounded, he cried and sang church hymns to calm himself down. A photo taken at the scene shows him leaning on a police officer as he walked beside the tracks, with blood oozing down his face and splattered on his crisp, white shirt. The Mormon missionary walked past dead bodies on the ground. He told London's Daily Telegraph that it looked like a scene from hell. U.S. citizen among those killed When the train crashed, Ana-Maria Cordoba was on the way with her husband and their daughter to visit her son, who had been on a pilgrimage in Spain, the Catholic Diocese of Arlington told CNN. Cordoba, who worked for the diocese, was killed, spokesman Michael Donahue said. Her husband and daughter are hospitalized in stable condition, the diocese said. Crash investigation Investigators are looking at all possible causes of the crash, a senior aide to the prime minister said Wednesday. Renfe's spokesman said he did not know how many crew members were aboard the train when it crashed. Normally, there would be at least five crew members on a train like that, he said. Officials appealed for blood donations just after the crash but on Thursday said the short-term needs were met. Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, expressed condolences from the European Union. Pope Francis, who is on a visit to Brazil for World Youth Day, sent a telegram to the bishop of Santiago de Compostela, Julian Barrio Barrio, offering his support and prayers for all those affected by the tragedy. \|\|\|\|\| A passenger train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, killing at least 35 people and leaving hundreds injured, officials said. Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, toppling passenger... (Associated Press) Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, toppling passenger... (Associated Press) A woman is evacuated by emergency personnel at the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night,... (Associated Press) Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, toppling passenger... (Associated Press) Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, toppling passenger... (Associated Press) Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, toppling passenger... (Associated Press) Alberto Nunez Feijoo, president of the region of Galicia, said at least 35 people aboard the train were killed. State-owned train operator Renfe said in a statement that 218 passengers and an unspecified number of staff were on board at the time of the accident. Renfe did not give an estimate of the numbers of dead or injured. Feast day festivities planned in the city of Santiago de Compostela were cancelled, town hall spokeswoman Maria Pardo told Spanish National television TVE. A photographer at the scene said he saw dozens of what appeared to be dead bodies being extracted from the wreck by emergency workers. TVE showed footage of what appeared to be several bodies covered by blankets alongside the tracks next to the damaged train wagons. The photographer, Xabier Martinez, told The Associated Press that he also spoke to two injured train passengers who said they felt a strong vibration before the derailing. The accident occurred along a high-speed stretch of track near the train station in Santiago de Compostola, 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of El Ferrol. Rescue workers were seen in the television images caring for people still inside some of the wagons. Television footage also showed one wagon pointing upwards into the air with one of its ends twisted and disfigured. Another carriage had left the track altogether and could be seen resting on a nearby road. The train, which belongs to the state-owned Renfe company, was headed to El Ferrol from Madrid. Officials at the Interior Ministry and the Adif rail infrastructure authority did not immediately answer telephone calls or return messages seeking comment. Officials with Renfe also did not immediately return messages seeking comment. \|\|\|\|\| SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain — The train driver did little to hide his taste for speed. He posted a photograph of a locomotive speedometer needle stuck at 200 kilometers, or about 125 miles, per hour on Facebook last year, boasting that the reading “has not been tampered with” and openly relishing the idea of racing past the authorities. “Imagine what a rush it would be traveling alongside the Civil Guard, and passing them so that their speed traps go off,” he wrote, in all capitals. “Hehe, that would be quite a fine for Renfe, hehe,” referring to his employer, the Spanish rail company. Now that train driver, Francisco José Garzón Amo, a veteran with more than three decades of experience, is under investigation by a judge in connection with one of Europe’s worst rail accidents in recent years. In a chilling video from a security camera, the passenger train he was driving rounded a curve at high speed on Wednesday night, tumbling violently off the track, slamming against a curved wall and piling up in a twisted wreck. Eighty people were killed. On Thursday, Spanish news media reported that the driver had said the train’s speed had been about 120 miles per hour, more than double the limit in the stretch of track where the train derailed. On the day of the wreck, he took over from another driver just 60 miles before the crash, according to Spanish news reports. The train was almost full, carrying more than 200 passengers and merrymakers returning to the region for a special holiday on Thursday. July 25 is the feast day for St. James the Apostle, the patron saint of Spain, who for centuries has inspired pilgrims to walk El Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James. The pilgrimage has had a burst of popularity in recent years, drawing walkers from around the world. After the crash, the city of Santiago de Compostela canceled its extensive celebration and the authorities urged people to donate blood. Thousands made a very different kind of pilgrimage to the site of the disaster, watching as rescuers used cranes and trucks to hoist the engines of the wrecked train. All — children, teenagers and older people — stood in funereal silence. Nearby, in a building where an information center had been set up, police officers kept the victims’ families from the public eye. Some walked around the building in tears, hugging and comforting one another, while others grew frustrated waiting to see their loved ones. “Now, at 9:30 p.m., is when they allowed us to go and see our family member,” said María, a relative of a victim who did not want her full name used. “Twenty-four hours waiting, in these conditions. That’s too much.” Most high-speed lines that are part of the European rail traffic system are covered by a GPS-based surveillance network that constantly monitors trains’ speed and automatically brakes them at speed limits. Slower trains and trains crossing urban areas in Spain and other countries use a less intrusive system that warns the driver with sound and lights at excessive speeds, but does not automatically brake the train, according to María Carmen Palao, a spokeswoman for Spain’s ADIF rail infrastructure company. The accident, she said, took place two to three miles outside the station at Santiago de Compostela, in the “transition zone” between the two systems. The wreck occurred on the Galicia line, run by the rail operator Renfe and opened in 2011. The train’s driver survived the accident with light injuries and is under police guard, although he has not been formally arrested. He is “lucid and able to speak,” said Carmen Prieto, a spokeswoman for the Spanish Development Ministry. The Spanish newspaper El País reported that people at the train company said that alcohol had not been found in the driver’s system, but the security video showing the train barreling into the turn and abruptly careening off the rails quickly raised concerns that he was traveling too fast. Even in his Facebook message, posted in 2012 but removed late Thursday morning, Mr. Garzón elicited some astounded comments from friends. “Dude, you’re going full speed, braaaaake,” one commenter wrote. “Christ, you’re doing 200km/h,” another said. Outpourings of sympathy for Wednesday’s disaster came from all corners, including the White House. “On behalf of the American people, we offer our deepest sympathies and condolences,” President Obama said in a statement. The State Department confirmed Thursday that one American died and five were injured in the accident. In a letter to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said he was “deeply saddened” by the accident. “Such a serious accident, with so many people dead and injured, is a tragedy for Spain and provokes such deep emotions,” he said. Mr. Rajoy, who was born in the region, visited the scene and declared three days of official mourning. King Juan Carlos and his wife, Sofía, also rushed to Santiago de Compostela. “In the face of a tragedy such as just happened in Santiago de Compostela on the eve of its big day, I can only express my deepest sympathy as a Spaniard and a Galician,” Mr. Rajoy said in a written statement. The eight-car train, which left Madrid at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, was traveling to the coast when it derailed around 8:44 p.m., according to the clock on the security video. Witnesses described the destruction as the dead were taken to a temporary morgue. “The road is full of cadavers,” a radio reporter, Xaime López, said on the station Cadena Ser. “It’s striking: you almost can’t even count them.” The accident was Spain’s worst train crash since 1972, when 86 people were killed in the southwest of the country.	– Another deadly train accident is in the news, this time from Spain. A high-speed train in the country's northwest derailed last night; it was reportedly moving at double the speed limit, and Reuters says the driver is under investigation. Officials say at least 77 people are dead, the New York Times reports. At least 100 more were injured, and 20 are in critical condition, CNN adds. Authorities say the train had about 220 passengers and derailed around 8:40pm local time near the station in the city of Santiago de Compostela, 60 miles south of El Ferrol, the AP notes. An official tells CNN more bodies are expected to be found, and some reports now put the death toll at 78. The train, which belongs to the state-owned Renfe company, was on its way to El Ferrol from Madrid. It was going 110 miles per hour in a zone where the speed limit is 50, sources told Spain's El Pais paper, per the Times. According to CNN, the train driver told police he entered a curve too quickly, and the country's transport secretary confirmed the "tragedy appears to be linked to the train going too fast." The BBC says all 13 cars came off the tracks, and it quotes one passenger who says they seemed to "pile up on one another" at a curve in the tracks. "There are bodies lying on the railway track," says one government official. "It's a Dante-esque scene."
Former Winnipeg broadcast personality and Red River College journalism instructor Steve Vogelsang has been charged with two counts of robbery involving two separate banks in Alberta. CKY , now known as CTV Winnipeg, beginning in the early 1990s . He became a journalism instructor at Red River College in 2002 and resigned in 2011. Police released this still image from surveillance video of a man they say robbed two banks in Medicine Hat, Alta. Steve Vogelsang has been charged in the robberies. (Medicine Hat Police Service) The 53-year-old was the news director and longtime sports anchor at, now known asWinnipeg, beginning in the early. He became a journalism instructor at Red River College in 2002 and resigned in 2011. In March, a former student he had dated was granted a protection order against him. Police in Medicine Hat say a man walked into a Royal Bank in the southeastern Alberta city on Oct. 19 and a Bank of Montreal the next day without a disguise, demanded money and left with an undisclosed amount of cash. Police arrested Vogelsang on Saturday at a hotel in the same area as the banks, just after 3 a.m. CT. Vogelsang and his wife moved from Winnipeg to Nelson, B.C., after he left his post at Red River College. After spending 24 years together, Vogelsang and his wife separated in 2015 and he moved back to Winnipeg. She filed for divorce last summer. Financially squeezed According to court documents, Vogelsang and his wife had owned three properties in Nelson and sold them for a total loss of $85,000. Vogelsang was supposed to take over fully last September after removing his ex-wife's name from the paperwork. Vogelsang was a journalism instructor at Red River College from 2002 to 2011 after serving as news director and a longtime sports anchor at CTV. (Steve Vogelsang/Facebook) They also owned a home in Winnipeg, whichwas supposed to take over fully last September after removing his ex-wife's name from the paperwork. The documents say that didn't happen. Instead, she alleges he forged her signature and renewed the mortgage on the home in both their names. Vogelsang wasn't able to make the mortgage payments and put the house up for sale, but it went into foreclosure in April. According to an email exchange in September, entered as evidence, while the couple argued over selling a property, Vogelsang described his financial situation and said he was, at times, sleeping in his vehicle. "[Because] I have nowhere to stay, I'll stay in my truck tues & weds night," he wrote. "I have been staying in my truck regularly," he added. Earlier this year, he said he planned to move to Vancouver Island in August, and was working on developing a career as a keynote speaker on millennials. Accused of harassing former student A former student Vogelsang had been dating off and on since 2004 got a protection order against him in March. She said she broke up with him last August and alleges in court documents that he did not stop contacting her through text, emails and voicemails, despite Winnipeg police asking him on three occasions to leave her alone. "He's gone to great lengths to try to get a hold of me since November and I've ... changed my cellphone number. I've cancelled my personal email. I've blocked him through work. I've tried to block him through email and phone. Our security desk and our HR manager has his picture and his details and he's not allowed in the building," she said in court documents. Police released this video still from the bank robbery in Medicine Hat. (Medicine Hat Police Service) "I wanted this to end in August. I've now had the police tell him I don't want any contact and he is still wanting to be involved, wanting to be involved in my life, wanting to get some sort of effect from me. And so I do fear for my own safety." Vogelsang is fighting those allegations next month. He told the court the woman "has repeatedly misled police in an attempt to discredit me." "I, Stephen Lane Vogelsang, have never committed a violent act," he is quoted in the documents as saying. He says that the woman "has actively interfered in my life." "I trade on my reputation for my employment. I have spent over 20 years in Winnipeg developing a flawless and well-respected reputation. Vogelsang remains in custody in Alberta to face two robbery charges and is expected in court tomorrow. More from CBC Manitoba: \|\|\|\|\| CTV News has learned former college instructor and broadcaster Stephen Vogelsang has been charged in connection with two Alberta bank robberies, and has been dealing with criminal charges in Winnipeg. The well-known Winnipeg personality taught journalism at Red River College between 2002 and 2011. Vogelsang is also a former sports anchor and news director at CKY-TV, now CTV Winnipeg. He worked at the station between 1992 and 2002. CTV News has learned Vogelsang returned to Red River College, working on a part-time basis sometime after moving back to Winnipeg from Nelson B.C., in 2014, up until this past summer. “I can confirm he is no longer an employee here,” said Conor Lloyd spokesperson for Red River College. Vogelsang, 53, was charged with two counts of robbery in connection to two bank robberies in Medicine Hat, Alta. On Monday Medicine Hat Police Service said Vogelsang was arrested Saturday in the city, located about three hours southeast of Calgary. Police said a man went into a Royal Bank of Canada on Thursday October 19 and a Bank of Montreal on Friday October 20. They said in both instances, the man passed a note to a teller and received money. The amount is not being released. “There were no weapons seen or brandished by the accused. It was a note passed, but I guess what's important to note, you know, in the sensitive environment of a financial institution when you pass the note across the desk so to speak, there is an applied threat and it's unknown if he had any weapons at that time," said Joe West, Medicine Hat Police Service inspector., in a phone interview with CTV News. West said information from other agencies, along with obtaining a description of a suspect vehicle, led to the arrest. The accused was located at a Medicine Hat hotel. West said he was arrested without incident, and is expected to appear in court tomorrow. Source: Medicine Hat Police Service Financial and legal difficulties It appears Vogelsang is going through financial difficulties. Court documents obtained by CTV News detail his divorce. He was accused of missing several mortgage payments on a home in Winnipeg, and borrowing money. Court records also show he was charged with sexual assault in September 2016. That charge was stayed October 23, 2017. A protection order was filed and granted in March 2017. Court documents show he faces three charges of disobeying a court order, laid in August 2017. A justice official tells CTV News those charges are expected to be dealt with in court next year. Reaction from former students CTV News connected with former students who said the allegations are shocking. “I'm shocked and upset, in disbelief, as I know many of Steve's former students are,” said former student Matt Preprost in an emailed statement. “Steve was a tough, but fair teacher—one who built his lessons and rapport with us through a mix of fun and humour, always challenging us to step outside our comfort zones and to be better than our last assignment. No guts, no glory, as he used to say. There’s still much we don’t know about the circumstances of these alleged robberies, and I’ll defer further comment at this time.”	– A former well-known Canadian TV sports anchor is in jail after police say he robbed two banks in as many days in the western province of Alberta last week. Police in the small city of Medicine Hat say Steve Vogelsang robbed a Royal Bank of Canada on Thursday, Oct. 19, and then turned around the next day and robbed a Bank of Montreal, CBC reports. He entered both banks without a disguise and after demanding money, left with an undisclosed sum. Police finally arrested Vogelsang at a nearby hotel at around 3am on Saturday. Per CTV Winnipeg News, Vogelsang, 53, was a longtime news director and sports broadcaster at CKY, now CTV Winnipeg. He also taught journalism at Red River College in Winnipeg from 2002 to 2011. Conor Lloyd, a spokesman for the college, says, “I can confirm he is no longer an employee here.” Vogelsang is scheduled to appear in provincial court on Tuesday.
As the debt talks stagnate in D.C., the Commerce Department has just released a gloomy report noting that the nation's gross domestic product rose by a rate of only 1.3 percent in the second quarter and revised the growth figure for the first quarter sharply down. The figures show the U.S. economy slowed to its "weakest pace since the recession ended," says the Associated Press and Reuters calls the rate "tepid." Economists surveyed by the Dow Jones Newswires "expected GDP to rise 1.8% in the second quarter." From The Wall Street Journal: The Commerce Department Friday said gross domestic product rose at an annualized seasonally adjusted rate of 1.3% in April through June, while first-quarter growth was revised down sharply to a 0.4% rate from the earlier estimate of a 1.9% gain. A big reason behind the downward revision in first-quarter growth was that the inventory buildup by companies was less than initially estimated, while outlays by the federal government and consumers were also revised down. Higher gas prices and reduced consumer spending were cited as culprits for the slower pace of growth. Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at ehayden at nationaljournal dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire. Erik Hayden \|\|\|\|\| The 2007-2009 recession, already in the record books as the worst in the 66 years since the end of World War II, was even worse than previously thought. FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2010 file photo, a crowd of people walk during the morning rush hour in New York. The 2007-2009 recession, already in the record books as the worst in the 66 years since the end... (Associated Press) From the start of the recession at the end of 2007 to the end in June of 2009, the U.S. economy shrank 5.1 percent. That is 1 percentage point worse than the previous estimate that the recession reduced total output during that period by 4.1 percent. The new estimates emerged from the annual revision of economic data prepared by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis and released Friday. Among the previous 10 postwar recessions, output in only two dropped by more 3 percent. In the 1957-58 recession, the economy contracted 3.7 percent. And during the 1973-1975 downturn, the economy fell 3.2 percent from the start of the recession to the end. The government attributed the bigger declines in output in part to weaker consumer spending and business investment than previously estimated. By year, the government's new figures show that the economy took a much bigger hit in 2009, when output shrank 3.5 percent. The previous estimate had shown a decline of 2.5 percent that year. In 2008, the new estimate shows the economy contracted by 0.3 percent. The previous estimate had indicated that output was unchanged for that year compared with 2007. The last recession began in December 2007 and lasted until June 2009. Though the economy has been growing since then, growth has been subpar. And the unemployment rate has remained elevated; it's now 9.2 percent. The revisions showed that growth in 2010 was a bit stronger than previously estimated. They put growth for all of 2010 at 3 percent, up from a previous estimate that the economy grew 2.9 percent last year. The revisions to the country's gross domestic product, the total output of goods and services, used more complete data for such items as consumer and business spending. The government's annual revisions are released each July, along with its first estimate of growth for the April-June quarter of the current year.	– We already knew the Great Recession was the worst in decades, but in fact we were even worse off than we thought, new figures show. The economy shrank 5.1% over the course of the recession, from 2007 to 2009—1 percentage point worse than the earlier estimate of 4.1%, the AP reports. Only two in the past 10 recessions saw a squeeze of more than 3%. And yes, the economy is now growing—but it expanded only 1.3% from April to June, the Commerce Department said, lower than expected. Officials also revised the growth figure for the first three months of the year to 0.4%, compared to an earlier estimate of 1.9%. That means that the past 6 months have seen the least growth since the end of the recession. Among the reasons: Gas prices, less consumer spending, and smaller government, notes the Atlantic. Combine these figures with the debt ceiling crisis, and it’s “like hearing about the Hindenburg on the day the 6-mile meteor hits the earth,” said a blogger.
Published on Nov 1, 2017 I, Tonya Trailer #1 (2017): Check out the official trailer starring Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, and Sebastian Stan! Be the first to watch, comment, and share trailers and movie teasers/clips dropping soon @MovieclipsTrailers. ► Buy Tickets: https://www.fandango.com/i-tonya-2060... Watch more Trailers: ► HOT New Trailers Playlist: http://bit.ly/2hp08G1 ► What to Watch Playlist: http://bit.ly/2ieyw8G ► Even More on COMING SOON: http://bit.ly/H2vZUn Competitive ice skater Tonya Harding rises among the ranks at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, but her future in the sport is thrown into doubt when her ex-husband intervenes. About Movieclips Trailers: ► Subscribe to TRAILERS:http://bit.ly/sxaw6h ► We’re on SNAPCHAT: http://bit.ly/2cOzfcy ► Like us on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/1QyRMsE ► Follow us on TWITTER:http://bit.ly/1ghOWmt The Fandango MOVIECLIPS Trailers channel is your destination for hot new trailers the second they drop. The Fandango MOVIECLIPS Trailers team is here day and night to make sure all the hottest new movie trailers are available whenever, wherever you want them. \|\|\|\|\| Based on the unbelievable, but true events, I, TONYA is a darkly comedic tale of American figure skater, Tonya Harding, and one of the most sensational scandals in sports history. Though Harding was the first American woman to complete a triple axel in competition, her legacy was forever defined by her association with an infamous, ill-conceived, and even more poorly executed attack on fellow Olympic competitor Nancy Kerrigan. Featuring an iconic turn by Margot Robbie as the fiery Harding, a mustachioed Sebastian Stan as her impetuous ex-husband Jeff Gillooly, a tour-de-force performance from Allison Janney as her acid-tongued mother, LaVona Golden, and an original screenplay by Steven Rogers, Craig Gillespie's I, TONYA is an absurd, irreverent, and piercing portrayal of Harding's life and career in all of its unchecked--and checkered--glory. Rating: R (for pervasive language, violence, and some sexual content/nudity) Genre: Drama Directed By: Craig Gillespie Written By: Steven Rogers On Disc/Streaming: Mar 13, 2018 Box Office: $28,950,158 Runtime: 119 minutes Studio: NEON \|\|\|\|\| type Movie genre Drama release date 12/08/17 performer Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, Sebastian Stan director Craig Gillespie mpaa R We gave it an A- In a sport of princesses, Tonya Harding was the perpetual toad: a trashy, too-brash outsider whose mind-blowing axels and sheer athleticism could never quite make up for the fact that she didn’t fit the demure, spangled mold of an ideal figure skater. Raised but hardly nurtured by a chain-smoking waitress (Allison Janney, a viper in Tootsie glasses and a mushroom-cap haircut), Tonya steadily clawed her way up the junior ranks, thanks mostly to pure willpower and the proxy parenting of a coach (Julianne Nicholson) who tried her best to steer her wild-card charge. What set Harding’s destiny, though, was the arrival of Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan), the dim-bulb paramour and protector whose wonky scheme to take down his wife’s rival Nancy Kerrigan would go down in Olympics infamy. Director Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) frames the movie as a faux documentary stuffed with flashbacks, talking heads, and fourth-wall-breaking asides. His form of satire can be a blunt instrument; it’s hard to tell sometimes whether he wants to be the Coen brothers, Christopher Guest, or just Spinal Tap on ice. But he’s also working from a script where the truth was irrefutably stranger than any fiction. And though the physical abuse Harding endures leaves an ugly bruise on its high-camp ’90s nostalgia, there’s something genuinely electric about the narrative’s headlong tumble into madness. The skating scenes, too, are thrilling, but Robbie is the real revelation. In a performance that goes far beyond bad perms and tabloid punchlines, she’s a powerhouse: a scrappy, defiant subversion of the American dream. You won’t just find yourself rooting for this crazy kid; you might even fall a little bit in love. A- \|\|\|\|\| You probably haven’t thought about Tonya Harding much recently. Truly, why would you? The Olympic figure skater reached the height of her fame nearly a quarter century ago for something that didn’t even happen on the ice: the notorious attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan, orchestrated by Harding’s then-husband, Jeff Gillooly, just before the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit. Even though Harding wasn’t personally involved in the infamous, injurious leg-whacking, she may as well have been, her reputation and career were so irreparably damaged. She became a punchline, her name alone providing a bitter shorthand for scandal. Advertisement All of which makes “I, Tonya” such a wonder. Not only will it make you think about Tonya Harding again, it will make you do so with unexpected sympathy. It will make you feel for her, deeply, for the abuse and pain she’s suffered for so much of her life. Director Craig Gillespie pulls off what would seem to be an impossible high-wire act: He’s made a movie that’s affectionately mocking—of this theatrical sport, of the idiots who surrounded Harding, of this hideous moment in fashion and pop culture—without actually mocking Harding herself. Steven Rogers’ script shows great kindness and emotional charity for this wounded figure, even as it tells her story through a whirlwind of unreliable narrators. It’s “GoodFellas” on ice—darkly comic and often just plain dark, but always breathtakingly alive. Despite the colorful glitz and cheese of the figure-skating setting, “I, Tonya” has an unmistakably tumultuous air from the very start. And at the center of the storm is Margot Robbie in the performance of a lifetime as Harding. Robbie has steadily shown keen insight in the roles she’s chosen, a hunger for the challenge of meaty material and a clear drive to prove she’s so much more than just a beautiful face. Whether it’s as the va-va-voomy siren of “The Wolf of Wall Street” (which put her on the map), the smooth scam artist of “Focus,” the bat-wielding bad-ass Harley Quinn in “Suicide Squad” or the noble frontier woman of “Z for Zachariah,” Robbie has dazzled us with her versatility, even as she’s consistently held us with her charismatic screen presence. Here, she’s got the requisite swagger of an athlete at the top of her sport (and even learned to skate for the part), but it’s tinged with sadness as we the see the low sense of self-worth buried underneath—the result of years of physical and verbal abuse at the hands of her cruel mother. Allison Janney absolutely tears it up as the profane, chain-smoking LaVona Harding, constantly insulting Tonya and messing with her mind in the name of making her a champion. It’s a showy, scenery-chewing performance but it’s not one-note; Janney brings an undercurrent of sorrow to the part in revealing LaVona’s twisted methodology. But Tonya was doomed never to receive an enthusiastic embrace from the figure skating elite because she and her mother didn’t fit their superficial, socioeconomic ideals. That’s an element of Harding’s story that “I, Tonya” depicts incisively; it’s one of the key components to her tragic downfall, but it also makes her story relatable beyond the insular world of figure skating. Growing up poor in Portland, Oregon, with her frizzy ponytail and poofy, homemade costumes, Harding struggled to look the part of the pristine ice queen—something Kerrigan achieved effortlessly. Even though Harding was an extraordinarily athletic female skater—one of a rare few to this day to land a triple axel cleanly in competition—U.S. judges often didn’t give her the scores she deserved because she didn’t adhere to the image they wanted to project. Advertisement When Harding married the first man who was nice to her—at least, at first—she went from one abusive situation to another because it felt familiar, if nothing else. Sebastian Stan initially plays the part of Jeff Gillooly with a hint of benign goofiness. He’s a sleaze ball in a turtleneck and a porn mustache. But as his violent side emerges and his emotional hold on Tonya strengthens, he’s positively chilling—and your heart breaks for her all over again, because you know that no matter where she goes, she’s trapped. Under those circumstances, it’s a miracle she could get out on the ice merely to practice, much less compete at the absolute highest echelons of the sport. And the more we learn about her life, the more it becomes sadly clear that the odds were always stacked against her. In interviews both recreated and imagined, Gillespie depicts her rise and fall from a variety of competing perspectives and contradictory voices. (Editor Tatiana S. Riegel keeps the film moving at a propulsive pace.) We hear from Harding herself; an increasingly abrasive LaVona; Harding’s genteel coach, Diane (Julianne Nicholson); a squirmy Gillooly; and Gillooly’s delusional pal, Shawn Eckhardt (Paul Walter Hauser), Harding’s self-appointed “bodyguard” and the mastermind of what everyone bitterly refers to as “The Incident.” Taken together, they create a picture that isn’t exactly the truth, the whole truth and nothing but. What “I, Tonya” does provide honestly, though, is a vivid slice of pop culture history—an irresistible, soapy mix of jealousy, competition and class warfare, fortified by powerful performances and unexpected emotional resonance. Given the gripping, heightened reality of this stranger-than-fiction tale, it’s frustrating that Gillespie has chosen so many on-the-nose soundtrack selections to punctuate particular moments. "Devil Woman" by Cliff Richard starts up as LaVona barks orders on the ice at a young Tonya, played with convincing angst and heartache by Mckenna Grace. Supertramp’s “Goodbye Stranger” plays during a beautifully fluid sequence in which Harding finally finds the guts to leave Gillooly and her volatile life with him behind. Great songs, all, but the classic rock needle drops can be distractingly obvious. Still, that’s a minor deduction in an otherwise nearly flawless program. “I, Tonya” is one of the year’s best films. \|\|\|\|\| 'I, Tonya,' You, Implicated Enlarge this image toggle caption 30West 30West Tonya Harding was never supposed to be a pro figure skater. Like so many young American dreamers before her, she had it all wrong for success: born into the wrong class, raised by the wrong role model, drawn to the wrong men. And she had the wrong kind of femininity for the sport she loved, too, because those judges didn't want to see a ZZ Top routine from someone who sewed her own costume, even if it did include a flawlessly executed triple axel. So when Harding did find a bit of glory, there were corrective measures in place, and her self-made undoing — by playing some part in the "hit" on U.S. rival Nancy Kerrigan's leg, the scandal that would unravel her career and the entire 1990s along with it — was the fitting, flaming end to her membership in the elite club that never wanted her anyway. That is the argument put forth by I, Tonya, the cheeky and skate-sharp new biopic from director Craig Gillespie coming only a few short years after the ESPN documentary. The title tips us off that Harding's story — drawn from interviews with all the key players — has been rehabilitated into the stuff of tabloid Greek tragedy. This is a bold film, especially in its leveraging of all that real-life contradiction to create something that shocks and delights us with its own stylistic wrongness. I, Tonya takes greater risks with the biopic genre than any other in recent memory, and it's remarkable how much of it lands upright. It's the triple axel of based-on-a-true-story movies. As played magnificently by Margot Robbie, Tonya is a powerhouse athlete, a fragile abuse victim, an impoverished country girl and a snarky media critic. Robbie embodies all these roles with a childlike sincerity, a lost-soul cluelessness, as her Tonya never ceases to wonder why it can't just be about the skating. She and the film whip among these personas with wild abandon, mixing styles and tones in a chaotic fashion that borders on overkill. (Must we indulge "present-day" interviews, voice-over AND talking directly to the camera?) But it all builds to a satisfying and illuminating portrait of a poor American girl who maybe never stood a chance. The film's account of Harding's upbringing is so heartbreaking that it would be unbearable if it weren't presented in such a bouncy, off-kilter way. As a child in Oregon, she was practically shoved onto the ice by her waitress mother LaVona (a superb Allison Janney), partially because her mom sees talent but mostly because she is grooming Tonya for a future as the butt of her endless verbal and physical abuse. LaVona will hold the cost of Tonya's skating lessons over her head for the rest of her life, long after she compelled her daughter to drop out of school so she can focus on the sport. Most of the film is devoted to Tonya's marriage to, and subsequent divorce from, Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan). Although the Jeff in the "present day" sequences is muted and introspective, offering deep insights into how his decisions would go on to shape the culture, in the rest of the film, he is an abusive leech, incapable of offering anything to Tonya except psychological obsession as she climbs the ranks of U.S. Figure Skating. Their tumultuous relationship is marked by the cycle of Jeff's abuse (he hits her at home and later threatens her at gunpoint) followed by his blubbering, shameless apologies and Tonya's continued gravitation to him even after leaving him and filing a restraining order. Even these scenes, which are brutal enough to watch without the pop songs that punctuate them like thunderclaps, don't come close to reaching the real-life Harding's accounts of what Gillooly did to her. But abuse is complex, particularly if you live a sheltered, scrutinized existence, and one of the big strengths of I, Tonya is how it refuses to make its hero into a sap or her abusers into mere monsters. If they were, we wouldn't feel as affected by a moving (if a bit showoffy) long take of a post-divorce Jeff in various mopey positions around the house, inhabiting Tonya's negative space. The film abruptly shifts gears into full-blown farce as we approach what everyone on screen refers to as "the incident": the attack that created the inescapable digital-video image of the innocent, white-dressed Kerrigan clutching her knee and wailing, "Why? Why?" Gillespie and screenwriter Steven Rogers know an inept hit job when they see one, and they milk this conspiracy of dunces for all it's worth. It's all orchestrated by Jeff's buddy and self-proclaimed Tonya bodyguard Shawn Eckhardt (Paul Hauser, champion goober), who mimes criminal-mastermind behavior from inside his mom's basement; his "guys" get hyped for their job by blasting "Gloria"; and when it's all over and Shawn has blown his own cover, he insists to a TV reporter that he has training in "counterespionage and counterterrorism," despite all evidence to the contrary. I, Tonya gets mushy on the question of exactly how much knowledge Tonya had of the incident, which is consistent with the intrigue that has surrounded this sordid saga ever since. But it takes the extra step of insisting the real culprits are us, the basic-cable mouth-droolers who hoovered up her every mistake because we love to watch train wrecks on ice. In fact, Tonya shames us right to our faces, an accusation we might take more seriously if the movie didn't seem to be trying so hard to reconnect with whatever electric qualities first hooked America on her story. Still, for as jolting an experience as watching the film can be, it does help Tonya live her truth, while revealing, from within all its wrongs, the basic truth of figure skating: It has never just been about the skating. \|\|\|\|\| (CNN) "I, Tonya" announces up front that it's based on "irony free, wildly contradictory" interviews with the participants, yielding a darkly satiric comedy with the tenor of a Coen brothers movie. Elevated by Margot Robbie and Allison Janney's shimmering performances, this entertaining account of those strange events earns the sort of high marks for creative interpretation that its protagonist complained eluded her. That protagonist, of course, is Tonya Harding, the figure skater etched into the public consciousness by her association with one of the strangest modern scandals -- namely, her husband Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan) participating in a plot to kneecap her principal rival, Nancy Kerrigan, prior to the 1994 Olympics. The movie, however -- directed by Craig Gillespie ("Lars and the Real Girl"), and drawn by screenwriter Steven Rogers in part from his interviews with Harding and Gillooly -- goes well beyond "The Incident," as its principals call it, to focus on Harding's abusive, hardscrabble upbringing, segueing from life with her abusive mother LaVona (Janney) to her abusive boyfriend-then-husband Gillooly. Featuring the characters in direct-to-camera interviews, a strong undercurrent to the film is that Harding's downfall preceded several others of the tabloid-friendly 1990s, so much so that a "Hard Copy" reporter (played by Bobby Cannavale) is among the witnesses, wryly noting that the show was dismissed as trash by a media ecosystem that later mastered copying its sordid bag of tricks. Janney pretty nearly steals the show as Tonya's foul-mouthed, chain-smoking mother, who constantly gripes about how she's squandering her limited resources on skating lessons and coaching for a girl, she's told, who "stands out because she looks like she chops wood every morning." Read More	– You may think you know Tonya Harding, the US figure skater whose career was ruined when she was associated with an attack on her rival, Nancy Kerrigan, ahead of the 1994 US Figure Skating Championships. But Craig Gillespie's I, Tonya might convince you otherwise. Presented as a faux documentary, the film starring Margot Robbie has a 90% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Here's what they're saying: "I, Tonya takes greater risks with the biopic genre than any other in recent memory, and it's remarkable how much of it lands upright. It's the triple axel of based-on-true-story movies," writes Andrew Lapin at NPR. Robbie "magnificently" embodies Harding with "a childlike sincerity, a lost-soul cluelessness," he writes. This, and the film's chaotic mix of personas and styles, "builds to a satisfying and illuminating portrait of a poor American girl who maybe never stood a chance." "There's something genuinely electric about the narrative's headlong tumble into madness," coming from "a script where the truth was irrefutably stranger than any fiction," writes Leah Greenblatt at Entertainment Weekly. She found the skating scenes "thrilling." But "Robbie is the real revelation," Greenblatt writes. "She's a powerhouse: a scrappy, defiant subversion of the American dream. You won't just find yourself rooting for this crazy kid; you might even fall a little bit in love." It's "a darkly satiric comedy with the tenor of a Coen brothers movie" and "earns the sort of high marks for creative interpretation that its protagonist complained eluded her," writes Brian Lowry at CNN. But he argues "the sleight of hand used to realize the skating sequences is visually distracting in places." He also says Robbie "struggles" at the start to truly come across as just 15. And though she recovers to deliver "a layered and unexpectedly sympathetic portrait," Allison Janney, playing Harding's mother, "pretty nearly steals the show." Christy Lemire is effusive: Robbie gives "the performance of a lifetime," conveying "the requisite swagger of an athlete at the top of her sport" as well as the "low sense of self-worth buried underneath." As for the film itself, it highlights Harding's outsider status from the outset, which "makes her story relatable beyond the insular world of figure skating," Lemire writes at RogerEbert.com. She concludes by calling I, Tonya a "nearly flawless program" and "one of the year's best films."
UPDATE: The University of Alberta says the spoon bending workshop has been cancelled. "It has since been withdrawn by the presenters," a statement from the university said. "Pediatric Integrative Medicine rounds this month was going to address existing information about reiki and other energy therapies, highlighting how and why patients and therapists use it for personal and professional health care, and acknowledging that there is a lack of evidence about how, and how well, it works (the evidence-informed part of the rounds, as set out by Royal College)," the statement read. Another poster appeared on the campus acknowledging the cancellation and protesting against "the unethical institutional support from the University of Alberta for medical quackery." The original article appears below: A law professor at the University of Alberta is calling out the school's faculty of medicine for scheduling a workshop called "Spoon Bending and the Power of the Mind." Timothy Caulfield, a professor of health law and science policy at U of A, tweeted a poster for the workshop on Wednesday. The workshop is to be presented on June 28 by Anastasia Kutt, an Edmonton "energy healing therapist" and "registered reiki master," according to her website. "This experiential workshop will teach a guided meditation/energy transfer technique which will have most participants bending cutlery using the power of their minds," the workshop description says. "This will not be a scientific evaluation of the process," the poster notes. Caulfield's post has been spread around social media by doctors, scientists and others skeptical of spoon bending and of energy healing in general. @CaulfieldTim @UAlberta @UAlberta_FoMD @PharmacistScott Bending spoons is a great entry level activity. Sadly my med school taught science. — @skepticpedi Definitely not satire?? It just feels so much like it should be reported on @CBCThisIsThat https://t.co/34eAZ1Ks4P — @poorcate Spoon bending. Cutlery provided or bring your own. Solid skills for every physician to possess. Yikes. https://t.co/yIER2degvN — @squamishsusan I have no words. I'm going to attend this event dressed as a bent spoon. https://t.co/81SYI5tSvp — @UbakaOgbogu There were many references to illusionist and self-proclaimed spoon bender Uri Geller and to The Matrix. Stop knocking it. I hear they throw in five minutes with the Oracle. https://t.co/HHVo6WWElo — @petersankoff \|\|\|\|\| After over 11 years at this blogging thing, I periodically start to fear that I’m becoming jaded. In particular, after following the infiltration of quackery in the form of “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM), now more commonly known as “integrative medicine,” because it integrates CAM with evidence-based medicine. Of course, in reality, what “integrative medicine” really does is to integrate prescientific, pseudoscientific, and antiscientific quackery with real medicine, and that’s what I mean. I thought I had seen it all in academic medical centers and medical schools: the faith healing that is reiki at National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated comprehensive cancer centers, acupuncture at more universities than I can recall, functional medicine and traditional Chinese medicine at at the Cleveland Clinic; naturopathy and therefore, whether the MDs in the integrative medicine departments know it or not, The One Quackery To Rule Them All, homeopathy, which is an integral part of naturopathy; and even Rudolf Steiner’s ultimate woo, anthroposophic medicine at my damned alma mater! Yes, I thought I had seen it all, until I came across this Tweet by Tim Caulfield, an outspoken critic of CAM from our neighbors up north: And: Yes, you read that right. It’s a flier for Pediatric Integrative Medicine Rounds at the University of Alberta’s CARE Program for Integrative Health and Healing advertising a spoon bending workshop. No wonder most people thought it was a joke or some sort of satire. It wasn’t; it even showed up on the CBC News website: The workshop is to be presented on June 28 by Anastasia Kutt, an Edmonton “energy healing therapist” and “registered reiki master,” according to her website. “This experiential workshop will teach a guided meditation/energy transfer technique which will have most participants bending cutlery using the power of their minds,” the workshop description says. “This will not be a scientific evaluation of the process,” the poster notes. It won’t be a scientific evaluation of the process? Imagine my relief. Particularly hilarious is the part about typically “75% of workshop participants can bend the spoon.” Only 75%? Naturally, I wandered over to Anastasia Kutt’s website, Luminous Tranquility, where I learned: Anastasia Kutt (click here for bio) is an energy healing therapist and workshop facilitator in Edmonton, Alberta. She is a Registered Reiki Master Teacher with the Canadian Reiki Association, and offers Reiki workshops at Healing Connections Wellness Center. She is one of 20 certified Trilotherapists in Canada, and also has extensive training in the Yuen Method of Energy Clearing. Please see Workshops for upcoming events and Treatments for information about treatments. Kutt appears not to be actually treating anyone, but rather making her living doing workshops on reiki and “energy medicine,” including spoon bending workshops, and selling a guided meditation CD. So, obviously, someone at the Pediatric Integrative Medicine program at the University of Alberta must have hired Kutt to do this workshop. Just let that sink in. Whoever runs the Pediatric Integrative Medicine Rounds thought that it was a good idea to invite an “energy healer” to demonstrate how to use the “power of the mind” to bend a spoon! Ultimately, it was reported that the event was canceled, which just goes to show that shining the light of day on these excesses of quackademic medicine is the best disinfectant for At this point, it would be very easy to go on a fun (and hopefully funny) rant about just how bad things have gotten in quackademic medicine that anyone at an actual medical school would take the claims of spoon bending at face value. Very easy indeed. It would have been a hell of a lot of fun, too, which made it difficult for me to restrain myself. However, as I read over this sad story of credulity, I was reminded of something that happened a mere two weeks ago at the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS), when Scientific American journalist John Horgan gave a talk with the intentionally inflammatory title, Dear “Skeptics,” Bash Homeopathy and Bigfoot Less, Mammograms and War More: A science journalist takes a skeptical look at capital-S Skepticism, which he later posted on his Scientific American blog. It provoked a lot of reactions because it was so fractally wrong, including two responses from Steve Novella, Daniel Loxton, Jerry Coyne, and, of course, yours truly. Basically, Horgan’s criticism of skepticism boiled down to an accusation that we don’t take on the “hard” targets, preferring instead to go after “easy” targets like Bigfoot, homeopathy, astrology, and the like. While there is a grain of truth in that characterization, overall Horgan’s whine came across as the fallacy of relative privation or, as I like to put it, “You should stop caring about what you care about and care about what I care about instead because it’s so much more important than what you care about.” Part of that characterization was to disparage “bigfoot skeptics.” Do you see where I’m going with this? One of the most basic issues of skepticism, one that many skeptics cut their teeth on, is Uri Geller, the man who bends spoons with the power of his mind. At least, that’s how he characterized himself in the 1970s and onward. I first heard about him when I was a teenager. Being a teenager and of not more than average skepticism, I was just as puzzled as many people were over Geller’s spoon bending. Now, spoon bending is an obvious magic trick, which is why James Randi was so easily able to duplicate it and why he was so easily able, working with Johnny Carson, to expose Geller as a fraud on national TV: These days, it’s so well known that spoon bending is a magic trick and not evidence of a man’s ability to bend metal with his mind that a quick Google search for “How do you bend spoons?” turns up many links that tell you just how to duplicate Geller’s feat that amazed so many for so many decades, for instance: There’s even a Wikipedia entry on spoon bending. This sort of skepticism is exactly the sort of skepticism that Horgan so contemptuously dismissed as “Bigfoot skepticism.” After all, it’s just a con man named Uri Geller bending spoons using a magic trick that most magicians know and fooling the public into thinking that he was using the “power of his mind” to accomplish it. The skill set required to demonstrate that Geller was a fraud was straightforward and not particularly complex. That’s why the story of Uri Geller’s spoon bending con is a basic story that nearly all skeptics encounter fairly early on in their journey to becoming skeptics. It’s the very epitome of what John Horgan considers wrong with organized skepticism. And yet… And yet there is a major Canadian academic medical center that had at least one faculty member that doesn’t exercise skepticism about a woman who claims to be able to manipulate “life energy” from the “universal source,” which is what reiki is when you boil it down to its essence, and offers workshops on how to use the power of your mind to bend spoons. Just think about it. If the person putting together Pediatric Integrative Medicine Rounds for the University of Alberta had been inculcated with a bit of the ol’ “Bigfoot skepticism,” maybe he or she wouldn’t have agreed to let Anastasia Kutt to do a workshop there. If that person knew that spoon bending was nothing more than a simple magician’s trick, perhaps he or she wouldn’t have fallen for Kutt’s nonsense. That didn’t happen, unfortunately. Bigfoot skepticism could have prevented this, but in the world of quackademic medicine there isn’t even Bigfoot skepticism. There isn’t much, if any, skepticism at all. More’s the pity. Then, of course, Horgan also heaped his scorn on skeptics who debunk homeopathy. As I’ve discussed many times in the past, on the surface, there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of homeopathy in academic medical centers. However, if you consider how many CAM or “integrative medicine” programs have naturopaths on faculty and offer naturopathy services, you’ll soon realize that there are a lot of academic medical centers offering homeopathy. The reason is simple. Homeopathy is such an integral part of naturopathy that you can’t have naturopathy without homeopathy. In fact, a little bit of that “Bigfoot skepticism” could prevent atrocities against science-based medicine like the Pediatric Integrative Medicine (PIM) trial: The Pediatric Integrative Medicine Trial (“PIM Trial”) started recruitment of hospitalized children at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta in early 2013, and the clinical intervention phase starts in the fall. While the initial focus is on children with cancer, plans to include children in other areas of the hospital are underway. Led by the CARE Program and supported by the University of Alberta, the trial will study the effects of an inpatient PIM service when added to conventional medical care. The service consists of pediatricians and credentialed therapists in acupuncture, massage therapy, and reiki who will offer consultations and treatments for children experiencing pain, nausea/vomiting, and/or anxiety (“PNVA”). Choice of therapy is guided by each patient and family, and informed by established research on its safety and effectiveness; there are no obligations to start or continue the PIM Trial’s therapies, and there is no cost to the family or to the hospital. The trial will assess and compare costs, length of hospital stay, safety and effectiveness of therapies (CAM and conventional), and quality of life and satisfaction with care as determined by patients, their caregivers and health care providers. Of course, acupuncture and reiki are the purest of vitalistic quackery, modalities that have no place in any hospital purporting to provide evidence- and science-based care to patients. “Bigfoot skepticism” is useful in identifying how reiki, at least, is quackery. Acupuncture is a little bit more difficult, given that it involves sticking actual needles into patients, but it’s not that much more difficult to demonstrate that acupuncture is a theatrical placebo. Sadly, the University of Alberta is not alone in embracing quackery. It has lots of company. Scientific skepticism strives to separate claims that are supported by evidence and science from claims that are not. Claims like the ones made by Uri Geller over the years are clearly ridiculous, but, contrary to what Horgan seems to think, they are not at all unimportant because they are widely believed. In fact, they’re so widely believed that they have served as the basis of a workshop offered by a respected academic medical center. All it would have taken is a single skeptic applying “Bigfoot skepticism” to the claims being made by, for instance, the University of Alberta. Where was that skeptic? Nowhere, or so it would seem. It’s not as though it’s always difficult to test these sorts of implausible claims, either. Indeed, in the case of “therapeutic touch” (also called “healing touch”), a form of “energy medicine” widely taught in nursing school that posits that the person doing the therapeutic touch can sense and manipulate the patient’s “energy field” to healing effect, disproving the woo is so easy that even an 11-year-old can do it. Unfortunately, the environment at some academic medical centers has become so credulous that highly educated physicians and nurses accept this kind of nonsense. Sure, it’s possible that a lot of physicians saw the spoon-bending flyer and scoffed derisively, but the very fact that the workshop was scheduled is a symptom of a serious problem. In fact, I’d argue that we could use some “Bigfoot skeptics” in medicine. Horgan paints efforts debunking homeopathy with the same brush, as taking on an “easy” target that isn’t worth the effort, but homeopathy is a multibillion dollar industry. We could use some in politics as well, because, for example, there is a whole category of health care pseudo-professionals called naturopaths for whom homeopathy is such an integral part of their practice that it is part of their licensing examination. In my state (Michigan), there is a bill, HB 4531, that would grant licensure and a broad scope of practice to naturopaths. If there were more “Bigfoot skeptics” in our brain dead legislature, maybe the bill wouldn’t have made it out of the House Committee on Health Policy to be considered by the whole House. Skepticism and critical thinking are a world view that is desperately lacking in most people. Horgan seems to think that it’s not worthwhile to exercise these skills on anything less than world peace and complex questions about whether screening for cancer saves enough lives relative to the cost in money and overtreatment, but there are plenty of examples of much more straightforward questions need to be examined with science and a critical eye. Unfortunately, one of these examples is in medicine myself. If even a few physicians can be accepting enough of a claim that a common magician’s trick is in reality evidence of the power of the mind that they’re willing to schedule a workshop on spoon bending at a major medical center, we have a problem, and it’s a problem that “Bigfoot skeptics” are most suited to tackle. \|\|\|\|\| Published on Mar 1, 2011 Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. Neo: What truth? Spoon boy: There is no spoon. Neo: There is no spoon? Spoon boy: Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.	– Whoa. Medical faculty at the University of Alberta in Canada booked a reiki expert to lead a spoon-bending workshop—and no, this is not a joke. “This experiential workshop will teach a guided meditation/energy transfer technique which will have most participants bending cutlery using the power of their minds," says a poster for the workshop, "Spoon Bending and the Power of the Mind," per the CBC. The poster boasts that "typically 75% or more" of workshop attendees will be able to bend spoons with nothing but their brain. The spoons were to be provided. “Just let that sink in," writes one skeptic at Science Blogs. "Whoever runs the Pediatric Integrative Medicine Rounds thought that it was a good idea to invite an 'energy healer' to demonstrate how to use the 'power of the mind' to bend a spoon!” Unfortunately for aspiring spoon-benders, the workshop was canceled after a law professor at the University of Alberta tweeted a photo of the poster, bringing countless accusations of promoting "medical quackery" against the university. “Bending spoons is a great entry level activity. Sadly my med school taught science," tweeted a New England pediatrician. “Solid skills for every physician to possess. Yikes," added a Canadian researcher and city councillor.
Last summer, Democrats argued that the tea party movement was the AstroTurf creation of corporate groups. Now that the grass-roots conservative resurgence has emerged as a clear force on the right, the left is making a different case: that tea parties are simply the enemy. To that end, the Agenda Project, a new, progressive group with roots in New York's fundraising scene and a goal of strengthening the progressive movement, has launched the "Fck Tea" project, which is aimed, the group's founder Erica Payne wrote in an e-mail this morning, "to dismiss the tea party and promote the progressive cause." ""We will be launching new products in the next several months to help people all over the country Fck Tea," Payne told POLITICO. "Products like a Glenn Beck Bowl Buddy (Beck B Scrubbin) and others are perfect holiday gifts or just a great way to say, 'I love you and our country' to your spouse, friend or family." Payne, a veteran consultant to progressive groups, is a co-founder of the Democracy Alliance, the low-profile group of liberal mega-donors who helped build the Center for American Progress and other new organizations that grew in the Bush years. The new project, so far, features merchandise, polling statistics aimed to paint tea party members as ignorant and a mocking video. comments closed permalink \|\|\|\|\| TEA PARTY FACTS 64% of Tea Party activists think that America's best years are behind us. 66% think global warming does not exist or will not have a serious impact. 57% think George W. Bush was a good President. 40% think Sarah Palin would also be a good President. 32% think that violent action against the government could be justified. 42% want to decrease legal immigration. 41% believe that gay couples should have no form of legal recognition. 45% believe that abortion laws should be stricter than they already are. 59% like Glenn Beck.	– Progressives are taking off the kid gloves. They've tried dismissing the validity of the tea party movement but now have a new approach: fck them. The Agenda Project has launched a "Fck Tea" project, complete with T-shirts, coffee mugs, and more merchandise to come. The point is simply to "dismiss the tea party and promote the progressive cause," the group's founder tells Ben Smith of Politico. To that end, the F*ck Tea website features polling statistics meant to ridicule tea partiers: 59% like Glenn Beck. 66% think global warming does not exist or will not have a serious impact. 40% think Sarah Palin would be a good president. ...and so on. Click here to read about the Tea Party's fundraising troubles.
Image caption The script is said to be part of an oath-taking process Police in Italy say they have deciphered a mysterious coded text that appears to reveal the details of a secretive mafia initiation process. It was apparently written in a special alphabet devised by members of the 'Ndrangheta, a crime network based in the Calabria region of southern Italy. The document was found during an investigation into a high-profile murder in Rome in January last year. The 'Ndrangheta are said to be the biggest cocaine smugglers in Europe. Rich in symbolism "Finding such a document shows that even if they are projected towards big businesses and are a criminal group with a global presence, they still use archaic systems," said Renato Cortese, head of the police rapid response team in Rome. The script is said to be part of the oath-taking process used when new members join a mafiosi clan known as the "San Luca". "Its content is basically the formula that a person must recite to become part of the 'Ndrangheta," Mr Cortese said. It was the first time such a document had been found in Rome, he added. Three sheets of note paper, that carried a hand-written message, were discovered alongside weapons and ammunition. Two policemen with a passion for crosswords spent weeks cracking the code, says the BBC's Rome correspondent Alan Johnston. The letters looked like a mix of Arabic, Cyrillic and Chinese-type script, he says. The document sheds a little light on the quasi-mystical aura that the mafiosi like to create when they take in new recruits, our correspondent adds. The translated text is said to be rich in symbolism, and describes how to recognise a mafioso - a so-called "Man of Honour" - by the signs around him. The 'Ndrangheta is now reckoned to be Italy's most powerful mafia, having overtaken Sicily's Cosa Nostra. The network operates across Europe and has connections with Colombian drug cartels.	– "For the baptism, five people are needed—no more and no less," reads the coded instructions. But this "baptism" isn't the usual sort: It's for new members of the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate in Italy, reports the Telegraph. Police discovered the instructions during a murder investigation, and two officers who like to solve puzzles got busy deciphering the text, which resembles ancient Egyptian and Greek. The big break came when they figured out the letter C, and the rest fell into place. It's oh-so-dramatic stuff: The initiation must take place in a "sacred, sacrosanct, and secure" location, and the newbie must cut his skin with a knife in order to swear a blood oath—"an eternal allegiance to the honored society.” The BBC reports that the 'Ndrangheta is thought to be the most powerful mafia in Italy, with a specialty in cocaine smuggling. "Finding such a document shows that even if they are projected towards big businesses and are a criminal group with a global presence, they still use archaic systems," says a police official in Rome. (The syndicate apparently isn't a fan of the new pope.)
The Amtrak train that derailed Monday morning on its inaugural trip through a faster railway route was supposed to slow dramatically, to 30 mph, before entering the curve where the crash occurred. The Amtrak train that derailed Monday morning on its inaugural trip through a faster railway route was supposed to slow dramatically before entering the curve where the crash occurred. The speed limit at the curve where the train crosses Interstate 5 is 30 miles per hour, said state transportation department spokeswoman Barbara LaBoe, while the speed limit on most of the track is 79 mph. She said speed-limit signs are posted two miles before the lowered speed zone and then just before the zone. “Engineers are trained to slow trains according to posted speeds,” she said. Learn more about Traffic Lab » Traffic Lab is a Seattle Times project that digs into the region’s thorny transportation issues, spotlights promising approaches to easing gridlock, and helps readers find the best ways to get around. It is funded with the help of community sponsors Alaska Airlines, CenturyLink, Kemper Development Co., PEMCO Mutual Insurance Company, Sabey Corp., Seattle Children’s hospital and Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. Seattle Times editors and reporters operate independently of our funders and maintain editorial control over Traffic Lab content. Daniel Konzelman, who was driving on I-5 south parallel to the train, said he was traveling at 60 mph or more and watched the train pass his vehicle about a half-mile before the crash. A website that monitors locations and speeds of Amtrak trains, transitdocs.com, reported that the train was going about 81 mph shortly before the derailment, The Associated Press reported. A late-night news conference by National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials verified the train was going 80 mph in the 30 mph zone. Officials said they had no other information. Russell Quimby, a consultant who was previously an investigator-in-charge for the NTSB, said it appeared to him that the derailment was caused by speed. He said the track appeared relatively undisturbed, so it seemed unlikely that something knocked the train off the track, and he noted that it appeared the train drove in a straight line, missing the turn. The railway route had recently undergone a $181 million retrofit program in order to speed up passenger service that previously traveled away from the freeway and along the coast. Part of that retrofit was to include “positive train control” systems that can prevent dangerous situations such as excessive speed. The 14.5-mile corridor is now equipped for positive train control equipment, but the train controls aren’t operating yet in that area, said Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson. An Amtrak spokesman said the equipment was still being tested. Federal safety officials have been pushing for the implementation of those control systems for years, including in 1993 after a head-on crash between freight trains killed five crewmen in Kelso, Cowlitz County. Congress first mandated in 2008 that they be put in use by the end of 2015. Since then, other fatal passenger-train accidents have also come from speeding trains that did not have the train control system installed. That includes 2013 Metro-North commuter train in the Bronx and a 2015 Amtrak crash in Philadelphia, when a train traveling more than twice the speed limit went off the tracks, killing eight people. In Washington state, Amtrak suspended a train engineer earlier this year after a derailment near Steilacoom, Pierce County. Officials blamed speed and human error in that case, saying the engineer approached a drawbridge going faster than the 40-mph speed limit. While there has been progress on implementing train controls – Amtrak says it completed installation in 2015 of the systems on most Amtrak-owned routes on the Northeast Corridor – the congressional mandate on train controls has been delayed until the end of 2018. Lawmakers have also left open the possibility of another delay until 2020. Deborah Hersman, a former NTSB chairwoman who now leads the Chicago-based National Safety Council, said the technology is old and already in use in European and Asian countries with high-speed rail systems. “People have this technology in their phones,” she said. “A Pokémon app can tell you you’re driving and disable the app.” Watch: Here’s what we know about the Amtrak train derailment An Amtrak passenger train derailed near Olympia on Monday morning. It had been southbound from Seattle on the inaugural run of a new route. Transportation reporter Mike Lindblom explains what we know. (The Seattle Times) Times staff reporters Christine Willmsen, Evan Bush and Mike Lindblom contributed to this report. \|\|\|\|\| CONTINUING UPDATES: Train was 50 mph over limit before deadly derailment An Amtrak train making the inaugural run of a new route between Portland and Seattle derailed at high speed early Monday morning near Olympia, killing three and sending more than 70 to hospitals when railcars hurtled off an overpass onto vehicles traveling on Interstate 5 below. Authorities haven't released the names of those killed or hurt when 13 cars of the Portland-bound train jumped the tracks while traveling about 80 mph in Dupont, about 40 miles south of Seattle. At least 10 victims suffered serious injuries, authorities said. Kimberly Reason with Sound Transit, the Seattle-area transit agency that owns the tracks, confirmed to The Associated Press that the speed limit at the point where the train derailed is 30 mph. Speed signs are posted two miles before the speed zone and immediately before the speed zone approaching the curve where the train left the tracks, she said. Positive train control — a technology that can slow or stop a speeding train — wasn't in use on the stretch of track, according to Amtrak President Richard Anderson. Amtrak derailment occurred on highly anticipated new route The Associated Press mid-afternoon Monday cited a U.S. official as saying the train hit something that sent it off the tracks. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity; by mid-evening that account had not been confirmed. Earlier reports had said as many as six were killed. But at a news conference early Monday night, officials with the Washington State Patrol and West Pierce Fire and Rescue Officials said three had died. They did not address the discrepancy. It was unclear whether the deaths were I-5 travelers or those on the train, which carried 80 passengers, five crew members and a technician. State patrol later announced 72 people were transported to hospitals from the scene including four with moderate injuries and nine with minor injuries. There were 19 people who weren't hurt and have since been reunited with their families. Washington State Patrol spokeswoman Brooke Bova said investigators are expected to work through the night at the scene. Members of the National Transportation Safety Board are involved, she said. Southbound I-5 was closed indefinitely, and northbound travelers were caught in a massive backup throughout Monday. Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste said cranes were being brought in to help remove rail cars. The state Department of Transportation will need to inspect the bridge before reopening southbound Interstate 5, he said. The southbound stretch is expected to remain closed during the Tuesday morning commute and possibly for several days, transportation authorities said, who asked drivers to avoid the highway in either direction near DuPont and find alternate routes. Jay Sumerlin, a West Pierce Fire and Rescue battalion chief, said the rescue effort wasn't easy, particularly because some train cars were dangling from the overpass. He said jaw tools, air chisels and different forms of saws were used to get into some of the crushed cars. Ladders were also used to reach victims. "It was just a difficult place to be," he said. Sumerlin described the day as shocking and surreal because crews have had mock training scenarios involving train cars dangling over a highway. "Everybody comes in and goes, 'That's not going to happen.' Well, here we are, it's exactly what happened," he said. "I'm glad we trained to that level, because today was one of those days." President Donald Trump tweeted his first public comments on the crash mid-morning, connecting the derailment to a need for increased spending on infrastructure. "The train accident that just occurred in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly. Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!" Derailment turns excitement to dismay at Portland's Union Station. Officials have not established that infrastructure played a role in the derailment. About 10 minutes later, he tweeted again, saying his "thoughts and prayers" were with everyone involved and praising the first responders. Bloodworks Northwest issued an urgent appeal for blood, especially O-type blood, AB plasma and platelets. Donations can be made at 9320 N.E. Vancouver Mall Drive, Suite 100, Vancouver, WA 98662. For more information, go to bloodworksnw.org or call 800-398-7888. Amtrak released a statement late Monday afternoon, saying it was working closely with families of passengers. It established a Passenger Reception Center and public hotline at 800-523-9101 for those with question about family or friends. Anderson, the Amtrak president, said he was "deeply saddened by all that has happened today." In a radio transmission immediately after the accident, a railroad employee who was onboard can be heard saying the train had been coming around a corner and crossing a bridge that passed over I- 5 when it derailed. "We've got cars everywhere and down onto the highway," he tells a dispatcher, who asks if everyone is OK. "I'm still figuring that out." The train was part of Amtrak's Cascades service, which is owned by the Washington Department of Transportation in partnership with the Oregon Department of Transportation. The daily service is run by Amtrak as a contractor. Some Amtrak trains continued to run between Portland and Seattle, bypassing the scene of the derailment. The rail system said trains 504 and 509 had been canceled, and that no alternate transportation would be provided. But it had not canceled other scheduled trains, including 517, 505 and 507 from Seattle to Portland and trains 518, 14, 506 and 508 from Portland to Seattle. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency. The new train route was part of a $180.7 million project intended to cut 10 minutes off the stretch between Tacoma and Olympia by running alongside I-5 instead of hugging the Puget Sound. It also had fewer curves - limiting the need to slow down - and single-track tunnels where passenger trains must yield to passing freight trains. Track testing began in January and February in advance of Monday's launch and continued through at least July, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation. The tracks, known as the Point Defiance Bypass, were previously owned by BNSF and were used for occasional freight and military transport. Don Anderson, the mayor of Lakewood, Washington, a city along the route, had been critical of the new line, and he had predicted a deadly crash. But Anderson thought it would involve a fast-moving train hitting a car or pedestrian at a crossing. Doug Mitchem, 68, got up Monday morning in his Centralia home and turned the TV on. News of the derailment came on, and Mitchem started to worry, he told The Oregonian/OregonLive in an interview. His son Drew, an avid train enthusiast, had planned to ride the train from Tacoma to Olympia with a friend because they wanted to be on the first train on this new track. Mitchem tried to call his son's cell phone, but no answer. He tried a few more times. Still nothing. Then, around 8:20 a.m., he got a call from a woman who said she had seen Drew, who was OK. Paramedics had taken him to Allenmore hospital in Tacoma with a few broken ribs and, possibly, a broken back. Half an hour later, Drew Mitchem called his father from the hospital. He said he had been hurled from the train. Doug Mitchem said he will go with a daughter and grandson to see his son tomorrow. He's going to bring him a set of fresh clothes, he said, because Drew clothes had to be cut off. In Portland, other train enthusiasts had been ensconced in Union Station from about 6 a.m., excited to greet the first train on the new line. Dan McFarling, 70, was there with a therapy dog to talk to people about the importance and safety of rail travel. A longtime member of the Association of Oregon Rail and Transit Advocates, he said he was in shock when he first heard the news. "It immediately made me realize our role today would be different that what we had planned," McFarling said, choking up. Mid-afternoon, about 10 passengers who had been on the derailed train arrived at Union Station by bus. They declined to speak to the media, but Red Cross spokeswoman Monique Dugaw said the disaster relief organization was working to take care of their immediate needs. "We're talking with them," she said, "making sure they have the next steps in place to have a hotel room or to be reunited with their family." Dugaw described the passengers as "in shock." Hundreds of people came to the aid of those involved in the derailment, according to those at the scene. Among the Good Samaritans was Nate Selden, a Portland neurosurgeon, who helped two dozen people. Selden was driving to Seattle with his son, when traffic slowed a few miles south of the derailment. When they got to the scene, Selden quickly started helping first responders triage victims. The younger patient he saw was an infant that had been thrown from their mother's arms. But the baby seemed OK. "This little infant appeared completely unharmed," Selden said, calling that incident "one of few moments of joy in that devastating scene." Reporters Fedor Zarkhin, Jim Ryan, Lizzy Acker, Elliot Njus, Molly Harbarger and Molly Young contributed to this report. The Associated Press contributed to this report. \|\|\|\|\| Cars from an Amtrak train lay spilled onto Interstate 5 below alongside smashed vehicles as some train cars remain on the tracks above Monday, Dec. 18, 2017, in DuPont, Wash. The Amtrak train making the... (Associated Press) Cars from an Amtrak train lay spilled onto Interstate 5 below alongside smashed vehicles as some train cars remain on the tracks above Monday, Dec. 18, 2017, in DuPont, Wash. The Amtrak train making the first-ever run along a faster new route hurtled off the overpass Monday near Tacoma and spilled some... (Associated Press) DUPONT, Wash. (AP) — Federal officials confirmed an Amtrak train was hurtling 50 mph over the speed limit when it careened off an overpass south of Seattle, spilling cars onto the highway below and killing at least three people. Bella Dinh-Zarr, a National Transportation Safety Board member, said at a Monday night news conference that information from the event data recorder in the rear locomotive showed the train was traveling at 80 mph in a 30 mph zone when it derailed at 7:34 a.m. Mangled train cars ended up on top of each other - and one hung precariously over the freeway. When the clanging of metal and screeching stopped at first it was quiet. Then came the screams. After the crash, the injured called out as rescuers — including people who had been in cars on their morning freeway commute — rushed to help. One of the train passengers was Emma Shafer, who found herself at a 45-degree angle staring at the seats in front of her that had dislodged and swung around. "It felt oddly silent after the actual crashing," Shafer said. "Then there was people screaming because their leg was messed up ... I don't know if I actually heard the sirens, but they were there. A guy was like, 'Hey, I'm Robert. We'll get you out of here.'" Dinh-Zarr said it's not yet known what caused the train to derail and that "it's too early to tell" why it was going so fast. Positive train control — the technology that can slow or stop a speeding train — wasn't in use on this stretch of track, according to Amtrak President Richard Anderson. In 2015, an Amtrak train in Philadelphia was traveling at twice the 50 mph speed limit as it entered a sharp curve and derailed. Eight people were killed and more than 200 were injured when the locomotive and four of the train's seven passenger cars jumped the tracks. Several cars overturned and ripped apart. A track chart prepared by the Washington State Department of Transportation shows the maximum speed drops from 79 mph (127 kph) to 30 mph (48 kph) for passenger trains just before the tracks curve to cross Interstate 5, which is where the train went off the tracks. The chart, dated Feb. 7, was submitted to the Federal Railroad Administration in anticipation of the start of passenger service along a new bypass route that shaves off 10 minutes for the trip between Seattle and Portland, Oregon. Kimberly Reason with Sound Transit, the Seattle-area transit agency that owns the tracks, said speed signs are posted 2 miles (3 kilometers) before the speed zone changes and just before the speed zone approaching the curve. Eric Corp, a councilman for the small city of DuPont near the derailment, said he rode the train with about 30 or so dignitaries and others on a special trip Friday before the service opened to the public Monday. "Once we were coming up on that curve, the train slowed down considerably," he said, adding that "in no way did it make me feel like we were going too fast." The train was not full. Authorities said there were 80 passengers and five on-duty crew members on board when it derailed and pulled 13 cars off the tracks. Authorities said there were three confirmed deaths. More than 70 people were taken for medical care — including 10 with serious injuries. About two hours after the accident, a U.S. official who was briefed on the investigation said he was told at least six people were killed. The official said he had no new information to explain the discrepancy in the numbers. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. In a statement, the FBI said local police were the primary responders and there was no information suggesting "an elevated risk to Washington residents." In a radio transmission immediately after the accident, the conductor can be heard saying the train was coming around a corner and was crossing a bridge that passed over Interstate 5 when it derailed. Dispatch audio also indicated that the engineer survived with bleeding from the head and both eyes swollen shut. "I'm still figuring that out. We've got cars everywhere and down onto the highway," he tells the dispatcher, who asks if everyone is OK. Aleksander Kristiansen, a 24-year-old exchange student at the University of Washington from Copenhagen, was going to Portland to visit the city for the day. "I was just coming out of the bathroom when the accident happened. My car just started shaking really, really badly," he said. The back of his train car was wide open because it had separated from the rest of the train, so he and others were able to jump out to safety. The train was making the inaugural run on the new route as part of a $180.7 million project designed to speed up service by removing passenger trains from a route along Puget Sound that's bogged down by curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic. The new bypass was built on an existing inland rail line that runs along Interstate 5 from Tacoma to DuPont, near where Train 501 derailed. ___ This story has been updated to reflect that authorities said Monday night that three people died. A U.S. official said earlier that six people were killed. ___ Flaccus reported from Portland and Sisak reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press staffers Manuel Valdes in Dupont, Sally Ho and Phuong Le in Seattle and Michael Balsamo in Los Angeles contributed to this report. ___ For complete coverage of the deadly derailment, click here: https://www.apnews.com/tag/TrainDerailment . \|\|\|\|\| The train accident that just occurred in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly. Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!	– The Amtrak train that derailed in Washington state Monday morning, killing at least three people, was speeding, officials say, and not by a trivial amount: The train was going 80mph in a zone where the limit was 30mph when it came off the tracks on an overpass between Tacoma and Olympia, spilling cars onto Interstate 5, National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr said Monday night. She said it was "too early to tell" why the train, which was making its first run on a new route, was going so fast, the AP reports. Washington state transportation department spokeswoman Barbara LaBoe says the train was supposed to slow down dramatically as it entered the curve, and speed-limit warnings were posted two miles ahead of the zone as well as just before it, reports the Seattle Times. Amtrak President Richard Anderson says positive train control, a system that can slow down speeding trains, was not in use on the stretch of track where the accident occurred. More than 70 people were injured in the crash, at least 10 of them seriously, authorities say. It's not clear yet whether the three people killed were motorists or people from the train, which carried 80 passengers, five crew members, and a technician, the Oregonian reports. State police say 19 uninjured people from the train were reunited with their families. President Trump tweeted that the accident showed why his infrastructure plan "must be approved quickly," though the New York Times notes that the accident happened on brand new tracks that were part of a state-funded infrastructure investment program.
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea approved a plan on Thursday to send $8 million worth of aid to North Korea, as China warned the crisis on the Korean peninsula was getting more serious by the day and the war of words between Pyongyang and Washington continued. FILE PHOTO: North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho walks as he exits after a courtesy call with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for the 50th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay city, metro Manila, Philippines August 8, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco North Korea’s foreign minister likened U.S. President Donald Trump to a “barking dog” on Thursday, after Trump warned he would “totally destroy” the North if it threatened the United States and its allies. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the situation on the Korean peninsula was getting more serious by the day and could not be allowed to spin out of control. “We call on all parties to be calmer than calm and not let the situation escalate out of control,” Wang said, according to a report from the state-run China News Service on Thursday. Meeting separately with his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, Wang reiterated a call for South Korea to remove the U.S.-built THAAD anti-missile system, which China says is a threat to its own security. “China hopes South Korea will make efforts to reduce tension,” a report on China’s official Xinhua news agency quoted Wang as saying. The decision to send aid to North Korea was not popular in South Korea, hitting President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating. It also raised concerns in Japan and the United States, and followed new U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its sixth nuclear test earlier this month. The South’s Unification Ministry said its aid policy remained unaffected by geopolitical tensions with the North. The exact timing of when the aid would be sent, as well as its size, would be confirmed later, the ministry said in a statement. The South said it aimed to send $4.5 million worth of nutritional products for children and pregnant women through the World Food Programme and $3.5 million worth of vaccines and medicinal treatments through UNICEF. “We have consistently said we would pursue humanitarian aid for North Korea in consideration of the poor conditions children and pregnant women are in there, apart from political issues,” said Unification Minister Cho Myong-gyon. UNICEF’s regional director for East Asia and the Pacific Karin Hulshof said in a statement before the decision the problems North Korean children face “are all too real”. “Today, we estimate that around 200,000 children are affected by acute malnutrition, heightening their risk of death and increasing rates of stunting,” Hulshof said. “Food and essential medicines and equipment to treat young children are in short supply,” she said. The last time the South had sent aid to the North was in December 2015 through the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) under ex-president Park Geun-hye. DOG BARKING South Korea’s efforts aimed at fresh aid for North Korea dragged down Moon’s approval rating. Realmeter, a South Korean polling organization, said on Thursday Moon’s approval rating stood at 65.7 percent, weakening for a fourth straight month. Although the approval rate is still high, those surveyed said Moon had fallen out of favor due to North Korea’s continued provocations and the government’s decision to consider sending aid to North Korea, Realmeter said. Moon will meet Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Trump later on Thursday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, where North Korea was expected to be the core agenda item. In an address on Tuesday, Trump escalated his standoff with North Korea over its nuclear challenge, threatening to “totally destroy” the country of 26 million people if the North threatened the United States and its allies. Trump also mocked its leader, Kim Jong Un, calling him a “rocket man”. North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho called Trump’s comments “the sound of a dog barking”. “There is a saying that goes: ‘Even when dogs bark, the parade goes on’,” Ri said in televised remarks to reporters in front of a hotel near the U.N. headquarters in New York. “If (Trump) was thinking about surprising us with dog-barking sounds then he is clearly dreaming,” he said. Asked by reporters what he thought of Trump calling North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “rocket man”, Ri quipped: “I feel sorry for his aides.” North Korea conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3 and has launched numerous missiles this year, including two intercontinental ballistic missiles and two other rockets that flew over Japan. Such provocations have sparked strong disapproval from the international community, especially from the United States and Japan. \|\|\|\|\| (CNN) North Korea's foreign minister has delivered a scornful response to US President Donald Trump's threat to destroy the hermit kingdom, likening it to the sound of "a dog barking." Ri Yong Ho, who is in the US for the United Nations General Assembly, said he "felt sorry" for the President's advisers after a fiery speech to the UN on Tuesday. In his debut address to world leaders, Trump vowed to "totally destroy" North Korea if the US was forced to defend its allies. Referring North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by a nickname he first used in in a tweet Sunday , Trump said: "Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime." Ri, in his country's first response to Trump's speech, was derisive. "If he was thinking he could scare us with the sound of a dog barking, that's really a dog dream," Ri told reporters outside his hotel in New York. In Korean, a dog dream is one that is absurd and makes little sense. When asked about Trump's use of the "rocket man" nickname, Ri said: "I feel sorry for his aides." North Korean diplomats were not present for Trump's speech. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, left, shakes hands with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Guk as he leaves the Pyongyang Airport on Tuesday. Little chance of meeting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is also in New York, but played down the possibility of a meeting with his North Korean counterpart. Pyongyang and Washington do not maintain formal diplomatic relations and the presence of North Korea's top diplomat in the US could have afforded a rare chance for high-level, face-to-face dialogue. Tillerson told reporters he did not believe he could have a "matter-of-fact discussion with North Korea because we don't know how their means of communication and behavior will be." JUST WATCHED N. Korean FM at UN poses chance for dialogue Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH N. Korean FM at UN poses chance for dialogue 02:50 Tillerson claimed there were signs that increased international pressure on North Korea was starting to bear fruit. He said there was evidence of fuel shortages in the country after the passage of recent UN sanctions , which targeted oil imports among other things. However, analysts pointed out that fuel shortages did not necessarily prove that sanctions were having an effect, as most North Koreans don't own cars or use fuel at anywhere near the rate of the rest of the world. Anthony Ruggiero, an expert in the use of targeted financial measures at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said sanctions rarely hit fast. Any lines for gas were "probably more due to the regime stockpiling fuel in anticipation that China would implement the restriction," Ruggiero, who worked at both the State Department and Treasury Department, told CNN. Humanitarian aid Trump is scheduled to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in Thursday, two important US allies on North Korea's doorstop. Top of the agenda is likely to be South Korea's surprise decision to send an $8 million aid package to North Korea. The move, which runs contrary to the US and Japan's calls for an increase in economic and diplomatic pressure, marks a resumption in South Korean aid after a break of almost two years. In statement Wednesday, the South's Unification Ministry said the decision to resume aid was in line with "the government's stance that it separates the provision of humanitarian aid from politics and it continues to provide aid to improve the humanitarian situation of North Korean residents and the quality of their lives." The South said it planned to send $4.5 million worth of medical treatments, nursery facilities and nutritional products for children and pregnant women through the World Food Programme, and $3.5 million worth of medicinal treatments and nutritional products through UNICEF. The precise timing and actual provision would be dependent on various factors, including "inter-Korean relations," the ministry said in a statement. Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the North Korean situation in a phone call Monday, the White House said. Accounting for about 90% of North Korea's imports, Beijing is seen by many as the key to any North Korea strategy. While China voted in favor of the two most recent UN resolutions against North Korea, Chinese diplomats have called for calm as Trump's rhetoric has heated up, and editorials in Chinese state media have continued to assail the US President's approach to diplomacy. "It is time for the US to realize that irresponsible words and actions are backing the DPRK into a corner with no way out, and it would be a tragedy if Trump's risky game of chicken with the DPRK crosses the point of no return," read an editorial published Thursday in the People's Daily , the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. "Rather than hurl threats and try to pass the buck to China, the US should accept its responsibility, and do more to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiation." \|\|\|\|\| Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Mr Trump has taken to calling Kim Jong-un "rocket man" North Korea's top diplomat has called US President Donald Trump's speech to the UN "the sound of a barking dog". Speaking to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Mr Trump said he would "totally destroy" North Korea if it posed a threat to the US or its allies. Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho's comments were North Korea's first official response to the speech. The North has continued to develop its nuclear and weapons programmes, in defiance of a UN ban. Mr Ri told reporters near the UN headquarters in New York: "There is a saying that goes: 'Even when dogs bark, the parade goes on'." "If [Trump] was thinking about surprising us with the sound of a barking dog then he is clearly dreaming." Speaking about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Mr Trump had told the UN: "Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and his regime." When asked what he thought of Mr Trump calling Mr Kim "rocket man", Mr Ri responded: "I feel sorry for his aides." Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Trump: 'Rocket Man's suicide mission' Mr Ri is set to make a speech to the UN on Friday. Separately, on Thursday South Korea said it would send fresh humanitarian aid to the North for the first time in nearly two years. The unification ministry in Seoul plans to provide $8m (£6m) through UN programmes aimed at children, pregnant women and improving medical supplies. The decision comes days after the UN approved new sanctions against Pyongyang, restricting oil imports and banning textile exports - an attempt to starve the North of fuel and income for its weapons programmes. The UN sanctions came in response to the North's latest nuclear test on 3 September. Experts say North Korea has made surprisingly quick progress in its development of long-range missiles and nuclear weapons.	– North Korea has joined a host of other countries in condemning President Trump's speech at the UN. Trump's Tuesday speech, in which he vowed to "totally destroy" North Korea if the country threatened the US or its allies, amounted to "the sound of a barking dog," Ri Yong-ho said from New York on Wednesday, per the BBC. "There is a saying that goes: 'Even when dogs bark, the parade goes on,'" said Ri, who is due to make a speech at the UN General Assembly on Friday. "If he was thinking he could scare us with the sound of a dog barking, that's really a dog dream," meaning ludicrous, he added. Asked what he thought of Trump referring to Kim Jong Un as "Rocket Man," Ri simply said, "I feel sorry for his aides." The UN General Assembly presents a rare opportunity for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to meet face-to-face with Ri, but Tillerson suggested the US couldn't have a "matter-of-fact discussion with North Korea because we don't know how their means of communication and behavior will be," reports CNN. Trump is due to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday after speaking with Chinese President Xi Jinping by phone on Monday. Though the US wants China to pressure North Korea, which gets 90% of its imports from Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi repeated Thursday that removing the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea was key to reducing tensions, per Reuters.
Twin blasts targeting Syria's army command headquarters rocked the capital on Wednesday, setting off hours of sporadic gunbattles and a raging fire inside the heavily guarded compound, state-run media and witnesses said. In this image taken from video obtained from the Syria 2011 Archives, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, black smoke rises from Syria's army command headquarters... (Associated Press) A Free Syrian Army fighter fires at Syrian Army positions during clashes in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. Over the past few months, rebels have increasingly targeted security sites and symbols... (Associated Press) A woman cries while holding the body of her brother, who was killed by Syrian Army, in front of Dar El Shifa hospital in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. Over the past few months, rebels have increasingly... (Associated Press) This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian government forces speaking with Syrian women as they patrol the damaged area of the al-Arqoub district in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday,... (Associated Press) A Syrian woman cries near Dar El Shifa hospital while the body of her brother, killed by Syrian Army, lies on the street in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. Over the past few months, rebels have... (Associated Press) An army statement said no military commanders or personnel were hurt in the explosions, one of which was from a car bomb. But Iranian Press TV said one of its correspondents, 33-year-old Maya Nasser, a Syrian national, died in an exchange of fire in the area following the blasts. The explosions were the latest to hit the Syrian capital as the country's civil war intensified and appeared to show the deep reach of the rebels determined to topple President Bashar Assad's regime. Syria's state-run news agency, SANA, said the explosions struck just before 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) near the landmark Omayyad Square. They were heard several miles (kilometers) away and shattered the windows of the Dama Rose hotel and other nearby buildings. The army command building was in flames, sending huge columns of thick black smoke that hung over Damascus for several hours following the blasts. Witnesses said the explosions were followed by heavy gunfire that stretched on for hours at the Omayyad Square and around the military compound. One witness who managed to get close to the area, which was cordoned off, saw panicked soldiers shooting in the air randomly as they ran. The witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said it appears that rebels may have been holed up inside the army command building, from where the sound of gunfire could clearly be heard. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said heavy clashes were taking place inside the compound of the army command, adding that there were casualties on both sides. "The explosions shook the entire apartment and the windows shattered," said a resident of the nearby Abu Rummaneh district who spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns. "It was like a quake." The army statement said the blasts were caused by a car bomb and an explosive device that went off near the army command buildings. It said "terrorists" in the area simultaneously opened fire randomly to terrorize people, adding that authorities were pursuing the gunmen. Syrian authorities regularly refer to rebels fighting to topple Assad's regime as terrorists. The statement said a number of guards were wounded. "I can confirm that all our comrades in the military command and defense ministry are fine," Information Minister Omran Zoubi told Syrian TV, which is located near the site of the explosion, in a telephone call. "Everything is normal," he said. "There was a terrorist act, perhaps near a significant location, yes, this is true, but they failed as usual to achieve their goals." Ambulances were rushed to the site as police sealed off the area to traffic and journalists. Traffic in other areas snarled as checkpoints were set up, blocking access to the capital from the suburbs. Syria's unrest began in March 2011 when protests calling for political change met a violent government crackdown. Many in the opposition have since taken up arms as the conflict morphed into a civil war that activists say has killed nearly 30,000 people. Over the past few months, the rebels have increasingly targeted security sites and symbols of regime power in a bid to turn the tide in the fighting. On July 18, rebels penetrated the heart of Syria's power elite, detonating a bomb inside a high-level crisis meeting in Damascus that killed three top regime officials, including Assad's brother-in-law and the defense minister. Other large blasts have targeted the headquarters of security agencies in the capital, killing scores of people this year. On Tuesday, several bombs went off inside a Damascus school that activists said was being used by regime forces as a security headquarters. Several people were wounded. Syria's conflict was the focus of attention as world leaders gathered at the U.N. General Assembly's annual meeting in New York this week. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded international action to stop the war in Syria, telling a somber gathering of world leaders Tuesday that the 18-month conflict had become "a regional calamity with global ramifications." Ban, declaring that the situation in Syria is getting worse every day, called the conflict a serious and growing threat to international peace and security that requires attention from the deeply divided U.N. Security Council. That appears highly unlikely, however, at least in the near future. Russia and China have vetoed three Western-backed resolutions aimed at pressuring Assad to end the violence and enter negotiations on a political transition, leaving the U.N.'s most powerful body paralyzed in what some diplomats say is the worst crisis since the U.S.-Soviet standoff during the Cold War. In sharp contrast to the U.N. chief, President Barack Obama pledged U.S. support for Syrians trying to oust Assad _ "a dictator who massacres his own people." ___ Karam reported from Beirut. \|\|\|\|\| Loading ... The two were covering twin blasts in Damascus and the ensuing fighting. Insurgents in the Syrian capital Damascus have attacked Press TV staff, killing the Iranian English-language news network’s correspondent Maya Naser, and injuring its Damascus Bureau Chief Hosein Mortada. Naser came under attack while reporting on air just hours ago. He was shot and killed by a sniper. Press TV and Al-Alam Damascus Bureau Chief Hosein Mortada also came under attack and was injured.“We hold Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who provide militants weapons to kill civilians, military personnel and journalists, responsible for killing Maya,” Press TV’s News Room Director Hamid Reza Emadi said. “Press TV will pursue the matter of the murder of Maya and would not let those who killed the correspondent feel like they can kill the media people and get away with it,” he emphasized. Born on July 30, 1979 in Syria, Maya Naser studied political science at KUPLAN University, NY, US. He was fluent in Arabic and English and had worked in many countries including the USA, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Bahrain. AO/HJL/IS	– Damascus has been rocked by bombings for the past two days, with at least two large blasts hitting Syria's military headquarters there this morning. The Free Syrian Army claimed responsibility for the attack, said to be the largest since July explosions killed President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law and other key aides; the BBC reports that Assad would have been able to hear today's explosions from his palace. Gunfire broke out afterward, and Maya Nasser, a TV correspondent for the Iranian Press TV, was shot dead by sniper fire during a live broadcast, report the New York Times and Press TV. Other government facilities were hit by bombs yesterday, proving the opposition can still get past government security, but the regime is downplaying the scope of the attacks while the opposition says many of Assad's forces have been killed. In other news from Syria: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for international action at the General Assembly yesterday, calling the conflict "a regional calamity with global ramifications," the AP reports. Click for more from the General Assembly on Syria. Clashes have also been reported near Syria's border with Israel, leading the Israel Defense Forces to issue a statement declaring that "fire from Syria leaking into Israel will not be accepted."
A 12-year-old boy died Monday after being electrocuted when he touched a fence that had been electrified by a live wire at a Fleming Athletic Complex ball field near the Bernie Ward Community Center. Melquan Kwame Robinson, of the 3400 block of Applejack Terrace, was at football practice at the Lumpkin Road complex when he went over a chain-link fence, according to Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen. A live wire was reportedly touching the fence, and when Melquan grabbed the fence, he was electrocuted, Bowen said. Three other people were also injured in the incident. Melquan was taken to the Children's Hospital of Georgia where he was pronounced dead at 9:56 p.m. His body will be taken to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation lab for an autopsy Tuesday. Don Clark, a Robinson family friend and Melquan's former coach, said the child's parents are trying to go through the grieving process. Melquan was their firstborn and one of three children. "They're definitely upset over the fact of how could this happen, with the fact that there were so many children," Clark said. "You can play the what ifs in many different scenarios and it will never get any better. The fact that this situation happened with so many kids out here, it's heartbreaking." Clark said Melquan was very protective of his siblings and loved his family, which makes the situation that much tougher. Clark feels that it might be hard for his siblings to deal with the loss of their brother because of how young they are. According to a statement from the city of Augusta, which owns and operates the community center and athletic complex, three other people were injured in the accident. Two were juveniles and the other was an adult, according to the Richmond County Sheriff's Office. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of all involved in this accident," Mayor Hardie Davis said in a statement. "We ask Augustans to stand together to extend our condolences and embrace the family of Melquan Kwame Robinson with love during this sudden and unexpected loss." Clark praised the courage shown by the two other children who were injured trying to save their friend. Their conditions were not available Tuesday night. "The friends, the way they responded, what motivates a young boy that young to jump into action and help their friend out," Clark said. "Those are the two young boys that are in the hospital right now because they were trying to help out a friend." Clark said he will remember Melquan's smile. Melquan was energetic, very athletic and very passionate about playing football and sports, according to Clark. He said Melquan wanted to be a professional athlete when he grew up. Melquan was a member of the Trinity Elite Titans football team, which issued a statement on Facebook: "Good morning everyone, this is a sad moment for our Trinity Elite Titans family......we are still in disbelief. We are sending our prayers and love out to the family of our football player, #MelquanKwameRobinson#, who has gone to rest with the Lord. One solider gone too soon.........you will be truly missed!!!!" Although the family is grieving, Clark wanted to remind people that this is affecting friends, teammates and coaches of Melquan. He hopes the city and the community are able to come together for the family and friends. "This is exactly one of those tests, that as a city and a community, we all need to stand up and move forward toward the challenge," Clark said. According to a sheriff's office report, a deputy who responded to the scene performed chest compression on Melquan about 9 p.m. Another deputy stated in the report that he was told the child had been electrocuted by the outfield fence. After a few rounds of chest compressions, Melquan coughed and was turned to his left side. A deputy checked his pulse but none was found, and chest compressions were continued, the report states. A Gold Cross ambulance unit arrived about 9:16 p.m. and loaded Melquan onto a stretcher. Another ambulance arrived to transport a second victim, according to the incident report, which stated that the child was with Melquan and was injured when he tried to pull his friend down from the fence. A third victim told deputies that he and Melquan were throwing a football and it went over the fence. Melquan climbed the fence to get the ball and when he came back over, he was electrocuted, the incident report states. He tried to pull Melquan from the fence and he too was injured, according to the incident report. Bowen said his office, the sheriff's office and the city will each conduct investigations. Bowen will primarily focus on the death, while the city will look into how the live electrical wire happened. Georgia Power released a statement saying it will work with local officials as they conduct the investigation. "Georgia Power's condolences and sympathies are with the individuals and their families following last night's tragic event at Fleming Athletic Complex," the statement says. "Our preliminary investigation indicates that Georgia Power does not control or maintain the voltage that energized the fences at the complex." Melquan was a seventh-grader at Morgan Road Middle School, according to Kaden Jacobs, the Richmond County school system's director of communications. "Our thoughts are with the family during this difficult time," Jacobs said. "We have provided additional support to Morgan Road Middle School for students and staff." All football activities have been canceled for the rest of the week at Fleming Park, according to a spokesperson for the complex. Clark said more details will be provided in the future on how the community can help. "We lost a future leader," he said. "We lost a future athlete. We lost a child in our city." A vigil will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday at Bernie Ward Community Center. Staff writers Amanda King and David Lee contributed to this article. \|\|\|\|\| Tuesday, October 16, 2018 (News 12 at 11) AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Multiple investigations begin after a 12-year-old boy is electrocuted at a local park and two other boys who tried to help him are still recovering from their injuries. The mom of David Sette, one of the boys who tried to help, said her son is doing better. He was moved from ICU to a regular room at The Children's Hospital, but she says doctors have some concerns with his blood levels involving muscle breakdown, which can lead to future problems. We haven't yet heard a condition update of the other friend who jumped in to help. It was a freak accident that turned tragic for three families. Deputies say 12-year-old Melquan Robinson climbed over the fence at Fleming Park to get a football. The incident report says, "When Robinson went to come back over the fence, he was electrocuted." "He had the grit and motivation to get up and keep going," said Melquan’s former football coach, Don Clark. Deputies say Melquan had no pulse. They tried to revive him, but couldn't. "If my child was the one that didn't make it, I think I would just be devastated. I wouldn't have words," Whitney Winston said. Two of Melquan's friends ran to help. Both boys were shocked too, taken to the hospital, but survived. "The fact that this happened with so many kids out here it's just. It's heartbreaking," Clark said. Parents hit especially hard knowing this could have been their child. "I was out here for my son's football game," Winston said. Whitney Winston's 6-year-old son was playing a football game right before it happened. It's her son's first year playing here, and now possibly his last. "Worried, cause I don't know if we'll stay playing football," Winston said. Tonight, she's holding onto her son a little tighter and sending her prayers to all those mourning the loss of this 12-year-old boy. "I wish well to the parents. I send out my thoughts and prayers and strength, and to the boys," Winston said. "And that mother that has one less child." Tuesday, October 16, 2018 (News 12 First at 5 / News 12 at 6 O’Clock / NBC 26 at 7) AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Two young boys are recovering in the hospital while one family mourns the loss of a son. 12-year-old Melquan Robinson was killed Monday when he tried to jump over a chain link fence that was charged by an underground electrical wire. It happened during football practice at Fleming Park, owned by the city. There’s absolutely more than one victim in this tragic accident, as parents and teammates watched in horror. Two young boys jumped into action to help pull Melquan from the fence. News 12 had the chance to speak with Melquan’s former football coach Tuesday afternoon. He’s been chosen as a spokesperson for the Robinson family as they grieve. He says heartbreak has hit the young band of brothers. “The fact that this happened with so many kids out here, it’s just heartbreaking,” Don Clark was able to hold his emotions while he spoke to us Tuesday. Melquan died a short time after he was brought to a local hospital. Clark says the family is sick over their loss. "[Monday] this mother went to bed, or woke up with her son still walking around living, and [Monday] she realized she lost her first born. It's not an easy thing." He says the family is too hurt to even speak. "This just happened yesterday. They are barely even able to determine what’s what." Melquan's former coach is saying what his parents can't. “This young man was where he needed to be. He was doing what he loved. He was doing what was tied to his passions.” Clark tells us the city is suffering the loss of a future leader, athlete and an overall amazing child. Melquan's family is holding a vigil Thursday at 6:00 at Bernie Ward Community Center. They are opening it up to the entire community.	– A 12-year-old was killed and two other boys were injured after a chain link fence electrified by a live underground wire electrocuted them at a city park in Georgia. During football practice at Fleming park in Augusta on Monday, Melquan Robinson hopped a fence to retrieve a ball, WRDW reports, citing the incident report that says when he "went to come back over the fence, he was electrocuted." The seventh-grader was pronounced dead later at Children's Hospital of Georgia, according to the Augusta Chronicle. Two other boys who tried to help their friend were injured and hospitalized, according to reports. The mother of one of them, David Sette, tells WRDW that her son is improving. Per the Chronicle, an adult also was injured in the incident. "We lost a future leader. We lost a future athlete. We lost a child in our city," Melquan's former coach, acting as a spokesman for the bereaved family, tells the Chronicle. The oldest of three children, Melquan loved his family and was very protective of his siblings, he says. Multiple investigations into the incident are reportedly underway, with city officials looking into how the fence became electrified. Georgia Power, offering "condolences and sympathy," said in a statement that the utility "does not control or maintain the voltage" that caused the electrocution. Melquan's family will hold a vigil Thursday at the Bernie Ward Community Center. "This young man was where he needed to be," his former coach says, per WRDW. "He was doing what he loved." (A medieval re-enactor was impaled in a freak accident.)
A man arrested fleeing from an Anchorage home wearing boxer shorts has been charged with beating an elderly couple to death and sexually assaulting their 2-year-old great-granddaughter _ a case that officials say has shaken investigators for its brutality Touch Chea, 71, and his wife, Sorn Sreap, 73, were found dead Saturday night from significant blunt force injuries. Police said Sreap and the toddler were raped. Officers arrested Jerry Andrew Active, 24, as he allegedly fled the east Anchorage homicide scene. He was later charged with first and second-degree murder, sexual assault and burglary. Investigators were affected by the brutality and the ages of the victims, police department spokeswoman Anita Shell said. "They said this was the worst thing they had ever seen in their lives, and these are seasoned detectives," Shell said. Police Sgt. Slawomir Markiewicz said Sunday that there are no indications that the victims were connected to the suspect. "It doesn't appear that he knew them," he said. "It looks like a totally random act." The victims were part of an extended family that lived in a ground-floor, east Anchorage apartment with their granddaughter and her husband, who are the parents of the toddler and her 4-year-old brother. The younger couple's 90-year-old great-grandmother also lives in the apartment and was at home during the incident. Police said the younger couple, who are in their 20s, went to a movie Saturday night with their son and left the 2-year-old in the care of Chea and Sreap. The parents of the child and their son returned shortly before 8 p.m. and found the door locked from the inside. They told police they forced their way in through a window and discovered the bodies of Chea and Sreap. A man in his 20s, they said, was naked in a bedroom with their daughter. The woman called 911and police dispatchers heard screaming over the phone. The woman reported a man had broken into her home and killed her grandmother, Sreap. The woman described the man as naked with several tattoos. The woman, who is pregnant, and her husband tried to keep the suspect from leaving and a struggle began, Markiewicz said. The suspect, by then wearing boxer shorts, was able to get away after a few minutes of fighting, Markiewicz said. Officers found Active about a block away. "He did offer some resistance but he was arrested," Markiewicz said. The suspect apparently entered the apartment through a window, Markiewicz said. Active refused to give his name and he was not identified until Sunday. He was arraigned at the Anchorage Jail. Markiewicz said the case is unusual. "It's certainly very rare to see this kind of violence _ a complete stranger, sexually assaulting and murdering someone," he said. The bodies of Sreap and Chea were taken to the state medical examiner's office for autopsies. Names of the toddler and her parents were withheld. \|\|\|\|\| Police say a registered sex offender entered a Mountain View apartment through an unlocked window, killed an elderly couple and sexually assaulted their 2-year-old great-granddaughter in an apparently random attack Saturday. The man, identified in court documents as 24-year-old Jerry Andrew Active, was taken into custody blocks away from the North Bragaw Street scene after a fight with the victims’ family members, who came home from taking their son to a movie to find their child assaulted and Touch Chea, 73, and Sorn Sreap, 71, dead . Active was arraigned on charges of murder, sexual assault, sexual abuse of a minor and burglary at the Anchorage Jail courtroom Sunday. A judge set his bail at $1.5 million after prosecutors called his alleged crimes chilling “beyond words” in their violence and random nature. The father and grandson of the victims says he is left raw and reeling with anger. “He took the old, the innocent,” said Von Seng. “Come face me.” Seng and his wife had taken their 4-year-old son to see a movie at the Century 16 theater Saturday evening, he said Sunday. When the family returned to the ground-level apartment they shared with Seng’s grandparents and great-grandmother at the Labnongsang Apartments just before 8 p.m. the door chain was locked. It would only open a few inches, enough for Seng to see a glimpse of his grandfather Touch Chea, 73, and grandmother Sorn Sreap, 71, on the floor. For a moment he thought he was seeing some kind of a bad joke. “I wanted to have hope and faith,” he said. But Sreap was nude from the waist down, Seng said. He screamed at his wife to call police and broke the large window facing the alleyway to get inside. Accounts of what happened next are imprecise. Seng says he stormed through the house in a panic, finding his 2-year-old daughter and his 90-year-old great-grandmother, who has dementia. There was also a partially clothed man in the house. He was trying to run out the front door. “I said, motherf---er, did you murder my motherf-----g family?” Seng said. The two men fought. Both threw punches. A neighbor who heard the screams arrived to help but the man escaped. Police arrested Active a block away moments later. He was wearing boxer shorts, said Anchorage Police Department detective Slawomir Markiewicz. Chea and Sreap were killed by “blunt force trauma,” and had injuries to their faces, police said, though an autopsy to formally determine a cause of death hasn’t been completed. Detectives say the 2-year-old girl and Sorn Sreap had both been sexually assaulted. The toddler was taken to an area hospital where she underwent surgery for her injuries. The 90-year-old great-grandmother in the apartment was apparently unharmed, Seng said. She hasn’t been able to communicate with police due to her dementia, said Markiewicz. It appears that Active entered the apartment through a window left unlocked, he said. On Sunday, Seng stood near the boarded-up window of the apartment. His knuckles were bloodied from the fight and he wore a parent visitor badge for the pediatric unit of a local hospital. His grandparents were loving people who happily put up with his “hard-head self” as a child and teenager, he said. Sreap and Chea, who are Cambodian, mostly raised him. They lived between Tacoma, Wash. and Anchorage. They loved to play bingo and often babysat their great-grandchildren, he said. The apartment on North Bragaw Street was home to not only his immediate family but members of the couple’s extended family. It felt safe, Seng said. “I know everyone around here,” he said. “Everyone knows me.” But Seng did not know Jerry Andrew Active. Active is a registered sex offender who listed his residence as the Anchorage Correctional Complex as recently as February. A 2009 Alaska State Trooper dispatch says Active was arrested on suspicion of entering a Togiak home and sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl while the family slept, then assaulting all three members of the household. He served time in jail for attempted sexual abuse of a minor and trespassing in 2010 and 2011, court records show. Court records show Active was charged with violating his probation this spring but it’s not clear how recently he was incarcerated or what kind of correctional supervision he was on at the time of the alleged crime. Documents show that he was supposed to be on probation until at least 2014. On Sunday, Active appeared in court with a black eye. He tried to cover his face from news cameras with papers. Active had initially refused to give his name to police — he was first identified as “John Doe” — but prosecutors said they were now certain of his identity, which was revealed in charging documents. Active said he needed a lawyer and was assigned one from the state Public Defender Agency. Prosecutor Jenna Gruenstein said the charges against Active and his criminal history made him an “extraordinary danger to the community, to a degree that we rarely see in Anchorage or Alaska.” Most chilling, she said, was the fact that it appears that the suspect targeted his victims at random. Such crimes are unusual, said Markiewicz. “Between 80-90 percent of homicide victims know the suspects,” he said. “Random homicides are very rare.” Now detectives are focused on finding out more about the circumstances surrounding the killings. Some questions will be answerable in time, the detective said: where Active was in the hours and days before his alleged crime, and whether he was drunk or on any drugs at the time. Reach Michelle Theriault Boots at mtheriault@adn.com or 257-4344.	– Police in Anchorage, Alaska, have been shaken by a horrific and apparently random attack on an elderly couple and the great-granddaughter they were babysitting. Investigators say registered sex offender Jerry Active murdered Touch Chea, 73, and his wife, 71-year-old Sorn Sreap, and sexually assaulted the 2-year-old girl in their care, the AP reports. The elderly woman was also sexually assaulted. Says a police department rep, "They said this was the worst thing they had ever seen in their lives, and these are seasoned detectives." Active, 24, was arrested after family members came home and apparently found him in the house in his boxer shorts; the child's father reportedly ran after and punched Active, who was apprehended by police one block away, the Anchorage Daily News reports. Police say the couple were killed by "blunt force trauma" after the suspect broke into the apartment through a window. A 90-year-old woman who was also in the apartment was apparently unharmed, but has been unable to communicate with police due to her dementia. The toddler has had surgery. A judge, calling the crime chilling "beyond words," set bail for Active at $1.5 million.
Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. Children are being poisoned by a widely used dietary supplement which adults take for sexual enhancement, a new report warns. At least 275,000 calls — an average of one call every 24 minutes — were made to poison control centers because of exposure to all kinds of dietary supplements between 2002-2012, according to the Center for Injury Research and Policy and the Central Ohio Poison Center, both at Nationwide Children's Hospital. But in the report published online Monday, researchers singled out yohimbe tree bark extract as the latest in a long list of dangerous substances that children are accidentally ingesting. Of all the calls made to the poison control centers in the past decade, yohimbe exposure had the largest proportion of serious outcome and has been found to cause heart beat rhythm changes and kidney failure in children. Yohimbe is the name of an evergreen tree found in parts of central and western Africa. The bark of yohimbe contains a chemical called yohimbine, which is used to make medicine. For centuries, yohimbe has been used in Africa to treat fever and leprosy or as an aphrodisiac, but currently its most popular use is to treat erectile dysfunction in men and low libido in women, even though there is scant evidence that it works. As a dietary supplement, the dried bark of the yohimbe tree is available in capsule and tablets forms as well as in tea. Since the dose range is narrow — take too little and it doesn’t work and take too much and it is toxic — use of this herb is not recommended. The Food and Drug Administration has received reports of seizures and kidney failure associated with yohimbe consumption. Even “safe” dosages may cause dizziness, nausea, insomnia, anxiety, a rise in blood pressure, and rapid heartbeat. Overdose can be fatal. Internet claims boast great results in the bedroom; however, there are many other FDA-approved medications for ED, like Viagra or Cialis, which are much safer and more effective. "Many consumers believe dietary supplements are held to the same safety and efficacy standards as over-the-counter medications," said Dr. Gary Smith, senior author of the study and director of the Center of Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's. "However, dietary supplements are not considered drugs, thus they are not required to undergo clinical trials or obtain approval from the FDA prior to sale, unless the product is labeled as intended for therapeutic use." In the study, 1,818 cases of yohimbe exposure were reported over the past ten years — 512 of which were considered serious. The report was published online Monday in the Journal of Medical Toxicology. Related: Caffeine Overdose Killed South Carolina Teen The study also found that 78 percent of yohimbe exposures occurred in children, ages six or older, although most supplement exposures occur in children under six. Among reported exposures, 3.2 percent were admitted to a critical care unit for treatment, with one reported death. At least 1.3 percent of cases were serious and more than a quarter caused moderate harm. The vast majority of exposures were unintentional. Henry Spiller, co-author of the study and director of the Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Children Hospital, says the findings show the need for child-resistant packaging, caregiver education and FDA regulation of yohimbe and other energy supplements. \|\|\|\|\| Regardless the type of dietary supplements—from vitamins, energy drinks, herbal medicines, homeopathic products, to some hormonal treatments—they usually come with big claims about boosting health and wellbeing. While those claims are questionable (and often unfounded), the products collectively do enhance one thing: the volume of calls to poison control centers. Between 2005 and 2012, the rate of supplement-related calls to poison centers increased 49.3 percent , researchers reported Monday in the Journal of Medical Toxicology. In the final year of data, the centers were getting calls at a rate of nearly 10 adverse exposures per 100,000 people. There didn’t seem to be a big jump in use of dietary supplements during that time. Self-reported use among adults has held steady, around 49 to 54 percent, the authors note. But, these supplements are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration as are drugs—no FDA review or approval is required before supplements hit the market. “Lack of federal oversight has led to inconsistencies in the quality of dietary supplements, product mislabeling, and contamination with other substances,” Henry Spiller, a co-author and director of the Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Children’s, said in a statement. Examining nearly 275,000 reports from the National Poison Data System between 2000 and 2012, Spiller and his colleagues came up with trends and details about dietary supplement poisoning calls. Of all the exposures, 70 percent were in kids six years old or younger and 82.9 percent were unintentional. But not all the kinds of supplements were of equal concern. Of all the categories of products, homeopathic agents were the largest single cause of calls to poison control centers, accounting for 36 percent of calls. Between 2000 and 2010, the annual rate of exposures to homeopathic products jumped 227 percent and then fell by 18 percent between 2010 and 2012. Following homeopathic products, botanicals were the second leading cause of calls and accounted for 31.9 percent. Hormonal products, such as androgen supplements, came in third, accounting for 15.1 percent. But the most dangerous categories—those with the highest proportion of serious medical outcomes—included energy products, botanicals, and cultural medicines. Energy drinks can cause abnormal heart rhythms and breathing, as well as seizures. Two botanicals of note that seemed particularly dangerous were yohimbe, used for male sexual enhancement, and ma huang (aka ephedra), used for boosting energy, alertness, weight loss, and athletic performance. Yohimbe is linked to heart attacks, seizures, and kidney failure, while ma huang is linked to strokes, as well as heart attacks. In 2004, the FDA banned ma huang after it was linked to several deaths. The number of poisonings and deaths from ma huang plummeted after the ban. The ban even seemed to influence overall supplement-related poison calls. The rate of calls was on the rise between 2000 and 2002, jumping 46.1 percent, then decreased 8.8 percent around the time of the ban between 2002 and 2005 before increasing again 49.3 percent from 2005 to 2012. Though the data coming into poison centers may miss adult exposures and chronic, rather than acute, poisonings, the authors say it shows the FDA needs to do more. “Our results demonstrate the need for FDA regulation of yohimbe and energy products in the US as was done successfully with ma huang products in 2004,” the authors conclude. Journal of Medical Toxicology, 2017. DOI: 10.1007/s13181-017-0623-7 (About DOIs). \|\|\|\|\| (CNN) From 2005 to 2012, the rate of calls to poison control centers about dietary supplements increased by almost 50%, and most of the exposures were in children younger than 6 years old, according to a study published Monday in the Journal of Medical Toxicology . The study defines dietary supplements as any product that supplements the diet, including vitamins, minerals, herbs, botanicals, homeopathic agents and amino acids, and concentrates, metabolites, constituents and extracts of these ingredients. The researchers used data from the National Poison Data System , to which poison control centers submit their call information. From 2000 to 2012, there were 274,998 dietary supplement exposures reported to poison control centers across the US: one call every 24 minutes, on average. The symptoms most associated with supplement ingestion included tachycardia, or rapid heart rate; vomiting; nausea; irritability; drowsiness and dizziness. Seventy percent of the dietary supplement exposures were in children younger than age 6; 99% of those were unintentional. Overall, only 4.5% of all supplement exposures resulted in serious medical outcomes, mostly in children under age 6. Henry Spiller , study author and director of Central Ohio Poison Control, said parents still need to be extremely cautious about leaving these products within access of children. "Sometimes, parents don't think of keeping dietary supplements away from their kids, because they're not medicines prescribed by the doctor. People think of them as natural," Spiller said. "But they need to be treated as if they were a medicine. Don't leave them out on the counter. Keep them out of reach." Spiller said the two most common ways for children to ingest a supplement are while they're exploring the house or when a parent mistakes it for another kind of medication. Jeannette Trella , managing director of the Poison Control Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, added that many dietary supplements do not have child-resistant packaging. Because of this, she says, parents should really consider whether they want to store supplements in their homes. "Parents should look at this as a risk-benefit analysis," said Trella, who is also a pharmacist and was not involved in the new study. "It should be considered whether the potential benefit of taking the supplement really outweighs the risk of your child accidentally ingesting something they shouldn't and becoming sick." But children under age 6 were not the only group adversely affected by dietary supplements; many older kids and adults were, too. Among those who called poison control centers about dietary supplements, 21% reported adverse effects, according to the study. From 1999 to 2012, the number of adults who reported using dietary supplements has remained steady in the range of 49% to 54%. The study named the most dangerous supplements as ma huang, yohimbe, homeopathic agents and energy drinks. Ma huang is a stimulant containing ephedra that was outlawed by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2004. Join the conversation See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter. However, yohimbe -- often promoted as enhancing male sexual performance -- and energy drinks containing caffeine or other stimulant ingredients, as well as homeopathic agents that are supposed to help with migraines, asthma and other conditions, are still on the market. During the study's 13-year period, 34 people died of exposure to dietary supplements. Six deaths were associated with ma huang, three with homeopathic agents and one with yohimbe, the researchers said. These types of dietary supplements were also closely associated with serious medical outcomes. "More than 170 million Americans take dietary supplements each year, and the responsible industry is invested in bringing safe and quality products to meet this demand," the Council for Responsible Nutrition, the leading trade association for the dietary supplement and functional food industry, said in a statement. "We recommend that consumers store dietary supplement products in safe places, out of a child's reach. In addition, we recommend that consumers talk with their doctor or pediatrician about their family's supplement use." The group added that homeopathic agents, which were included in the study, are not dietary supplements and are regulated differently. The FDA said they are regulated as unapproved drugs According to the FDA's website, the agency "regulates dietary supplements under a different set of regulations than those covering 'conventional' foods and drug products. Unless the products are intended to treat or prevent a disease, this means the FDA does not require companies to conduct clinical trials of dietary supplements." The FDA said it does not comment on specific studies, but it is reviewing these findings. Additionally, the agency suggests certain safety guidelines for consumers and parents who might use dietary supplements, including storing them out of sight of children and informing your health care practitioner if you are taking them. The FDA encourages consumers to report adverse events related to dietary supplements on its safety reporting portal For Trella, minimal FDA regulation is the most troubling aspect. "Because dietary supplements are not regulated by the FDA, there are not robust studies done to ensure that they are efficacious or have a reliable safety profile," she said. "We're often going down a path of unknowns, and for possibly no benefit at all." "We really don't know if there's a benefit to taking any of these supplements, because of the lack of studies," she said. "People need to be aware of that." Spiller also said people should reconsider how they think about dietary supplements. "Just because it's a natural supplement doesn't mean it's safe," he said. "I often use the example, technically, that cocaine is also natural. But that doesn't mean it's safe."	– A Journal of Medical Toxicology study of calls made to poison control centers over the past 12 years finds one herbal supplement to be particularly concerning. Of those calls, the ones with the biggest proportion of serious medical outcomes had to do with yohimbe tree bark extract, NBC News reports. The extract, which comes from an evergreen tree found in Africa, has been used there for centuries to treat various maladies, but it's most popular as a libido booster for both men and women—though there's little evidence of its efficacy. It can cause changes to heartbeat rhythm and even kidney failure in kids. Overall, the study found that between 2005 and 2012 there was a 49.3% increase in calls to poison control centers related to dietary supplements, including vitamins, energy drinks, homeopathic products, herbal medicines, and some hormonal treatments, Ars Technica reports. The senior author of the study notes that products classified as supplements aren't considered drugs, and thus don't go through the FDA approval process (and may not be stored in childproof containers). In the case of yohimbe, the FDA doesn't recommend its use, as it's easy to overdose. Even the recommended dosage can lead to problems such as high blood pressure and rapid heartbeat, and overdose can lead to seizures and even death. The study found 1,818 cases of yohimbe exposure reported between 2002 and 2012, 78% of them in children. Of all the cases, 512 were serious; 3.2% of patients were admitted to a critical care unit, and one died. "Sometimes, parents don't think of keeping dietary supplements away from their kids, because they're not medicines prescribed by the doctor. People think of them as natural," another lead author tells CNN. "But they need to be treated as if they were a medicine. Don't leave them out on the counter. Keep them out of reach." (This herbal "detox" sent a woman to the ER.)
McKinnah Sinclair, 18, and Charlie Daniels, 19 have been spotted in Beverly Hills, Calif., according to Las Cruces police (Photo: Courtesy) LAS CRUCES - The two New Mexico State University students reported missing earlier this week have been located in Idaho and are said to be in good condition, the Las Cruces Police Department reported in a news release McKinnah Sinclair, 18, and Charlie Daniels, 19, were located by police Thursday morning in Nampa, Idaho, just west of Boise. The release stated the LCPD detective in charge of the case learned that shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday, a Nampa police officer observed a red Ford Focus traveling 30 miles per hour below the posted speed limit on an interstate highway. The officer conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle driven by Daniels. Sinclair and Daniels were the only occupants of the vehicle. The Idaho officer discovered the vehicle had a fictitious, or fake, license plate. The Ford Focus the women were in belongs to the parents of Daniels, police said. However, the license plate at the time of the traffic stop in Idaho belongs to another vehicle. Police said investigators learned that the women intentionally switched plates before embarking on their interstate trip. The Nampa Police Department officer who carried out the traffic stop opted not to charge Daniels for the fake license plate, according to that department. Lt. Eric Skoglund of the Nampa Police Department said the vehicle in which the two were driving had been reported stolen. "My understanding is the car belonged to one of their parents and was reported stolen, but because of the nature of the relationship and the circumstances surrounding that, that was not determined to be the case, so there are no charges here based on that," Skoglund told the Sun-News on Thursday afternoon. After investigating the matter, the Nampa Police Department didn't detain the women further. Had they been minors — under the age of 18 — authorities could have detained them and notified parents to pick them up, but that wasn't the case, Skoglund said. "We checked on their welfare, talked with them, talked with family and talked with the agency that reported them missing to let them know the status," he said. "So, that was the extent of our contact with them." LCPD has learned that their families made arrangements to have the women returned to New Mexico. Sinclair and Daniels attended the Rare El Paso hip-hop concert on Friday, Feb. 3, at the El Paso County Coliseum. Missing person affidavits were filed with LCPD Tuesday morning after the women failed to return home or contact family. Sinclair and Daniels were captured on a surveillance camera Monday at an ATM in Beverly Hills, California. Police believe the women traveled to California and Idaho on their own, but failed to inform family or friends of their plans. Attempts to reach the women via cell phone or social media were ineffective and it appears the two were trying to keep their whereabouts unknown. The driving distance from El Paso to Beverly Hills to Nampa is about 1,600 miles. The Las Cruces Police Department received assistance on this case from various law enforcement agencies in New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, California, Nevada and Idaho. According to Minerva Baumann, the director of media relations at NMSU, Daniels enrolled at the university in the fall of 2015 and is studying in kinesiology. Sinclair enrolled at NMSU in the fall of 2016 and is majoring in pre-social work, Baumann said. Sinclair also is a member of the NMSU cheerleading squad. Sun-News reporter Diana Alba Soular contributed to this story. Read or Share this story: http://lcsun.co/2kTIobJ \|\|\|\|\| Copyright 2017 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. El Paso, TX (KTSM) - Las Cruces Police say that the two missing NMSU Students have been located and are in good condition in Idaho. McKinnah Sinclair, 18, and her roommate, Charlie Daniels, 19, were reported missing over the weekend after they came to a concert in El Paso on Friday night and were never heard from again. Monday, LCPD said that the the girls were seen on surveillance footage at a Beverly Hills ATM and appeared to be in good condition. On Thursday morning, a police officer in Nampa, Idaho - just west of Boise - pulled over a red Ford Focus that was driving 30 MPH under the speed limit. When they officer was investigating the stop, they learned that Daniels was the driver and Sinclair was the passenger in the car. According to the Nampa Police Department, the Focus had a fake license plate on it. Police learned that the teens allegedly switched plates before leaving on their multi-state trip. The Focus is registered to Daniels' parents and she is facing charges in Idaho for driving a vehicle with fictitious plates. The girls families have made arrangements to have the pair returned to New Mexico. It is still unclear why the girls left without telling their families or what their final destination may have been. Las Cruces Police would like to thank various law enforcement agencies in New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, California, Nevada and Idaho.	– A multi-state hunt for two missing New Mexico State University students ended in Idaho Thursday morning. The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that 18-year-old McKinnah Sinclair and 19-year-old Charlie Daniels, missing since they attended a hip-hop concert in Texas last Friday, were found driving in Nampa and said to be in good condition. A Facebook post from the Las Cruces Police Department notes a Nampa cop pulled over a red Ford Focus crawling along at 30mph below the highway speed limit and found Sinclair and Daniels inside, with Daniels behind the wheel. A lieutenant with the department tells the Sun-News the car, which apparently belonged to one of the teens' parents, had been reported stolen and was sporting license plates from another car. Investigators say the women purposely switched plates before they started traveling the country. Before they ended up in the Gem State, they had been caught on camera in Beverly Hills, Calif., Monday at an ATM. All told, they covered a driving distance of at least 1,600 miles before they were located, the Sun-News estimates. They hadn't been answering calls to their cellphones or contact on social media since they vanished after the concert. KTSM reports it's still vague what the teens' final destination was, or why they didn't tell anyone where they were going. The police in Nampa didn't detain the women after determining they were OK (both are technically adults), but the LCPD says their families have put things in place to get them back to New Mexico.
Credit: Todd Williamson/WireImage/Getty Images. Sharon Stone's former nanny is suing her, claiming the "Basic Instinct" actress used racially derogatory comments around her and violated labor laws. Stone, through a publicist, called the move "an absurd lawsuit that has been filed by a disgruntled ex-employee." Erlinda T. Elemen, a Filipino woman who worked as Stone's live-in housekeeper and nanny for five years, filed a lawsuit today in Los Angeles Superior Court blaming Stone for various offenses. In the suit, Elemen claimed she was asked not to speak to Stone's children because Stone did not want them to pick up her Filipino accent. Elemen added that Stone criticized her for attending church and at one point, forbade her to read the Bible in the house. Elemen said Stone withheld overtime payment from her. When Elemen brought it up, she claimed Stone paid her the wages but accused her of stealing, berated her in front of guests, and eventually fired her for accepting the overtime pay. The nanny was seeking an unspecified amount of unpaid wages, damages and penalties. Through her publicist, Paul Bloch, Stone said Elemen "is obviously looking to get money any way she can. After she was terminated approximately 1½ years ago, she filed claims for alleged disability and workers compensation. Now, she is obviously looking for another opportunity to cash in. This is a frivolous lawsuit for absurd claims that are made-up and fabricated. Sharon Stone will be completely vindicated in court." Last year, Stone was sued by a man who slipped and fell 15 feet while working on her house. She was ordered to pay him $232,000. \|\|\|\|\| Sharon Stone Sued Nanny Claims Actress Called Her Stupid Filipino breaking news 's former nanny is suing the actress, claiming the actress repeatedly went on a tear against Filipinos, calling them stupid people.Erlinda Elemen claims in her lawsuit ... Sharon would not cut her a break, berating her for her religion, even forbidding her from reading the Bible in her own room in Sharon's house.Elemen, a Filipino woman, claims Sharon ordered her NOT to speak to the kids because she did not want them "to talk like you."Elemen also claims Sharon bagged on Filipino food.The former nanny claims Sharon tried to take back the overtime she was paid. Elemen says after she challenged Sharon on the OT, Stone repeatedly verbally attacked her for 3 weeks in front of guests, staff and others, and then fired her in February, 2011.Sharon's attorney tells TMZ, "This is an absurd lawsuit that has been filed by a disgruntled ex-employee who is obviously looking to get money and way she can."	– According to a new lawsuit, Sharon Stone hired a nanny … then wouldn't let her speak to Stone's children, lest they pick up her Filipino accent. This according to Erlinda T. Elemen, who worked as Stone's live-in housekeeper and nanny for five years, and who claims Stone made other racially derogatory comments around her. Elemen claims she was fired after she asked Stone to pay her overtime wages that the actress had originally withheld; Stone allegedly paid her but screamed at her and called her a thief, then fired her for taking the pay. The craziness doesn't stop there: The lawsuit also claims Stone criticized Elemen for going to church and wouldn't let her read her Bible in the house at one point, and TMZ notes that Stone is also accused of calling Filipinos stupid and dissing their food. Now Elemen wants unpaid wages, plus damages and penalties, ABC News reports. Stone's publicist says Elemen is just looking for a way to "cash in" after being terminated, and calls the lawsuit "frivolous" and the claims "absurd," "made-up and fabricated."
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Gudrun Burwitz pictured with her father Himmler - who led the SS The daughter of top Nazi Heinrich Himmler was hired by West Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND) in the 1960s, officials have confirmed. The revelation about Gudrun Burwitz was first reported in the German newspaper Bild following her death aged 88. Her father was in Hitler's inner circle and is viewed as the chief architect of the Holocaust. He killed himself in custody in 1945. Burwitz never disavowed Nazism and defended her father's reputation. She was a teenager when the war ended and was released in 1946 after testifying at the Nuremberg trials. German Tabloid Bild reported on her post-war involvement with the BND on Friday, following her death in Munich last month. Image copyright Shutterstock Image caption Gudrun Burwitz continued to attend neo-Nazi events throughout her life, and died in May The head of the spy agency's history department then corroborated the newspaper report about Burwitz's activities in West Germany, which reunited with communist East Germany in 1990 to form the present German state. "The BND confirms that Ms Burwitz was a member of the BND for a few years until 1963 under an assumed name," Bodo Hechelhammer said. "The timing of her departure coincided with the onset of a change in the understanding and the handling of employees who were involved with the Nazis." She worked as a secretary at BND headquarters in Pullach, near Munich, from 1961 to 1963. At that time the organisation was under the control of Reinhard Gehlen, a former Nazi military intelligence commander who left the BND in 1968. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Himmer (left) pictured inspecting SS Guards with Adolf Hitler Mr Hechelhammer said the organisation did not ordinarily discuss current and former employees but was making an exemption because Burwitz had died. German organisations such as the BND have grappled with how to address their own Nazi links in the post-war era. Burwitz remained prominent in far-right politics throughout her life. She was reported to be a prominent member of Stille Hilfe (Silent Help), a secretive group known to provide legal and financial support to former SS members. She was also known to attend other neo-Nazi events and rallies before her death. Heinrich Himmler was in Adolf Hitler's elite circle. He commanded the SS (Schutzstaffel) - the organisation which played a major role in murdering millions of Jews, Poles, Soviet prisoners-of-war, Roma and others categorised as "racially inferior" during the Holocaust. After being taken into British custody in 1945 he killed himself, evading trial for war crimes. \|\|\|\|\| Gudrun Burwitz, the true-believing daughter of Heinrich Himmler, the architect of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany’s highest-ranking official after Adolf Hitler, died May 24 in or near Munich. She was 88. Her death was first reported by the German newspaper Bild, which also confirmed that Mrs. Burwitz had worked for two years in West Germany’s foreign intelligence agency. The agency’s chief historian, Bodo Hechelhammer, told the newspaper that Mrs. Burwitz worked as a secretary under an assumed name in the early 1960s. The agency does not comment on current or past employees until they have died. Mrs. Burwitz, who was sometimes called a “Nazi princess” by supporters and detractors alike, remained unrepentant and loyal to her father to the end. Although she had visited a concentration camp, she denied the existence of the Holocaust and, in later years, helped provide money and comfort to former Nazis convicted or suspected of war crimes. At the time of her birth in 1929, her father was consolidating power as leader of the elite Nazi paramilitary corps known as the SS. Himmler also commanded the German secret police, the Gestapo, and established the Nazi network of prison and death camps throughout Europe. Millions of people — primarily Jews but also Roma (or Gypsies), homosexuals, disabled people and others — would perish in the Holocaust. The only person who outranked Himmler in the Nazi hierarchy was Hitler himself. Gudrun, who was Himmler’s oldest child and only legitimate daughter, was exceptionally devoted to her father. Himmler and his wife later adopted a son, and Himmer had two other children with his mistress. Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, the bespectacled, undistinguished-looking Himmler enjoyed having Gudrun at his side, as a blond, blue-eyed symbol of Aryan youth. In a diary later seized by Allied authorities, she noted that she liked to see her reflection in her father’s polished boots. She attended Christmas parties with Hitler, who gave her dolls and chocolates. When she was 12, Gudrun accompanied her father to the Dachau concentration camp, which was the site of Nazi medical experiments and the execution of tens of thousands of people. Gudrun recalled the visit in her diary: “Today we went to the SS concentration camp at Dachau. We saw everything we could. We saw the gardening work. We saw the pear trees. We saw all the pictures painted by the prisoners. Marvelous. “And afterward we had a lot to eat. It was very nice.” As the Third Reich was collapsing in May 1945, 15-year-old Gudrun and her mother fled to northern Italy, where they were arrested by American troops. Himmler was captured, and, while in British custody, killed himself on May 23, 1945, by biting on a cyanide capsule he had concealed. 1 of 60 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Notable deaths in 2018: George H.W. Bush, Stan Lee, John McCain, Aretha Franklin and other famous faces we lost this year View Photos Remembering those who have died in 2018. Caption Remembering those who have died in 2018. Victoria Arocho/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. Gudrun and her mother were held for four years in various detention facilities in Italy, France and Germany. She refused to believe that her father’s death was a suicide and maintained that he had been killed by his British captors. She was present at some of the war-crimes trials of her father’s associates in Nuremberg, Germany. “She did not weep, but went on hunger strikes,” Norbert and Stephan Lebert wrote in “My Father’s Keeper,” their 2002 book about the children of Nazi leaders. “She lost weight, fell sick, and stopped developing.” After their release, mother and daughter settled in the northern German town of Bielefeld, where Gudrun trained as a dressmaker and bookbinder. She found it hard to hold a steady job with her family history. In 1961, she joined the German intelligence service as a secretary under an assumed name at the agency’s headquarters near Munich. She was dismissed in 1963, when West German authorities were reviewing the presence of former Nazis in the government. In the late 1960s, she married Wulf-Dieter Burwitz, a writer who became an official in a right-wing political group, and settled in a Munich suburb. They had two children. Gudrun Margarete Elfriede Emma Anna Himmler was born Aug. 8, 1929, in Munich. Except for a brief interview in 1959, she is not known to have spoken in public about her father or her later life. She did, however, often wear a silver brooch given to her by her father, depicting the heads of four horses arranged in the shape of a swastika. She was also known to be active in a group called “Stille Hilfe,” or silent help, which was formed in the 1940s to help Nazi fugitives flee Germany, particularly to South America, and to support their families. The organization is “closely linked to a number of outlawed neo-Nazi movements and actively promotes revisionism — the notion that the Holocaust never happened and Jews caused their own downfall,” Andrea Roepke, a German authority on neo-Nazis, told Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper in 1998. Among followers of the group, Mrs. Burwitz was “a dazzling Nazi princess, a deity among these believers in the old times,” according to German author Oliver Schrom, who wrote a book about Stille Hilfe. Mrs. Burwitz attended underground reunions of Nazi SS officers, often held in Austria, possibly as recently as 2014. “She was surrounded all the time by dozens of high-ranking former SS men,” Roepke said, after attending one such gathering. “They were hanging on her every word . . . It was all rather menacing.” Mrs. Burwitz also provided support, through Stille Hilfe, to convicted Nazi war criminals, including Klaus Barbie, an SS officer dubbed the “Butcher of Lyon,” and Anton “Beautiful Tony” Malloth, who was convicted of killing prisoners at the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Malloth was sentenced to death in absentia by a court in the Czech Republic, but Mrs. Burwitz reportedly helped arrange for him to stay at a retirement facility outside Munich on land once owned by Nazi official Rudolf Hess. “I never talk about my work,” she said in 2015 when British journalist Allan Hall confronted her at her home. “I just do what I can when I can.” “Go away,” her husband said. “You are not welcome.” An earlier version of this story stated that Heinrich Himmler was captured by Russian forces on May 20, 1945. Historical accounts differ on how and when he was captured. The story also incorrectly implied that all victims of the Holocaust died in concentration camps.	– The daughter of the man seen as second only to Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany has died at age 88. Gudrun Burwitz, the oldest child of Heinrich Himmler, was famous in her own right, however. When she was a child, Himmler frequently brought her to public events "as a blond, blue-eyed symbol of Aryan youth," in the words of the Washington Post. In her later years, she was believed to have been a member of the group Stille Hilfe (Silent Help), which provides assistance to former SS members and their families. Gudrun, who was detained temporarily after the war and testified at the Nuremberg trials, never denounced her father or the Nazi regime, reports the BBC. With her death, the German newspaper Bild has uncovered a nugget that has caused a stir in Germany: For about two years in the 1960s, Gurdrun worked for what was then West Germany's spy agency. "The BND confirms that Ms Burwitz was a member of the BND for a few years until 1963 under an assumed name," says an official with the agency. She worked there while the agency was run by a former Nazi military intelligence commander. The BND still exists as the unified Germany's foreign intelligence agency, and Deutsche Welle notes that its use of former Nazis in Eastern Europe after the war remains controversial. One item in wide circulation in Gudrun's obituaries is a diary entry she wrote at the age of 12 after her father took her to the notorious Dachau concentration camp. "We saw everything we could," she wrote. "We saw the gardening work. We saw the pear trees. We saw all the pictures painted by the prisoners. Marvelous." (Himmler's own diaries were found a few years ago.)
"Yet again, we're devastated by a similar tragedy," he said. "It's going to be a very sombre mood at the conference in Melbourne, especially for those of us who have been coming to these conferences for many years." Organisers of the International AIDS Conference, due to begin in Melbourne on Sunday , have not released numbers, but did confirm expected attendees were among the dead. "A number of colleagues and friends en route to attend the 20th International AIDS Conference taking place in Melbourne, Australia, were on board the Malaysia Airlines MH17 flight that has crashed over Ukraine," Michael Kessler of the International AIDS Society (IAS) said in a statement. "At this incredibly sad and sensitive time the IAS stands with our international family and sends condolences to the loved ones of those who have been lost to this tragedy." The passenger plane had been flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down, killing all 298 people on board. It was due to connect with another Malaysia Airlines flight scheduled to arrive in Melbourne on Friday night. Many medical researchers have expressed sympathy online upon hearing that both World Health Organisation (WHO) staff and well-known HIV researchers had died in the crash. Friends and colleagues of Dutch HIV researcher Dr Joep Lange took to social media to express shock that he was among the victims. Dr Lange had been researching HIV for 30 years. ‘‘He was a kind man and a true humanitarian,’’ US medical professor Seema Yasmin wrote in a series of tweets dedicated to him. ‘‘How do we measure how much a person has done for humanity? People like Joep change the course of epidemics.’’ Dr Yasmin could not be immediately contacted. Also believed to be among the victims was Glenn Thomas, a WHO media adviser. Several of his colleagues have expressed shock over his death on Twitter. UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe said he was saddened to hear so many AIDS conference attendees died in the crash. ‘‘My thoughts & prayers to families of those tragically lost on flight #MH17,’’ he tweeted. President-elect of the International AIDS Society, Chris Beyrer, expressed "sincere sadness" at the news that "colleagues and friends" were on board the flight on the way to the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne. "The IAS is hearing unconfirmed reports that some of our friends and colleagues were on board the flight and if that is the case this is a truly sad day." "The IAS has also heard reports that among the passengers was a former IAS president Joep Lange and if that is the case then the HIV/AIDS movement has truly lost a giant." Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she understood a number of the victims were heading to the AIDS conference, but she had no further details. Greens Senator Christine Milne expressed her shock at such a loss to the HIV-AIDS community. ‘‘The ramifications go to all the people who are at that conference this weekend and no doubt as more details emerge this tragedy will touch many, many Australians,’’ she told the Senate. Victorian Premier Denis Napthine said MH17 was to connect with MH129 arriving in Melbourne on Friday evening. "Unfortunately, I can now confirm that a number of Victorians are among those who have been killed, although we are not yet in a position to say how many," he said in a statement. "This is a sad and tragic day, not just for Victorians, but for all people and all nations. The shooting down of a passenger aircraft full of innocent civilians is an unspeakable act that will forever leave a dark stain on our history." He said his office had been in contact with the AIDS conference organisers and the government had offered to co-operate with DFAT to provide assistance to any delegates who require support. Emails sent to several WHO staff prompted out-of-office replies stating they were en route to Melbourne for the AIDS conference. Representatives from WHO could not be immediately contacted. Mark Gettleson, a London-based campaigner, tweeted that AIDS activists were also heading from Europe to Melbourne. ‘‘Several on #MH17 flight were @STOPAIDS activists en route to #AIDS2014 conference in Melbourne, fighting to save lives. Tragic,’’ he wrote. The International AIDS Conference is now in its 20th year and has attracted major speakers, including former US president Bill Clinton, Sir Bob Geldof and Indonesian Health Minister Nafsiam Mboi. - with Richard Willingham and Timna Jacks CORRECTION: It has since been determined that six conference delegates were aboard MH17. \|\|\|\|\| • MH17 plane crash: latest news • Foreign ministers agree more 'forceful' sanctions • Hollande aide: UK 'hypocrite' to call for French sanctions • British investigators to retrieve data from plane's black boxes • Train carrying remains of 282 people arrives in Kharkiv 00.00 Thanks for joining us. Follow the latest updates back here tomorrow morning 21.20 The euro fell to its lowest point this year against the dollar amid fear the downing of the jet will further damage EU-Russia relations, AP reports. 21.12 French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius let slip his irritation with Britain, pointing out that the British capital was full of "Russian oligarchs", AFP reports. When asked on French television about the controversy surrounding the contract, Fabius responded with a strong dose of sarcasm. "The British in particular were very pleasant when they said 'we would never have done that'," he said. "Dear British friends, let's also talk about finance. I was led to believe that there were quite a few Russian oligarchs in London." Asked by the interviewer whether he was inviting the British to put their own house in order before making comments, Fabius said, "Exactly." 21.00 Representatives to the U.N. civil aviation body are considering whether the agency should expand its role and issue safety advisories after a Malaysian airliner was shot down last week, two sources told Reuters. But the sources said there was no guarantee the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) would decide to take on more responsibility. ICAO, composed of 191 signatory states, as well as global industry and aviation organizations, has a limited role. It cannot open or close air routes and does not warn airlines to avoid regions because of conflict. Some in the aviation industry now want ICAO to do more after Malaysian Airlines flight MH-17 was downed by a missile over eastern Ukraine last week, killing 298 people. Malaysia has said it was flying an ICAO-approved route, a misreading of the agency's role. No one global body has overall responsibility for keeping the skies safe for civil aviation. 20.43 Harriet Alexander reports that there will be an 11am (local time) departure ceremony at Kharkiv. At 4pm in Netherlands (3pm London) there will be a ceremony to mark the first plane touching down in Eindhoven. King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima will be there, as well as Dutch PM Mark Rutte and many from cabinet. There will be a one minute silence for the arrival and after bells will ring out across country. It's a national day of mourning - first since death of Queen Wilhemina in 1962. Bodies will then travel by road the 100km to Hilversum. 20.19 The delivery of French Mistral-class warships to Russia would be "completely inappropriate" given the West's misgivings about Moscow's role in Ukraine, the United States said, AFP reports. "We don't think anyone should be providing arms to Russia," deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters, adding US officials had voiced their concern over the deal in recent days to French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. In the wake of the downing of a Malaysian airliner last week, blamed by the United States on a Russian missile system which it says was given to Ukrainian pro-Moscow separatists, EU foreign ministers agreed on Tuesday to strengthen sanctions against Russia. But they remained divided as to how far to go, with British-led calls for an arms embargo putting France on the spot. Paris has a deal worth 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion) to supply Russia with two Mistral warships. French President Francois Hollande on Monday said the agreement was still in place, but added that delivery of the second Mistral ship would "depend on Russia's attitude." 20.04 The real work will only start once the bodies have been transported from Eindhoven to a military base in the town of Hilversum, near Amsterdam, reports Reuters. There, forensic examiners will compare the remains with material gathered from family members. "Since last Saturday, for three days already, we have 80 family detectives on the way to the relatives, who collect all the information about the missing people," said Ed Krasziewski, a spokesman for the national forensic investigation team. That information includes personal identifying marks, from tattoos to scars. Detectives have sought out dental records, fingerprints and DNA material where it is available, and assembled it all into a so-called ante-mortem file that is available to compare with the remains stored in Hilversum. "There are many victims," Krasziewski said. "We don't know the state of the victims; we have to look at what they bring us tomorrow, and then we will see." 19.47 The United States will release intelligence backing its assertion the Malaysian airliner that crashed in Ukraine was brought down by a missile fired from the separatist-controlled area, the State Department told Reuters. Spokesman Marie Harf told reporters the intelligence community would later in the day "be further declassifying information and will be putting out additional information that supports what we have said." Harf repeated the U.S. belief that the plane, with nearly 300 people on board, was shot down by a Russian-made SA-11 ground-to-air missile fired from an area controlled by separatists close to the Russian border in eastern Ukraine. 19.25 The delivery of French Mistral-class warships to Russia would be "completely inappropriate" given the West's misgivings about Moscow's role in Ukraine, the United States said according to AFP. We don't think anyone should be providing arms to Russia," deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters, adding that US officials had voiced their concern over the deal in recent days to French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. 19.22 Michael Bociurkiw told Reuters all recovery efforts seem to have ended but that at the site his group saw a plastic bag with some human remains left behind while Malaysian experts noticed a strong smell indicating the likely presence of more remains in another spot. "We've never really seen that intensive combing over the site - people arm in arm going over the fields," Bociurkiw said, adding there was effectively no security at the site and that so far only a small number of international experts visited it. 19.06 According to BuzzFeed, Russia Today, the Kremlin-backed news channel, is to be investigated for violating broadcasting regulations on accuracy and impartiality during its coverage of the MH17 air crash. Ofcom told the news organisation it was considering whether to investigate the matter further after getting complaints from viewers about RT's tone. Anna Belkina, head of communications at Russia Today told BuzzFeed: “While we would love to provide the details of our communication with Ofcom and the facts and arguments that RT had presented to the regulator in support of our position, we cannot do so as it would violate the regulator’s rules. “It is sad that the news media of the US and the UK, which has always prided itself on its commitment to asking hard questions of its own government when it comes to domestic politics, in this particular situation is readily swallowing up the ‘party line’ of the Department of State and the Foreign Office, demanding no proof of their claims." It comes after Sara Firth resigned from the channel last week in protest against the way the channel covered the crash. 18.57 The twin sister of a British man who was killed in the Malaysia Airlines tragedy on Thursday has said she does not feel bitter towards those who caused his death, Nick Collins reports. Tracey Withers, 49, said she did not want to become “bitter or twisted” over the loss of her brother Glenn Thomas, a media officer for the World Health Organisation. She told the BBC she had not been thinking about who was responsible for bringing down flight MH17 over Ukraine, amid the widespread belief it was shot down by a missile. “I’m trying not to get too involved in how I feel about what they’ve done because I don’t want it to eat me up inside,” she said. “I just want to grieve and carry on the way my brother would want our family to carry on as he was such a big personality.” She said her family had stayed positive after the recent loss of her father, and that Mr Thomas would have wanted them to do the same after his death. However, she added that her brother’s partner was feeling “lost” and that her family would fly to Geneva on Wednesday to support him. 18.54 Kiev has launched a criminal investigation against Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and a shadowy Muscovite millionaire for organising and financing "illegal armed groups" in Ukraine, AFP reports. The investigation comes just over a month after Russia launched an investigation of its own against Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and a billionaire local governor over the killings of civilians and journalists in conflict-torn east Ukraine. Avakov, who announced the move against the two Russians, said in a statement that Shoigu is suspected of having organised the "illegal armed groups on Ukrainian territory". Avakov added that insurgents "commanded by Russian citizens, systematically carried out armed attacks against" Ukrainian authorities, "causing loss of life, destruction and other serious consequences." Russian nationalist Konstantin Malofeev - an enigmatic investment banker with ties to some of the leading rebels fighting in Ukraine - was accused of having financed the pro-Moscow militias. 18.44 Dutch PM Mr Rutte declares Wednesday a national day of mourning, Dutch media is saying, reports Harriet Alexander. Tomorrow when the bodies arrive at Eindhoven, those attending will include Dutch King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima, PM Rutte, Deputy PM Asscher, and representatives of countries. According to Michael van Poppel, MH17 victims are expected to arrive at Eindhoven Airport at around 4 p.m. local time and before their arrival, there will be a nationwide 5-minute bell ringing. When they arrive, it will be marked by bugle call, followed by a minute of silence. Twitter: Michael van Poppel - Declaration of national day of mourning in the Netherlands is the first since 1962, when former Queen Wilhelmina died Twitter: Michael van Poppel - As part of the day of national mourning, Dutch PM Rutte has instructed flags to be flown at half mast throughout the country 18.36 OSCE has told Reuters human remains can be still be seen at the crash site as recovery efforts appear halted. "We observed the presence of smaller body parts at the site," an OSCE spokesman, Michael Bociurkiw, told a briefing in Ukraine's eastern city of Donetsk after his group inspected the site earlier in the day. "We did not observe any recovery activity in place." 18.34 Alexei Kudrin, a former Russian finance minister and loyal ally of President Vladimir Putin, warned anti-Western rhetoric during the Ukrainian crisis could isolate the nation and derail its modernisation, Reuters reports. In rare high-level criticism of growing Kremlin conservatism, Kudrin said Moscow should not intervene militarily in the rebellion in eastern Ukraine and expressed dismay that Russians were as once again becoming adversaries of the West. Kudrin, who repaired state finances after the chaos of the 1990s, told ITAR-TASS news agency that Russia risked taking a dangerous path internationally. 18.32 The president of the former Soviet republic of Lithuania, now an EU member, has accused France of pursuing a policy akin to the 1930s appeasement of Nazi Germany over its decision to go ahead with the delivery of a helicopter carrier to Moscow, Reuters said. 18.29 Turkish Airlines said via Twitter Dnepropetrovsk flights were cancelled until July 24. Twitter: Turkish Airlines - Our Dnepropetrovsk flights have been cancelled until July 24th due to current conditions affecting Ukrainian airspace. 18.23 When Obama visited the Dutch embassy in Washington, Raf Sanchez reports he left the following message in a book of condolences: On behalf of the American people, I extend our deepest condolences to the people of the Netherlands as they mourn the loss of so many family and friends. No words can adequately express the sorrow the world feels over this loss. It is made more acute by the deep ties of friendship between our two countries. Bound by that friendship, we will not rest until we are certain that justice is done. God Bless, Barack Obama 18.13 Nick Collins has more information about the black box and the British investigators who will retrieve the data. Officials would not confirm when they expected to receive the black box and voice recorder but Mark Rutte, the Dutch Prime Minister, said they had been on board a train carrying the bodies of victims which arrived in Kharkiv, which is controlled by the Ukrainian government, at 10.30am on Tuesday. Britain was asked to retrieve the data because Farnborough is one of only two facilities in Europe with the capability to do so, sources said. David Barry, an air accident investigation expert at Cranfield University, said the complexity of the process would depend on how much damage the two data recorders had sustained, although images suggest they are in good condition. “They look reasonably intact so I would certainly expect [investigators] to be able to get data off them,” he said. “They do not look like they have been stuck in fire for 12 hours.” In the best case scenario the recorders can simply be plugged into a computer and their data downloaded in binary form, before being converted by software into meaningful readings on the aircraft’s speed, altitude and other variables, he explained. If the recorders have sustained damage experts will have to open them up and retrieve the circuit boards inside. If these are intact the data can be retrieved without too much difficulty, but if they too are compromised each memory chip will need to be individually examined – a process which could take weeks or even months. It remains possible that separatists could have downloaded data from the recorders since recovering them several days ago, but any tampering would be immediately obvious, he added. 18.09 The National Forensic Investigation Team (LTFO) will be in charge of identification, with 150 experts from defence, police, firefighters and dentists, forensic anthropologists and detection experts, Ben Farmer in Donetsk and Harriet Alexander in Amsterdam report. Family members had also all been asked to give DNA samples to assist in the identification of the bodies. Hundreds of people are expected to join a candlelit procession through central Amsterdam, described as a “Silent Walk,” to remember the victims tonight. Peter van Lent, who organised the march, said he wanted people to wear something white and join the procession. “It’s in memory of those who died,” he said. “And to support their relatives at this terrible time.” 17.49 The verdict in Washington on the statement by EU foreign ministers on the MH17 crisis is basically a reserved judgment, Peter Foster says. While the actual measures outlined by the EU are described as "feeble" by a senior official, the White House is taking some encouragement in the EU's promise to look at "capital markets, defence, dual use goods, and sensitive technologies, including in the energy sector". If the EU did adopt these kinds of measures, this would bring Europe much more closely into line with the sanctions announced in by the Obama administration on Wednesday last week, a day before MH17 was shot down. The question is whether what one senior US official called "genuine European outrage" over the downing of MH17 will translate into real action on Europe's part. "Right now, we think it's a coin flip," according to my source. Meanwhile the US is continuing to debate the merits of tightening its own sanctions further, but imminent developments are not expected on that front, at least until European intentions have become clearer. 17.46 The United States says it is preparing to present data from the U.S. intelligence community laying out what's known about the Malaysia Airlines plane that was shot down in Ukraine, AP reports. White House spokesman Josh Earnest says the intelligence community will have some additional data to present. No additional details about what would be released were available. Earnest said the U.S. welcomes the news that most of the remains of the 298 killed have been handed over to authorities and the black boxes were transferred to Dutch and Malaysian authorities. But he says the U.S. still hasn't seen the level of cooperation from Russia and pro-Russian separatists that it wants to see. Earnest says international investigators led by the Dutch still need full and immediate access to the crash site. Keyword BC-US--United States-Ukraine-Evidence 17.38 The airport at Eindhoven is preparing for the arrival of the first bodies from Ukraine - although there is no sign yet that any planes have left Ukraine, Harriet Alexander reports. Plane spotters and journalists are positioned on the roof of the parking lot. Since this morning, television crews from Reuters and AP have also been there. Albert Bos, a Dutch journalist, tweeted this picture of himself at the airport, with the caption (translated): "Live at half past seven from Eindhoven, where tomorrow victims of the plane crash will begin in stages to arrive back." Twitter: Albert Bos - Om half 7 live vanaf vliegbasis Eindhoven waar vanaf morgen de slachtoffers van vliegramp in fases terugkomen. #OB http://t.co/8pUF9XkD6P 17.32 Aviation expert David Barry explains how a black box works after a Telegraph video team filmed at Cranfield University today. 17.26 An Interpol team has now begun identifying victims of Flight MH17, Reuters reports. 17.22 The latest EU demands say Russia must: stop the flow of weapons to eastern Ukraine; withdraw its "additional troops" from the Ukrainian border, use its influence on pro-Russian separatists to grant international investigators full access to the crash site of flight MH17; and fully co-operate with the probe, Martin Banks reports. According to the ministers’ conclusions, the EU "remains ready to introduce without delay a package of further significant restrictive measures, if full and and immediate co-operation on the above mentioned demands fails to materialise." The Brussels based news website EUObserver reported the exact proposals are to be tabled at a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels on Thursday. 17.19 EU foreign ministers have given Russia a few days to stop arming Ukrainian rebels or face sanctions on its financial, high-tech and defence industries, Martin Banks reports. At a highly-charged meeting on Tuesday, they also decided to add more names and companies to an existing blacklist, which are to be agreed by the end of July. Speaking after the ministerial meeting in Brussels, Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans said: "This [the new EU threat] is a logical consequence ... of the lack of progress that we have seen on the Russian side" since a previous ultimatum ran out at the end of June." He said he was happy for the solidarity expressed by his colleagues and that the "decision was reached unanimously." 17.12 Britain wants to impose sanctions on the friends and allies of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin to pressure Russia to stop meddling in Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said. Mr Hammond said EU foreign ministers had agreed to look at an embargo on new arms sales to Russia and to look at the possibility of restricting Russian access to capital markets, financial services and to high-technology equipment used in the energy sector. "The word is 'cronies': the cronies of Mr Putin and his clique in the Kremlin are the people who have to bear the pressure. If the financial interests of the group around the leadership are affected, the leadership will know about it. "We are looking at individuals who contribute to, in one way or another, the regime in the Kremlin and its interference in Ukraine and Crimea or who have benefited from the decisions and actions of that regime. 17.08 More from the White House spokesman Josh Earnest who said international investigators still need "immediate and full access" to the site of the Malaysia Airlines plane crash in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reports. He said the United States welcomed news victims' remains were being transferred to the Netherlands but said: "I don't think we've seen yet the level of cooperation with international investigators that we'd like to see." President Barack Obama visited the Netherlands Embassy today to sign a condolence book honoring victims of last Thursday's crash. He said he wanted to "assure the Dutch people we will work with them to ensure that loved ones are recovered, that a proper investigation is conducted and that ultimately justice is done." 17.04 The Kremlin has said that Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Dutch PM Mark Rutte in a statement, Harriet Alexander reports. The discussion focussed on the practical implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2166, adopted on July 21 in support of efforts to arrange a comprehensive, thorough and independent international investigation of the accident with the Malaysian airlines jet that took place on July 17 in Donetsk region. 17.03 The Red Cross has made a confidential legal assessment that Ukraine is officially in a war, Western diplomats and officials say, opening the door to possible war crimes prosecutions, including over the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH-17. "Clearly it's an internal conflict and therefore this is most probably a war crime," one Western diplomat in Geneva told Reuters. It comes after Dutch prosecutors opened an investigation into the crash on suspicion of murder, war crimes and intentionally downing an airliner. 17.00 Meanwhile Reuters say the United States is continuing to review its sanctions on Russia amid the conflict in Ukraine, including the downed Malaysian airliner shot down last week, and is willing to consider additional costs, the White House said. The United States also would welcome additional steps to impose costs on Russia, particularly from Europe, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters. "Our willingness to consider adding additional costs is something that continues to be a live option," Earnest said. 16.59 Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the UK wanted 'cronies' around Putin to bear the pressure of sanctions, according to Reuters. 16.55 The full conclusions of the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels today can be read here. But they are not likely to satisfy not the United States and more hawkish members of the EU, including Poland and the Baltic states, who lobbied for tough sanctions against the Russian economy. In their conclusions, the ministers said they would only ask the 28-nation bloc's executive arm to prepare for more forceful economic sanctions - including targeting the arms, energy and financial sectors. 16.38 It was revealed by Cameron that air accident investigators in Farnborough will retrieve data from the black boxes and we have more updates from our transport correspondent, Nick Collins via Twitter. Twitter: Nick Collins - AAIB experts at Farnborough will receive black box from #MH17 and could produce results within 24 hours of receipt, DfT says Twitter: Nick Collins - Experts who have seen images of the #MH17 black box say it looks reasonably intact and high hopes data will be recoverable They will not publish their findings but will pass them on to Dutch authorities, who will then decide what information can be released, AP reports. 16.33 According to the BBC, Mr Timmermans said the list of Russian individuals and groups covered by EU sanctions will be broadened and a new list drawn up by EU ambassadors by Thursday at the latest. 16.30 AP report that German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: "Russia has not done enough to contribute to a de-escalation of the conflict." 16.05 Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said the EU's "forceful decision" imposes visa bans and asset freezes on more officials deemed responsible for Russia's actions in Ukraine., AP reports. He says the ministers also asked the 28-nation bloc's executive arm to prepare for more forceful economic sanctions - including targeting the arms, energy and financial sectors - if Russia fails to back down from destabilising Ukraine. Timmerman did not specify how many officials were targeted under the latest sanctions, nor did he reveal their names. European foreign ministers stopped short, at least for now, of more forceful sanctions that would hit full sectors of the Russian economy. 16.03 It was revealed by the press office of the European Council the foreign ministers approved a decision to send a police mission to Ukraine as part of the EU's Common Security and Defense Policy, Martin Banks in Brussels reports. One well placed EU source said that several EU foreign ministers are believed to be also pushing for an arms embargo against Russia Meanwhile, Briton Nick Witney, of the European Council on Foreign Relations and former chief executive of the European Defence Agency, says the Ukraine crisis is a "long-overdue wake-up call". Writing on the Brussels-based Euractiv.com website he says Europe’s leaders have "not rushed" to respond to America’s calls for increased defence spending and would rather confront Russia as they did in the 20th century – "from under America’s protective wing." 15.58 Dutch minister says EU is imposing new sanctions on officials over Russia's actions in Ukraine, AP reports. 15.45 Maja Kocijančič, spokesman for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the EU led by High Representative/Vice-President Catherine Ashton, has said on Twitter that foreign ministers adopted "strong conclusions on Ukraine". Twitter: Maja KocijanÄiÄ - #EU Foreign Ministers adopted strong conclusions on #Ukraine in wake of downing of #MH17. Text available soon at http://t.co/ycxrbnwAYH. 15.25 The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has tweeted air accident investigators at Farnborough will retrieve data from #MH17 black boxes for international analysis. Twitter: David Cameron - We've agreed Dutch request for air accident investigators at Farnborough to retrieve data from #MH17 black boxes for international analysis. The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), based in Farnborough, southern England, is part of the Department for Transport and is responsible for the investigation of civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents. 15.16 Mortar blasts rocked the outskirts of rebel stronghold Donetsk as Ukrainian soldiers clashed again with pro-Russian insurgents a day after five civilians were reported killed by shelling in the area, AFP reports. AFP reporters heard artillery fire coming from the Ukrainian side in the village of Oktyabrsky close to the airport, which has now come under full government control. Around 30 rebels - some in balaclavas or black pirate-style bandanas - immediately raised their Kalashnikov rifles into firing position and asked reporters to leave. 15.09 EU governments are discussing the possibility of imposing capital restrictions on Russia if it does not coopoerate on the plane crash investigation, diplomats tell Reuters. 15.07 Malaysia's Transport Minister, Liow Tiong Lai has issued a statement in response to the arrival of bodies at Kharkiv. We are relieved that the train has safely arrived at Kharkiv about 11am local time. This is an important milestone in relation to the MH17 tragedy. Malaysia sent 18 DVI personnel to Kharkiv to assist in the tagging and transfer of bodies to the plane, I have been briefed that the forensics team and relevant support teams will now have to undergo a process that will take a few hours prior to the remains being flown off to Amsterdam. We still need to get to the truth of what has happened and we hope for the investigators to commence their work at the crash site to determine this. Families are suffering across the world and once the remains are with the respective families, I am sure they will demand for justice to be served on those who have caused this horrific crime. 15.00 Diplomats have told Reuters possible new EU sanctions could include measures in the defence sector, energy technology and dual-use goods. The news comes as Ukraine's parliament approved a presidential decree to call up more military reserves and men under 50 to fight rebels in eastern Ukraine and defend the border against a concentration of troops in Russia. "Russia continues its policy of escalating its armed confrontation," Ukraine's top security official, Andriy Parubiy, told parliament before 232 deputies in the 450-seat parliament voted in favour of the decree. 14.50 A top security aide to Putin accused the Ukrainian authorities of being henchman who were taking orders from the West, acccording to Reuters. "The West's henchman came to power (in February) and have now, in my opinion, lost some of their sovereignty, independence in decision-making and are acting under orders," Nikolai Patrushev told Putin. 14.44 Reuters reports Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, working through intermediaries to reach rebel leader Alexander Borodai, was a key figure in brokering the deal to get the black boxes, according to two sources in Malaysia with direct knowledge of the negotiations. The talks were kept under tight wraps, with Mr Razak initiating the conversation and bringing only a handful of his closest confidants into the discussions. "It was the Prime Minister's project," one of the sources said. "He was the main player and he kept this within a very, very, very tight circle. Even some of his closest advisers were not part of this circle, and were surprised by this deal." 14.35 Tributes continue to be paid to the victims of MH17 at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport as the thick carpet of flowers keeps on growing, Harriet Alexander reports. A little boy has just turned up with his mother - wearing an oversized pilot's hat, which dwarfed his small head. They stood and looked at the piles of sunflowers, roses and cuddly toys, hugging each other silently. A team of airport workers have also just been to visit and lay flowers. Many people simply stand by the railings in tears, reading the tributes. 14.23 Meanwhile ABC News reports Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe told its reporters that the wreckage from the plane had been "significantly altered". According to Mr Bociurkiw, major pieces of the front of the plane appear to have been cut away. The investigators also observed an individual cutting into the wreckage using power tools, ABC News reported. 14.18 European Union governments will discuss a specific list of possible new targets for Russia sanctions on Thursday, but will make no decisions at Tuesday's meeting of EU foreign ministers, diplomats told Reuters. EU foreign ministers met in Brussels today to discuss their response to the downing of the flight, and any new sanctions to be imposed against Moscow over the crisis in the former Soviet republic. "There will be no names for the sanction list today," one EU diplomat said. "The European Commission will propose new names for (discussion) on Thursday." 14.15 Meanwhile in France, Harriet Alexander says the website of Franceinfo television analyses how sanctions could be implemented - and what impact they would have on France. President Francois Hollande has said that the first of two Mistral warships ordered by Russia would be delivered - because the contract was signed in 2011, the ship is almost ready to be delivered, and if France reneges on the contract they will have to reimburse Russia to the tune of over a billion euros. But on the second warship, Mr Hollande is less emphatic. "That will depend on the attitude of Russia," he said on Monday evening. "I have stated that very clearly. But at the moment, no sanctions have been decided which would force us to renounce the deal." A French government source told the website that sanctions which would prevent the delivery of the warship were not currently on the table. "France for now wants the sanctions to be financial, targeted and rapid," said a source close to Mr Hollande. 14.12 Dmitri Rogozine, the Russian deputy prime minister, has spoken of his doubts about whether France will have to do a u-turn on selling warships to the country, Harriet Alexander reports. The deputy prime minister has said he doubts France will be pressured into reneging on the deal to sell warships to Russia. "We're talking about billions of euros," he said. "France is very practical and I doubt that the delivery will be cancelled." And he added: "The cancellation of the order would be a lot less damaging to Russia than it would be to France." 13.46 AFP reports the Ukraine interior ministry has said its forces have gained control over the strategically important town of Severodonetsk from pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine's security forces were in control of "all the vital facilities" in the city of around 110,000, located roughly 120 kilometres (75 miles) to the north of the key rebel stronghold of Donetsk, the ministry said in a statement. 13.43 Putin has vowed to do everything possible to influence pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and help ensure a full investigation into the crash, according to AP and Russian agencies. He told a meeting of Russia's national security council: Russia will do everything in its power for a full, comprehensive, deep, and transparent investigation. We are asked to exert influence on the militants of the south-east (of Ukraine). Of course we will do everything in our power." 13.20 The Dutch prime minister has been giving details of the next stage in the journey of the 298 bodies to their final resting place. Harriet Alexander reports: Mark Rutte said that the bodies, travelling in a refrigerated train from Donetsk, had arrived in Kharkiv - where Dutch Air Force planes were waiting. The Hercules C-130 planes would, early tomorrow morning, begin flying the bodies back to Eindhoven in the Netherlands. The operation would be done in phases, he said. And from there they would be taken to the military base at Hilversum, near Amsterdam. But he warned not to expect immediate release of the bodies to the families. "Identification of bodies can sometimes happen fast, but might in some cases take weeks or months," he said. 12.42 Hillary Clinton last night called for the US and Europe to work together to develop tougher sanctions against Russia. AP reports: Clinton said in a Facebook chat from the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, that tougher sanctions would make clear to Russian President Vladimir Putin "that there is a price to pay for this kind of behavior." The former secretary of state said she agreed with Obama's comments earlier Monday urging "immediate and full access" for investigators combing through the wreckage of the downed plane. "We should do more to ensure a thorough investigation that not only respects those who were murdered in the attack on the plane, but also tries to find answers to who is responsible," Clinton wrote during the question-and-answer session on the popular social media site. 12.32 Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, has not shown the same resolve to slap sanctions on Russia as David Cameron has, reports Harriet Alexander. While Rutte has been outspoken about the treatment of the bodies and the urgency for them to be returned to their families, he has only suggested further retaliation if Putin blocks repatriation. Yesterday he said in parliament that their priority was returning the bodies - skirting the sanction issue somewhat. But the NRC newspaper here puts it more bluntly. Their front page today shows Putin and Rutte with the headline: "Time for a break?" De Telegraaf, a leading newspaper in the Netherlands, shows King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, with the headline: "We're not letting go of each other." Below the fold of the page, their reporter writes of "tensions over the release of the bodies" and tells of "goosebumps on seeing the crash site." 12.26 Tony Abbott, Australia’s prime minister, has called for a multinational force to be deployed to the MH17 crash site in Ukraine to put an end to an attempted cover-up and “evidence tampering on an industrial scale”. Jonathan Pearlman reports Tony Abbott, Australia’s prime minister, has called for a multinational force to be deployed to the MH17 crash site in Ukraine to put an end to an attempted cover-up and “evidence tampering on an industrial scale”. Condemning the disturbing scenes emerging from the debris field, Mr Abbott said the countries worst affected by the attack should have an opportunity to send troops to ensure the remains of victims and all evidence were recovered without interference. Australia lost 37 citizens and residents on the flight, which was carrying 298 passengers from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur; the Netherlands and Malaysia were the worst-affected nations. “After the crime, comes the cover-up,” Mr Abbott said. “What we have seen is evidence tampering on an industrial scale and obviously that has to stop. A multinational police force, or a multinational force of some kind, is not something that can be just summonsed up in a matter of a few hours, but obviously there does need to be security at this site.” 12.14 The first bodies of MH17 victims will not arrive in the Netherlands until Wednesday, the country's prime minister has announced. "Tomorrow the first plane [with bodies] will leave for Eindhoven," in the southern Netherlands, Mark Rutte told journalists after the bodies arrived in Ukraine's Kharkiv from rebel-held territory. 12.10 With the tacit approval of Malaysia's leaders, hundreds of protestors have gathered outside the Russian embassy in Kuala Lumpur to demand justice and action from Moscow. Tom Phillips reports from Malaysia: Demonstrators descended on the tree-lined Russian embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday afternoon carrying banners that read: “Can we trust Russia to tell the truth?”, “President Putin, we demand justice” and “Genocide at 33,000ft”. “We don’t want any more cover up about this matter. The whole nation wants to know the real story,” Armand Azha Abu Hanifah, one of the organisers, told The Telegraph. “What is going on?” “I believe they are trying to hide something and that is why we are here today,” said Mohamad Kassim Ali, a 50 year-old, who was one of perhaps 300 protesters outside the embassy compound. The organisers, members of the youth wing of Unmo, Malaysia’s ruling party, insisted their demonstration was not political. Yet having received tacit support from Malaysia’s leaders the protest was precisely that. Black-clad demonstrators came on specially chartered coaches to send Moscow the message that Malaysia’s politicians have so far felt unable to publicly deliver themselves. “Mr Putin should do more than just talk,” said Ibdilillah Ishak, a 38-year-old youth wing organiser. “It has taken them four days to actually do something. Are they hiding the truth? What is going on? Why are they hiding the truth?” “To me, this is a genocide of 298 people at 33,000 feet,” Mr Ishak added. “Who will fight for them, if not the Malaysians right now?” 11.51 The EU is compromimsing its values in order to protect its trade ties with Russia, Lithuania's president has suggested, as EU foreign ministers meet in Brussels to decide whether to strengthen sanctions against Moscow over the MH17 disaster. "We see the Mistralisation of European policy," Dalia Grybauskaite said earlier today, referring to a 1.2 billion euro ($1.6 billion) deal to supply Russia with two French Mistral warships. Values and security are undermined for the sake of business, when 'buy and rule' is being applied... The sale of military technology to Russia the under current circumstances cannot be tolerated... Nazism was not stopped in the 1930s, and we now we see great-Russia chauvinism which leads to things like an attack against a civilian airliner Those who organised, ordered and supplied weapons must be held responsible, before the Hague Tribunal Dalia Grybauskaite, Lithuania’s President (GETTY) 11.33 Colin Brazier, the Sky News journalist who came under fire for picking up MH17 victims' luggage live on air, has apologised for his "error of judgement. Writing in the Guardian, Mr Brazier said: At the weekend I got things wrong. If there was someone to apologise to in person, I would. While presenting Sky's lunchtime coverage of the flight MH17 disaster, I stooped down to look at a piece of debris. It was a child's suitcase. I put my hand inside and lifted up a water bottle and a set of keys. As I did so my mental circuit-breaker finally engaged and I apologised instantly on-air for what I was doing. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a pink drinking flask. It looked familiar. My six-year-old daughter, Kitty, has one just like it... Too late, I realised that I was crossing a line. 11.13 David Cameron is a hypocrite who should "start by cleaning up his own backyard" before lecturing France on selling military equipment to Russia, the head of Francois Hollande's ruling Socialist Party has said. Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, told i>Tele television on Tuesday: Hollande is not backing down. He is delivering the first (ship) despite the fact he is being asked not to. This is a false debate led by hypocrites ... When you see how many (Russian) oligarchs have sought refuge in London, David Cameron should start by cleaning up his own backyard. Catherine Ashton talks with Philip Hammond in Brussels (THIERRY CHARLIER/AFP/GETTY) 11.00 Philip Hammond, the new British foreign secretary, has arrived in Brussels for the meeting of EU foreign ministers to discuss a collective response to the Ukraine crisis, as well as Gaza. He said: This terrible incident happened in the first place because of Russia's support to the separatists in eastern Ukraine, because of the flow of heavy weapons from Russia into eastern Ukraine, and we have to address that issue. The world has changed since the European council last week. The events of last Thursday have changed public expectations on us and we have to send a clear signal from our meeting today that we recognise that and that we are going to go further as a consequence of what has happened. One of the two black boxes recovered from the crash site of the MH17 jet during a press conference in Donetsk (DAMIEN SIMONART/AFP/GETTY) 10.36 Harriet Alexander is in Amsterdam, where victims' families and friends are mourning their loved ones: There has been a steady stream of people coming to leave flowers outside Schiphol airport this morning. This bouquet has been left with the headline from yesterday's De Telegraaf - a newspaper here in the Netherlands. It reads: "Give us our people back". Some 193 of the 298 victims of the disaster were from Holland. The Dutch government has yet to announce which airport the bodies will be transferred to later on today. Schipol airport, in Amsterdam, was the point of origin of MH17's final journey. 10.28 Roland Oliphant reports from Donetsk for the Telegraph on the "official" handover of the MH17 black boxes to Malaysian officials, which delayed the movement of victims' corpses from the city up to Kharkiv: The train carrying both the bodies of the victims and the “black box” flight recorders has arrived in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The departure was delayed by last-minute wrangling over the handover of the black boxes, which had originally been scheduled for 9.00pm local time last night (7.00pm UK time). After several hours of closed-door negotiations, rebel prime minister Alexander Borodai finally emerged to hand over the flight recorders to Malaysian officials at 1.00am... It emerged during the handover ceremony that 282 bodies and 87 body parts were on the train. That leaves 16 casualties as yet unaccounted for. It is not clear what held up the transfer, which appears to have followed intense international diplomacy on Friday. But the rebels appear to have gone to great lengths to make the hand over as “official” as possible, summoning the international press to the headquarters of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic to witness rebel and Malaysian officials signing protocols to confirm the transaction. The documents are of great symbolic value to the rebels because they represent the first international agreement the unrecognised “Republic” has ever signed - making it the nearest the breakaway state has ever come to official recognition. 10.18 EU foreign ministers have arrived in Brussels for a meeting in which tougher, sector-level sanctions against Russia over MH17 are expected to be top of the agenda. On arrival, Germany's foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for tougher sanctions against the Kremlin. Germany has traditionally been seen as softer on Russia than many of its EU allies due to close energy import and manufacturing export links, but Angela Merkel is believed to have run out of patience with Vladimir Putin in recent days. 10.05 Photographs have emerged appearing to show the arrival of the refrigerated train carriages containing 282 MH17 victims' bodies at Kharkiv. The victims' corpses arrived at a train station in the Kiev-held industrial hub. They are due to be airlifted to the Netherlands later today. The train carrying the remains of the victims of Malaysia Airlines MH17 arrives in Kharkiv (Gleb Garanich/Reuters) 09.45 The French port of Saint-Nazaire is divided over the arrival of Russian sailors for training on the new warships Paris is controversially selling to the Kremlin, reports the New York Times. 09.20 A train carrying the remains of victims of a Malaysian plane downed over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine arrived in the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reports. Ukrainian officials say the remains will be taken to the Netherlands. Almost 300 people were killed when the Malaysian airliner went down on Thursday, most of them were Dutch. 08.48 Tributes have been laid to the victims of MH17 at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport - from which the ill-fated flight departed last Thursday. The Telegraph's Harriet Alexander reports: Outside Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, a huge carpet of flowers has been laid in memory of the 298 victims. Candles flickered among the countless bunches of roses, lilies and sunflowers - a tribute all the more poignant given that the plane crashed in a field of Ukrainian sunflowers. And as a gesture to the 80 children who lost their lives, many stuffed toys and cartoon cards were among the flowers. A queue of people lined up silently to sign a book of condolences. One woman, a KLM air stewardess, had tears pouring down her cheek as she signed the book, and placed her flowers on the pavement. She paused, then stood quickly and went to get her flight. Outside Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, a huge carpet of flowers has been laid in memory of the 298 victims (HARRIET ALEXANDER/THE TELEGRAPH) One woman, a KLM air stewardess, had tears pouring down her cheek asshe signed the book, and placed her flowers on the pavement (HARRIET ALEXANDER/THE TELEGRAPH) 08.35 American anger is growing over France's arms deal with the Kremlin, reports Peter Foster, the Telegraph's US Editor. The United States is continuing to pile pressure on France to suspend a $1.6bn (£1bn) defence contract with the Russian government amid calls for Europe to adopt meaningful sanctions against Moscow following the downing of Flight MH17. As EU foreign ministers, including Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, meet in Brussels later today to discuss toughening sanctions, the French refusal to halt the contract to supply two helicopter carriers to the Russian navy has come under particular fire. The fact that France is still providing training to Russian service personnel was the subject of heated contacts between US and European officials last the weekend, officials said, as months of tension over the project came to a head. "The Americans are absolutely furious about the French still training the Russians," a Western diplomatic source told The Telegraph in Washington. "The question everyone is asking is, 'at what point does Europe draw the line?'" 08.20 Protests are taking place outside the Russian embassy in Kuala Lumpur, reports Tom Phillips. Twitter: Tom Phillips - Protest leading shouting: 'Russia we demand an answer. 298 people have died. You killed 298 people Russia. We demand the truth.' #mh17 Earlier at the same embassy Lyudmila G Vorobyev, the Russian ambassador, gave a defiant press conference in which she said Putin is being 'demonised' over MH17 and that pro-Russian rebels are not responsible for the disaster. 07.20 Roland Oliphant is in Ukraine for the Telegraph, and reports on another delay in the movement of the MH17 victims' bodies. The bodies train was held up in Donetsk last night while the Malaysians and the rebels haggled over the Black boxes. Ifax reports it finally left Donetsk station, carrying bodies, black boxes, and Malaysian and OSCE personnel about an hour ago... It should get to Kharkiv by about 4pm local time (2pm London), though the journey is unpredictable 05.40 China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that Beijing welcomes the recently passed UN resolution on downed Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, demanding those responsible be held to account, and called for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Wang made the comments in Caracas while accompanying Chinese president Xi Jinping on an ongoing Latin American tour. Wang called for the International Civil Aviation Organization to be allowed to play a key role in the investigation and said international investigators should be given full access to the crash site. We urged all Ukrainian parties concerned to cease fire as soon as possible and conduct dialogue and consultation so as to seek a comprehensive, lasting and balanced political solution,” he said. 04.45 Australia’s consumer watchdog has warned people to be wary of scams seeking to take advantage of the Malaysia Airlines MH17 tragedy, saying false Facebook profiles had already been set up. In an attempt to make money from the tragedy of the jet which was apparently shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 on board, fake social media profiles of some Australian victims had been created, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said. The profiles direct people to a blog, where they are then bombarded with dubious advertisements,” the ACCC said in a statement. “If you click on the advertisement, the scammer can make money from the advertising ‘service’ (where they receive advertising revenue for each click through to a client’s website or product).” Scammers are well known to use major news stories – including tragedies such as missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 and the 2013 Boston marathon bombing – to seek donations for fake charities, the ACCC warned. 03.55 Malaysia Airlines has been forced to defended itself after confirming that it diverted a London to Kuala Lumpur flight over Syrian airspace, when its usual route over Ukraine was closed in the wake of MH17 being downed. The company said in a statement that MH4’s flight path was in accordance with routes approved by the United Nations’ aviation agency International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO). “As per the notice to airmen issued by the Syrian Civil Aviation Authority, the Syrian airspace was not subject to restrictions. At all times, MH004 was in airspace approved by ICAO,” it said. Dozens of airlines previously flying over crisis-stricken eastern Ukraine abandoned the well-used route between Asia and Europe after MH17 went down with the loss of 298 lives. Previous MH4 Airbus A380s have flown over Turkey, according to air traffic tracker Flightradar24. But it posted on Twitter that Sunday’s flight flew over war-torn Syria, where the conflict is raging both on the ground and in the air. Twitter: Flightradar24 - As far as we have seen #MH4 was the only transcontinental flight going over Syria. 02.40 The Financial Times have published a photograph they say offers clear evidence flight MH17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. Their photograph shows a piece of the downed Boeing 777 with a large hole ripped in it, smaller holes around that and with burn marks, pointing towards a missile strike as the likely cause. The wreckage was recovered by the people of Petropavlovka from a villager’s back yard last Thursday and moved to the roadside because it was believed to be important. Two defence analysts in London and a former military pilot who have studied the picture corroborated the claim by a local man, who said he had served in the military, that much of the damage was consistent with a missile strike." MH17: FT photo shows signs of damage from missile strike 02.00 To reiterate the main news of the last few hours, a train carrying the remains of 280 people killed in the Malaysian plane disaster was finally allowed to leave the rebel-held region of eastern Ukraine as the militants also declared a truce around the crash site and handed over the black boxes from the plane, five days after the tragedy happened. Twitter: Paul Sonne - The Donetsk rebel government tweets photos of the documents it has signed with Malaysia. http://t.co/Qt1P463bU6 00.50 Hillary Clinton believes the US and Europe should work together to develop much tougher sanctions on Russia. Clinton said in a Facebook chat that tougher sanctions would make clear to Russian President Vladimir Putin “that there is a price to pay for this kind of behaviour.” We should do more to ensure a thorough investigation that not only respects those who were murdered in the attack on the plane, but also tries to find answers to who is responsible,” Clinton wrote during the question-and-answer session on the social media site. 00.05 Good morning and welcome to today's live coverage of the MH17 crisis. More on the news that the MH17 black boxes have been handed over to Malaysian authorities. A senior separatist leader, Aleksander Borodai, was the man, as ever, in charge in Donetsk. “Here they are, the black boxes,” Borodai told a room packed with journalists at the headquarters of his self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic as an armed rebel placed the boxes on a desk. Both sides then signed a document, which Borodai said was a protocol to finalise the procedure after lengthy talks with the Malaysians. “I can see that the black boxes are intact, although a bit damaged. In good condition,” Colonel Mohamed Sakri of Malaysian National Security Council said in extending his thanks to “His Excellency Mr. Borodai” for passing on the recorders. Borodai also said a train carrying the remains of the victims of the Malaysia Airlines plane catastrophe has reached Donetsk. It is on its way to Kharkiv, some 300km (186 miles) north-west. The Malaysian experts and a Dutch delegation also on site in Donetsk will travel along with it, he said. \|\|\|\|\| Video Image World loses HIV expert in MH17 disaster 1:18 Play video Professor Francoise Barr-Sinousi addresses the National Press Club with words of grief and loss over colleague and HIV expert Joep Lange, amongst hundreds dead in the crash of flight MH17. MORE than 100 AIDS activists, researchers and health workers bound for a major conference in Melbourne were on the Malaysia Airlines flight downed in the Ukraine. It is believed that delegates to the 20th International AIDS Conference, due to begin on Sunday, will be informed today that 108 of their colleagues and family members died on MH17. Stunned researchers, activists and development workers arriving at Melbourne Airport paid tribute to AIDS researcher Joep Lange and the other attendees believed killed aboard MH17. Jonathan Quick, head of a not-for–profit medicine supply company working with the Global Fund and the US government in Africa and Latin America, described Professor Lange as a force for change in HIV/AIDS treatment. “I remember meeting him back in the late 1990s. He was really driven at a time when there was not much going on in the way of treatment,” he said. “This is a community in which individuals have moved mountains and it’s also a community that has had regular exposure to horrific loss.” Mr Quick, who runs Management Sciences for Health, will introduce an address by former High Court judge Michael Kirby at the conference. Activist and journalist Sean Strub, who runs the New York based POZ magazine, said the conference was shaken by the tragedy and by Professor Lange’s death. “It’s going to be a very sombre week,” he said. “The struggle with the epidemic is bigger than any one individual but the collective loss of so many important people is one that is emotionally devastating.” Kenyan development worker Perez Odera said she feared the tragedy would dissuade people from flying to conferences such as this. “I just feel it is very, very unfortunate. It’s something we don’t have control over,’’ she said. Dr Robert Grant, a researcher from the Gladstone Institute at the University of California, said that on arriving in Melbourne he had heard reports Prof Lange had died. ‘A grim day for Australia, a grim day for the world’ Live blog: the crash of Flight MH17 Gallery: Latest pictures from the scene 27 Australians among the dead Tony Abbott blames Russian-backed rebels Gallery: The faces of flight MH17 He declined to say he was speaking about Prof Lange ahead of confirmation of the death, but said a senior colleague — thought to be the Dutch researcher — appeared to have perished. “It’s incredible. He’s been a mentor to me and an incredible leader in this field. We have published together and I have relied on him for advice and guidance,” he said. Another delegate, Jennifer Watt, who works for a pharmaceutical company in San Francisco, talked of Prof Lange‘s work in Africa. “I have worked very closely with him in a number of clinical research projects. He’s very well known and a very passionate person. He’s the father of AIDS research in the developing world,’’ she said. Another attendee, Houston based community worker Moise Arrah, said the news was devastating. “People were coming here for such a noble cause and then they lose their lives in such a tragedy.” Prof Lange was a clinical researcher specialising in HIV therapy who served as the International AIDS Society president from 2002 to 2004. His friend Dr Seema Yasmin, from the US Centers for Disease Control, said Prof Lange was a true humanitarian. “What a HUGE loss to the world,” she tweeted. “Just learned that dear friend, amazing father to 5 girls and veteran AIDS researcher Joep Lange was on #MH17.” Australia’s National AIDS Trust paid tribute to Prof Lange. “Reports Joep Lange died in Malaysian plane crash today, with other scientists on way to AIDS_conference. Desperately sad news,” it said on Twitter. American academic and AIDS activist Gregg Gonsalves tweeted that “Lots of AIDS researchers, activists, officials on downed Malaysia Airlines flight to Melbourne for Intl AIDS Conference. “Joep Lange was a leading AIDS researcher and clinician and an activist at heart. Lost today too soon on Malaysian flight 019. RIP.” A Geneva-based World Health Organisation media adviser, Glenn Thomas, is also believed to be among the dead. Dr Haileyesus Getahun, coordinator of the WHO’s Global TB program, tweeted: “Saddened to learn that my friend and @WHO staff who was traveling to @AIDS_conference to Melbourne was on flight #MH17. RIP #Glenn Thomas”. His colleague Dr Rachel Baggaley, of the WHO’s HIV Department, told Vox: “I’m just devastated. He’s a very close colleague whom I work with on a daily basis. “He just had his birthday, he was going to plan all sorts of celebrations.” Nicole Schiegg, a former Senior Advisor at USAID, tweeted: “I am still stunned. So sorry & thoughts are with Glenn’s extended @WHO family at this time. “Glenn was a great guy & will be missed.” Jennifer Yang, global health reporter at the Toronto Star, tweeted: “So saddened to hear about lovely, funny, whip-smart Glenn.” Delegates Lucie van Mens, Martine de Schutter, Pim de Kuijer and Jacqueline van Tongeren were also reportedly on the flight. Dr Van Mens, director of program development and support at the Female Health Company, had been involved in public health, focusing on prevention of STIs and HIV/AIDS, since 1995. Ms Van Tongeren had worked in the field of HIV/Aids since 1986, and coordinated many HIV/AIDS- and health-related projects. She ran an art gallery in Amsterdam in the 1970s and 1980s and worked closely with Prof Lange. Organisers of the AIDS 2014 conference in Melbourne are awaiting confirmation of how many delegates were aboard the Malaysian Airlines flight shot down over eastern Ukraine. International Aids Society president-elect Chris Beyrer issued a brief statement outside the Melbourne Convention Centre, where the world’s leading HIV researchers and scientists, former US president Bill Clinton and philanthropist Bob Geldolf will gather for next week’s conference. “The International AIDS Society today expressed its sincere sadness at receiving news that colleagues and friends en route to attend the 20th International AIDS Conference taking place in Melbourne, Australia, were on board the Malaysian Airlines MH17 flight that has crashed over Ukraine earlier today,” Mr Beyrer said. “At this incredibly said and sensitive time the IAS stands with our international family and sends condolences to the loved ones of those who have been lost to this tragedy. “The IAS is hearing unconfirmed reports that some of our friends and colleagues were on board the flight and if that is the case this is a truly sad day. “The IAS has also heard reports that among the passengers was a former IAS President Joep Lange and if that is the case then the HIV/AIDS movement has truly lost a giant.” UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe tweeted: “My thoughts & prayers to families of those tragically lost on flight #MH17. Many passengers were enroute to #AIDS2014 here in #Melbourne.” The IAS released a statement today confirming the death of a number of attendees to the 20th Annual AIDS Conference. “The International AIDS Society (IAS) today expresses its sincere sadness at receiving news that a number of colleagues and friends en route to attend the 20th International AIDS Conference taking place in Melbourne, Australia, were on board the Malaysian Airlines MH17 flight that has crashed over Ukraine earlier today,’’ it said. “At this incredibly sad and sensitive time the IAS stands with our international family and sends condolences to the loved ones of those who have been lost to this tragedy.” Bill Clinton, Bob Geldof, Michel Sidibe, the executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Mark Dybul, Indonesian Health Minister Nafsiam Mboi and Swedish Ambassador for Global Health Anders Nordstrom are down as speakers at the conference. US Ambassador John Berry, who is in Melbourne for the conference, said he was struggling to comprehend the news. “This tragic, senseless loss is being felt around the world,” he said in a statement on Facebook. “Our deepest sympathies go out to the families and loved ones of the all the passengers. “Here in Australia, we are particularly struck by the loss of 27 Australians and others who were coming here to Melbourne to attend the International AIDS conference — activists, medical researchers, and global health policy experts working to make the world a better place by ridding it of HIV and AIDS.”	– As many as 108 of the 298 people killed on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were researchers, activists, and health workers bound for a major AIDS conference in Melbourne, delegates have been told. Among them was Dutch researcher Joep Lange, one of the world's top HIV experts. He had been researching the disease for more than 30 years; one conference delegate tells the Australian he was "the father of AIDS research in the developing world." Another expert tells the Guardian that "there were some serious HIV leaders on that plane" and that the crash "will have ramifications globally" on research. At the 20th International AIDS Conference, "it's going to be a very somber week," American HIV activist Sean Strub says. "The struggle with the epidemic is bigger than any one individual, but the collective loss of so many important people is one that is emotionally devastating." The premier of the state of Victoria says the doomed plane flying from Amsterdam was supposed to connect with a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. "The shooting down of a passenger aircraft full of innocent civilians is an unspeakable act that will forever leave a dark stain on our history," he says. The Telegraph reports that out of the passengers and crew whose nationalities have been verified, there were 154 Dutch citizens, 27 Australians, 23 Malaysians, 11 Indonesians, six British citizens, four Belgians, four Germans, three Filipinos, and one Canadian.
Abolish the penny! According to Time magazine Dec 27, 2016 The penny now costs more to make than it's worth. The penny might be more trouble than it's worth. The cost to produce the one-cent coin increased to 1.5 cents during 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported. In 2015, the penny cost 1.43 cents to make, while in 2014, its production value was 1.66 cents. The president and Congress is constantly cutting funds to important programs to save money. Here’s a easy way to cut the budget plus get rid of a coin no one really likes or needs. Our bases overseas do not use pennies. The lowest denomination is the nickel. The only pennies you see overseas are those brought over by new recruits. \|\|\|\|\| Pennies aren’t cheap. The one-cent US coin, mostly made of zinc with a little bit of copper, is the most abundant coin in the country. Last year, the US Mint produced more than 8.4 billion pennies for circulation. Between production costs and shipping, they cost $0.0182 each, which totaled to $69 million (pdf, p. 9) in losses compared to their total value—the biggest in nine years. This is likely due to the rising cost of zinc for use in heavy industry, construction, machine and ship building, and steel production. Nickels have cost more to make than their monetary value for over a decade. The five-cent coins—75% copper and 25% nickel—cost about seven cents each to produce last year. Prices for copper have surgedIt’s a key ingredient in any kind of circuit or wiring, and the rise of electric cars in particular has put stress on the market. Nickel has also gotten more expensive for its use in stainless steels. Fortunately, dimes and quarters are cheaper to make, costing less than their monetary value. So the Mint makes up the losses incurred on pennies and nickels with its 10- and 25-cent coins, and last year reported making $391.5 million in seigniorage.	– It costs more than a penny to make a penny. The US Mint produced more than 8.4 billion of the one-cent coins last year, at a cost of $0.0182 each with production costs and shipping taken into account. That means $69 million was lost when compared to the pennies' total value, Quartz reports, the biggest loss in nine years. That's probably because zinc (pennies are made mostly of zinc, with a small amount of copper) has been rising in price. Nickels, which are worth five cents, cost seven cents each to make, but dimes and quarters cost less than their value to produce, which ends up making up for the losses associated with pennies and nickels. Even so, petitions abound on the internet to abolish the penny and nickel.
Sorry, the page you requested was not found. Please check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Yahoo!, try visiting the Yahoo! home page or look through a list of Yahoo!'s online services. Also, you may find what you're looking for if you try searching below. Search the Web advanced search \| most popular Please try Yahoo! Help Central if you need more assistance. \|\|\|\|\| Bill Ayers: Yeah, I wrote “Dreams from My Father” posted at 9:08 pm on March 28, 2011 by Allahpundit Via the American Thinker. I think John Hawkins is spot on in detecting the sarcasm here, but if you’re inclined to believe that Ayers is The One’s ghostwriter, you’re bound to detect a “deeper truth” in his tone. In fact, Ayers has been baiting people with this same corny line about splitting the royalties for ages. Back in October 2009, a conservative blogger spotted him in Reagan Airport and approached him. As soon as she mentioned that she was conservative, he offered, unprompted, that he had written the book, that Michelle Obama had put him up to it, and, yes, that he’d be happy to split the royalties with the blogger if she could prove it. When she countered that she thought he had at least edited it, he egged her on by insisting that no, he had written the darned thing. I think he enjoys mocking people who push this idea and enjoys it doubly when they can’t detect the mockery. In fact, I’d bet that this is his stock response anytime the book is mentioned in his presence — insisting that he wrote it to see if the listener laughs and then toying with them if they seem credulous. But as I say, your mileage may vary. Related Posts:	– Donald Trump isn’t content with questioning Obama’s citizenship—now he’s questioning his authorial accomplishments, too. In an interview with Laura Ingraham yesterday, Trump espoused the theory that Bill Ayers wrote Obama’s memoir, Dreams of My Father, Aol News reports. Obama is only the president “because he wrote a book that is supposed to be a great genius book,” Trump said. “But now it’s coming out that Bill Ayers wrote it.” Trump’s repeating a rumor that’s been circling in right-wing media. Ayers himself said that he had written the book at a speaking appearance last week, though as Allahpundit at the conservative blog Hot Air notes, it sounded a lot like he was being sarcastic. “Would you believe that I wrote it?” he said when asked about the book. “And if you can help me prove it, I’ll split the royalties.” At that the audience burst out laughing. Ayers has reportedly used the line, complete with the royalties punch line, in the past as well. Click for more.
An anatomy scan is routine for pregnant women at 20 weeks. That was when Kristine Barry learned her baby had a heart defect that would require what’s believed to be the world’s first use of in utero surgery to treat this condition. Doctors at the Hospital for Sick Children and Mount Sinai Hospital were quick to assure Barry, 25, and her husband, Christopher Havill, 27, that they could fix the problem. Doctors in Toronto performed in-utero surgery when a now two-month-old baby boy had a life-threatening heart condition. The boy?s parents say it was ?intense? to learn the procedure would be carried out in the womb. (The Canadian Press) They diagnosed the couple’s first child, Sebastian Havill, now 9 weeks old, with severe complete transposition of the great arteries (TGA). It’s a congenital heart defect that occurs when the pulmonary artery and aorta are switched, and the heart can’t adequately circulate blood through the body. Barry said her first thoughts were “Why me, why my baby?” To fix the problem, surgeons normally perform open-heart surgery on the infant to switch the arteries within a week of birth. But there was a complication in this case. Article Continued Below All the walls in Sebastian’s heart were closed shut, meaning his blood wouldn’t get oxygen after his birth, which could have led to severe brain damage or death within minutes. “Previously, doctors had the baby born by C-section and then rushed it over to Sick Kids for a balloon procedure,” Barry said. “If he was born over at Mount Sinai, he wouldn’t have enough time to be moved to Sick Kids. He likely wasn’t going to make it.” So the doctors — Edgar Jaeggi, Rajiv Chaturvedi and Greg Ryan — devised a different plan to save her baby. On May 18, Barry went into the operating room, and Sebastian had what’s believed to be the world’s first balloon atrial septoplasty surgery in utero to treat TGA. With ultrasound guidance, the doctors inserted a needle into Barry’s uterus and into Sebastian’s heart to blow up a tiny ballon, making a hole about 3.5 millimetres wide in his atrial septum. This allowed the blood and oxygen to circulate properly, a temporary fix until they could perform surgery after birth. Baby Sebastian with his parents Christopher Havill and Kristine Barry at The Hospital for Sick Children. Five days before he was born, a surgical procedure was performed on Sebastian's heart while he was still in his mother's womb. ( Randy Risling / Toronto Star ) About 30 medical staff were there to assist in the procedure, including surgeons, cardiologists, a person with an incubator and a doctor to do a caesarean section in the likely case that Barry had to give birth early. “I was weirdly calm. I put all my belief in that it was going to work, but I went in with the mindset that I was having a baby that day,” Barry said. “The way they described our options for that day, I had a two-out-of-three chance for having a baby, so I went in thinking, ‘I could be meeting my son today.’” Article Continued Below Just 20 minutes later, the surgery was over and the room erupted in applause, said Barry, who cried when she realized that her baby could be born healthy. Five days after the surgery, Barry was induced into labour and gave birth to Sebastian only 10 minutes in. “He came out pink and screaming, and I was just in shock. I didn’t believe that was what was going to happen,” she said. A week after his birth, Sebastian successfully underwent the open-heart surgery that babies with congenital TGA must have, and he was sent home the week after. About three babies a year in Ontario have the same extreme case of congenial heart defect that Sebastian has. His parents will take him to a neuro-development program at Sick Kids to make sure he’s hitting all his milestones at 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months old. Barry and Havill have been told that Sebastian may run into issues at any stage in his development, but in general he is expected to lead a normal life. If Sebastian has any development problems, Barry said, the doctors at Sick Kids can help by teaching them exercises to do at home, or sending a support worker to help with speech or physiotherapy. “They want us to let him be a kid and run around and get his blood pumping and his heart working really well. They don’t want us bubble-wrapping him and being too protective,” Barry said. “They want him to live a normal life as much as possible.” \|\|\|\|\| Kristine Barry says when she heard her newborn baby Sebastian scream, it was "the most amazing sound I've ever heard." "They always prepped us for a blue baby," she said. "They always said that he was going to be blue and not vocal because of the lack of oxygen." But when Sebastian arrived at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto in May, "there's this little guy all pink and screaming." It would have been a very different and traumatic birth if Sebastian had not undergone a surgical procedure on his heart, known as a balloon atrial septoplasty, five days earlier — while he was still in his mother's womb. During Barry's prenatal checkups, Sebastian was diagnosed with a severe congenital heart defect, in which the two main arteries of the heart are reversed. His case was especially complex because the interior walls of his heart were sealed shut, so that blood couldn't flow between the chambers to pick up oxygen. "We had a baby with the two sides of the circulation that were not communicating. There was no opening between the upper chambers and the lower chambers and the vessels were coming off the wrong side," says Dr. Greg Ryan, head of the fetal medicine program at Mount Sinai Hospital. "So what we had to do was to create a communication to allow the blood to mix." 'The clock ticks' In most cases, newborn babies with heart defects can be rushed from the neonatal unit at Mount Sinai Hospital to the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) across the street, says Dr. Rajiv Chaturvedi, a cardiologist at SickKids. But the closed walls of Sebastian's heart made it unable to automatically circulate oxygen once he lost access to the oxygen supplied via the placenta. That meant there would be little time to save Sebastian from severe complications after he left his mother's womb. "The clock ticks [so] that you have a few minutes and you start having brain damage and other organ damage," says Dr. Edgar Jaeggi, head of the fetal cardiac program at SickKids. Christopher Havill and Kristine Barry are enjoying a normal life at home with their newborn son, Sebastian, thanks to his heart surgeries — one of which was performed while he was still in his mother's womb. (CBC News) So on May 18, Ryan, Chaturvedi and Jaeggi, along with dozens of clinicians from both Mount Sinai Hospital and SickKids performed a risky and remarkable procedure: a balloon atrial septoplasty while the baby is still in the uterus. With neonatal and cardiac surgeons on standby in case an emergency cesarean section became necessary, the doctors used a needle to insert a balloon through Barry's uterus and into Sebastian's heart, making a small hole to open up the heart's interior wall, so oxygenated blood could pass through. Although the procedure was a success, it wasn't a cure for Sebastian's original heart defect, and he would still require open-heart surgery after birth. But it meant that Barry could deliver him normally, without the trauma of knowing it would be a frantic race against time to whisk her baby away and supply him with oxygen. A healthy start In fact, Sebastian's father, Christopher Havill, had time to cut the umbilical cord — and he remembers the team even told them they could take pictures. Surgeons repeated the same procedure they had done in-utero on Sebastian that day to further ensure the flow of oxygen. A week later, he had open-heart surgery to fix his reversed arteries. Two months later, he's a normal baby at home in Barrie, Ont., fussing on his mother's lap as his dad smiles and soothes him. "He's such a good little cuddle buddy," Havill says. The doctors have even told the couple that Sebastian's scar from his open heart surgery will eventually fade, and will be barely visible by adulthood. "These kids can play soccer, play hockey, go to university, have pretty normal lives," Chaturvedi says. \|\|\|\|\| Sheryl Ubelacker, The Canadian Press TORONTO -- Watching Kristine Barry and husband Christopher Havill cuddle their two-month-old son Sebastian, it's hard to believe their little guy has been through more major medical procedures in his short life -- and even before being born -- than many people experience in a lifetime. Weeks before his birth in May, Toronto doctors discovered through imaging scans that Sebastian had not one, but two congenital heart defects -- and they knew they had to do something fairly radical to bring him into the world and give him a chance at a full and healthy life. That something was an in-utero procedure to poke a hole in the wall between the upper chambers of his tiny heart, which had developed with no opening, followed by an operation after birth to repair his major cardiac arteries, which weren't in the proper locations. Scans of Sebastian while in his mother's womb showed his aorta, the vessel that takes oxygen-rich blood to the brain and body, and his pulmonary artery, which channels blood to the lungs to be oxygenated, were switched -- a condition known as transposition of the great arteries, or TGA. Doctors also discovered there were no openings in the walls between either the two upper chambers (the atria) of his heart or the bottom two chambers (the ventricles), which would have prevented his blood from circulating properly after birth. While in the womb, fetal blood is oxygenated through the placenta. "If a baby doesn't have any holes between the two sides, so the right and left half, the child would be deeply blue, and eventually will die from this condition unless we are able to create the hole after birth rapidly," said cardiologist Dr. Edgar Jaeggi, head of the fetal cardiac program at Sick Kids Hospital and part of the two-hospital team that cared for Barry and her soon-to-be born baby. "This is a life-threatening condition that could result in rapid brain damage, with the baby doing very poorly and dying from this," Jaeggi explained. However, after Sebastian's birth, doctors would have had only a few minutes to open up his chest and repair his heart, requiring full neonatal resuscitation and cardiac surgery teams to be on stand-by. To avoid such a high-risk delivery and the dangers to the newborn, a team of doctors from Mount Sinai Hospital and Sick Kids opted to perform the procedure to create an opening between the upper chambers of Sebastian's heart while he was in the womb. "It's pretty intense hearing something like that, that they're going to do it while he's still inside of her," Havill, 27, said Tuesday after he and his wife travelled to Sick Kids from their home in Barrie, Ont., north of Toronto. "It's something you would think would only happen on a TV medical show, not in real life," agreed Barry, 25. "Doing the in-utero procedure actually sounded like the best possible thing. In my gut, we knew this was what we wanted to happen, what we needed to do." On May 18, doctors at Mount Sinai took the first steps, injecting drugs through Barry's abdomen that put Sebastian to sleep, paralyzed his body to prevent him from moving, and provided pain relief. "The baby obviously has to be in the right position," said Dr. Greg Ryan, head of the fetal medicine program at Mount Sinai. "Because if the baby is not aligned in-utero, it's a non-starter, and we've sometimes had to wait for two or three days for the baby to come into position where it gives us our best shot -- because you have one shot and you need to make that work." Barry was then transported to Sick Kids across the street via an underground tunnel that connects the two hospitals, where Ryan performed the next part of the procedure under ultrasound-guided imagery, inserting a fine needle through Barry's abdomen and uterus, then into the upper chamber of Sebastian's heart and passing it through the wall to the adjacent atrium. A catheter was then fed through the needle and a tiny balloon inserted between the wall, a process that's similar to balloon angioplasty to open up a blocked coronary artery in those at risk of a heart attack. "Then, essentially, we blow up the balloon in that wall which had been closed," explained Ryan. "By blowing it up, we could open up a hole in the wall between the two chambers, and this allows the mixing of the blood. "Once we've done that, we withdraw the needle and withdraw the catheter out of the baby's heart," he said, adding that he believes this is the first time in the world that the in-utero procedure has been performed in a fetus with TGA. Jaeggi said the team waited until Sebastian was almost full-term to do the in-utero surgery -- called a balloon atrial septoplasty, or BAS -- because doing so earlier might have allowed the hole to close up again. "We wanted the biggest hole closest to delivery," he said, describing the opening as about 3.5 millimetres in diameter. On May 23, Barry gave birth through a regular vaginal delivery after being induced and Sebastian was born "pink and screaming." "They always primed us that we would be having a blue baby, so when he came out, I'm like 'That's not blue,"' said Barry, recalling her huge sense of relief. "He was here and he looked as babies should when they're born." Sebastian had a second BAS procedure after birth to ensure the atrial opening was large enough. Then five days later, surgeons at Sick Kids performed open-heart surgery on the infant to switch his aorta and pulmonary artery into their proper positions. Now weighing 10 pounds and meeting all his developmental milestones, Sebastian is like any other healthy two-month-old, his parents say. "He's a pretty calm, pretty chill baby. He lets us know when he's not happy. He still has that very strong set of lungs that he was born with," Barry said. "We just recently started getting our smiles from him." "You barely even know that anything had happened to him unless you take off his shirt and see his scars," added Havill. "He's just awesome." The couple say it's hard to express how grateful they are to the medical teams at the two hospitals. "Thank you doesn't seem like enough, but definitely thanks to them for saving my baby's life," Barry said. "It's just amazing what they're able and capable of doing."	– Doctors in Canada are patting themselves on the back after what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind heart surgery that saved the life of an unborn child. Halfway through her pregnancy, Kristine Barry of Barrie, Ont., learned her unborn son had a heart defect in which the two main arteries of his heart were reversed, reports the CBC. Putting the aorta and pulmonary artery in their rightful places would require open-heart surgery after birth. But because Barry's unborn son also had no opening to allow blood to flow between the upper and lower chambers of his heart, he would be unable to circulate oxygen through his body once separated from his mother's placenta, with brain and other organ damage occurring within minutes. "He likely wasn't going to make it," Barry, 25, tells the Toronto Star. But doctors weren't about to give up. In what may be the first balloon atrial septoplasty performed on a baby in the womb, doctors from Mount Sinai Hospital and Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto used a needle to insert a balloon through Barry's uterus and into the boy's heart, opening a passageway between the chambers. Five days later on May 23, Sebastian was delivered "all pink and screaming," rather than "blue and not vocal" as initially expected, Barry says. Two months after undergoing open-heart surgery to repair his heart defect, he's healthy and happy and Barry can't thank doctors enough. "It's just amazing what they're able and capable of doing," she tells the Canadian Press. (Read about another heart surgery in the womb.)
Kisspeptin The molecule of puberty and sexual fertility Paul May University of Bristol Molecule of the Month September 2010 Also available: JSMol version. Surely nothing to do with Gene Simmons and Co.? No, not the rock band Kiss, although it has similarities it that it also sends teenagers wild. Kisspeptin is a protein that when released from the brain triggers the cascade of biochemical changes that leads to puberty, turning children into adults. Puberty is still one of the great unsolved mysteries in biology. Scientists have known for years that puberty begins when a child's brain releases hormones that cascade through the body leading to the maturing of testes in boys and ovaries in girls. However, the exact nature of the hormones wasn't fully understood until a few years ago, when kisspeptin was discovered. Adolescents who lack a functioning kisspeptin system fail to achieve puberty. We now know that, almost literally, ‘puberty begins with a kiss’! It started with a kiss... Kisspeptins are actually a group of proteins with similar structure, and are products of the KiSS-1 gene. This gene was discovered in 1996 [Lee et al., 2006] when scientists were searching for a gene that prevents cancer from spreading. This groundbreaking work took place in research labs in the town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, the location also famous for the Hershey's chocolate factory. Since Hershey's most popular product is a chocolate confectionary called a Hershey's Kiss (photo, right), the discoverers' of the gene named it KiSS-1 after this chocolate. However, the nomenclature also has a scientific grounding as the inclusion of SS in the name also indicates that the gene is a suppressor sequence, i.e. it prevents some biological process from occurring (such as cancer spreading). Kisspeptin was first given the name metastin, because it was thought to play a role in tumor metastasis, but later named kisspeptin after its gene pecursor. The receptor for kisspeptin in the brain was identified only recently and was given the rather less whimsical name GPR54 (G-Protein Coupled Receptor 54). The KiSS-1 gene is found on the long-arm of chromosome 1. The protein it makes is a peptide containing 145 amino-acids, which are then cleaved into smaller, 54-amino-acid chunks. These may also be further truncated down to 14, 13 or even 10 amino-acids fragments with carboxylic acid terminations. These N-terminally truncated peptides are known as the family of kisspeptins. Kisspeptin-10 is shown below. ...never thought it would come to this A single injection of kisspeptin in animals has been found to stimulate a huge increase in the secretion of gonadotropins (hormones that stimulate the production of testosterone in men and estradiol in women). Repeated injections into immature rats has been shown to advance the age of puberty. Very recently, a group of Japanese scientists delivered an antibody directed against kisspeptin into the brain of female rats. This stopped the rats' reproductive cycle demonstrating that inhibiting the effect of kisspeptin, even after puberty, still blocks reproductive function. Therefore, as well as being vital to initiate puberty, kisspeptin is necessary for reproductive function to continue later in life. Later, Spanish scientists discovered that administering kisspeptin in food-restricted rats still stimulated the release of gonadotropins. This is a remarkable discovery, since normally when a mammal is facing starvation its reproductive system becomes dormant to conserve the body's stored food supply. Kisspeptin injections over-ride this defence mechanism, and can kick-start normally dormant reproductive systems. It has also been discovered that kisspeptin plays a role in seasonal-breeding animals. Many mammals only become fertile during the annual breeding season, and this is controlled by the duration of daylight per day. During short winter days, these anmials have a reduced amount of kisspeptin in certain parts of the brain, and sexual activity is switched off (or greatly reduced). But in the long summer days, kisspeptin amounts increase, stimulating the animals to breed. Artificially injecting animals (such as ewes) with kisspeptin during the winter months causes ovulation even in the non-breeding season [Dhilo 2008]. This has implications for farmers, who may soon be able to choose when their livestock reproduce rather than be restricted by the natural annual cycle. The kiss of life? Because of its link with the KiSS-1 gene, kisspeptin has been suggested as a possible treatment for some forms of cancer. In particular, when breast and prostate cancers develop, they are nurtured by the sex hormones oestrogen and testosterone. If the production of these hormones could be switched off the tumours should shrivel and die. One way to do this might be to block the kisspeptin-receptor in the brain. Scientists are now actively looking for molecules that can block this receptor. Kisspeptin's role in switching-on sexual hormones could be vital in controlling the timing of puberty when this goes wrong. There are a number of conditions where children that reach puberty much too early (five or six years old) could possibly be treated by simply taking pills containing kispeptin derivatives. Conversely, for young people in which puberty does not begin as normal in their teenage years, it may be possible to administer kisspeptin to kick-start the process. It has recently been found that kisspeptin can restart the female reproductive system in women who have stopped ovulating due to an imbalance in their sex hormones. Kisspeptin is therefore a potential basis for a new infertility treatment. References W.S. Dhillo, J. Neuroendocrin . 20 (2008) 963 - a good review paper. . (2008) 963 - a good review paper. J.H. Lee, M.E. Miele, D.J. Hicks, et al . "KiSS-1, a novel human malignant melanoma metastasis-suppressor gene.", J. Natl. Cancer Inst . 88 (1996) 1731–7. . "KiSS-1, a novel human malignant melanoma metastasis-suppressor gene.", . (1996) 1731–7. Sciencewatch - lots of references here to the current scientific literature. Wikipedia kisspeptin.com kisspeptin.org Women's health Back to Molecule of the Month page. [DOI:10.6084/m9.figshare.5255167] \|\|\|\|\| The hormone kisspeptin can enhance activity in brain regions associated with sexual arousal and romantic love, according to new research. The scientists behind the early-stage study, from Imperial College London, are now keen to explore whether kisspeptin could play a part in treating some psychosexual disorders - sexual problems which are psychological in origin, and commonly occur in patients with infertility. The work was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Kisspeptin is a naturally occurring hormone that stimulates the release of other reproductive hormones inside the body. The study involved a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in which 29 healthy heterosexual young men were given either an injection of kisspeptin or placebo. In an MRI scanner the men were shown a variety of images, including sexual and non-sexual romantic pictures of couples, whilst researchers scanned their brains to see how kisspeptin affected the brain's responses. Ultimately, we are keen to look into whether kisspeptin could be an effective treatment for psychosexual disorders, and potentially help countless couples who struggle to conceive. – Professor Waljit Dhillo Department of Medicine The researchers found that after the injection of kisspeptin, when the volunteers were shown sexual or romantic images of couples, there was enhanced activity in structures in the brain typically activated by sexual arousal and romance. The team believe this shows kisspeptin boosts behavioural circuits associated with sex and love. They are particularly interested in how kisspeptin might be able to help people with psychosexual disorders and related problems with conceiving a baby. NIHR Research Professor Waljit Dhillo, the lead author of the research from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London, said: "Most of the research and treatment methods for infertility to date have focussed on the biological factors that may make it difficult for a couple to conceive naturally. These of course play a huge part in reproduction, but the role that the brain and emotional processing play in this process is also very important, and only partially understood." As the research is at an early stage, the team of researchers now want to do a follow on study to analyse the effects of kisspeptin in a larger group, including women as well as men. Professor Dhillo added: "Our initial findings are novel and exciting as they indicate that kisspeptin plays a role in stimulating some of the emotions and responses that lead to sex and reproduction. Ultimately, we are keen to look into whether kisspeptin could be an effective treatment for psychosexual disorders, and potentially help countless couples who struggle to conceive." Volunteers in the study underwent MRI scans at the Imanova Centre for Imaging Sciences and were shown sexual and non-sexual romantic, negative, and neutral-themed images, and images of happy, fearful and neutral emotional faces. Kisspeptin did not appear to alter emotional brain activity in response to neutral, happy or fearful-themed images. However, when volunteers were shown negative images, kisspeptin did enhance activity in brain structures important in regulating negative moods, and study participants reported a reduction in negative mood in a post-scan questionnaires. As a result, the team are also interested in investigating the possibility that kisspeptin might be used for treating depression. Left image: Orange highlights illustrate the enhanced activity in the brain when the subjects had the kisspeptin injection and looked at sexual images. These areas of the brain have often been associated with processing of sexual, emotional and rewarding stimuli. Right image: Orange highlights show areas of the brain that were more responsive to couple-bonding images when the subjects had the kisspeptin injection.These areas of the brain have often been associated with memory and processing of romantic, emotional and rewarding stimuli. Dr Alexander Comninos, first author of the study from the Department of Medicine at Imperial, said "'Our study shows that kisspeptin boosts sexual and romantic brain activity as well as decreasing negative mood. This raises the interesting possibility that kisspeptin may have uses in treating psychosexual disorders and depression which are major health problems which often occur together, but further studies would be needed to investigate this." "Kisspeptin Modulates Sexual and Emotional Brain Processing in Humans" by Waljit S Dhillo et al is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. See the press release of this article \|\|\|\|\| In this study, we demonstrate that the reproductive hormone kisspeptin enhances limbic brain activity specifically in response to sexual and bonding stimuli and that these responses correlate with psychometric measures of sexual and emotional processing. Sexual and emotional responses are fundamental drivers of human behavior, and the links among sex, bonding, and reproduction ultimately ensure the survival of most mammalian species (20). However, the pathways involved are multiple, complex, relatively poorly understood, and involve reproductive and metabolic hormones, pheromones, neuronal networks, peripheral organs, and various sensory signals, among others. Our data suggest a potential role for kisspeptin as an important neuromodulator, linking sexual and emotional brain processing with the reproductive axis. Visually evoked sexual arousal is a frequent occurrence in men, and brain activity associated with visual sexual stimuli have been explored in several previous studies. These studies have examined a wide range of brain structures in response to sexual-themed images and revealed a processing network involving structures including the hypothalamus, amygdala, thalamus, cingulate, insula, precentral gyrus, and occipital cortex (13–15, 21–28). Furthermore, activations in structures including the thalamus and cingulate correlate with physiological sexual arousal (as assessed by penile tumescence) (13). The involvement of these structures therefore suggests cognitive (cingulate, thalamus), emotional (amygdala, insula), motivational (precentral gyrus), and physiological (thalamus) components to sexual arousal from the appraisal of a stimulus as sexual through to the autonomic activation in readiness for sexual behavior (13, 27, 28). Kisspeptin sits at the apex of the reproductive axis, above gonadal hormones such as testosterone that are known to be involved in sexual and emotional processing (29). Kisspeptin signaling is also essential in the “timing” of reproduction, from regulating gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) pulsatility, oestrous cyclicity, and sexual development to aging (30). In our study, kisspeptin enhanced activity in key limbic and paralimbic structures when heterosexual young men viewed sexual images. These included the anterior and posterior cingulate as well as the left amygdala, consistent with areas of activation observed in the above studies (13–15, 21–28) and with regions expressing kisspeptin and kisspeptin receptors (4–10). Therefore, we demonstrate that kisspeptin administration enhances activation in key established areas of the sexual-processing network. It is interesting that, although kisspeptin enhanced activity in both the right and left amygdala, this only reached statistical significance on the left. Although the right amygdala often shows greater enhancement during image-related emotion stimulation (31, 32), the left amygdala is more often engaged in sexual (14) and emotional processing in men (33), and so in this study, kisspeptin may be preferentially acting on the left amygdala in keeping with these studies. Future studies may seek to examine whether there is a lateralization of kisspeptin and kisspeptin receptor expression in the amygdala to address this further. We then proceeded to correlate modulations in brain activity with our psychometric data to provide functional relevance. Interestingly, kisspeptin’s enhancement of several structures of the sexual-processing network (including the cingulate, putamen, and globus pallidus) correlated with reduced sexual aversion, suggesting a role for kisspeptin in sexual disinhibition. Drive and reward traits are primary components of BAS, which has key functions in bringing the individual together with biological rewards such as sex and food (34, 35). Furthermore, previous studies have shown that these traits predict fMRI responses to appetizing foods (36) and sexual images (37). The neural substrate of the BAS comprises structures belonging to the mesolimbic reward and fronto-striatal-amygdala-midbrain networks (36, 37). Intriguingly, in our study, kisspeptin activated key components related to these networks (including the hippocampus, amygdala, and cingulate) more in participants with lower baseline drive and reward traits in response to viewing sexual images. It is interesting to speculate as to a functional reason for this. Kisspeptin was able to enhance activity in components of this reward circuitry more in participants who were less reward responsive. This could serve as a functional mechanism for enhancing reward-system activity during sexual arousal (in those generally less responsive to reward), so as to drive a desire for reproduction in these individuals. Collectively, these data suggest that kisspeptin not only enhances activation in established structures of sexual arousal, but that this activation correlates with behavioral measures of reward, drive, and sexual aversion. Consistent with the expression pattern of kisspeptin and its cognate receptor in these regions (4–10), we provide evidence for kisspeptin as a neuroendocrine modulator of the human brain sexual-processing network. In addition to sexual stimulation, an important precursor to reproduction is the desire to bond with a partner. Studies of bonding have examined different types: romantic love, maternal love, and unconditional love. Studies of romantic love demonstrate activations in dopamine-rich and basal ganglia structures such as the putamen, thalamus, and globus pallidus (17, 38, 39), which are associated with reward (40), pair-bonding (41), and euphoria (16). In addition, activations are commonly seen in areas associated with mental associations (e.g., hippocampus and thalamus) and emotional areas also implicated in sexual processing (e.g., cingulate and amygdala) (17, 38, 39, 42). There is substantial overlap with the processing networks in maternal love, including the cingulate, globus pallidus, amygdala, and dopaminergic brain areas (43). Activations are also observed in reward and dopamine-rich areas (e.g., globus pallidus and cingulate) in unconditional love (44). Taken together, these studies suggest a common subcortical dopaminergic reward-related brain system as well as higher-order cortical cognitive centers driving love and bonding. In the current study, kisspeptin modulated the response to bonding images in regions similar to those seen with sexual images, including the anterior and posterior cingulate and amygdala, with the addition of activation in the thalamus and globus pallidus. These activations by kisspeptin match regions implicated in romantic love, maternal love, and even unconditional love in the aforementioned studies as well as being sites of kisspeptin and kisspeptin receptor expression (4–10). Furthermore, we observed that kisspeptin’s enhanced activation of the amygdala in response to bonding images correlated with improvements in positive mood. Taken together, these data demonstrate that kisspeptin enhanced activity in key “romance and bonding” structures in response to viewing couple-bonding images and that this correlated with improved positive mood. We therefore provide evidence in humans of a role for kisspeptin in the processing of sexual and bonding stimuli, both of which are critical in driving reproduction at a behavioral level. Consistent with the correlation between kisspeptin’s enhancement of amygdala activity and improvements in positive mood in humans above, recent rodent data suggest antidepressant-like effects for kisspeptin via the serotonergic system (45). In our study, kisspeptin enhanced prefrontal activity in response to negative images; a region expressing kisspeptin receptors (9). This is consistent with studies of negative-evoked stimuli, demonstrating predominant activation in prefrontal regions commonly implicated in response inhibition and self-control. Greater activity in these regions assists internalized representations of safety to minimize fear and anxiety to negative stimuli (19). In keeping with this, we observed that kisspeptin administration elicited a reduction in negative mood, providing human evidence of an antidepressant-like effect for kisspeptin, a finding with clear clinical implications. The hippocampus is heavily involved in producing emotions. In our study, sexual- and bonding-themed stimuli resulted in positive increases in activity in the hippocampus (i.e., increases in mean percentage of blood-oxygen-level–dependent [BOLD] signal change) in line with previous studies (25, 46). In other words, the images were able to stimulate hippocampal activity. However, there was no significant difference in this increased activity between kisspeptin and vehicle administration. Overall, these data suggest that kisspeptin may have a greater effect on other limbic structures involved in emotional processing, such as the amygdala, cingulate, thalamus, and globus pallidus rather than the hippocampus. It is salient to note that the effects of kisspeptin on the limbic system were confined to sexual and couple-bonding images, with no limbic effects in response to negative-, neutral-, happy-, or fearful-themed images. In addition, kisspeptin had no effect on brain activity during a battery of nonlimbic tasks (visual, auditory, motor, language, calculation). These data highlight that kisspeptin acts specifically to enhance limbic activity only to sexual and couple-bonding stimulation in our study, which is particularly pertinent given its established role as a potent reproductive hormone (1–3). It is also noteworthy that kisspeptin administration had no effect in the current study on other relevant hormones that could affect limbic activity, including testosterone, oxytocin, and cortisol as well as attention and anxiety. Furthermore, previous studies demonstrate that kisspeptin administration has no effect on other endocrine hormones, including growth hormone, prolactin, and thyroid-stimulating hormone in humans (47). It is important to consider the physiological implications of our findings using the experimental paradigm employed in this study. Physiologically, kisspeptin is predominantly synthesized and secreted from kisspeptin neurones in the infundibular nucleus of the hypothalamus in humans (48) and the arcuate nucleus (ARC) and anteroventral periventricular nucleus (AVPV) in rodents (49). This kisspeptin then activates kisspeptin receptors on GnRH neurones, stimulating pulsatile GnRH release into the hypophyseal-portal circulation and downstream reproductive hormones. This secretion does appear to be pulsatile in rodents (49), and work in monkeys demonstrates pulsatile kisspeptin secretion (every 30 to 90 minutes) into the hypophyseal-pituitary circulation (50). In this study, kisspeptin was administered peripherally, as it is obviously not possible to administer it into the hypothalamus in humans, and we acknowledge that this differs from physiological kisspeptin release. However, the levels of kisspeptin achieved in this study are similar to those observed physiologically in normal pregnancy (51, 52). In addition, the kisspeptin levels observed in this study were similar to the kisspeptin levels achieved in previous studies in which peripheral kisspeptin administration stimulated oocyte maturation in in vitro fertilization protocols (53) and restored luteinizing hormone (LH) pulsatility in women with hypothalamic amenorrhoea (54). Furthermore, our study and others have demonstrated that peripheral kisspeptin administration does not result in downregulation of the reproductive axis in the time frame used in this study in healthy men (54–57). As such, while our protocol does not precisely mimic normal physiology, in the current study, we administered doses of kisspeptin that have previously been shown to have physiological and sustained reproductive effects. Another important point to consider is whether peripherally administered kisspeptin can get into the brain. Peripheral kisspeptin can access GnRH neurones via their dendritic terminals in the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT) outside the blood-brain barrier (58, 59). To examine other brain areas, we administered radiolabeled kisspeptin peripherally to male mice and demonstrated that it can access the brain, including limbic structures (Supplemental Figure 6). Although this study was performed in mice, it suggests that peripheral kisspeptin can cross the blood-brain barrier and directly access brain regions expressing kisspeptin and kisspeptin receptors (4–10). Future work will no doubt examine the neuronal pathways involved, expanding on established interactions among kisspeptin (6), GABA (60), and nitric oxide (61) pathways. In conclusion, we implicate kisspeptin as a modulator of reproductive hormones, limbic brain activity, and behavior. This is supported by the findings of kisspeptin and kisspeptin receptor expression in limbic and paralimbic structures (4–10). We demonstrate that kisspeptin administration enhances limbic responses to sexual and bonding stimuli and that this activity correlates with reward measures, improved positive mood, and reduced sexual aversion. In addition, kisspeptin attenuates negative mood. This suggests that kisspeptin, in addition to its established role in the reproductive hormonal cascade, can also influence related sexual and emotional brain processing, thereby providing integration among reproduction, sexual responses, and bonding. These findings have important ramifications for our understanding of reproductive biology. Delineation of the precise neuronal networks by which kisspeptin exerts these effects will be an exciting field of future study, and recent advances in the use of optogenetics to stimulate endogenous kisspeptin neurones may serve as useful tools (49). Furthermore, in rodents, the kisspeptin receptor is necessary for male olfactory partner preference (62), with limbic kisspeptin neurones integrating into olfactory and reproductive circuits (6). This suggests that in humans, kisspeptin-olfactory processing may provide another area of future study. We observed that kisspeptin’s enhancement of brain activity correlated with improvements in positive mood and reduced sexual aversion while kisspeptin also reduced negative mood. Therefore, this raises interesting directions for the pharmacological use of kisspeptin in disorders of sexual and emotional processing. For example, studies of kisspeptin administration in patients with depression and psychosexual disorders may prove fruitful as well as informing current work to develop kisspeptin as a potential therapeutic for common reproductive disorders, including male hypogonadism (56), hypothalamic amenorrhoea (54), and hyperprolactinaemia (63), and as a trigger for ovulation in in vitro fertilization (53). Therefore, our data also have important clinical relevance given the continued development of kisspeptin as a potential therapeutic. \|\|\|\|\| Mental Viagra’ is on the horizon after scientists discovered that a hormone which surges during puberty can activate lust signals in the brain. The hormone kisspeptin essentially switches on the desire to reproduce and is linked to feeling sexy, romantic and turned on. It is thought to be responsible for the voracious sexual appetite of young people. Now scientists at Imperial College London have found that an injection of kisspeptin can trigger chemicals in the brain which occur when people feel amorous and aroused. They believe that pills containing the hormone could one day be used to treat sexual problems which are psychological – rather than physical. It could even help couples recapture the spark in a failing relationship. \|\|\|\|\| The British have a long history of censoring sex. In 1580, politician William Lambarde drafted the first bill to ban "licentious" and "hurtful... books, pamphlets, ditties, songs, and other works that promote the art of lascivious ungodly love". Last week, the UK government decided to have another crack at censorship, formally announcing that age verification for all online pornographic content will be mandatory from April 2018. It is unclear at this point what this mandatory check will entail, but it's expected that you will need to submit your credit card details to a site before being allowed to access adult content (credit cards can’t be issued to under-18s). The appointed regulator will almost certainly be the British Board of Film Classification who will have the authority to levy fines of up to £250,000 or shut down sites that do not comply. These measures are being directly linked to research conducted by the NSPCC, the Children’s Commissioner and the University of Middlesex in 2016, which surveyed more than 1,000 11 to 16-year-olds about viewing online pornography and found over half had accessed it. Digital minister Matt Hancock said age verification "means that while we can enjoy the freedom of the web, the UK will have the most robust internet child protection measures of any country in the world". And who can argue with that? No sane adult would think that it’s a good idea for children to watch hardcore pornography. And because we all agree kids should be watching Peppa Pig rather than The Poonies, the act has been waved through virtually unchallenged. So, let’s put the issue of hardcore pornography to one side, because surely we are all in agreement. I’m asking you to look at the bigger picture. It’s not just children who will be censored and it’s not just Pornhub and Redtube which will be forced to age check UK viewers. This act will potentially censor any UK site that carries adult content, which is broadly defined by the BBFC as "that it was produced solely or principally for the purposes of sexual arousal". I am a UK academic and research the history of sexuality. I curate the online research project www.thewhoresofyore.com, where academics, activists, artists and sex workers contribute articles on all aspects of sexuality in the hope of joining up conversations around sex that affect everyone. The site also archives many historical images; from the erotic brothel frescoes of Pompeii to early Victorian daguerreotypes of couples having sex. And yet, I do not consider myself to be a porn baron. These are fascinating and important historical documents that can teach us a great deal about our own attitudes to sex and beauty. The site clearly signposts the content and asks viewers to click to confirm they are over 18, but under the Digital Economy Act this will not be enough. Although the site is not for profit and educational in purpose, some of the historical artefacts fit the definition of "pornographic’" and are thereby liable to fall foul of the new laws. Thank you for your work in disproving that human, namely female sexuality is just some modern moral shortcoming. — Tiffany (@duafe) July 21, 2016 And I’m not the only one; erotic artists, photographers, nude models, writers, sex shops, sex education sites, burlesque sites, BDSM sites, archivists of vintage erotica, and (of course) anyone in the adult industry who markets their business with a website, can all be termed pornographic and forced to buy expensive software to screen their users or risk being shut down or fined. I have contacted the BBFC to ask if my research will be criminalised and blocked, but was told "work in this area has not yet begun and so we are not in a position to advice [sic] you on your website". No one is able to tell me what software will need to be purchased if I am to collect viewers' credit card details, how I would keep them safe, or how much this would all cost. The BBFC suggested I contact my MP for further details. But, she doesn’t know either. The thing I love most about @WhoresofYore: they beautifully show that humans have always been wonderfully sexual. https://t.co/Mb4Ma4uifv — Tagg (@taggianto) July 21, 2016 Before we even get into the ethical issues around adults having to enter their credit card details into a government database in order to look at legal content, we need to ask: will this work? Will blocking research projects like mine make children any safer? Well, no. The laws will have no power over social media sites such as Twitter, Snapchat and Periscope which allow users to share pornographic images. Messenger apps will still allow users to sext, as well as stream, send and receiving pornographic images and videos. Any tech savvy teenager knows that Virtual Private Network (VPN) software will circumvent UK age verification restrictions, and the less tech savvy can always steal their parents' credit card details. The proposed censorship is unworkable and many sites containing nudity will be caught in the crossfire. If we want to keep our children "safe" from online pornography, we need to do something we British aren’t very good at doing; we need to talk openly and honestly about sex and porn. This is a conversation I hope projects like mine can help facilitate. Last year, Pornhub (the biggest porn site in the world) revealed ten years of user data. In 2016, Brits visited Pornhub over 111 million times and 20 per cent of those UK viewers are women. We are watching porn and we need to be open about this. We need to talk to each other and we need to talk to our kids. If you’re relying on government censorship to get you out of that tricky conversation, you are letting your children down. The NSPCC report into children watching online pornography directly asked the participants about the effectiveness of age verification, and said the children "pointed out its limitations". When asked what intervention would most benefit them, this was the overwhelming response: "Whether provided in the classroom, or digitally, young people wanted to be able to find out about sex and relationships and about pornography in ways that were safe, private and credible." I suggest we listen to the very people we are trying to protect and educate, rather than eliminate. Dr Kate Lister researches the history of sexuality at Leeds Trinity University	– Kisspeptin, a naturally occurring hormone that kicks off puberty and is thought to fuel what the Telegraph describes as the "voracious sexual appetites of young people," could well be a sort of "mental Viagra" for people with psychosexual disorders—that is, disorders that are psychological as opposed to physical. And because these disorders can occur in patients who are infertile, researchers from Imperial College London report in the Journal of Clinical Investigation that kisspeptin could even play a role in helping couples struggling to conceive. The early-stage study began to lay the groundwork for that theory by testing how kisspeptin affects the brain's responses to sexual situations. To achieve this, researchers injected kisspeptin or a placebo into 29 healthy young men, explains a press release. When shown arousing images, MRI scans of the kisspeptin group revealed enhanced activity in brain regions associated with arousal compared to the placebo group. There was no such activity observed when non-sexual romantic images were shown. The lead author notes that most research and treatments for infertility focus on important biological factors, but that emotional processing is also key and "only partially understood." Next up, they plan to expand the study's size and include women. Bonus trivia: Kisspeptin's name comes from Hershey, Pa., which is home to both Hershey’s Kisses and the lab that in 1996 discovered the KiSS-1 gene that encodes kisspeptins, reports the New Statesman. (After the most extreme tragedy, this couple is pregnant with twins.)
Donald Trump's hopes of delivering a "big surprise" at the Republican National Convention are officially rained out. The real estate mogul had been excitedly promoting his scheduled contribution to this year's conservative confab, despite suggestions that his participation would simply amount to a bit where he'd fire an Obama impersonator. Tropical Storm Isaac had other plans however, as the threat of heavy rains and extreme winds forced the GOP's planning committee to postpone the RNC, shifting Monday's events and canceling others. Trump's act, slated to take place on Monday, wasn't spared the chopping block. Some Republicans are thankful, the Washington Post reports, though Trump spokesman Michael Cohen maintained that Trump's show would have been quite the spectacle. Trump was in Florida on Sunday to receive a "statesman of the year" award from the Sarasota GOP. At a reception dinner, he addressed the development and also continued on his birther tear. "They gave me a big role and I was looking forward –- I was actually going to Tampa right after this, right after this dinner, but now I probably will be going back to New York," Trump said, according to Politico. "I may come back but I’ll probably be going to New York after the dinner." Trump also spoke on another contribution he has provided to the political debate: His near-constant appeal to beliefs that President Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States, and that his long-form birth certificate is a forgery. Pressed by reporters on an incident last week in which GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney appeared to make a joke about the nagging conspiracy theory, Trump suggested it was no laughing matter. "Let’s just say this there’s a huge group of people that are not believers in what [Obama] did, what he said and where he came from," Trump said, going on to explain that his birther crusade may continue. "We’ll see what happens. Well see what happens over the coming weeks and months." Trump also encouraged Republicans to get nasty in the upcoming election against Obama. "I don't think the Republicans should be or can be, they can't afford to be politically correct and nice," he said. "You have to fight fire with fire. And if they don't do it, they're not going to have a good result." Also on HuffPost: \|\|\|\|\| Tampa, Florida (CNN) -- Monday was supposed to be Obama-bashing day to launch the Republican National Convention, and GOP organizers showed they were not going to let something like bad weather totally derail their agenda. While the full proceedings of the first day were canceled because of Tropical Storm Issac, effectively cutting the planned four-day convention to three, Republican officials kept up their efforts to frame President Barack Obama's leadership as a failure in terms of achievement, direction and substance. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus gaveled the convention to order at 2 p.m. ET to cheers from several hundred delegates who showed up to witness the brief session that then went into recess until Tuesday. He pointed out a digital clock in the convention hall tabulating the amount of additional national debt accrued during the proceedings, telling the delegates and journalists, "We also wanted to draw your attention to the unprecedented fiscal recklessness of the Obama administration." The original schedule called for targeting Obama on the first day to set up the desired contrast with MItt Romney at the gathering that will formally nominate the former Massachusetts governor as the Republican candidate against the incumbent president in November. Despite the lost day, GOP officials said criticism of Obama's presidency would be a consistent theme throughout the week. "What we would want to do is define what President Obama has done over the last four years, how and why he's failed, and why his leadership has really failed the American people," said Russ Schriefer, a strategist for Romney's campaign. "Stagnant economy, increasing debt, you know, and more importantly, the disappointment that many Americans feel in President Obama that he just hasn't lived up to the promises of the past four years." Isaac could hinder GOP chance to define Romney at convention Schriefer acknowledged at the same time Monday that convention organizers were keeping a nervous eye on Tropical Storm Isaac. Forecast to reach hurricane strength, Isaac churned through the Gulf of Mexico on the same path as Hurricane Katrina, a storm that devastated New Orleans seven years ago this month. Full proceedings are now scheduled to begin Tuesday, when the convention's 2,200-plus delegates will adopt a conservative platform and endorse Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, as the GOP ticket. Romney will arrive in Tampa on Tuesday, his campaign said. "We are continuing to go ahead with our program with Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday," Schriefer said, adding that "we're gonna make sure that we monitor the storm as it proceeds and see what happens over the next few days." The concern is the perception of a celebratory convention atmosphere with colorful balloons and soaring rhetoric as a hurricane slams into the Gulf Coast, evoking memories of the havoc caused by Katrina and the ensuing criticism of the Republican administration's response. Did the RNC jump the gun by delaying convention? "Obviously, our first concern is for the people who are in the path of the storm," Schriefer said, describing "a wait-and-see attitude to see what happens with the storm." Romney has shown no inclination to further delay the proceedings that offer his best chance to define himself to Americans who, according to polls, think Obama is more in touch with their daily lives and needs. "Our sons are already in Tampa and they say it's terrific there, a lot of great friends," he told reporters in a brief exchange Monday, adding: "We're looking forward to a great convention." Delegates who found themselves with an open day attended state meetings and talked about travel challenges getting to Tampa, as well as packing for a possible hurricane. "I packed a flashlight! Never done that before," Cyndy Aafedt of North Dakota said. "I even went and bought batteries before I came." So far, the biggest casualty of the shortened schedule has been a planned appearance by Donald Trump. The real estate mogul and outspoken conservative was going to take part on Monday, but has scheduling conflicts the rest of the week, Schriefer said. He added it was still possible that Trump would show up before the convention ends Thursday night. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, considered a rising conservative star in the Republican Party, also will not attend because of the storm bearing down on his state. Members of the Louisiana delegation in Tampa sounded torn over being away from loved ones under possible threat. "I think that for Louisiana people, we know that the political part of it is important, what we're here for, but it is hard to celebrate in some ways when you have your heart in a different place," delegate Adonica Duggen said. A more reclusive Republican backer, Nevada billionaire Sheldon Adelson, is expected to attend the convention, a source with knowledge of the plan told CNN. Adelson and his wife are expected to listen to many of the speeches, especially ones by Ann Romney on Tuesday night and Mitt Romney on Thursday night. Together, Sheldon and Miriam Adelson have given at least $36 million to various organizations and candidates this campaign season, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks the influence of money in politics. Adelson, a casino magnate and one of the nation's richest men, has told friends he is willing to spend up to $100 million this election season to make sure a Republican is elected to the White House and to support GOP congressional candidates. Such unlimited backing from private and corporate donors has helped Romney and Republicans gain a big fundraising advantage over Obama and Democrats. Has the tea party 'sold out' to the GOP? In a new ad on Monday, the liberal MoveOn.org's political wing attacked Romney for what the group claims is his focus on the rich. The 30-second spot, titled "Stepping on the Middle Class," features Romney and Ryan look-alikes stepping on people dressed as typical middle-class Americans -- firefighters, students, seniors and children -- as they walk across the convention floor to accept the GOP nomination. "The ad is aimed at conveying to voters how Romney and Ryan would raid the middle class to transfer wealth to the top 1%," the group said in a statement. While the CNN/ORC International Poll indicates a dead heat between Romney and Obama, the new numbers released Sunday show that likely voters believe Obama is more in touch with their needs. "The public gives Obama a big advantage over Romney on questions on caring about people and understanding their concerns," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland, adding that Romney's strong points in the minds of poll respondents are his managerial skills and having a clear plan to solve the country's problems. According to the poll, 53% of likely voters say Obama cares about the needs of people, with 39% feeling the same way about Romney. Obama leads by an equal margin when it comes to being in touch with the middle class, and six in 10 say Obama is in touch with the problems facing women today, with just over three in 10 feeling the same way about Romney. Romney has a 48%-44% margin over Obama on managing the government effectively and a 6-point advantage on having a clear plan for fixing the nation's problems. Both are within the survey's margin of error. No more niceness: Obama, Romney try to rain on each other's parade "The challenge facing Romney at the GOP convention is to build on those managerial strengths while at the same trying to convince average Americans that he is in touch with their problems. Obama's personal characteristics, for the moment, outshine Romney's," Holland said. On specific issues, the poll results show a similar dynamic: Obama is generally ahead on foreign policy and social issues while Romney is generally preferred on economic issues. According to the survey, likely voters prefer Obama's policies on gay and lesbian issues by 59%-33% and choose Obama over Romney on abortion by 53%-40%. The president also has a 51%-44% advantage over Romney on foreign policy and a 50%-43% margin on terrorism. The candidates were statistically even on the economy, with Romney's 50%-46% advantage within the survey's margin of error, and Romney holds a 10-point advantage on handling the federal deficit. Another new poll released Monday showed Romney and Obama neck-and-neck in Florida, a battleground state, and North Carolina, where the Democratic convention will take place next week. The CNN/Time Magazine/ORC poll had both races statistically even, with Obama's 50%-46% advantage in Florida and Romney's 48%-47% lead in North Carolina both within the margin of error. Republican organizers say the shortened convention schedule provides enough time for all the planned major speeches, though some will be shortened to fit the revised schedule. Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee in 2008 who had the first day of his nominating convention in Minneapolis shortened because of a hurricane then threatening the Gulf Coast, agreed that losing one night is manageable. However, McCain told NBC on Sunday, "It could be harmful if we lose more than that." Speakers guide to the RNC In a sign of how badly the party wants to hold the convention to showcase Romney, GOP officials have not ruled out extending it by a day to Friday if necessary, a Republican source told CNN. On Sunday talk shows, Republicans said the convention must focus on Romney's character and show how he can lead the nation to economic prosperity, which is the top issue with voters. "It's the vision of Mitt Romney versus the record of Barack Obama, and facts just are stubborn things," Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell told ABC, adding that "the middle class is hurting" and people want "results, not rhetoric." The Obama campaign, anticipating the Romney branding effort by Republicans, released a movie trailer-style video Sunday that previewed a "do-over" moment for Romney. In a statement accompanying the video, the Obama campaign said it is "presenting Americans with an epic cinematic preview of Mitt Romney's 'convention reinvention' -- the Do-Over moment that voters have grown to expect -- because they've seen this movie before." Responding to the video, Romney's campaign said Sunday the president was relying on "negative attacks" as a way to distract from his own record. However, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told ABC that Romney is vulnerable to being portrayed as a political opportunist because of the right-wing positions he adopted during the rugged primary campaign against conservatives such as Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. "I suspect that they are not going to be able to Etch A Sketch their way out of this campaign," Villaraigosa, a Democrat, said in a reference to a Romney aide's comment earlier this year about resetting the campaign message. "They're not going to be able to put away all the things they said in the primary and all the things they have in their platform right now." Last week, controversial comments by conservative Republican Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri ignited a political firestorm about rape and abortion as the Romney team sought to build momentum up to the convention. Akin, who won Missouri's Republican Senate primary to challenge Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in November, told an interviewer that women have an undefined biological response to what he called "legitimate rape" that oftentimes prevents pregnancy. Rove slams Akin Romney and a full spectrum of GOP politicians, from the RNC to tea party groups, condemned Akin's comments and called for him to drop out of a race considered crucial to Republican hopes of winning a Senate majority. Akin apologized and called his remarks incorrect, but he has refused to end his Senate bid. The imbroglio has given new life to McCaskill, considered the most vulnerable Democratic senator running, and caused chagrin within the Republican establishment. Republican strategist Karl Rove kept up the criticism of Akin on Monday, telling a breakfast in Tampa hosted by Politico that Akin is a good man with a good heart who "said a really stupid, indefensible thing from which there is no recovery, and if he really cares about the values of conservatism and pro-life, he will not go down for defeat as the biggest loss by a Republican candidate for Senate in modern history." Some conservatives, including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, have defended Akin's decision to stay in the Missouri race, but Rove was unmoved. "I talk to some conservatives who say, 'It's not fair. We have to stand with him,'" Rove said. "Well, it is unfair. I get that. But it was also incredibly wrong, and there was no recovery from it. It would be one thing if it was some minor misstatement. But this was pseudo-science and morally incomprehensible." A further concern is that Akin's comments focused attention on the volatile abortion issue in the run-up to the convention, when the Romney campaign wanted to talk about the candidate's prescriptions for high unemployment and slow economic growth under Obama. Instead, Romney and Ryan, the conservative House Budget Committee chairman, have been asked repeatedly about differences between their personal views on whether abortion should be banned in all cases or permitted only for pregnancies from rape, incest or that threaten the life of the mother. Romney's Mormon faith supports the narrow exceptions, while Ryan -- a devout Catholic -- supports a blanket ban. The campaign has made clear the ticket supports Romney's stance, which also contrasts with the party platform that convention delegates are scheduled to vote on this week. In an interview with Fox broadcast on Sunday, Romney again answered questions on the Akin comments, saying "it obviously is being used by Democrats to try and cast a shadow on our entire party, and it's not." At the same time, Romney noted that Democrats are "wise enough to understand" that Akin's comments can hurt Republicans. Meanwhile, a new Romney ad Sunday continued his campaign's aggressive stance on another potentially vulnerable issue: Medicare. Romney on faith, family and private life Like previous Romney spots, the new ad includes a claim that, "As president, Barack Obama cut $700 billion from Medicare to pay for Obamacare," the 2010 health care reform law despised by Republicans. The claim cites a report from the Congressional Budget Office that shows repeal of the president's health care law would mean an additional $716 billion in spending on Medicare. However, it ignored the same report's finding that the additional spending would come from rising costs and inefficiencies that the health care law would have addressed, rather than restoring money cut from Medicare. The Obama campaign has called the Romney claim on Medicare false, citing the CBO report, and repeatedly attacked the Medicare reform plan proposed by Ryan that would partially privatize the government-run health care program for senior citizens. Democrats claim the Republican proposal would "end Medicare as we know it," while Ryan says his plan is the kind of reform necessary to ensure Medicare's long-term solvency. According to the poll results released Sunday, likely voters are evenly divided between the candidates on the Medicare issue. CNN's social media guide to the conventions CNN's Kevin Bohn, Paul Steinhauser, Dana Davidsen, Ashley Killough, Dana Bash, Deirdre Walsh, Halimah Abdullah, Martina Stewart and Mark Preston contributed to this report.	– Republicans officially kicked off their convention today, but only officially. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus gaveled the convention to order before dozens of delegates in a mostly-empty hall today, the AP reports, but 10 minutes and a giant debt clock later he'd adjourned the proceedings thanks to Tropical Storm Isaac. Still, Republicans did their best to carry forward the day's agenda—namely bashing President Obama—in other ways, CNN reports. "What we would want to do is define what President Obama has done over the last four years, how and why he's failed," one strategist told reporters. Right now, Republicans still plan to go ahead with the remaining days of the convention, he said, weather permitting. But many Republicans are worried about the "optics" of celebrating Mitt Romney while the storm rages, Politico reports. Romney and Paul Ryan each said today that the focus should be on the storm's victims, first and foremost. Meanwhile, Donald Trump's hopes of dropping a "big surprise" on the convention are officially rained out, reports the Huffington Post.
The single greatest Witch Hunt in American history continues. There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes. Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take control! \|\|\|\|\| WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is lashing out at Sen. Dianne Feinstein for releasing the transcript of an interview with the co-founder of a political opposition firm that commissioned a dossier of allegations about Trump's presidential campaign and Russia. Trump calls the California Democrat "Sneaky Dianne Feinstein" on Twitter Wednesday. He says she released the testimony "totally without authorization." Adds Trump: "Must have tough Primary!" Feinstein on Tuesday released transcript from the Senate Judiciary Committee's August interview with Glenn Simpson, of Fusion GPS. Feinstein had the ability to release the transcripts as the top Democrat on the committee, and her staff helped conduct the interview with Simpson. Trump also repeated that the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election is a "Witch Hunt" and says "Republicans should finally take control!"	– President Trump lashed out at Sen. Dianne Feinstein for releasing the transcript of an interview with the co-founder of a political opposition firm that commissioned a dossier of allegations about Trump's presidential campaign and Russia. Trump called the California Democrat "Sneaky Dianne Feinstein" on Twitter Wednesday, the AP reports. He said she released the testimony "totally without authorization" and in "an underhanded and possibly illegal way." He then added: "Must have tough Primary!" Feinstein on Tuesday released the transcript from the Senate Judiciary Committee's August interview with Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS. Feinstein had the ability to release the transcripts as the top Democrat on the committee, and her staff helped conduct the interview with Simpson. Trump also noted in a separate tweet that the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election is the "single greatest Witch Hunt in American history" and says "Republicans should finally take control!"
Football fans, get ready to rock. While there’s no telling which two teams will face off when Super Bowl LIII hits Atlanta on February 3, a source tells Us that Maroon 5 have been tapped to grace the halftime stage. “The offer has been extended and they’ve pretty much accepted,” says the insider in the latest issue of Us Weekly. It’s a dream come true for Adam Levine and his six bandmates. As the Voice coach told Howard Stern in 2015, “We very actively want to play the Super Bowl.” Though at the time the 39-year-old frontman denied rumors that the group was in talks to play the big game that year, he also told Stern they had been on a “short list” of groups for a while. Currently on tour promoting their 2017 album, Red Pill Blues, the band has a break from shows in between a Las Vegas New Year’s Eve gig and the February 19 start of the Australian leg of their tour — leaving their schedules wide open for the February 3 game. Before embarking on the tour in May, Levine opened up to Ellen DeGeneres about bringing his wife, Behati Prinsloo, and daughters Dusty Rose, 23 months, and Gio Grace, 7 months, on the road with him for the first time. “We’ll probably have to have a family bus,” he told the talk show host. “Touring with the kids will be fun because it will be an amazing experience for them. They get to see the world.” At last year’s Super Bowl in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Justin Timberlake took the stage to deliver a medley of his hits and a tribute to the late singer Prince. For more on Maroon 5 and Super Bowl LIII, pick up the new issue of Us Weekly, on stands now. Reporting by Jennifer Peros Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox! Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now! \|\|\|\|\| Looks like it's not a "Secret" anymore! A source close to the situation says Maroon 5 is scheduled to perform Super Bowl LIII halftime on Feb 3rd in Atlanta, Georgia. A second source close to the NFL tells ET that Maroon 5 is the halftime performer for Super Bowl LIII. The band -- made up of frontman Adam Levine with Jesse Carmichael, James Valentine, PJ Morton, Matt Flynn, Sam Farrar and Mickey Madden -- is currently on their Red Pill BluesTour, but conveniently have a break between a New Year's Eve show in Las Vegas and the Australian leg of their tour, which kicks off on Feb. 19. Levine has previously expressed interest in performing the halftime show, telling Howard Stern in 2015 that he and his bandmates "very actively want to play the Super Bowl." A spokesperson for the NFL released a statement to ET regarding who is being considered to perform on Super Bowl Sunday. "It’s a Super Bowl tradition to speculate about the performers for the Pepsi Halftime Show," the statement begins. "We are continuing to work with Pepsi on our plans, but do not have any announcements to make on what will be another epic show." ET has reached out to the band's reps, as well as Pepsi, who sponsors the halftime show. Last year at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Justin Timberlake did the honors of performing at halftime during the Super Bowl LII game, which the Philadelphia Eagles won 41-33 over the New England Patriots. See highlights from his show, which included a tribute to Prince, below: RELATED CONTENT: Kelly Clarkson Fans Petition She Headline Super Bowl Halftime Show After Slaying US Open Performance Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen Have PDA-Packed Sunday One Week After Super Bowl Loss Justin Timberlake Nearly Brings Super Bowl 'Selfie Kid' to Tears During 'Ellen' Surprise Related Gallery \|\|\|\|\| Maroon 5 will be the halftime performers at the 2019 Super Bowl, multiple sources confirm to Variety. While the group is stylistically more similar to recent performers like Justin Timberlake and Bruno Mars than more controversial ones such as Beyonce and Lady Gaga, Maroon 5’s most recent hit was a tag-team with Cardi B — “Girls Like You” — and it recently collaborated with Kendrick Lamar on the song “Don’t Wanna Know,” so some left-field guest appearances on Super Bowl Sunday are certainly a possibility. One of the great challenges in choosing a halftime performer isn’t just its mainstream appeal, but in finding an artist who hasn’t already performed. Over the years, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, U2, The Who, Katy Perry and even the Black Eyed Peas have all performed, and of course the 2004 set from Janet Jackson (featuring Timberlake) was marred by controversy due to her “wardrobe malfunction.” Prince’s 2007 performance — which saw him playing a galvanizing version of “Purple Rain” in a rainstorm — is widely regarded as the all-time best halftime set. The NFL has faced an additional challenge this year due to its stance regarding former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision to take a knee during the National Anthem as a sign of protest, which has spurred outrage in some quarters, from the president on down. Kaepernick has not played since the 2016 season and his contract has not been picked up by another team, largely due to the controversy. Reports emerged last year that Jay-Z had turned down an offer to perform during halftime, which he seemingly confirmed in the lyrics to his recent song with Beyonce, “Apesh–“: “I said no to the Super Bowl: you need me, I don’t need you.” Reached for comment, a NFL rep tells Variety, “It’s a Super Bowl tradition to speculate about the performers for the Pepsi Halftime Show. We are continuing to work with [longtime sponsor] Pepsi on our plans but do not have any announcements to make on what will be another epic show.” A rep for Maroon 5 could not immediately be reached for comment.	– Two sources tell Variety the Super Bowl LIII halftime act has been chosen, and it's Maroon 5. Another source tells Us, "The offer has been extended and they’ve pretty much accepted," while ETOnline says the band is the "frontrunner" to perform. The band itself, fronted by The Voice coach Adam Levine, has not commented, but Levine has in the past made it clear he'd love to perform there. As for the NFL, it says in a statement, "It’s a Super Bowl tradition to speculate about the performers for the Pepsi Halftime Show. We are continuing to work with [longtime sponsor] Pepsi on our plans but do not have any announcements to make on what will be another epic show." The big game will be played at Atlanta, Georgia's Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Feb. 3, 2019.
SANTIAGO A 14-year old Chilean girl with cystic fibrosis has asked to be allowed to die in a film she made pleading with President Michelle Bachelet to authorize her euthanasia. In a video that news media said had been uploaded to her Facebook page on Sunday, Valentina Maureira said from her hospital bed: "I am asking to speak urgently to the president because I am tired of living with this sickness and she can authorize the injection to put me to sleep forever." Cystic fibrosis is a genetic condition that affects the lungs and other organs. Maureira's brother had died of the disease, her father, Freddy Maureira, told local Radio Bio Bio. "She has already had five operations ... which have caused her a lot of suffering and pain," he said. "It was promised that things would get better, but for her it was worse." The video had surprised him, he added. A spokeswoman from the Universidad Catolica clinic in Santiago confirmed that Valentina Maureira was a patient at the hospital and said she was stable, with no immediately life-threatening conditions. Government spokesman Alvaro Elizalde said on Thursday that the health ministry was in contact with the family to ensure Maureira was receiving the psychological and medical treatment she needed, but ruled out euthanasia as an option. "We have to be completely clear, the current norm, the current law in Chile does not allow the government to agree to a request of this nature," he said. In Chile, as in many countries, euthanasia is against the law. The Catholic Church retains a strong influence on society, and the country is one of a handful to ban abortion under any circumstances. Center-left Bachelet, who is a year into her second term, has introduced reforms, including a bill being debated in Congress that would relax the abortion law. These have angered conservatives. Bachelet's agenda has not mentioned euthanasia. (Reporting by Rosalba O'Brien and Fabian Cambero; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Howard Goller) \|\|\|\|\| Story highlights 14-year-old Valentina Maureira suffers from cystic fibrosis In a video, she asks the President to allow her to have an assisted suicide (CNN) A Chilean girl's plea via social media for an assisted suicide caught the attention of the person the teen thinks could make it happen: President Michelle Bachelet. Bachelet visited 14-year-old Valentina Maureira on Saturday after the girl's video went viral and spurred debate in Chile about euthanasia. Valentina was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was 6. Her older brother died from the same disease. Cystic fibrosis is a life-threatening disease that damages the lungs and digestive system. Valentina's family has already witnessed how the disease can be terminal. Valentina's suffering includes vomiting and headaches that are constant, according to her father, Freddy Maureira. Read More	– Valentina Maureira's brother died from cystic fibrosis when he was 6. The 14-year-old has the same inherited disease and was told she has a life expectancy of 17, reports CNN. Except Valentina doesn't want to live that long. The Chilean teen posted a now-viral video to Facebook late last month, a plea to President Michelle Bachelet that she be allowed to end her life. "I am tired of living with this sickness," which causes damage to the lungs and digestive system, Valentina explains. "Please authorize an injection so I can sleep forever." But a rep for Bachelet on Thursday explained "it's impossible to grant her wish" due to Chilean law, which bars euthanasia and doesn't allow a government official to circumvent that. Still, the president herself, who is also a pediatrician, did visit Valentina for more than an hour last week; the two posed for a selfie. The president's rep explained "we will provide all the emotional and psychological support and medical treatment to improve her living conditions." As for her medical condition, the Universidad Catolica clinic in Santiago describes it as stable and notes she is not facing, as Reuters puts it, any "immediately life-threatening conditions." But her father described a painful existence: "She has already had five operations ... which have caused her a lot of suffering. It was promised that things would get better, but for her it was worse." She suffers from persistent headaches and vomiting as well. In an interview with the AP, he says he "cried through the night" after learning what Valentina wanted, "but I have to respect her decision because she's the one who's suffering this illness." (One country has made euthanasia legal for kids.)
David Steele, 42, a veteran race car driver who won several sprint car series championships and competed in some IndyCar and NASCAR races, was killed in a wreck during a sprint car race Saturday night at Desoto Speedway, according to multiple sources. Steele, a multiple United States Auto Club national champion and two-time winner of the Little 500, was competing in the Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series race at the 3/8-mile asphalt track on State Road 64 East in east Bradenton. His death quickly brought stunned reactions across social media. “Tonight I am stunned to hear that Dave Steele has been killed in a sprint car,” wrote Andy Cobb, a professional dirt sprint car driver, on Facebook late Saturday. “Dave has been one of my closest racing friends for a long time. I can’t believe this.” Never miss a local story. Sign up today for unlimited digital access to our website, apps, the digital newspaper and more. SUBSCRIBE NOW On Twitter, Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman wrote: “Man, I love open wheel racing, but something has to change. RIP Dave Steele. One of the best pavement sprint car and midget guys ever.” Steele, a native of Indianapolis who resided in Tampa, made starts in the NASCAR XFINITY Series and the Verizon IndyCar Series in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but he returned to his short-track roots. His racing background included Silver Crown (USAC), sprint car and midget racing. Steele, who was the USAC Silver Crown champion in 2004, won more USAC races than Al Unser, had more sprint car victories on asphalt than Tony Stewart and more midget wins than Jeff Gordon, according to multiple websites affiliated with Steele. Tony Stewart Racing was one of the first to react on social media: “Our prayers go out to the family of Dave Steele, our former teammate, he was one of the best open-wheel drivers of this era.” Steele was no stranger to success at the Desoto Speedway track: He won four southern Sprint Car Series events at the track last year. On Saturday, he was seeking his 100th career sprint car victory just in the state of Florida. He was already a multiple-time winner this year, with victories at 4-17 Southern Speedway in Punta Gorda in February and at Showtime Speedway in Pinellas Park. The field, which was turning speeds of more than 100 mph during the qualifying heats and warmups according to a source in attendance, had just taken the green flag to start the 35-lap main event, which capped Saturday night’s race card, and was not yet up to race speed at the time of the incident. Steele, who was starting near the rear of the 16-car field, got a good jump at the start and tried to pass a vehicle in front of him on the outside heading into Turn 1. Steele’s car and the car he was passing got together and hooked wheels, sending Steele’s vehicle flipping airborne. The Southern Sprint Car Series vehicles are open-wheel winged cars with the driver enclosed in a steel roll cage. In the winged configuration, the cars have a small wing over the nose (two vertical panels separated by a flat horizontal panel spanning the width of the nose). A larger, similarly configured wing is over the driver’s compartment. Steele’s vehicle hit the outside retaining wall in Turn 1 and then spun perpendicular to the track before coming to rest. According to the source, his car was not hit by another vehicle after it struck the wall and the visible damage to the car was consistent with a vehicle hitting the outside wall flush on the left side. According to multiple sources, the race was immediately red flagged and track emergency personnel were at the vehicle in seconds. According to a source affiliated with the track who was not authorized to speak on the record, the track has multiple fully-trained medics, EMTs and firefighters at the track for each race card. That was the case Saturday night as well. Despite the rapid response, Steele was pronounced dead on the track. Track personnel, emergency personnel and local authorities called to the track after the incident were still on the track at the crash scene near midnight. Track personnel, race officials and other witnesses were waiting to be cleared to leave the facility. Early Sunday morning, Desoto Speedway released an official statement on its Facebook page: “Desoto Speedway owners and staff are saddened by tonight’s passing of David Steele in the Sprint car feature. Thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends who were all in attendance, to see him try to win his 100th florida(sic) race.” The source affiliated with the track said the track planned to have no other statement Saturday night or Sunday. The racing related fatality is the first at the speedway in many years. Driver Butch Lindley sustained fatal injuries in an accident in 1985 during a late model sportsman race. However, he lingered in a coma for five years, without regaining consciousness, before dying in 1990. Steele’s death is the first in the Southern Sprint Car Series, which is only in its second season. Steele was the defending series champion. Joey “The Ace” Aguilar narrowly escaped death in a fiery wreck in 2013 at the facility, then known as Full Throttle Speedway. The driver suffered burns all over his body, but was cleared to return to racing a little more than a month later. According to the source affiliated with the track, racing weather and track conditions were good at the time of the crash and there had been no incidents in the heats leading up to the main event involving Steele’s car or any other car. Steele, who would have turned 43 on May 7, is survived by his wife, Lynn Bunn Steele, and three young children. The Herald was unable to confirm whether Steele’s entire family was at the track Saturday. \|\|\|\|\| BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — Sprint car veteran David Steele has died during a race in Florida. Desoto Speedway officials said in a Facebook post on Saturday night that track owners and staff were saddened by the crash. The statement says Steele was trying to win his 100th race in Florida. A Manatee County Sheriff's Office report says Steele was driving a sprint car when his vehicle's left front wheel struck the right rear wheel of another car, causing Steele's vehicle to go up in the air, spin 180 degrees and hit the retaining wall. Medics attempted to treat him but he was pronounced dead. He was 42. NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne tweeted that Steele was "one of the best and such a good guy to hang out and have a beer with." ___ This story has been corrected to fix dateline to Bradenton, Fla., not Desoto, Fla.	– Sprint car veteran David Steele has died during a race in Florida, reports the AP, after he locked wheels with another car, went airborne, spun 180 degrees, and hit a retaining wall. Medics attempted to treat him but he was pronounced dead. He was 42. "Desoto Speedway owners and staff are saddened by tonight’s passing of David Steele in the Sprint car feature," per a track statement. "Thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends who were all in attendance," as he tried for his 100th win in Florida, reports the Bradenton Herald. NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne tweeted that Steele was "one of the best and such a good guy to hang out and have a beer with," while Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman wrote: "Man, I love open wheel racing, but something has to change."
CHICAGO (CBS) — It seemed like a typical corner store, but police sources say clerks were selling something sinister inside. The store in Lawndale was shut down after a Chicago Police investigation found clerks selling potentially deadly synthetic cannabis. It’s not known whether the store is linked to any recent illnesses in the Chicago area, from the product. “We want to alert people to the dangers of using synthetic cannabinoids,” Jennifer Layden, the chief medical officer of the Illinois Department of Public Health, told CBS 2’s Suzanne LeMignot. Since March 10, Layden says, there have been 17 cases of severe bleeding in people using synthetic cannabinoids. “With this particular cluster, what we are seeing is people are coming in with various types of bleeding,” Layden said. “Whether it’s nose bleeds, bleeding from their gums, bleeding in their urine. Very severe bleeding that’s prompting them to go to the emergency room.” “People have reported purchasing it from various convenience stores, dealers or acquiring it from friends. The vast majority have reported acquiring the product in the Chicagoland area.” Layden says the synthetic cannabinoids are made up of hundreds of various chemicals and can impact brain function, create hallucinations, delusions and even violent behavior. Layden says they’re investigating right now, to identify a common product, that could link all the cases. Layden says the synthetic cannabinoids are made up of hundreds of various chemicals and can impact your brain function, create hallucinations, delusions and even violent behavior. Layden says they’re investigating right now, to identify a common product, that could link all the cases. \|\|\|\|\| State and local health officials have issued a warning about a synthetic pot in Illinois that has caused users to experience severe bleeding. On Friday, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported that 32 people in the past few weeks visited emergency rooms with severe bleeding after using a synthetic cannabinoid product. That’s up from the 22 cases the state reported just the day before. The department also released a geographic breakdown, reporting eight cases in Chicago, four in suburban Cook County and one each in Will, DuPage, Kane and McLean counties. The hot spot seems to be the Peoria area, with Tazewell County reporting 10 cases and neighboring Peoria County six. Most of those affected were in the Chicago area, but health officials warned the contaminated products also could be present elsewhere across the state, said department spokeswoman Melaney Arnold. The health department said Thursday that symptoms have included bleeding from the eyes and ears. On Friday, officials clarified that while this can happen, those affected in Illinois have reported other symptoms, like coughing up blood, blood in urine, bloody noses, bleeding gums and, for women, heavier than usual menstrual flow. Though synthetic pot has long been considered dangerous, severe bleeding is not a known side effect, said Dr. Melissa Millewich, an emergency room physician at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove. “This bleeding is not expected, at least in such a significant population so quickly,” she said. Despite a statewide ban, Arnold said manufacturers could be slightly tweaking the molecular makeup of the products as a way to “get around” the law, allowing for them to be sold legally. They are also sold on the street, she said, and those experiencing the bleeding said they obtained the products in convenience stores and from dealers and friends. Health officials reported 32 people who experienced the symptom since March 7, and they continue to track the situation, Arnold said. So far, there are no deaths reported. A change in the latest formula could be behind the new, dangerous symptom, Millewich said. Because health officials don’t know the exact makeup of the products, it’s unclear what’s causing the bleeding, she added. While there have been no such cases at Good Samaritan’s ER, Millewich said, synthetic pot, often called “fake weed,” “K2” or “spice,” has previously displayed life-threatening symptoms like kidney failure, along with psychosis. “People don’t realize how dangerous this is,” she said. The man-made substance is a mixture of hundreds of chemicals, often called cannabinoids because they affect the same brain cell receptors as the main ingredient in marijuana. Cannabinoids are sometimes sprayed on plant material for smoking, or are sold as liquids to be vaporized and inhaled in e-cigarettes and other devices, the health department’s warning said. The products are also sometimes referred to as herbal or liquid incense. Recent patient reports of severe bleeding led health officials to warn the public not to use any synthetic cannabinoid products. While those affected by the outbreak admitted using cannabinoids, it’s been difficult to determine their exact source for the substance, Arnold said. Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the public health department, says there’s an erroneous perception that synthetic cannabinoids are a safe and legal alternative to marijuana. Shah says they're unsafe because it's difficult to know what chemicals they contain or what an individual's reaction will be. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found there’s also an association between teens who use synthetic pot and a heightened risk for violent behavior, risky sex and abuse of other drugs. Anyone who uses these drugs and experiences unexplained bleeding or bruising is advised to call 911 or have someone take them to an emergency room. Associated Press contributed. kthayer@chicagotribune.com Twitter @knthayer	– Synthetic pot is causing a bloody mess in the Chicago area. "What we are seeing is people are coming in with various types of bleeding,” CBS Chicago quotes the chief medical officer of the Illinois Department of Public Health as saying. “Whether it’s nose bleeds, bleeding from their gums, bleeding in their urine. Very severe bleeding that’s prompting them to go to the emergency room.” Officials have reported 22 people taken to the ER with severe bleeding connected to synthetic cannabinoid products since March 7, the Chicago Tribune reports. In addition to the above symptoms, fake weed users are bleeding from their eyes and ears, as well as coughing up blood. Officials say there have so far been no deaths connected with the synthetic pot. While synthetic pot can present a host of health risks, severe bleeding is not a known side effect. “This bleeding is not expected, at least in such a significant population so quickly,” says one area ER physician. The director of toxicology for the NorthShore University HealthSystem tells NBC Chicago the tainted synthetic pot—which is typically made of hundreds of chemicals—could contain some sort of blood thinner or anticoagulant. Patients have reported getting synthetic pot from dealers, friends, and convenience stores, and officials are trying to identify a single product linking the cases. Officials seized some synthetic pot—also known as K2 and spice—from a Chicago mini-mart, but no arrests have been made. Officials warn that while most of the bleeding has been in the Chicago area, the tainted synthetic pot may have spread throughout the state.
Article Excerpt The Obama administration said Tuesday it would delay enforcing a provision of the new health-care law that requires large employers to provide coverage for workers or pay a penalty in 2014, the biggest revision so far to the federal health-care overhaul. The law, passed in 2010, requires companies with the equivalent of 50 or more full-time workers to offer health benefits starting on Jan. 1—or pay a penalty of at least $2,000 per employee. The delay, announced by the Treasury Department in a blog post Tuesday, means that penalty won't kick in until 2015. The decision reflects pressure from companies ... \|\|\|\|\| The ObamaCare employer mandate requiring businesses to provide their workers with health insurance will be delayed by a year, the administration said Tuesday in a stunning announcement. [WATCH VIDEO] Delaying the requirement until 2015 is an enormous victory for businesses that had lobbied against the healthcare law. ADVERTISEMENT It also means one of healthcare reform’s central requirements will be implemented after the 2014 midterm elections, when the GOP is likely to use the Affordable Care Act as a vehicle to attack vulnerable Democrats. White House officials cast the delay as a decision necessary to give employers more time to comply with the rules, while Republicans said it showed President Obama's signature legislative achievement was fatally flawed. Former Obama adviser David Axelrod on Wednesday insisted history would look kindly on the law. President Obama’s “view is that we ought to plow forward, make sure this can work, and we're going to look back at it, and it's going to be our proudest accomplishment," Axelrod said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." In a White House blog post, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett wrote Tuesday that the delay would give employers more time to adjust to the system. “This allows employers the time to test the new reporting systems and make any necessary adaptations to their health benefits while staying the course toward making health coverage more affordable and accessible for their workers,” Jarrett wrote. Jarrett also wrote that the delay would help in “cutting red tape and simplifying the reporting process.” “We have heard the concern that the reporting called for under the law about each worker’s access to and enrollment in health insurance requires new data collection systems and coordination,” Jarrett said. “So we plan to re-vamp and simplify the reporting process.” The Treasury Department’s announcement does not affect the individual mandate, which requires most taxpayers to either purchase insurance or pay a penalty, and administration officials said on Tuesday that other aspects of the law wouldn’t be delayed. The law’s critics have framed that as a double standard, accusing the administration of acknowledging the law’s complexity for businesses without offering a similar break to the individual workers who still have to buy insurance. The employer mandate affected businesses with more than 50 workers. “That the Obama administration is putting off this job-killing requirement on employers, but not individuals and families, shows how deeply flawed the president’s signature domestic policy achievement is,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. “While a delay of this mandate is welcome news since it shows the challenges the employers are facing complying with it, a delay — conveniently past the 2014 election — only adds to the uncertainty these job creators face because of ObamaCare,” Hatch said. Other Republicans seized on the news, arguing that the delays suggested the law was a “train wreck” and that Democratic candidates in 2014 would have difficulty explaining the delay. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) renewed their calls for repealing the law in full. “This further confirms that even the proponents of ObamaCare know it will hurt jobs, decrease economic growth and make it harder for families to have access to quality and affordable health care,” Cantor said in statement. “Rather than continuing to delay the predictable pain until another Election Day has passed, we should scrap this entire law and instead implement patient-centered reforms before any more damage is done,” he said. While GOP leaders were quick to react, hammering the delay as evidence that the law is unworkable, Democratic leaders were quieter Tuesday evening. One exception was Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), who tweeted that the decision shows Obama is “in it for long haul to fully implement” the healthcare law. Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the administration was showing "a willingness to be flexible.” "It is better to do this right than fast,” said Jentleson in a statement. Some Democrats had openly fretted about the law’s implementation. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), one of the primary architects of the healthcare law, warned in April that small businesses were struggling to come to grips with their new responsibilities. “Small businesses have no idea what to do, what to expect,” Baucus told Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at a hearing. “I just see a huge train wreck coming down,” Baucus said. The Chamber of Commerce praised the delay. “The administration has finally recognized the obvious: Employers need more time and clarification of the rules of the road before implementing the employer mandate,” said Randy Johnson, the Chamber’s senior vice president for labor, immigration and employee benefits. “The Chamber has testified numerous times about the problems with the mandate, and we applaud the administration’s step to delay this provision. We will continue to work to alleviate this and other problems with ObamaCare.” Many employers had threatened to cut employees’ hours to avoid the new requirements. Employers had also complained about the mandate’s reporting provision. Rules on the requirement came out this year, leaving little time for businesses to respond and prepare. “I hope that this means that employers who have been cutting employees to part-time will now call them back to full-time employment, but regret that the administration is delaying the implementation of an important provision of the ACA,” said Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University and a strong supporter of the healthcare law. The change will likely mean that more people buy individual coverage through the law’s new insurance exchanges, which are expected to be open for enrollment by Oct. 1. If fewer employees have access to coverage through work, at least some are likely to turn to the exchanges for coverage and the tax credit that helps cover the cost. Hatch said he hoped that was not the administration’s goal, stating it could be a “backdoor attempt at getting more Americans into the exchanges, which have been plagued by problems.” More people on the exchanges would also mean greater federal spending on the tax subsidies, increasing the law’s total cost. Sabrina Corlette, a health policy expert at Georgetown University, said the move could be a boon to consumers because plans on the exchanges will be stronger than those offered by many employers. She worried, however, that the employer mandate could be deferred again down the line. “Anyone that’s been around politics long enough knows to be a little bit concerned,” Corlette said. “If a one-year delay is OK, how about a two-year delay? How about a three-year delay?” The political effects of the delay could be more severe than the effect on the law’s expansion of healthcare coverage. One vulnerable Democrat, Sen. Mark Begich (Alaska), hailed the decision. “I’m pleased the administration is listening to me and the many businesses that are concerned about the complexity of the new requirements,” said Begich, who is facing reelection in 2014. In its most recent estimates before the delay was announced, the Congressional Budget Office said the number of people with employer-based coverage was not expected to change next year. The penalty for employers that failed to offer coverage was also not expected to bring in any money next year, according to the CBO’s latest estimates. The delay gives employers a free year to dump their workers into the law’s insurance exchanges, former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin said. “Essentially for calendar 2014, the act of dropping coverage and dumping employees into the exchanges is on sale,” he said. “Drop and dump, but no penalty.” —This story was posted at 5:37 on July 2 and was last updated at 10:08 a.m. on July 3. \|\|\|\|\| WASHINGTON — In a significant setback for President Obama’s signature domestic initiative, the administration on Tuesday abruptly announced a one-year delay, until 2015, in his health care law’s mandate that larger employers provide coverage for their workers or pay penalties. The decision postpones the effective date beyond next year’s midterm elections. Employer groups welcomed the news of the concession, which followed complaints from businesses and was posted late in the day on the White House and Treasury Web sites while the president was flying home from Africa. Republicans’ gleeful reactions made clear that they would not cease to make repeal of Obamacare a campaign issue for the third straight election cycle. While the postponement technically does not affect other central provisions of the law — in particular those establishing health insurance marketplaces in the states, known as exchanges, where uninsured Americans can shop for policies — it threatens to throw into disarray the administration’s effort to put those provisions into effect by Jan. 1. “I am utterly astounded,” said Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of health law and policy at George Washington University and an advocate of the law. “It boggles the mind. This step could significantly reduce the number of uninsured people who will gain coverage in 2014.” At the White House, Tara McGuinness, a senior adviser on the law, disputed that. “Nothing in the new guidance regarding employer reporting and responsibility will limit individuals’ eligibility for premium tax credits to buy insurance through the marketplaces that open on Oct. 1,” she said. Under the law, most Americans will be required to have insurance in January 2014, or they will be subject to tax penalties. The announcement on Tuesday did not say anything about delaying that requirement or those penalties. Administration officials sought to put the action in a positive light in the online announcements, and they emphasized that the existing insurance coverage of most Americans would not be affected. “We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively,” Mark J. Mazur, an assistant Treasury secretary, wrote on the department’s Web site. “We recognize that the vast majority of businesses that will need to do this reporting already provide health insurance to their workers, and we want to make sure it is easy for others to do so.” The 2010 Affordable Care Act required employers with more than 50 full-time workers to offer them affordable health insurance starting next year or face fines. Some companies with payrolls just above that threshold said they would cut jobs or switch some full-time workers to part-time employment so that they could avoid providing coverage. Under the provision to set up state-based marketplaces, subsidies are supposed to be available to many lower- and middle-income people who do not have access to coverage from employers or other sources. It may be difficult, however, for officials running the exchanges to know who is entitled to subsidies if employers do not report information on the coverage they provide to workers. Enrollment in the exchanges is to begin Oct. 1, with insurance coverage taking effect on Jan. 1. “We are on target to open the health insurance marketplace on Oct. 1 where small businesses and ordinary Americans will be able to go to one place to learn about their coverage options and make side-by-side comparisons of each plan’s price and benefits before they make their decision,” Valerie Jarrett, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser and liaison to the business community, wrote on the White House Web site. But even some supporters of the law dispute that the establishment of the health insurance exchanges is on schedule, especially since progress varies by state and some Republican-led states are resisting the health care law and withholding resources for putting it into effect. Much of the administration’s public effort, especially at the Department of Health and Human Services, has been directed toward spreading the word to uninsured Americans, especially younger and healthy individuals whose participation is needed to help keep down premiums for everyone else. About 85 percent of Americans are insured, so most individuals will be unaffected, at least initially. Behind the scenes, however, the administration has been fielding questions and criticisms from businesses about the reporting requirements — especially the Treasury Department, which has responsibility, given its oversight of the tax reporting system. Employer groups were quick to applaud the delay. At the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has strongly opposed the law, Randy Johnson, senior vice president for labor, immigration and employee benefits, said in a statement, “The administration has finally recognized the obvious — employers need more time and clarification of the rules of the road before implementing the employer mandate.” E. Neil Trautwein, a vice president of the National Retail Federation, said the delay “will provide employers and businesses more time to update their health care coverage without threat of arbitrary punishment.” Mr. Mazur, the Treasury official, said the delay “will allow us to consider ways to simplify the new reporting requirements consistent with the law.” “Second,” he added, “it will provide time to adapt health coverage and reporting systems while employers are moving toward making health coverage affordable and accessible for their employees.” Within the next week, Mr. Mazur said, Treasury will issue official guidance to insurers, self-insuring employers and other parties that provide health coverage. Formal rules will be proposed this summer, he added, but the administration will encourage employers to comply with the law’s reporting provisions in 2014, as originally mandated. Democrats were all but silent on the news, but a spokesman for Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, released a statement late Tuesday. “Both the administration and Senate Democrats have shown — and continue to show — a willingness to be flexible and work with all interested parties to make sure that implementation of the Affordable Care Act is as beneficial as possible to all involved,” the spokesman, Adam Jentleson, said. “It is better to do this right than fast.” But Republicans immediately reacted with statements claiming vindication for their efforts to repeal the law altogether. Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, called the administration action “a cynical political ploy to delay the coming train wreck associated with Obamacare until after the 2014 elections.” And Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, who faces re-election next year in Kentucky, said in a statement, “The fact remains that Obamacare needs to be repealed and replaced with common-sense reforms that actually lower costs for Americans.”	– ObamaCare is still going into effect in 2014, but one key component of it is being temporarily shelved. The White House today postponed by one year a rule requiring employers to either provide coverage to employees or face hefty fines, reports the Wall Street Journal. The rule will take effect in 2015, instead of 2014. "We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively," writes Treasury official Mark Mazur in a blog post. The Journal explains that while most employers already provide such coverage, restaurants and retail companies in particular—both of which rely on low-wage workers—were resisting. The rule affects businesses with more than 50 workers. The Hill calls the decision "stunning" and says it "represents an enormous victory for businesses that had lobbied against the healthcare law." It also notes that the move pushes back the start of the controversial provision until after the 2014 midterms, which should be good news for vulnerable Democrats. The New York Times reports that other key parts of ObamaCare, including the establishment of "exchanges" where people can buy insurance, will take effect as planned in 2014. But "it will be difficult for officials running the exchanges to know who is entitled to subsidies if they are not able to confirm whether employers are offering insurance to their employees," writes Jackie Calmes.
This undated image made available by the Oregon Health & Science University in May 2013 shows a stem cell colony developed from cloned human embryos. Scientists have finally recovered stem cells from... (Associated Press) Scientists have finally recovered stem cells from cloned human embryos, a longstanding goal that could lead to new treatments for such illnesses as Parkinson's disease and diabetes. A prominent expert called the work a landmark, but noted that a different, simpler technique now under development may prove more useful. Stem cells can turn into any cell of the body, so scientists are interested in using them to create tissue for treating disease. Transplanting brain tissue might treat Parkinson's disorder, for example, and pancreatic tissue might be used for diabetes. But transplants run the risk of rejection, so more than a decade ago, researchers proposed a way around that: Create tissue from stem cells that bear the patient's own DNA, obtained with a process called therapeutic cloning. If DNA from a patient is put into a human egg, which is then grown into an early embryo, the stem cells from that embryo would provide a virtual genetic match. So in theory, tissues created from them would not be rejected by the patient. That idea was met with some ethical objections because harvesting the stem cells involved destroying human embryos. Scientists have tried to get stem cells from cloned human embryos for about a decade, but they've failed. Generally, that's because the embryos stopped developing before producing the cells. In 2004, a South Korean scientist claimed to have gotten stem cells from cloned human embryos, but that turned out to be a fraud. In Wednesday's edition of the journal Cell, however, scientists in Oregon report harvesting stem cells from six embryos created from donated eggs. Two embryos had been given DNA from skin cells of a child with a genetic disorder, and the others had DNA from fetal skin cells. Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon Health & Science University, who led the research, said the success came not from a single technical innovation, but from revising a series of steps in the process. He noted it had taken six years to reach the goal after doing it with monkey embryos. Mitalipov also said that based on monkey work, he believes human embryos made with the technique could not develop into cloned babies, and he has no interest in trying to do that. Scientists have cloned more than a dozen kinds of mammals, starting with Dolly the sheep. The new work was financed by the university and the Leducq Foundation in Paris. Dr. George Daley, a stem cell expert at Children's Hospital Boston who didn't participate in the work, called the new results "one landmark step in a very long journey" toward creating DNA-matched transplant tissue. Now, Daley said, scientists must compare the embryo-cloning approach with another technology that reprograms blood or skin cells directly into substitutes for embryonic stem cells. This reprogramming approach is technically simpler and doesn't involve embryos or require the donation of human eggs, and it was widely acclaimed when it was reported in 2007. Its Japanese developer shared a Nobel Prize last year. But these substitute cells show some molecular differences compared to embryonic ones, which has led to questions about whether they can safely be used for treating patients. So it's essential to compare the cells from the two methods, Daley said. The new results mean "we have another tool," he said. "We have to learn more about this tool." Daley said he believed scientists will prefer using the reprogramming approach unless it can be proven "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that embryo cloning produces better cells for treating patients. Mitalipov said he believed his technique would present a particular advantage for treating patients with a certain type of rare diseases. These are caused by mutations in genes of the mitochondria, the power plants of cells. He noted his technique, unlike the cell-reprogramming approach, would supply tissue with new mitochondrial genes that could replace defective ones. Those new genes would come from the egg. The Rev. Tad Pacholczyk, director of education for National Catholic Bioethics Center, an independent think tank in Philadelphia, reiterated his opposition to embryo cloning, calling the approach unethical. "It involves the decision to utilize early human beings as repositories for obtaining desired cells," he said. "You're creating them only to destroy them." Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society in Berkeley, California, said she was glad that Mitalipov doubted the embryos could be used to clone babies. She said the report still provides a good opportunity for the federal government to ban the use of cloning for reproduction. \|\|\|\|\| OHSU Photos It was hailed some 15 years ago as the great hope for a biomedical revolution: the use of cloning techniques to create perfectly matched tissues that would someday cure ailments ranging from diabetes to Parkinson’s disease. Since then, the approach has been enveloped in ethical debate, tainted by fraud and, in recent years, overshadowed by a competing technology. Most groups gave up long ago on the finicky core method — production of patient-specific embryonic stem cells (ESCs) from cloning. A quieter debate followed: do we still need ‘therapeutic’ cloning? A paper published this week1 by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a reproductive biology specialist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Beaverton, and his colleagues is sure to rekindle that debate. Mitalipov and his team have finally created patient-specific ESCs through cloning, and they are keen to prove that the technology is worth pursuing. Therapeutic cloning, or somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), begins with the same process used to create Dolly, the famous cloned sheep, in 1996. A donor cell from a body tissue such as skin is fused with an unfertilized egg from which the nucleus has been removed. The egg ‘reprograms’ the DNA in the donor cell to an embryonic state and divides until it has reached the early, blastocyst stage. The cells are then harvested and cultured to create a stable cell line that is genetically matched to the donor and that can become almost any cell type in the human body. Many scientists have tried to create human SCNT cell lines; none had succeeded until now. Most infamously, Woo Suk Hwang of Seoul National University in South Korea used hundreds of human eggs to report two successes, in 2004 and 2005. Both turned out to be fabricated. Other researchers made some headway. Mitalipov created SCNT lines in monkeys2 in 2007. And Dieter Egli, a regenerative medicine specialist at the New York Stem Cell Foundation, successfully produced human SCNT lines3, but only when the egg’s nucleus was left in the cell. As a result, the cells had abnormal numbers of chromosomes, limiting their use. Monkeying around Mitalipov and his group began work on their new study last September, using eggs from young donors recruited through a university advertising campaign. In December, after some false starts, cells from four cloned embryos that Mitalipov had engineered began to grow. “It looks like colonies, it looks like colonies,” he kept thinking. Masahito Tachibana, a fertility specialist from Sendai, Japan, who is finishing a 5-year stint in Mitalipov’s laboratory, nervously sectioned the 1-millimetre-wide clumps of cells and transferred them to new culture plates, where they continued to grow — evidence of success. Mitalipov cancelled his holiday plans. “I was happy to spend Christmas culturing cells,” he says. “My family understood.” The success came through minor technical tweaks. The researchers used inactivated Sendai virus (known to induce fusion of cells) to unite the egg and body cells, and an electric jolt to activate embryo development. When their first attempts produced six blastocysts but no stable cell lines, they added caffeine, which protects the egg from premature activation. None of these techniques is new, but the researchers tested them in various combinations in more than 1,000 monkey eggs before moving on to human cells. “They made the right improvements to the protocol,” says Egli. “It’s big news. It’s convincing. I believe it.” The experiments took only a few months, Mitalipov says. “People say, you did it in monkeys in 2007. Why did it take six years in humans?” Most of the time, he says, was spent navigating US regulations on embryo research. The researchers carried out a battery of tests to prove that their SCNT cells could form various cell types, including heart cells that are able to contract spontaneously. Their first cell lines were created using fetal skin cells; others were derived using donor cells from an 8-month-old patient with a rare metabolic disorder called Leigh syndrome, to prove that ESCs could be made from more mature donor cells. The technique does not require prohibitive numbers of eggs: it took 15 from one donor to produce one cell line and 5 from a different donor to make another. “The efficiency was the most impressive thing,” says George Daley, a stem-cell expert at Children’s Hospital Boston in Massachusetts. Such improvements might be necessary to convince people that SCNT research is still worthwhile. Egg donors for the experiment received US$3,000–7,000 in compensation. This is expensive and, according to some bioethicists, risks creating an organ trade that preys on the poor. Because the technique requires the destruction of embryos, funds from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) cannot be used to make or study SCNT-derived cell lines, hampering further clinical research. (Mitalipov maintains a separate laboratory for NIH-funded research.) Public fears that the technology might be used to create human clones are another sticking point. The research might spark “cloning hysteria” that opponents of stem-cell research could capitalize on, says Bernard Siegel, executive director of the Genetics Policy Institute in Palm Beach, Florida. But Mitalipov has tried without success for more than a decade to produce a monkey by cloning. Tachibana says that an upcoming publication will explain why reproductive cloning of humans is not possible using their SCNT technique. Still, Daley and most other stem-cell researchers have shifted to another method for creating genetically matched, patient-specific cell lines: reprogramming adult cells to an embryonic state to produce induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. First reported in 2006, the technique does not involve eggs, cloning or destruction of embryos4. “Honestly, the most surprising thing [about this paper] is that somebody is still doing human [SCNT] in the era of iPS cells,” says Miodrag Stojkovic, who studies iPS cells for regenerative medicine and runs a fertility clinic in Leskovac, Serbia. But Stojkovic, like others, awaits the results of head-to-head comparisons between iPS and SCNT cells. Some research has shown that iPS cells are not completely reprogrammed and that stem cells derived from SCNT are more like embryonic stem cells derived from in vitro fertilization. Mitalipov and Tachibana are now conducting a study to compare iPS cells and SCNT cells derived from the same donor cell. “These results,” says Daley, “will be fascinating.”	– Scientists have made a long-sought—and controversial—breakthrough: They created stem cells from cloned human embryos for the first time, reports AP. In theory, the development by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University means that doctors might someday be able to grow tissue from an ailing patient's own DNA, thus reducing the chance of rejection in a transplant. Commonly cited examples are growing brain tissue to help a patient with Parkinson's disease, or pancreatic tissue to help diabetics. It's "one landmark step in a very long journey," says an expert at Children's Hospital Boston who wasn't involved with the work. The Oregon scientists say they don't think the embryos used in their process could develop into babies, reports NBC News, but the procedure is nonetheless controversial because it requires that the embryos be destroyed. Nature notes that competing technology in the last decade has made the push toward embryonic stem cells less intensive, but adds that the new paper in Cell is sure to reignite the debate. The scientists used eggs from donors, and it took six years to replicate the success they had with monkey embryos. They chalked it up to a series of small revisions over the years instead of a single aha! moment.
Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) Thursday said he was glad that one of his Democratic opponents, consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren, didn't "take her clothes off" to pay for college. Brown, who won his seat in a 2009 special election, was speaking on Boston radio station WZLX. Brown made his comments when asked about Warren's response in a debate Tuesday to a question about how she paid for college. The question referenced the fact that Brown posed nude for Cosmopolitan in 1982 to make money. "I kept my clothes on," Warren said, adding that she borrowed money to go to a public university and worked a part-time job. "Have you officially responded to Elizabeth Warren’s comment about how she didn’t take her clothes off?" the host asked Brown Wednesday. "Thank God!" Brown said, laughing. The host got a kick out it, too. "That’s what I said! I said, 'Look, can you blame a good-looking guy for wanting to, you know…” "You know what, listen: Bottom line is, you know, I didn’t go to Harvard, you know, I went to the school of hard knocks, and I did whatever I had to do to pay for school," Brown cut in. "And for people who know me, and know what I’ve been through … mom and dad married and divorced four times each. You know, some real challenges growing up. You know, whatever. You know, let them throw stones. I did what I had to do. But [if] not for having that opportunity, I never would have been able to pay for school, and never would have gone to school, and I wouldn’t probably be talking to you, so, whatever." Warren did not go to Harvard either, as Brown seemed to imply. She graduated from the University of Houston, a public school, though she spent her first two years at the private George Washington University on a debate scholarship. She later attended law school at Rutgers, a public university in New Jersey. Brown graduated from Tufts University and Boston College Law School. Brown reminded the host that they shared equally in the blame for the Warren crack. "That’s funny, you throw that jab," the host said, before Brown interjected: "You said it, too!" It was fair game, the host pointed out. "Well, they said it about you! And not being in shape. You know, 'if you’re going to take your clothes off, next time, be in shape.' That’s what they said about you!" Brown said he'd be happy to compete "anytime they want to have a little road race, or a triathlon, or anything." Warren, a Harvard law school professor, was instrumental in establishing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. President Obama did not nominate her to serve as the permanent head of it, fearing a contentious Senate confirmation battle; he instead nominated former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, who cleared his first hurdle in a Senate subcommittee Thursday. READ MORE about Elizabeth Warren: PHOTO GALLERY BEFORE YOU GO Elizabeth Warren PHOTO GALLERY Elizabeth Warren Scott Brown: 'Thank God' Elizabeth Warren Didn't 'Take Her Clothes Off' Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Warren 1 / 9 Introduces Financial Product Safety Commission Elizabeth Warren <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/10/financial-product-safety_n_173691.html" target="_hplink">announced</a> a bill creating a Financial Product Safety Commission with House and Senate Democrats in March 2009. The body was designed to have oversight over mortgages and other financial instruments to protect consumers against predatory practices. She said if the agency had existed before the subprime collapse then "there would have been millions of families who got tangled in predatory mortgages who never would have gotten them." HuffPost's Ryan Grim <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/10/financial-product-safety_n_173691.html" target="_hplink">reported</a>: Without all these toxic assets on banks' balance sheets, the institutions wouldn't be on the brink of collapse and the recession would be more manageable. "Consumer financial products were the front end of the destabilization of the American economic system." Sen. Charles Schumer's cosponsorship of the bill is notable because of his proximity to Wall Street. The bill's merit, the New York Democrat said, is that it regulates the actual financial product rather than the company producing it. AP WATCH Scott Brown's legendary flu game performance on the Senate floor: \|\|\|\|\| Sen. Brown: 'Thank God' Elizabeth Warren kept her clothes on By Josh Lederman - Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and leading Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren scrapped Thursday over a nude photo shoot Brown participated in decades ago, with Brown thanking God that Warren never took any such photos. During a debate Tuesday for Democratic Senate candidates in Massachusetts, Warren took a shot at Brown, who posed for Cosmopolitan in the 1980s to help pay for college, saying she had chosen to keep her clothes on and borrow money to fund her education instead. "Thank God," Brown said on Boston-based radio station WZLX The host laughed and agreed. "I didn't go to Harvard. I went to the school of hard knocks," Brown elaborated. "I did what I had to do, and but not for having that opportunity, I never would have been able to pay for school, and never would have gone to school, and I wouldn't probably be talking to you, so whatever." Warren did not study at Harvard, but is a member of the faculty at Harvard Law School — a position Brown has argued makes her part of an out-of-touch class of intellectuals. Warren's campaign declined to comment on Brown's remark, but the state Democratic Party called it gutter campaigning and a dirty trick. "Sen. Brown's comments are the kind of thing you would expect to hear in a frat house, not a race for U.S. Senate," said Massachusetts Democratic Party Executive Director Clare Kelly, who added that Brown's comments "send a terrible message that even accomplished women who are held in the highest esteem can be laughingly dismissed based on their looks." Warren is at the head of a pack of Democratic candidates vying to take on Brown, who won a special election in 2010 and will face reelection to his first regular term in 2012. Despite being a Republican in a heavily Democratic state, Brown has remained popular in Massachusetts — but his recent comment is unlikely to help him with women voters.	– Aren't Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren supposed to be debating the social contract and other lofty things? Their Senate race just took a low detour: Warren made a point during a debate Tuesday to take a jab at Brown's old Cosmo cover, saying that when she was a college student, she took out loans to pay the bills and kept her clothes on. "Thank God," Brown told a local radio station in response, reports the Hill. He and the host then laughed. "I went to the school of hard knocks," Brown said. "I did what I had to do, and but not for having that opportunity, I never would have been able to pay for school, and never would have gone to school, and I wouldn't probably be talking to you, so whatever." The Warren camp did not respond today to his retort. Click for more details on Brown's back and forth with the host on WZLX.
The Supreme Court won't get involved in a death penalty case in which a convicted killer in Illinois complained that prosecutors focused the jury's attention on the fact that he never testified on his own behalf. The court did not comment on its action Monday to leave in place the conviction and sentence of Ronald Mikos, a foot doctor who was facing allegations of Medicare fraud. He was sentenced to death in 2005 on charges that he shot a disabled nurse and former patient, Joyce Brannon, to keep her from testifying against him. He did not testify in his own defense during his trial. His lawyers said prosecutors told the jury his decision not to testify showed a lack of remorse for what he did. During the penalty phase, the jury said his lack of remorse contributed to the decision to sentence him to death. Mikos's lawyer said his silence did not show a lack of remorse and objected to the prosecution's tactic of using it against him. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago upheld the sentence. The case is Mikos v. United States, 08-1280. \|\|\|\|\| Federal prosecutors announced Friday they will seek the death penalty for a former University of Illinois graduate student accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing a visiting scholar from China in June. In making the announcement, prosecutors alleged for the first time that Brendt Christensen “choked and sexually assaulted” another victim in 2013 in central Illinois. He also has claimed “additional victims” and expressed a “desire to be known as a killer,” according to prosecutors. Christensen, 28, who is being held without bond, had tentatively been set to go to trial Feb. 27 in federal court in Urbana on a charge of kidnapping resulting in a death stemming from the disappearance of 26-year-old Yingying Zhang, whose body has not been found. The decision to seek the death penalty — which required the approval of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions — means that the trial will likely be delayed for months. The death penalty was abolished in Illinois state court in 2011 after years of allegations of deep flaws in the state’s justice system. In certain cases, though, it remains a tool for federal prosecutors, but its use in federal courts is still rare. It also can take years for an execution to actually be carried out. The last person to be sentenced to death in a federal courtroom in Illinois was Dr. Ronald Mikos, who was convicted in 2005 in Chicago of murdering a former patient to keep her from testifying against him in a Medicare fraud trial. Mikos, 69, whose appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied nearly a decade ago, is still awaiting execution in federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., federal records show. The announcement in Christensen’s case marks at least the third time in recent weeks that Sessions has opted to push for the death penalty. Earlier this month, it was revealed prosecutors would seek the death penalty against Billy Arnold, an alleged gang member accused of killing two rivals in Michigan. In December, Sessions greenlighted pursuit of the death penalty against Jarvis Wayne Madison, a Florida man who allegedly kidnapped and killed his estranged wife. In their five-page motion Friday, prosecutors said the death penalty was warranted because Christensen “is likely to commit criminal acts of violence in the future that would constitute a continuing and serious threat to the lives and safety of others.” No details of the alleged 2013 sexual assault by Christensen were provided other than the initials of the victim, “M.D.” The alleged assault occurred the year Christensen was admitted to the university’s highly competitive physics graduate program. Four years later, Zhang's sudden disappearance rattled the U. of I. campus and sent shock waves throughout China. Zhang, who began her research appointment last April, tried unsuccessfully to flag down a bus before walking to another stop the afternoon of June 9. Shortly after, federal authorities allege, Christensen approached Zhang in his black Saturn Astra sedan and lured her inside. Surveillance video from a nearby parking garage captured the exchange in which Zhang could be seen speaking to the driver for several moments before getting into the front passenger seat. The investigation focused on Christensen after police concluded his Saturn was the car seen in the video. He initially told the FBI he was home all day playing video games on the day Zhang disappeared. Yingying Zhang, 26, a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois, has been missing since June 9, 2017. Authorities say she is presumed dead. Brendt Christensen, 28, has been charged with kidnapping Zhang. When he was questioned a second time, Christensen changed his story, telling agents he got the date mixed up, according to court records. He said he was driving on campus, came across an Asian woman looking distressed and offered her a ride because she said she was late to an appointment, authorities said. Christensen said the woman panicked after he made a wrong turn, and he let her out of his car a few blocks from where they met, prosecutors said. Meanwhile, police searched Christensen’s car and determined that the area where Zhang would have been sitting had been cleaned in a way to conceal evidence, according to prosecutors. Police also searched his phone and found visits to a sadomasochism fetish website with discussion threads on kidnapping fantasies, prosecutors said. On June 29, Christensen attended a campus rally for Zhang with a girlfriend, who unbeknownst to him was wearing an FBI wire. He was captured on audio recordings describing his "ideal victim" as he pointed out people in the crowd, prosecutors have previously said. Other recordings made that day captured Christensen admitting to having kidnapped Zhang and describing how she fought back as he held her against her will, according to prosecutors. Earlier this week, a defense filing revealed that a few hours before Zhang’s kidnapping, a female U. of I. graduate student reported to police that a man wearing aviator sunglasses had pulled up to her in a black sedan and flashed a badge. She refused to get in the car and he drove off. A few days later, the woman picked out Christensen’s photo from among six shown her by the FBI, but Christensen’s lawyers are seeking to block the testimony, saying she couldn’t be certain because of the sunglasses. She did say that of the six photos, Christensen "shared the most characteristics" of the man because of his "short, dark hair and tan face," the filing said. jmeisner@chicagotribune.com Twitter @jmetr22b RELATED: Earlier abduction attempt reported on day Chinese scholar went missing at U. of I. » Parents of missing Chinese scholar: 'I don't know how to spend the rest of my life without my daughter' » At vigil for missing Chinese scholar, suspect talked about 'ideal victim,' prosecutor says »	– University of Illinois graduate student Yingying Zhang disappeared in June. The Chinese woman's body has not been found, but federal prosecutors believe that Brendt Christensen is responsible for her murder—and they announced Friday that, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions' blessing, they will pursue the death penalty in their case against him. The Chicago Tribune looks at just how rare a thing such a conviction and sentence would be. Illinois did away with the death penalty in 2011, and its use in federal court is far from commonplace. More on the case, the move, and the growing allegations against Christensen: The Tribune reports the last instance of the federal sentence being imposed in Illinois court was in 2005, when Dr. Ronald Mikos was found guilty of murdering a one-time patient who was cooperating in a Medicare fraud trial against him. The Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal in 2009, the AP reported at the time, but he still awaits execution.
WASHINGTON—Administration lawyers have presented the White House with four options for restructuring the National Security Agency's phone-surveillance program, from ditching the controversial collection altogether to running it through the telephone companies, according to officials familiar with the discussions. President Barack Obama in January asked U.S. intelligence agencies and the attorney general to report by March 28 on... \|\|\|\|\| Lawyers for the Obama administration have presented four possible methods for retooling the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. While Obama had set a date towards the end of March to be presented with these options, according to The Wall Street Journal, the Office of Director of National Intelligence and the Justice Department have completed the assignment well ahead of schedule. Here are the four options Obama has apparently been presented with: Phone companies retain the data. Under this plan, phone companies control their data and allow the NSA to access certain information upon request. Under this plan, phone companies control their data and allow the NSA to access certain information upon request. Another government agency retains the data. This would provide another separation of power, instead of concentrating both the investigators and the data being investigated inside one organization. Candidates could include the FBI and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court This would provide another separation of power, instead of concentrating both the investigators and the data being investigated inside one organization. Candidates could include the FBI and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court A non-telecommunications and non-government agency retains the data. This one is unlikely. Obama on the matter last month: “Any third party maintaining a single, consolidated data-base would be carrying out what is essentially a government function with more expense, more legal ambiguity, and a doubtful impact on public confidence that their privacy is being protected.” This one is unlikely. Obama on the matter last month: “Any third party maintaining a single, consolidated data-base would be carrying out what is essentially a government function with more expense, more legal ambiguity, and a doubtful impact on public confidence that their privacy is being protected.” Scrap the program. A daring proposal, but come on, this one's a pipe dream. Obama’s own remarks last month lean heavily towards one of the first two options, but it is unclear exactly when a decision will be reached.	– President Obama asked White House lawyers last month to come up with ways to reform the National Security Administration's phone-surveillance program and they have delivered four options, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal. One option—and probably the least likely to be adopted—is scrapping the program altogether, while the other three involve taking the vast amount of phone data currently being gathered out of the NSA's hands. Sources say the Director of National Intelligence and the Justice Department have presented Obama with the following options for shifting the phone data: Having phone companies retain the data. Under this option, the NSA would contact phone companies when it needed specific searches of phone records. Telecommunications firms, however, are firmly opposed to this plan. Having another government agency retain the data. The FBI has been spoken of as a possibility for this role, though the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is also being considered. Having a non-government, non-phone company agency retain the data. This option is also seen as unlikely. Privacy groups say any such agency would become a mere extension of the NSA. Obama said last month that any such third party would be carrying out "what is essentially a government function with more expense, more legal ambiguity, and a doubtful impact on public confidence that their privacy is being protected," the Wire notes.
Louise Turpin, left, talks to her attorney Jeff Moore during a preliminary hearing in Superior Court, Wednesday, June 20, 2018, in Riverside, Calif. Turpin and her husband David Tuprin have pleaded not... (Associated Press) Louise Turpin, left, talks to her attorney Jeff Moore during a preliminary hearing in Superior Court, Wednesday, June 20, 2018, in Riverside, Calif. Turpin and her husband David Tuprin have pleaded not guilty to child abuse, torture and other charges. (Watchara Phomicinda/The Press-Enterprise via AP) (Associated Press) RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — In a plea to a police dispatcher to "help my sisters," a 17-year-old girl in a childlike, quivering voice detailed years of abuse she and 12 siblings suffered in a house where she said they were shackled to beds, choked and went unbathed so long the stench was suffocating. In the 911 call played in a California court Wednesday during a hearing to determine if her mother and father should face trial on child abuse charges, the girl said two younger sisters and a brother were chained to their beds and she couldn't take it any longer. "They will wake up at night and they will start crying and they wanted me to call somebody," she said in a high-pitched voice. "I wanted to call y'all so y'all can help my sisters." David and Louise Turpin have pleaded not guilty in Riverside County Superior Court to torture, child abuse and other charges. They are being held on $12 million bail each. Louise Turpin dabbed her eyes with a tissue as the recording of her daughter was played. The 911 call in January was the start of a new day for the 13 Turpin offspring — ages 2 to 29 — who lived in such isolation that some didn't even understand the role of police officers when they showed up at the house in response to the call, authorities said. Officers freed the three children shackled to beds and arrested the parents in a case that drew worldwide attention to severe neglect that was hidden behind the neatly kept facade of their home in Perris, 70 miles (113 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. Inside, police said they discovered a house of horrors that reeked of human waste. Signs of starvation were obvious, with the oldest adult child weighing just 82 pounds, they said. The children were locked up as punishment, beaten and denied food and things normal kids enjoy, like toys and games, authorities said. They were allowed to do little except write in journals that may corroborate the horrific stories they told investigators. The girl planned her escape for two years and was terrified as she climbed out a window and ran to freedom, Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy Manuel Campos testified. "She couldn't even dial 911 because she was so scared that she was shaking," he said. When she called the dispatcher around the corner from her house, the girl wasn't even sure what street she was on. The kids were rarely allowed to go outside, though they did trick-or-treat on Halloween and traveled as a family to Disneyland and Las Vegas. "I don't go out much so I don't know anything about the streets or anything," she said on the call and confirmed she was reading her address off a piece of paper with her mother's name on it. The girl said she hadn't bathed in about a year and that the house was filthy. "Sometimes I wake up and I can't breathe because of how dirty the house is," she said, adding she washed her hair and face in the sink. Dirt was caked on the girl's skin and she smelled unbathed, said Campos, who interviewed the girl later in the day. The girl, who said she hadn't finished first grade, had difficulty pronouncing some words and spoke like a child much younger than her age, Campos said. She referred to her parents as "Mother" and "Father" because it was "more like the Bible days," he said. The girl said when she was 12 and her father pulled down her pants and put her on his clothed lap in a recliner chair in the TV room. She didn't like it and pushed away and pulled up her pants as she heard her mother coming upstairs. "Her father told her she better not tell anybody what happened," Campos said. The family moved several times, including a stint in Texas, where the girl said they were left on their own for about four years, though her mother bought them food. The children mostly were locked in their rooms and were only allowed to leave to eat, use the bathroom and brush their teeth. There was no breakfast, and recently lunch and dinner had been combined into one meal that included peanut butter or bologna sandwiches, a frozen burrito and chips, she said. The girl told Campos she couldn't stomach peanut butter any longer and it made her gag. If they didn't obey strict rules, they were slapped in the face or had their hair pulled, the girl told Campos. About two years ago when the mother found out she had been watching a Justin Bieber video, the girl said her mother started choking her and asked, "do you want to die?" Campos said. The girl said she didn't want to die, but she feared she was about to as the choking continued. "Yes you do, yes you do, you do, you want to die," the mother said, according to Campos. "You want to die and go to hell." ___ Melley reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press Writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report from Los Angeles. \|\|\|\|\| Louise Turpin, left, talks to her attorney Jeff Moore during a preliminary hearing in Superior Court, Wednesday, June 20, 2018, in Riverside, Calif. Turpin and her husband David Tuprin have pleaded not... (Associated Press) RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — In a plea to a police dispatcher to "help my sisters," a 17-year-old girl in a childlike, quivering voice detailed years of abuse she and 12 siblings suffered in a house where she said they were shackled to beds, choked and went unbathed so long the stench was suffocating. In the 911 call played in a California court Wednesday during a hearing to determine if her mother and father should face trial on child abuse charges, the girl said two younger sisters and a brother were chained to their beds and she couldn't take it any longer. "They will wake up at night and they will start crying and they wanted me to call somebody," she said in a high-pitched voice. "I wanted to call y'all so y'all can help my sisters." David and Louise Turpin have pleaded not guilty in Riverside County Superior Court to torture, child abuse and other charges. They are being held on $12 million bail each. Louise Turpin dabbed her eyes with a tissue as the recording of her daughter was played. The 911 call in January was the start of a new day for the 13 Turpin offspring — ages 2 to 29 — who lived in such isolation that some didn't even understand the role of police officers when they showed up at the house in response to the call, authorities said. Officers freed the three children shackled to beds and arrested the parents in a case that drew worldwide attention to severe neglect that was hidden behind the neatly kept facade of their home in Perris, 70 miles (113 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. Inside, police said they discovered a house of horrors that reeked of human waste. Signs of starvation were obvious, with the oldest adult child weighing just 82 pounds, they said. The children were locked up as punishment, beaten and denied food and things normal kids enjoy, like toys and games, authorities said. They were allowed to do little except write in journals that may corroborate the horrific stories they told investigators. The girl planned her escape for two years and was terrified as she climbed out a window and ran to freedom, Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy Manuel Campos testified. "She couldn't even dial 911 because she was so scared that she was shaking," he said. When she called the dispatcher around the corner from her house, the girl wasn't even sure what street she was on. The kids were rarely allowed to go outside, though they did trick-or-treat on Halloween and traveled as a family to Disneyland and Las Vegas. "I don't go out much so I don't know anything about the streets or anything," she said on the call and confirmed she was reading her address off a piece of paper with her mother's name on it. The girl said she hadn't bathed in about a year and that the house was filthy. "Sometimes I wake up and I can't breathe because of how dirty the house is," she said, adding she washed her hair and face in the sink. Dirt was caked on the girl's skin and she smelled unbathed, said Campos, who interviewed the girl later in the day. The girl, who said she hadn't finished first grade, had difficulty pronouncing some words and spoke like a child much younger than her age, Campos said. She referred to her parents as "Mother" and "Father" because it was "more like the Bible days," he said. The girl said when she was 12 and her father pulled down her pants and put her on his clothed lap in a recliner chair in the TV room. She didn't like it and pushed away and pulled up her pants as she heard her mother coming upstairs. "Her father told her she better not tell anybody what happened," Campos said. The family moved several times, including a stint in Texas, where the girl said they were left on their own for about four years, though her mother bought them food. The children mostly were locked in their rooms and were only allowed to leave to eat, use the bathroom and brush their teeth. There was no breakfast, and recently lunch and dinner had been combined into one meal that included peanut butter or bologna sandwiches, a frozen burrito and chips, she said. The girl told Campos she couldn't stomach peanut butter any longer and it made her gag. If they didn't obey strict rules, they were slapped in the face or had their hair pulled, the girl told Campos. About two years ago when the mother found out she had been watching a Justin Bieber video, the girl said her mother started choking her and asked, "do you want to die?" Campos said. The girl said she didn't want to die, but she feared she was about to as the choking continued. "Yes you do, yes you do, you do, you want to die," the mother said, according to Campos. "You want to die and go to hell." ___ Melley reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press Writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report from Los Angeles.	– In a plea to a police dispatcher to "help my sisters," a 17-year-old girl in a childlike, quivering voice detailed years of abuse she and 12 siblings suffered in a house where she said they were shackled to beds, choked and went unbathed so long the stench was suffocating. In the 911 call played in a California court Wednesday during a hearing to determine if her mother and father should face trial on child abuse charges, the girl said two younger sisters and a brother were chained to their beds and she couldn't take it any longer. "They will wake up at night and they will start crying and they wanted me to call somebody," she said in a high-pitched voice. "I wanted to call y'all so y'all can help my sisters." David and Louise Turpin have pleaded not guilty in Riverside County Superior Court to torture, child abuse and other charges. They are being held on $12 million bail each, per the AP. Louise Turpin dabbed her eyes with a tissue as the recording of her daughter was played. The girl planned her escape for two years and was terrified as she climbed out a window and ran to freedom, Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy Manuel Campos testified. When she called the dispatcher around the corner from her house, the girl wasn't even sure what street she was on. The kids were rarely allowed to go outside, though they did trick-or-treat on Halloween and traveled as a family to Disneyland and Las Vegas. "I don't go out much so I don't know anything about the streets or anything," she said on the call and confirmed she was reading her address off a piece of paper with her mother's name on it. The girl said she hadn't bathed in about a year and that the house was filthy. "Sometimes I wake up and I can't breathe because of how dirty the house is," she said. (The Associated Press has more details of the call.)
Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. \|\|\|\|\| Carlo M. Cerutti, 50, was arrested Saturday at his duplex near the NorthTown Mall after his neighbor called police, according to court documents. A Spokane man faces assault charges after allegedly attacking his neighbor with a sword following a dispute over garbage cans. A Spokane man faces assault charges after allegedly attacking his neighbor with a sword following a dispute over garbage cans. Carlo M. Cerutti, 50, was arrested Saturday at his duplex near the NorthTown Mall after his neighbor called police, according to court documents. According to court documents, Cerutti’s wife got into an argument with her neighbor after accusing him of throwing his garbage into her garbage can. The victim told police Cerutti came rushing out of his house after the argument wielding “a large sword-type weapon with multiple blades,” court documents say. He tried to swing the weapon like a hatchet, the neighbor told police. The victim put his hands up to block the blade and was able to pull the sword away from Cerutti, court documents say. Another neighbor witnessed the fight.	– Newser Note: For maximum impact, please listen to this song while reading the following story. KREM reports an argument about garbage escalated—as they are wont to do—until one neighbor was threatening another with a weapon straight out of Star Trek. Carlo Cerutti, 50, has been charged with assault after allegedly swinging a Klingon bat'leth—or "a large sword-like weapon with multiple blades" for our non-Trekkie readers—at the victim, according to the Spokesman-Review. Apparently Cerutti's wife had gotten tired of the victim putting his garbage in their garbage can and told him to knock it off, KREM reports. That's when she says the victim hit her with a bag of trash. Cerutti allegedly ran out of the house to defend his wife while swinging his bat'leth around. The victim was able to disarm Cerutti but fell off his porch in the process. Cerutti's wife claims he only unsheathed the bat'leth when the victim entered their house. There is one witness who can illuminate exactly what happened, unfortunately…
The 2019 Golden Globes nominations are out. Let’s first hit some surprises, because there were some rather huge ones on the TV side. NBC’s fan favorite The Good Place was finally honored for best comedy series. Sacha Baron Cohen unexpectedly crashed the best actor in a comedy category for Showtime’s political prank series Who Is America? The excellent imported BBC/Netflix thriller Bodyguard got a best drama series nod. And Candice Bergen was nominated for CBS’ low-rated (and presumed canceled) Murphy Brown reboot. With the exception of The Good Place honor, top oddsmakers did not see any of those coming. We’ll have more of surprises along the way. But here are the biggest snubs in the TV categories. The Handmaids Tale (Hulu).The dystopian drama swept the Emmys for its debut season in 2017 and won for best drama series at the Globes last year. Yet season 2 failed to get a nomination in the top category, and it was a title on every prediction list (stars Elisabeth Moss and Yvonne Strahovski were both nominated, as expected). This is a pretty shocking omission, though the latest season was admittedly more divisive among critics and fans than the first. Westworld (HBO). Another big drama series snub. The second season cleaned up at the Emmys a few months ago, with four wins, but aside from a supporting nod for Thandi Newton, the Hollywood Foreign Press was apparently less impressed. Actors Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright and Evan Rachel Wood were all left out. Also absent from the drama category: The second season of Ozark (Netflix) was snubbed, though star Jason Bateman was nominated. Atlanta (FX): The second season of the innovative rap-scene comedy, despite being an Emmy favorite, was surprisingly shut out of the top comedy slots (though star Donald Glover was nominated). Also snubbed was another Emmy darling, Netflix’s ’80s wrestling dramedy GLOW (yet actress Alison Brie got a nod). There was an upside: The Good Place (NBC) finally broke into this category with its first Globes comedy series nomination, and star Kristen Bell was nominated for lead actress in a comedy too. Sterling K. Brown, John Krasinski, Liev Schreiber, Milo Ventimiglia and Bob Odenkirk. The best actor in a drama category featured some serious upsets. Last year’s winner, Brown, was fully expected to at least get a nomination once again for This Is Us. Three-time nominee Odenkirk was fully expected to get recognized for Better Call Saul. Krasinski was fully expected to get nominated for his work in Amazon’s Jack Ryan. Five-time nominee Schreiber was fully expected to get nominated once again (due to the HFPA’s curious love for Showtime’s Ray Donovan). And Ventimiglia, well, he wasn’t fully expected to get a This Is Us nod, but some thought he might squeeze in. Instead, there were new additions like Stephan James for Amazon’s Homecoming and Billy Porter for FX’s Pose. Jodie Comer. The Killing Eve actress was expected to get a nomination for lead actress in a drama series along with her co-star Sandra Oh (who was nominated), yet was shut out. Robin Wright was also snubbed for the final season of Netflix’s House of Cards. Instead, there was a minor surprise on the list: Outlander’s Caitriona Balfe, who was nominated last year, but wasn’t necessarily expected to make the list this time given the intense competition from newcomers like Oh and Homecoming‘s Julia Roberts. Ted Danson. While The Good Place received nominations for best comedy series and an actress nod for Kristen Bell, Danson, who was considered the most likely nom of the three, was left out. Blame Sacha Baron Cohen? Maniac (Netflix): Many thought the psychological dark comedy-drama was brilliant and unlike anything else on TV this year, so it was expected to get a nom in the movie-limited series category. Nope. Star Emma Stone was also left out for Maniac — the Globes snub which seemed to elicit the most Twitter upset this morning among the TV categories. Stone did receive a supporting nod for her work in the movie The Favourite, however. Patrick Melrose (Showtime) was also skipped in the series limited series category, despite predictions, though that’s more understandable given the project’s somewhat lackluster reaction — all the praise was around the boozy performance of star Benedict Cumberbatch (who was of course nominated). Another Showtime snub in the movies-mini category: Benicio Del Toro, who was given strong odds to land a mention for his work in Escape at Dannemora. Movie nominations snubs and surprises here. Full list of Golden Globes nominations. \|\|\|\|\| From left, Ethan Hawke stars in First Reformed, KiKi Layne and Stephan James in If Beale Street Could Talk, Sam Elliott in A Star is Born. Each year, the roughly 90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association both confirm and upend various awards-season narratives with their Golden Globe nominations. This year was no different. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest snubs and surprises from this morning’s nominations. Movies Sam Elliott’s Momentum Slows? The supporting-actor category looks much as we expected it to this morning, except for one glaring omission: where is Sam Elliott for his rich, tearful work in the otherwise generously nominated A Star Is Born? Elliott has long been thought of—in some circles, anyway—as the supporting-actor front-runner. But just a week after winning the prize from the National Board of Review, Elliott finds himself without a nomination at the pre-prom. No disrespect to the fellow who likely snatched his nod, BlacKkKlansman’s Adam Driver—but this is a pretty big upset for a campaign that had been looking a lot sturdier than many other hopefuls.’ Ah, well; we’ll just chalk it up to the Hollywood Foreign Press being weird, as we do with everything Golden Globes-related every year. Mary Poppins’s Magic Burns Out Mary Poppins Returns was richly rewarded Thursday: for Emily Blunt’s and (surprisingly?) Lin-Manuel Miranda’s lead performances, for best musical or comedy, and for Marc Shaiman’s score. But curiously, especially given that last nomination, the sequel could not secure a spot in the best-original-song category. Perhaps all the film’s songs bled together into one pleasant blur, or maybe it was just up against competition that proved too tough: who do you say no to in that category to make room for Mary? Annie Lennox? Lady Gaga? Dolly Parton?? Maybe Poppins could have taken Boy Erased’s spot, but “Revelation” is a gorgeous song, one that closes out an Important Issue movie. Whatever the reason for the snub, Disney’s London skies are looking a little dimmer this morning. The Ethan Hawke-aissance May Not Be Televised He’s won some critics’ awards, yet First Reformed star Ethan Hawke couldn’t land a nomination for best actor in a drama—even though he didn’t even have to compete with Viggo Mortensen or Christian Bale, who are in the comedy/musical category. That may mark a serious impediment to the rest of his awards-season campaign, despite his film being easily one of the best-reviewed of the year. Maybe the movie is too small, too alienating for the H.F.P.A. Or maybe they loved Lucas Hedges in Boy Erased too much. Or maybe if Rami Malek and Bradley Cooper had been run in musical/comedy, where they belong, Hawke would have gotten what’s owed to him. In any case, the First Reformed folks better start praying to keep Hawke in the hunt. Peter Farrelly and Adam McKay Spoil Everything Well, they’re not spoiling everything. But the respective directors of Green Book and Vice are taking up spots that could have been occupied by The Favourite’s Yorgos Lanthimos, If Beale Street Could Talk’s Barry Jenkins, or Can You Ever Forgive Me?’s Marielle Heller. Farrelly and McKay, two older comedy guys working more serious than usual, are pretty dull, mainstream choices in a year that offered exciting and different options. Heller’s nomination would have been particularly heartening, given that the Globes have only had a handful of female-director nominees in the last few decades, and Can You Ever Forgive Me?—nominated for two major acting prizes—is one of the strongest titles of the year. But, no. Instead, the H.F.P.A. opted for Farrelly’s incredibly straightforward direction and McKay’s messy collage of a reviled vice president. We’ll forgive them someday, but not today. _If Beale Street Could Sing Craft categories don’t frequently lend themselves to surprises—partially because they aren’t as closely watched; partially because the right answers are often predictable—but it was admittedly strange not to see Nicholas Britell, who wrote the lush, jazzy score for If Beale Street Could Talk, missing among the nominees this morning. In addition to having some of the best music, that movie had some of the most music—it seems impossible that voters didn’t notice it. Other great scores that are missing, if not quite snubbed, include Nate Heller’s marvelous work for Can You Ever Forgive Me? and David Lang for Paul Dano’s directorial debut, Wildlife. Cold War Gets Iced Out In the foreign-language-film category, it was a slight shock not to see Pawel Pawlikowski’s beloved Cold War in the running. Pawlikowski’s last film, Ida, was a nominee for this award in 2015, eventually going on to win the trophy in this category at the Academy Awards. Cold War is the better movie, but it likely lost its slot to Roma, which, by the H.F.P.A.’s rules, was ineligible to compete in the best-drama category—where it might otherwise have practically been guaranteed a nomination. Television Stars Are Blindsided The Globes are typically the awards most likely to present a nomination to anyone who sounds famous doing something on TV—or are they? Because in a strange new trend, stars Al Pacino and Kevin Costner weren’t nominated for their roles slumming it on the boob tube—even though Costner’s Yellowstone has been a ratings success on the newly rebranded Paramount Network. EGOT king John Legend also failed to sway the H.F.P.A. for his much-lauded turn as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar Live, and even Robin Wright’s complex tightrope act behind the scenes of a House of Cards in upheaval didn't impress Globes voters. An Actor Shake-Up Julia Roberts, for her part, earned a nomination for Homecoming. But so did her 24-year-old breakout co-star, Stephan James—beating out Costner to enter a bizarre, but fascinating category for best actor in a drama series. Edging out worthies like Bob Odenkirk, Sterling K. Brown, Jeffrey Wright, and Globes perennial favorite Liev Schreiber are James, Jason Bateman, Emmy winner Matthew Rhys, and two more big surprises: Billy Porter from FX's queer ballroom drama Pose, and Richard Madden from Netflix's word-of-mouth hit Bodyguard. The H.F.P.A. Doesn’t Like Shows That Age Several veteran series in contention at the Emmys—and on critics’ best-of lists—failed to draw the H.F.P.A.’s attention. Atlanta, which won outstanding comedy series in 2017, wasn't even nominated in the category for its second season. Neither were the later seasons of This Is Us, Westworld, and The Handmaid’s Tale, reflecting the Globes’ interest in what’s up and coming. Broadcast Isn’t Dead Apparently, the H.F.P.A. also has a thing for network comedies. In the category for best actress in a comedy, three out of the five actresses nominated come from sitcoms—Debra Messing, Candice Bergen, and Kristen Bell. Who says we have to let the old ways die? More Great Stories from Vanity Fair — The supercalifragilistic Lin-Manuel Miranda — The Golden Globes are quirky—and that’s a good thing — How The Sopranos gave us Trump training wheels — Rocko’s Modern Life was even loonier than you thought — The year’s best movies, according to our critic Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hollywood newsletter and never miss a story. \|\|\|\|\| CLOSE It was a tough year to be named Ryan when it came to Golden Globe nominations. Here are some of the most notable Globes snubs for 2019. USA TODAY Ryan Gosling missed out on an acting nomination for "First Man,' which wasn't nominated for best drama. (Photo: Daniel McFadden/Universal Studios) The Hollywood Foreign Press Association showered awards praise on "Vice," which received six Golden Globe nominations on Thursday. But it was a bad morning for everyone named Ryan (Gosling, Coogler and Reynolds) at the 76th annual awards show, which reveals its winners on Jan. 6 (NBC, 8 p.m. EST/5 PST). These were the most notable snubs: Ryan Gosling, Ryan Coogler and Ryan Reynolds. It was a tough year for everyone's favorite Ryan. Gosling lost out on a nomination as astronaut Neil Armstrong in "First Man" (also overlooked for best drama). Coogler was passed over as director of "Black Panther" (nominated for best drama). And Reynolds, who earned nominations for best actor and best movie for 2016's "Deadpool," was overlooked for "Deadpool 2." "This Is Us." The NBC drama was completely shut out, including from the best-drama category. Previous acting nominees Mandy Moore, Chrissy Metz and Sterling K. Brown (who made history last year as the first African-American to win best actor in a TV drama series) all went missing. Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan. "Black Panther" cruised into a best-drama nomination without lead actor Boseman, T'Challa himself, earning a best-actor spot. Jordan, as villainous Erik Killmonger, was also denied a nomination for best supporting actor. More: Who got nominated for Golden Globes? Here's the list Clint Eastwood. The 88-year-old film legend's latest drama, "The Mule" – his first lead role since 2012's "Trouble With the Curve" – was stubbornly denied in all categories, including best actor. "The Grinch." The animated film version of the Dr. Seuss classic, with Benedict Cumberbatch voicing the Christmas-hating creep, has been a moviegoing favorite this holiday season. But it missed out on an animated-movie nomination. "The Grinch" was denied an animated movie nomination by the Golden Globes. (Photo: Universal Pictures) "Atlanta." The FX series, created and starring Donald Glover, took best comedy at the Golden Globes last year, but it failed to earn that nomination in 2018. Glover was nominated for best actor in a comedy, an award he won last year. More: Dick Cheney biopic ‘Vice’ leads Golden Globes field with six nominations Also: Sandra Oh, Andy Samberg to co-host 2019 Golden Globes "A Quiet Place." Director and star John Krasinski's box-office hit ($330 million worldwide), his first starring collaboration with wife Emily Blunt, has received rare critical raves for a horror film (an impressive 95% positive critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes), the kind that often warrant awards recognition. The film was nominated for movie of the year at the People's Choice Awards, but it scratched out only a nomination for best original score for the Globes. Meryl Streep gives a little heartbreak in "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again." (Photo: UNIVERSAL) "Widows." With an all-star cast (including Viola Davis and Liam Neeson), Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen's heist drama seems poised for awards glory. But it received nothing at the Golden Globes, not even a best-actress nomination for Davis. The songs of "Mary Poppins Returns." Blunt (as Mary Poppins) and Lin-Manuel Miranda scored in the major acting categories, and the movie was nominated for best comedy or musical. Though Marc Shaiman's score earned a nomination, none of the songs in the musical, including "The Place Where Lost Things Go," were recognized. “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.” With both "A Star As Born" and Queen biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" moved to the drama section, there was room for another actual musical to move into the best comedy or musical category. Ten years ago, the original "Mamma Mia!" took two nominations, for best comedy or musical, and best actress for Meryl Streep. The sequel was shut out in 2018. Amandla Stenberg. Stenberg has earned raves for her performance in timely drama “The Hate U Give” as student Starr Carter, who witnesses the fatal police shooting of her childhood best friend. But the drama was overlooked. Hugh Jackman. Given that Jackman nabbed a best-actor nomination last year for "The Greatest Showman," it would have seemed that the beloved Aussie could ride into this year's awards with a nomination for his serious political drama "The Front Runner," playing Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart. But he did not. Meryl Streep. Sure, Streep has a smaller role as Donna in "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again!" than she did in 2008's first film, which earned her a best-actress nomination. And Streep has one memorable scene in "Mary Poppins Returns." But this is three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep, who has won eight Golden Globes. Any time she's overlooked, it's a snub. Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2018/12/06/golden-globes-biggest-snubs/2221430002/	– Golden Globe nominations were announced Thursday, and along with a surprise frontrunner, there were a number of snubs. USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, and Vanity Fair are among the outlets running them down: Ryan Gosling was not nominated as best actor for his role as Neil Armstrong in First Man—which was also not nominated as best drama. Black Panther was nominated for best drama, but stars Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan were denied best actor and best supporting actor nods. Atlanta, Donald Glover's FX series, won best comedy series at last year's Golden Globes, but wasn't even nominated this year.
Just back from a trip to Iraq, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said on Sunday the government in Baghdad is “still quite delusional” about the urgency of the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. “They're still talking about long-term training before they're ready to fight,” the California Republican said an ABC’s “This Week.” Issa said he was ready to vote to authorize the U.S. military campaign against ISIL — something President Barack Obama has requested. “The fact is we're already there,” Issa said. “We've had to be there.” Issa also said Iraqis — not Americans — should be the ones engaging in ground combat against ISIL. The Kurds were up to the challenge, he said. “I have no doubt whatsoever that the Kurds will fight,” he said. “All they need is our air support and our technical know-how, and they will do it.” \|\|\|\|\| Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday "hats off" to President Barack Obama, predicting that he would get a "political victory" on a fiscal cliff deal. "Hats off to the president," Graham (R-S.C.) said on Fox News Sunday. "He stood his ground. He's going to get tax rate increases... It will be a political victory for the president." But don't think the Republican senator from South Carolina is agreeing with Obama. Graham said that lawmakers have "done little" of going to the way of Greece, which is struggling economically. Obama and Democrats say that they have an electoral mandate to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans because Obama campaigned on it before he was reelected. "The president won. The president campaigned on raising rates and he's going to get a rate increase," Graham said. Read more about: Barack Obama, Lindsey Graham, Fox News Sunday, Fiscal Cliff \|\|\|\|\| Tthere are better than 50/50 odds of lawmakers reaching a deal on the so-called fiscal cliff, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) predicted on Sunday. "There's a real possibility of a deal. I've been a legislator for 37 years, and I've watched how these things work. On these big, big agreements, they almost always happen at the last minute. Neither side likes to give up its position," Schumer said on ABC's "This Week." "They eyeball each other until the very end. But then, each side, realizing that the alternative is worse, comes to an agreement," he explained. "So while an agreement is hardly a certainty, I certainly wouldn't rule it out at this last minute." "Give me your odds. I said 50/50," said host Jonathan Karl, filling in for George Stephanopoulos. "I think a little higher than that," Schumer said. Read more about: Chuck Schumer, Fiscal Cliff \|\|\|\|\| While much of the nation is transfixed by the tax hikes and spending cuts that will kick in if the nation goes over the fiscal cliff, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warns that there are other cliff issues being overlooked: the farm bill. Vilsack said that unless Congress can pass a farm bill, the agricultural sector of the economy will be devastated, and that will have ripple effects felt by almost every American. "Consumers, when they go in the grocery store, are going to be a bit shocked when instead of seeing $3.60 a gallon for milk, they see $7 a gallon for milk," he said during an interview broadcast Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "And that’s going to ripple throughout all of the commodities if this thing goes on for an extended period of time." The farm bill is set to expire on Jan. 1, and Congress has yet to agree on an extension or replacement. Vilsack said the impacts will also affect renewable energy, such as biofuels, agricultural exports, conservation programs and farmers' markets. And he said efforts to slash funding for the food stamp program are misguided. Vilsack said 92 percent of food stamp recipients are seniors, the disabled or children of working families. “It’s an important program. It’s misunderstood,” he said. "When you understand who you're helping here, then it becomes a little bit more difficult to advocate for significant and massive cuts as some have suggested.” Read more about: Tom Vilsack, Farm Bill, Milk \|\|\|\|\| Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) says he spoke Sunday morning with senators working on a deal to avert the fiscal cliff and they have yet to reach an agreement. “There is no deal yet. I continue to hope for a bipartisan agreement,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” "We’re trying to line up a Rubik’s cube right now, and we're not there yet. We’re meeting later today. This is going to continue, I think, on until tomorrow." Barrasso jumped on President Barack Obama for “outsourcing” the fix to Congress. “What we’re seeing here is a monumental failure of presidential leadership," Barrasso said. "The president's the only person with a pen who can sign this. And it’s the president’s responsibility to work on something that the House will pass, the Senate will pass and that he will sign. But he is outsourcing this. “He continues to campaign and lecture when he ought to be focusing on the number one problem that hurts us as a country, which is our debt.” Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) jumped in to defend the president, saying Democrats are united on a plan to extend middle class taxes and Republicans are standing in the way. Read more about: Barack Obama, John Barrasso, Fiscal Cliff, Donald Edwards \|\|\|\|\| Sen. Dianne Feinstein said on Sunday that America needs to "bite the bullet" on gun control reform in the wake of the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. "America has to bite the bullet of what these incidents mean to our people, to our nation and our nation's standing in the world," Feinstein said on "Fox News Sunday." "When you have someone walking in and slaying in the most brutal way 6-year-olds, something is really wrong." Feinstein is set to introduce gun-control legislation that would enact stricter background checks and gun registration laws in wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, in which authorities say Adam Lanza, 20, killed 20 children and six others at the elementary school. "This is one effort and other things we should do to try to put weapons under some kind of appropriate authority," she said. Read more about: Dianne Feinstein, Gun Control, Connecticut School Shooting	– President Obama wasn't the only show on the Sunday dial today: On the eve of the fiscal cliff, Lindsey Graham was upbeat about the chances of a deal, telling Fox News they were "exceedingly good." "Hats off to the president," said Graham, according to Politico. "He stood his ground. He's going to get tax rate increases. It will be a political victory for the president." John Barrasso wasn't nearly so positive, saying, "We’re trying to line up a Rubik’s cube right now, and we're not there yet." He blamed Obama for "outsourcing" negotiations to Congress, calling it "a monumental failure of presidential leadership." Elsewhere on your Sunday dial, as per Politico: Chuck Schumer on the cliff: "I've been a legislator for 37 years, and I've watched how these things work. On these big, big agreements, they almost always happen at the last minute. Neither side likes to give up its position. But then, each side, realizing that the alternative is worse, comes to an agreement. So while an agreement is hardly a certainty, I certainly wouldn't rule it out at this last minute." Dianne Feinstein on gun control: "America has to bite the bullet of what these incidents mean to our people, to our nation and our nation's standing in the world. When you have someone walking in and slaying in the most brutal way, 6-year-olds, something is really wrong." Tom Vilsack on that other (farm bill) 'cliff:' "Consumers are going to be shocked when instead of seeing $3.60 a gallon for milk, they see $7 a gallon for milk. And that’s going to ripple throughout all of the commodities if this thing goes on for an extended period of time."
Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. \|\|\|\|\| Surprise: America’s wealthy like warm weather and low taxes. That’s the takeaway from IRS data, analyzed by Forbes, on moves between counties. We looked for counties that the rich are moving to in big numbers. Topping the list: Collier County, Fla., which includes the city of Naples. Tax returns accounting for 15,150 people showed moves to Collier County from other parts of the country in 2008, the latest year for which IRS data is available. Their average reported income: $76,161 per person–equivalent to $304,644 for a family of four. Although slightly more taxpayers moved out of Collier County than into it, the departing residents’ average income came out to just $26,128 per person. Interactive Map: Where Americans Are Moving Slide Show: Where America’s Rich Are Going (And Leaving) Households that moved to Collier County principally came from other parts of Florida, with Lee, Miami Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Orange counties leading the list. Big northern cities also sent lots of migrants: Cook County, Ill. (home to Chicago); Oakland County, Mich. (near Detroit); and Suffolk County, N.Y. (on Long Island) each sent more than 100 people to Collier County during 2008. In second place is Greene County, Ga., with a population of just 15,743 at the Census Bureau’s last estimate. The IRS data show that in 2008, 788 people moved to the county, about 75 miles east of Atlanta. Rounding out the top five: Nassau County, Fla., near Jacksonville; Llano County, Texas, 70 miles northwest of Austin; and Walton County, Fla., 80 miles east of Pensacola. The dominance of the list by Florida and Texas–the former has eight of the top 20 counties, the latter four– makes sense to Robert Shrum, manager of state affairs at the Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C., since neither state has an income tax. “If you’re a high-income earner, then that, from a tax perspective, is going to be a driving decider if you’re going to move to one of those two states,” Shrum says. After accounting for property taxes, Shrum’s analysis shows that Texas has the fourth-lowest personal tax burden in the country, and Florida has the eighth lowest. Shrum also points to eight states that have targeted wealthy households with extra-high tax brackets: California, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Hawaii, Oregon, Connecticut and Wisconsin. Six of the top 10 counties the rich are fleeing are located in those states. Pitkin County, Colo., home to the pricey Aspen ski community, where home listings average more than $3.5 million, saw an exodus of rich people in 2008 as the economy began to contract. The 962 tax filers and dependents who left Pitkin had an average income of $71,473 per capita, while the equivalent figure for those moving to the county was $30,000 lower. Of those leaving Pitkin County, 224 moved to neighboring Garfield County where, according to real estate information service Trulia, homes list for 75% less than those in Pitkin County. IRS data also show movement from the resort area to cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Behind the Numbers To find places the rich are moving, Forbes used IRS data on household moves broken down by county and income. We included counties where arriving households are richer than households that didn’t move and departing households are poorer than households that didn’t move. The final ranking orders counties by the difference in per-capita income between incoming households and those that didn’t move. Our ranking of places the rich are fleeing essentially reverses these criteria, looking for counties where departing households are wealthier than the population as a whole and where incoming households are poorer. In order to find patterns among the wealthy, we restricted the lists to counties where departing or arriving households had per-capita incomes of $35,000 or more. That figure is equivalent to an annual income of $140,000 for a family of four–a very high income for any large subset of the American population (of 3,142 counties with IRS data, only 130 have average incomes above this level). And in order to avoid statistical anomalies, we only included counties with at least 500 people listed as arriving or departing. This technique essentially finds new hot spots–places that aren’t necessarily wealthy now but where wealthy people are moving. Some upscale places like Westchester County, N.Y., and Teton County, Wy., don’t make the list because people moving into those counties aren’t as rich as the people who already live there. The IRS warns that these counts are only approximations; because they don’t include households that don’t file income tax returns, poor and elderly people are underrepresented. These counts also don’t include returns filed after late-September 2009–a small fraction of total returns that tends to include some very rich people with complex returns who file for extensions. Slide Show: Where America’s Rich Are Going (And Leaving)	– Wealthy Americans are on the move, largely to the low-income-tax havens of the Sunbelt. A new Forbes analysis of IRS data from 2008 shows Collier County, Fla., at the head of the pack, picking up 15,150 new residents with an average income of $76,161—compared to $26,128 for the people moving away. A nifty feature on the Forbes website illustrates the migration and breaks it down by average income, county-to-county. For instance, click on New Orleans (Orleans Parish, La.) and you see graphics showing not just migration in and out but the number of people moving and their average income: to Seattle (King County, Wash.), 56 people, $36,200; from Seattle, 41 people, $25,000. To get the details on migration in and out of the county of your choice—fair warning: it's addictive—click here. To see a slideshow breaking down the most popular destinations, click here.
Howard Klein talks to 24 Hour News 8 on July 21, 2015. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Prosecutors have dropped the case against an 87-year-old man charged with soliciting a prostitute. Howard Klein was arrested for soliciting prostitution in the area of Leonard Street and Broadway Avenue NW in July. Police refused to discuss details of the case, but said it was part of a sting targeting prostitution that has plagued the West Side neighborhood. However, Klein denied trying to pick up a prostitute. He told 24 Hour News 8 he thought the woman standing near the street was a lady he’d seen at church. The Kent County Prosecutor’s Office told 24 Hour News 8 they had reviewed the case and decided to dismiss the charges. Prosecutors said that given his age and the fact that he had no prior criminal record, he did not seem to pose a danger to society. Share this: Email Print Facebook Twitter Google Pinterest More LinkedIn Tumblr Reddit \|\|\|\|\| GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The 87-year-old man police say was soliciting an undercover cop posing as a prostitute will not be prosecuted. "What would be the purpose in prosecuting him? " Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth said Tuesday, Sept. 1. "He wouldn't and shouldn't go to jail and 87 years without involvement in the criminal justice system has, in my opinion, earned him a pass." Howard Arthur Klein, likely the oldest person ever charged with this crime, was arrested by Grand Rapids Police around 10 p.m. June 26, near Broadway Street NW and Leonard Avenue, not far from his home. Klein was arrested along with two other men and two women, the rest of whom were booked into the Kent County Jail. Klein was not taken into custody, due to his age, and was arraigned July 8. Related: 87-year-old man charged with soliciting a prostitute Klein allegedly claimed he thought the woman he approached was someone he knew from church. Klein faced a maximum of 93 days in the Kent County Jail if convicted. "I could see no compelling reason to continue to prosecute Mr. Klein on the ticket he was issued for accosting and soliciting," Forsyth said. "He is 87 years old with absolutely no criminal record. In addition, I am told he struggles to some degree with dementia." E-mail Barton Deiters: bdeiters@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/GRPBarton or Facebook at facebook.com/bartondeiters.5 \|\|\|\|\| Please enable Javascript to watch this video GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- An 87-year-old man was one of several people arrested in a prostitution sting in Grand Rapids in late June. Howard Arthur Klein was arrested in one of two operations by the Grand Rapids Police Department. GRPD said they conducted the stings in the area of Leonard Street and Broadway Avenue SW and S. Division Avenue between downtown Grand Rapids and Alger Street SE. Tia Booth, 32, and Tammy Glautney, 45, were arrested for prostitution . Police said Booth pleaded guilty to solicitation of an illegal act, and Gaultney was arraigned for solicitation of prostitution. Police said two female detectives posed as decoys during the second part of the operation. Three people were arrested, including Paul Alan Leys, 35, Felipe Reuben Manuel, 22, and Klein. Leys was arrested for indecent exposure, while both Manuel and Klein were arrested and arraigned for solicitation of prostitution. Due to Klein's age, police cited the man instead of taking him into custody.	– Howard Arthur Klein lived 87 years without so much as a blot on his criminal record. In truth, the elderly Michigan man didn't have a record at all until a night in June when he was nabbed in a sting, accused of soliciting a prostitute who was actually an undercover cop. But it seems all will be forgotten as a Kent County prosecutor has decided to throw out his case. "He is 87 years old with absolutely no criminal record. In addition, I am told he struggles to some degree with dementia," he tells Michigan Live. "He wouldn't and shouldn't go to jail and 87 years without involvement in the criminal justice system has, in my opinion, earned him a pass." Two accused prostitutes, aged 32 and 45, and two other males arrested alongside Klein in the June sting in Grand Rapids were booked into the Kent County Jail, but Klein was allowed to go free because of his age, reports Fox 17. He was arraigned on July 8 and faced 93 days in jail if convicted. Klein, who MLive reports is "likely the oldest person ever charged with this crime," has denied any wrongdoing. He tells WOOD-TV he simply thought the woman he approached on a street was someone he knew from his church.
Work on your voice to get your dream job. New research from the University of Chicago suggests that, in some cases, a person's voice could actually be more important than his or her resume and experience. Researchers explained that when job candidates were judged more competent, thoughtful and intelligent in sound than on paper. "In addition to communicating the contents of one's mind, like specific thoughts and beliefs, a person's speech conveys their fundamental capacity to think -- the capacity for reasoning, thoughtfulness and intellect," lead researcher Professor Nicholas Epley said in a news release. Furthermore, findings were replicated in an experiment involving professional recruiters, academics who recruited candidates from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. "When conveying intelligence, it's important for one's voice to be heard - literally," Epley concluded. The findings are published in The Journal of Psychological Science. \|\|\|\|\| Credit: Ethan, SportSuburban, Flickr via Creative Commons. A résumé highlighting stellar professional credentials and experience could pique the interest of a prospective employer, but it's your voice that may actually help you land the job. A new study by University of Chicago Booth School of Business Professor Nicholas Epley and Ph.D. candidate Juliana Schroeder found that when hypothetical employers and professional recruiters listened to or read job candidates' job qualifications, they rated the candidates as more competent, thoughtful and intelligent when they heard the pitch than when they read it—even when the words used were exactly the same. As a result, they liked the candidate more and were more interested in hiring them. However, the addition of video did not influence evaluations beyond hearing the candidate's voice, the researchers note. "In addition to communicating the contents of one's mind, like specific thoughts and beliefs, a person's speech conveys their fundamental capacity to think—the capacity for reasoning, thoughtfulness and intellect," says Epley. Titled "The Sound of Intellect: Speech Reveals a Thoughtful Mind, Increasing a Job Candidate's Appeal," the study will be published in an upcoming issue of The Journal of Psychological Science, the highest ranked empirical journal in the field of psychology. In a series of experiments, the researchers asked a group of Chicago Booth MBA student job candidates to develop a short pitch to the company for which they would most like to work. They created written pitches and spoken pitches (videotaped). In an initial experiment, a separate group of evaluators judged the spoken pitches by either watching and listening to the video recording, listening to the audio only, or reading a transcript of the pitch. The evaluators who heard the pitch subsequently rated the candidate as more intelligent, thoughtful and competent than the evaluators who only read a transcript of the pitch; the evaluators who watched the video pitch did not rate any differently than those who heard the pitch. In fact, evaluators who heard the pitch reported liking the candidate more and reported being significantly more likely to hire that person. In another experiment, the evaluators who listened to trained actors reading job candidates' written pitches out loud believed those candidates were more intelligent and wanted to hire them more than the evaluators who read candidates' own written pitches. Even professional recruiters (who recruit candidates from Chicago Booth) were more likely to hire the candidates whose pitches they could hear than those whose pitches they read. Epley concludes: "When conveying intelligence, it's important for one's voice to be heard—literally." Explore further: Employers often more interested in hiring potential playmates than the very best candidates	– If you're trying to land a job, it's much better to explain why you're the perfect candidate in person than in an email, a new study suggests. And it's got nothing to do with power suits—it's all about your voice. Employers are more likely to rate people as intelligent if they hear their pitch than if they read it, say researchers at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In their experiments, the researchers had students prepare videotaped pitches for their dream companies. Evaluators rated the applicants more highly if they listened to the audio rather than reading the same words in a transcript, the researchers write at phys.org. Watching the video didn't seem to affect the scores at all. "In addition to communicating the contents of one's mind, like specific thoughts and beliefs, a person's speech conveys their fundamental capacity to think—the capacity for reasoning, thoughtfulness and intellect," says lead researcher Nicholas Epley. In the tests, "intellect was conveyed primarily through voice," perhaps through subtle variances in pitch and cadence, writes Wray Herbert at the Huffington Post. He thinks it backs up that age-old advice about the importance of wrangling face time with a potential boss. Or as a post at Counsel & Heal puts it, "work on your voice to get your dream job." (In other voice research, a study finds that lousy singers can improve—by singing more.)
President Obama on Tuesday called on Congress to find budget cuts and tax changes to delay the sequester for a few more months until Congress finds “a smarter solution.” (The Washington Post) President Obama on Tuesday called on Congress to find budget cuts and tax changes to delay the sequester for a few more months until Congress finds “a smarter solution.” (The Washington Post) President Obama on Tuesday called on Congress to pass a small package of spending cuts and tax changes to delay the start next month of deep reductions in domestic and defense spending that could deliver a fresh blow to a fragile economic recovery. With time running out, Obama said, Congress should adopt measures to postpone the automatic spending reductions, known as the sequester, for a few months. Without any action, the cuts, worth $1.2 trillion over a decade, are scheduled to take effect March 1 and are causing deep anxiety among government workers and contractors. Obama did not outline a specific proposal, and he said he still favored a broad deal of spending cuts and tax changes — which would eliminate deductions and loopholes that benefit the wealthy and certain industries — to replace the sequester. “If Congress can’t act immediately on a bigger package, if they can’t get a bigger package done by the time the sequester is scheduled to go into effect,” Obama said in the White House briefing room, “then I believe that they should at least pass a smaller package of spending cuts and tax reforms that would delay the economically damaging effects of the sequester for a few more months.” To delay the sequester for several months, any plan passed by Congress would have to reduce borrowing by tens of billions of dollars through a combination of alternative spending cuts or tax increases. The White House said it would work with Congress on crafting the package. 1 of 10 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Five truths and five myths about the debt ceiling View Photos Post staff writer Neil Irwin lays out some facts about the debt limit, while former government official Bruce Bartlett clears up some falsehoods. Caption Post staff writer Neil Irwin lays out some facts about the debt limit, while former government official Bruce Bartlett clears up some falsehoods. TRUTH: That gap between revenue and spending? It's the deficit. Irwin writes, "The U.S. government took in about $7,000 in revenue for every man, woman and child in the United States last year. It spent more than $11,000 per person. The gap between those numbers, about $4,000 per person, is the deficit, and it was covered by borrowing money. Some politicians speak as if high levels of government spending and a large budget deficit are the same thing. This isn’t so. You could have a government that spends $11,000 per person — but with taxes to match it — and no deficit. Or you could have a bare-bones government of a libertarian’s fantasy that spends only $7,000 per person but that runs a large deficit because it raises only $3,000 per person in taxes." Greg Kreller/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. While the sequester cuts domestic and defense spending almost indiscriminately, any new package backed by the White House could find alternative savings by targeting specific programs for cuts or closing tax breaks, such as those that benefit oil and gas companies or users of corporate jets. Republicans have been warming to the idea of allowing the sequester to go forward because it guarantees sharp cuts in spending. The GOP might agree to other reductions to replace the sequester — especially since many Republicans are concerned about slashing the defense budget — but any proposal to raise taxes would likely be a flashpoint. The president has made clear he expects wealthier Americans and industries with special tax advantages to pay more toward deficit reduction. Responding to news earlier in the day that Obama would make the announcement, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Republicans would oppose any tax increases and noted that Obama was the one who first proposed the sequester. “There is a better way to reduce the deficit, but Americans do not support sacrificing real spending cuts for more tax hikes,” Boehner said in a statement. “The president’s sequester should be replaced with spending cuts and reforms that will start us on the path to balancing the budget in 10 years.” The sequester is not the only looming deadline. A continuing resolution funding the government expires in late March, and the government will shut down without further action by Congress. And there is another deadline to raise the federal debt limit in the summer. A report last week showed that the economy contracted in the fourth quarter of 2012, in part because of sharp reductions in defense spending and concerns about the sequester. “Our economy right now is headed in the right direction. And it will stay that way, as long as there aren’t any more self-inflicted wounds coming out of Washington,” Obama said Tuesday. You’ve heard the word “sequester” mentioned by politicians a lot lately. The Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe explains what the term means, and why it matters. (The Washington Post) Just before the president’s announcement, the Congressional Budget Office released its economic projections for the year ahead. The nonpartisan CBO said that by the end of 2013, the federal budget deficit will come in under $1 trillion — the first time in five years. The gap between taxes and spending is estimated to narrow to $845 billion in the fiscal year that ends in September, the release said. Attributed in large part to tax hikes adopted on Jan. 1 and the sequester set to hit next month, the CBO’s new projections show the deficit continuing its drop in 2014 and 2015, and falling to less than 3 percent of the overall economy for much of this decade. Obama’s push for a short-term solution picked up Democratic support in the Senate on Tuesday. “I agree with President Obama that if we can’t agree now on a long-term solution, the best thing for families and the economy would be to pass a balanced short-term sequestration replacement while the House and Senate work on our budget resolutions," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Senate Budget Committee. The sequester was a mechanism that Congress and the White House designed in 2011 to force policymakers to generate significant deficit reduction over the next 10 years. While they have made progress on that front — gaining more than $2.5 trillion in deficit savings — they have not come to a broad agreement as many hoped. The sequester would slice $1.2 trillion in domestic and defense spending over 10 years, indiscriminately cutting most programs. (Some programs, such as Medicaid and food stamps, are exempt.) The “fiscal cliff” deal at the start of the year postponed the sequester for two months. Obama favors a broader plan to permanently end the sequester and replace it with a series of reductions in health care and other mandatory spending as well as the elimination of tax breaks that benefit the wealthy and industries. He said on Tuesday his offer to Boehner from December, reflecting these principles, is still on the table. Republicans favor deep cuts to spending without raising taxes any more. \|\|\|\|\| Speaker John Boehner is signaling he will not accept revenue increases that President Barack Obama is expected to propose to delay the automatic spending cuts that take hold at the beginning of March. “President Obama first proposed the sequester and insisted it become law,” Boehner said in a statement. “Republicans have twice voted to replace these arbitrary cuts with common-sense cuts and reforms that protect our national defense. Text Size - + reset (Also on POLITICO: What is sequestration?) “We believe there is a better way to reduce the deficit, but Americans do not support sacrificing real spending cuts for more tax hikes,” he added. “The president’s sequester should be replaced with spending cuts and reforms that will start us on the path to balancing the budget in 10 years.” Boehner — and House Republicans, broadly — have been opposed to delaying the sequester. Instead, Boehner is trying to use the scheduled cuts as a way to force the White House to accept reforms to federal spending and taxing. (Also on POLITICO: Obama to push for sequester delay)	– President Obama wants to put off the dreaded sequester just a little while longer. In an address this afternoon, Obama called for a handful of small budget cuts to justify pushing the automatic spending cuts back again, this time until after Congress has crafted a new federal budget, the Washington Post reports. The extra time could be used, Obama said, to come up with a "balanced" long-term deficit fix. "There is no reason that the jobs of thousands of Americans … not to mention the growth of the entire economy should be put in jeopardy just because a few folks in Washington couldn't agree to eliminate a few special interest tax loopholes," he said. But before Obama had even spoken, John Boehner issued a statement dismissing the idea of any deal including more tax revenue, accurately predicting that Obama would call for it, Politico reports. "President Obama first proposed the sequester and insisted it become law," Boehner said. "We believe there is a better way to reduce the deficit, but Americans do not support sacrificing real spending cuts for more tax hikes."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Joy Milne was tested by researchers to see if she could detect people with Parkinson's through a tell-tale odour Meet the woman from Perth whose super sense of smell could change the way Parkinson's disease is diagnosed. Joy Milne's husband, Les, died in June, aged 65. He worked as a consultant anaesthetist before being diagnosed with Parkinson's at the age of 45. Image caption Joy first detected the odour on her husband Les, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's at the age of 45 One in 500 people in the UK has Parkinson's - that is 127,000 across Britain. It can leave people struggling to walk, speak and sleep. There is no cure and no definitive diagnostic test. Joy noticed something had changed with her husband long before he was diagnosed - six years before. She says: "His smell changed and it seemed difficult to describe. It wasn't all of a sudden. It was very subtle - a musky smell. "I got an occasional smell." Joy only linked this odour to Parkinson's after joining the charity Parkinson's UK and meeting people with the same distinct odour. By complete chance she mentioned this to scientists at a talk. They were intrigued. Edinburgh University decided to test her - and she was very accurate. Image caption Doctors tested Joy's sense of smell by using t-shirts which had been worn by six people with Parkinson's and six without Dr Tilo Kunath, a Parkinson's UK fellow at the school of biological sciences at Edinburgh University, was one of the first scientists Joy spoke to. He says: "The first time we tested Joy we recruited six people with Parkinson's and six without. "We had them wear a t-shirt for a day then retrieved the t-shirts, bagged them and coded them. "Her job was to tell us who had Parkinson's and who didn't. "Her accuracy was 11 out of 12. We were quite impressed." Dr Kunath adds: "She got the six Parkinson's but then she was adamant one of the 'control' subjects had Parkinson's. Image caption Dr Tilo Kunath was impressed with Joy's results and is undertaking further research into the phenomenon "But he was in our control group so he didn't have Parkinson's. "According to him and according to us as well he didn't have Parkinson's. "But eight months later he informed me that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's. "So Joy wasn't correct for 11 out of 12, she was actually 12 out of 12 correct at that time. "That really impressed us and we had to dig further into this phenomenon." And that is exactly what they are doing. Scientists believe that changes in the skin of people with early Parkinson's produces a particular odour linked to the condition. They hope to find the molecular signature responsible for the odour and then develop a simple test such as wiping a person's forehead with a swab. The charity Parkinson's UK is now funding researchers at Manchester, Edinburgh and London to study about 200 people with and without Parkinson's. Image caption Katherine Crawford, of Parkinson's UK, said it was an incredibly difficult disease to diagnose A simple test for Parkinson's could be life-changing, according to Katherine Crawford, the Scotland director of Parkinson's UK. "This study is potentially transformational for the lives of people living with Parkinson's," she says. "Parkinson's is an incredibly difficult disease to diagnose. "We still effectively diagnose it today the way that Dr James Parkinson diagnosed it in 1817, which is by observing people and their symptoms. "A diagnostic test like this could cut through so much of that, enable people to go in and see a consultant, have a simple swab test and come out with a clear diagnosis of Parkinson's. "It would be absolutely incredible and life-changing for them immediately." Ms Crawford adds: "They and their professional colleagues would be able to discuss and arrange a treatment programme, be able to monitor the progression of the disease and treat it appropriately as it went on and it would potentially offer more opportunities for people living with Parkinson's to get involved in research." It might have been an accidental discovery but Joy hopes it will make a real difference to people starting out on their own journey with Parkinson's. \|\|\|\|\| A ribbons molecular model of Botulinum Toxin, commonly known as Botox. This protein produced by the botulism bacteria is highly neurotoxic. Yet it's commonly used in cosmetic surgery. In Madagascar, about 500 people every year contract the plague. The widow of a man who suffered with Parkinson’s has triggered new research this week into the condition after she discovered she could “smell” the disease. Joy Milne, 65, told researchers that she had noticed a change in the odor of her late husband, Les, years before he developed symptoms of Parkinson’s. He passed away from the disease, a nervous system disorder whose symptoms include shaking and slowness of movement, earlier this year at the age of 65. 12 Diseases That Just Won't Quit Play Video Is a Killer Virus Out There? Virus hunter Dr. Ian Lipkin explains how they track down dangerous bugs. iStockPhoto “I’ve always had a keen sense of smell and I detected very early on that there was a very subtle change in how Les smelled,” Milne, from Perth, Scotland, said on Thursday. “It’s hard to describe but it was a heavy, slightly musky aroma. I had no idea that this was unusual and hadn’t been recognized before.” About one in 500 people suffers from Parkinson’s, a degenerative illness that is difficult to diagnose and for which there is no cure. She went on to tell researchers, who dubbed her “super-smeller” after finding that she could identify Parkinson’s sufferers from T-shirts they had slept in. 5 Disease Outbreaks Linked to Vaccine-Shy Parents Milne made the connection between the smell and the disease after picking up the same scent from other sufferers. That prompted research charity Parkinson’s UK to this week launch a project to find whether the disease and odor are linked. “It’s very early days in the research, but if it’s proved there is a unique odour associated with Parkinson’s, particularly early on in the condition, it could have a huge impact,” said Arthur Roach, director of research at the charity. “Not just on early diagnosis, but it would also make it a lot easier to identify people to test drugs that may have the potential to slow, or even stop Parkinson’s, something no current drug can achieve.” Robin Williams: Is Parkinson's Disease Linked to Suicide? Researchers are investigating whether the condition triggers changes in sebum, an oily substance secreted by skin, and aim to recruit 200 people with and without the condition for the study. Swabs taken from them will be analyzed by machine at the molecular level, and will also be scrutinized by Milne and a team of smell experts from the food and drink industry.	– Joy Milne noticed a small difference in her husband just before he turned 40. "His smell changed," the Scottish woman tells the BBC. "It wasn't all of a sudden. It was very subtle—a musky smell." He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease six years later and died in June at age 65. Milne found herself supporting the Parkinson's UK charity, where she noticed others had the same distinct smell. She happened to mention her observation to scientists at a talk, and they later put her to the test, presenting her with T-shirts worn by six people with Parkinson's and six without. "She got the six Parkinson's, but then she was adamant one of the 'control' subjects had Parkinson's," says a scientist. Researchers were impressed and dubbed her a "super-smeller," per AFP. Then eight months later, that one control subject returned to tell scientists he had just been diagnosed with Parkinson's. Because of Milne's sniffer, scientists now theorize that changes in the sebum—an oily substance produced by the skin—may occur in people with early Parkinson's. Now Parkinson's UK is funding a study that will see swabs taken from 200 people with and without Parkinson's and studied by a team of smell experts, including Milne. The swabs will also be studied chemically. A proven link between an odor and the disease could make for an easy and clear way to identify a disease that is "incredibly difficult ... to diagnose," as the Scotland director of Parkinson's UK puts it. "It would be absolutely incredible and life-changing." Currently, doctors diagnose the disease largely as they have for the last two centuries: by observing a patient and his or her symptoms. (The human nose really is amazing.)
Alexandria Duval leaves Albany County Court on Friday, Nov. 18, 2016, in Albany, N.Y. Duval, accused of killing her twin sister by driving their SUV off a cliff in Hawaii, is fighting her extradition... (Associated Press) ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A woman accused of killing her twin sister by driving their SUV off a cliff in Hawaii is fighting her extradition from New York to face a murder charge. A lawyer for 38-year-old Alexandria Duval said Friday at her court appearance that it's "highly likely" his client's case is headed to an extradition hearing. She was tracked down in Albany and arrested a week ago. A grand jury in Hawaii indicted her on a second-degree murder charge last month. Authorities say Alexandria was driving an SUV in May with her sister, Anastasia Duval, in the passenger seat when the vehicle crashed into a rock wall and plunged about 200 feet. Authorities say the sisters were fighting over the steering wheel. Alexandria Duval's attorney says the crash was a "heart-shattering" tragedy. \|\|\|\|\| window._taboola = window._taboola \|\| []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-5', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 5', target_type: 'mix' }); _taboola.push({flush: true}); window._taboola = window._taboola \|\| []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-10', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 10', target_type: 'mix' }); _taboola.push({flush: true}); window._taboola = window._taboola \|\| []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-13', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 13', target_type: 'mix' }); _taboola.push({flush: true}); Photo: Thomas Cordy Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close Image 1 of 13 FILE- In this Oct. 12, 2011, file photo, Anastasia, left, and Alexandria Duval, known as Alison and Ann Dadow before they changed their names, stand in the window of their yoga studio in West Palm Beach, Fla. Alexandria Duval was arrested Friday, Nov. 11, 2016, after being tracked down at an Albany, N.Y., home. The arrest comes after the Maui Police Department issued a warrant for Alexandria Duval's arrest when a grand jury indicted her on a second-degree murder charge. She's accused of killed her twin sister, Anastasia, after their vehicle plunged off a Hawaii cliff in May 2016. (Thomas Cordy/Palm Beach Post via AP, via AP, File) ORG XMIT: FLPAP501 less FILE- In this Oct. 12, 2011, file photo, Anastasia, left, and Alexandria Duval, known as Alison and Ann Dadow before they changed their names, stand in the window of their yoga studio in West Palm Beach, Fla. ... more Photo: Thomas Cordy Image 2 of 13 Alison Dadow is accused of driving a Ford Explorer off a cliff in Hawaii, killing her twin, Ann, who was in the passenger seat. The surviving twin is charged with second-degree murder. Alison Dadow is accused of driving a Ford Explorer off a cliff in Hawaii, killing her twin, Ann, who was in the passenger seat. The surviving twin is charged with second-degree murder. Photo: Tom Johnson, HONS Image 3 of 13 Alexandria Duval, wanted on a murder charge in Hawaii, was located in Albany on Friday. (State Police photo) Alexandria Duval, wanted on a murder charge in Hawaii, was located in Albany on Friday. (State Police photo) Image 4 of 13 FILE - In this Oct. 12, 2011 photo, Anastasia, left, and Alexandria Duval, known as Alison and Ann Dadow before they changed their names, stand in the window of their yoga studio in West Palm Beach, Fla. Alexandria Duval, who is accused of killing her twin sister by driving their vehicle off a Hawaii cliff in May, 2016, is being held in a New York jail Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, after again being charged with murder. New York State Police announced over the weekend that Duval, 38,was arrested Friday, Nov. 11, 2016, after being tracked down at an Albany, NY, home.(Thomas Cordy/The Palm Beach Post via AP) /Palm Beach Post via AP) ORG XMIT: FLPAP201 less FILE - In this Oct. 12, 2011 photo, Anastasia, left, and Alexandria Duval, known as Alison and Ann Dadow before they changed their names, stand in the window of their yoga studio in West Palm Beach, Fla. ... more Photo: Thomas Cordy Image 5 of 13 Image 6 of 13 Alexandria Duval aka Alison Dadow appears in Albany County Court with her attorney Terry Kindlon before Judge William Carter on Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union) Alexandria Duval aka Alison Dadow appears in Albany County Court with her attorney Terry Kindlon before Judge William Carter on Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union) Image 7 of 13 Alexandria Duval aka Alison Dadow appears in Albany County Court before Judge William Carter on Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union) Alexandria Duval aka Alison Dadow appears in Albany County Court before Judge William Carter on Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union) Image 8 of 13 Alexandria Duval aka Alison Dadow appears in Albany County Court before Judge William Carter on Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union) Alexandria Duval aka Alison Dadow appears in Albany County Court before Judge William Carter on Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union) Image 9 of 13 Alexandria Duval aka Alison Dadow appears in Albany County Court before Judge William Carter on Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union) Alexandria Duval aka Alison Dadow appears in Albany County Court before Judge William Carter on Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union) Image 10 of 13 Image 11 of 13 Alexandria Duval aka Alison Dadow appears in Albany County Court before Judge William Carter on Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. (Emily Masters/Times Union) Alexandria Duval aka Alison Dadow appears in Albany County Court before Judge William Carter on Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. (Emily Masters/Times Union) Image 12 of 13 Alexandria Duval aka Alison Dadow appears in Albany County Court before Judge William Carter on Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. (Emily Masters/Times Union) Alexandria Duval aka Alison Dadow appears in Albany County Court before Judge William Carter on Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. (Emily Masters/Times Union) Image 13 of 13 Twin sister, 'soulmate' in Albany court for Hawaii death case 1 / 13 Back to Gallery ALBANY — An extradition hearing for a woman accused of killing her twin sister when their SUV plunged off a cliff in Hawaii is scheduled for Dec. 16. Alexandria Duval, 37, appeared Friday in Albany County Court for a hearing before acting County Court Judge William Carter. She was arrested Nov. 11 in Albany by city and State Police. She was wanted for murder in the death of her identical twin sister, Anastasia. "She is profoundly distraught," her attorney Terry Kindlon said, calling the sisters "soul mates." Duval, charged as a fugitive from justice, has entered the courtroom. Watch the video: pic.twitter.com/BT4CwfN9HS — Emily Masters (@emilysmasters) November 18, 2016 Duval's case, and the crash that killed her twin sister, made national headlines. Duval was injured in the crash. Kindlon, from the Public Defender's Office, said she will not waive her right to an extradition hearing. The paperwork prosecutors in New York and Hawaii have amassed "is not sufficient to force extradition so far," he said. An extradition hearing determines if a defendant is the person wanted by law enforcement and if a defendant was at the crime scene, Kindlon said. On May 29, the women's SUV plunged off a 200-foot cliff on Maui's rocky shore during what was described as a hair-pulling fight over the steering wheel, the Associated Press reports. Alexandria, the driver, was arrested and jailed on a second-degree murder charge, accused of deliberately causing her sister's death, the AP reports. The twins were previously known as Alison and Ann Dadow. Kindlon described the crash as an accident. Duval "left Hawaii to come back to grieve, not to escape from justice," he said. The sisters were originally from the Utica area, according to the Star Advertiser of Honolulu. Duval was taken into custody by Maui police after being discharged from the hospital days after the accident. A judge later ordered her release after determining there was no probable cause for a murder charge, the AP reported. Duval was eager to return to upstate New York after the crash to attend her sister's funeral, the AP reported. In late October, a grand jury indicted Duval on a second-degree murder charge and the Maui Police Department issued a warrant for her arrest, CBS News reports A State Police investigator from the New York State Intelligence Center located a possible address for Duval in Albany and Troop G members were notified. On Nov. 11, Duval was seen standing outside the home and tried to flee, but was taken into custody and brought to the Latham barracks, troopers said. Duval was returned to the Albany County Jail. Read more from the Associated Press: Sister charged with murder after crash that killed twin Twin sisters' bickering relationship ends in deadly crash	– A woman accused of killing her twin sister by driving their SUV off a cliff in Hawaii is fighting her extradition from New York to face a murder charge. A lawyer for 38-year-old Alexandria Duval said Friday at her court appearance in Albany that his client is "profoundly distraught" and described the siblings as "soul mates," reports the Albany Times Union. He claimed the paperwork as presented by New York and Hawaii prosecutors "is not sufficient to force extradition so far." Duval was tracked down in Albany and arrested a week ago, after a grand jury in Hawaii indicted her on a second-degree murder charge last month. Authorities say Alexandria was driving an SUV in May with her sister, Anastasia Duval, in the passenger seat when the vehicle crashed into a rock wall and plunged about 200 feet. Authorities say the sisters were fighting over the steering wheel, reports AP. A previous murder case against Duval was dismissed because of a lack of evidence. The extradition hearing is scheduled for Dec. 16.
(Fotolia) According to police sources, a veteran NYPD sergeant has been suspended after allegedly splashing semen on the leg of a co-worker he “liked.” “He was apparently so enamored by her that he threw semen on her,” one source told the New York Daily News. The incident reportedly occurred this January, when 54-year-old Sgt. Michael Iscenko is alleged to have approached a female administrative aide from behind and tossed semen on her as they were walking down a hallway. According to the NYPost, “She suddenly felt something on her leg, looked down, and said to him, ‘What are you doing?’ “ the source said of the January incident. “The uniformed member then walked away without responding.” The woman, whose name was not released, immediately complained to her superiors. The substance on her leg was tested and confirmed to be semen. However, the DNA test needed to match the sample to Iscenko is still pending. “Everyone who has been questioned says he looks very professional; he wears the uniform well,” the source said. “This is not some creepy looking pervert. He’s entirely normal looking.” Iscenko, a divorcee from Long Island who is assigned to the Organized Crime Control Bureau, has been suspended but has yet to be criminally charged. \|\|\|\|\| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites.	– A New York police sergeant allegedly tossed semen on a co-worker as way of saying that, gosh, he really likes her. Michael Iscenko, 54, is accused of throwing his spunk on an unidentified woman at the office where they work, the Grio reports. Iscenko had already expressed his interest to the woman and "was apparently so enamored by her that he threw semen on her," a police source tells the Daily News. The substance has tested positive as semen, and the Manhattan DA’s Office has gotten a warrant for Iscenko to supply a DNA sample to see if there's a match. The woman, an administrative aide at the Organized Crime Control Bureau, had allegedly just walked out of the woman's rest room when it happened in January, the New York Post reports. "She suddenly felt something on her leg, looked down, and said to him, 'What are you doing?'" says a source. "The uniformed member then walked away without responding." The 60-some-year-old woman apparently triggered the investigation by complaining to superiors. Iscenko, a divorcee, is currently suspended. "Everyone who has been questioned says [Iscenko] looks very professional; he wears the uniform well," adds the source. "He’s entirely normal looking."
Are you from South or North Korea? Send us your experiences. (CNN) -- North Korea fired a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday, according to South Korea's semiofficial news agency Yonhap, citing a South Korean military official. On Saturday, North Korea launched three short-range guided missiles into the sea, also known as the East Sea, off the Korean Peninsula's east coast, Yonhap reported. The missiles on Saturday were fired in a northeasterly direction, away from South Korean waters, the ministry said. South Korea has beefed up monitoring on North Korea and is maintaining a high level of readiness to deal with any risky developments, the ministry added, according to Yonhap. According to the Arms Control Association, a U.S.-based organization, short-range guided missiles are generally classified as those traveling less than 1,000 kilometers (about 620 miles). Tensions in the region have eased since a period last month that included near daily North Korean threats of war. Opinion: What North Korea could learn from Myanmar U.S. and South Korean officials feared at that time that Kim Jong Un's regime was planning to carry out a test launch of longer-range ballistic missiles, believed to be Musudans. The South Korean government says they have a maximum range of 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles). Andrew Salmon, a journalist and author based in the South Korean capital, Seoul, said North Korea's reported launch of short-range missiles Saturday should not cause the same degree of concern as the launch of a satellite or medium-range Musudan rocket. "It's a short-range tactical weapon. If any other country launched this kind of weapon, it's a routine test, nobody would be too worried. It's really simply because it's North Korea doing this that it raises concerns," he said. The situation is much less tense in the region than it was last month, Salmon said. "The North Koreans have significantly de-escalated their bellicosity and their rhetoric since the end of April," he said. "The South Korean government, I suspect, will not be strongly condemnatory of this test because right now they are very, very keen to get the North Koreans to the negotiating table." Orphaned and homeless: Surviving the streets of North Korea The recent tensions flared after the North's long-range rocket launch in December and underground nuclear test in February, both of which were widely condemned. Pyongyang's fiery rhetoric intensified in March as the U.N. Security Council voted to tighten sanctions on the regime following the nuclear test. Annual U.S.-South Korean military drills in South Korea also fueled the North's anger, especially when the United States carried out displays of strength that included nuclear-capable B2 stealth bombers. North Korea is demanding recognition as a nuclear power, something the United States refuses to accept. Last month's crisis resulted in the closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. How a North Korean camp escapee changed human rights CNN's Jethro Mullen contributed to this report. \|\|\|\|\| 1 of 4. South Koreans look at the North Korean territory (top) through binoculars at an observation post, just south of the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Goseong, about 330 km (205 miles) northeast of Seoul, May 19, 2013. SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired a short-range missile from its east coast on Sunday, a day after launching three of these missiles, a South Korean news agency said, ignoring calls for restraint from Western powers. Launches by the North of short-range missiles are not uncommon but, after recent warnings from the communist state of impending nuclear war, such actions have raised concerns about the region's security. "North Korea fired a short-range missile as it did yesterday into its east sea in the afternoon, " South Korea's news agency Yonhap reported, citing a military official. A South Korean defense ministry official confirmed the Yonhap report, but did not provide any details. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was concerned about North Korea's launch of short-range missiles, urging Pyonyang to refrain from further launches and return to stalled nuclear talks with world powers. Ban, who spoke to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti during a visit to Moscow, called Saturday's launch a "provocative action". Tension on the Korean peninsula has subsided in the past month, having run high for several weeks after the United Nations Security Council imposed tougher sanctions against Pyongyang following its third nuclear test in February. The North had for weeks issued nearly daily warnings of impending nuclear war with the South and the United States. South Korea's Unification Ministry criticized the missile tests as deplorable and urged the North to lower tensions and hold talks over a suspended inter-Korean industrial park in the North's border city of Kaesong. South Korea pulled out all of its workers from the industrial zone early this month after North Korea withdrew its 53,000 workers as tensions mounted. (Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel in MOSCOW; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)	– Just in case anybody missed the three short-range missiles North Korea fired off into the sea yesterday, Pyongyang launched a fourth missile in the same area today, reports CNN. That flies in the face of Western calls to cool it already, notes Reuters, after UN chief Ban Ki-moon voiced concern, calling yesterday's launches a "provocative action." Saber-rattling or no, the region is still decidedly calmer than last month, a Seoul-based journalist says. "It's really simply because it's North Korea doing this that it raises concerns," he said. "The North Koreans have significantly de-escalated their bellicosity and their rhetoric since the end of April." Seoul, which confirmed the launch today, "will not be strongly condemnatory of this test because right now they are very, very keen to get the North Koreans to the negotiating table."
Two daycare workers have been arrested after surveillance footage allegedly captured one of them burning five toddlers with a hot glue gun while the other watched and laughed, police and prosecutors say. The Chicago Police Department said Lizandra Cosme, 32, and Susana Gonzalez, 27, face charges after five children were injured at the Children’s Learning Place, where they were working, on Dec. 1. Video footage allegedly showed Cosme putting hot glue on the hands and arms of the five 2-year-olds, who appear to grimace in pain as they’re burned, according to ABC 7 Chicago and CBS Chicago. Gonzalez, an assistant at the daycare center, can be seen laughing nearby, the news stations said. “Each of the child victims winced and some whined at the hot glue gun application,” a prosecutor said Monday at a court appearance, according to ABC7. Cosme was denied bail at the hearing. Three girls and two boys were hurt in the incident, police said, but the extent of their injuries is unclear. It is also not immediately known what prompted the burnings, the Chicago Tribune reports. During Monday’s hearing, Cosme’s defense attorney said Cosme’s actions were not malicious, according to ABC7. The attorney said Cosme, who has been working with children for a dozen years, “screwed up.” Prosecutors said Cosme brought the hot glue gun from home to work on a Christmas project, ABC7 reported. She was watching 16 children at the time of the hot glue gun incident, the news station reported. Cosme and Gonzalez could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday. Cosme was arrested Sunday and faces five felony counts of aggravated battery to a child, police said. Her next court appearance is Dec. 26. Gonzalez was charged with five misdemeanor counts of causing the circumstances of endangering a child. The Children’s Learning Place is a licensed child-care facility that serves children between the ages of 6 weeks and 6 years, according to its website. There are four locations in Chicago. In a statement, Lissa Druss Christman, a spokeswoman for the daycare center, said two workers were “terminated” immediately after the alleged incident. “The well being of our students is paramount,” Christman said. The Department of Children and Family Services said it is investigating the incident and did not provide further details. \|\|\|\|\| Lizandra Cosme, 32, of Chicago Two women were charged in connection to an incident at a Logan Square daycare in which five toddlers were injured with hot glue.Lizandra Cosme, 32, of Chicago, was arrested Sunday and charged with five counts of aggravated battery of a child under 13 years old causing great bodily harm. A Cook County judge ordered her held without bail on Monday. She is scheduled to return to court on Dec. 26.Cosme allegedly "caused injury" to the five 2-year-old children - three girls and two boys - on Dec. 1 at the Children's Learning Place in the 3100-block of West Fullerton, authorities said.A second woman, Susana D. Gonzalez, 27, of Melrose Park, was charged with five misdemeanor counts of causing the circumstances of child endangerment, police said.In an email, daycare spokeswoman Lissa Druss Christman said: "The well-being of our students is paramount. Upon learning of the alleged incident, we notified DCFS immediately and terminated two of our employees. We are currently working with investigators."The state Department of Children and Family Services is investigating allegations of abuse , an agency spokeswoman said.Cosme brought the glue gun to the daycare to use on a Christmas project, prosecutors said during a hearing in a Cook County court. Cosme, who had 16 children under her care, was captured on surveillance video applying the glue gun directly to the hands and arms of five 2-year-old children. An assistant in the room with her at the time allegedly stood idly by, laughing with Cosme as this was taking place."Each of the child victims winced and some whined at the hot glue gun application," a prosecutor said, adding that Cosme tried to apply neosporin to one of them after she saw circular burn marks starting to appear.Later in the day, in what appears to have been an effort to cover up what had happened, prosecutors said Cosme asked the father of one of the burned children whether the child had been injured at home. Her actions were discovered, they said in court, after the mother of another child, who is an ER physician, noticed the burns and called the daycare director to inquire about what happened, demanding that surveillance footage be reviewed.Cosme's defense attorney said in court his client "screwed up" but did not act out of malice, citing her 12 years working with young children. \|\|\|\|\| 2 women charged after 5 toddlers injured with hot glue at day care Two women were charged in connection to an incident at a Palmer Square day care in which five toddlers were injured with hot glue on the Northwest Side. Lizandra Cosme, of the Humboldt Park neighborhood, was arrested about 1:30 p.m. Sunday and charged with five counts of aggravated battery of a child under 13 years old causing great bodily harm, according to Chicago Police. An investigation found that Cosme “caused injury” to the five 2-year-old children — three girls and two boys — on Dec. 1 at the Children’s Learning Place in the 3100 block of West Fullerton, authorities said. The extent of the children’s injuries was unknown. A second woman, 27-year-old Susana D. Gonzalez, was charged with five misdemeanor counts of causing the circumstances of child endangerment, police said. She lives in Melrose Park. “The well-being of our students is paramount,” Lissa Druss Christman, a spokeswoman for the daycare, said in an email statement. “Upon learning of the alleged incident, we notified DCFS immediately and terminated two of our employees. We are currently working with investigators.” The state Department of Children and Family Services is investigating allegations of abuse by one of the daycare workers, according to an agency spokeswoman. Cosme was denied bail at a court appearance Monday, according to Cook County Sheriff’s Office records. She was scheduled to return to court Dec. 26.	– Two workers at a Chicago day care were fired and arrested after a disturbing incident that left five toddlers injured. Police say surveillance video captured one of the workers burning the 2-year-olds with a hot glue gun while the other woman watched and laughed, People reports. Lizandra Cosme, 32, has been charged with five counts of aggravated battery of a child causing great bodily harm, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Susana Gonzalez, 27, faces five misdemeanor charges of causing the circumstances of child endangerment over the Dec. 1 incident at the Children's Place day care. It's not clear how seriously the children were injured. Prosecutors say Cosme, who brought the glue gun for a Christmas project, was captured on video applying the hot glue directly to the hands and arms of the three girls and two boys. "Each of the child victims winced and some whined at the hot glue gun application," a prosecutor said during a Monday court appearance. Prosecutors said Cosme tried to cover up the incident, asking a father whether his child had been burned at home, ABC7 reports. They said her actions were discovered when one child's mother, an ER physician, saw the burns and demanded to see surveillance footage. Cosme's lawyer said his client "screwed up" but did not mean to hurt the children.
When asked if the Republican Party - which some predict will win control of the House of Representatives next week - will win a majority in the Senate, the GOP's 2008 presidential nominee declined to foresee success. Appearing on CBS' "The Early Show" this morning, Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., said, "I'm a little worried about some of my Republican friends who are taking a victory lap about a week ahead of time. "And indications are that, as always, the Democrats have a very sophisticated get-out-the-vote operation. We've got to get our vote out. "If I had to predict," McCain told anchor Harry Smith, "and I'm very hesitant to do so, I think we will be up late, or even after election night, waiting to see what happens in California and the state of Washington. I think the election will probably depend on that, as far as Senate majority." Special Report: Campaign 2010 As a co-sponsor of campaign finance legislation that was all but gutted by the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United, which allowed unfettered spending of money from anonymous donors (including corporations, industry groups, unions and non-profits), McCain said the current glut of spending by House and Senate (according to the Washington Post, nearly $2 billion for this midterm) and by outside groups (an additional nearly half-billion dollars, much from hidden sources), was feared. "Yeah, we were worried about that," said McCain (who alone spent about $20 million to defeat his primary opponent J.D. Hayworth), "especially money that comes from sources that are not really known. Or money like the unions that spend without the permission of union members - obviously many union members who don't agree with the far left agenda of the union leadership. "So, it is what it is, and we're in for an interesting election." Looking ahead, McCain was asked about the prospect of compromise in Congress over the Bush era tax cuts, which are due to expire at the end of this year. While most agree that tax cuts for middle class Americans should be extended, battle lines have been drawn against whether the richest two percent of Americans should also have their tax cuts continued. Doing so, Democrats argue, would increase the federal deficit by $700 billion over the next decade. Though a recent CBS news poll shows a majority of Americans say tax cuts for those making $250,000 a year should not continue, Republicans are fighting for them. "Democrats are floating the idea of moving that ceiling up to $1 million a year," said Smith. "If the Bush tax cuts, which are up for renewal, come up again and they say, 'You know what, we'll just only tax people who make $1 million or more,' is that something you might be able to stomach?" "Look, let's just extend them all for a couple of years and then worry about it, and see what happens a couple years from now," McCain replied. "We're not going to get into a bidding war with the Democrats over what level [of] rich people we hate. "Look, we don't need to raise anybody's taxes at this time. Let's extend them for a couple of years, as 45 Democrats in the House said that they were committed to [doing], and let's start attacking the real problem, and that's spending. "Taxes isn't the problem; it's spending that's the problem. And so that's what we need to do." \|\|\|\|\| Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks to supporters at a Republican National Committee rally in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, Oct. 23, 2010.(AP Photo/John Raoux) (Associated Press) Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks to supporters at a Republican National Committee rally in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, Oct. 23, 2010.(AP Photo/John Raoux) (Associated Press) Sen. John McCain is calling Sarah Palin an "outstanding candidate" for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, but says it's too early to endorse her. McCain told CBS's "The Early Show" Tuesday that "I don't think Sarah would want me to, before she's even able to make a decision" about running. The Arizona Republican said "it's very early to start picking winners and losers." He said he still holds his 2008 running mate "in high regard" and said he's been amused by the former Alaska governor's confrontations with "the liberal media." Palin has been active in the campaign, raising money, throwing her support behind a host of tea party-backed conservative Republicans and giving speeches around the country.	– John McCain thinks a lot of people are getting ahead of themselves. Asked on CBS’ Early Show if he’d endorse Sarah Palin for president in 2012, he said she’d make an “outstanding candidate,” but that it was too early to say he’d endorse her. “I don’t think Sarah would want me to, before she’s even able to make a decision” about running, he said, according to the AP, adding “It’s very early to start picking winners and losers.” For that matter, McCain thinks it’s too early to call the midterms. “I'm a little worried about some of my Republican friends who are taking a victory lap about a week ahead of time,” he said. “Indications are that, as always, the Democrats have a very sophisticated get-out-the-vote operation. We've got to get our vote out.”
At a time when store closures are accelerating and struggling malls pockmark the country, county commissioners in Florida have approved a plan to build what would be the largest mall in the U.S. American Dream Miami would also be the most expensive mall ever built, according to Canadian developer Triple Five Worldwide Group of Cos. The 6.2-million-square-foot retail and entertainment complex would cost an estimated $4 billion, Triple Five says. ... \|\|\|\|\| A rendering of the American Dream Mall in Miami, Florida. Triple Five Group The largest mall in the US — called the American Dream — is officially coming to Miami, Florida. Spanning 6 million square feet, the $4 billion retail and entertainment complex will be about twice the size of the nation's current largest mall, the King of Prussia Mall in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The American Dream Miami's developers, Triple Five Group, are also behind the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota, according to The Miami Herald. Set to be located on undeveloped land off the Florida Turnpike, the American Dream Miami will look more like an amusement park than a traditional, dumbbell-shaped mall. The complex will feature a water park with a giant indoor pool, an indoor ice rink, an artificial ski slope, "submarine" rides, dozens of restaurants, and up to 1,200 stores. The project doesn't have a set timeline yet. A rendering of the water park at the American Dream Mall in Miami, Florida. Triple Five Group Triple Five anticipates that 30 million people will visit the property each year. That's about 10 million fewer visitors than the Mall of America, which generates nearly $2 billion annually for Minnesota, according to the developers. The new project has received some pushback. A number of existing malls in Miami argue that the city, which already has a saturated retail market, doesn't need another mall (especially of this scale). Some Miami locals also have concerns regarding the development's potential water and energy use and impact on the city's stormwater system. During a meeting of the Miami-Dade County Commission on May 17, Miami resident Megan Sorbo called the project "an environmental abomination," according to the Herald. Environmentalists from the Sierra Club noted that the mega-mall will be in a low-lying area of Miami, putting the development at greater risk of flooding as well. While Triple Five has received approval from the city, it still needs a series of permits, additional financing, and a proposal for stormwater runoff infrastructure. Triple Five Group As the American Dream Miami moves forward, hundreds of malls and thousands of mall-based stores — from Claire's to Sears— have closed in the past two decades across the US. According to retail analysts, many more may close within the next 10 years, due largely to the rise of online shopping and changing consumer habits. Miami's new complex could provide a more viable model for struggling malls and malls of the future. Unlike traditional suburban centers, the American Dream Miami focuses on experiential attractions, with the water park and ice rink to reside in the atrium. The project fits into the genre of "destination malls," which are often located near urban centers and attract visitors from the entire region rather than only people who live nearby. A rendering of the indoor ice rink at the American Dream Mall in Miami, Florida. Triple Five Group Destination malls, also called "super-regional malls" or "lifestyle centers," use experiential attractions to subsidize regular retail shops. They usually include attractions like movie theaters, bars, casinos, restaurants, rock climbing walls, laser tag, and even roller coasters. In a previous interview with Business Insider, David Smiley, the assistant director of Columbia University's Urban Design graduate program, said that destination malls can be more profitable to developers than normal malls. "The emergence of entertainment as part of the shopping mall is becoming very important," he said. "It keeps people in the center longer. And even if they weren't going to shop for something, they get lured in." A rendering of the indoor ski area at the American Dream Mall in Miami, Florida. Triple Five Group For example, in 2012 and 2013, the Carousel Center in Syracuse, New York re-branded as Destiny USA, and added higher-end restaurants, IMAX screens, an arcade, and indoor go-carting and obstacle courses. According to the mall, the 2.4-million-square-foot complex draws around 29 million people (both from the US and Canada) every year. Triple Five is working on another destination mall in New Jersey, too. The complex, called American Dream Meadowlands, will include a Nickelodeon theme park (similar to the one at the Mall of America). It's set to open in 2019. \|\|\|\|\| Hey, kids, you know what America really needs? Another shopping mall. But not just any shopping mall. What it really needs is a big – no, make that obscenely gargantuan – place with millions of square feet of retail and entertainment space. How about a hotel? A water park? Indoor skiing? And maybe a couple of thousand hotel rooms just to fill out the empty spaces? If you think you’re suddenly stuck in a time warp and this is a story from 2002 that has somehow made it into your news feed, check the time stamp: This baby is so right now, it’s downright frightening. This week, the Miami-Dade County Commission approved zoning changes that will allow American Dream Miami to be built on a 174-acre site within the county. And who better to build it than those zany Ghermezian boys and their Triple Five Worldwide Group out of Canada? For those of you not familiar with the history of shopping complexes the size of Asian city-states, the Ghermezian family first rose to fame building the West Edmonton Mall in Canada more than 35 years ago. At the time, it was truly something that had never existed before in the history of retailing: an immense complex of stores, restaurants, an amusement park, water features and enough food courts to feed an entire nation. It remains the biggest shopping anything in the world. The family next took its formula south of the border and built a slightly smaller version in Minneapolis and dubbed it the Mall of America. Four people who attended the grand opening in 1992 are still wandering the halls looking for the exit to the parking lot. The success of the Mall of America set off a retail feeding frenzy, the after-effects of which the industry is still reeling from today. The Mills Corporation, which had made its name with outlet-based centers, decided it could go store-to-store with those Canadians and broke ground on a massive mall just west of New York City in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Dubbed the Great American Mall, it, too, would have the requisite store-restaurant-ski-extravaganza mix housed in a building that appeared to be paneled with leftover color tiles. In a relatively short period of time, it all went downhill, as if on a literal ski slope. Mills ran out of money, and eventually out of corporate existence. Another developer came in, renamed the festering structure Xanadu and proclaimed it the next great thing in retailing. Apparently the urban legend that the New Jersey Meadowlands is where people go to bury things they don’t want found (remember Jimmy Hoffa?) didn’t resonate with this builder, either, and he likewise hung up his earth-movers after a few years. Enter – you guessed it – the Ghermezians, who convinced Chris Christie, then New Jersey's governor, that they were just the guys to finally get the job done. They took over in 2011 and said the mall – now called American Dream Meadowlands – would be open in time for the Super Bowl being played next door at the new Meadowlands Stadium … in 2014. If you attended that game – or any of the hundreds of other football games, soccer matches, rock concerts or rodeos held at Meadowlands Stadium since then – you’ve no doubt seen the mall next store in various stages of inactivity, construction cranes hovering over the site like vultures waiting to pick at the rotting debris. But on any given day, some work is actually occurring at the mall, and those ever-hopeful Ghermezians now say it will open next year. That could still be as long as 19 months from now – and 16 years from when construction began. Even Tesla builds faster than that. Which brings us back to Miami and this latest venture. The publicity mentions all the usual buzzwords about jobs and the local tourist-based economy being able to absorb a facility like this. No local businesses will suffer, of course, and – let’s be clear – not a penny of public funding will be used to build American Dream Miami. The last major shopping mall to be built in the U.S. was the Mall at University Town Center – also in Florida, by the way – and that opened last June. Before that, it had been three years since what the trade calls a regional shopping mall had been built. According to estimates, there are still about 1,200 shopping malls in the country, but if current trends continue, that number could be cut in half by the time things level off. When Mall of America was built, there was no such thing as e-commerce. When plans were drawn up for the mall in New Jersey, Amazon had been in business for only a few years – and was still basically just selling books and a few CDs. So you can cut developers some slack for the situations they find themselves in today. But c’mon, Ghermezians. America is over-stored, over-shopped and over-bought. We don’t go to movies like we used to, and there’s an Olive Garden or Cheesecake Factory at every retail crossroads in the country. And does anybody really need to go snow skiing in Florida? The business of building retailing in North America was a wonderful one, and it had an insanely good run – until it stopped. One man’s dream is another’s nightmare. \|\|\|\|\| By Allison Pries \| NJ Advance Media If you've lived in, been to, driven by, or flown over New Jersey anytime this century, you've heard of it. The American Dream mall -- the artist formerly known as Xanadu. Over the last 16 years, it has often become the punchline, as money problems and lawsuits plagued the mega development. But, for those still wishing that the mega-mall may one day actually open its doors, the last few years have brought renewed hope. The mall's current developer, Triple Five (the third to take on the project since its inception) seems to be maintaining momentum on its American Dream. Construction is actually happening, and Triple Five promises most of the complex will open in the spring of 2019. The target date has intrigued many, who have watched the dramatic (and expensive) saga of the development unfold.	– In an era of shuttered shopping malls, the biggest one in America is set to be built. Officials in Florida's Miami-Dade County last month approved zoning changes for a 6.2-million-square-foot shopping and entertainment center on a 174-acre site off the Florida Turnpike, complete with an indoor water park, lake, ski slope, ice-climbing wall, 2,000 hotel rooms, and up to 1,200 stores, reports the Wall Street Journal. American Dream Miami—to be "twice the size of the nation's current largest mall" at an estimated cost of $4 billion, per Business Insider—is the somewhat outdated brainchild of Canada's Triple Five Worldwide Group, run by the Ghermezian family. They know a thing or two about shopping malls, having built Canada's West Edmonton Mall, the largest mall in the world when it opened 35 years ago, as well as Minnesota's Mall of America. "But c'mon, Ghermezians. America is over-stored, over-shopped and over-bought … And does anybody really need to go snow skiing in Florida?" Warren Shoulberg writes at Forbes. "I don't see it competing with Disney World," adds a VP of Miami-based Continental Real Estate Companies. Their complaints join those of residents worried about traffic and the environment, and of critics who watched Triple Five struggle to fund New Jersey's as-yet-unopened American Dream Meadowlands mall after taking over the site in 2011, per NJ.com. Critics are also wary of the public subsidies that might be used to open the mall, slated to be the most expensive ever built, but American Dream Miami plans to "be built by private dollars," a lawyer for Triple Five says. Countering what he calls "a campaign of disinformation" by local mall owners, he adds the mall will create 25,000 jobs and attract 30 million tourists annually.
Captain Travolta John Travolta lends his talents as a Qantas pilot and movie star in this Qantas in-flight safety demonstration video. A NEW Qantas safety video introduced by Hollywood actor John Travolta has been labelled "cringeworthy" by the airline's flight attendants and pilots, who are annoyed he calls them a "team" instead of a crew. The three-minute demonstration video, played before take-off on every domestic and long-haul Qantas flight, has angered cabin crew who say a "real pilot" - like Captain Richard de Crespigny, credited with saving 466 lives on the failed QF32 flight from Singapore - should front the message. The video opens with Travolta, named the airline's ambassador in 2010, dressed in a pilot's uniform and hat, announcing: "This is your captain speaking - well, maybe not today. "But I can guarantee that the guys on the flight deck and the greater team care just as much about aircraft safety as I do. "I've been flying over 40 years as a pilot and I can tell you, there's no one I'd rather have at the controls than a Qantas pilot." Staff have taken to anonymous posts on online chat forums to discuss their dislike of the Travolta video. They called on Qantas to use Captain de Crespigny. "Who better than the genuine aviation professionals who saved QF32?," said one Qantas staff member. One Qantas flight attendant, who did not wish to be named, described the video as "corny" and "tacky". Flight attendants say they also have a problem with being repeatedly referred to as "the team " - not flight attendants or cabin crew members - in the video. "We feel it's demeaning to be called "the team", one said. "It makes us feel like we work at McDonald's." Another staff member said he had expected more from the video in the wake of recent safety disasters. "The whole thing seems to make the safety message seem trite," he said. A Qantas spokeswoman said they had received only positive feedback from staff and customers. "We're really happy with the video and we think it's really engaging," she said. Latest News: Cockpit fire forces Sydney-bound Qantas Airbus A330 to force land in Cairns \|\|\|\|\| John Travolta's new introduction to the Qantas Airlines in-flight safety video (played on all domestic and long-haul flights) has been dubbed "cringe-worthy" by Qantas staff, according to the Sunday Telegraph. Travolta appears in a captain's uniform saying cheesy things "this is your captain speaking--well, maybe not today" and calling flight crews "teams." Flight crews ripped Travolta (who flew his own Qantas Boeing 707 to Australia last November), as not being a "real" pilot, according to news.com.au. One staff member said that "the whole thing seems to make the safety message seem trite." Maybe it's not best time to point out that Oprah had Travolta arrive on stage in a captain's uniform in a make-shift Qantas plane when she announced her surprise trip to Australia last fall.	– John Travolta's latest leading role isn't going over too well with Qantas airline's crew. The actor, clad in a pilot's uniform, opens the airline's three-minute safety video, announcing, "This is your captain speaking—well, maybe not today." (Click here to watch the video.) He continues, "But I can guarantee that the guys on the flight deck and the greater team care just as much about aircraft safety as I do. I've been flying over 40 years as a pilot and I can tell you, there's no one I'd rather have at the controls than a Qantas pilot." Among the crew's complaints, as reported by Australia's Daily Telegraph: Referring to flight attendants as "the team:" Says one, "We feel it's demeaning. It makes us feel like we work at McDonald's." Considering the recent safety issues, the tone is too light: "The whole thing seems to make the safety message seem trite." Travolta wasn't the right choice: Some staff felt Captain Richard de Crespigny, who was at the helm of the failed flight from Singapore, would have been the better pick. "Who better than the genuine aviation professionals who saved QF32?" It's just plain lame: Or "corny," "tacky," and "cringeworthy." A Qantas rep called the video "engaging" and said all feedback had been positive.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Harper Lee, photographed here in 2007, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. While Monroeville, Ala., is Harper Lee's hometown, she made New York City her town by choice. It was here she wrote the bulk of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and sweated through the many rewrites of what would become one of the most cherished novels of the 20th century in an airless, one-bedroom apartment in Yorkville. What has been little spoken of until now is the crucial role a New York couple played in bringing the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Mockingbird" to the page. In Mary McDonagh Murphy's documentary, "Hey Boo: Harper Lee & To Kill a Mockingbird," opening Friday at the Quad Cinema, Joy and Michael Brown sit down before the cameras for a rare interview. They relate how they came to give Lee the gift of a year free to write without the need to earn a living. It was Christmas Eve, 1956, when Lee showed up at the apartment of her dear friends with her own modest presents. She'd been working for several years as an airline reservations clerk in a midtown office. She couldn't get the time off to head home for the holidays, so she came to the Browns. Lee wrote about the evening for McCall's magazine after "Mockingbird" was published in 1960, recalling how she found an envelope addressed to her in the branches of the Christmas tree. "I opened it and read: 'You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.' "'It's a fantastic gamble,' I murmured, 'a great risk.' "My friend looked around his living room, at his boys half buried under a pile of Christmas wrapping paper. His eyes sparkled as they met his wife's and they exchanged a glance ... "Then he looked at me and said softly: 'No, honey, it's not a risk. It's a sure thing.'" After briefly stepping into the public eye, the Browns have become reticent again in the wake of a controversy over an as-yet-unpublished biography of Lee. Excitement spread when Penguin Press announced that "The Mockingbird Next Door" had been written by a former Chicago Tribune reporter with input from Lee. Lee, who is now 85 and suffered a stroke in 2007, made a statement through her 99-year-old sister Alice's law firm that she had not "willingly participated" with author Marja Mills. Mills then produced a letter, one prepared by her and signed by Alice, vouching that both sisters had acted as "invaluable guides." The matter is unresolved. Meanwhile, the Browns speak eloquently in the documentary as Michael, a Broadway lyricist who performed in supper clubs around town, explains that in 1949 he received a letter from his friend Truman Capote, "in tiny, little handwriting," saying a friend of his was coming to New York and "would you kindly look after her." The friend was Capote's childhood soulmate, Nelle Harper Lee, who had quit the University of Alabama to become a writer. Those first years in Manhattan were rough going, says Charles J. Shields, author of the biography "Mockingbird." But though she would walk down streets smacking parking meters to shake loose dimes and nickels, Lee had an exceptional social life. "She sort of followed Truman around. He was a literary lion and gave her entree," according to Shields. "All she would say about herself at parties was that she was from Alabama and working on a book." That she was, thanks to the Browns. Michael had received a lump-sum payment, and Joy, a former ballerina who had studied with George Balachine, immediately thought to give it to Nelle. "I knew that if she could get her work seen that she'd have it," Michael recalls, adding later. "But I never, never foresaw anything like this. Like what happened." Joy still sounds incredulous more than 50 years later. "They published 5,000 copies for heaven's sake. Who was going to buy 5,000 copies of this book?" In fact, that first printing of "Mockingbird" fell at least 30 million copies short of the eventual demand. After Lee retreated from fame, sidestepping all public exposure, New York City offered the anonymity that allowed her to ride the subways and visit secondhand bookstores without having to answer what came to be a harrowing question: When was the second book coming? As Anna Quindlen, who pays homage in "Hey Boo" along with other notables like Tom Brokaw and Oprah Winfrey, muses: "I don't know if she felt she couldn't do it, but I prefer to think she wouldn't do it." Lee being Lee, what are the chances we'll ever find out? \|\|\|\|\| Or his spur to a sales force: You gotta be a good greeter — Sell the car! You gotta turn on the heater — Sell the car! And when you get to St. Peter — Sell the car! Sell the Edsel for ’59! For DuPont, Mr. Brown created “Wonderful World of Chemistry,” a show that in all likelihood has had the greatest number of performances of any musical in history. Marion Martin Brown Jr. was born on Dec. 14, 1920, in Mexia, Tex. As a youth, he played the piano and wrote songs; at 15, he entered the University of Texas. After receiving his bachelor’s degree there while still a teenager, he earned a master’s in English from the University of Virginia. After wartime service as a cryptographer, Mr. Brown moved to New York, where he adopted the name Michael. He became a regular at supper clubs, including the Blue Angel, performing his own satirical compositions. One of his best-known original songs from this period is “Fall River Hoedown,” a.k.a. “Lizzie Borden.” A lively ensemble number written for the Broadway revue “New Faces of 1952,” it contained this memorable lyric: Oh, you can’t chop your mama up in Massachusetts And then blame all the damage on the mice. No, you can’t chop your mama up in Massachusetts. That kind of thing just isn’t very nice. The Chad Mitchell Trio popularized that song and another by Mr. Brown, “The John Birch Society,” which included these lines: “You cannot trust your neighbors, or even next of kin./If mommy is a Commie then you gotta turn her in.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story His most widely seen show was without doubt “Wonderful World of Chemistry.” Presented in the DuPont pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, it was a rare example of an industrial musical open to the public. The show, written, produced and directed by Mr. Brown, was performed at least 40 times a day, by at least eight companies, for months on end. Seen by an estimated five million people, the show, 24 minutes long, played some 17,000 performances. Broadway’s longest-running musical, “Phantom of the Opera,” by contrast, has had about 11,000 performances since opening in 1988. It was the modest windfall from just such an industrial show — a musical fashion show for Esquire magazine in the fall of 1956, Joy Brown recalled last week — that let Mr. Brown and his wife help usher “To Kill a Mockingbird” into being. The Browns had met Ms. Lee through her friend Truman Capote. Mr. Brown had contributed lyrics to a song in the 1954 Broadway musical “House of Flowers,” with a book by Mr. Capote and music by Harold Arlen. By 1956, Ms. Lee, an Alabama native, was living in New York. Her longed-for career as a writer was stymied by the need to pay the rent, and she was toiling away as an airline reservations clerk. That Christmas, visiting the Browns, she spied an envelope with her name on it in the branches of their tree. “I opened it and read: ‘You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas,’ ” Ms. Lee recalled in a 1961 essay in McCall’s magazine in which she did not identify the Browns by name. “It’s a fantastic gamble,” Ms. Lee, in the words of her essay, told Mr. Brown. “It’s such a great risk.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story “He looked at me,” the essay continued, “and said softly: ‘No, honey. It’s not a risk. It’s a sure thing.’ ” The result, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” was published in 1960, and for nearly a half-century afterward the Browns and Ms. Lee kept their secret. News of the gift — Ms. Lee insisted that it be a loan — came to light in 2006 with the publication of “Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee,” a biography by Charles J. Shields. In an interview last week, Ms. Brown declined to specify the amount of the loan but said it had long since been repaid. Besides his wife, whom he married in 1950, Mr. Brown is survived by two sons, Michael Jr. and Kelly. Another son, Adam, died in 1994. Mr. Brown wrote music, book and lyrics for the short-lived Broadway musical “Different Times,” staged in 1972. He was also the author of the popular children’s picture book “Santa Mouse” (1966), with illustrations by Elfrieda DeWitt, and its several sequels. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” widely considered a seminal novel of the 20th-century, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961 and was the basis of an acclaimed Hollywood film starring Gregory Peck, released the next year. Speaking by telephone last week, Ms. Brown recalled her and her husband’s astonished delight upon hearing what the book’s original publisher, J. B. Lippincott & Company, planned for it in 1960. “We thought, they’re printing 5,000 copies,” she recalled. “Who in the world is going to buy 5,000 copies?” According to its current publisher, HarperCollins, “To Kill a Mockingbird” has been translated into more than 40 languages and has sold 30 million copies worldwide, a sure thing if ever there was one.	– If it hadn't been for a New York City couple, the world might never have seen To Kill a Mockingbird. Its author, Harper Lee, was a ticket agent for British Overseas Airways in 1956, and it was difficult for her to find time to write with a separate full-time job, Ozy reports. She discussed this concern with her friends Michael and Joy Brown, a couple her friend Truman Capote had introduced to her. Michael, who died this year, worked as a writer of industrial musicals—performances, often with big budgets, that US corporations would produce to inspire their workers, the New York Times reports in his obituary. Michael Brown's work included, for example, a "Love Song to an Electrolux" and a DuPont musical called Wonderful World of Chemistry. The work brought in plenty of money, and at Christmas 1956, Lee found an envelope for her in the Browns' Christmas tree. "I opened it and read: 'You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas,'" she wrote in the 1960s, as the New York Daily News reported. Though she was reluctant to accept the gift—which she eventually repaid—the couple supported her during the period, allowing her to quit her job and write To Kill a Mockingbird. That gift's impact continues to reverberate, as the book still sells more than 750,000 copies per year, Ozy notes. (Lee, now 87, has had her fair share of trouble in recent years: She recently sued her agent as well as a museum in her hometown.)
Donald Trump's presidential campaign is planning on a political convention packed with sports stars. “It’s gonna be a great combination of our great politicians," said Ivanka Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's daughter, during a Wednesday radio interview, according to Buzzfeed, "but also great American businessmen and women and leaders across industry and leaders across really all the sectors, from athletes to coaches and everything in between.” She added that the July 18-21 convention in Cleveland was "not gonna be a ho-hum lineup of the typical politicians.” However, the campaign's efforts to secure the attendance of some of their top choices in the sports world have been rocky. People familiar with the planning of the convention told Bloomberg Politics on Tuesday that campaign aides were lining up several retired athletes, coaches and other sports leaders to appear at the convention. On Wednesday, former undisputed world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and NASCAR CEO Brian France, two of those on the list, both announced through spokespeople that they would not attend. Former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka, another sports legend organizers listed, said he was willing to appear but had not been asked to do so. The list of athletes outlined by those familiar with the planning also included Bobby Knight, the former Indiana University basketball coach who Trump frequently credits for his Indiana primary victory. QuickTake How the U.S. Elects Its Presidents The sports stars’ specific roles at the convention have not yet been finalized, and it is unclear whether any of them will speak on stage to delegates and television cameras. Representatives of those lined up to appear did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday. Get the latest on global politics in your inbox, every day. Get our newsletter daily. Separately, third-party groups have booked musicians to perform at venues throughout Cleveland during the July 18-21 convention: 1970s-era rock band Journey; Bret Michaels, the frontman of the 1980s-era metal band Poison; 80s hitmaker Rick Springfield: country singer Martina McBride, who rose to stardom in the 1990s; country band Rascal Flatts, who formed in Ohio in 1999; and The Band Perry, a siblings trio known for country pop songs. After this story’s publication, Trump said at least one of the sports figures, Tyson, wasn’t asked to fill a speaking role. News of Tyson’s involvement had sparked disapproval online on the same night Trump likened the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal to “rape.” “Iron Mike Tyson was not asked to speak at the Convention though I'm sure he would do a good job if he was,” Trump tweeted. “The media makes everything up!” On Wednesday, Jo Mignano, Tyson’s personal publicist, told Bloomberg Politics that the former boxer will not attend the convention. “He’ll be nowhere near Cleveland,” she said. Trump has boasted in the past about his endorsement by Tyson, who has re-emerged in popular culture in recent years with roles in popular movies like “Hangover” and the publishing of a well-received memoir. “Mike Tyson endorsed me, I love it,” Trump said in April in Indiana. “You know, all the tough guys endorse me. I like that.” Following the Indiana rally, Trump was criticized for touting the endorsement of Tyson, who had served three years in prison after being convicted in the state for raping a beauty pageant contestant. Tyson and France have publicly backed Trump, and Ditka has voiced strong support for the presumptive Republican nominee. On Wednesday, Ditka told the Chicago Tribune that he was "happy to do it" but was unaware of any talks to appear at the convention. A NASCAR spokesperson speaking on behalf of France said Wednesday that he "does not plan to speak at nor attend the convention," according to Motorsports.com. Trump has said on the campaign trail that he wants the event to be a gathering of “winners”—and not politicians, like at past conventions. “We’re going to do it a little different, if that’s OK,” he said in Virginia earlier this month. “I’m thinking about getting some of the great sports people who like me a lot.” The cost for the musical performances will be covered by various private groups, not the Republican National Committee or the convention's host committee, said Kirsten Kukowski, convention spokeswoman. She declined to comment on program details. The organizations hosting the concerts are Concerts for a Cause, the Creative Coalition, the Cleveland Clinic's educational foundation, law firm Jones Day’s foundation and others. A representative of The Beach Boys, one of the bands that organizers said on Tuesday would perform in Cleveland during the convention, issued a denial to Bloomberg Politics on Wednesday. The design for the stage, with curving white staircases and a huge digital screen made up of more than 600 LED panels, was unveiled at a news conference Tuesday inside Quicken Loans Arena. \|\|\|\|\| Former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and ex-Bears coach Mike Ditka will appear on behalf of Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention, reports Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs and Kevin Cirilli. Tyson and Ditka are expected to be joined by former Hoosiers coach Bobby Knight and NASCAR CEO Brian France, according to the report. It’s unclear if any of the four will speak at the convention, but they will be on hand to support Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee. Trump has boasted about his many athlete endorsers throughout his campaign. In a June speech, Trump mentioned Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Dana White as some of his supporters and people who he’d like to invite to the convention. • USWNT star Sydney Leroux is using Donald Trump toilet paper Brady has called Trump a friend, while Roethlisberger backed away from Trump after the speech. The Republican National Convention will take place in Cleveland from July 18–21. [Bloomberg]	– A lot of leading Republicans are planning to skip this year's Republican National Convention, but that won't be a problem for Donald Trump, insiders tell Bloomberg: He was planning to focus on sports figures instead of politicians and has already lined up a few "winners." According to Bloomberg's sources, the sportspeople include boxer and convicted rapist Mike Tyson, Chicago Bears great Mike Ditka, former Hoosiers coach Bobby Knight, and NASCAR chief Brian France, all of whom have endorsed Trump. Trump has bragged about the Tyson endorsement, though the candidate tweeted Tuesday night that Tyson "was not asked to speak at the Convention though I'm sure he would do a good job if he was." Sports Illustrated reports that Trump named Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and UFC president Dana White earlier this month as supporters that he would like to have speak at the convention, though Roethlisberger quickly announced that he won't be at the convention and has no intention of becoming involved in politics during his playing career. Bloomberg reports that musicians booked by third-party groups to appear in Cleveland during the convention include the Beach Boys, Journey, and former Poison frontman Bret Michaels.
“The Giver” was ahead of its time as a book. But as a movie, it’s too late. Published in 1993, Lois Lowry’s young-adult novel was a deeply felt, kid-centered dystopian fantasy. Its world of children learning what their “perfect” society had lost was both archetypal yet new. But on screen, 21 years later, “The Giver” will feel too familiar after two editions of “The Hunger Games,” as well as “Ender’s Game” and “Divergent” — plus “The Maze Runner” and the third “Hunger Games” coming later this year. As a result, “The Giver” is a bland also-ran in a world it helped create. The story is set in our distant future. To avoid war, humans built solitary communities that follow restrictive but polite rules. “Sameness” is crucial (art, love and animals are not). “Parental units” can apply for one boy and one girl. At 18, after being watched their whole lives by omnipresent elders and their leader (Meryl Streep), kids are assigned a job for life. (The elderly have an annual ceremony of being “released to Elsewhere,” a euphemism for death.) Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) is chosen to be the community’s new Receiver — the one person allowed to have books, and the person designated to receive all the memories of what the world was like before the antiseptic civility. To learn it, Jonas becomes the apprentice to the Giver (Jeff Bridges), the elder who possesses all the world’s collective memories. Jonas is chosen because he sees things differently, like the red hair of Fiona (Odeya Rush), a girl he likes. Brenton Thwaites and Odeya Rush exist in a conformist society in ‘The Giver.’ (David Bloomer) Jeff Bridges and Taylor Swift in ‘The Giver’ (David Bloomer) Katie Holmes and Alexander Skarsgard in ‘The Giver’ (David Bloomer) Jeff Bridges mentors Brenton Thwaites in ‘The Giver.’ (twc) The Giver shares with Jonas memories of snow and rainbows, of dissent and bravery, of cruelty and war and love. When Jonas wants to tell his friends about how the world used to be — and save a newborn boy from being killed — he makes his first real choice. Director Philip Noyce’s decision to (mostly) avoid the slam-bang action scenes or banal romance of other blockbusters is laudable. Through Bridges’ gruff but appealing guidance, young audiences may become aware of touchstones — Nelson Mandela, for example, or Tiananmen Square, both of which are glimpsed in the Giver’s memory — that they might normally have tuned out. But that doesn’t mean the film works as it should. The “Brave New World”/“Logan’s Run” society it depicts seems to have influenced the acting, most notably of Katie Holmes, who we can guess was channeling memories of Scientology to play Jonas’ dutiful mother. Streep, meanwhile is an angry matriarch figure, but she’s wasted in an underwritten role. Taylor Swift pops up in an unnecessary cameo as a previous Receiver who didn’t work out. Like the character of the Giver, this is the elder YA tale the others learned from. Too bad the movie is less than the sum of its parts. jneumaier@nydailynews.com Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing! \|\|\|\|\| CLOSE In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world. Philip Noyce's film, based on the much-loved Lois Lowry young-adult novel, boasts a good cast but falls flat on the screen. Brenton Thwaites in a scene from “The Giver.” (Photo: On Screen Entertainment) Story Highlights Critic's review: 2 stars The cast is game but given little to do. It's not a bad movie, just one that falls flat. In a crowd of young-adult works about dystopian futures, the film doesn't stand out. The future doesn't look bright. Not if you judge by movies based on young-adult novels, anyway. Whether it's "The Hunger Games" or "Divergent" or now "The Giver," one would surmise that we are heading toward a dystopian future in which various of our freedoms will be curtailed or taken away completely. It'll be up to a teenager to save the day, or at least bridge the gap between sequels. "The Giver," a rather lackluster, too-obvious effort, is no different in any of those regards. Based on the much-loved, oft-taught book by Lois Lowry, director Phillip Noyce's film is set in a near future that would seem to be a utopia. There is no pain, no war, no class distinction. Everything is black and white. No joke; the scenes at the beginning of the film are monochrome. Of course, there is also no freedom of choice, or freedom of anything, really. No love, no romance, no hugging and kissing. Makes you wonder where all the people come from. Everyone dresses in the same drab, white outfits. All the kids ride the same kind of clunky, white, one-speed bicycles. (Hills seem to have been removed from the equation.) Mention words like "love" and you get smacked down with a "precision of language!" admonition. Brenton Thwaities and Odeya Rush star in a scene from “The Giver.” (Photo: On Screen Entertainment) Once a year there is a ceremony in which all of the kids who are becoming adults are assigned jobs by the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep, no less). They have no say in the matter, of course; it's all decided for them by the Elders. Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) awaits anxiously as his friends Fiona (Odeya Rush) and Asher (Cameron Monaghan) are given their jobs. Jonas won't get one. He is chosen to be the Receiver of Memory. He alone will know man's real history, with all of its ugliness and — duh — beauty, and will use this wisdom to help the Elders run the place. The current Receiver (Jeff Bridges) thus becomes the Giver; during sessions at his bunker-like library (the only books left in society are housed here), he passes everything, good and bad, to Jonas. These scenes are among the film's strongest. It's a crash course in what a 15-year-old would probably string together as history's most important events, along with life's experiences. Flowers bloom, people die. They could have said "circle of life" and been done with it, but Disney would doubtless protest. Whatever the case, the visual mash-up as Jonas receives the information (by clasping hands with the Giver) is exciting, if somewhat rushed. (There's a lot of history to cover, if you're going for all of mankind.) Jonas begins to see in color, and to realize that maybe this seemingly perfect society isn't so perfect after all. What transpires deviates from the book but surprise anyone who has seen this type of movie before (and, given the glut of them, that group probably includes ... I don't know, every girl 16 and younger, probably). Jeff Bridges and Brenton Thwaities star in a scene from “The Giver.” (Photo: On Screen Entertainment) The cast is good but not given much to do in terms of real acting. Alexander Skarsgard is so muted as Jonas' father, for instance, that he's practically somnambulant. Katie Holmes, as Jonas' super-strict mother, meanwhile, is ... well, Katie Holmes. This isn't a terrible movie. It just falls flat, in almost every way. It exists and not much else. It's all too predictable, and way too heavy-handed. Movies like this don't trust their audience enough, as opposed to, say, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" or "The Spectacular Now," two young-adult films based on books that let their audiences discover what they're trying to say, instead of hitting them over the head with it. For "The Giver," you might as well wear a helmet. Review: 'The Giver,' 2 stars Director: Philip Noyce. Cast: Brenton Thwaites, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep. Rating: PG-13 for a mature thematic image and some sci-fi action/violence. Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/Vnb9w8 \|\|\|\|\| 2 out of 4 stars Written by Michael Mitnick and Robert B. Weide Directed by Phillip Noyce Starring Brenton Thwaites, Meryl Streep and Jeff Bridges Classification PG Country USA Language English Year 2014 Another week, another movie about a special adolescent who saves society from the forces of darkness. Lois Lowry's popular 1993 novel, The Giver, was a trendsetter in the juvenile dystopia genre, but 21 years later, in the wake of The Hunger Games, Divergent and The Lego Movie, another movie about a kid rebelling against socially imposed "sameness" is a case of the same old, same old. Lowry's slender 180-page book, which spawned three sequels, offered a middle-school readership the grim pleasures of the totalitarian fictions of George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Ray Bradbury, and the novel became a curriculum favourite. The Giver was also frequently banished from reading lists by conservative parents' groups who objected to material they considered too mature and ethically ambiguous. The movie version, adapted by screenwriters Michael Mitnick and Robert Weide, puts those concerns to rest. The novel's 12-year-old protagonist, Jonas, is now a teenager (played by poster-boy-handsome 25-year-old Australian actor Brenton Thwaites), and the movie's conclusion has all the ambiguity of a sparkly Christmas card. Story continues below advertisement Jonas lives in a closed community on a cloud-ringed plain, surrounded by the off-limits "Elsewhere." Books, music, weather, even memories and colour, have somehow been stripped from daily life. The first half-hour is shot in flat black and white, with elements of colour leaking into the frames gradually, as Jonas's consciousness expands. In Gary Ross's 1998 film Pleasantville, that technique was mischievously charming; here it's a blunt metaphor. The community where Jonas lives resembles a well-regulated campus or gated resort, with boxy modern houses, fountains and manicured lawns. He lives with his assigned family unit, a mild-mannered father (Alexander Skarsgard), tensely proper mother (Katie Holmes) and little sister Lily (Emma Tremblay). They share "feelings" every night, and begin each day with an injection to maintain "sameness." Each year, the big event is a ceremony where the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep, looking like an aging hippie in long hair and bangs) assigns a new group of graduates their life work. Jonas's friend Asher (Cameron Monaghan) becomes a pilot, while the pretty girl, Fiona (Odeya Rush), will become a caregiver. Jonas has a special role: He will become the Receiver, the sole member of his generation allowed to know the group's collective history, and to offer advice to the elders' council. For his training, he goes to the edge of the known world and meets the Giver, an old man in a cottage played by Jeff Bridges, speaking in orotund tones. Bridges, who spent 18 years trying to get this film made (he originally intended his role to be played by his late father, Lloyd Bridges), brings a world-weary crackpot charisma to the part, but he can't really rescue a film that's undermined by self-righteous gaucheness. The Giver's interactions with Jonas set off all kinds of unintended alarm bells: intimate contact, wrist-grabbing, talk of pain, secrecy and giving and receiving. If their data-transmitting encounters eventually prove to be benign, they're also banal, as Lowry's serious but simplified ideas get reduced to a barrage of visual kitsch. Some images are innocuous (a sleigh ride, folk dancing) but the memory flashes graduate to a reel of world events (Vietnam, Berlin Wall, Tiananmen Square) that feels like a parody of a CNN promo. As Jonas learns about the joys and horrors of the past, he also has his eyes opened to the falseness of the world he lives in, a loveless system where unwanted babies and old people are euphemistically "released" (it sounds like a Tea Party paranoid fantasy of Obamacare). Eventually, in the film's third act, director Phillip Noyce gets a chance to show off his action chops with a chase scene across wild terrain involving fancy drone airplanes, cross-cutting dramatic scenes of Jonas's escape with violent events on the home front. In the process, the movie jettisons the eerie uncertainty of Lowry's novel, which ended where an adolescent story should – at the edge of the unknown. \|\|\|\|\| “The Giver” brings to life Lois Lowry’s 1993 novel about a dystopian community. And, according to the Post's Ann Hornaday, if you liked the book, you'll like the movie adaptation. (Jayne W. Orenstein/The Washington Post) “The Giver” brings to life Lois Lowry’s 1993 novel about a dystopian community. And, according to the Post's Ann Hornaday, if you liked the book, you'll like the movie adaptation. (Jayne W. Orenstein/The Washington Post) “The Giver,” an adaptation of Lois Lowry’s Newbery Medal-winning young adult novel, may seem like it’s riding on the coattails of such dystopian action hits as “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent.” But in reality, Lowry’s book may qualify as the ur-text of the form, a slim, futuristic allegory that, since it was published in 1993, has sold more than 10 million copies. In its own way, the movie version — handsomely directed by Phillip Noyce and featuring an appealing, sure-footed cast of emerging and veteran actors — aptly reflects “The Giver’s” pride of place as the one that started it all, or at least the latest wave. Ironically, it wasn’t until its imitators became box office bonanzas that “The Giver” was seen potentially profitable enough to produce for the big screen. Far less noisy and graphically violent than those films, this mournful coming-of-age tale feels like their more subdued and introspective older sibling, even as it trafficks in the self-dramatizing emotionalism and simplistic philosophizing that are so recognizably symptomatic of the YA genre. Set in an indeterminate future long after a vaguely drawn catastrophe called The Ruin, “The Giver” chronicles the story of Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a teenager who has grown up in the Communities, where the all-seeing, all-hearing Council of Elders controls everything from domestic arrangements and careers to climate and sexual “stirrings,” which are carefully regulated by way of daily morning injections. Jonas’s world, which he navigates with his best friends, Fiona (the stunning Israeli actress Odeya Rush) and Asher (Cameron Monaghan), is one in which all conflict, hatred and distinction has been erased by cultural values of conformity and obedience. This is a literally color-blind society, its black-and-white contours reflecting not only the Elders’ monotonously authoritarian sensibility, but Lowry’s own conveniently Manichean imagination, in which emotions and empiricism are at constant zero-sum odds. As “The Giver” begins, Jonas and his contemporaries are about to find out what jobs they’ve been assigned by the chief Elder, played by Meryl Streep in a long gray wig that recalls Holly Hunter’s blunt-spoken separatist leader in the series “Top of the Lake.” It turns out that Jonas — who, unlike his friends and family, is able to see color — has been chosen to be a Receiver of Memory, meaning that he will soon learn all that happened before the world became the reassuringly predictable and consistent bubble in which he grew up. Jeff Bridges and Brenton Thwaites in “The Giver,” an adaptation of the young adult novel by Lois Lowry. (The Weinstein Company) His guide in this endeavor is the title character of “The Giver,” a bearded sage living in an isolated mountaintop aerie played with shamanic gruffness by Jeff Bridges. As it happens, Bridges himself was the prime engine in getting “The Giver” made after a decades-long struggle, during which he intended that his father, Lloyd, play the part he ultimately took as his own. That commitment and seriousness of purpose suffuse a production that will surely please the millions of people who read “The Giver” in middle school, and for whom it became much more than a good book and more like a potent talisman of their own emerging notions of individuation, moral choice and transcendent self-sacrifice. Although Jonas is only 12 in the book, in the filmed version of “The Giver” he is 16 — and played by an Australian in his mid-20s, a digression from novelistic detail that has already sent Lowry’s partisans into howls of how-dare-they distress. But Thwaites, who was recently seen as a handsome prince in “Maleficent,” acquits himself well in a role that makes the most of his sober, Gary Cooper-esque good looks. Filmed in silvery tones of black and white, “The Giver” gradually gives way to a color scheme that is lurid or muted, depending on what experiences Jonas is accessing with the help of his grizzled mentor. Although those memories will eventually send him on a genuine physical adventure, replete with a shattering revelation and high-stakes drone chase, most of the film traces a young man’s dawning awareness that, the ease and peacefulness of his world notwithstanding, there’s something frighteningly toxic at its core. (One quibble with “The Giver” is that, at a sleek hour-and-a-half, some of its most dramatically ripe scenes play too quickly and perfunctorily to convey the impact they’re having on Jonas; no sooner has he witnessed an unspeakable horror than it swiftly disappears, filed away in his burgeoning internal archive.) Like its fellow YA movies — which with the current juggernaut of comic-book adaptations represent the dominant culture in Hollywood — “The Giver” perceptively caters to its teenaged fans’ own cardinal desires and anxieties. Messy feelings, youthful curiosity and unruly physical impulses are valorized and elevated, in sharp contrast to the Elders’ Stalinistic attempts at social control. As a Receiver of Memory, and in one of the film’s most obvious nods to teenaged wish fulfillment, Jonas is given permission to ask questions, no matter how rude, and to lie — and he never has to apologize. Meanwhile, what he hears from parents and other authority figures is portrayed as the stuff of dehumanizing soul-murder. “Precision of language!” Jonas’s mother scolds him when he shares his feelings one night over dinner. Mom, by the way, is played by Katie Holmes in a suitably chilly performance as a rule-obsessed judge, intimations of the actress’s own recent brush with Scientology hovering over her scenes like a teasing, troubling mist. Jonas’s father, equally skillfully portrayed by Alexander Skarsgard, features prominently in “The Giver’s” most disturbing sequence, in which Jonas witnesses one of the grisly realities beneath the anodyne double-speak that he’s now beginning to question. That double-speak, of course, recalls George Orwell at his most anti-totalitarian, as well as Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451,” which may be “The Giver’s” most direct ancestor. Like “The Fault in Our Stars” earlier this summer, young people have once again been given their generation’s version of a message that, although not necessarily new, nevertheless may feel urgent and uniquely timely to its core audience. “The Giver” has been made with deep respect for that experience, and for the book that so powerfully predicted the grim universe movie teenagers now inhabit — for worse and, in this case, for better as well. ★ ★ ★ PG-13. At area theaters. Contains a mature thematic image and some sci-fi action/violence. 94 minutes.	– Excited to head back to your school reading days with the new flick The Giver? You may not be after reading what the critics have to say. Despite big names like Meryl Streep and Jeff Bridges, the film adaptation of Lois Lowry's classic 1993 novel has just a 29% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Here's why: "Another week, another movie about a special adolescent who saves society from the forces of darkness," writes Liam Lacey at the Globe and Mail. The Giver is too much of "the same old, same old" in which "Lowry’s serious but simplified ideas get reduced to a barrage of visual kitsch." "The Giver was ahead of its time as a book. But as a movie, it’s too late," writes Joe Neumaier at the New York Daily News. He's one of several critics to note the similarity to recent flicks like The Hunger Games and Divergent. He acknowledges, however, "young audiences may become aware of touchstones" like Nelson Mandela or Tiananmen Square "that they might normally have tuned out." Oh, and Taylor Swift appears in "an unnecessary cameo." "The cast is good" and there are strong scenes when the Giver, played by Bridges, passes his knowledge on to Receiver Jonas, played by Brenton Thwaites. But the movie "just falls flat, in almost every way. It exists and not much else," writes Bill Goodykoontz at the Arizona Republic. "It's all too predictable, and way too heavy-handed." Ann Hornaday at the Washington Post apparently didn't get the memo. Lowry's novel "comes to life," she writes. It's "handsomely directed" with "an appealing, sure-footed cast," including strong performances from Alexander Skarsgard and Katie Holmes, who play Jonas' parents. Overall, it "perceptively caters to its teenaged fans' own cardinal desires and anxieties," she writes.
In this Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 photo, Indonesian transvestites perform a dance for small change in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesia's attitude toward transgenders is complex. Nobody knows how many of them... (Associated Press) Once, long ago, Evie looked after "Barry" Obama, the kid who would grow up to become the world's most powerful man. Now, his transgender former nanny has given up her tight, flowery dresses, her brocade vest and her bras, and is living in fear on Indonesia's streets. Evie, who was born a man but believes she is really a woman, has endured a lifetime of taunts and beatings because of her identity. She describes how soldiers once shaved her long, black hair to the scalp and smashed out glowing cigarettes onto her hands and arms. The turning point came when she found a transgender friend's bloated body floating in a backed-up sewage canal two decades ago. She grabbed all her girlie clothes in her arms and stuffed them into two big boxes. Half-used lipstick, powder, eye makeup _ she gave them all away. "I knew in my heart I was a woman, but I didn't want to die like that," says Evie, now 66, her lips trembling slightly as the memories flood back. "So I decided to just accept it. ... I've been living like this, a man, ever since." Indonesia's attitude toward transgenders is complex. Nobody knows how many of them live in the sprawling archipelagic nation of 240 million, but activists estimate 7 million. Because Indonesia is home to more Muslims than any other country in the world, the pervasiveness of men who live as women and vice versa often catches newcomers by surprise. They hold the occasional pageant, work as singers or at salons and include well-known celebrity talk show host Dorce Gamalama. However, societal disdain still runs deep _ when transgenders act in TV comedies, they are invariably the brunt of the joke. They have taken a much lower profile in recent years, following a series of attacks by Muslim hard-liners. And the country's highest Islamic body has decreed that they are required to live as they were born because each gender has obligations to fulfill, such as reproduction. "They must learn to accept their nature," says Ichwan Syam, a prominent Muslim cleric at the influential Indonesian Ulema Council. "If they are not willing to cure themselves medically and religiously" they have "to accept their fate to be ridiculed and harassed." Many transgenders turn to prostitution because jobs are hard to find and because they want to live according to what they believe is their true gender. In doing so, they put themselves at risk of contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Some, like Evie, have decided it's better to hide their feelings. Others are pushing back. Last month, a 50-year-old Indonesian transvestite applied to be the next leader of the national human rights commission, showing up in a borrowed luxury vehicle with paparazzi cameras flashing as she stepped out. "I'm too ugly to be a prostitute," Yuli Retoblaut said, chuckling. "But I can be their bodyguard." The threat of violence is very real: Indonesia's National Commission for Human Rights receives about 1,000 reports of abuses per year, ranging from murder and rape to the disruption to group activities. Worldwide, at least one person is killed every other day, according to the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, which collects homicide reports. Evie says she chose her current name because she thought it sounded sweet. But she adds, as she pulls out her national identification card, her official name is Turdi and gender male. Several longtime residents of Obama's old Menteng neighborhood confirmed that Turdi had worked there as his nanny for two years, also caring for his baby sister Maya. When asked about the nanny, the White House had no comment. Evie, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, now lives in a closet-sized hovel in a tightly packed slum in an eastern corner of Jakarta, collecting and scrubbing dirty laundry to pay for food. She wears baggy blue jeans and a white T-shirt advertising a tranquil beach resort far away in a place she's never been. She speaks softly, politely, and a deep worry line is etched between her eyes. As a child, Evie was often beaten by a father who couldn't stand having such a "sissy" for a son. "He wanted me to act like a boy, even though I didn't feel it in my soul," she says. Teased and bullied, she dropped out of school after the third grade and decided to learn how to cook. As it turned out, she was pretty good at it, making her way into the kitchens of several high-ranking officials by the time she was a teenager, she recalls with a smile and a wink. And so it was, at a cocktail party in 1969, that she met Ann Dunham, Barack Obama's mother, who had arrived in the country two years earlier after marrying her second husband, Indonesian Lolo Soetoro. Dunham was so impressed by Evie's beef steak and fried rice that she offered her a job in the family home. It didn't take long before Evie also was 8-year-old Barry's caretaker, playing with him and bringing him to and from school. Neighbors recalled that they often saw Evie leave the house in the evening fully made up and dressed in drag. But she says it's doubtful Barry ever knew. "He was so young," says Evie. "And I never let him see me wearing women's clothes. But he did see me trying on his mother's lipstick, sometimes. That used to really crack him up." When the family left in the early 1970s, things started going downhill. She moved in with a boyfriend. That relationship ended three years later, and she became a sex worker. "I tried to get a job as a maid, but no one would hire me," says Evie. "I needed money to buy food, get a place to stay." It was a cat-and-mouse game with security guards and _ because the country was still under the dictatorship of Gen. Suharto _ soldiers. They often rounded up "banshees" or "warias," as they are known locally, loaded them into trucks, and brought them to a field where they were kicked, hit and otherwise abused. The raid that changed everything came in 1985. She and her friends scattered into dark alleys to escape the swinging batons. One particularly beautiful girl, Susi, jumped into a canal strewn with garbage. When things quieted, those who ran went back to look for her. "We searched all night," says Evie, who is still haunted by the memory of her friend's face. "Finally ... we found her. It was horrible. Her body swollen, face bashed in." Today Evie seeks solace in religion, going regularly to the mosque and praying five times a day. She says she's just waiting to die. "I don't have a future anymore." She says she didn't know the boy she helped raise won the 2008 U.S. presidential election until she saw a picture of the family in local newspapers and on TV. She blurted out that she knew him. "I couldn't believe my eyes," she says, breaking into a huge grin. Her friends at first laughed and thought she was crazy, but those who live in the family's old neighborhood say it's true. "Many neighbors would remember Turdi ... she was popular here at that time," says Rudy Yara, who still lives across the street from Obama's former house. "She was a nice person and was always patient and caring in keeping young Barry." Evie hopes her former charge will use his power to fight for people like her. Obama named Amanda Simpson, the first openly transgender appointee, as a senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department in 2010. For Evie, who's now just trying to earn enough to survive each day on Jakarta's streets, the election victory itself was enough to give her a reason _ for the first time in a long time _ to feel proud. "Now when people call me scum," she says, "I can just say: 'But I was the nanny for the President of the United States!'" ____ Associated Press writer Robin McDowell contributed from Jakarta. \|\|\|\|\| Once, long ago, Evie looked after "Barry" Obama, the kid who would grow up to become the world's most powerful man. Now, his transgender former nanny has given up her tight, flowery dresses, her brocade vest and her bras, and is living in fear on Indonesia's streets. In this Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 photo, Evie, also known as Turdi, the former nanny of U.S. President Barack Obama, irons laundry in her room at a boarding house in a slum in Jakarta, Indonesia. Evie, who... (Associated Press) In this Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 photo, Evie, also known as Turdi, the former nanny of U.S. President Barack Obama, stands at the doorway of her room at a boarding house in a slum in Jakarta, Indonesia.... (Associated Press) In this Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 photo, Evie, also known as Turdi, the former nanny of U.S. President Barack Obama, shows a picture of herself, left, dressed as a woman with an unidentified friend in a pageant,... (Associated Press) In this Friday, Jan. 20, 2012 photo, an Indonesian transvestite Yulianus Retoblaut who is also known as Mami Yulie, center, is accompanied by fellow transvestites as she is interviewed by a local TV after... (Associated Press) In this Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 photo, Indonesian transvestites perform a dance for small change in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesia's attitude toward transgenders is complex. Nobody knows how many of them... (Associated Press) Evie, who was born a man but believes she is really a woman, has endured a lifetime of taunts and beatings because of her identity. She describes how soldiers once shaved her long, black hair to the scalp and smashed out glowing cigarettes onto her hands and arms. The turning point came when she found a transgender friend's bloated body floating in a backed-up sewage canal two decades ago. She grabbed all her girlie clothes in her arms and stuffed them into two big boxes. Half-used lipstick, powder, eye makeup _ she gave them all away. "I knew in my heart I was a woman, but I didn't want to die like that," says Evie, now 66, her lips trembling slightly as the memories flood back. "So I decided to just accept it. ... I've been living like this, a man, ever since." Indonesia's attitude toward transgenders is complex. Nobody knows how many of them live in the sprawling archipelagic nation of 240 million, but activists estimate 7 million. Because Indonesia is home to more Muslims than any other country in the world, the pervasiveness of men who live as women and vice versa often catches newcomers by surprise. They hold the occasional pageant, work as singers or at salons and include well-known celebrity talk show host Dorce Gamalama. However, societal disdain still runs deep _ when transgenders act in TV comedies, they are invariably the brunt of the joke. They have taken a much lower profile in recent years, following a series of attacks by Muslim hard-liners. And the country's highest Islamic body has decreed that they are required to live as they were born because each gender has obligations to fulfill, such as reproduction. "They must learn to accept their nature," says Ichwan Syam, a prominent Muslim cleric at the influential Indonesian Ulema Council. "If they are not willing to cure themselves medically and religiously" they have "to accept their fate to be ridiculed and harassed." Many transgenders turn to prostitution because jobs are hard to find and because they want to live according to what they believe is their true gender. In doing so, they put themselves at risk of contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Some, like Evie, have decided it's better to hide their feelings. Others are pushing back. Last month, a 50-year-old Indonesian transvestite applied to be the next leader of the national human rights commission, showing up in a borrowed luxury vehicle with paparazzi cameras flashing as she stepped out. "I'm too ugly to be a prostitute," Yuli Retoblaut said, chuckling. "But I can be their bodyguard." The threat of violence is very real: Indonesia's National Commission for Human Rights receives about 1,000 reports of abuses per year, ranging from murder and rape to the disruption to group activities. Worldwide, at least one person is killed every other day, according to the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, which collects homicide reports. Evie says she chose her current name because she thought it sounded sweet. But she adds, as she pulls out her national identification card, her official name is Turdi and gender male. Several longtime residents of Obama's old Menteng neighborhood confirmed that Turdi had worked there as his nanny for two years, also caring for his baby sister Maya. When asked about the nanny, the White House had no comment. Evie, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, now lives in a closet-sized hovel in a tightly packed slum in an eastern corner of Jakarta, collecting and scrubbing dirty laundry to pay for food. She wears baggy blue jeans and a white T-shirt advertising a tranquil beach resort far away in a place she's never been. She speaks softly, politely, and a deep worry line is etched between her eyes. As a child, Evie was often beaten by a father who couldn't stand having such a "sissy" for a son. "He wanted me to act like a boy, even though I didn't feel it in my soul," she says. Teased and bullied, she dropped out of school after the third grade and decided to learn how to cook. As it turned out, she was pretty good at it, making her way into the kitchens of several high-ranking officials by the time she was a teenager, she recalls with a smile and a wink. And so it was, at a cocktail party in 1969, that she met Ann Dunham, Barack Obama's mother, who had arrived in the country two years earlier after marrying her second husband, Indonesian Lolo Soetoro. Dunham was so impressed by Evie's beef steak and fried rice that she offered her a job in the family home. It didn't take long before Evie also was 8-year-old Barry's caretaker, playing with him and bringing him to and from school. Neighbors recalled that they often saw Evie leave the house in the evening fully made up and dressed in drag. But she says it's doubtful Barry ever knew. "He was so young," says Evie. "And I never let him see me wearing women's clothes. But he did see me trying on his mother's lipstick, sometimes. That used to really crack him up." When the family left in the early 1970s, things started going downhill. She moved in with a boyfriend. That relationship ended three years later, and she became a sex worker. "I tried to get a job as a maid, but no one would hire me," says Evie. "I needed money to buy food, get a place to stay." It was a cat-and-mouse game with security guards and _ because the country was still under the dictatorship of Gen. Suharto _ soldiers. They often rounded up "banshees" or "warias," as they are known locally, loaded them into trucks, and brought them to a field where they were kicked, hit and otherwise abused. The raid that changed everything came in 1985. She and her friends scattered into dark alleys to escape the swinging batons. One particularly beautiful girl, Susi, jumped into a canal strewn with garbage. When things quieted, those who ran went back to look for her. "We searched all night," says Evie, who is still haunted by the memory of her friend's face. "Finally ... we found her. It was horrible. Her body swollen, face bashed in." Today Evie seeks solace in religion, going regularly to the mosque and praying five times a day. She says she's just waiting to die. "I don't have a future anymore." She says she didn't know the boy she helped raise won the 2008 U.S. presidential election until she saw a picture of the family in local newspapers and on TV. She blurted out that she knew him. "I couldn't believe my eyes," she says, breaking into a huge grin. Her friends at first laughed and thought she was crazy, but those who live in the family's old neighborhood say it's true. "Many neighbors would remember Turdi ... she was popular here at that time," says Rudy Yara, who still lives across the street from Obama's former house. "She was a nice person and was always patient and caring in keeping young Barry." Evie hopes her former charge will use his power to fight for people like her. Obama named Amanda Simpson, the first openly transgender appointee, as a senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department in 2010. For Evie, who's now just trying to earn enough to survive each day on Jakarta's streets, the election victory itself was enough to give her a reason _ for the first time in a long time _ to feel proud. "Now when people call me scum," she says, "I can just say: 'But I was the nanny for the President of the United States!'" ____ Associated Press writer Robin McDowell contributed from Jakarta.	– Indonesia is home to 7 million transgendered people who face ongoing harassment, rape, and murder—and Barack Obama's former nanny is among their ranks. Following years of abuse, Evie, born a man, decided to leave cross-dressing behind after a friend was brutally murdered in 1985, the AP reports, in an exclusive look at her predicament and the situation in Indonesia at large. Though the lifestyle is very much in the public eye—a major talk-show host is transgendered—attacks have mounted in recent years, and the country's top Islamic organization has condemned the transgender lifestyle, the AP reports. "They must learn to accept their nature" or "accept their fate to be ridiculed and harassed," says a top cleric. As a child, Evie dropped out of school and pursued a career in cooking, eventually finding work as a cook for Obama's mother in 1969. During that time, she became a de facto nanny to an 8-year-old Barack and sister Maya. And though she often went out at night dressed as a woman, "I never let him see me wearing women's clothes. But he did see me trying on his mother's lipstick, sometimes. That used to really crack him up." But after the family moved away, Evie fell on hard times and ultimately became a sex worker. Today, she says she doesn't "have a future anymore" and is simply counting down the days until she dies. Still, when she found out that Obama had become president, "I couldn't believe my eyes," she notes. "Now when people call me scum, I can just say: 'But I was the nanny for the president of the United States!'"
Curious what people are up to when it comes to sex? For some of us, not much, according to a new report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics which painstakingly details the country’s sexual habits. Based on in-person interviews with approximately 13,500 men and women between the ages of 15 to 44, the report describes who’s having sex with whom, what kind of sex they’re having, and who has yet to become sexually involved. Yes, virginity is apparently making a comeback. Researchers found that between 2006 and 2008, the percentage of 15- to 24-year-old men who had never had any form of sexual contact with another person was 27 percent (up from 22 percent in 2002) while the percentage of 15- to 24-year-old females who had never had any sex whatsoever was 29 percent (up 7 percent points from 22 percent in 2002). Anjani Chandra, a health scientist at the NCHS and lead author of the study, says 15- to 19-year-olds made up the lion’s share of this category, a finding that seems to counter other reports regarding teen sex trends. “I think a lot of people misconstrue this as meaning they’ve never had vaginal sex,” she says. “But this is no sexual contact of any kind. They didn’t have oral sex or anal sex. They didn’t have anything.” Chandra says she couldn’t speculate as to why there appears to be more virgins in our midst, but said it could be due to sex education, messages about abstinence or that it might hinge on the truthfulness of the respondents. “It’s what they’re telling us and we have to take it on faith,” she says. Women more likely to have same-sex experiences Further data collected from the survey, which asked men and women about their sexual behavior, sexual attraction and sexual identity, found that among adults aged 25 to 44, about 98 percent of females and 97 percent of males have had vaginal intercourse; 89 percent of females and 90 percent of men have had oral sex with an opposite-sex partner; and 36 percent of females and 44 percent of males have had anal sex with an opposite-sex partner. The survey also found that women aged 15 to 44 were more than twice as likely to have had a same-sex experience as men of the same age (in 2006-2008, approximately 12.5 percent of women reported a same-sex experience compared with 5.2 percent of men). Other data showed that women with four or more sexual partners in their lifetime were more likely to have had a female sexual partner, compared with women who had had no male partners or women who’ve had only one male partner. While the percentage of men and women who reported they were either straight or homosexual was similar, the percentage of women who reported they were bisexual was more than three times as high as men. Chandra says one of the things that stood out for her in the report was the same-sex reporting for women. “There was speculation that it was possibly just experimentation among college girls but we didn’t see anything to support that,” she says. “We saw the opposite. When we look at college-degreed women, they were less likely to report same-sex activity than other educational groups. Among men, there’s more same-sex activity among higher-educated men. And for women, the highest level of same-sex activity was reported by those with less education.” Sexual categories more fluid than thought? According to Chandra, data from the survey — which tapped a general household population and did not include high-risk groups such as the homeless or incarcerated — will be used to provide better education and STD prevention efforts. But she says the data is also essential in order to better understand people’s sexual activities and proclivities. “It’s important to realize there are not separate groups of sexual people,” she says. “You can’t just think ‘Here are the heterosexual people; here are the homosexual people.’ People draw their partners from all different places. There are not necessarily clear boundaries between the population groups that engage in this behavior or that behavior.” Survey data was collected in person by about 40 female interviewers who met one-on-one with participants. Using a laptop, participants would see the question on the screen or listen to a question through a set of headphones. They would then type their answer directly onto the computer, a method that, according to the report, “has been found to yield more complete reporting of sensitive behaviors.” The audio for the interview questions – many of them quite explicit (i.e., “Has a male ever put his penis in your rectum or butt — also known as anal sex?”) — was recorded by a female employee of the University of Michigan. “We are considering whether we should use a computer-generated voice for future surveys, though,” says Chandra. “Or we might try out ways where a respondent could choose different voices.” \|\|\|\|\| Among the findings of a sweeping federal government survey of American sexual behavior is one that may surprise those bewailing a permissive and eros-soaked popular culture: More than one-quarter of people interviewed in their late teens and early 20s had never had sex. And the number was growing. The latest round of the quaintly named National Survey of Family Growth found that among 15-to-24-year-olds, 29 percent of females and 27 percent of males reported no sexual contact with another person ever - up from the 22 percent of both sexes when the survey was last conducted in 2002. "The public's general perception is that when it comes to young people and sex, the news is bad and likely to get worse," said Bill Albert, chief program officer of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, an advocacy organization in Washington. The seventh and latest round of the survey, first done in 1973, provides a corrective to that view. "Many, many young people have been very receptive to the message of delaying sexual activity," Albert said. "There's no doubt about it." He added that the nearly 40 percent reduction in teen pregnancy since the 1990s - which experts attribute to both increased condom use and increased abstinence - represents "extraordinary progress on a social issue that many once considered intractable." The uptick in abstinence is one of many revealing facts arising from structured interviews with a random sample of 13,495 Americans, ages 15 to 44, that were done from 2006 to 2008. The findings provide evidence for almost every theory and supposition about the nation's secret sex life. The survey results, released Thursday, suggest that oral sex may be a gateway to vaginal sex but that for some teens it is a stopping point. Most adults are monogamous. About 4 in 10 adults have had anal sex. Women are more likely than men to have same-sex liaisons. Or at least are more comfortable talking about them. Conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services, the survey provides basic information for public health policymakers concerned with such issues as sexually transmitted disease. There is no single fact that it is trying to ferret out or message that its 49 pages of text and tables seek to deliver. But Anjani Chandra, the demographer who is the lead author of the report, said that "for some people, it may be news that these behaviors exist at all in the general population." When first run, the survey queried only married and formerly married women. Single women and then men were later included, as were more detailed questions about sexual practices. Parts of the survey are now so explicit that even though the interviewer and subject are face to face, some questions are asked and answered using a computer screen so that the answers are completely private.	– A new federal study suggests more young men and women are remaining virgins longer. In the 15-24 age group, 27% of men and 29% of women say they've never had a sexual encounter of any kind, reports MSNBC. That's up from 22% for both groups from the last study in 2002. Other findings: In the 25-44 age group, 97% of men and 98% of women have had vaginal intercourse, and about 90% in both groups have had oral sex, notes the Washington Post. 36% of women and 44% of men in the age group have had anal sex. 12.5% of women reported a same-sex experience, vs. 5.2% of men. 21% of men say they've had at least 15 sex partners, compared with 8% of women. To read about Northwestern's hey-watch-this approach to sex ed, click here.
Many of us drink a cup of coffee on the way to work or chow down on some food while driving.But in New Jersey that could soon land you a ticket, or stiff fines.A controversial new bill, calling for hefty fines and even a driver's license suspension, is making its way through the legislature.Many are wondering, does this distracted driving bill go too far?However, while many are harping on the possibility that motorists would be pulled over simply for drinking coffee, the evidence strongly suggests something needs to be done to drastically reduce distracted driving.According to the latest figures from the federal government, in 2014 there were some 400,000 accidents involving distracted drivers, and 3,000 of those resulted in death.Those numbers are shocking, and sadly most of the accidents were preventable."There are 3,000 people who didn't make it home for reasons that are entirely preventable," said Assemblyman John Wisniewski. "Those reasons are keeping your eye on the road."The proposed law seeks to stop motorists who like to multi-task and take their attention away from driving to do such things as text, use computers, eat or drink without paying attention to the road.The proposed fines for violators are $200 to $400 for the first offense and $400 to $600 for a second offense.A third offense could mean a fine of $600 to $800 and up to a 90 day license suspension, as well as motor vehicle points.Some see the law as an overreach, but lawmakers say it's all about safety and saving lives. \|\|\|\|\| TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Drivers who drink coffee behind the wheel don't need to worry about getting a ticket in New Jersey any time soon. The sponsor of a bill targeting distracted driving says his measure doesn't specifically cite coffee, despite recent news reports focusing on the beverage. Democratic Assemblyman John Wisniewski said the legislation is aimed at discouraging distracted driving and that he cannot imagine that a police officer would pull anyone over for drinking coffee. Current law already prohibits texting or talking without a hands-free device. The new legislation is broader and would bar "any activity unrelated to the actual operation of a motor vehicle in a manner that interferes with the safe operation of the vehicle." Wisniewski says he sponsored the bill , which doesn't mention eating or drinking, to avoid the need for new legislation every time technology changes. He introduced the measure seven months ago, but he has yet to bring it up for a vote in a committee he leads. It also never came up for a vote in the two previous legislative sessions in which he introduced similar bills. Wisniewski said he was surprised by the reaction to the legislation. He said the outcry against the bill has been so strong that his inbox has filled up even more than when he proposed a 25-cent-per-gallon increase in the gas tax. Wisniewski said when he introduced the bill before, people worried he was trying to stop them from eating sandwiches while driving. "It was the 'ham sandwich bill' last time," he said. "Now it's coffee." \|\|\|\|\| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. \|\|\|\|\| Put down the coffee, bagel or hairbrush and drive! Or else! A bill winding its way through Trenton would impose stiff fines and even a possible license suspension for drivers who eat, drink, groom, read or use electronic devices behind the wheel. Violators could face a $200 to $400 fine for the first offense and a $400 to $600 fine for a second offense. A third or subsequent offense could mean a fine of $600 to $800 and up to a 90 day license suspension, as well as motor vehicle points. The sponsors of the bill, Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D- Middlesex and Nicholas Chiaravalloti, D-Hudson, said it is modeled after a law in Maine and is intended to educate, not punish drivers. "The issue is that we need to try, in every way, to discourage distracted driving, it's dangerous," Wisniewski said. "Education and enforcement can change the attitudes of people." Some experts say that motorists must be discouraged from multitasking while driving. Others say the bill is an overreach and questioned how police could enforce it. "This proposed distracted driving law is not needed, since three statutes can be used when a distraction causes unsafe actions, like swerving or crossing a line," said Steve Carrellas, policy and government affairs director for the National Motorists Association state chapter. "There is unsafe driving, careless driving and reckless driving." Supporters of the bill must come to terms with the fact that a certain level of multitasking by drivers is a reality, Carrellas said. "Would [the bill] make changing the radio station or adjusting the volume illegal? What about talking to a passenger?" Carrellas asked. Arnold Anderson, the Essex County Community Traffic Safety Program coordinator, said its imperative that motorists break the habit of doing more than one thing while driving. "You've got to get people out of the mindset of multitasking," said Arnold Anderson, " You can't multitask. We are so far away from the mindset of ... just drive." This kills more drivers than anything else Officials from AAA said that a distraction law would be hard to enforce since an officer would have to observe how the driver was distracted, but also that the bill may have a higher purpose. "The legislation introduced by Assemblyman Wisniewski, while admirable in theory, may not help police enforce the law," said Tracy Noble, AAA Mid-Atlantic spokeswoman. But a distraction law could have a similar effect as seat belt laws, which Noble and Anderson credited for increasing seat belt use in the state, even without fines. "The more widespread the message of eliminating distractions becomes, the more likely it is to be ingrained in everyday behavior, similar to seat belt usage," Noble said. Currently, New Jersey has laws banning the use of hand-held cell phones and texting while driving, but no prohibitions of other behavior that is considered distracting, according to the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety. Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com . Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry . Find NJ.com on Facebook	– A New Jersey lawmaker wants to slap stiff fines on motorists guilty of distracted driving, which his bill defines as "any activity unrelated to the actual operation of a motor vehicle in a manner that interferes with the safe operation of the vehicle." A story at NJ.com translates that to mean anyone caught drinking, eating, grooming, or reading an e-device, which in turn has led to a spate of stories suggesting that coffee will soon be outlawed in cars across the state. Not so much, reports the AP. Democratic Assemblyman John Wisniewski says his bill never mentions the beverage, adding that he'd be stunned if police pulled over a driver just for taking a morning sip. "It was the 'ham sandwich bill' last time," he says, referring to a previous iteration of the bill. "Now it's coffee." Still, he says he's serious about distracted driving, which was blamed for 400,000 accidents and 3,000 deaths in 2014, ABC7 reports. First-time offenders risk being slapped with a fine of up to $400—and $800 for a subsequent breach, plus a 90-day license suspension. Some critics say the legislation, inspired by a similar bill in Maine, goes too far. Steve Carrellas of the state National Motorists Association chapter told NJ.com that existing laws already cover “unsafe actions, like swerving or crossing a line.” He added, "Would [the bill] make changing the radio station or adjusting the volume illegal?" There's time to figure all that out: The measure has yet to come up for a vote even in committee. (A new report calls attention to drowsy drivers.)
Ken Mehlman is gay. Lots of people thought so, but nobody knew for sure until Mehlman began telling friends and family in recent months. Now it's public: Mehlman has given a full interview to the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder. This is a big deal. Mehlman managed President Bush's re-election campaign in 2004 and chaired the Republican National Committee from 2005 to 2007. Many influential Republicans have worked with him and respect him. He makes it harder for them to think of homosexuality as a behavior. They now know somebody who is gay. Or, as Donald Rumsfeld might have put it, they now know that they know somebody who is gay. That's important, because if you look at polls over the last 30 or 40 years, two factors have been driving public opinion in the direction of gay rights. One is whether you know someone who's openly gay. More and more people do, and those who do are more tolerant of homosexuality. The other factor is whether you think it's involuntary. This belief, too, has increased over time, and tolerance has increased with it. It's pretty hard to imagine that the guy who ran the GOP during its recent campaigns against gay marriage would come out as homosexual unless he felt he had no choice. This is simply who he is. Look at the early reactions from his colleagues. The party's current chairman, Michael Steele, says, "I am happy for Ken. His announcement, often a very difficult decision which is only compounded when done on the public stage, reaffirms for me why we are friends and why I respect him personally and professionally." Very difficult decision means, among other things, that Mehlman had no choice. And because the friendship remains, Steele now has another gay friend to think about when he hears a pitch to score political points at the expense of gays. Ed Gillespie, the RNC chairman who preceded Mehlman, tells Ambinder that "it is significant that a former chairman of the Republican National Committee is openly gay and that he is supportive of gay marriage." Gillespie acknowledges "big generational differences in perception when it comes to gay marriage and gay rights as an agenda, and I think that is true on the Republican side." Discomfort with abortion isn't going away, but discomfort with same-sex marriage is fading. Homosexuality is becoming normalized. Advertisement In fact, it's becoming Republicanized. Lately, Mehlman has been advising the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which is leading the legal battle for gay marriage in California. The foundation's message is nonjudgmental liberal boilerplate: "dedicated to protecting and advancing equal rights for every American." But Mehlman's personal message goes beyond equality. Ambinder, describing his conversation with Mehlman, reports: He said that he plans to be an advocate for gay rights within the GOP, that he remains proud to be a Republican, and that his political identity is not defined by any one issue. "What I will try to do is to persuade people, when I have conversations with them, that it is consistent with our party's philosophy, whether it's the principle of individual freedom, or limited government, or encouraging adults who love each other and who want to make a lifelong commitment to each other to get married." That message isn't just egalitarian or libertarian. It's socially conservative. It embraces marriage as an institution that promotes and solidifies commitment. Andrew Sullivan, Jonathan Rauch, and other writers have made this point for a long time: If you believe in the cultural virtues of marriage, you should support it for gay couples as well as straight ones. If Mehlman can carry that message into the heart of the GOP—if he can give Republicans a way to be pro-marriage without being antigay—he'll have done a great service not just to his party, but to his community. Like Slate on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. William Saletan's latest short takes on the news, via Twitter: Latest Twitter Updates Follow William Saletan on Twitter. \|\|\|\|\| 08.26.2010 - 9:39 AM The announcement that former Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman is gay is garnering a fair amount of attention in the political world. I suppose that’s predictable. He is, after all, the most powerful Republican ever to identify himself as gay. But my sense is that it’ll be a lot less of a big deal to conservatives than it might be to liberals like (just to choose one name at random) Frank Rich, for whom the political is also the personal. While it’s something that runs counter to the stereotype, most of the conservatives I know are largely to completely indifferent to a person’s sexual orientation. They are the kind of people who might even invite Elton John to perform at their weddings and not give a second thought to the fact that John is gay. For my part, I knew Ken in the Bush White House and after that, when he was the campaign manager of the re-election campaign and RNC chairman. I’ve always liked him and found his counsel to be wise. He’s a person with very impressive political gifts and talents. Yet by his own account, the personal road he’s traveled has not been an easy one; rather than activists and commentators directing wrath and ridicule at him, I hope some measure of grace and understanding are accorded to him. I realize these qualities aren’t in oversupply in politics, but they should be more common than they are. It’s fair to say, I think, that all sides in the same-sex marriage debate need to strive for greater respect and civility, for grounding this discussion in reason and empirical facts, in what advances self-government and the common good. And regardless of whether or not one agrees with Ken’s position, he will add to, rather than subtract from, the substance of the discussion. That is more than can be said for the haters. \|\|\|\|\| Former RNC chief Ken Mehlman: I’m gay posted at 6:37 pm on August 25, 2010 by Allahpundit He says he realized it “fairly recently,” in Marc Ambinder’s words, which has Tammy Bruce chuckling on Twitter. Honestly, I thought the guy came out years ago. Remember when Bill Maher talked about the rumors surrounding him on Larry King’s show — back in 2006? I guess you were the last to know, Ken. He’s doing this now, it seems, because he wants to drum up publicity for the cause of gay marriage and figures that “Republican whom everyone thought was gay actually is gay” headlines will do the trick. Could be, although Ambinder’s careful to remind readers of the sort of social con initiatives that the GOP pushed during Mehlman’s RNC tenure. That won’t endear him to gay activists, and his newly public identity won’t endear him to social cons. Maybe he should have just worked for gay marriage like Ted Olson and kept his orientation private? Privately, in off-the-record conversations with this reporter over the years, Mehlman voiced support for civil unions and told of how, in private discussions with senior Republican officials, he beat back efforts to attack same-sex marriage. He insisted, too, that President Bush “was no homophobe.” He often wondered why gay voters never formed common cause with Republican opponents of Islamic jihad, which he called “the greatest anti-gay force in the world right now.” Mehlman’s leadership positions in the GOP came at a time when the party was stepping up its anti-gay activities — such as the distribution in West Virginia in 2006 of literature linking homosexuality to atheism, or the less-than-subtle, coded language in the party’s platform (“Attempts to redefine marriage in a single state or city could have serious consequences throughout the country…”). Mehlman said at the time that he could not, as an individual Republican, go against the party consensus. He was aware that Karl Rove, President Bush’s chief strategic adviser, had been working with Republicans to make sure that anti-gay initiatives and referenda would appear on November ballots in 2004 and 2006 to help Republicans. Mehlman acknowledges that if he had publicly declared his sexuality sooner, he might have played a role in keeping the party from pushing an anti-gay agenda. “It’s a legitimate question and one I understand,” Mehlman said. “I can’t change the fact that I wasn’t in this place personally when I was in politics, and I genuinely regret that. It was very hard, personally.” He asks of those who doubt his sincerity: “If they can’t offer support, at least offer understanding.” I couldn’t care less either way, but with all the buzz lately about new conservative support for gays — here’s the latest surreal episode in the Coulter/Farah HomoCon saga, incidentally — this is a bracing reminder that an openly gay RNC chief probably would still be a problem. Or would it? Related Posts: \|\|\|\|\| Rumors about former RNC chair Ken Mehlman’s Complete Gayness have been swirling around for years and years. Mike Rogers outed him several years back, as part of his campaign to rid the political world of homosexuals who cynically use the rest of the gay community as bait in order to convince rubes, yahoos, bumpkins and other morons to set down the teevee clicker even if it means missing the last five minutes of The 700 Club, in order to go out and vote Republican, due to abject fear of gays. Mehlman’s sins were particularly egregious, since we are after all talking about the guy who helped run the most anti-gay presidential campaign in history, which gave us Four More Years of the Crawford hick and his handlers, Karl and Dick. Anyway, now Ken Mehlman has something to say! “Are you there, God? It’s me, Ken Mehlman, and I suck bags of dicks! No, God, I mean literally!”: Ken Mehlman, President Bush’s campaign manager in 2004 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has told family and associates that he is gay. Mehlman arrived at this conclusion about his identity fairly recently, he said in an interview. He agreed to answer a reporter’s questions, he said, because, now in private life, he wants to become an advocate for gay marriage and anticipated that questions would arise about his participation in a late-September fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the group that supported the legal challenge to California’s ballot initiative against gay marriage, Proposition 8. “It’s taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life,” Mehlman said. “Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I’ve told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they’ve been wonderful and supportive. The process has been something that’s made me a happier and better person. It’s something I wish I had done years ago.” Oh, but if you had done it years ago, Kenneth, you wouldn’t have made eleventy billion dollars by publicly fighting the gay demons in your mind, for Evil, which you then used to buy a swanky $3.7 million man-pad in Chelsea. Anyway, also, Ken Mehlman is very confused as to why The Gays never signed on to Republican pants-shitting campaigns against Muslins: He often wondered why gay voters never formed common cause with Republican opponents of Islamic jihad, which he called “the greatest anti-gay force in the world right now.” I wonder why! For the answer to this question, let’s go to our slightly more serious homosexual reporter, also named Evan Hurst: Oh, that’s because the Republican plan for fighting Islamic extremism is laughably stupid, driven by emotion and fear, and exemplifies all the characteristics of Severe Small Penis Syndrome. Additionally, it’s been a hilarious failure everywhere it’s been tried. Thanks, Bill Kristol! Simple answers to simple questions, this has been. For his part, Mike Rogers wants to see Ken Mehlman do a LOT of apologizing and public self-flagellation before he will even think about allowing him to be a Socially Accepted Gay: So, how can Ken Mehlman redeem himself? I want to hear from Ken that he is sorry for being the architect of the 2004 Bush reelection campaign. I want to hear from Ken that he is sorry for his role in developing strategy that resulted in George W. Bush threatening to veto ENDA or any bill containing hate crimes laws. I want to hear from Ken that he is sorry for the pressing of two Federal Marriage Amendments as political tools. I want to hear from Ken that he is sorry for developing the 72-hour strategy, using homophobic churches to become political arms of the GOP before Election Day. And those state marriage amendments. I want to hear him apologize for every one of those, too. Also, he should probably be punched on live television by Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, and maybe one of the man-fags from the So You Think You Can Lip Sync While Wearing Wigs or the So You Think You Can Make Pretty Dresses, For Girls, or whatever the hell shows the gays watch obsessively, in groups, while squealing, especially since Mehlman is still giving money to anti-gay candidates! As Joe Jervis said, “hookers call that ‘working both sides of the street.'” Classic Liz Glover video of Ken Mehlman at his rooftop goodbye party, June 2007. For their part, this news is making the homosexual wingnuts show everybody their yucky Quisling boners, which is never appropriate, especially so close to 9/11. Anyway, welcome to gayness, Ken! Nobody is going to have sex with you, but don’t let it bring you down, because they probably weren’t having sex with you before. [Marc Ambinder/Truth Wins Out/BlogActive]	– Ken Mehlman sent pundits chattering when he came out of the closet to support gay marriage yesterday. Here's what they're saying: “Honestly, I thought the guy came out years ago,” writes Hot Air blogger “Allahpundit,” recalling Bill Maher’s outing of him on Larry King in 2006 (see video). Still, “this is a bracing reminder that an openly gay RNC chief probably would still be a problem.” William Saletan of Slate thinks it’s great that Republican bigwigs have an extra gay friend. “Homosexuality is becoming normalized,” he writes. “In fact, it's becoming Republicanized.” Mehlman’s pitch for gay marriage is downright socially conservative, arguing that it is an institution that promotes and solidifies monogamous commitment. “My sense is that it’ll be a lot less of a big deal to conservatives than it might be to liberals …for whom the political is also the personal,” writes Peter Wehner in Commentary, adding that he knows and likes Mehlman. “I hope some measure of grace and understanding are accorded to him.” But Evan Hurst of Wonkette isn't ready to forgive Mehlman for his anti-gay campaign tactics, especially because he’s still giving money to anti-gay candidates. “He should probably be punched on live television by Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi.”
McDonald’s (mcd) has apologized for a television commercial aired in the U.K. that some viewers claimed “exploits childhood bereavement.” The 90-second spot produced by London-based advertising firm Leo Burnett depicts a despondent young boy asking his mother to describe his deceased father to him, ultimately learning that they share the same favorite McDonald’s menu item, the BBC reports. The ad was met with a flood of negative comments on social media, some users branding it “shameful” and “cynical,” claiming it exploited the emotional trauma of childhood grief to sell sandwiches. A spokesperson for the fast food chain told the BBC that it was “by no means an intention of ours” to cause offense, adding that the ad was meant to “highlight the role McDonald’s has played in our customers’ everyday lives—both in good and difficult times.” The BBC reports that a British support charity called Grief Encounter received “countless calls” from parents whose bereaved children were upset by the ad. For more on advertising, watch Fortune’s video: Grief Encounter’s founder and president Shelly Gilbert said: “[T]rying to insinuate that a brand can cure all ills with one meal is insensitive and shouldn’t be a way to show that a brand recognizes ‘the big moments in life’.” Many took to Twitter to share their outrage. New #McDonalds advert, cynically using the story of a kid's dead dad is trashy beyond belief. Who needs 2 parents when you have McNuggets? — Tony Richman (@TonyLRichman) May 12, 2017 There's a McDonalds advert where a mums reminiscing with her son about his dead dad. Is it that deep to sell some McNuggets? — Martyn (@MartynEwoma) May 15, 2017 The McDonalds advert with the mum describing the kids dead dads favourite meal is particularly vulgar. Targeting the bereaved market? Weird. — Martin (@Thenh11) May 14, 2017 There's weird and then there's "McDonald's advert" weird — Carly (@Carlyrafter) May 12, 2017 The company further said in a Tweet that it is reviewing customer feedback. \|\|\|\|\| The ad has now been withdrawn (Picture: McDonald’s) McDonald’s is withdrawing its TV advert that was accused of exploiting child bereavement. The company had already issued an apology after around 100 people complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). In the ad, which was first screened on May 12, a boy talks to his mum about his late father and tries to figure out what they had in common. His mum lists a number of qualities, none of which the boy possesses, such as ‘shiny shoes’ and football skills. However, when they go to McDonald’s she reveals that they shared a love of the same burger, Filet-o-Fish: ‘That was your dad’s favourite too.’ To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video In a revised statement released this afternoon, the fast food giant announced they would be removing the ad from all media this week. Advertisement Advertisement The company also promised to review its creative process, to avoid a repeat of the issue. McDonald’s apologises for TV advert that exploits child bereavement ‘It was never our intention to cause any upset,’ the statement said. ‘We are particularly sorry that the advert may have disappointed those people who are most important to us – our customers. ‘Due to the lead times required by some broadcasters, the last advert will air on Wednesday May 17. ‘We will also review our creative process to ensure this situation never occurs again.’ In the ad the boy asks his mum about his late dad (Picture: McDonald’s) The campaign, which was put together by London-based agency Leo Burnett, had been scheduled to run for seven weeks from last Friday. However it attracted widespread criticism, including from bereavement charity Grief Encounter – which said it had received ‘countless calls’ from parents of bereaved children – and the ASA, which received some 100 complaints. Many viewers said it was particularly badly-timed, given the proximity to Father’s Day on June 18. It attracted criticism from grief charities (Picture: McDonald’s) Dr Shelley Gilbert, founder and president of the charity, said: ‘McDonald’s have attempted to speak to their audience via an emotionally-driven TV campaign. Homeless man loses all belongings after van was torched in 'arson attack' ‘However, what they have done is exploit childhood bereavement as a way to connect with young people and surviving parents alike – unsuccessfully. ‘We fully support children and surviving parents remembering loved ones with memory boxes, family experiences which remind them of happier times and openly talking about the member of the family that has died. Advertisement Advertisement ‘But trying to insinuate that a brand can cure all ills with one meal is insensitive and shouldn’t be a way to show that a brand recognises “the big moments in life”.’ In the ad, the boy’s love of Filet-o-Fish is the only thing he has in common with his late dad (Picture: McDonald’s) According to the charity, one in 29 children in the UK is bereaved of a parent or sibling by the age of 16. Sarah Revans from London, whose husband died from a bleed to the brain in summer 2015, said the ad had caused their son distress. ‘The advert breaks his heart,’ she said. ‘He said it makes him sad the boy is told he isn’t like his dad. ‘He’s sad that McDonald’s have made it seem that children should never be sad about daddy or mummy going to heaven.’ \|\|\|\|\| Image copyright McDonald's McDonald's has apologised for "upset" caused by a TV advert that charity campaigners have said "exploits childhood bereavement". The fast food giant's latest British advert features a boy who struggles to find something in common with his dead father, until it is revealed they shared the same favourite menu item. The campaign has attracted criticism from widows who called it "offensive". A McDonald's spokesperson said: "This was by no means an intention of ours." "We wanted to highlight the role McDonald's has played in our customers' everyday lives - both in good and difficult times," the spokesperson added. 'Upsetting' The campaign, from London-based advertising agency Leo Burnett, first aired on 12 May and is scheduled to run for seven weeks. In the advert, the boy asks his mum about his absent dad, sparking some reminiscence. The boy is left to wonder whether he and his father had anything in common, until he arrives at a McDonald's restaurant and orders a Filet-o-Fish and the mother says: "That was your dad's favourite too." Bereavement charity, Grief Encounter said it had received "countless calls" from parents saying their bereaved children had been upset by the advert. Sarah Fox's husband died two years ago. The 37-year-old from London said her seven-year-old son, who saw the advert, had only just started to understand the implications of his loss. She said: "The advert was confusing for him and really upset him. He asked me why the boy on TV wasn't 'sad' and how he could feel happy again? "It's an unnecessary subject to exploit for the gain of a brand." Image copyright Twitter Image caption Twitter users blasted the 'shameless' advert Tania Richman, 44 from Brighton, East Sussex, said her teenage children, whose father died last year, were also "upset and offended" by the advert. She said: "I didn't know how to handle them afterwards." Leah Miller, 42 from London raised concerns about the lack of support advice offered after the advert. "What are children supposed to think after watching it? That a simple meal can solve their emotional pain? "It's irresponsible not to include any support advice or information for families affected by this issue." The Advertising Standards Authority said it had received complaints regarding the advert, and would "carefully assess them to see whether there are grounds to investigate". 'Insensitive' One in 29 children in the UK are bereaved of a parent or sibling by the time they are 16, according to Grief Encounter, which offers support to bereaved children and their families. Dr Shelley Gilbert, founder and president of the charity, said: "McDonald's have attempted to speak to their audience via an emotionally driven TV campaign. "However, what they have done is exploit childhood bereavement as a way to connect with young people and surviving parents alike - unsuccessfully. "We fully support children and surviving parents remembering loved ones with memory boxes, family experiences which remind them of happier times and openly talking about the member of the family that has died. "But trying to insinuate that a brand can cure all ills with one meal is insensitive and shouldn't be a way to show that a brand recognises 'the big moments in life'."	– McDonald's is apologizing after one of its commercials that aired in the UK caused an uproar for exploiting childhood grief. The ad shows a young boy asking his mom to describe his late father, and being disappointed at every turn when he doesn't see any similarities between himself and his dad. That is, until he's eating with his mom at a McDonald's and his mom mentions that he and his dad share the same favorite McDonald's food item, a Filet-O-Fish. If the first word that comes to mind isn't "touching" or "moving," you're not alone. Fortune rounds up the appalled Twitter reactions, with users calling the ad "vulgar" and "trashy beyond belief." McDonald's UK is replying to a host of complaints on Twitter. In a statement, the company responded by apologizing for the "upset" it caused, saying that was not its intention and, per a spokesperson, "we wanted to highlight the role McDonald's has played in our customers' everyday lives—both in good and difficult times." The BBC reports that a UK bereavement charity says it has received numerous calls from parents of actually bereaved children, who say their kids were upset by the commercial. One critic notes it's particularly upsetting that the ad features no advice for parents and children dealing with the loss of a loved one: "What are children supposed to think after watching it? That a simple meal can solve their emotional pain?" McDonald's says it will pull the ad, but that it may still air through Wednesday, Metro reports.
Study: 98% Of Us Will Sign Away Our Firstborn Because We Don’t Read The Terms Of Service “Click here if you have read and agree to the Terms of Service.” How many times in your life — heck, how many times just this month, or this year — have you hovered over that little ticky box without bothering to click the TOS link first? Or scrolled straight to the bottom of a pop-up window with 17 pages of boring legalese in it, just to continue installation? If your answer is anything other than “all the times,” you are in a very, very small minority. A new study from researchers at two universities has confirmed what most of us already anecdotally know: nobody’s actually reading the fine print, even if they should. And how did the researchers find this, you may ask? By creating a fictitious social networking site that research participants signed up for. The privacy policy and terms of service for this fictitious site were modeled on existing documents on another social network (LinkedIn), and checked in at roughly 8000 and 4000 words respectively. But this fake site’s policies included a few extra clauses that should have raised eyebrows. One had to do with data sharing, and specified that the site could share your information with the NSA “and other security agencies in the United States and abroad.” It also said that your data could be shared with any third parties, and as a result “could impact eligibility in… employment, financial service, univeristy, entrance, international travel, the criminal justice system, etc.” The other said that participants agreed to sign over their firstborn, Rumpelstiltskin-style: “In addition to any monetary payment … all users of this site agree to immediately assign their first-born child” to the site, it read. “If the user does not yet have children, this agreement will be enforceable until the year 2050.” The researchers then asked open-ended questions to the participants asking if they had any concerns with the policies and sign-up options. 543 research participants signed up for the site. Of those, 399 skipped all the fine print entirely and just signed up blindly. For the remaining 144, the average time spent “reading” the privacy policy was 73 seconds, and for the TOS, 51 seconds. Even the best speed-readers are not going to get through — and understand — 8000 words of legalese in 73 seconds, and these participants were no exception. In the end, the researchers found that 98% of all participants completely missed the existence of the “gotcha” clauses. That means a total of 10-11 participants, at most, actually noticed. Research participants were all undergrads, as is very common for university-based research. But this behavior is far from limited to young adults. A similar experiment in the UK in 2014 found the same results, with users unwittingly signing away their firstborn in exchange for access to a free WiFi hotspot. A UK-based retailer found the same in 2010 when their customers happily, and unwittingly, signed over their immortal souls. Other studies have found that barely one in five internet users actually read the terms, and even they probably don’t usually stop to process the words. So yes, we should all read a little more carefully before we proceed — because as long as they disclose it, a company can do pretty much anything they want with your account or personal information. Of course, it doesn’t help that the policies are usually long, dense, complicated, formatted badly, and full of legalese. There are some tools that help but when it comes to comprehensibility, we still have a long way to go. [via Ars Technica] \|\|\|\|\| 37 Pages Posted: 2 Apr 2016 Last revised: 18 Aug 2018 Date Written: June 1, 2018 Abstract This paper addresses ‘the biggest lie on the internet’ with an empirical investigation of privacy policy (PP) and terms of service (TOS) policy reading behavior. An experimental survey (N=543) assessed the extent to which individuals ignored PP and TOS when joining a fictitious social networking service, NameDrop. Results reveal 74% skipped PP, selecting the ‘quick join’ clickwrap. Average adult reading speed (250-280 words per minute), suggests PP should have taken 29-32 minutes and TOS 15-17 minutes to read. For those that didn’t select the clickwrap, average PP reading time was 73 seconds. All participants were presented the TOS and had an average reading time of 51 seconds. Most participants agreed to the policies, 97% to PP and 93% to TOS, with decliners reading PP 30 seconds longer and TOS 90 seconds longer. A regression analysis identifies information overload as a significant negative predictor of reading TOS upon signup, when TOS changes, and when PP changes. Qualitative findings suggest that participants view policies as nuisance, ignoring them to pursue the ends of digital production, without being inhibited by the means. Implications are revealed as 98% missed NameDrop TOS ‘gotcha clauses’ about data sharing with the NSA and employers, and about providing a first-born child as payment for SNS access.	– If Facebook or Apple ever turns truly evil, we might be in big trouble, apparently. A study published last week found that almost nobody reads online terms of service agreements—and even fewer understand them. Ars Technica reports 543 college students signed up for a fake social networking site called NameDrop, believing they were helping with a "pre-launch evaluation." They were actually agreeing to hand over their first-born child to NameDrop—enforceable through 2050—as well as have their data and information shared with the NSA, foreign security agencies, and all manner of third parties, according to Consumerist. But, of course, only 2% of participants realized they were agreeing to any of that. The study found 399 participants didn't read any of the 12,000 words comprising NameDrop's terms of service and privacy policy. The other 144 spent an average of 73 seconds reading the privacy policy and 51 seconds reading the terms of service. Based on average reading speed, it should have taken 30 minutes and 16 minutes respectively. In the end, 98% of participants didn't notice any of the onerous clauses in NameDrops's terms. The study concluded that people "view policies as nuisance" and that "I agree to these terms and conditions" is the "biggest lie on the internet." (Amazon will void its terms of service if the zombies come.)
HIGHLIGHTS Russian role in election dominates Sunday talk shows Podesta says Russians ‘clearly intervened’ in election Incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and a bipartisan group of colleagues, including Republican Sen. John McCain, sent a letter Sunday to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell requesting a special committee to probe reported Russian interference into the November presidential election. “Cybersecurity is the ultimate cross-jurisdictional challenge,” the letter states. It also says the “select committee on cyber” should make recommendations on “new legislation to modernize our nation’s laws, governmental organization, and related practices to meet this challenge.” Also on Sunday, Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) called for an investigation into whether and why CIA director John Brennan leaked information on Russian hacking to members of the media. King has said the House Intelligence Committee has not learned that Russian officials sought to help Donald Trump win the election, only that they wanted to interfere with the race. “There should be an investigation of what the Russians did, but also John Brennan and the hit job he seems to be orchestrating against the president-elect,” King said on ABC’s “This Week.” David Popp, spokesman for McConnell (R-Ky.), said the senator will review the letter and noted the senator said last week he supports a bipartisan inquiry into any Russian meddling. The letter was sent by Schumer (D-N.Y.), McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.). On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chairman, said “Russians were trying to elect a lap dog” by backing Trump through the series of cyberhacks. advertisement \| advertise on newsday “I think the Russians clearly intervened in the election and I think that . . . now we know that both the CIA, the director of national intelligence, the FBI all agree that the Russians intervened to help Trump and that — as they have noted this week, NBC first revealed — that Vladimir Putin was personally involved with that,” Podesta said. Russian diplomats said they were talking to the Trump campaign and Trump surrogates said in August that they were in touch with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Podesta said. On “Fox News Sunday,” incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said Trump was still waiting for a uniform response from intelligence officials regarding Russia’s involvement in hacking U.S. officials, though he does not think the hacks affected the outcome of the election. “I think he would accept the conclusion if these intelligence professionals would get together, put out a report, show the American people that they’re actually on the same page,” Priebus said. “Let’s assume it’s true. There’s no evidence that shows that the outcome of the election was changed because of a couple dozen John Podesta emails that were out there.” Podesta said he was only contacted by the FBI two days after his emails appeared on WikiLeaks on Oct. 7. He has not had any further contact with the FBI, he said. With Alison Fox \|\|\|\|\| "What did Trump Inc. know? When did they know it? Were they in touch with the Russians?" John Podesta asked. \| AP Photo Podesta suggests Trump associates may have colluded with Russian hackers Former Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta said Sunday he believes that Donald Trump's associates may have colluded with Russian hackers to win the election. In his first TV interview since Hillary Clinton's loss, Podesta said he doesn't believe that the president-elect himself was part of the plan but suggested some of his associates may have gone off the reservation. The Electoral College electors, he said, have the right to know the extent of the Trump campaign's involvement before they cast their votes Monday. Story Continued Below "It's very much unknown whether there was collusion," Podesta said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "What did Trump Inc. know? When did they know it? Were they in touch with the Russians?" Podesta asked. "I think the electors have the right to know what the answers are." "The Russians were trying to elect a lap dog," Podesta said, referring to a recent piece by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. Podesta also offered new details on the hacking of his private Gmail account, saying he wasn't contacted by the FBI until Oct. 9, two days after WikiLeaks started releasing his emails. "The first thing the agent said to me is, 'I don't know if you're aware, but your email account might have been hacked,'" Podesta said. "I said, 'Yes, I was aware of that.'" "That was the last time I talked to the FBI," Podesta added. Podesta accepted a share of the blame for Clinton's loss, though, conceding the campaign wasn't aggressive enough in some Midwestern states. Democrats should put together a detailed postmortem report, he said, similar to what Republicans did after Mitt Romney's loss in 2012. “We owe it to our supporters to say what we think we did right, what we think we did wrong," Podesta said. "I think [in] Wisconsin we could have done better. There’s no question about it.” “At the end of the day, we also lost Pennsylvania, and there is nothing we left … undone there, and we still lost by 44,000 votes," he added. \|\|\|\|\| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. / Updated By Liz Johnstone John Podesta, former chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign, said Sunday that the FBI first contacted him about his hacked emails two days after WikiLeaks began publishing them — and that he has not heard from the FBI since. "Let's go through the chronology. On October 7, the Access Hollywood tapes comes out. One hour later, WikiLeaks starts dropping my emails into the public," Podesta told Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press," referencing the leaked tape from 2005 that features now-President-elect Donald Trump bragging in graphic terms about kissing and groping women without their consent. "One could say that those things might not have been a coincidence. Two days later, the FBI contacted me, and the first thing the agent said to me was, 'I don't know if you're aware but your email account might have been hacked.' I said, yes, I was aware of that." Todd pressed Podesta on when he knew that his emails had been stolen. "In one of those DNC documents that appeared to me ... that might have came from my account," Podesta said. "So I wasn't sure. I didn't know what they had, what they didn't have. It wasn't until October 7 when [WikiLeaks' Julian] Assange ... started dumping them out and said they would all dump out, that's when I knew that they had the contents of my email account." "By the way," Podesta added, "that was the last time I'd heard from the FBI." "Do you expect to get a phone call before the end of the year?" Todd asked. "Maybe before the end of the show," Podesta joked. Intelligence officials confirmed Friday that the FBI agrees with the CIA's assessment that Russia mounted a covert operation intended not just to disrupt the 2016 election, but to help Trump win. U.S. intelligence now has "a high level of confidence" that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved in the campaign. Podesta recently published an op-ed in the Washington Post arguing that "something is deeply broken" within the FBI and called for a full, independent investigation into the Russian hacks. Podesta on Sunday also criticized director James Comey's actions regarding intelligence surrounding Russia's interference in the election relative to how he handled a development in the investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state. "What I said was baffling, Chuck, was on October 7, as the Director of National Intelligence, Jim Clapper, Jay Johnson, director of Homeland Security, went out and said, 'The Russians are trying to interfere in our election,' Director Comey counseled against that. He said, 'I don't want the F.B.I.'s name on that,'" Podesta said. "Then three weeks later, he went out and dropped the infamous letter just 11 days before the election, saying that he was going to take yet another look at Hillary Clinton's emails because of the laptop that he had gotten from Huma Abedin's husband Anthony Weiner. So how can you have that both ways?" Podesta said that ahead of tomorrow's Electoral College vote cementing Trump's victory, "the question is whether there are 37 Republican electors who think that either there are open questions or that Donald Trump, based on everything we know about him, is really unfit to be president of the United States." Podesta indicated that he was aware of calls for Clinton's electors to support someone like John Kasich or Mitt Romney in order to entice those 37 Republican electors away from Trump, but that he assumed Clinton's electors were going to vote for her. "It's not really what the Democrats are going to do. And I guess we'll know about it tomorrow," Podesta said.	– John Podesta continued his assault on the FBI on Sunday, telling Meet the Press that he only heard from the bureau once about his hacked emails—and that was two days after WikiLeaks started dropping them. The timeline, per Podesta: On Oct. 7, the controversial Access Hollywood tape depicting Donald Trump dropped; "One hour later, WikiLeaks starts dropping my emails into the public," Podesta says. "One could say that those things might not have been a coincidence. Two days later, the FBI contacted me, and the first thing the agent said to me was, 'I don't know if you're aware but your email account might have been hacked.' I said, yes, I was aware of that." That, he says, "was the last time I'd heard from the FBI." “I think the Russians clearly intervened in the election and I think now that we know both the CIA and the FBI agree the Russians intervened to help Trump and Vladimir Putin was personally involved with that," Podesta continued, per Politico and Newsday. "It was distorted by the Russian intervention. A foreign adversary directly intervened into our democratic institution and tried to tilt the election to Donald Trump." Podesta contends that while "the Russians were trying to elect a lapdog," it's unclear whether Trump himself knew what was going on, but that "I think the electors have the right to know what the answers are."
Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more \|\|\|\|\| Well here it is, all 2,232 budget-busting pages. The House already started votes on it. The Senate is expected to soon. No one has read it. Congress is broken...pic.twitter.com/izvJlUEgUM \|\|\|\|\| House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speak to reporters about the massive government spending bill moving through Congress, on Capitol Hill in... (Associated Press) House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speak to reporters about the massive government spending bill moving through Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 22, 2018. The bipartisan $1.3 trillion spending bill pours huge sums into... (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress gave final approval Friday to a giant $1.3 trillion spending bill that ends the budget battles for now, but only after late obstacles skirted close to another shutdown as conservatives objected to big outlays on Democratic priorities at a time when Republicans control the House, Senate and White House. Senate passage shortly after midnight averted a third federal shutdown this year, an outcome both parties wanted to avoid. But in crafting a sweeping deal that busts budget caps, they've stirred conservative opposition and set the contours for the next funding fight ahead of the midterm elections. The House easily approved the measure Thursday, 256-167, a bipartisan tally that underscored the popularity of the compromise, which funds the government through September. It beefs up military and domestic programs, delivering federal funds to every corner of the country. But action stalled in the Senate, as conservatives ran the clock in protest. Then, an unusual glitch arose when Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, wanted to remove a provision to rename a forest in his home state after the late Cecil Andrus, a four-term Democratic governor. At one point, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., stepped forward to declare the entire late-night scene "ridiculous. It's juvenile." Once the opponents relented, the Senate began voting, clearing the package by a 65-32 vote a full day before Friday's midnight deadline to fund the government. "Shame, shame. A pox on both Houses - and parties," tweeted Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who spent the afternoon tweeting details found in the 2,200-page bill that was released the night before. "No one has read it. Congress is broken." Paul said later he knew he could only delay, but not stop, the outcome and had made his point. The omnibus spending bill was supposed to be an antidote to the stopgap measures Congress has been forced to pass — five in this fiscal year alone — to keep government temporarily running amid partisan fiscal disputes. Leaders delivered on President Donald Trump's top priorities of boosting Pentagon coffers and starting work his promised border wall, while compromising with Democrats on funds for road building, child care development, fighting the opioid crisis and more. But the result has been unimaginable to many Republicans after campaigning on spending restraints and balanced budgets. Along with the recent GOP tax cuts law, the bill that stood a foot tall at some lawmakers' desks ushers in the return of $1 trillion deficits. Trump only reluctantly backed the bill he would have to sign, according to Republican lawmakers and aides, who acknowledged the deal involved necessary trade-offs for the Democratic votes that were needed for passage despite their majority lock on Congress. "Obviously he doesn't like this process — it's dangerous to put it up to the 11th hour like this," said Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., who opposes the bill and speaks regularly to Trump. "The president, and our leadership, and the leadership in the House got together and said, Look, we don't like what the Democrats are doing, we got to fund the government." White House legislative director Marc Short framed it as a compromise. "I can't sit here and tell you and your viewers that we love everything in the bill," he said on Fox. "But we think that we got many of our priorities funded." Trying to smooth over differences, Republican leaders focused on military increases that were once core to the party's brand as guardians of national security. "Vote yes for our military. Vote yes for the safety and the security of this country," said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., ahead of voting. But even that remained a hard sell. In all, 90 House Republicans, including many from the conservative House Freedom Caucus, voted against the bill, as did two dozen Republicans in the Senate. It was a sign of the entrenched GOP divisions that have made leadership's job controlling the majority difficult. They will likely repeat on the next budget battle in fall. Democrats faced their own divisions, particularly after failing to resolve the stalemate over shielding young Dreamer immigrants from deportation as Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has left it for the courts to decide. Instead, Trump won $1.6 billion to begin building and replacing segments of the wall along the border with Mexico. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus opposed the bill. Also missing from the package was a renewal of federal insurance subsidies to curb premium costs on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. Trump ended some of those payments as part of his effort to scuttle President Barack Obama's health care law, but Republicans have joined Democrats in trying to revive them. Bipartisan efforts to restore the subsidies, and provide additional help for insurance carriers, foundered over disagreements on how tight abortion restrictions should be on using the money for private insurance plans. Senate Republicans made a last-ditch effort to tuck the insurance provisions into the bill, but Democrats refused to yield on abortion restrictions. Still, Democrats were beyond pleased with the outcome. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., chronicled the party's many gains, and noted they could have just have easily withheld votes Republicans needed to avert another shutdown. "We chose to use our leverage to help this bill pass," Pelosi said. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said as the minority party in Congress, "We feel good." He added, "We produced a darn good bill." ___ Associated Press writers Matthew Daly and Jill Colvin contributed to this report. Follow Mascaro on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LisaMascaro and Fram at https://twitter.com/AsFram	– Congress gave final approval early Friday to a giant $1.3 trillion spending bill that ends the budget battles for now, but only after late obstacles skirted close to another shutdown as conservatives objected to big outlays on Democratic priorities at a time when Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House. Senate passage shortly after midnight averted a third federal shutdown this year, an outcome both parties wanted to avoid. But in crafting a sweeping deal that busts budget caps, they've stirred conservative opposition and set the contours for the next funding fight ahead of the midterm elections, the AP reports. "Shame, shame. A pox on both Houses—and parties," tweeted Sen. Rand Paul. "No one has read it," he added of the 2,200-page bill that was released the night before. "Congress is broken." The House easily approved the measure Thursday, 256-167, a bipartisan tally that underscored the popularity of the compromise, which funds the government through September. It beefs up military and domestic programs, delivering federal funds to every corner of the country. But action stalled in the Senate as conservatives ran the clock in protest. Then, an unusual glitch arose when Sen. James Risch, an Idaho Republican, wanted to remove a provision to rename a forest in his home state after the late Cecil Andrus, a four-term Democratic governor. Once the opponents relented, the Senate began voting, clearing the package by a 65-32 vote a full day before Friday's midnight deadline to fund the government. (A deal to help "Dreamers" didn't make it into the bill.)
Claiming Shakespeare authorship can be a perilous endeavor. In 1996, Donald Foster, a pioneer in computer-driven textual analysis, drew front-page headlines with his assertion that Shakespeare was the author of an obscure Elizabethan poem called “A Funeral Elegy,” only to quietly retract his argument six years later after analyses by Mr. Vickers and others linked it to a different author. This time, editors of some prestigious scholarly editions are betting that Mr. Bruster’s cautiously methodical arguments, piled on top of previous work by Mr. Vickers and others, will make the attribution stick. “We don’t have any absolute proof, but this is as close as you can get,” said Eric Rasmussen, a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, and an editor, with Jonathan Bate, of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s edition of the complete Shakespeare. “I think we can now say with some authority that, yes, this is Shakespeare,” Mr. Rasmussen said. “It has his fingerprints all over it.” Photo Mr. Rasmussen and Mr. Bate are including “The Spanish Tragedy” in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s new edition of Shakespeare’s collaboratively authored plays, to be published in November. And Mr. Bruster plans to include the Additional Passages in his new edition of the Riverside Shakespeare (renamed the Bankside Shakespeare), coming in 2016. If embraced by the broader world of Shakespeareans, the Additional Passages would become the first largely undisputed new addition to the canon since Shakespeare’s contributions to “Edward III” — another play that some have attributed to Kyd — began appearing in scholarly editions in the mid-1990s. Acceptance is by no means assured. Three years ago, some scholars were skeptical when the Arden Shakespeare published “Double Falsehood,” an 18th-century play whose connection with a lost Shakespeare drama had long been debated, in its prestigious series. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Tiffany Stern, a professor of early modern drama at Oxford University and an advisory editor for the Arden Shakespeare, praised the empirical rigor of Mr. Bruster’s paper, but said that some new attributions were driven less by solid evidence than by publishers’ desire to offer “more Shakespeare” than their rivals. “The arguments for ‘The Spanish Tragedy’ are better than for most” putative Shakespeare collaborations, Ms. Stern said. “But I think we’re going a bit Shakespeare-attribution crazy and shoving a lot of stuff in that maybe shouldn’t be there.” Elizabethan theater was intensely collaborative, with playwrights often punching up old plays or working with other dramatists to cobble together new ones, in the manner of Hollywood script doctors. The 1602 Additional Passages to “The Spanish Tragedy,” inserted more than a decade after Kyd wrote the original, updated the bloody revenge play with a bit of psychological realism, which had become fashionable. (It is not known whether Kyd, who died in 1594, ever met Shakespeare.) The idea that Shakespeare may have written the Additional Passages — which include a “Hamlet”-like scene of a grief-maddened father discoursing on the death of his son — was first broached in 1833 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. But that claim remained a distinctly minority position well into the 20th century, even as scholars began using sophisticated computer software to detect subtle linguistic patterns that seemed to link the passages to Shakespeare’s other work. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Mr. Bruster said he himself was a skeptic until he read Mr. Vickers’s 2012 article, which presented voluminous circumstantial historical evidence alongside linguistic patterns unearthed by software designed to uncover student plagiarism. “I had to rethink my entire position,” Mr. Bruster said. “His arguments based on literary history were just so strong.” Mr. Bruster was less persuaded by the linguistic parallels, which he calls merely “suggestive.” And so he turned to perhaps the most literal source of authority: Shakespeare’s own pen. Photo Scholars have long cited the idiosyncrasies of Shakespeare’s handwriting — surviving mainly in three densely scribbled pages held in the British Library that are widely attributed to Shakespeare — to understand oddities in the earliest printed versions of his plays. (In the 1604 quarto version of “Hamlet,” for example, Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, is called “Gertrad” — probably a reflection, Mr. Rasmussen said, of Shakespeare’s tendency to close up his u’s and drop his final e’s.) In his paper, Mr. Bruster identifies 24 broad spelling patterns — including shortened past tenses (like “blest” for “blessed”) and single medial consonants (like “sorow” instead of “sorrow”) — that occur both in the Additional Passages, for which no known manuscript survives, and the Shakespeare handwriting sample in the British Library. He also cites nine textual “corruptions” (like “creuie” instead of “creuic,” modernized as “crevice”) that he believes can be explained as misreadings of Shakespeare’s handwriting. Advertisement Continue reading the main story These irregularities, considered individually, are not necessarily unique to Shakespeare. But taken together, Mr. Bruster argues, they strongly suggest that the Additional Passages were set in type from pages written, in the most literal sense, by Shakespeare. “What I’m getting at is the DNA of Shakespeare’s words themselves, the way he formed those words with his pen on the page,” he said. A printer’s misreading, Mr. Bruster argues, may also explain a particularly clumsy and nongrammatical stretch in the Additional Passages. During a moving speech, the grieving father, Hieronimo, meditates on the nature of a father’s love for his son. The 1602 quarto renders it: “What is there yet in a sonne? He must be fed,/Be thaught to goe, and speake I, or yet./Why might not a man loue a Calfe as well?” But that baffling “I, or yet,” Mr. Bruster argues, is likely a misreading of “Ier” — an abbreviation indicating the line is spoken by Hieronimo, a name that in Shakespeare’s time was sometimes rendered as Ieronimo. The passage, Mr. Bruster argues, should really read (with modernized spelling): “What is there yet in a son?/He must be fed, be taught to go, and speak./Yet why might not a man love a calf as well?” Mr. Bruster once counted himself among the many scholars who have thought the passage in the quarto was simply too poorly written to be Shakespeare. “But once you realize that it’s Shakespeare’s handwriting that’s responsible for the misreading, it’s no longer a bad line,” Mr. Bruster said. “It’s actually a gorgeous passage.” Finding some of Shakespeare’s lines embedded in another writer’s plays may not carry the frisson of announcing the discovery of a previously unknown poem entirely by Shakespeare. But Mr. Bruster’s paper reflects current scholarly interest in Shakespeare as a playwright who frequently collaborated with others — including, Mr. Vickers has controversially argued, on plays we think of as coming solely from his own pen. “Shakespeare wasn’t a solitary genius, flying above everyone else,” Mr. Vickers said. “He was a working man of the theater. If his company needed a new play, he’d get together with someone else and get it done.” \|\|\|\|\| Aug. 13, 2013 AUSTIN, Texas — For centuries, scholars have been searching for answers to a literary mystery: Who wrote the five additional passages in Thomas Kyd’s “The Spanish Tragedy”? Mounting arguments point to William Shakespeare, but English professor Douglas Bruster has recently found evidence confirming that the 325 additional lines are indeed the work of the Bard. According to Bruster’s textual analysis, published in the July online issue of Notes and Queries, the proof lies in Shakespeare’s trademark misspellings and the bad handwriting behind them. “This is the clinching evidence we need to admit the additional passages into the Shakespeare canon,” says Bruster. “It’s not every day we get to identify new writing by Shakespeare, so this is an exciting moment.” Bruster examined Shakespeare’s spelling habits in the manuscript pages of the 16th-century play “Sir Thomas More.” Using Shakespeare’s contributions as a guide, he identified 24 points of similarity between “Sir Thomas More” and “The Spanish Tragedy,” a play republished, with new material, at about the time of “Hamlet.” The findings reveal that Shakespeare’s spelling was both old-fashioned and idiosyncratic. For example, with words like “spotless” and “darkness” Shakespeare would use a single “s.” Past-tense words like “wrapped” and “blessed” he ended with a “t” (i.e., “wrapt,” “blest”). Also telling is his habit of spelling the same word in two different ways (i.e., “alley” spelled “allie” and “allye” in the same line). Shakespeare’s contributions to the revised version of Kyd’s play were first suspected in 1833 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the noted poet, philosopher and literary critic. Yet the cold case has remained unsolved owing to a number of awkward lines in the additions. Like a game of telephone, Shakespeare’s words got lost in translation, resulting in phrases that barely resemble the original, Bruster says. “One line in particular literally kept me up at night wondering what Shakespeare was doing,” Bruster says. “Then I realized that the copyist or printer had misread his handwriting. It turns out that the worst line in the additional passages wasn’t what Shakespeare wrote. Once you recognize what the line originally said, the beauty of his verse rises to the surface.” Watch Professor Douglas Bruster explain how he knew that a short section of a Thomas Kyd play, “The Spanish Tragedy,” was actually written by William Shakespeare. The scholar also reads the “new” work. For more information, contact: Jessica Sinn, College of Liberal Arts, 512-471-2404; Douglas Bruster, Department of English, 512-471-3635, bruster@mail.utexas.edu	– It's been a nearly 200-year-long debate: Did William Shakespeare add 325 lines to Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy nearly a decade after Kyd's death? None other than Samuel Taylor Coleridge raised the question in 1833, and a 2012 computer analysis seemed to lend credence to the theory. Now, a University of Texas professor says the proof may be in the handwriting—and bad handwriting at that. In a paper to be published next month, Douglas Bruster compares the play's 1602 "Additional Passages" with a three-page handwriting sample believed to be the Bard's held at the British Library. What he found, per the New York Times and UT at Austin News: about two dozen similar spelling patterns (for instance, "sorow for "sorrow"; past-tense words that ended in "t", like "wrapt"; and one word spelled two ways, like "allie" and "allye" for "alley") and nine textual "corruptions" that he believes resulted from the printer misreading Shakespeare's hand. He also thinks an awkward passage—so seemingly poorly written that it has been cited as evidence the lines couldn't have been crafted by Shakespeare—is the result of another bad handwriting/printer error goof. Says Bruster, "This is the clinching evidence we need to admit the additional passages into the Shakespeare canon." The Times notes this would mark the first such addition since passages from Edward III (also attributed to Kyd) were included in scholarly editions in the mid-'90s. (Another fascinating recent study paints Shakespeare as a food hoarder.)
Army suicide testimony: Sergeant taunted Danny Chen with slurs An African American soldier, Pvt. Marcus Merritt, testified Wednesday that Holcomb addressed him with a racial slur and threatened to "kill me and put me in a body bag and send me home.’’ Merritt said he became suicidal after enduring punishment and humiliation from Holcomb. In their opening statements, prosecutors had said testimony would show that soldiers taunted Chen with racial slurs, kicked him and pelted him with rocks in merciless hazing in the weeks before the private’s suicide. Holcomb, 30, is the first to face court-martial in a case that has focused renewed attention on allegations of hazing and racism in the Army, where Asian Americans are a distinct minority. Courts-martial for the other seven soldiers, including an officer, are scheduled for later this year. Military prosecutors elicited the testimony in the second day of the proceedings to buttress charges that Holcomb hazed and hounded Chen, a Chinese American, into committing suicide at a remote combat outpost in Afghanistan on Oct. 3. Holcomb, one of eight soldiers charged in connection with Chen’s death, faces charges of negligent homicide, assault, reckless endangerment and other counts. FT. BRAGG, N.C. -- Sgt. Adam Holcomb bombarded Danny Chen, a shy, 19-year-old Army private, with racial slurs and bloodied Chen’s back by dragging him across rocky ground for disobeying a platoon rule, several former members of Holcomb’s platoon testified at his court-martial Wednesday. U.S. Army Sgt. Adam Holcomb, right, is the first of eight men facing prosecution… (Raul R. Rubiera, The Fayetteville…) "He was in my face constantly,’’ Merritt testified when asked why he had contemplated suicide. "All the stuff he did had a long-lasting effect on me.’’ Under cross-examination, Merritt conceded that he knew Holcomb wasn’t serious about killing him. But he also said he feared the sergeant, telling a military psychiatrist he wanted to kill Holcomb. Holcomb’s immediate superior, Staff Sgt. Darren Holt, told the military panel of 10 officers and non-commissioned officers that he confronted Holcomb after the sergeant dragged Chen across sharp, baseball-sized rocks in late September. Holcomb was angry that Chen had ignored posted rules to turn off power to a water heater after taking a shower. Holt said he told Holcomb that physically abusing a soldier was wrong and reported the incident to superiors. "I verbally counseled him [Holcomb] . . . and made it clear that was unacceptable,’’ Holt said. Chen shot himself under the chin in a base guard tower a week after the dragging incident, according to the Army. Chen’s death outraged some Chinese American activists in New York City’s Chinatown, where Chen grew up with his immigrant parents. Several activists are attending the court-martial, along with journalists from China. Holcomb’s military lawyers have said Chen killed himself because his parents had disowned him for joining the Army instead of attending college. They have portrayed Chen as an incompetent soldier who endangered his platoon and required constant discipline for such violations as sleeping on guard duty or reporting for his guard post without his helmet. Defense lawyers have also said that nicknames -- even those with racially tinged overtones -- were common "terms of endearment’’ in the small, tight-knit platoon. One African American platoon member, they said, encouraged soldiers to call him "Black Mamba.’’ Under cross-examination by the defense, former members of the platoon conceded that most discipline meted out by Holcomb was justified by Chen’s failure to follow orders or regulations. Such "corrective training,’’ especially in combat zones, is an accepted way to improve soldiers’ performance, according to testimony. Several soldiers testified that Chen never gave any overt indication that he was contemplating suicide. The platoon medic, Spec. Zachary Bolin, who treated Chen’s back abrasions at Holcomb’s request, said Chen denied suicidal thoughts when Bolin asked him about it. \|\|\|\|\| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.	– Playing "Taps" on a well-worn bugle, the emotional recitation of "A Soldier's Creed," and calling each other racial slurs one day per week: all time-honored customs in the US Army? That last practice is, at least in one platoon, according to a black staff sergeant who tells the Army Times that he's filed an equal-opportunity complaint against his platoon leader at Alaska's Fort Wainwright for "[encouraging] 'Racial Thursdays' as a way to build morale and camaraderie," the Times notes. The soldier from the 2nd Platoon, C Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment tells the newspaper that although epithets were never hurled his way, he was told upon arrival that the special day was a "tradition" in which soldiers "can say any racist remark you want without any consequences." "It's degrading to the soldiers," the staff sergeant says. "We've had soldiers almost fight over the crap that's going on here." A junior enlisted soldier anonymously backs up the NCO's claim, telling the Times that "you didn't have to participate, but they'd remind you." He recalls a Latino soldier being called a "wetback" and "border jumper" before almost getting into a scuffle when the others wouldn't stop. The Alaska unit is the same one in which 19-year-old Pvt. Danny Chen served before killing himself in 2011 after being deployed. Chen, who was Chinese-American, reportedly had rocks thrown at him and was called names like "Dragon Lady" and "Egg Roll" in the weeks before his death in Afghanistan, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2012. A spokesman for the Alaska unit tells the Army Times an investigation into the recent claims is underway and that "there is absolutely no connection between this current investigation and the case of Pvt. Danny Chen. Treating all soldiers with dignity and respect is something this command takes extremely seriously." (Prince Harry once got into hot water with the UK military for using a racial slur.)
DUBAI (Reuters) - President-elect Hassan Rouhani called on Wednesday for the government and powerful clergy to end interference in the private lives of the Iranian people, free up Internet access and allow state media to be more open about Iran’s problems. Iranian President-elect Hassan Rohani gestures to the media during a news conference in Tehran June 17, 2013. REUTERS/Fars News/Majid Hagdost Rouhani’s comments began to flesh out his message of moderation at home and better relations abroad that contributed to his surprise election victory last month. His election prompted a huge outpouring of support from Iranians hungry for change after eight years of domestic security crackdowns and international confrontation under hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “There shouldn’t be any rift or division between the government or the clergy especially at a time when people have pinned their hopes on seeing some sort of change in society,” Rouhani, a mid-ranking cleric, told fellow clergymen in Tehran. “A strong government does not mean a government that interferes and intervenes in all affairs. It is not a government that limits the lives of people. This is not a strong government,” said Rouhani who takes office early next month. “The power of the government lies in improving popular trust and...offering services, decreasing problems, setting the stage for further development of all citizens to help meet the needs of the people and desire for change,” he said in an address aired on state television. Rouhani is bolstered by his popular mandate and the backing of an alliance of moderates and reformers led by former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami - both sidelined by hardliners under Ahmadinejad. For now the divided hardline conservative camp has given Rouhani a relatively free ride, repeatedly emphasizing the high turnout in the election as a victory for the system rather than a defeat for themselves and the status quo. But with a majority in parliament, strong links to the powerful Revolutionary Guards and a grip on the top jobs in state media and the security apparatus, the hardliners could confound Rouhani’s attempts to foster change, especially if they sense their positions are under direct threat. LOOSEN MEDIA CONTROLS During his election campaign, Rouhani demanded a loosening of the “security atmosphere” and on Wednesday signaled what steps he wanted to see taken. Filtering of the Internet in Iran, stepped up after social media was used to encourage and coordinate large protests following the disputed 2009 presidential election, had proved ineffective, Rouhani said, fittingly, on Twitter. “Which important piece of news has filtering been able to black out in recent years?” he asked. At the same time, he criticized state broadcaster IRIB for ignoring issues inside Iran. The state has a monopoly over terrestrial television in Iran and though satellite receivers are banned and foreign news broadcasts are often blocked, many Iranians tune in to U.S. and Europe-based channels beaming news and entertainment into the Islamic Republic. “When IRIB airs the birth of a panda in China but nothing about unpaid workers protesting, it is obvious that the people and youth will ignore it,” Rouhani tweeted. The key to whether Rouhani will be able to succeed in his vision of a more open society within the Islamic system will be whether he receives the backing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who sits at the top of Iran’s complex hybrid system of clerical rule combined and elements of elected representation. A life-long insider in post-revolutionary Iran, Rouhani was for years Khamenei’s personal representative on the National Security Council, managing to maintain the trust of the leader even as other moderates fell out of favor and hardliners moved into the ascendant, especially in the early Ahmadinejad years. But the next president will also have to temper the demands of a population that may want change faster than he can deliver. Facing potential political opposition at home, an economy incapacitated by tough international sanctions over Iran’s nuclear dispute with the West, Rouhani has repeatedly urged patience. “We have a lot of problems facing us. No government in the history of Iran has faced the problems that this government is facing,” Rouhani told the meeting of clerics. “The problems cannot be solved in a matter of days or months.” \|\|\|\|\| Two weeks after his sensational victory Iran's president-elect, Hassan Rouhani, has expressed relatively progressive views about civil liberties, freedom of expression and the internet. Social networking sites such as Facebook were, he said, a welcome phenomenon. In his most outspoken interview in the Iranian media, Rouhani told Chelcheragh – a popular youth magazine – that he is opposed to segregation of sexes in society, would work to minimise censorship and believes internet filtering is futile. "In the age of digital revolution, one cannot live or govern in a quarantine," he said as he made clear he is opposed to the authorities' harsh crackdown on Iranians owning satellite dishes, which millions have installed on rooftops for access to foreign-based TV channels illegal in the country. Rouhani, who has promised to put the Islamic republic back on the path of moderation after eight acrimonious years under the outgoing president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, warned that citizens' rights had been neglected. He said he stood in the June presidential election as a candidate critical of the current situation and also because he felt the country was at peril. "Today the republican [nature] of our country is overshadowed by a specific interpretation of its Islamic [character]," he said. Rouhani's reference to the republican character of Iran's ruling system is a hint that the Islamic republic's legitimacy is meant to come from the popular vote. Rouhani is scheduled to be sworn into office in early August. "Some of the principles of our constitution have been emphasised while others were neglected and this is why we are facing an imbalance as a result," he said. "The freedom and rights of people have been ignored but those of the rulers have been emphasised … Restricting [people's right] to criticise will only stifle and lead to inefficiency." Of internet filtering, Rouhani said some of the measures taken by the authorities to restrict users' access online was not done in good faith and was instead politically motivated. "There are political reasons. They have fears of the freedom people have in online atmosphere, this is why they seek to restrict information. But filtering is incapable of producing any [useful] results," he said. "Supporters of internet filtering should explain whether they've successfully restricted access to information? Which important piece of news has filtering been able to black out in recent years?" He added: "Filtering has not even stopped people from accessing unethical [a reference to pornographic] websites. Widespread online filtering will only increase distrust between people and the state." Access to hundreds of thousands of websites is blocked in Iran, including Facebook and Twitter, but millions of Iranians use them via anti-filtering software or virtual private network (VPN) services. Despite the filtering, Rouhani's campaign was active on both sites at election time. "The virtual space is a tool and it can be an opportunity or a threat," said Rouhani. "I remember that [former president] Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani once called social networking websites such as Facebook a welcome phenomenon. Indeed they are." Since Rouhani's win, web users in Iran have reported a relative easing of online censorship and say revoked access to VPN accounts has been restored. Rouhani also pledged to minimise censorship of artistic and cultural works and said the state – instead of interfering in the affairs of artists and cultural figures – should provide them with security. "We should not tighten the red lines all the time, we should show that censorship is not our goal," he said. On the question of women wearing the hijab, a contentious issue in a country with millions unhappy about the mandatory religious code, the president-elect said he was against the crackdown against women with loose clothing – but he stopped short of saying it should be left as voluntary. Each summer, as the heat bears down and makes it difficult for women and men in Iran to stick to their forced Islamic dress code, the religious police go out on to the streets to watch out for loose hijabs, inappropriate dress or hairstyles. "I'm certainly against these actions," said Rouhani, saying a women without a hijab is not necessarily without virtue. "If a women or a man does not comply with our rules for clothing, his or her virtue should not come under question … In my view, many women in our society who do not respect our hijab laws are virtuous. Our emphasis should be on the virtue." In his interview, Rouhani said he opposed segregation of men and women, including at universities, and criticised the politicians who are against allowing women to enter stadiums to watch football matches along with men. Iran's state television, IRIB, the mouthpiece of the country's ruling system, also came under attack from Rouhani. "A large population of our youth are ignoring the [state] television because in it they haven't seen the honesty, morality, justice that it merits," he said. "When the state TV shows a programme about the birth of a panda in a Chinese zoo but doesn't broadcast anything about workers staging a protest because they haven't been paid for six months … it's obvious that people and the youth will ignore it. The solution is to have freedom of expression. "If a day comes that our television shows more news coverage than foreign networks such as BBC, then people will reconcile with it." Rouhani has previously criticised the IRIB. During his first post-election speech at the weekend, he said a country which receives its legitimacy from its people should not fear free media. He also said: "Injustice is an injustice … it's a double standard to call an injustice in an unfriendly country as an injustice but to label the same thing in a friendly country as not … human rights is same in any place around the world."	– Iran's President-elect Hassan Rouhani has begun delivering his message of moderation, calling upon the country's leaders and clergy to stop meddling so much in the private affairs of its citizens. "A strong government does not mean a government that interferes and intervenes in all affairs. It is not a government that limits the lives of people," he said in an address on state TV, Reuters reports. Rouhani has criticized the country's Internet filtering, and chastised state broadcaster IRIB for ignoring important issues. "When IRIB airs the birth of a panda in China but nothing about unpaid workers protesting, it is obvious that the people and youth will ignore it," he reportedly tweeted. Rouhani has also spoken out against enforcement of the country's Islamic dress code, saying he doesn't support religious police cracking down on loose clothing and hairstyles—though he didn't go so far as to say the dress code should end, reports the Guardian. "If a woman or a man does not comply with our rules for clothing, his or her virtue should not come under question," he told a magazine. "In my view, many women in our society who do not respect our hijab laws are virtuous. Our emphasis should be on the virtue." He also says he opposes the segregation of men and women, criticizing politicians who want to ban women from entering soccer stadiums alongside men.
John Thune isn't running for president. "For months now, my wife Kimberley and I have received encouragement from family, friends, colleagues, and supporters from across South Dakota and the country to run for the presidency of the United States," Thune said in a statement posted on his website today. Text Size - + reset VIDEO: Thune at CPAC VIDEO: Thune on 2012- Sept. '10 POLITICO 44 "I feel that I am best positioned to fight for America’s future here in the trenches of the United States Senate," he said. Thune's statement didn't indicate who he might support in the 2012 presidential primary. Thune had an afternoon conference call to speak with supporters, and he called top donors early Tuesday to inform them of his decision. Thune, who beat Democratic Majority Leader Tom Daschle to win his Senate seat in 2004, has been thinking about a presidential bid for months — but his inquiries were tepid compared to other more organized candidates. Earlier this month, he was tapped to serve on the powerful Finance Committee — and with Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) set to retire next year, there is space for Thune to move up the ranks of the Senate leadership. The South Dakotan had made clear in recent weeks that he lacked any burning desire to get on the campaign trail. “I like where I am," Thune said in an interview with POLITICO earlier this month. "I like what I do. These committee assignments are obviously going to give me a full portfolio for the foreseeable future. ... I’m in a place where I think I can make a difference. He told confidantes there are three main reasons for his decision: his role in the Senate, his family and the timing. "In 2012, there are a slew of Democratic seats that are up, and you could see the Senate flip. I think he wants to help his Senate colleagues win back the majority," top Republican fundraiser Gregory Slayton told POLITICO. Slayton, now based at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business in New Hampshire, has been speaking with Thune regularly for weeks. Thune told Slayton he had to consider his family's role in a grueling presidential campaign — a sentiment that Thune expressed in his POLITICO interview when he said his wife had read "Game Change," an account of the 2008 campaign. "It was not helpful,” he joked, calling the book a “downer.” The third problem: timing. "Is this the right time in John's political career? With Kyl retiring, there are further opportunities for him in the Senate — and not just general Senate responsibilities but the overall role he might play," Slayton said. \|\|\|\|\| News › Statement from John and Kimberley Thune Posted: February 22nd 2011 For months now, my wife Kimberley and I have received encouragement from family, friends, colleagues, and supporters from across South Dakota and the country to run for the presidency of the United States. We have appreciated hearing their concerns about where the country is headed and their hopes for a new direction. During this time, Kimberley and I and our two daughters have given a great deal of thought to how we might best serve South Dakota and our nation. That process has involved lots of prayer. Along the way, we have been reminded of the importance of being in the arena, of being in the fight. And make no mistake that during this period of fiscal crisis and economic uncertainty there is a fight for the future direction of America. There is a battle to be waged over what kind of country we are going to leave our children and grandchildren and that battle is happening now in Washington, not two years from now. So at this time, I feel that I am best positioned to fight for America’s future here in the trenches of the United States Senate. I want to thank those who have encouraged us and prayed for us during the past several months. We are forever grateful for all the support. John and Kimberley $25 $50 $100 $500 $1000 Other... $ first name last name phone email zip next » I’d like to volunteer Send me email updates Send me text alerts first name last name cell phone email zip submit	– The 2012 crop of GOP presidential candidates got a little smaller today: South Dakota Sen. John Thune announced on Facebook that he's not running. After "lots of prayer," he decided that he'll stay put and "fight for America’s future here in the trenches of the United States Senate." Thune—who defeated then-Democratic Majority Leader Tom Daschle in 2004—had never been among the presidential front-runners, and his Senate career is getting more promising, reports Politico. The conservative scored a spot on the influential Finance Committee earlier this month.
Just One More Thing... We have sent you a verification email. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your profile. If you do not receive the verification message within a few minutes of signing up, please check your Spam or Junk folder. Close \|\|\|\|\| Just One More Thing... We have sent you a verification email. Please check your email and click on the link to activate your profile. If you do not receive the verification message within a few minutes of signing up, please check your Spam or Junk folder. Close \|\|\|\|\| ... Coincidence? We think not. You can see how it all comes together. It’s a good idea. We were asked to help to bring it to life - a remake of the Depeche Mode classic in various modern genres. The campaign is already buzzing with thousands of people all over the world requesting the release of full length tracks. Well....who knows...we just might. If you don’t like Depeche Mode you should seek medical advice. They are the truth. Take for instance the line: People are people. That is true. People are people. Only an alien would argue otherwise. And Volkswagen also means People’s Car. \|\|\|\|\| Photo: Courtesy Image 1 of / 54 Caption Close Image 1 of 54 Rashad Owens, the suspect in the SXSW wreck, is seen in an undated booking mug provided Friday, March 14, 2014. Rashad Owens, the suspect in the SXSW wreck, is seen in an undated booking mug provided Friday, March 14, 2014. Photo: Courtesy Image 2 of 54 Rashad Charjuan Owens of Killeen is seen in an undated booking mug provided March 13, 2014 by the Bell County Sheriff Department. Owens allegedly attempted to evade a police checkpoint in Austin early Thursday morning March 13, 2014, running through barricades at SXSW killing two people and injuring 23 others in the process. Rashad Charjuan Owens of Killeen is seen in an undated booking mug provided March 13, 2014 by the Bell County Sheriff Department. Owens allegedly attempted to evade a police checkpoint in Austin early Thursday ... more Photo: Courtesy Photo/Bell County Sheriff Department Image 3 of 54 Unidentified people are comforted after being struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people were confirmed dead at the scene after a car drove through temporary barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck a crowd of pedestrians. Unidentified people are comforted after being struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people were confirmed dead at the scene ... more Photo: Jay Janner, AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman/Statesman.com Image 4 of 54 People are treated after being struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people were confirmed dead at the scene after a car drove through temporary barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck a crowd of pedestrians. The condition of the victims shown is unknown. People are treated after being struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people were confirmed dead at the scene after a car drove through ... more Photo: Jay Janner, AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman/Statesman.com Image 5 of 54 Bystanders react after several people were struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people were confirmed dead at the scene after a car drove through temporary barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck a crowd of pedestrians. Bystanders react after several people were struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people were confirmed dead at the scene after a ... more Photo: Jay Janner, AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman/Statesman.com Image 6 of 54 Bystanders tend to a man who was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people were confirmed dead at the scene after a car drove through temporary barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck a crowd of pedestrians. Bystanders tend to a man who was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people were confirmed dead at the scene after a car drove through ... more Photo: Jay Janner, AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman/Statesman.com Image 7 of 54 A man is transported to an ambulance after being struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people were confirmed dead at the scene after a car drove through temporary barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck a crowd of pedestrians. A man is transported to an ambulance after being struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people were confirmed dead at the ... more Photo: Jay Janner, AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman/Statesman.com Image 8 of 54 A bystander and a police officer tend to a man who was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a suspected drunken driver fleeing from arrest crashed through barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck the pair and others on a crowded street. A bystander and a police officer tend to a man who was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after ... more Photo: Jay Janner, AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman/Statesman.com Image 9 of 54 A man checks the condition of a man in the street after he was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people have died after a car drove through temporary barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck a crowd of pedestrians. A man checks the condition of a man in the street after he was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people have died after a ... more Photo: Jay Janner, AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman/Statesman.com Image 10 of 54 People perform CPR on a woman after she was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Her condition is unknown. Police say two people have died after a car drove through temporary barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck a crowd of pedestrians. People perform CPR on a woman after she was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Her condition is unknown. Police say two people have died ... more Photo: Jay Janner, AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman/Statesman.com Image 11 of 54 Investigators continue to work the scene on Red River where a man fleeing police drove through a closed street filled with pedestrians killing 2 and injuring 23 more during the SXSW Music Festival held in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, March 13, 2014. Investigators continue to work the scene on Red River where a man fleeing police drove through a closed street filled with pedestrians killing 2 and injuring 23 more during the SXSW Music Festival held in ... more Photo: Rodolfo Gonzalez, Associated Press Image 12 of 54 A patient is carried away after being struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people were confirmed dead at the scene after a car drove through temporary barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck a crowd of pedestrians. A patient is carried away after being struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people were confirmed dead at the scene after a ... more Photo: Jay Janner, AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman/Statesman.com Image 13 of 54 People walk away after the accident on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, that left two dead at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a suspected drunken driver fleeing from arrest crashed through barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck the pair and others on a crowded street. People walk away after the accident on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, that left two dead at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a suspected drunken ... more Photo: Jay Janner, AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman/Statesman.com Image 14 of 54 People perform CPR on a woman after she was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a suspected drunken driver fleeing from arrest crashed through barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck the pair and others on a crowded street. People perform CPR on a woman after she was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a suspected ... more Photo: Jay Janner, AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman/Statesman.com Image 15 of 54 The crowd scatters seconds after several pedestrians were struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people have died after a car drove through temporary barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck a crowd of pedestrians. The crowd scatters seconds after several pedestrians were struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people have died after a car ... more Photo: Jay Janner, AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman/Statesman.com Image 16 of 54 Bystanders assist first responders at the scene at SXSW festival in Austin, TX early Thursday morning March 13, 2014 where 2 people died and dozens more were injured after a hit and run. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a drunken driver fleeing from arrest crashed through barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck the pair and others on a crowded street. Bystanders assist first responders at the scene at SXSW festival in Austin, TX early Thursday morning March 13, 2014 where 2 people died and dozens more were injured after a hit and run. Police say a man and ... more Photo: Colin Kerrigan, Associated Press Image 17 of 54 People tend to those who were struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people have died after a car drove through temporary barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck a crowd of pedestrians. People tend to those who were struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people have died after a car drove through temporary ... more Photo: Jay Janner, AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman/Statesman.com Image 18 of 54 People tend to those who were struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people have died after a car drove through temporary barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck a crowd of pedestrians. People tend to those who were struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people have died after a car drove through temporary ... more Photo: Jay Janner, McClatchy-Tribune News Service Image 19 of 54 A man directs an ambulance to a man who was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW, March 12, 2014. A man directs an ambulance to a man who was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW, March 12, 2014. Photo: Jay Janner, McClatchy-Tribune News Service Image 20 of 54 A victim is carried away after being struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW, March 12, 2014. A victim is carried away after being struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, during SXSW, March 12, 2014. Photo: Jay Janner, McClatchy-Tribune News Service Image 21 of 54 Dr. Christopher Ziebell, Director of the Emergency Unit for University Medical Center Brackenridge, briefs members of the media on the conditions of the patients that were injured in an early morning accident during the SXSW Music Festival held in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, March 13, 2014. A man fleeing from police drove his car through barricades and down a closed street crowded with pedestrians in downtown Austin killing 2 people and injuring 23 others. Dr. Christopher Ziebell, Director of the Emergency Unit for University Medical Center Brackenridge, briefs members of the media on the conditions of the patients that were injured in an early morning accident ... more Photo: Rodolfo Gonzalez, Associated Press Image 22 of 54 Bystanders and paramedics tend to a person who was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday, March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a suspected drunken driver fleeing from arrest crashed through barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck the pair and others on a crowded street. Bystanders and paramedics tend to a person who was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday, March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a ... more Photo: Jay Janner, Associated Press Image 23 of 54 A man helps another man who was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people have died after a car drove through temporary barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck a crowd of pedestrians. A man helps another man who was struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people have died after a car drove through temporary ... more Photo: Jay Janner, Associated Press Image 24 of 54 Bystanders and a police officers move a person who was struck by a car on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a suspected drunken driver fleeing from arrest crashed through barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck the pair and others on a crowded street. Bystanders and a police officers move a person who was struck by a car on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a ... more Photo: Jay Janner, Associated Press Image 25 of 54 A man is transported to an ambulance after being struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people were confirmed dead at the scene after a car drove through temporary barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck a crowd of pedestrians. The condition of the man is unknown. A man is transported to an ambulance after being struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say two people were confirmed dead at the scene after a ... more Photo: Jay Janner, Associated Press Image 26 of 54 Bystanders and a paramedics tend to people who were struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a suspected drunken driver fleeing from arrest crashed through barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck the pair and others on a crowded street. Bystanders and a paramedics tend to people who were struck by a vehicle on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a ... more Photo: Jay Janner, Associated Press Image 27 of 54 People carry a person who was struck by a car on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a suspected drunken driver fleeing from arrest crashed through barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck the pair and others on a crowded street. People carry a person who was struck by a car on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a suspected drunken driver ... more Photo: Jay Janner, Associated Press Image 28 of 54 People carry a person who was struck by a car on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, on Wednesday, March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a suspected drunken driver fleeing from arrest crashed through barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck the pair and others on a crowded street. People carry a person who was struck by a car on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, on Wednesday, March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a suspected drunken driver fleeing ... more Photo: Jay Janner, Associated Press Image 29 of 54 Paramedics transport a person who was struck by a car on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a suspected drunken driver fleeing from arrest crashed through barricades set up for the South By Southwest festival and struck the pair and others on a crowded street. Paramedics transport a person who was struck by a car on Red River Street in downtown Austin, Texas, at SXSW on Wednesday March 12, 2014. Police say a man and woman have been killed after a suspected drunken ... more Photo: Jay Janner, Associated Press Image 30 of 54 The scene on Red River on Wednesday night. The scene on Red River on Wednesday night. Image 31 of 54 The scene on Red River on Wednesday night. The scene on Red River on Wednesday night. Image 32 of 54 The scene on Red River on Wednesday night. The scene on Red River on Wednesday night. Image 33 of 54 A photo of the aftermath at 10th and Red River in Austin, Texas, after a suspected drunk driver barreled through a police barricade and into a crowded street. Two were killed, 23 were injured, five critically, in the incident. A photo of the aftermath at 10th and Red River in Austin, Texas, after a suspected drunk driver barreled through a police barricade and into a crowded street. Two were killed, 23 were injured, five critically, ... more Photo: Nolan Hicks/Express-News Image 34 of 54 People line up for shows outside the Mohawk Thursday March 13, 2014 in Austin, Tx., near the scene where at least 2 people were killed by a motorist fleeing police. People line up for shows outside the Mohawk Thursday March 13, 2014 in Austin, Tx., near the scene where at least 2 people were killed by a motorist fleeing police. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 35 of 54 Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo answers questions from the media after a vigil at St. David's Episcopal Church, Thursday March 13, 2014 in Austin, Tx., for the victims of the South by Southwest crash. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo answers questions from the media after a vigil at St. David's Episcopal Church, Thursday March 13, 2014 in Austin, Tx., for the victims of the South by Southwest crash. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 36 of 54 People line up for shows outside the Mohawk Thursday March 13, 2014 in Austin, Tx., near the scene where 2 people were killed and 23 others injured early Thursday morning by a motorist fleeing police. People line up for shows outside the Mohawk Thursday March 13, 2014 in Austin, Tx., near the scene where 2 people were killed and 23 others injured early Thursday morning by a motorist fleeing police. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 37 of 54 People line up for shows outside the Mohawk Thursday March 13, 2014 in Austin, Tx., near the scene where 2 people were killed and 23 others injured early Thursday morning by a motorist fleeing police. People line up for shows outside the Mohawk Thursday March 13, 2014 in Austin, Tx., near the scene where 2 people were killed and 23 others injured early Thursday morning by a motorist fleeing police. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 38 of 54 People pray during a vigil at St. David's Episcopal Church, Thursday March 13, 2014 in Austin, Tx., for the victims of the South by Southwest crash. People pray during a vigil at St. David's Episcopal Church, Thursday March 13, 2014 in Austin, Tx., for the victims of the South by Southwest crash. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 39 of 54 Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo (left) and St. David's Episcopal Church assistant priest Bob Gibble attend a vigil at St. David's Episcopal Church, Thursday March 13, 2014 in Austin, Tx., for the victims of the South by Southwest crash. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo (left) and St. David's Episcopal Church assistant priest Bob Gibble attend a vigil at St. David's Episcopal Church, Thursday March 13, 2014 in Austin, Tx., for the victims of the ... more Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 40 of 54 Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo (left) hugs Kristin Day, who is attending South by Southwest, during a vigil at St. David's Episcopal Church, Thursday March 13, 2014 in Austin, Tx., for the victims of the South by Southwest crash. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo (left) hugs Kristin Day, who is attending South by Southwest, during a vigil at St. David's Episcopal Church, Thursday March 13, 2014 in Austin, Tx., for the victims of the South ... more Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 41 of 54 Dozens attended a candlelight vigil at St. David's Episcopal Church in Austin for the victims of the South by Southwest crash for late afternoon Thursday, March 13, 2014. Dozens attended a candlelight vigil at St. David's Episcopal Church in Austin for the victims of the South by Southwest crash for late afternoon Thursday, March 13, 2014. Photo: Lorne Chan/San Antonio Express-News Image 42 of 54 Crime scene tape near the scene Thursday March 13, 2014, of the tragic accident when Rashad Charjuan Owens, 22, of Killeen, drove a vehicle past barricades and into a crowd of people at Red River and Ninth Streets in downtown Austin, Texas. The crash killed two people and injured 23 more. Crime scene tape near the scene Thursday March 13, 2014, of the tragic accident when Rashad Charjuan Owens, 22, of Killeen, drove a vehicle past barricades and into a crowd of people at Red River and Ninth ... more Photo: Laura Skelding, Associated Press Image 43 of 54 Flowers placed against a utility pole near the scene where 2 people were killed and 23 others injured when a motorist fleeing police drove his car through a crowd of pedestrians near Mohawks during SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, March 13, 2014. The driver, identified as Rashad Charjuan Owens, 21, of Killeen, was taken into custody will face capital murder charges. Flowers placed against a utility pole near the scene where 2 people were killed and 23 others injured when a motorist fleeing police drove his car through a crowd of pedestrians near Mohawks during SXSW Music ... more Photo: Rodolfo Gonzalez, Associated Press Image 44 of 54 Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo speaks Thursday March 13, 2014 in downtown Austin after two people were killed and more than 20 people were injured after a man in a car attempted to evade police at about 12:30 a.m. The driver of the vehicle sped down a barricaded portion Red River street where the South by Southwest Music Festival was taking place and hit more than 20 people in his car. A cyclist from the Netherlands was killed and a female riding on a moped was killed. The suspect, a black adult male, was tazed and apprehended and will face capital murder charges. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo speaks Thursday March 13, 2014 in downtown Austin after two people were killed and more than 20 people were injured after a man in a car attempted to evade police at about 12:30 ... more Photo: JOHN DAVENPORT, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS Image 45 of 54 Austin mayor Lee Leffingwell (center, at lectern) speaks Thursday March 13, 2014 at a press conference in downtown Austin after two people were killed and more than 20 people were injured after a man in a car attempted to evade police at about 12:30 a.m. The driver of the vehicle sped down a barricaded portion Red River street where the South by Southwest Music Festival was taking place and hit more than 20 people in his car. A cyclist from the Netherlands was killed and a female riding on a moped was killed. The suspect, a black adult male, was tazed and apprehended and will face capital murder charges. Austin mayor Lee Leffingwell (center, at lectern) speaks Thursday March 13, 2014 at a press conference in downtown Austin after two people were killed and more than 20 people were injured after a man in a car ... more Photo: JOHN DAVENPORT, San Antonio Express-News Image 46 of 54 Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo (center, at lectern) speaks Thursday March 13, at a press conference in downtown Austin after two people were killed and more than 20 people were injured after a man in a car attempted to evade police at about 12:30 a.m. The driver of the vehicle sped down a barricaded portion Red River street where the South by Southwest Music Festival was taking place and hit more than 20 people in his car. A cyclist from the Netherlands was killed and a female riding on a moped was killed. The suspect, a black adult male, was tazed and apprehended and will face capital murder charges. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo (center, at lectern) speaks Thursday March 13, at a press conference in downtown Austin after two people were killed and more than 20 people were injured after a man in a car ... more Photo: JOHN DAVENPORT, San Antonio Express-News Image 47 of 54 Roland Swenson (center, at lectern), Managing Director of the South by Southwest Music Festival, speaks Thursday March 13, at a press conference in downtown Austin after two people were killed and more than 20 people were injured after a man in a car attempted to evade police at about 12:30 a.m. The driver of the vehicle sped down a barricaded portion Red River street where the South by Southwest Music Festival was taking place and hit more than 20 people in his car. A cyclist from the Netherlands was killed and a female riding on a moped was killed. The suspect, a black adult male, was tazed and apprehended and will face capital murder charges. Roland Swenson (center, at lectern), Managing Director of the South by Southwest Music Festival, speaks Thursday March 13, at a press conference in downtown Austin after two people were killed and more than 20 ... more Photo: JOHN DAVENPORT, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS Image 48 of 54 This is the Shell station in downtown Austin at I-35 and 9th where an incident began that resulted in two deaths and more than 20 people being injured after a man in a car attempted to evade police at about 12:30 a.m. The driver of the vehicle sped down a barricaded portion Red River street where the South by Southwest Music Festival was taking place and hit more than 20 people in his car. A cyclist from the Netherlands was killed and a female riding on a moped was killed. The suspect, a black adult male, was tazed and apprehended and will face capital murder charges. This is the Shell station in downtown Austin at I-35 and 9th where an incident began that resulted in two deaths and more than 20 people being injured after a man in a car attempted to evade police at about ... more Photo: JOHN DAVENPORT, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS Image 49 of 54 This is the corner of 9th and Red River in downtown where a a motorist crashed through barriers that resulted in two deaths and more than 20 people being injured after a man in a car attempted to evade police at about 12:30 a.m. The driver of the vehicle sped down a barricaded portion Red River street where the South by Southwest Music Festival was taking place and hit more than 20 people in his car. A cyclist from the Netherlands was killed and a female riding on a moped was killed. The suspect, a black adult male, was tazed and apprehended and will face capital murder charges. This is the corner of 9th and Red River in downtown where a a motorist crashed through barriers that resulted in two deaths and more than 20 people being injured after a man in a car attempted to evade police ... more Photo: JOHN DAVENPORT, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS Image 50 of 54 This is the Mowhawk night club on Red River street in downtown where a a motorist crashed through barriers that resulted in two deaths and more than 20 people being injured after a man in a car attempted to evade police at about 12:30 a.m. The driver of the vehicle sped down a barricaded portion Red River street where the South by Southwest Music Festival was taking place and hit more than 20 people in his car. A cyclist from the Netherlands was killed and a female riding on a moped was killed. The suspect, a black adult male, was tazed and apprehended and will face capital murder charges. This is the Mowhawk night club on Red River street in downtown where a a motorist crashed through barriers that resulted in two deaths and more than 20 people being injured after a man in a car attempted to ... more Photo: JOHN DAVENPORT, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS Image 51 of 54 Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo addresses the media during a press conference about Thursday morning's tragic accident during SXSW when Rashad Charjuan Owens, 22, of Killeen, drove a vehicle past barricades and into a crowd of people at Red River and Ninth Streets in downtown Austin, Texas. The crash killed two people and injured 23 more. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo addresses the media during a press conference about Thursday morning's tragic accident during SXSW when Rashad Charjuan Owens, 22, of Killeen, drove a vehicle past barricades ... more Photo: Laura Skelding, Associated Press Image 52 of 54 SXSW managing director Roland Swenson address the media during a news conference on Thursday, March 13, 2014 in Austin, Texas. Swenson said the festival will continue. A suspected drunken driver barreled through police barricades and drove down a crowded street at the South by Southwest festival early Thursday morning, killing two people and injuring 23 in an act authorities say was intentional. The driver struck multiple pedestrians at about 12:30 a.m. on a block filled with concertgoers, continued down the street and hit and killed a man from the Netherlands on a bicycle and a woman from Austin on a moped, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said. SXSW managing director Roland Swenson address the media during a news conference on Thursday, March 13, 2014 in Austin, Texas. Swenson said the festival will continue. A suspected drunken driver barreled ... more Photo: Shweta Gulati, Associated Press Image 53 of 54 Austin Police Chief address the media during a news conference on Thursday, March 13, 2014 in Austin, Texas. A suspected drunken driver barreled through police barricades and drove down a crowded street at the South by Southwest festival early Thursday morning, killing two people and injuring 23 in an act authorities say was intentional. The driver struck multiple pedestrians at about 12:30 a.m. on a block filled with concertgoers, continued down the street and hit and killed a man from the Netherlands on a bicycle and a woman from Austin on a moped, Acevedo said. Austin Police Chief address the media during a news conference on Thursday, March 13, 2014 in Austin, Texas. A suspected drunken driver barreled through police barricades and drove down a crowded street at the ... more Photo: Shweta Gulati, Associated Press	– The driver accused of plowing into a crowd at the South by Southwest Festival, killing two and injuring 23 others, has been identified as 21-year-old Rashad Owens of Killeen, Texas, reports the Austin American-Statesman. Police say the tragedy began about 12:30am when an officer tried to pull over Owens for suspected drunken driving. Owens pulled into a gas station parking lot, then gunned it the wrong way down a one-way street, say police. He eventually turned onto Red River Street, crashed through a barricade and struck festivalgoers, say authorities. Killed were Steven Craenmehr, who was riding a bike, and an Austin woman who was riding a moped. She hasn't been identified. Craenmehr worked for Amsterdam's MassiveMusic. Because he is charged with capital murder, Owens faces the death penalty. “That vehicle was used as a weapon, and he will be charged with those crimes,” says Austin's police chief. Two people remain in critical condition with head injuries, and six others are still in the hospital with lesser injuries. A soldier at Fort Hood, meanwhile, has reported that his car was stolen, and it appears to be the vehicle driven by Owens, reports MySanAntonio.com. Owens himself is not a Fort Hood soldier. In 2011, he was charged with driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident in Fairbanks, Alaska, reports a separate American-Statesman story.
MARYSVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Decades-old DNA led to the arrests Tuesday of two men in connection with the shotgun slayings of two girls in California more than 40 years ago, authorities said. They arrested one suspect in Oklahoma and another in California after comparing their DNA with semen from both men found on one of the victims, 13-year-old Doris Karen Derryberry. She and 12-year-old Valerie Janice Lane, both of Olivehurst, California, were reported missing by their mothers on Nov. 12, 1973, after they failed to return from a shopping mall in nearby Linda that the girls had visited the previous day. A few hours later, the Yuba County Sheriff's Department was notified that the bodies of two girls had been found alongside a dirt road in a wooded area near Marysville, north of Sacramento, where they had been shot at close range with a shotgun, Sheriff Steve Durfor said. Arrested Tuesday were two 65-year-old cousins, Larry Don Patterson of Oakhurst, Oklahoma, and William Lloyd Harbour of Olivehurst, California. Both were age 22 at the time and living in Olivehurst, a small agricultural town in California's Central Valley. Durfor said both have since served prison sentences that resulted in their DNA being collected: Harbour for drug offenses in 1997 and 2003, and Patterson for a 1976 arrest on charges of raping two adult women in Chico, also in northern California. Patterson also had a 2006 arrest for failing to register as a sex offender, Durfor said. The families "have endured decades of suffering and grief for not knowing who was responsible for the brutal murder of their loved ones," Durfor said. They were informed in a meeting Tuesday and requested privacy, officials said. Some of the family members are now elderly and "have waited for something for 43 years for an answer as to what happened to their kids," Yuba County District Attorney Patrick McGrath said. The girls' slayings made headlines around the nation at a time when such killings seemed rare, McGrath said. Both men will face murder charges, he said. The homicide case remained an active investigation until 1976, when the case went cold following more than 60 interviews but no successful leads, authorities said. But investigators meticulously preserved their evidence, Durfor said, and in March 2014 Yuba County investigators reviewed the case for evidence that could be retested with newer technology. Evidence collected during the original investigation was reviewed and submitted to the California Department of Justice Forensic Labs for analysis. That December, testing revealed that DNA evidence was matched and identified the two men as suspects. It took more time to reopen an investigation so old that several of the investigators and the pathologist who conducted the autopsy have since died, McGrath said. They then had to locate Patterson, who is being held as an unregistered sex offender while he awaits an extradition hearing. "We literally were looking in five different states," he said. Patterson was arrested in Oklahoma's Creek County, southwest of Tulsa, the U.S. Marshals Service said. Patterson was being held in the local jail on multiple charges involving the deaths, said Tommy Roberts, the supervisory deputy U.S. marshal in Tulsa. ___ Talley reported from Oklahoma City. \|\|\|\|\| This photo provided by the Yuba County Sheriff's Department shows Larry Don Patterson, who was arrested by authorities in Oklahoma on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016, on charges related to the 1973 slayings of... (Associated Press) This photo provided by the Yuba County Sheriff's Department shows Larry Don Patterson, who was arrested by authorities in Oklahoma on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016, on charges related to the 1973 slayings of Valerie Lane, 12, and Doris Derryberry, 13, in Yuba County, Calif. (Yuba County Sheriff's Department... (Associated Press) MARYSVILLE, Calif. (AP) — An investigator "with a bit of free time" decided to send for testing DNA samples from a long-dormant cold case, which led authorities to arrest a pair of men linked to the 1973 shotgun slayings of two young girls, authorities said. Police in Oklahoma and California arrested the two 65-year-old suspects Tuesday morning for the murders of Valerie Janice Lane, 12, and Doris Karen Derryberry, 13. The seventh grade classmates told their mothers they were going to a mall shopping near their homes about 40 miles north of Sacramento on Nov. 12, 1973. Witnesses saw them in their neighborhood that night, but neither girl returned home. Both suspects were living in Olivehurst at that time, investigators said. Two boys were target shooting and found the girl's bodies about 20 hours later, according to news accounts at the time. Investigators say the girls were driven to a wooded area and shot at close range. Authorities then and now said a large-scale investigation was immediately launched and some 60 people interviewed over a three-year period before the case went cold for a lack of solid leads and was shelved in 1976. In March 2014, an investigator doing a routine look through cold cases decided to send semen samples found on Derryberry's body and preserved for 43 years to the state Department of Justice forensics lab for analysis. Seven months later, state DOJ technicians reported that the DNA in the semen matched the genetic profiles of cousins Larry Don Patterson and William Lloyd Harbour, who each committed serious enough crimes since 1973 to have their DNA samples collected and placed in law enforcement computer systems. "Over time, anyone that's been assigned to our investigations unit for any length of time looks into some of the unsolved cases that we have," Yuba County Sheriff Steve Durfor said. "And this was one in particular that one of our investigators had a bit of free time and really looked very closely at this case and identified that we should send some things off and see what it might yield for us." Durfor said both suspects served prison sentences. Patterson was arrested in 1976 for raping two women and again in 2006 for failing to register as a sex offender, Durfor said. Harbour had felony drug convictions, Durfor said. Patterson was arrested Tuesday morning in Oklahoma. Harbour was arrested after a traffic stop two hours later near his home in Olivehurst, where the two victims also lived. Durfor said the victims' families were told of the arrests Tuesday morning and have requested privacy. The families "have endured decades of suffering and grief for not knowing who was responsible for the brutal murder of their loved ones," Durfor said. "We're asking for the family to have time to process this news," said Stan Vantassle, Derryberry's nephew. "We would like to have time to come to grips with this." Some of the family members are now elderly and "have waited for something for 43 years for an answer as to what happened to their kids," Yuba County District Attorney Patrick McGrath said. "Olivehurst, 43 years ago, was a very small community — still small," McGrath said of the town of about 14,000 people. Harbour lives near one of the victim's families, and "inevitably there will be contact between various families and this is a situation we had to talk to them about. There will be a lot of frustration, there will be a lot of anger, a lot of things that we need to be concerned about." The twin slayings four decades ago shocked the small community and the nation, he said. "Back in 1973, this simply didn't happen," he said. "This was a big deal. Still is, obviously." The girls' slayings made headlines around the nation at a time when such killings seemed rare, McGrath said. Both men will face murder charges, he said. It took more time to reopen an investigation so old that several of the investigators and the pathologist who conducted the autopsy have since died, McGrath said. They then had to locate Patterson, who is being held as an unregistered sex offender while he awaits an extradition hearing from Oklahoma to California. "We literally were looking in five different states," McGrath said. ___ Talley reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press writer Olga Rodriguez contributed from San Francisco. \|\|\|\|\| LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two cousins linked through DNA testing to the 1973 murders of two girls in a small northern California town were arrested on Tuesday, more than four decades after the crime, authorities said. William Lloyd Harbour, 65, was taken into custody on Tuesday morning at a traffic stop in Linda, California, 40 miles south of Sacramento, the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department said in a written statement. Larry Don Patterson, also 65, was arrested at a secluded compound near Oakhurst, Oklahoma, south of Tulsa. The men were 22 at the time of the murders. According to the sheriff’s department, 13-year-old Doris Karen Derryberry and Valerie Janice Lane, 12, were reported missing on Nov. 12, 1973, after failing to return from a shopping trip to Linda the day before. The bodies of the two friends were found hours later alongside a dirt road in a wooded area of nearby Wheatland. Derryberry had been sexually assaulted and both girls killed by shotgun blasts at close range. The case remained unsolved until March 2014, when investigators reviewing the case with improved forensic testing linked DNA evidence to Harbour and Patterson. The DNA hit prompted a lengthy new investigation which culminated in the arrest of the two men, who were expected to face murder charges, the sheriff’s department said. Leslie Carbah, a spokeswoman for the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department, said that investigators knew that Harbour was still living in the area but that it took them until Tuesday to find Patterson, with the help of U.S. Marshals. Patterson, who was convicted of rape in 1976, was also wanted for failing to register as a sex offender and was hiding from law enforcement for that reason, she said. “It took us basically until today to finally put eyes on Patterson,” Carbah said. “A lot of this was hinging on bringing them both into custody at the same time. The challenge was to keep it as quiet as possible, not tip them off and drive them underground.” William Lloyd Harbour, 65, one of two men arrested Tuesday for the 1973 murder of two girls in Linda, California, is seen in an undated picture released by the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department in Marysville, California. Larry Don Patterson, 65, was also arrested in connection with the same case in Oakhurst, Oklahoma. Yuba County Sheriff’s Department/Handout via Reuters She said Harbour was expected to make an initial court appearance in Yuba County on Wednesday while Patterson faced extradition proceedings in Oklahoma. Meanwhile, more than 200 miles to the south in San Luis Obispo, police and FBI agents spent last week digging near a California university campus looking for remains of Kristin Smart, a freshman who disappeared 20 years ago. There was no indication that the two cases were related.	– Authorities have finally made arrests in the death of two girls in California more than 40 years later. Police say 65-year-old cousins Larry Patterson and William Harbour murdered Doris Derryberry, 13, and Valerie Lane, 12, after they vanished from a shopping mall in 1973. The girls were found dead, each shot by a shotgun, beside a dirt road in Marysville hours after they were reported missing, per the AP. Doris had been sexually assaulted and semen was collected from her body. However, it was only sent for testing in March 2014 by an investigator who "had a bit of free time and really looked very closely at this case," Sheriff Steve Durfor tells the AP. The semen matched DNA samples taken from Patterson and Harbour during previous arrests, police say. Patterson—convicted of rape in 1976 and wanted for failing to register as a sex offender, per Reuters—was arrested Tuesday in Oklahoma. Harbour, who has felony drug convictions, was also arrested Tuesday in the girls' hometown of Olivehurst, Calif. The men were 22 at the time of the murders. After "decades of suffering and grief," Durfor says the girls' families can finally have some closure. They "have waited ... for 43 years for an answer as to what happened to their kids," adds a Yuba County DA. (This missing woman could be buried on the Cal Poly campus.)
Multiple sources tell Fox News that Susan Rice, former national security adviser under then-President Barack Obama, requested to unmask the names of Trump transition officials caught up in surveillance. The unmasked names, of people associated with Donald Trump, were then sent to all those at the National Security Council, some at the Defense Department, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-CIA Director John Brennan – essentially, the officials at the top, including former Rice deputy Ben Rhodes. The names were part of incidental electronic surveillance of candidate and President-elect Trump and people close to him, including family members, for up to a year before he took office. Expand / Contract Rice was ambassador to the UN when she went on Sunday news shows to say the Benghazi attack was prompted by a video. (Fox News Photo) It was not clear how Rice knew to ask for the names to be unmasked, but the question was being posed by the sources late Monday. Such amazing reporting on unmasking and the crooked scheme against us by @foxandfriends. "Spied on before nomination." The real story. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2017 "What I know is this ... If the intelligence community professionals decide that there’s some value, national security, foreign policy or otherwise in unmasking someone, they will grant those requests," former Obama State Department spokeswoman and Fox News contributor Marie Harf told Fox News' Martha MacCallum on "The First 100 Days." "And we have seen no evidence ... that there was partisan political notice behind this and we can’t say that unless there’s actual evidence to back that up." White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, asked about the revelations at Monday’s briefing, declined to comment specifically on what role Rice may have played or officials’ motives. Expand / Contract Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., says he has seen incidental surveillance reports he fears were used for political reasons. (The Associated Press) “I’m not going to comment on this any further until [congressional] committees have come to a conclusion,” he said, while contrasting the media’s alleged “lack” of interest in these revelations with the intense coverage of suspected Trump-Russia links. When names of Americans are incidentally collected, they are supposed to be masked, meaning the name or names are redacted from reports – whether it is international or domestic collection, unless it is an issue of national security, crime or if their security is threatened in any way. There are loopholes and ways to unmask through backchannels, but Americans are supposed to be protected from incidental collection. Sources told Fox News that in this case, they were not. This comes in the wake of Evelyn Farkas’ television interview last month in which the former Obama deputy secretary of defense said in part: “I was urging my former colleagues and, frankly speaking, the people on the Hill – it was more actually aimed at telling the Hill people, get as much information as you can, get as much intelligence as you can, before President Obama leaves the administration.” Meanwhile, Fox News also is told that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes knew about unmasking and leaking back in January, well before President Trump’s tweet in March alleging wiretapping. Nunes has faced criticism from Democrats for viewing pertinent documents on White House grounds and announcing their contents to the press. But sources said “the intelligence agencies slow-rolled Nunes. He could have seen the logs at other places besides the White House SCIF [secure facility], but it had already been a few weeks. So he went to the White House because he could protect his sources and he could get to the logs.” As the Obama administration left office, it also approved new rules that gave the NSA much broader powers by relaxing the rules about sharing intercepted personal communications and the ability to share those with 16 other intelligence agencies. Rice is no stranger to controversy. As the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, she appeared on several Sunday news shows to defend the adminstration's later debunked claim that the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks on a U.S. consulate in Libya was triggered by an Internet video. Rice also told ABC News in 2014 that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl "served the United States with honor and distinction" and that he "wasn't simply a hostage; he was an American prisoner of war captured on the battlefield." Bergdahl is currently facing court-martial on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy for allegedly walking off his post in Afghanistan. Adam Housley joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in 2001 and currently serves as a Los Angeles-based senior correspondent. \|\|\|\|\| Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI. Read more opinion SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share Tweet Post Email Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images White House lawyers last month learned that the former national security adviser Susan Rice requested the identities of U.S. persons in raw intelligence reports on dozens of occasions that connect to the Donald Trump transition and campaign, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The pattern of Rice's requests was discovered in a National Security Council review of the government's policy on "unmasking" the identities of individuals in the U.S. who are not targets of electronic eavesdropping, but whose communications are collected incidentally. Normally those names are redacted from summaries of monitored conversations and appear in reports as something like "U.S. Person One." Nunes Says Trump Team Caught in U.S. Surveillance Net The National Security Council's senior director for intelligence, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, was conducting the review, according to two U.S. officials who spoke with Bloomberg View on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. In February Cohen-Watnick discovered Rice's multiple requests to unmask U.S. persons in intelligence reports that related to Trump transition activities. He brought this to the attention of the White House General Counsel's office, who reviewed more of Rice's requests and instructed him to end his own research into the unmasking policy. The intelligence reports were summaries of monitored conversations -- primarily between foreign officials discussing the Trump transition, but also in some cases direct contact between members of the Trump team and monitored foreign officials. One U.S. official familiar with the reports said they contained valuable political information on the Trump transition such as whom the Trump team was meeting, the views of Trump associates on foreign policy matters and plans for the incoming administration. Rice did not respond to an email seeking comment on Monday morning. Her role in requesting the identities of Trump transition officials adds an important element to the dueling investigations surrounding the Trump White House since the president's inauguration. Both the House and Senate intelligence committees are probing any ties between Trump associates and a Russian influence operation against Hillary Clinton during the election. The chairman of the House intelligence committee, Representative Devin Nunes, is also investigating how the Obama White House kept tabs on the Trump transition after the election through unmasking the names of Trump associates incidentally collected in government eavesdropping of foreign officials. Rice herself has not spoken directly on the issue of unmasking. Last month when she was asked on the "PBS NewsHour" about reports that Trump transition officials, including Trump himself, were swept up in incidental intelligence collection, Rice said: "I know nothing about this," adding, "I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that account today." Rice's requests to unmask the names of Trump transition officials do not vindicate Trump's own tweets from March 4 in which he accused Obama of illegally tapping Trump Tower. There remains no evidence to support that claim. But Rice's multiple requests to learn the identities of Trump officials discussed in intelligence reports during the transition period does highlight a longstanding concern for civil liberties advocates about U.S. surveillance programs. The standard for senior officials to learn the names of U.S. persons incidentally collected is that it must have some foreign intelligence value, a standard that can apply to almost anything. This suggests Rice's unmasking requests were likely within the law. The news about Rice also sheds light on the strange behavior of Nunes in the last two weeks. It emerged last week that he traveled to the White House last month, the night before he made an explosive allegation about Trump transition officials caught up in incidental surveillance. At the time he said he needed to go to the White House because the reports were only on a database for the executive branch. It now appears that he needed to view computer systems within the National Security Council that would include the logs of Rice's requests to unmask U.S. persons. The ranking Democrat on the committee Nunes chairs, Representative Adam Schiff, viewed these reports on Friday. In comments to the press over the weekend he declined to discuss the contents of these reports, but also said it was highly unusual for the reports to be shown only to Nunes and not himself and other members of the committee. Indeed, much about this is highly unusual: if not how the surveillance was collected, then certainly how and why it was disseminated. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. To contact the author of this story: Eli Lake at elake1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Philip Gray at philipgray@bloomberg.net \|\|\|\|\| The panel on Morning Joe, Tuesday, was understandably befuddled by revelations that former White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice requested the unmasking of names of Trump transition officials. Hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski began by playing a clip of Rice on PBS denying claims made by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes that Trump and his team were monitored. “I know nothing about this,” said Rice. “I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes.” “We’re going to have an investigation of this,” said show mainstay David Ignatius. “We’ll begin to dig and learn what the facts were. What was the context of these unmasking requests.” Scarborough, who has lately become a fierce Trump critic, trained his fire on Rice, arguing that the revelations from Bloomberg reporter Eli Lake deserved to be explored. The government is “doing exactly what civil libertarians are concerned about the government doing,” said Scarborough.”What is Susan Rice unmasking names for and spreading them across the government, wouldn’t that be the job of [James] Comey or the Attorney General.” Scarborough then accused The New York Times of downplaying the story, even brandishing a physical copy of the paper on air. “Why isn’t it in the newspaper of record here?” asked Scarborough. “We’ve got Bill O’Reilly on the front page but we don’t have NSC and Susan Rice?” “That’s a big story,” Brzezinski interjected. “I’m not saying it’s not a big story,” Scarborough responded. “I would say that a lot of people would think that this, too, is a big story, not on the front page of The New York Times.” “It’s on A16 in my hard copy,” offered Mark Halperin. Watch above. [image via screengrab] Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com \|\|\|\|\| A massive revelation in the alleged surveillance of President Trump’s aides broke Monday morning when Bloomberg reported that “[f]ormer National Security Adviser Susan Rice requested the identities of U.S. persons in raw intelligence reports on dozens of occasions that connect to the Donald Trump transition and campaign.” With their identities unmasked, it allowed for someone to freely and illegally leak their names to the press. It’s controversial news but ABC and NBC both chose to ignore it that night, while CBS defended Rice. “We learned more today about the President's allegation that he and his aides were caught up in Obama-era surveillance,” CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley said, teeing up reporter Margaret Brennan. Strangely, Pelley stayed away from flinging the fiery insults which drew him much praise from the left. Instead of calling Trump’s claims “baseless,” he kept it neutral, only referring to them as “allegations.” He also described what the concern was as “Obama-era surveillance,” something he had not done in the past. Brennan played defense for Rice, stating: “Well, Scott, as national security adviser to the president, Susan Rice could and did request the names of individuals who were picked up during legal surveillance of foreign nationals.” She then cited unnamed sources who told her there was nothing wrong with what Rice did: Now, according to a former national security official, Trump associates were not the sole focus of Rice's request, but they may have been revealed when she asked to understand why they were appearing in intelligence reports. However, Rice did not spread the information according to this former official, who insisted that there was nothing improper or political involved. On Fox News’s Special Report, it was a whole different story as they led the program with Rice’s unmasking efforts. “The surveillance of people close to President Trump, possibly the President himself, now has a name and a face attached to it. And it's one you've seen in major scandals before,” declared fill-in host James Rosen during the opening tease. “Two weeks ago, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee announced to the press and President he had uncovered a disturbing trend of intelligence collection on Trump officials, some of which was made public,” reported Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts, “Today, we learn more about the ‘how’ and ‘who’ of what's going on.” The Fox News reporter noted that when it came to statements from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes about Trump aides being swept up in incidental collection, Rice claimed she didn't know anything. “I know nothing about this. I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that count today,” she claimed on PBS NewsHour on March 22. That is now exposed as a lie, just like then she lied about what caused the Benghazi attack. All of that and more went unreported on the Big Three networks. Ironically during Monday's White House press briefing, Press Secretary Sean Spicer called the media out for doing just that. “I think that it is interesting the level or lack of interest that I've seen in these developments when it goes in one direction,” he declared, referencing when the press rushed to wrongly finger NSC Director Ezra Cohen-Watnik as the source of Nunes’ information. But he, in fact, was the one who discovered Rice’s order during a review of the unmasking process. A noticeable double standard indeed. Transcripts below: <<< Please support MRC's NewsBusters team with a tax-deductible contribution today. >>> CBS Evening News April 3, 2017 6:35:28 PM Eastern … SCOTT PELLEY: Margaret, we learned more today about the President's allegation that he and his aides were caught up in Obama-era surveillance. What did you find out today? MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Scott, as national security adviser to the president, Susan Rice could and did request the names of individuals who were picked up during legal surveillance of foreign nationals. Now, according to a former national security official, Trump associates were not the sole focus of Rice's request, but they may have been revealed when she asked to understand why they were appearing in intelligence reports. However, Rice did not spread the information according to this former official, who insisted that there was nothing improper or political involved. PELLEY: Margaret Brennan at the White House. Margaret, thank you. ... \|\|\|\|\| Susan Rice speaks during a conference on the transition of the U.S. Presidency from Barack Obama to Donald Trump at the U.S. Institute Of Peace, Jan. 10. Susan Rice speaks during a conference on the transition of the U.S. Presidency from Barack Obama to Donald Trump at the U.S. Institute Of Peace, Jan. 10. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Well, what do you know. On the matter of who “unmasked” the names of Trump transition officials in U.S. intelligence reports, we now have one answer: Susan Rice, Barack Obama’s national security adviser. A U.S. intelligence official confirms to us the bombshell news, first reported Monday by Bloomberg, that Ms. Rice requested the name of at least one Trump transition official listed in an intelligence report in the months between Election Day and Donald Trump’s inauguration. Ms. Rice received summaries of U.S. eavesdropping either when foreign officials were discussing the Trump team, or when foreign officials were conversing with a Trump transition member. The surveillance was legally authorized, but the identities of U.S. citizens are typically masked so they cannot be known outside intelligence circles. Ms. Rice asked for and learned the identity of the Trump official, whose name hasn’t been publicly disclosed and our source declined to share. Potomac Watch Podcast Our source did confirm that Ms. Rice also examined dozens of other intelligence summaries that technically masked Trump official identities but were written in such a way as to make obvious who those officials were. This means that the masking was essentially meaningless. All this is highly unusual—and troubling. Unmasking does occur, but it is typically done by intelligence or law-enforcement officials engaged in antiterror or espionage investigations. Ms. Rice would have had no obvious need to unmask Trump campaign officials other than political curiosity. We’re told by a source who has seen the unmasked documents that they included political information about the Trump transition team’s meetings and policy intentions. We are also told that none of these documents had anything to do with Russia or the FBI investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. While we don't know if Ms. Rice requested these dozens of reports, we are told that they were only distributed to a select group of recipients—conveniently including Ms. Rice. All of this helps to explain the actions in the last week of House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, the one official in Washington who seems interested in pursuing the evidence of politicized surveillance. Mr. Nunes was roundly criticized by Democrats and the media last week for publicly revealing at least one instance of Obama White House unmasking, albeit without disclosing any names. Now we know he is onto something. And we know that Mr. Nunes had to go to the White House to verify his information because the records containing Ms. Rice’s unmasking request are held at the National Security Council. Where are the civil libertarians when you really need them? These columns support broad surveillance powers for national security, but executive officials need to be accountable if those powers are abused. If congressional oversight of U.S. intelligence operations is going to be worth the name, then it should include the unmasking of a political opponent by a senior official in the White House. Democrats certainly raised a fuss during the Bush years and after Edward Snowden kicked off the debate about “metadata,” which are merely telephone numbers without names. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden went so far as to introduce a bill in 2013 to strengthen the ban on “reverse targeting”—in which intelligence agencies surveil foreigners but with the goal of capturing U.S. citizen communications. Yet now that there’s evidence that the Obama Administration may have unmasked Trump officials, Democrats couldn’t care less. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on House Intelligence, has spent the past week denouncing Mr. Nunes for revealing that a name was unmasked and for having sources at the White House. But he hasn’t raised a peep about the unmasking itself or who was behind it. The news about Ms. Rice’s unmasking role raises a host of questions for the Senate and House intelligence committees to pursue. What specific surveillance information did Ms. Rice seek and why? Was this information related to President Obama’s decision in January to make it possible for raw intelligence to be widely disbursed throughout the government? Was this surveillance of Trump officials “incidental” collection gathered while listening to a foreigner, or were some Trump officials directly targeted, or “reverse targeted”? We were unable to locate Ms. Rice Monday to ask for comment, and she hasn’t addressed the unmasking as far as we know. But asked last month on the “PBS NewsHour” that Trump officials might have been surveilled, she said, “I know nothing about this” and “I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that account today.” She certainly deserves her turn under oath on Capitol Hill. None of this should deter investigators from looking into the Trump-Russia connection. By all means follow that evidence where it leads. But the media have been running like wildebeest after that story while ignoring how the Obama Administration might have abused domestic surveillance for its political purposes. Americans deserve to know the truth about both.	– Former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice is back in the news again, this time regarding President Trump's wiretapping allegations. On the right, she is being accused of abusing her power while in office to "unmask," for political advantage, the names of Trump associates caught up in intelligence surveillance. Trump critics, meanwhile, say the story doesn't amount to much and accuse the White House of trying to divert attention from the president's wiretapping allegations. A look at coverage: A key story comes from Eli Lake at Bloomberg News. He reported Monday that Rice requested the identities of Trump transition officials who were mentioned, but not named, in US intelligence reports. Those reports were mostly summaries of monitored conversations between foreign officials talking about the Trump transition, but sometimes between Trump associates and foreign officials. (The National Security Council logs of Rice's requests are apparently what Rep. Devin Nunes went to the White House to view.) Lake's piece raises questions about why Rice wanted those names revealed—she didn't respond to the story—but he also notes that her requests "were likely within the law." He adds that the story doesn't "vindicate" Trump's unsupported accusation that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower. Adam Housley of Fox News also reported on Rice's requests, and his appearance on the network prompted Trump himself to weigh in via tweet: "Such amazing reporting on unmasking and the crooked scheme against us by @foxandfriends. 'Spied on before nomination.' The real story." A post at Slate notes that Trump associates are under FBI investigation over allegedly improper communications with Russians, "so there may well have been urgent, legal reasons for Rice to have wanted information about the relationships between specific Trump-related figures and foreign individuals." But the editorial page at the Wall Street Journal accuses the media and Democrats of hypocrisy. It wants any Trump-Russia ties investigated, but complains that the "media have been running like wildebeest after that story while ignoring how the Obama Administration might have abused domestic surveillance for its political purposes. Americans deserve to know the truth about both." On CNN, Don Lemon accused the "right-wing media" of helping the White House try to divert attention from the controversy over Trump's wiretapping claims, adding that his show will not "aid and abet people who are trying to misinform you, the American people, by creating a diversion," he said, per Mediaite. The conservative NewsBusters blog accused ABC, NBC, and CBS of covering up the story by failing to report on the "massive revelation" Monday in their evening broadcasts. On MSNBC Tuesday morning, frequent Trump critic Joe Scarborough blasted the New York Times for not having the story on its front page. "What is Susan Rice unmasking names for and spreading them across the government," he asked on Morning Joe, per Mediaite. But the Times story on the subject (inside the paper) generally downplayed the significance of Rice's requests: "Former national security officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described the requests as normal and said they were justified by the need for the president’s top security adviser to understand the context of reports sent to her by the nation’s intelligence agencies."
It focuses on a notorious act of white police brutality against mostly Black citizens, in a July 1967, siege at the Motor City’s Algiers Motel, where racism met frustration and blood was wantonly shed. Three young Black men were left dead and many questions were left unanswered. The mostly white Detroit Police Department emerged officially exonerated but not blameless. The incident is set against the larger story of the Detroit riots of the same year, which left 43 people dead, nearly 1,200 injured and 7,200 arrested, as the National Guard along with city and state police combined to enforce law and order in a city literally burning from racial tensions. No one would accuse the cops in Detroit of being “too nice,” although Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal — who previously teamed for Zero Dark Thirty and Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker — are careful not to demonize every authority figure. Many of the police and soldiers in the film are appalled by the acts of racism and violence they’re witnessing, among them the commanding officer of trigger-happy young patrol officer Philip Krauss, who is played by cherry-cheeked Will Poulter (The Revenant). Despite civil-rights advances and eight years of an African-American U.S. president, the colour of a person’s skin can still determine everything from employment opportunities to treatment by police — who were recently encouraged by President Donald Trump to “please don’t be too nice” when dealing with crime suspects, wink, wink. The injustice and anger behind it all feels like current reality, even a half-century on, making Detroit urgent viewing regardless of its character-development flaws. Being appalled, however, isn’t the same as taking full ownership. The commander severely reprimands Krauss for fatally shooting a fleeing looter. He then allows the unrepentant patrolman to return to the streets. Krauss later becomes the central antagonist of the Algiers Motel siege, which is sparked by a teen’s reckless firing of a starter’s pistol at a passing group of National Guardsmen. As cops and soldiers converge on the seedy establishment, seeking the sniper they believe hides inside, fate has also drawn in multiple unlucky bystanders, who thought they’d escaped the riots. Among them are rising R&B singer Larry Reed (Algee Smith) and his friend Fred Simple (Jacob Latimore); private security guard Melvin Dismukes (John Boyega); a Vietnam vet named Greene (Anthony Mackie); and two white visitors from Ohio (Hannah Murray and Kaitlyn Dever), who picked a bad time and place to party. That’s a lot of characters, and there are more, and here you have the central deficiency of Boal’s script: it tries to tell us everything about the circumstances without telling us much about the people. The film is less a character study and more of a situational one; a post-script notes that the Algiers Motel incident has never been fully explained. Detroit opens with a roughly animated history lesson about how poor southern Blacks moved to white-dominated northern cities while affluent whites fled to the suburbs, taking the best jobs with them. The resulting powder keg of inequities exploded not just in Detroit, but across America. And it led to situations like the motel standoff, which Bigelow and cinematographer Barry Ackroyd powerfully depict cinéma vérité style as a cascading series of bad choices, evil intentions and escalating violence. Krauss and his fellow racist cops torture the rounded-up motel guests by beating them and threatening to shoot them one by one until the identity of the alleged sniper is disclosed. Watching it unfold over the bulk of the film’s 143-minute running time makes for a grim sit, made all the more so by James Newton Howard’s minimalist score, which at times disappears altogether. Bigelow deserves credit for not trivializing the drama with a soundtrack packed with driving Motown tunes, although a version of Martha and the Vandellas’ “Nowhere To Run” is briefly heard in the film at one point. You don’t need a big backbeat to drive images like these home; Detroit’s deep fury and essential message sears the eye and brain. \|\|\|\|\| There is no nice or pretty way to tell a story about the systemic oppression and mistreatment of black people in the United States. It's fitting then that Kathryn Bigelow's " Detroit ," an account of the murders of three unarmed black men that took place in the Algiers Motel in late July 1967, is neither — it is an all-out assault on your senses and soul. It's hard to overstate just how visceral and harrowing an experience it is. "Detroit" is a well-made and evocative film that is also numbingly brutal with little to no reprieve. And while it might be the only true way to tell this story, it's also one that is not going to be for everyone. The stomach-churning horror begins immediately and does not let up for 2 hours and 23 minutes. To set the stage for the Algiers Motel, Bigelow begins by speeding through the history of black people in United States with animated acrylics and pounding music — emancipation, the great migration, white flight and the racist zoning practices that led to the overcrowding of black residents in urban pockets. Tensions have already reached a tipping point, and then in the summer of 1967, Detroit police bust an after-hours club in what would become the inciting incident for the riots. Three days after the riots begin, a local singing group called The Dramatics are about to go on stage at a big, crowded theater hoping to get their big break, but are interrupted and sent home due to the events outside. The men exit the theater in their sparkly suits into what looks like a war zone. As they run through the streets they assure every cop who isn't already beating someone with a night stick that they're just on their way home. Bigelow shows all of this with handheld, ground level docudrama realism. There is no orienting yourself to the bigger picture, only what is right in front of you. The charismatic lead singer Larry (Algee Smith) and his buddy Fred (Jacob Latimore) decide to peel off and get an $11 room at the Algiers and wait out the night. There they meet two white party girls, a veteran, Greene (a terrific Anthony Mackie), and a provocateur, Carl (Jason Mitchell), who plays around with a starter pistol that eventually catches the attention of the police in the area. The officers, who we've already learned are rotten, storm the motel on the hunt for the sniper they presume is there. The local police, led by a maniacal, hotheaded racist, Krauss (played by the English actor Will Poulter), kills Carl immediately and then continue to terrorize the guests relentlessly with inhuman torture tactics in what seems like an endless sequence of horror upon horror until two more end up dead and they call it a night. Bigelow collaborated again with screenwriter Mark Boal on "Detroit," which is perfectly evocative of this specific time and place, but lacking the perspective and illumination that one might hope a 50-year-old event would warrant. Perhaps they wanted to leave conclusions and interpreting to the audience, and as the film notes at the end, no one knows for certain what happened in the Algiers Motel and some of the scenes were pieced together and imagined by the filmmakers. There is some nuance — in the National Guard officer who is horrified by the situation and the local security officer (John Boyega) who only wanted to ease tensions — but not nearly as much as Bigelow and Boal have previously achieved in "Zero Dark Thirty" and "The Hurt Locker." Also very little insight is given to the victims' lives outside of this event. Maybe that's not the point, though. Maybe anger is all you're supposed to feel when you step outside the theater. Maybe not feeling satisfied with "Detroit" is the point. This was America, you think. This is still America. And the movies can't offer a resolution that history hasn't. "Detroit," an Annapurna Pictures release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for "strong violence and pervasive language." Running time: 143 minutes. Three stars out of four. ——— MPAA Definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. ——— Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr \|\|\|\|\| In Harrowing 'Detroit,' Kathryn Bigelow Mixes Brutal Facts With Fiction Enlarge this image toggle caption Francois Duhamel/Annapurna Francois Duhamel/Annapurna Twenty-two years ago, Kathryn Bigelow made Strange Days — a paranoid thriller written and produced by her former spouse James Cameron, set in the then-future of 1999. Inspired in part by the 1992 Los Angeles riots — which were sparked by the acquittal of the LAPD officers who'd beaten Rodney King near to death — the movie's plot involved the murder of black hip-hop artist "Jeriko One" by a pair of white Los Angeles cops. As ambitious as it was unwieldy, Strange Days flopped so hard that Bigelow's career took years to recover. But she landed on her feet, becoming the first and so far only woman to win the Academy Award for best director, for the Iraq war movie The Hurt Locker, which also won best picture. Her follow-up, Zero Dark Thirty, got a Best Picture nod, too. And that's how a sexagenarian woman in Hollywood earns the juice to make a movie like the incendiary new Detroit — Bigelow's vivid, inevitably divisive reenactment of a real 1967 incident wherein three Motor City police officers were charged in the killings of three adolescent black men while the city was under martial law following riots. Seemingly in a position to make any movie she wanted, she chose a lightly fictionalized historical drama that bares a striking resemblance to her little-seen Angela Bassett-starring sci-fi flick from 1995. (Strange Days even climaxes in a riot touched off by white police using excessive force on a black suspect, which is where Detroit begins.) Until now, the highest-profile accounting of what happened that night was John Hersey's 1968 book The Algiers Motel Incident. (Hersey's estate declined to sell Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal the rights, The New York Times reported.) Detroit isn't as dispassionate as that. Just as the movie Hidden Figures buffed and polished the story told in the eponymous nonfiction book for maximum uplift, Detroit heats and sharpens the facts that formed it for maximum outrage. Not that those facts weren't outrageous already: In the case Detroit revisits, the cops were acquitted after the confessions they gave and then recanted were ruled inadmissible in court. That's a cruel irony, because it was in their attempt to coerce confessions from the young men they'd confined in Detroit's Algiers Motel — a $6-a-night flophouse that the law considered a den of sin —that those out-of-control cops resorted to intimidation, torture, and finally murder. (The presence of two white girls from Ohio among all those black men appeared to inflame the cops' further — they accused the women of prostitution, stripping and beating them.) The police claimed a sniper had fired upon them from inside the motel, but they never recovered a rifle from the scene. Detroit subscribes to accounts from several witnesses that the shots that summoned the police came from a starter pistol fired first as a stupid prank, then as an impotent and costly gesture of defiance. Carl Cooper, the 17-year-old who'd allegedly fired it, was the first to die that night. One of the witnesses who testified for the prosecution, and who said he was assaulted by the accused policemen himself at the Algiers, was a musician. Singer Larry Reed quit his vocal group The Dramatics after that hellish night in 1967; the group broke out a few years later and had a long career without him. (They're still touring.) Reed was one of the incident's key figures that frequent Bigelow collaborator Boal interviewed while working on the movie. And though Boal's research team included Pulitzer Prize-winning Detroit Free Press reporter David Zeman, he has used his artistic license to plug some gaps in the legal record. (Other limits on the film's authenticity were merely budgetary, like the fact that tax incentives resulted in most of Detroit being filmed on location in... Boston.) Boal's script commingles real and fictional people: Real-life witnesses Melvin Dismukes, Julie Hysell, and Larry Reed (played onscreen by John Boyega, Hannah Murray, and Algee Smith, respectively), are represented, but the brutal cops in the movie have different names than the officers who were eventually acquitted of the Algiers Motel killings. Their ringleader is played by Will Poulter, a redheaded, freckled 24-year-old English actor whose permanently right-angled eyebrows make him look like the satanic cousin of MAD magazine mascot Alfred E. Neuman. "We've failed these people," he says early in the film, sounding like a peace-loving Hubert Humphrey voter moments before he fatally shoots one of "these people" in the back on suspicion of stealing groceries. A detective tells him he's recommending that the District Attorney file murder charges against him, but Poulter's character is sent right back out to active duty in the meantime. Did this really happen? Well, there was a riot on. Other credulity-straining aspects of Detroit appear to be factual: For one thing, Dismukes, a private security guard called in to protect a store near the Algiers from looters, was allowed to enter the Algiers with a weird coalition of Detroit cops and National Guardsmen and remain at a crime scene for hours while trying, ineffectually, to prevent the cops from brutalizing their suspects. (Boyega radiates Denzel-like calm in the face of the storm, proving that the way he livened the The Force Awakens was no fluke — he's a bonafide movie star. And to see him in a role where he's essentially helpless is unusual, and compelling.) In real life, Dismukes was charged with the felonious assault of two of the suspects and tried before any of the three cops accused of more serious offenses were; an all-white jury acquitted him. To the extent Detroit addresses this, it implies an unsuccessful attempt by the police to frame Dismukes for their own wrongdoing. I'm also curious to know whether another one of its plot points is historical or invented: When Michigan State Police arrive at the Algiers, the ranking officer among them decides he wants no part of the "civil rights mix-up" the Detroit P.D. has already created, so the state troopers just drive away. What's the expression? Huge if true. Bigelow and Boal's recreation of a 50-year-old police brutality case seems bound to be as controversial as their last project, 2012's Zero Dark Thirty. Accused in some quarters of defending the C.I.A.'s use of torture in its decade-long hunt for Osama Bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty was really more of a high-tone Rorshach blot for each viewer's opinion of the endless War on Terror. Bigelow has always gone for immersion before reflection or judgment. "I don't think it's up to the filmmaker to judge," the director told Washington Post chief film critic Ann Hornaday in a profile published last week. And it's not as though she's only just become interested in identity politics or policing: Long before her metamorphosis into an Oscar-winning maker of Important Films, she made 1990's Blue Steel, a sordid thriller that starred Jamie Lee Curtis as a rookie patrol officer who comes under suspicion after she kills a robbery suspect whose weapon can't be found. It's not a particularly good movie, nor one that would remotely satisfy any 2017 test of its wokeness, but it is at least more evidence that Bigelow was thinking about the problems of policing even when she was just making pulp films. Bigelow's quasi-journalistic style has long alienated some viewers; now it's infuriating them, too. Chicago critic Angelica Jade Bastien slammed Detroit as "soulless," claiming it isn't harsh enough in its condemnation of the misconduct it depicts so mercilessly. Some of her specific complaints about Boal's screenplay — that it makes Melvin Dismukes "too passive a character," or that "there are also brief, disconcerting moments that present some white cops in a great light" — come from the moments where Boal hews closest to the firsthand accounts Dismukes and Reed shared with him. Dismukes says he did all he could to prevent the bloodshed, which wasn't much, and Reed says that after he fled the Algiers he was picked up and taken to the hospital by a cop—one who wasn't involved in the nightmare at the hotel. Molding facts into the emotional construct we refer to when use the word story is messy work, even when it's done in good faith. I've seen Detroit only once, but I'm of the option that Bigelow and Boal have done that good but messy work, resulting in a movie that is maddeningly imperfect but still honorable. The movie opens with a semi-animated sequence that fashions Jacob Lawrence's "Migration Series" of paintings into a primer on the mass movement of African-Americans from the rural south to the urban north and west after World War I, and the subsequent white flight to the suburbs. That meant that by the 1960s, Detroit was a majority-black city with a majority-white police force. It's to Bigelow's credit that she doesn't survey the worlds in which she sets her movies in schematic screenwriting terms: Detroit's early scenes, wherein a police raid on an unlicensed nightclub that's hosting a party for returning veterans sparks a riot, includes a few left turns — one of the black party guests who mouths off to the "pigs" turns out to be a narc, for example. This detail serves no narrative purpose; it only serves to underscore the absence of trust between the police and the citizens they're sworn to protect and serve. Editor Billy Goldenberg splices in documentary footage with the newly-shot material in this section of the movie, creating a panorama of the climate of mortal fear and volcanic anger between the citizens and the police. We begin to get our bearings when Reed (Algee Smith) and The Dramatics prepare to perform on a revue at the Fox Theatre where they know a Motown A&R; scout will be in the audience. When the police order the performance stopped and the Fox evacuated, and then their bus home is set upon by rioters, Reed and his friend Fred Temple (Jacob Latimore) make the ill-fated decision to wait out the curfew poolside at the Algiers. The police occupation of the Algiers forms the film's harrowing, quite long centerpiece. Bigelow uses all her gifts as a communicator of visceral sensation to summon the horror of spending a night under these vicious cops' bootheels. It's nauseating. By the time Anthony Mackie — playing an out-of-work Vietnam vet who gets thanked for his service by being beaten and spat on by cops — agrees never to speak of what he's witnessed, Bigelow and Boal have said all they have to say. But Detroit continues on to depict the trial of the three officers, leaking tension as it does. If the intent of this section of the film is to illustrate that these cops are not bad apples but rather the functioning-as-designed armature of an inherently racist justice system, it's only partially successful. The tactics their lawyer (John Krasinski, weirdly) uses to discredit the prosecution's witnesses are as familiar as the Algiers scenes are revolting, and our rage circuits have already blown. Maybe it's just impossible for even a scene-setter as skilled as Bigelow to do anything new in a courtroom. The coda she chooses, showing Larry Reed's resolution to continue his musical career in a far more modest fashion than before, has nothing to do with consoling the audience after 135 minutes of trauma. It's about Reed becoming a militant for peace. It's about him making a choice to survive. If nothing else, Detroit gets you thinking about how those might be the same thing. \|\|\|\|\| × Close What is the Tomatometer®? The Tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. It represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show. From the Critics From RT Users Like You!	– Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit tells the story of a black singer who takes refuge in a dingy motel to escape the 1967 Motor City riots. Based on real events, the film reunites Bigelow with screenwriter Mark Boal, both of the Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker. It's got a strong 89% "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Here's what critics are saying: "Bigelow drills down into one of American history's most egregious cases of abuse of police power, bringing it to life with visceral detail and slowed-down meticulousness" in what "feels like her timeliest movie yet," writes Ann Hornaday at the Washington Post. It's "daring, sophisticated and unforgettably disturbing." And "in scale, scope and the space it offers for a long-awaited moral reckoning, it's nothing less than monumental." "It's hard to overstate just how visceral and harrowing an experience it is," writes Lindsey Bahr at the AP, calling Detroit "a well-made and evocative film" jam-packed with "stomach-churning horror." She argues there could be more nuance and perspective. But "maybe anger is all you're supposed to feel when you step outside the theater. Maybe not feeling satisfied with Detroit is the point." Chris Klimek says Detroit is "maddeningly imperfect but still honorable," citing "lightly fictionalized" aspects of the otherwise true story that set it up "for maximum outrage." This is "messy work, even when it’s done in good faith," he writes at NPR. He applauds John Boyega, previously of The Force Awakens. Radiating a "Denzel-like calm," he shows "he's a bonafide movie star," Klimek writes. Peter Howell's main gripe is that the film "tries to tell us everything about the circumstances without telling us much about the people." But Detroit still makes for "urgent viewing," he writes at the Toronto Star. Why? "The injustice and anger behind it all feels like current reality, even a half-century on," when "a person's skin can still determine everything from employment opportunities to treatment by police."
TransCanada Corp. plans to launch a North American free-trade agreement claim seeking more than $15-billion (U.S.) in damages in response to the U.S. government’s decision to deny a permit for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Adding to the likely test of U.S.-Canada relations, TransCanada also said Wednesday it has launched a separate lawsuit in the U.S. Federal Court in Houston asserting that U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to deny construction of the $8-billion project exceeded his power under the U.S. Constitution. TransCanada also said it expects to take a writedown of $2.5-billion (Canadian) to $2.9-billion after tax in the fourth quarter related to the Keystone XL permit denial. After years of delays, the Obama administration quashed the project last November. The Calgary-based pipeline company says the United States has never before denied a cross-border oil pipeline from Canada, and the rejection of the project designed to transport vast quantities of Canadian oil sands and some Bakken crude to Gulf Coast refineries “was arbitrary and unjustified.” TransCanada’s announcement comes as Mr. Obama is due to host Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a state dinner in Washington in March. At the same time, Washington and Ottawa are working with the Mexican government to forge a North American energy and climate agreement that would move the three countries closer to a continental market. In rejecting the proposal last November, Obama called crude from Alberta’s oil sands “dirtier” but acknowledged that debate over the pipeline has played an “overinflated role” in his country’s political discourse. “This pipeline would neither be a silver bullet for the economy, as was promised by some, nor the express lane to climate disaster proclaimed by others,” the President said, before concluding that the project wouldn’t significantly help his country’s economy, lower gasoline prices or increase energy security. In its notice to claim to arbitration under Chapter 11 of NAFTA, TransCanada’s lawyers argue environmental activists turned opposition to Keystone XL into a litmus test for politicians to prove their environmental credentials. “The activists’ strategy succeeded.” On Wednesday, TransCanada said in a news release that the $15-billion (U.S.) claim it will make through its NAFTA action represents the initial estimated loss of value. “TransCanada has invested billions of dollars in assets that have now been rendered useless for the intended purpose, specifically the transportation of Canadian and American oil.” The midstream energy firm said it had every reason to expect its application would get a green light, as the application met the same criteria the U.S. State Department applied when approving applications to construct other, similar cross-border pipelines. “The U.S. State Department acknowledged the denial was not based on the merits of the project. Rather, it was a symbolic gesture based on speculation about the perceptions of the international community regarding the administration’s leadership on climate change and the President’s assertion of unprecedented, independent powers,” TransCanada said. The company noted that the U.S. has never before lost a NAFTA claim, however, “we have undertaken a careful evaluation of the administration’s action as it relates to NAFTA and believe there has been a clear violation of NAFTA in these circumstances.” Toronto trade lawyer Lawrence Herman said these types of lawsuits “are all long shots,” but TransCanada appears to have a solid case in arguing that it was unfairly treated and that the decision was politically motivated. “The argument is that they were not given fair and equitable treatment as required under the NAFTA,” he said. “I’ve thought for some time that that this was a politicized issue, and there are good arguments that decisions affecting Keystone were based on political considerations. To the degree that that is so, TransCanada has a viable if not a strong case.” Activists who opposed the pipeline insist the rejection was a legitimate policy decision, driven by concerns about rising greenhouse gas emissions in the oil sands, and by worries about local pollution from pipeline spills. “The rejection of Keystone XL was justified in order to protect the land, water and property rights of farmers and ranchers,” said Jane Kleeb, president of Bold Nebraska, a prominent local group. “This desperate attempt by TransCanada is a move to show their shareholders they have a viable project when they have hit a dead end.” Bill McKibben, founder of the climate group 350.org, said the legal action isn’t going to get the pipeline built. “The idea that some trade agreement should force us to overheat the planet’s atmosphere is, quite simply, insane. But the oil industry is so used to always winning that I fear this kind of tantrum is predictable.” The federal government offered little comment on the lawsuit, but said it would not undermine Ottawa’s effort to forge a closer energy relationship with the United States. “This is a private lawsuit that is being launched by TransCanada under Chapter 11 and the corporation has the right to launch and they’ve made the decision this is how they’d like to proceed,” said Adam Barratt, spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion, said in a telephone interview. “It would be inappropriate for the government to comment any further at this time.” However, Mr. Barratt noted that the Liberal government had expressed its disappointment in November when President Obama announced the decision. “The relationship between Canada and the United States is on a very warm footing, and the discussions on energy in North America are much broader than Keystone,” he said. Report Typo/Error \|\|\|\|\| By Nia Williams and Valerie Volcovici CALGARY/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp sued the U.S government on Wednesday to reverse President Barack Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, and also plans to seek $15 billion in damages from a trade tribunal. TranCanada's lawsuit in a federal court in Houston, Texas, called rejection of its permit to build the pipeline unconstitutional. In a separate action under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the company said the pipeline permit denial was "arbitrary and unjustified." The company's U.S. lawsuit does not seek monetary damages but wants the permit denial invalidated and seeks a ruling that no future president can block construction. Its request for $15 billion under NAFTA reflects its desire to recover its investment in the pipeline. Defendants in the Houston lawsuit are U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Department of Interior. Obama, who is not named as a defendant, rejected the cross-border crude oil pipeline last November, seven years after it was first proposed, saying it would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to the U.S. economy. The Keystone XL was designed to link existing pipeline networks in Canada and the United States to bring crude from Alberta and North Dakota to refineries in Illinois and, eventually, the Gulf of Mexico coast. All the Democratic U.S. presidential candidates, including front runner Hillary Clinton, oppose the pipeline while most Republican candidates are in favor.	– See you in court, eh? TransCanada, a Canadian company hit hard by President Obama's rejection of its Keystone XL pipeline project, has filed twin lawsuits seeking $15 billion in damages and a reversal of the US decision, the New York Times reports. One lawsuit, filed under the North American Free Trade Agreement, seeks damages because the permit rejection was "arbitrary and unjustified," reports Reuters. The suit claims that Obama overstepped his authority because of his "unprecedented and symbolic grounds" for turning down the project, which he argued would bring "dirtier crude oil into our country" while doing little to boost the American economy. The second lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Houston, calls for a reversal of Obama's "unconstitutional" decision and a ruling that no future president can block the pipeline project, reports Reuters. A Canadian trade lawyer tells the Globe and Mail that it's tough to predict how these kinds of lawsuits will go, but that TransCanada's argument that it was treated unfairly because the issue had become politicized appears solid. The Times notes that a win for the Canadian company would be unprecedented: In the 22 years of the NAFTA agreement, the US has won all 12 of the challenges it faced from Canadian firms, while US firms have prevailed in trade agreement cases in Canada.
After years of denials, Michel Fourniret admits killing Joanna Parrish, 20, in 1990 A French serial killer has confessed to the murder of British language student Joanna Parrish in France nearly three decades ago, the family lawyer told AFP on Friday. Jailed for life in 2008 for killing seven girls and young women, Michel Fourniret was dubbed the Ogre of the Ardennes. He was interviewed last week by two instructing magistrates in Paris and, according to lawyer Didier Seban, admitted murdering 20-year-old Parrish, a student at Leeds University, and French teenager Marie-Angele Domece. “He made detailed and repeated confessions. He clearly recognises, and this several times over, having killed Joanna Parrish and Marie-Angele Domece,” Seban said. “It’s a new development, a resolution of the affair, it seems, in a remarkable way,” he added. “It’s hard (for the family), but the end of a long legal battle.” Parrish, from Newnham on Severn, Gloucs, had been working as a language assistant at a secondary school in Auxerre, in the Burgundy region. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Joanna Parrish. Photograph: PA Seban said he hoped a trial would soon go ahead now. Paris prosecutors would not comment on the revelations, with investigations under way. Fourniret’s lawyer made no comment when contacted by AFP. Parrish’s body was found on 17 May 1990, soon after she disappeared. She had been raped and beaten, the autopsy found. Domece, who had learning disabilities, disappeared on 8 July 1988. Her body has never been found. Fourniret was charged in 2008 with kidnapping and murdering the two girls, but the court of appeal dismissed the case on 14 September 2011. Fourniret’s wife Monique Olivier had twice accused him of the two unsolved murders but later retracted. “Monique Olivier will in turn have to be questioned,” Seban added. Fourniret had always denied involvement in the two cases, including during his trial in the northern Ardennes area where he was found guilty on 28 May 2008 of murdering seven girls. Olivier was found guilty of complicity in five murders and jailed for life with an order that she serve at least 28 years behind bars. In June 2012 the court of appeal in Paris cancelled the dismissal order on Fourniret and asked for investigations to resume based on new leads. \|\|\|\|\| A convicted serial killer has reportedly confessed to killing a British woman in France 27 years ago. Joanna Parrish, 21, from Gloucester, was raped and murdered in Auxerre in 1990, while working as an English teacher during her gap year. Convicted rapist and murderer Michel Fourniret, dubbed “the Ogre of the Ardennes”, had for a long time been the prime suspect in the brutal attack on the student. And according to Ms Parrish’s family lawyer the killer has finally admitted to her murder. Lawyer Didier Seban told the BBC that over the past week Fourniret had appeared in court “two to three times” and admitted the killing on each occasion. He added that Fourniret would now be questioned further, which “should lead to charges”. Ms Parrish’s father, Roger Parrish, told the broadcaster the confession had come as a ”shock” and that he hoped it was not another “false lead”. In May 2008 Fourniret was sentenced to life in prison for the joint rape and murder of seven girls. \|\|\|\|\| A notorious French serial killer known as the ‘Ogre of the Ardennes’ has finally confessed to the murder of British student Joanna Parrish 28 years ago, her family's lawyer said on Friday. Michel Fourniret, 75, was already serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of seven other young women, but until now police had been unable to prove that he killed Joanna. The naked body of the 20-year-old Leeds University language student was found in the River Yonne near Auxerre, Burgundy in 1990, a day after she was reported missing. She had been raped, beaten and strangled following her abduction after placing an advertisement in a local newspaper offering English lessons. Her father, Roger Parrish, who had long suspected Fourniret despite the killer’s repeated denials, spoke of his relief last night. Mr Parrish, a retired Land Registry official from Newnham on Severn in Gloucestershire, told local reporters that his family would have “closure at last”.	– British student Joanna Parrish disappeared in France after posting an advertisement for her services as an English teacher in a local newspaper, the Telegraph reports. A day after she was reported missing, her naked body was found in a river; she had been raped and strangled to death. That was nearly 30 years ago. This week a French serial killer known as the Ogre of the Ardennes is said to have confessed to the crime, according to AFP. Didier Seban, a lawyer for Parrish's family, tells the BBC that 75-year-old Michel Fourniret confessed to the 1990 murder of Parrish—as well as the 1988 murder of Marie-Angele Domece, whose body was never found—to judges "two to three times" over the past week. The Press Association reports Parrish's family was shocked by the confession. Fourniret was given life in prison in 2008 after being found guilty of raping and killing seven women between the ages of 12 and 21. His wife, Monique Olivier, was also given life in prison for picking up a number of his victims while driving around with their baby. Fourniret was charged with the murders of Parrish and Domece in 2008 after Olivier said he was responsible for them, only to have the cases dismissed in 2011 after Olivier recanted. A court of appeal later cancelled that dismissal and ordered investigations into new leads. Now Seban says a trial should go forward after Fourniret "made detailed and repeated confessions." Parrish's father says he hopes the family will have "closure at last." (It seems an infamous serial killer couldn't cheat death after all.)
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko: "We are very close to the point of no return" EU leaders are meeting in Brussels to discuss the crisis in Ukraine, threatening to impose fresh sanctions against Russia. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton accused Russia of "direct aggression" in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said his country was "close to a point of no return - full scale-war". Russia denies that its forces are backing rebels, who have been gaining ground on Ukrainian forces. Baroness Ashton said there was "deep concern" over "direct aggression by Russian forces". She called on Russia to stop the flow of arms, equipment and personnel into Ukraine. As she arrived at the talks in Brussels, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said Russia was "practically in a war against Europe". Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite says Russia is "practically in a war against Europe" She said: "We need to support Ukraine, and send military materials to help Ukraine defend itself. Today Ukraine is fighting a war on behalf of all Europe." UK Prime Minister David Cameron said the EU faced "a completely unacceptable situation of having Russian troops on Ukrainian soil. Consequences must follow if that situation continues". Image copyright AFP Image caption The Ukrainian army has been fighting pro-Russian separatists for months Image copyright AP Image caption Pro-Russian rebels have mounted a counter-offensive in recent days French President Francois Hollande said the Ukraine crisis was the biggest since the end of the Cold War. He said: "What's happening in Ukraine is so serious that the European Council will be obliged to react by increasing the level of sanctions if things remain as they are." The EU and the US have already imposed sanctions against dozens of senior Russian officials, separatist commanders and Russian firms accused of undermining Ukrainian sovereignty. However, the BBC's Chris Morris in Brussels says there are still divisions within the EU on how to deal with the Ukraine situation. Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said the "jury is still out" on whether sanctions had worked, adding: "We need to find a ceasefire, a peace plan." Image copyright AP Image caption Petro Poroshenko meets David Cameron in Brussels ahead of the summit Mr Poroshenko, who is at the summit, said Ukraine was a victim of "military aggression and terror" involving "thousands of foreign troops and hundreds of foreign tanks". He said that new EU sanctions against Russia would be prepared and would be implemented depending on the success of his peace plan. He said he hoped to publish a draft of the peace plan next week. Mr Poroshenko also said that he would discuss the possibility of a ceasefire at a meeting in Belarus on Monday of the Contact Group, which includes Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). 'Ordered to retreat' Government forces have lost ground in recent fighting. A Ukrainian military spokesman said on Saturday that Russian tanks had attacked the town of Novosvitlivka near Luhansk and "destroyed virtually every house". Spokesman Andriy Lysenko said troops had been ordered to retreat from Novosvitlivka. Troops are also reportedly trying to evacuate Ilovaisk in the Donetsk region. It has been surrounded by rebels. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Cars queue to leave Mariupol, from where Yuri Vendik reports Rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko told the Russian News Service radio station a new offensive was being planned to create a corridor between Donetsk and Luhansk. In south-eastern Ukraine, people have been leaving the port city of Mariupol, after advancing rebels captured Novoazovsk to the east. Western and Ukrainian officials say this offensive has been substantially helped by Russian regular troops, opening a new front. Russia denies the accusation. Some 2,600 people have died in fighting in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions since April. The conflict erupted following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula a month before. War in eastern Ukraine: The human cost \|\|\|\|\| European leaders, he added, had long stated that any further escalation of the conflict would set off additional sanctions, and they would “be ready to take some more measures” at the meeting in Brussels. President François Hollande of France also backed new measures against Russia, telling journalists in Brussels that “what is happening in Ukraine is so serious” that European leaders were obliged to increase sanctions. But France is expected to block calls by some leaders to extend an existing ban on future military sales to Russia to include already signed contracts. France has resisted pressure from Washington and some European capitals to cancel a contract for the sale of two naval assault ships to Russia, a deal worth 1.2 billion euros, or about $1.6 billion. Arriving Saturday for the summit, Dalia Grybauskaite, the president of Lithuania, demanded that existing and future military contracts with Russia be prohibited. Europe, she said, could not “listen to the lies that we are receiving from Putin” and should offer military support to Ukraine. Russia, she added, was “in a state of war against Ukraine and that means that it is in a state of war against countries that want to be closer to the European Union and that means practically that Russia is in a state of war against Europe. That means we have to help Ukraine battle back, to defend its territory and its people, to help militarily.” Fighting in eastern Ukraine has been going on for months, mostly around rebel-held Donetsk and Luhansk. But the conflict expanded last week after the rebels — backed by Russian forces, according to NATO — opened a front along a coastal road leading to the industrial port city of Mariupol. Ukrainian military units and the civilian population were preparing on Saturday to defend the city against any assault by the Russian-backed militias, Ukraine’s military spokesman, Col. Andriy Lysenko, said in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. “We are very grateful to the Mariupol residents, who have also helped in the fortification of the city against the armored vehicles of the enemy,” Colonel Lysenko said. The city fell briefly under the control of pro-Russian fighters earlier this year, but after they were driven out it had been firmly in the hands of Ukraine. The governor of the Donetsk region, forced from his headquarters in the city of Donetsk, decamped there to maintain a formal, if largely impotent, government presence. \|\|\|\|\| KIEV/BRUSSELS Ukraine said Russian tanks had flattened a small border town and pro-Russian rebels had made fresh gains in its east, as EU leaders signaled on Saturday they would threaten more sanctions against Moscow over the crisis. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, attending an EU summit in Brussels, said he was hoping for a political solution, but warned that his country was on the brink of full-scale war. Russia has repeatedly dismissed accusations from Kiev and Western powers that it has sent soldiers into its neighbor, or supported pro-Russian rebels fighting a five-month-old separatist war in Ukraine's east. But Ukraine military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists in Kiev that Russian tanks had entered the small Ukrainian town of Novosvitlivka on the border with Russia and fired on every house. "We have information that virtually every house has been destroyed," Lysenko added, without giving details on when the reported attack took place. Ukraine's daily military briefings typically cover the previous 24 hours. Lysenko said the rebels had made new gains just east of the border city of Luhansk, one of the rebels' main strongholds, after opening up a new front in another area last week. "Direct military aggression by the Russian Federation in the east of Ukraine is continuing. The Russians are continuing to send military equipment and 'mercenaries'," Ukraine's defense and security council said in a separate Twitter post. Kiev and Western countries say recent rebel gains were the result of the arrival of armored columns of Russian troops, sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin to prop up a separatist rebellion that would otherwise have been near collapse. There was no immediate fresh comment from Russia on Saturday. Putin on Friday compared Kiev's drive to regain control of its rebellious eastern cities to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in World War Two. "NO TIME TO WASTE" EU leaders meeting in Brussels appointed Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk as president of the European Council, giving hawkish Kremlin critics in Eastern Europe new influence in the bloc. According to a draft statement from the summit, the EU leaders were set to ask the European Commission and the EU's diplomatic service "to urgently undertake preparatory work" on further sanctions that could be implemented if necessary. French President Francois Hollande stressed that a failure by Russia to reverse a flow of weapons and troops into eastern Ukraine would force the bloc to impose new economic measures. "Are we going to let the situation worsen, until it leads to war?" Hollande said at a news conference. "Because that's the risk today. There is no time to waste." European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the EU was prepared to toughen sanctions against Russia but also that it wanted a political deal to end the confrontation. "We are ready to take very strong and clear measures but we are keeping our doors open to a political solution," Barroso said at a news conference with Ukraine's president. Poroshenko said the crisis was close to a tipping point. "I think we are very close to the point of no return. The point of no return is full-scale war, which already happened on the territory controlled by separatists," he said. He added, however, that a trilateral meeting on Monday involving representatives of Kiev, Moscow and the European Union could produce a ceasefire. SHOTS FIRED The crisis started when Ukraine's Moscow-backed president was ousted by street protests in February after he ditched a pact with the EU that would have moved the ex-Soviet republic firmly toward Europe and away from Russia. Russia denounced the pro-Western leadership that took over as "a fascist junta" and went on to annex Ukraine's Crimea peninsula. Pro-Russian separatists then rebelled in Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking east in April, setting up 'people's republics' and declaring they wanted to join Russia. A senior U.N. human rights official said on Friday nearly 2,600 civilians, Ukrainian government forces and rebels had been killed in a conflict which has led to the biggest Russia-West crisis since the Cold War. In Kiev, Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said a group of pro-Ukrainian fighters had broken out of encirclement by pro-Russian rebels near Donetsk early on Saturday, though other reports suggested many remained trapped. Defense Minister Valery Heletey also ordered a clamp-down on information coming out of Ilovaysk, a town to the east of Donetsk. Indicating government forces were being pulled back from the area, Heletey said on his Facebook page: "As soon as the danger for Ukrainian units has passed, all open information for the current period relating to the withdrawal of forces from Ilovaysk will be published." Last week pro-Russian rebels opened a new front in a separate, coastal territory along the Sea of Azov and pushed Ukrainian troops out of the town of Novoazovsk. They are now threatening the strategic port city of Mariupol. Several shots were fired on Saturday at a car carrying Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic, but he escaped unscathed, another separatist leader, Sergei Kavtaradze, told Reuters. "Zakharchenko wasn't hurt. His driver was wounded and is being operated on," Kavtaradze said, adding that an operation was under way to catch whoever had fired the shots. (Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev and Anton Zverev in Donetsk; Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Robin Pomeroy) \|\|\|\|\| BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Saturday warned that the apparent incursion of Russian troops on Ukrainian soil pushes the conflict closer to a point of no return, with new economic sanctions being drawn up to make Moscow reconsider its position. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, right, talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during an European People's Party summit ahead of the EU summit in Brussels, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2014. EU leaders,... (Associated Press) Comrades and Crimea's self-defense fighters carry the coffin of former paratrooper Alexander Gusev, 46, covered by Russian paratroopers flag, who was killed during clashes with Ukrainian troops in eastern... (Associated Press) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, left, shakes hands with British Prime Minister David Cameron, prior to a bilateral meeting, ahead of an EU summit in Brussels, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2014. EU leaders,... (Associated Press) Captured Russian paratroopers are seen in this image taken from video in Kiev on Wednesday Aug. 27. 2014. Ten Russian paratroopers were captured this week in Ukraine, adding to a growing body of evidence... (Associated Press) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who briefed a summit of the 28-nation EU's leaders in Brussels, said a strong response was needed to the "military aggression and terror" facing his country. "Thousands of the foreign troops and hundreds of the foreign tanks are now on the territory of Ukraine," Poroshenko told reporters in English. "There is a very high risk not only for peace and stability for Ukraine, but for the whole peace and stability of Europe." French President Francois Hollande and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said upon their arrival for the summit in Brussels the leaders will make a political decision and then ask the EU's executive arm to finalize the fine print of new sanctions. However, because several EU nations fear the fallout of sanctions on their own economies, it wasn't immediately clear whether the required unanimity would be reached for immediate punitive measures, or whether the leaders would set Russia another ultimatum. But Lithuanian leader Dalia Grybauskaite insisted Russia's meddling in Ukraine, which seeks closer ties with the EU, amounts to a direct confrontation that requires stronger sanctions. "Russia is practically in the war against Europe," she said in English. NATO estimates that at least 1,000 Russian soldiers are in Ukraine even though Russia denies any military involvement in the fighting that has so far claimed 2,600 lives, according to U.N. figures. British Prime Minister David Cameron also warned that Europe can't be complacent about Russian troops on Ukrainian soil. "Countries in Europe shouldn't have to think long before realizing just how unacceptable that is," he said. "We know that from our history. So consequences must follow." Conceding ground in the face of a reinvigorated rebel offensive, Ukraine said Saturday that it was abandoning a city where its forces have been surrounded by rebels for days. Government forces were also pulling back from another it had claimed to have taken control of two weeks earlier. The statements by Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the national security council, indicate that Ukrainian forces face increasingly strong resistance from Russian-backed separatist rebels just weeks after racking up significant gains and forcing rebels out of much of the territory they had held. Poroshenko, meanwhile, said Ukraine would welcome an EU decision to help with military equipment and further intelligence-sharing. The office of the Donetsk mayor reported in a statement that at least two people died in an artillery attack on one of Donetsk's neighborhoods. Shelling was reported elsewhere in the city, but there was no immediate word on casualties. In Brussels, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said "sanctions are not an end in themselves," but a means to dissuade Russia from further destabilizing Ukraine. "We may see a situation where we reach the point of no return," Barroso warned. "If the escalation of the conflict continues, this point of no return can come." He provided no specifics about which sanctions the heads of state and government might adopt to inflict more economic pain to nudge Russia toward a political solution. The U.S. and the EU have so far imposed sanctions against dozens of Russian officials, several companies and the country's financial industry. Moscow has retaliated by banning food imports. Grybauskaite said the EU should impose a full arms embargo, including the canceling of already agreed contracts. France has so far staunchly opposed that proposal because it has a $1.6 billion contract to build Mistral helicopter carriers for Russia. The EU's requirement for a unanimous agreement among the 28 nation has in the past blocked or softened decisions since some nations fear the economic fallout. Russia is the EU's No. 3 trading partner and one of its biggest oil and gas suppliers. The EU, in turn, is Russia's biggest commercial partner, making any sanctions more biting than similar measures adopted by the U.S. Barroso said that the EU — a bloc encompassing 500 million people and stretching from Lisbon to the border with Ukraine — stands ready to grant Kiev further financial assistance if needed. The bloc will also organize a donors' conference to help rebuild the country's east at the end of the year, he added. Ukrainian forces had been surrounded by rebels in the town of Ilovaysk, about 20 kilometers (15 miles) east of the largest rebel-held city of Donetsk for days. "We are surrendering this city," Ukraine's Lysenko told reporters. "Our task now is to evacuate our military with the least possible losses in order to regroup." Lysenko said that regular units of the military had been ordered to retreat from Novosvitlivka and Khryashchuvate, two towns on the main road between the Russian border and Luhansk, the second-largest rebel-held city. Ukraine had claimed control of Novosvitlivka earlier in August. Separately, Ukrainian forces said one of their Su-25 fighter jets was shot down Friday over eastern Ukraine by a missile from a Russian missile launcher. The pilot ejected and was uninjured, the military said in a brief statement. ___ Jim Heintz reported from Kiev. Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed reporting. ___ Follow Juergen Baetz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jbaetz \|\|\|\|\| The European Union has warned that the apparent incursion of Russian troops on Ukrainian soil pushes the conflict closer to a point of no return, with new economic sanctions being drawn up to make Moscow reconsider its position. The Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, who briefed a summit of the 28-nation EU's leaders in Brussels, said a strong response was needed to the "military aggression and terror" facing his country. "Thousands of foreign troops and hundreds of foreign tanks are now on the territory of Ukraine," Poroshenko told reporters in English. "There is a very high risk not only for peace and stability for Ukraine, but for the whole peace and stability of Europe." However, because several EU nations fear the fallout of sanctions on their own economies, it wasn't immediately clear whether the required unanimity would be reached for immediate punitive measures, or whether the leaders would set Russia another ultimatum. Lithuanian leader Dalia Grybauskaite insisted Russia's meddling in Ukraine, which seeks closer ties with the EU, amounts to a direct confrontation that requires stronger sanctions. "Russia is practically at war against Europe," she said, also in English. Calling on EU countries to supply Kiev with military equipment, she went on: "That means we need to help Ukraine to … defend its territory and its people and to help militarily, especially with the military materials to help Ukraine defend itself because today Ukraine is fighting a war on behalf of all Europe." Nato estimates that at least 1,000 Russian soldiers are in Ukraine even though Russia denies any military involvement in the fighting that has according to the UN claimed 2,600 lives. David Cameron also warned that Europe cannot be complacent about Russian troops on Ukrainian soil. "Countries in Europe shouldn't have to think long before realising just how unacceptable that is," he said. "We know that from our history. So consequences must follow." Poroshenko told reporters that he believed efforts to halt the violence were "very close to a point of no return," warning that failure could lead to a "full-scale war." Conceding ground in the face of a reinvigorated rebel offensive, Ukraine said Saturday that it was abandoning a city where its forces have been surrounded by rebels for days. Government forces were also pulling back from another it had claimed to have taken control of two weeks earlier. The Ukrainian military also reported that one of its fighter jets had been shot down by Russian anti-aircraft fire, although the pilot managed to eject to safety. The statements by Col Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the national security council, indicate that Ukrainian forces face increasingly strong resistance from Russian-backed separatist rebels just weeks after racking up significant gains and forcing rebels out of much of the territory they had held. The office of the Donetsk mayor reported in a statement that at least two people died in an artillery attack on one of Donetsk's neighborhoods. Shelling was also reported elsewhere in the city. Poroshenko said Ukraine would welcome an EU decision to help with military equipment and further intelligence-sharing. In Brussels, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said "sanctions are not an end in themselves," but a means to dissuade Russia from further destabilising Ukraine. "If the escalation of the conflict continues, this point of no return can come." He provided no specifics about which sanctions the heads of state and government might adopt to inflict more economic pain to nudge Russia toward a political solution. Grybauskaite added that an arms embargo on Russia should be tightened by including a halt on sales under existing contracts – a thinly-veiled swipe at France, which has resisted calls to cancel a deal to sell Moscow a strategic new warship. This came after the German vice-chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, told journalists: "It is clear that after this intervention by Russia in Ukraine … EU leaders will certainly task the European commission with preparing the next level of sanctions." "We see regular Russian army units operating offensively on the Ukrainian territory against the Ukrainian army. We must call a spade a spade," said the Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt. All options except military action will be considered to punish Russia for pursuing "the wrong path", said Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg's foreign minister. According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Putin held late-night discussions about Ukraine with the French president, François Hollande, and Barroso. Kiev and Moscow had agreed to hold high-level discussions between army leadership and border control agencies, and an official told AFP that heads of border control will meet on Saturday. "They will discuss measures to protect Ukrainian territory from breaches by militants and equipment," Sergiy Astakhov, an aide to the head of Kiev's border service, said. UN figures suggest that fighting between Ukrainian military forces and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine has already claimed at least 2,200 lives. Nato estimates that there are at least 1,000 Russian soldiers in Ukraine, while Kiev claimed this week that Russian tanks and armoured vehicles entered the country as rebels opened a new front along the Azov Sea coast. Russia consistently denies that its forces are in Ukraine and allegations that it is supplying the rebels. Until this week, the fighting had been concentrated inland. But rebels have taken control of the town of Novoazovsk, with the apparent aim of pushing further west along the coast connecting Russia to the Crimean peninsula.	– Today's key phrase on the Russian-Ukraine situation is the "point of no return." The leader of the European Commission warned today that Moscow has brought the world to the brink of that point with its aggression toward its neighbor, reports the BBC. Jose Manuel Barroso spoke as EU leaders gathered in Brussels. With Russia showing no sign of letting up, or even admitting that it's helping pro-Russian separatists despite mounting evidence to the contrary, it's not clear what happens after the point of no return, though European leaders are threatening more sanctions. Also: Ukraine leader Petro Poroshenko used similar language to Barroso, reports the New York Times. "We are too close to a border where there will be no return to the peace plan," he said, asserting that "thousands of foreign troops and hundreds of foreign tanks are now on the territory of Ukraine, with a very high risk not only for the peace and stability of Ukraine but for the peace and stability of the whole of Europe." (Russia says any of its troops there are fighting of their own accord while on leave.) Lithuanian leader Dalia Grybauskaite said this, in English, reports AP: "Russia is practically in the war against Europe." Jet shot down: The Ukraine military said one of its fighter jets was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a Russian missile yesterday, reports the Guardian. The pilot ejected safely. Marching on: Pro-Russian rebels backed by Russian soldiers made more gains in the east, reports Reuters. Ukraine's military said tanks entered the small border town of Novosvitlivka and opened fire on houses.
Even the most drama-free relationships take work — and Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau's marriage is anything but drama-free. Having started their illicit affair when Fualaau was just 13 and Letourneau was 34, the spouses of 10 years have had to overcome almost impossible odds to be together. And while they're still happily wed with two kids, they've had more than their share of highs and lows. PHOTOS: Unlikely couples "I don't think there's ever a full 10 good years of marriage. You have your ups and downs in marriage," Fualaau, now 31, told Barbara Walters in an exclusive interview set to air Friday, April 10, in honor of the couple's upcoming 10th wedding anniversary. "But, you know, what matters is how you pull through all the bad times." PHOTOS: Celeb couples and how they met Those bad times include a seven-year prison sentence for Letourneau, now 53, who was a married mother of four when she and Fualaau — then a student in her sixth-grade class — began their sexual relationship. By the time he was 15, they had two kids together, Audrey and Georgia. PHOTOS: Celeb couples, then and now "It was a huge change in my life, for sure," Fualaau told Walters. "I don't feel like I had the right support or the right help behind me…From my family — from anyone in general. I mean, my friends couldn't help me because they had no idea what, what it was like to be a parent, I mean, because we were all 14, 15." As was well-documented at the time, Letourneau and her student-turned-lover wed in 2005, a year after she was released from prison. In the time since, they've kept a relatively low profile — but that's about to change. PHOTOS: Couples with huge age differences "It is our 10-year anniversary, and we already know that no matter how protective we are, that there's going to be a wave of intrusion in our life right now that we can't stop," Letourneau explained to Walters. "So it's about doing the most responsible thing to protect our girls for the inevitable." Barbara Walters' interview with Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau airs Friday, April 10, on ABC's 20/20. Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox! Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now! \|\|\|\|\| Airing on “20/20” Friday, April 10, 10 pm ET on ABC In an exclusive interview with Barbara Walters, Mary Kay Letourneau Fualaau and Vili Fualaau sit down together on the eve of their 10th wedding anniversary, sharing intimate details about their headline-making marriage. Mary Kay Letourneau Fualaau is the former Seattle-area sixth-grade teacher who, at the age of 34, had an affair with her 13-year-old student, Vili Fualaau, and served seven and a half years for their inappropriate relationship. In the candid interview, Mary Kay tells Walters what makes their marriage work in spite of their huge difference in their age. She also discusses her surprising plans to teach again, as well as her intentions to have her status as a registered sex offender lifted. Vili Fualaau, meanwhile, discusses his bouts with alcoholism, depression and why he believes the system failed him while he was still a minor. Also, for the first time ever, viewers will meet their two teenage daughters, Audrey and Georgia, who are now older than Vili was when he conceived them. The interview airs on “20/20” on FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2015 (10:00 – 11:00 pm ET) on the ABC TELEVISION NETWORK. Letourneau first spoke to Walters in 2004 after being released from prison. At that time, she said that she wanted to marry her former student, who was 13 when their liaison began. “We’ve always planned that and it hasn’t changed,” she told Walters.	– The mother of all teacher-student sex scandals is returning to the national spotlight—just ahead of the 10th wedding anniversary of the two people involved. That would be Mary Kay Letourneau and husband Vili Fualaau, whose interview with Barbara Walters airs on ABC tomorrow night. Letourneau is 53 and Fualaau 31, but their relationship made national headlines when Letourneau became pregnant with Fualaau's child when he was all of 13. She had been his sixth-grade teacher. Letourneau spent nearly eight years in jail, but the couple stayed together and now have two teenage daughters, Audrey and Georgia. ABC is providing a few teasers, including the nugget that Letourneau wants to teach again, presumably only after getting her status as a sex offender lifted. Fualaau, meanwhile, will discuss his struggles with alcoholism and depression, notes Us Weekly. "It was a huge change in my life, for sure," Fualaau recalls of the scandal. "I don't feel like I had the right support or the right help behind me ... from my family, from anyone in general. I mean, my friends couldn't help me because they had no idea what, what it was like to be a parent, I mean, because we were all 14, 15." Letourneau says they did the interview in part because they figured they'd be deluged with attention ahead of their May 20 anniversary, like it or not. "So it's about doing the most responsible thing to protect our girls for the inevitable."
The T. rex's roar has struck fear into audiences from the days of King Kong to Jurassic World, but new research found that dinosaurs probably didn't sound anything like that. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) Picture, if you will, the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex. The odds are good what you envision has been brought to you in part by “Jurassic Park,” a plastic toy or some other facet of pop culture. (Perhaps you’re a fan of stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen.) But what Hollywood won’t teach you is that T. rex may have had feathers. After all, today’s birds are living dinosaurs. Now listen closely to your fearsome and possibly feathered friend. If you imagine it roaring, as both Steven Spielberg and “The Valley of Gwangi” did, we are sorry to say that sound is complete fiction. The roar of “Jurassic Park”‘s CGI tyrannosaur can be traced to a sound studio rather than the fossil record. It was a witches’ brew of baby elephant cries, tiger chuffs and a gargling alligator, remixed into a cinematically terrifying but completely artificial aural blast. Were a dinosaur to vocalize in defense of its territory — or as a mating call — it might have sounded like one of today’s birds, scientists say. In fact, a journal article published online Monday argues that the ancient reptiles made sounds closer to the coo of a pigeon or the mumble of an ostrich. Those are far cries from mammalian screams. [Grooves in the ground may reveal a bird-like dinosaur mating dance] According to the new research, dino sounds may be what scientists call “closed-mouth vocalizations.” Unlike the high-pitched chirps and tweets from the open beaks of songbirds, the closed-mouth sounds are low, throaty whooshes of air. A flesh sac called an esophageal pouch enables birds with proportionally large bodies — think pigeons or doves — to produce the low murmurs. A cooing dove with its mouth closed. (Tobias Riede/Midwestern University) The researchers figured out the common bird sound like this: First, they collected vocal data on all sorts of animals called archosaurs, which include birds and crocodiles. And, notably, the long-dead dinosaurs. Writing in the journal Evolution, scientists from universities in Texas, Arizona, Utah and Canada analyzed the noises made by many living bird and crocodilian species. They divided the types of sounds into various groups, including the close-mouth noises. Roughly a quarter of 200 birds species analyzed emitted the bulging closed-mouth sounds. Small birds, like sparrows and finches, did not make the noise. But birds with proportionally larger body types — like doves, ostriches and the giant New Zealand cassowary — do. This, the researchers say, suggest large-bodied dinosaurs may have had similar vocal abilities. “Looking at the distribution of closed-mouth vocalization in birds that are alive today could tell us how dinosaurs vocalized,” said study author and University of Texas biologist Chad Eliason in a statement. [These chickens now have dinosaur legs — but that’s not as weird as you might think] Moreover, because not all birds had the trait, the scientists say it evolved separately in different groups of animals. It appeared in 16 distinct animal lineages, including crocodiles and birds. The scientists feel confident it could have evolved in dinosaurs, too. A model dinosaur at the recent International Tokyo Toy show. (Kazuhiro Nogikazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images) “A cool thing about this work is the demonstration that closed-mouth behavior evolved many times,” Tobias Riede, Midwestern University physiology expert and lead author of the paper, said in a news release. “That suggests it can emerge fairly easily and be incorporated into mating displays.” The researchers were handicapped in their study because vocal organs, made of soft tissue, do not fossilize the way dinosaur bones do. So it’s much easier to build a big scary creature than to reconstruct what it sounded like. But there are a few other hints in addition to this study. Based on what scientists know about birds, dinosaurs likely did not have vocal cords — those tough membranes that vibrate when a lion roars or a human speaks. Instead, they had air sacs, and it is possible dinosaurs had a birdlike syrinx, too (an organ similar to our larynxes but two-pronged and lower in the chest). [How to find the dinosaurs that hide inside modern birds] If a non-avian dinosaur whooshed like a bird, with its throat puffed up, the scientists suggest it may have sounded like the most intimidating large-bodied birds of today: ostriches and cassowaries. Though ostriches are imposing creatures, their hoots leave Hollywood-trained ears wanting. The ostrich mating call is a low buzz, a sound about as ferocious as the gasps from a dying vacuum cleaner. That said, the sound-smiths behind “Jurassic Park” were able to call on the dinosaurs’ living cousins in a few tense scenes — just not for T. rex. As designer Gary Rydstrom told Vulture in 2013, the sibilant velociraptors — specifically, the sounds emitted right before a certain clever raptor ambushes game warden Robert Muldoon — have avian influences. “That’s a goose,” Rydstrom said to Vulture. “Birds make pretty raspy sounds, but geese are famous for being the nastiest. You’ve got to get a goose mad and then they hiss at you, and it doesn’t take much to get a goose mad because they seem to get mad at everything.” [The most outlandish theory yet for what killed off the dinosaurs] For creatures that so readily capture both popular imagination and scientific study, much remains unknown about dinosaurs. The vast majority of dinosaur species have yet to be found, argued University of Pennsylvania researchers in 2006. “It’s a safe bet that a child born today could expect a very fruitful career in dinosaur paleontology,” said paleontologist Peter Dodson at the time, after he and his co-author estimated that humans had discovered only 29 percent of dinosaur genera — the taxonomic rank made of a bundle of many species. Dino sounds are no exception to the mystery. It is safe to say dinosaurs made sounds, as American Museum of Natural History Mark Norell put it. But exact specifics — like certainty of dino whooshes, hoots or coos — died with the animals, 65 million years ago. \|\|\|\|\| This post originally ran in April 2013. We are rerunning it with Jurassic WorldÂ opening this weekend. "If people knew where the sounds in Jurassic Park came from, it'd be rated R!" laughed Gary Rydstrom. The sound designer rang me up last week to discuss his work on the Steven Spielberg action classic, newly rereleased in 3-D; when the movie came out in 1993, it netted him two Academy Awards for sound design and mixing (he's been nominated an astonishing 17 times over his career, winning seven statuettes). Though the Jurassic job was fun, Rydstrom remembers it as a tall order: He had to create dozens of distinct dinosaur noises essentially from scratch, since no one really knows what these long-dead animals would have sounded like. His solution was to spend months recording animal noises — some exotic, some not — then tweaking those homegrown sounds to create something otherworldly but still organic. What recognizable animals did he use to mix together the raptor, the T. rex, and all of Jurassic Park's other dinosaurs? Read on, if you dare: As Rydstrom implied, some of the sounds are sorta smutty. Velociraptors The intelligent raptors appear to have their own simple language, and it turns out that it's the language of love. "It's somewhat embarrassing, but when the raptors bark at each other to communicate, it's a tortoise having sex," said Rydstrom. "It's a mating tortoise! I recorded that at Marine World … the people there said, 'Would you like to record these two tortoises that are mating?' It sounded like a joke, because tortoises mating can take a long time. You've got to have plenty of time to sit around and watch and record them." Still, that wasn't the only animal element used to create the raptor noises. "When the raptor shows up in the door window in the kitchen, the breathing noise is a horse," said Rydstrom. "We used the horse in about three to four different dinosaurs." What about the hiss that raptor makes when it ambushes the game warden Muldoon (which prompts him to mutter, "Clever girl")? "That’s a goose. Birds make pretty raspy sounds, but geese are famous for being the nastiest. You’ve got to get a goose mad and then they hiss at you, and it doesn't take much to get a goose mad because they seem to get mad at everything. All you have to do is get close to one and stick a mic near its beak and you'll get that hiss, and that's the hiss that Muldoon hears before he dies." Gallimimus If the Gallimimus flock recalls a stampede of wild horses, there's good reason for it. "I remember recording a female horse, and the male horse came right by her and she squealed because she was in heat," laughed Rydstrom. "A lot of animals in heat make a very unique sound, and she squealed at this male because he got a little too close and she was excited about the male, I assume. And that’s the squeal the Gallimimuses make when they’re passing by, and the squeal one makes when it's getting eaten by a T. rex. One of the key elements of the raptor screams was a boy dolphin in heat, so you can see a pattern here!" Tyrannosaurus rex The fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex is one of the biggest animals in Jurassic Park, but some of its key noises came from Rydstrom's tiny Jack Russell terrier, Buster. "The way they animated the T. rex was very doglike, especially when it grabs the Gallimimus and the lawyer and shakes them to death," said Rydstrom. "Every day I would see my dog playing with the rope toy and doing exactly that, pretending like he's killing his prey." Was Buster's Jurassic Park cameo an isolated incident? "No, I use my pets all the time," laughed Rydstrom. "In Terminator 2, I recorded the sound of Buster eating puppy chow, and that became the crunch when the T-1000 spiked that guy’s eye socket." "One of the fun things in sound design is to take a sound and slow it down: It becomes much bigger," he continued. "That was inspired by Ben Burtt, the great sound designer from the Star Wars movies and a mentor of mine: He did the Rancor beast in Return of the Jedi by slowing a chihuahua sound down. It's one of the secrets of sound design that if you slow something down, something small, it brings out elements of the sound that you could probably never get if you recorded something big." As for that bone-shivering, theater-shaking T. rex roar: "The key element of the T. rex roar is not a full-grown elephant but a baby elephant," said Rydstrom. "So once again, a small animal making a small sound slowed down a little bit has more interest to us than what a big animal might do." Brachiosaurus "The brachiosaur’s singing is one of my favorite sounds in the movie because it’s beautiful, but like all good sound design, it's made from a non-beautiful source, which is donkeys," said Rydstrom. "You think of donkeys, and they kind of yodel, you know? There's this pitch shift in donkey vocals, and if you slow them way down, you get almost a hooting, songlike quality. That's the brachiosaur when it’s in its splendor mode." And what about later in the movie, when it's in its sneezing mode? "That's a whale blowhole and a fire hydrant." Triceratops "I work at Skywalker Ranch, which has a lot of cattle around, so I used a lot of cows for the triceratops," said Rydstrom. "But the main sound of the sick triceratops is its breathing — this long, slow inhale and exhale — and that's actually one of the only elements of the movie that isn't an organic sound. I used this long cardboard tube with a spring in it, a reverb device that makes sounds seem stretched out and deeper and weird. So when Sam Neill puts his ear right up to the chest cavity of the triceratops and listens to its breathing, there's a lot of cow in there, but the key element of the breathing is mostly me breathing into a tube." Rydstrom admitted that he did sneak one other human voice into the movie: his friend Dietrich. "He was visiting me and I turned on the mic and said, 'Can you make any weird sounds?' And he did this phlegmy, guttural growl. In the kitchen attack scene, there’s a close-up of the raptor slowly opening its mouth when it's about to attack Lex as she's hiding in a cabinet, and that sound is mostly my friend Dietrich doing this weird guttural growl. At the time, it felt like cheating when I would use myself or any other human to make a dinosaur sound — I felt like I was cheating the sound-design gods!" Baby Raptor The sounds Rydstrom used to animate the newly hatched dinosaur are just as adorable as the creature itself. "It's just been born, so at first it’s really squeaky and cute, and we recorded a lot of baby animals: baby owls, baby foxes, and things like that," he said. And no, your ears aren't deceiving you: When Sam Neill finds out that the cute baby dino is actually a vicious velociraptor, the sounds it emits become more … unsettling. "That's exactly right; as soon as he asks, 'What kind of dinosaur is this?' you start hearing these raspier baby owl sounds," said Rydstrom. "I already knew what the adult raptor would sound like, that it would have this screechy, raspy sound, so I tried to find a baby animal that has that rasp in it." Dilophosaurus When we first meet the Dilophosaurus, it cocks its head at Dennis Nedry and lets out an appealing trill. "Made from a swan," revealed Rydstrom. "Swans make a cute hooting sound, so the cute version of the Dilophosaurus sounds like a swan, for the most part." He chuckled. "Part of the fun of doing these kind of jobs is that I had no idea what a swan sounded like before!" Of course, things quickly escalate with the Dilophosaurus as it grows a fearsome cowl and expectorates all over its prey. "When it's the scary spitter, there’s definitely a rattlesnake sound in there as it fans out its canopy around its head, and the raspy sounds in its voice are from a hawk," said Rydstrom, adding with a laugh, "Whenever I give lectures to people about getting sounds for movies, one of the key things I tell them is that when you’re recording dangerous animals like lions and alligators and rattlesnakes, then you have your assistant do it! On Jurassic Park, I had an assistant, the lovely Chris Boyd — who's still alive — and if we needed a rattlesnake, I’d say, 'Chris, please record the rattlesnake.' And I’d record the dogs and the kittens!" \|\|\|\|\| This is a set of web collections curated by Mark Graham using the Archive-IT service of the Internet Archive. They include web captures of the ISKME.org website as well as captures from sites hosted by IGC.org.These web captures are available to the general public.For more information about this collection please feel free to contact Mark via Send Mail \|\|\|\|\| Most birds vocalize with an open beak, but vocalization with a closed beak into an inflating cavity occurs in territorial or courtship displays in disparate species throughout birds. Closed‐mouth vocalizations generate resonance conditions that favor low‐frequency sounds. By contrast, open‐mouth vocalizations cover a wider frequency range. Here we describe closed‐mouth vocalizations of birds from functional and morphological perspectives and assess the distribution of closed‐mouth vocalizations in birds and related outgroups. Ancestral‐state optimizations of body size and vocal behavior indicate that closed‐mouth vocalizations are unlikely to be ancestral in birds and have evolved independently at least 16 times within Aves, predominantly in large‐bodied lineages. Closed‐mouth vocalizations are rare in the small‐bodied passerines. In light of these results and body size trends in nonavian dinosaurs, we suggest that the capacity for closed‐mouth vocalization was present in at least some extinct nonavian dinosaurs. As in birds, this behavior may have been limited to sexually selected vocal displays, and hence would have co‐occurred with open‐mouthed vocalizations. \|\|\|\|\| Colors show probability of each branch being an open-mouth vocalizer (blue) or a closed-mouth vocalizer (red). Pies show the probabilities that the ancestors of birds and crocodiles, palaeognath birds, and neognath birds used closed-mouth vocalization. Tobias Riede AUSTIN, Texas — Dinosaurs are often depicted in movies as roaring ferociously, but it is likely that some dinosaurs mumbled or cooed with closed mouths, according to a study posted online in the journal Evolution that will be published in the August print issue. The research examines the evolution of a specialized way birds emit sound — closed-mouth vocalization. The study emerges from a new collaboration, funded by a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, to understand the origin and evolution of the unique vocal organ of birds and the large array of sounds it can produce. Because birds descended from dinosaurs, the research may also shed light on how dinosaurs made sound. X-ray image of a ring dove (Streptopelia risoria) producing cooing sounds with a closed mouth. Tobias Riede Closed-mouth vocalizations are sounds that are emitted through the skin in the neck area while the beak is kept closed. To make them, birds typically push air that drives sound production into an esophageal pouch rather than exhale through the open beak. The coos of doves are an example of this behavior. Compared with sounds emitted through an open beak, closed-mouth vocalizations are often much quieter and lower in pitch. Birds making closed-mouth vocalizations usually do so only to attract mates or defend their territory. At other times, they emit sounds through an open mouth. To understand when and how closed-mouth vocalization evolved, researchers with The University of Texas at Austin, Midwestern University in Arizona, Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of Utah used a statistical approach to analyze the distribution of this vocal ability among birds and other reptilian groups. In total, the researchers identified 52 out of 208 investigated bird species that use closed-mouth vocalization. “Looking at the distribution of closed-mouth vocalization in birds that are alive today could tell us how dinosaurs vocalized,” said Chad Eliason, a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Texas Jackson School of Geosciences and the study’s co-author. “Our results show that closed-mouth vocalization has evolved at least 16 times in archosaurs, a group that includes birds, dinosaurs and crocodiles. Interestingly, only animals with a relatively large body size (about the size of a dove or larger) use closed-mouth vocalization behavior.” Tobias Riede, a physiology professor at Midwestern University and the study’s first author, said the association with large bodies is a matter of physics. “The inflation of an elastic cavity could present a size-dependent challenge,” Riede said. “The lung pressure required to inflate a cavity depends on the tension in the wall of the cavity, and this tension increases for smaller body sizes.” Researchers still are not certain about how the ancestors of modern archosaurs vocalized. But the occurrence of closed-mouth vocalization across birds and crocodiles — the two surviving groups of archosaurs — indicates that closed-mouth vocalization can emerge in diverse archosaur species depending on behavioral or environmental circumstances, Riede said. “A cool thing about this work is the demonstration that closed-mouth behavior evolved many times,” Riede said. “That suggests it can emerge fairly easily and be incorporated into mating displays.” An ostrich inflates its neck to make closed-mouth vocalizations. Credit: Ryan Mayock Because dinosaurs are members of the archosaur group, and many had large body sizes, it is likely that some dinosaurs made closed-mouthed vocalizations in a manner similar to birds today, perhaps during mating displays. However, at this point in time, no direct fossil evidence exists to reveal what dinosaurs sounded like. Julia Clarke, a professor at the Jackson School of Geosciences and co-author, said the study offers clues. “To make any kind of sense of what nonavian dinosaurs sounded like, we need to understand how living birds vocalize,” she said. “This makes for a very different Jurassic world. Not only were dinosaurs feathered, but they may have had bulging necks and made booming, closed-mouth sounds.” Future research by this collaboration will integrate information from fossils, experimental physiology, gene expression and sound modeling to understand the sounds that extinct early avian species, and perhaps their dinosaur ancestors, produced.	– Dinosaurs may have been much more like modern birds than we knew—and not just because some had feathers. A new study suggests that mighty dinosaurs of yore didn't roar, contrary to every dinosaur movie you've ever seen. Instead, they made a decidedly less scary sound called a "closed-mouth vocalization." Think of a dove cooing or perhaps an ostrich doing this grunting thing. As the scientists explain in the journal Evolution, per UT News, the sound actually comes out of the neck area after air is pushed through an esophageal pouch. In fact, the animal's mouth is shut the whole time. Lots of birds do this today, and because birds descended from dinosaurs, scientists suspect they may have communicated in a similar way. The fossil record can't prove it, though the Washington Post notes that previous research meshes with the idea, including the belief that dinosaurs had air sacs instead of vocal chords. “A cool thing about this work is the demonstration that closed-mouth behavior evolved many times,” says the lead author. “That suggests it can emerge fairly easily and be incorporated into mating displays" among different types of animals. A co-author says the study gives the impression of "a very different Jurassic world. Not only were dinosaurs feathered, but they may have had bulging necks and made booming, closed-mouth sounds." But if so, the makers of Jurassic Park didn't get it all wrong: The hiss of the film's velociraptors came from a goose, per Vulture. (Scientists have grown chickens with dinosaur legs.)
Loving your local Uber driver? That scrappy entrepreneur who’s turned his car into a home office? Well you can kiss him goodbye: The robo-cabs are coming! Uber prides itself on being disruptive to the taxi industry by providing personal transport service without all those pesky regulations. Now it’s disrupting itself: On Monday, the company announced a partnership with Carnegie Mellon University to build a robotics research lab in Pittsburgh. TechCrunch reports that the goal is to create a fleet of driverless, robot cabs. It’s further proof that Uber cares so much about its drivers. As it turns out, the move may be a response to a warning from a Google exec who sits on Uber’s board: Google is creating its own ride-hailing app, and the cabs could be self-driving. Until now, Google has been Uber’s tech-industry BFF, investing $258 million in the ride-hailing app, sharing Google Maps, and lending a C-suiter to Uber’s board of directors. Now it seems those buddy-buddy days are over. If Google really does come out with a competitor app, it could autonomously drive Uber into oblivion. Finding new sources of capital shouldn’t be too difficult in Silicon Valley, but there’s no good substitute for Google Maps — MapQuest and Apple Maps are crap. And playing catch-up on self-driving vehicle tech won’t be easy for Uber, either; Google’s driverless cars have already logged over 700,000 accident-free miles on public roads. The big G also has a head-start toward building a taxi app network, thanks to Uber drivers and riders, who have generated server farms full of data on urban transportation patterns through Google Maps. Google may have simply gotten fed up that the unregulated cab service has been breaking the “don’t be evil” rule by pressuring drivers into sub-prime auto loans and showing little remorse for the disgusting actions of some slimeball drivers. At least folks will finally stop calling these apps “ride-sharing” once empty Google-mobiles are patrolling the neighborhood. It’s tough to call it sharing if you’re the only person in the car. \|\|\|\|\| Posted by Craig Uber and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are announcing today a strategic partnership that includes the creation of the Uber Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh, near the CMU campus. The center will focus on the development of key long-term technologies that advance Uber’s mission of bringing safe, reliable transportation to everyone, everywhere. “We are excited to join the community of Pittsburgh and partner with the experts at CMU, whose breadth and depth of technical expertise, particularly in robotics, are unmatched. As a global leader in urban transportation, we have the unique opportunity to invest in leading edge technologies to enable the safe and efficient movement of people and things at giant scale. This collaboration and the creation of the Uber Advanced Technologies Center represent an important investment in building for the long term of Uber.” The partnership will provide a forum for Uber technology leaders to work closely with CMU faculty, staff, and students — both on campus and at the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) — to do research and development, primarily in the areas of mapping and vehicle safety and autonomy technology. —Jeff Holden, Uber Chief Product Officer The agreement will also include funding from Uber for faculty chairs and graduate fellowships, recognizing and supporting Carnegie Mellon’s world-renowned faculty and attracting the best and brightest graduate students. “Uber is a rapidly growing company known for its innovative technology that is radically improving access to transportation for millions of global citizens. CMU is renowned for innovations that transform lives. We look forward to partnering with Uber as they build out the Advanced Technologies Center and to working together on real-world applications, which offer very interesting new challenges at the intersections of technology, mobility, and human interactions.” —Andrew Moore, Dean of the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University The Center will aid in local job creation and further the well-deserved reputation of the Steel City for its growing innovation sector. Uber and CMU will hold an event in Pittsburgh to formally kick off the partnership in the coming weeks. “I am pleased to welcome Uber to the growing list of leading technology companies that are coming to Pittsburgh to help invent the future. This is yet another case where collaboration between the city and its universities is creating opportunities for job growth and community development.” —Mayor William Peduto, City of Pittsburgh \|\|\|\|\| Driver-on-demand service Uber is building a robotics research lab in Pittsburgh, PA to “kickstart autonomous taxi fleet development,” sources close to the decision have confirmed to TechCrunch. They say the company has hired talent from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, including lead engineering and commercialization experts. No one at Carnegie Mellon or Uber agreed to discuss the deal on the record but an announcement should be forthcoming. Update: Uber published a blog post today outlining its partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, confirming our reporting. Sources tell us Uber is hiring more than fifty senior scientists from Carnegie Mellon as well as from the National Robotics Engineering Center, a CMU-affiliated research entity. Carnegie Mellon, home of the Mars Rover and other high-profile robotics projects, declined to comment at this time, as did scientists mentioned by our source. Uber has “cleaned out” the Robotics Institute, said the source. The source also noted that most of these technologies came through a “massive” military spending push over the past decade and should net the university millions in IP licensing fees. Uber will be developing the core technology, the vehicles, and associated infrastructure at this Pittsburgh facility, according to sources. They have already hired a number of employees and made moves to outfit them with software, including a multi-hundred-thousand dollar investment in third-party engineering workstations. In the past, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has said he would replace human drivers with self-driving cars. The decision to run the facility in Pittsburgh makes perfect sense, given the proximity to CMU and the potential secrecy afforded by moving research out of Silicon Valley. In a related story, Bloomberg Business is reporting that Google is looking into creating an on-demand car service of its own, which is very interesting considering Uber’s interest in automated vehicles. It also raises questions about Google’s David Drummond maintaining a spot on Uber’s board. Google has integrated Uber into its Google Maps products and has taken an investment in Uber via its Google Ventures arm. No specific plans for a roll-out date or goals for Uber’s automated driving efforts were mentioned. The company recently raised $4 billion in equity and debt including $1.6 billion in convertible debt earlier this month. This follows a $1.4 billion Series D funding round over the summer as well as another $1.2 round in December. The company is now valued at $41 billion. Updated to add reports of Google competing with Uber. \|\|\|\|\| SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share Tweet Post Email Photographer: Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post via Getty Images Photographer: Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post via Getty Images Uber faces an ever-growing cast of adversaries that includes dubious regulators, litigious drivers, hostile members of the press, and some well-funded rivals. But the most significant threat to the app-based transportation company may be much closer to home: one of its biggest investors, Google. Google Ventures, the search giant's venture capital arm, invested $258 million in Uber in August 2013. It was Google Ventures' largest investment deal ever, and the company put more money into Uber's next funding round less than a year later. Back then, it was easy for observers to imagine Google teaming closely with Uber, or even one day acquiring it. David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer and senior vice president of corporate development, joined the Uber board of directors in 2013 and has served on it ever since. Now there are signs that the companies are more likely to be ferocious competitors than allies. Google is preparing to offer its own ride-hailing service, most likely in conjunction with its long-in-development driverless car project. Drummond has informed Uber's board of this possibility, according to a person close to the Uber board, and Uber executives have seen screenshots of what appears to be a Google ride-sharing app that is currently being used by Google employees. This person, who requested not to be named because the talks are private, said the Uber board is now weighing whether to ask Drummond to resign his position as an Uber board member. Uber is also teaming up with Carnegie Mellon University for a research facility in Pittsburgh, Pa., to develop its own autonomous vehicle technology, the company announced on Monday. (The news was reported earlier by TechCrunch.) Google has made no secret of its ambitions to revolutionize transportation with autonomous vehicles. Chief Executive Officer Larry Page is said to be personally fascinated by the challenge of making cities operate more efficiently. The company recently said the driverless car technology in development within its Google X research lab is from two to five years from being ready for widespread use. At the Detroit auto show last month, Chris Urmson, the Google executive in charge of the project, articulated one possible scenario in which autonomous vehicles are patrolling neighborhoods to pick up and drop off passengers. “We're thinking a lot about how in the long-term, this might become useful in people's lives, and there are a lot of ways we can imagine this going,” Urmson said in a conference call with reporters on Jan. 14. “One is in the direction of the shared vehicle. The technology would be such that you can call up the vehicle and tell it where to go and then have it take you there.” Those comments, according to the person familiar with deliberations of the Uber's board, have left executives at Uber deeply concerned—for good reason. Google is a deep-pocketed, technically sophisticated competitor, and Uber’s dependence on the search giant goes far beyond capital. Uber’s smartphone applications for drivers and riders are based on Google Maps, which gives Google a fire hose of data about transportation patterns within cities. Uber would be crippled if it lost access to the industry-leading mapping application, and alternatives— such as AOL's MapQuest, Apple Maps, and a host of regional players—are widely seen as inferior. Google’s entrance into the ride-sharing market would also leave Uber without a partner in the suddenly plausible future in which cars without steering wheels roam the streets. Uber will either have to develop the technology itself or form an alliance with a company that can if it wants to offer autonomous vehicles within its fleet. Mercedes, Audi, Tesla, and other carmakers have said they are developing driverless cars, though it's not clear that any is as advanced as Google's. An Uber spokesperson declined to offer a comment for this article. A Google spokesperson also declined to comment, although the company issued a cryptic tweet. @business We think you'll find Uber and Lyft work quite well. We use them all the time. — Google (@google) February 2, 2015 Travis Kalanick, Uber’s CEO, has publicly discussed what he sees as the inevitability of autonomous taxis, saying they could offer cheaper rides and a true alternative to vehicle ownership. “The Uber experience is expensive because it’s not just the car but the other dude in the car,” he said at a technology conference in 2014, referring to the expense of paying human drivers. “When there’s no other dude in the car, the cost [of taking an Uber] gets cheaper than owning a vehicle.” There's already an additional sign of a rift between the companies. Last week Google announced it would start presenting data from third party applications inside Google Now, a service that displays useful information prominently on the screen of Android smartphones. Google said it had struck deals to draw data from such apps as Pandora, AirBnb, Zillow, and the ride-sharing service Lyft. The company most obviously missing from that list? Google’s old and possibly former friend, Uber. (Updates with Uber's Carnegie Mellon announcement in fourth paragraph.)	– Uber looks like it's trying to get in on the self-driving cars business, officially announcing this week that it's partnering with Carnegie Mellon University (home to the Mars Rover) to build the Uber Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh—in other words, "kickstart autonomous taxi fleet development," inside sources tell TechCrunch. And while Uber wouldn't say as much, sources allege that the company is hiring more than 50 senior scientists from the university, as well as an affiliated robotics research center; Uber does say the partnership will focus on "mapping and vehicle safety and autonomy technology." It's not the first time Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has talked about turning real drivers into robotic ones. Meanwhile Google, which Grist reports has thus far played nice with Uber by sharing Google Maps and investing $258 million in its app, might be ending that streak. Google appears to be creating its own ride-hailing app, reports Bloomberg Business, and is already well ahead of Uber when it comes to autonomous vehicles. Curiously, David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, is so far still maintaining a spot on Uber’s board, even though the two companies appear to be on the verge of becoming competitors. (Uber's legal troubles continue to mount around the world.)
This story appears in the December 12, 2017 issue of Forbes. Subscribe Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg Fresh off a tour through Thailand, Laos and China, United States Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross Jr. picked up the phone on a Sunday afternoon in October to discuss something deeply personal: how much money he has. A year earlier, Forbes had listed his net worth at $2.9 billion on The Forbes 400, a number Ross claimed was far too low: He maintained he was closer to $3.7 billion. Now, after examining the financial-disclosure forms he filed after his nomination to President Donald Trump's Cabinet, which showed less than $700 million in assets, Forbes was intent on removing him entirely. Ross protested, citing trusts for his family that he said he did not have to disclose in federal filings. "You're apparently not counting those, which are more than $2 billion," he said. When asked for documentation, the 79-year-old demurred, citing "privacy issues." Told that Forbes nonetheless planned to remove him from the list for the first time in 13 years, he responded: "As long as you explain that the reason is that assets were put into trust, I'm fine with that." And when did he make the transfer that allowed him to not disclose over $2 billion? "Between the election and the nomination." So began the mystery of Wilbur Ross' missing $2 billion. And after one month of digging, Forbes is confident it has found the answer: That money never existed. It seems clear that Ross lied to us, the latest in an apparent sequence of fibs, exaggerations, omissions, fabrications and whoppers that have been going on with Forbes since 2004. In addition to just padding his ego, Ross' machinations helped bolster his standing in a way that translated into business opportunities. And based on our interviews with ten former employees at Ross' private equity firm, WL Ross & Co., who all confirmed parts of the same story line, his penchant for misleading extended to colleagues and investors, resulting in millions of dollars in fines, tens of millions refunded to backers and numerous lawsuits. Additionally, according to six U.S. senators, Ross failed to initially mention 19 suits in response to a questionnaire during his confirmation process. Nearly a week before this article went to press, both Ross and his team at the Commerce Department were sent a detailed list of questions. "Secretary Ross has filed all required disclosures in accordance with the law and in consultation with both legal counsel and ethics officials at the Department of Commerce and Office of Government Ethics. As we have said before, any misunderstanding from your previous conversation with Secretary Ross is unfortunate." They declined to provide further answers on the record. But Ross' questionable assertions to Forbes, combined with a recent controversy about a multimillion-dollar stake in a shipping company that does big business with close associates of Vladimir Putin, paint a clearer picture of the commerce secretary's tactics. His slippery statements during his confirmation hearings--"I intend to be quite scrupulous about recusal and any topic where there is the slightest scintilla of doubt"--came as no surprise to those who have known Ross for decades. "Wilbur doesn't have an issue with bending the truth," says David Wax, who worked alongside Ross for 25 years and served as the No. 3 person in his firm. Another former colleague, who requested anonymity, was less circumspect: "He's lied to a lot of people." Listen to Wilbur Ross apparently lie to Forbes: Twenty-six years before Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, Wilbur Ross disappeared. It was 1990, corporate America was sick on junk bonds, and Ross was a top bankruptcy negotiator. But one November day, he failed to show up at an important meeting to brief bondholders in a furniture company's bankruptcy. They didn't know where he had gone. Until they went home and turned on the television. There was Ross, with Donald Trump, announcing a deal to recapitalize Trump's Taj Mahal casino, which was then careening toward bankruptcy. They were technically adversaries, with Ross representing one group of bondholders--at one point Trump asked them to fire Ross after he dismissed a Trump proposal to keep 100% of his equity, saying, "It's too early for Christmas." But Ross eventually brokered a deal among Trump, debt holder Carl Icahn and Ross' own clients that allowed Trump to keep a 50% stake. "I think [Ross] is very talented, a fantastic negotiator," Trump said at the time. The son of a judge, he always has been. He grew up in New Jersey, attended Yale and then Harvard Business School and eventually wound up as the bankruptcy work-out specialist at the investment bank Rothschild, where he was known for his ability to quickly distill complex situations. "He was very, very sharp," says someone who worked with him back then. "Very tough." By the early 1990s, his unit was bringing in around $18 million a year, with Ross personally pocketing more than a third of that. Ross was an extremely well-paid professional, but he yearned for the big money and big spotlight that come with having your own shop. "People knew of him," says another former colleague, "but not on his own." At first, he worked within Rothschild, raising $200 million for an internal private equity fund that would leverage his bankruptcy expertise to pick up companies on the cheap. Three years later, in 2000, he bought out the fund and slapped his name on the door. At 62, when most investment bankers start dabbling in golf and vineyards, Ross was poised to claim some glory for himself. Says Wax: "He viewed it as an opportunity to have a pulpit, to name something after himself and to potentially make a lot of money." Ross quickly accomplished all three of those things. In 2002, his firm invested in the bankrupt steelmaker LTV. According to a Harvard Business School case study, LTV had put $1.2 billion into new plants and equipment but laid off 7,500 union employees and faced a $3.4 billion pension burden. As a master of work-outs, Ross knew he could get the federal government to take over the pensions. According to people who worked at the firm then, Ross told the unions he'd buy the business if they let him hire back just 3,500 workers. Figuring 3,500 jobs were better than none, the union agreed, and WL Ross picked up most of LTV's assets, without the pension headaches, for $135 million and about $165 million in annual environmental liabilities. Ross' timing was impeccable. One week later, President George W. Bush issued a stiff tariff on steel imports, sending U.S. prices soaring and making Ross look like a genius. He rolled up several more steel companies, including Bethlehem Steel, into International Steel Group, which filed for an IPO in 2003. Ross was technically the beneficial owner of nearly $1 billion worth of the stock. But most of that belonged to his investors, not Ross personally. In 2005, Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal bought the business for around $4.5 billion in cash and stock. Ross personally invested only about $3 million in his firm's first two funds, according to former employees. Buoyed by International Steel Group, he roughly tripled that money, but the bigger payout came from carried interest--the manager's cut of overall profits, typically 20%. In all, Ross made an estimated $260 million. A huge score, yes, though not nearly enough to be one of the 400 richest people in America. But when a Forbes reporter reached out to Ross, apparently crediting him with his investors' money, the future commerce secretary did nothing to clarify the situation, according to notes at the time. "I just spoke to Ross," the reporter wrote. "He's one of the easiest new guys I've put on [The Forbes 400] in a while. Very low-key, said he didn't really want to be on, but at the same time wasn't going to fight success. He says he doesn't want to juice up his numbers at all." "I told him we're going to start him at $1 billion," added the reporter, who no longer works at Forbes . "And he said 'Yep, fine, thank you.' " Ross appeared on The Forbes 400 for the first time in 2004, with a net worth listed at $1 billion. It was nearly four times as much as he was likely worth. "Everyone that I knew that worked with Wilbur knew it wasn't true," says a former colleague of Ross. A legend was born, and like most legends, this one had its roots in a myth. Within days of that fateful issue of Forbes, Ross married for the third time at a beachside church in Southampton, New York. His bride, Hilary, 12 years younger, had spent much of her life in the Hamptons and Palm Beach, two of the East Coast's most famous billionaire playgrounds. "She brought him a certain kind of prominence, socially," says David Patrick Columbia, who publishes Hilary's musings on his website, New York Social Diary. "It was a perfect merger." Adds another contemporary: "She wants her husband to be on The Forbes 400." Life began to change for Ross. Once known for quirky suspenders, he now wore impeccable suits. A workaholic for most of his career, he began spending much of the year outside of New York. He started flying private, built up a collection of paintings by the Belgian artist René Magritte and bought a Palm Beach estate for $13 million. His fundraising kept pace with his spending. In 2005, he raised a $1.1 billion flagship fund, his largest yet. The next year, he sold WL Ross & Co. to the publicly traded investment-management company Invesco for $100 million up front and the ability to earn an additional $275 million, depending on how much money he was able to raise in later funds. With Invesco and a big incentive behind him, Ross raised a massive $4.1 billion fund in 2007, putting roughly $70 million of his own money into that one and the 2005 predecessor, according to three former employees. His net worth at this time was likely around $400 million, thanks to the sale of WL Ross & Co. But when contacted by Forbes that year, he gave valuations for his firm's investments as if the money belonged to him. The myth, with Forbes compounding it based on our original mistake and Ross' exhortations, got bigger. Now Forbes listed Ross with a net worth of $1.7 billion. That wasn't enough. "I would say the total now is a bit more than $2 billion," Ross wrote in a 2011 email, according to notes taken at the time. In 2013, a different Forbes reporter realized that prior estimates seemed to include not just Ross' money but that of the investors in his funds. Ross strung us along, leading us to believe he would provide evidence of his assets, but never did. Just months later, he was insisting that he was even richer, and Forbes continued to largely fall for it. "2.75 [billion] is a bit low but probably close enough," he wrote in an email around the start of 2014. In September, he was arguing for a valuation of $3.45 billion but begrudgingly accepted a smaller figure: "3.1 [billion] is low, but I understand why you wish to be conservative." Why wouldn't Ross be satisfied with $400 million? "You're talking about someone as egotistical as they come," Wax says. Five other former employees add a more tangible reason: The more money Ross appeared to be worth, the more money investors seemed willing to give him. "Really, for us, it was a bet on him, " says Sam Green, who helped put $300 million into Ross' funds on behalf of the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, citing his personal wealth as one factor. "I don't know of any better indicator of future success than having been successful in the past." Ross had seemed to figure out how to make fake numbers generate real assets. In 2010, Ross set out to raise a new private equity fund, hoping to come up with another $4 billion. It was an audacious goal in the wake of the financial crisis, far more than many of his partners thought would be possible. After two years of fundraising, Ross closed it with just $640 million of investments. Still, he told the media he had raised $2.2 billion. Technically true but also misleading. Most of the other $1.6 billion or so came from other funds or accounts that paid little or no fee to Invesco. Given that shareholders might assume that the firm had an extra $2.2 billion of assets generating fees for its private equity arm, which was not true, Invesco later clarified the matter on an earnings call. There were also charges related to transparency inside the funds. In August 2016, the SEC announced a settlement with Invesco-owned WL Ross after investigating whether the firm had charged its investors improper fees from 2001 to 2011. WL Ross agreed to pay a $2.3 million fine, without admitting or denying the findings of the investigation. It also agreed to refund $11.8 million to investors. And that was small potatoes: Buried in its 2015 annual report, Invesco disclosed that it had paid an additional $43 million in reimbursements and regulatory expenses associated with its private equity business in the previous two years. The filings don't explicitly connect that money to WL Ross--and these payments have never before been reported--but four former employees said they were all tied to Wilbur Ross' firm. Invesco declined to comment for this story. In 2012, Ross' longtime No. 2, David Storper, left the firm but said he retained interests in many of the funds. Three years later, Storper alleged in a lawsuit that the firm sent him inaccurate financial information after his departure and that Wilbur Ross stole his interests outright. Ross denied the allegations, and the lawsuit remains ongoing. A few years earlier, a vice chairman of WL Ross sued Wilbur Ross for more than $20 million, alleging that Ross tried to cut him out of interest and fees he had been promised. The parties had reached a settlement by 2007, which former employees say cost about $10 million. The Storper case has other ex-employees looking back to be sure they were sent proper information. Joseph Mullin, a former member of WL Ross' 15-person investment team, filed his own suit against WL Ross & Co., also alleging that Ross took his interests after he left. The firm filed a motion to dismiss in February, but the case remains active. A third ex-colleague, who is not in litigation, argues that Ross' tactics went beyond hard-nosed negotiating: "Everybody does some cheating, everybody does some lying. Not everybody steals from their employees." On November 8, 2016, the night that upended American politics, Wilbur Ross was with Donald Trump, his family and top backers in New York City. The relationships inside this inner sanctum ran deep. Billionaire Phillip Ruffin, the president's Las Vegas partner who had Trump serve as best man at his wedding, was there. So was Icahn and apparently Richard LeFrak, the real estate tycoon who was part of the Palm Beach circle that included Trump and Ross. But Ross was the only one who left his day job to join Trump in government. "I'd rather hang myself," Ruffin told Forbes earlier this year. "I don't know why Wilbur took it." But viewed in the context of Ross' career arc, it makes perfect sense. The steel deal made him rich, but his returns have been mediocre since, so much so that WL Ross filed documents to raise a sixth flagship fund last year, but nothing seemed to come of it. Trump, the guy he kept afloat 26 years before, offered his fellow attention-seeking dealmaker a lifeline to relevance. Ross' appointment as secretary of commerce came with one catch: He had to disclose his assets, providing evidence that he was not as rich as he had long claimed. In 2015, he sent Forbes a detailed breakdown of his supposed holdings, listing $1.25 billion in partnership interests, $1.1 billion in municipal bonds, $500 million in equities, $200 million in art, $110 million in real estate and $200 million in cash, for a fanciful total of $3.4 billion, according to notes taken at the time. We eventually listed him at $2.9 billion. Last year, Ross' assistant claimed $3.7 billion; we stuck with $2.9 billion. His former colleagues saw the moment of reckoning coming as soon as he accepted a Cabinet role. "It was surprising because he would have to reveal to the world that he wasn't a billionaire," one ex-employee said. "I was surprised that he would take that risk." But Ross was ready to double down, even while he was a Cabinet member, telling Forbes about the putative $2 billion asset transfer to his family members after the election. That opened up a storm of questions from ethics and tax experts. If Ross had owned $2 billion of additional assets before the election, wouldn't they have produced income that he was required to disclose, even if he no longer owned the assets? And why would someone apparently transfer $2 billion to his family, thereby triggering more than $800 million in gift taxes, especially with a president in the White House who was prepared to eliminate the estate tax and therefore much of the cost of transferring fortunes to later generations? "I am aware of the ethics and tax rules and have complied with all of them," Ross wrote in an October email to Forbes . "Aren't you going a bit overboard on this? I have explained my situation to you and am surprised and disappointed by the seemingly accusatory tone of your email. For more than 50 years I have had a good relationship with your publication and with the Forbes family. And never have had a bad experience with either. In fact I was just the featured speaker at your magazine's hundredth anniversary CEO conference in Hong Kong." After Forbes published an online story on October 16 laying out those questions, six Senate Democrats wrote a letter to the top ethics official in the federal government, asking him to figure out what was going on with Ross' finances. "It is imperative that Congress and the Office of Government Ethics know the full extent of Mr. Ross's holdings to ensure he is not putting personal gain ahead of the interests of the American people." The Department of Commerce issued a statement saying the $2 billion gift never happened. "Contrary to the report in Forbes, there was no major asset transfer to a trust in the period between the election and Secretary Ross's confirmation." The only problem with that statement: The person who told Forbes that the transfer had taken place, that it had happened after the election and that it had meant more than $2 billion of family assets weren't on the disclosure was none other than the sitting secretary of commerce, Wilbur Ross. \|\|\|\|\| Defending his appointment of a billionaire to promote the country’s economic growth, Donald Trump has said that he does not want poor people to hold economic roles in his administration. Speaking at a rally in Iowa, the President declared: “Somebody said why did you appoint a rich person to be in charge of the economy? No it’s true. And Wilbur’s [commerce secretary Wilbur Ross] a very rich person in charge of commerce. I said: ‘Because that’s the kind of thinking we want.’” Mr Ross, an investor, has a net worth of about $2.5bn. The president explained that Mr Ross and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn “had to give up a lot to take these jobs” and that Cohn in particular, a former president of investment bank Goldman Sachs, “went from massive pay days to peanuts”. Trump added: “And I love all people, rich or poor, but in those particular positions I just don’t want a poor person. Does that make sense?” Donald Trump's most controversial quotes 18 show all Donald Trump's most controversial quotes 1/18 On Mexicans “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bring crime. They’re rapists… And some, I assume, are good people.” AFP/Getty Images 2/18 On Senator McCain “He’s not a war hero... He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” Getty Images 3/18 On Megyn Kelly “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever.” AFP/Getty Images 4/18 On Vladimir Putin “He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader, unlike what we have in this country.” Getty Images 5/18 On his popularity “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” AFP/Getty Images 6/18 On torture "I would bring back waterboarding and I'd bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding." Getty Images 7/18 On his body “Look at those hands, are they small hands? And, [Republican rival Marco Rubio] referred to my hands: ‘If they’re small, something else must be small.’ I guarantee you there’s no problem. I guarantee.” AFP/Getty Images 8/18 On president Obama “He is the founder of Isis.” Getty Images 9/18 On the Second Amendment "Hillary wants to abolish — essentially abolish the Second Amendment. By the way, if she gets to pick, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know." AFP/Getty Images 10/18 On Hilary Clinton's emails “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” AFP/Getty Images 11/18 On sexual assault In a statement regarding the release of a 2005 video in which he can be heard boasting about sexual assault: “This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course.” Getty Images 12/18 On tax loopholes "I absolutely used it, and so did Warren Buffett, and so did George Soros and so did many people who Hillary is getting money from." AFP/Getty Images 13/18 On his accuser “Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you.” Getty Images 14/18 On Hillary Clinton “Such a nasty woman” Getty Images 15/18 On his pro-life stance “Based on what she's saying ... you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, on the final day, and that's unacceptable” Getty Images 16/18 On his accusers "Total fabrication. The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.” Getty Images 17/18 On the 'rigged' election system “I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election — if I win.” Getty Images 18/18 On Hillary Clinton “I hate to say it but if I win I'm going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. There has never been so many lies, so much deception. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” Getty Images “If you insist, I’ll do it. But I like it better this way, right?” Mr Trump has frequently touted himself as a champion of the “forgotten men and women” across the country. During his inauguration speech in January, he said, “For too long, a small group in our nation's Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.” Mr Trump proceeded to appoint millionaires and billionaires to fill cabinet positions, making his administration the wealthiest in US history. Ahead of the rally, the President touched down in rainy Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and headed to a local community college, where he got a look at agriculture technology innovations before leading a campaign-style rally. He revelled in Georgia Republican Karen Handel's congressional victory in an election viewed as an early referendum on his presidency. “We're 5-0 in special elections,” Mr Trump said in front of a boisterous crowd that packed a downtown arena. “The truth is, people love us ... they haven't figured it out yet.” He also applauded Republican Ralph Norman, who notched a slimmer-than-expected win in a special election to fill the South Carolina congressional seat vacated by Mick Mulvaney, his budget director, and mocked Handel's challenger, Jon Ossoff, saying the Democrats “spent $30 million on this kid who forgot to live in the district.” Mr Trump, no stranger to victory laps, turned his visit to a battleground state he captured in November into a celebration of his resilience despite the cloud of investigations that has enveloped his administration and sent his poll numbers tumbling. With the appearance in Cedar Rapids, he has held five rallies in the first five months in office. Associated Press contributed to this report	– Earlier this year, President Trump noted "I just don't want a poor person" in charge of economic posts in his administration, then touted Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as "a very rich person" who was up to the task. But just how rich Ross really is is now up in the air, Forbes reports, noting it's yanked Ross off its billionaires list after a one-month probe revealed that $2 billion or so or Ross' alleged fortune "never existed," and that Ross had engaged in an "apparent sequence of fibs, exaggerations, omissions, fabrications, and whoppers" with the magazine going back 13 years. The discovery came when Ross, 79, contacted Forbes in October to refute his ranking: Last year he was listed with a net worth of $2.9 billion on the Forbes 400; he claimed he was worth closer to $3.7 billion. Then Forbes talked with 10 of Ross' ex-employees at his private equity firm, who noted a "penchant for misleading" that affected fellow workers and investors and spurred big fines, suits, and refunds to backers. "Wilbur doesn't have an issue with bending the truth," one longtime colleague says, while another is more blunt: "He's lied to a lot of people." The magazine delves into Ross' back story, including how, when he first made the Forbes billionaires list in 2004 with a net worth of $1 billion, "everyone that I knew that worked with Wilbur knew it wasn't true," per a former colleague. When Forbes told Ross he was being removed from its billionaires club, Ross retorted the magazine wasn't counting family trusts that he wasn't obligated to inform the feds about—in the amount of "more than $2 billion," assets Ross said he put into the trusts sometime "between the election and [my] nomination." When Forbes asked to see a paper trail proving that, Ross cited "privacy issues"—and the magazine lays out other problems with Ross' story on the supposed $2 billion transfer. Read the in-depth findings here.
TOKYO Exhausted engineers attached a power cable to the outside of Japan's tsunami-crippled nuclear plant on Saturday in a race to prevent deadly radiation from an accident now rated at least as bad as America's Three Mile Island incident in 1979. Further cabling inside was under way before an attempt to restart water pumps needed to cool overheated nuclear fuel rods at the six-reactor Fukushima plant in northeastern Japan, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo. Japan's unprecedented multiple crisis of earthquake, tsunami and radiation leak has unsettled world financial markets, prompted international reassessment of nuclear safety and given the Asian nation its sternest test since World War Two. It has also stirred unhappy memories of Japan's past nuclear nightmare -- the U.S. atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Working inside a 20 km (12 miles) evacuation zone at Fukushima, nearly 300 engineers were focused on trying to find a solution by restoring power to pumps in four of the reactors. "TEPCO has connected the external transmission line with the receiving point of the plant and confirmed that electricity can be supplied," the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said in a statement. Another 1,480 meters (5,000 feet) of cable are being laid inside the complex before engineers try to crank up the coolers at reactor No.2, followed by numbers 1, 3 and 4 this weekend, company officials said. If that works it will be a turning point. "If they are successful in getting the cooling infrastructure up and running, that will be a significant step forward in establishing stability," said Eric Moore, a nuclear power expert at U.S.-based FocalPoint Consulting Group. If not, there is an option of last resort under consideration to bury the sprawling 40-year-old plant in sand and concrete to prevent a catastrophic radiation release. That method was used to seal huge leakages from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Underlining authorities' desperation, fire trucks sprayed water overnight in a crude tactic to cool reactor No.3, considered the most critical because of its use of mixed oxides, or mox, containing both uranium and highly toxic plutonium. Japan has raised the severity rating of the nuclear crisis to level 5 from 4 on the seven-level INES international scale, putting it on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, although some experts say it is more serious. Chernobyl, in Ukraine, was a 7 on that scale. THOUSANDS DEAD, MISSING AND SUFFERING The operation to avert large-scale radiation has overshadowed the humanitarian aftermath of the 9.0-magnitude quake and 10-meter (33-foot) tsunami that struck on March 11. Nearly 7,000 people have been confirmed killed in the double natural disaster, which turned whole towns into waterlogged and debris-shrouded wastelands. Another 10,700 people are missing with many feared dead. Some 390,000 people, including many among Japan's aging population, are homeless and battling near-freezing temperatures in shelters in northeastern coastal areas. Food, water, medicine and heating fuel are in short supply. "Everything is gone, including money," said Tsukasa Sato, a 74-year-old barber with a heart condition, as he warmed his hands in front of a stove at a shelter for the homeless. Health officials and the U.N. atomic watchdog have said radiation levels in the capital Tokyo were not harmful. But the city has seen an exodus of tourists, expatriates and many Japanese, who fear a blast of radioactive material. "I'm leaving because my parents are terrified. I personally think this will turn out to be the biggest paper tiger the world has ever seen," said Luke Ridley, 23, from London as he sat at Narita international airport using his laptop. "I'll probably come back in about a month." Though there has been alarm around the world, experts have been warning there is little risk of radiation at dangerous levels spreading to other nations. The U.S. government said "minuscule" amounts of radiation were detected in California consistent with a release from Japan's damaged facility, but there were no levels of concern. Amid their distress, Japanese were proud of the 279 nuclear plant workers toiling in the wreckage, wearing masks, goggles and protective suits sealed by duct tape. "My eyes well with tears at the thought of the work they are doing," Kazuya Aoki, a safety official at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told Reuters. G7 INTERVENTION FOR YEN The Group of Seven rich nations succeeded in calming global financial markets in rare concerted intervention to restrain a soaring yen. The dollar surged to 81.98 yen on Friday after the G7 moved to pour billions into markets buying dollars, euros and pounds -- the first such joint intervention since the group came to the aid of the newly launched euro in 2000. The dollar later dropped back to under 81 yen, but it was still far from the record low of 76.25 yen hit on Thursday. "The only type of intervention that actually works is coordinated intervention, and it shows the solidarity of all central banks in terms of the severity of the situation in Japan," said Kathy Lien, director of currency research at GFT in New York. Japan's Nikkei share index ended up 2.7 percent, recouping some of the week's stinging losses. It lost 10.2 percent for the week, wiping $350 billion off market capitalization. The plight of the homeless worsened following a cold snap that brought heavy snow to the worst-affected areas. Nearly 290,000 households in the north were still without electricity, officials said, and the government said about 940,000 households lacked running water. Aid groups say most victims are getting help, but there are pockets of acute suffering. "We've seen children suffering with the cold, and lacking really basic items like food and clean water," Stephen McDonald of Save the Children said in a statement on Friday. (Additional reporting by Linda Sieg, Nathan Layne, Elaine Lies, Leika Kihara, Jon Herskovitz, Joseph Radford and Chris Gallagher in Japan; Fiona Ortiz in Madrid; Scott DiSavino in New York; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Robert Birsel) \|\|\|\|\| YAMAGATA, Japan -- Emergency workers seemed to try everything they could think of Thursday to douse one of Japan's dangerously overheated nuclear reactors: helicopters, heavy-duty fire trucks, even water cannons normally used to quell rioters. But they couldn't be sure any of it was easing the peril at the tsunami-ravaged facility. (SCROLL DOWN FOR LIVE UPDATES) Three reactors have had at least partial meltdowns, but an even greater danger has emerged. Japanese and U.S. concerns were increasingly focusing on the pools used to store spent nuclear fuel: Some of the pools are dry or nearly empty and the rods could heat up and spew radiation. It could take days and "possibly weeks" to get the complex under control, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jazcko said. He defended the U.S. decision to recommend a 50-mile evacuation zone for its citizens, a much stronger measure than Japan has taken. A senior official with the U.N.'s nuclear safety agency said there had been "no significant worsening" at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant but that the situation remained "very serious." Graham Andrew told reporters in Vienna that nuclear fuel rods in two reactors were only about half covered with water, and in a third they were also not completely submerged. If the fuel is not fully covered, rising temperatures and pressure will increase the chances of complete meltdowns that would release much larger amounts of radioactive material than the failing plant has emitted so far. Low levels of radiation have been detected well beyond Tokyo, which is 140 miles (220 kilometers) south of the plant, but hazardous levels have been limited to the plant itself. Still, the crisis triggered by last week's earthquake and tsunami has forced thousands to evacuate and drained Tokyo's normally vibrant streets of life, its residents either leaving town or holing up in their homes. President Barack Obama appeared on television to assure Americans that officials do not expect harmful amounts of radiation to reach the U.S. or its territories. He also said the U.S. was offering Japan any help it could provide, and said he was asking for a comprehensive review of U.S. nuclear plant safety. Japanese and American assessments of the crisis have differed, with the plant's owner denying Jazcko's report Wednesday that Unit 4's spent fuel pool was dry and that anyone who gets close to the plant could face potentially lethal doses of radiation. But a Tokyo Electric Power Co. executive moved closer to the U.S. position Thursday. "Considering the amount of radiation released in the area, the fuel rods are more likely to be exposed than to be covered," Yuichi Sato said. Workers have been dumping seawater when possible to control temperatures at the plant since the quake and tsunami knocked out power to its cooling systems, but they tried even more desperate measures on Unit 3's reactor and cooling pool. Two Japanese military CH-47 Chinook helicopters began dumping seawater on Unit 3 on Thursday morning, defense ministry spokeswoman Kazumi Toyama said. The choppers doused the reactor with at least four loads of water in just the first 10 minutes, though television footage showed much of it appearing to disperse in the wind. Chopper crews flew missions of about 40 minutes each to limit their radiation exposure, passing over the reactor with loads of about 2,000 gallons (7,500 liters) of water. Another 9,000 gallons (35,000 liters) of water were blasted from military trucks with high-pressure sprayers used to extinguish fires at plane crashes, though the vehicles had to stay safely back from areas deemed to have too much radiation. Special police units with water cannons were also tried, but they could not reach the targets from safe distances and had to pull back, said Yasuhiro Hashimoto, a spokesman for Japan's nuclear safety agency. Unit 3's reactor uses a fuel that combines plutonium, better known as an ingredient in nuclear weapons, and reprocessed uranium. The presence of this mixed oxide fuel, or MOX, means potentially that two very harmful radioactive products could be released into the environment. Tokyo Electric Power said it believed workers were making headway in staving off a catastrophe both with the spraying and, especially, with efforts to complete an emergency power line to restart the plant's own electric cooling systems. "This is a first step toward recovery," said Teruaki Kobayashi, a facilities management official at the power company. He said radiation levels "have somewhat stabilized at their lows" and that some of the spraying had reached its target, with one reactor emitting steam. "We are doing all we can as we pray for the situation to improve," Kobayashi said. Authorities planned to spray again Friday, and Kobayashi said: "Choices are limited. We just have to stick to what we can do most quickly and efficiently." Work on connecting the new power line to the plant was expected to begin Friday and take 10 to 15 hours, said Nuclear Safety Agency spokesman Minoru Ohgoda. But the utility is not sure the cooling systems will still function. If they don't, electricity won't help. Four of the plant's six reactors have seen fires, explosions, damage to the structures housing reactor cores, partial meltdowns or rising temperatures. Officials also recently said temperatures are rising even in the spent fuel pools of the other two reactors. The troubles at the nuclear complex were set in motion by last Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, which knocked out power and destroyed backup generators needed for the reactors' cooling systems. That added a nuclear crisis on top of twin natural disasters that likely killed well more than 10,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless. Mario V. Bonaca, a physicist sits on an advisory committee to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said he believes the focus of the effort has shifted to the spent fuel pools. "I understand that they've controlled the cooling of the cores," said Bonaca, who said he was basing his understanding on NRC and industry sources. The storage pools need a constant source of cooling water. Even when removed from reactors, uranium rods are still extremely hot and must be cooled for months, possibly longer, to prevent them from heating up again and emitting radioactivity. While a core team of 180 emergency workers has been rotating in and out of the complex to avoid exposure, experts said that anyone working close to the reactors was almost certainly being exposed to radiation levels that could, at least, give them much higher cancer risks. Experts note, though, that radiation levels drop quickly with distance from the complex. While elevated radiation has been detected well outside the evacuation zone, experts say those levels are not dangerous. U.S. officials were taking no chances. In Washington, the State Department warned U.S. citizens to consider leaving the country and offered voluntary evacuation to family members and dependents of U.S. personnel in the cities of Tokyo, Yokohama and Nagoya. The first flight left Thursday, with fewer than 100 people onboard, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy said. Plans also call for airlifting several thousand family members of U.S. armed forces personnel as well as nonessential staff stationed in Japan in the coming days. The U.S. evacuation zone is far bigger than that established by Japan, which has called for a 12-mile zone and has told those within 20 miles to stay indoors. Daniel B. Poneman, U.S. deputy secretary of energy, said at the briefing that his agency agreed with the 50-mile zone - but said Japan's measures were also prudent. Nearly a week after the earthquake and tsunami, police said more than 452,000 people were staying in schools and other shelters, as supplies of fuel, medicine and other necessities ran short. Both victims and aid workers appealed for more help, as the chances of finding more survivors dwindled. Noriko Sawaki lives in a battered neighborhood in Sendai that is still without running water and food or gasoline supplies and that, she said, makes life exhausting. "It's frustrating, because we don't have a goal, something to strive for. This just keeps on going," said the 48-year-old. In the town of Kesennuma, people lined up to get into a supermarket after a delivery of key supplies, such as instant rice packets and diapers. Each person was only allowed to buy 10 items, NHK television reported. With diapers hard to find in many areas, an NHK program broadcast a how-to session on fashioning a diaper from a plastic shopping bag and a towel. \|\|\|\|\| Smoke billowed from a building at Japan's crippled nuclear power plant Friday as emergency crews worked to reconnect electricity to cooling systems and spray more water on overheating nuclear fuel at the tsunami-ravaged facility. ALTERNATE CROP OF TOK870 OF MARCH 17, 2011 - In this photo taken on Wednesday afternoon, March 16, 2011 and released on Thursday, March 17 by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the top part of the badly... (Associated Press) A taxi driver moves along a quiet street in Tokyo Thursday, March 17, 2011. In elsewhere in the nation's capital, public apprehension over a brewing nuclear disaster is draining the streets and stores... (Associated Press) A man watches TV showing a Japanese military helicopter dumping water on the troubled reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex, at an electronics retail store in Osaka, western Japan, on Thursday, March... (Associated Press) A resident carries household belongings in a cardboard as his devastated house was due to be removed by earthmovers at Iwaizumi, northeastern Japan, on Thursday, March 17, 2011 following last week's massive... (Associated Press) Ecacuees watch a Japanese military helicopter dumping water on the troubled reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex in a live TV broadcast, at Fukushima, northeastern Japan, on Thursday, March 17,... (Associated Press) In this photo taken on Wednesday afternoon, March 16, 2011 and released on Thursday, March 17 by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the top part of the badly damaged No. 4 unit of the Fukushima Dai-ichi... (Associated Press) Japan's Self-Defense Forces's helicopter heads to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant to dump water on the stricken reactor in Okumamachi Thursday morning, March 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Asahi Shimbun,... (Associated Press) A sufferer searches for usable items amid debris in Iwaizumi, northern Japan Thursday, March 17, 2011 following Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT,... (Associated Press) Cars lie piled up in trees following the March 11 earthquake triggered tsunami at the port in Sendai, Japan, Thursday, March 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Mark Baker) (Associated Press) In this photo made off NHK TV video footage, a Japan Self-Defense Force helicopter dumps water over the No. 3 unit of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture, Thursday,... (Associated Press) President Barack Obama arrives to make a statement about Japan following last week's earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear concerns, Thursday, March 17, 2011, in the Rose Garden of the White House... (Associated Press) A man walks down a nearly empty street Thursday, March 17, 2011, in Tokyo. In elsewhere in the nation's capital, public apprehension over a brewing nuclear disaster is draining the streets and stores... (Associated Press) ALTERNATE CROP OF TOK872 OF MARCH 17, 2011 - In this photo taken on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 and released on Thursday, March 17 by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), white smoke billows from the badly... (Associated Press) Headlights of vehicles stream along a landscape destroyed in Friday's earthquake and tsunami in Minamisanriku town, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, March 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT,... (Associated Press) Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is pictured before helicopters dump water on the stricken reactor to cool overheated fuel rods inside the core in Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, Thursday... (Associated Press) Four of the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi plant's six reactor units have seen fires, explosions or partial meltdowns in the week since the tsunami. While the reactor cores where energy is generated are a concern, water in the pools used to store used nuclear fuel are also major worries. Water in at least one fuel pool _ in the complex's Unit 3 _ is believed to be dangerously low, exposing the stored fuel rods. Without enough water, the rods may heat further and spew out radiation. "We see it as an extremely serious accident," Yukiya Amano, the head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters Friday just after arriving in Tokyo. "This is not something that just Japan should deal with, and people of the entire world should cooperate with Japan and the people in the disaster areas." Frantic efforts were made Thursday to douse a number of units with water, and authorities were preparing to repeat many of those efforts. Friday's smoke came from the complex's Unit 2, and its cause was not known, the nuclear safety agency said. An explosion had hit the building on Tuesday, possibly damaging a crucial cooling chamber that sits below the reactor core. Last week's 9.0 quake and tsunami in Japan's northeast set off the nuclear problems by knocking out power to cooling systems at the reactors. The unfolding crises have led to power shortages in Japan, forced auto and other factories to close, sending shockwaves through global manufacturing and trade, and triggered a plunge in Japanese stock prices. Low levels of radiation have been detected well beyond Tokyo, which is 140 miles (220 kilometers) south of the plant, but hazardous levels have been limited to the plant itself. Still, the crisis has forced thousands to evacuate and drained Tokyo's normally vibrant streets of life, its residents either leaving town or holing up in their homes. The Japanese government has been slow in releasing information on the crisis, even as the troubles have multiplied. In a country where the nuclear industry has a long history of hiding its safety problems, this has left many people _ in Japan and among governments overseas _ confused and anxious. "I feel a sense of dread," said Yukiko Morioka, 63, who has seen business dry up at her lottery ticket booth in Tokyo. "I'm not an expert, so it's difficult to understand what's going on. That makes it scarier." A senior official with the U.N. nuclear agency said Thursday there had been "no significant worsening" at the nuclear plant but that the situation remained "very serious." Graham Andrew told reporters in Vienna that nuclear fuel rods in two reactors were only about half covered with water, and they were also not completely submerged in a third. Edano said Friday that Tokyo is asking the U.S. government for help and that the two are discussing the specifics. "We are coordinating with the U.S. government as to what the U.S. can provide and what people really need," Edano said. At times, the two close allies have offered starkly differing assessments over the dangers at Fukushima. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jazcko said Thursday that it could take days and "possibly weeks" to get the complex under control. He defended the U.S. decision to recommend a 50-mile (80-kilometer) evacuation zone for its citizens, wider than the 30-mile (50-kilometer) band Japan has ordered. Crucial to the effort to regain control over the Fukushima plant is laying a new power line to the plant, allowing operators to restore cooling systems. The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., missed a deadline late Thursday but said Friday that workers hoped to complete the effort in 10 to 15 hours, said nuclear safety agency spokesman Minoru Ohgoda. But the utility is not sure the cooling systems will still function. If they don't, electricity won't help. The official death toll from the disasters stood at 6,405 as of Friday morning, with 10,259 missing, the national police agency said. President Barack Obama appeared on television to assure Americans that officials do not expect harmful amounts of radiation to reach the U.S. or its territories. He also said the U.S. was offering Japan any help it could provide. A utility official said Wednesday that the company has been unable to get information such as water levels and temperatures from any of the spent fuel pools in the four most troubled reactors. Workers have been dumping seawater when possible to control temperatures at the plant since the quake and tsunami knocked out power to its cooling systems, but they tried even more desperate measures on Units 3 and 4. On Thursday, military helicopters dumped thousands of gallons of water from huge buckets onto Unit 3, and also used military firefighting trucks normally used to extinguish fires at plane crashes. Officials announced Friday they would not continue with the helicopter drops _ televised footage appeared to show much of that water blowing away _ but would continue spraying from the trucks. Police said more than 452,000 people made homeless by the quake and tsunami were staying in schools and other shelters, as supplies of fuel, medicine and other necessities ran short. Both victims and aid workers appealed for more help, as the chances of finding more survivors dwindled. At the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, a core team of 180 emergency workers has been rotating out of the complex to minimize radiation exposure. The storage pools need a constant source of cooling water. Even when removed from reactors, uranium rods are still extremely hot and must be cooled for months, possibly longer, to prevent them from heating up again and emitting radioactivity. In Washington, the State Department warned U.S. citizens to consider leaving the country and offered voluntary evacuation to family members and dependents of U.S. personnel in the cities of Tokyo, Yokohama and Nagoya. ___ Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo. Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna, Elaine Kurtenbach, Shino Yuasa, Jeff Donn and Tim Sullivan in Tokyo contributed to this report. \|\|\|\|\| While the findings were reassuring in the short term, the United States declined to back away from its warning to Americans there to stay at least 50 miles from the plant, setting up a far larger perimeter than the Japanese government had established. American officials did not release specific radiation readings. American officials said their biggest worry was that a frenetic series of efforts by the Japanese military to get water into four of the plant’s six reactors — including using water cannons and firefighting helicopters that dropped water but appeared to largely miss their targets — showed few signs of working. “This is something that will likely take some time to work through, possibly weeks, as eventually you remove the majority of the heat from the reactors and then the spent fuel pool,” said Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission , briefing reporters at the White House. The effort by the Japanese to hook some electric power back up to the plant did not begin until Thursday and even if they succeed, it is unclear whether the cooling systems, in reactor buildings battered by a tsunami and then torn apart by hydrogen explosions, survived the crisis in good enough shape to be useful. “What you are seeing are desperate efforts — just throwing everything at it in hopes something will work,” said one American official with long nuclear experience who would not speak for attribution. “Right now this is more prayer than plan.” On Thursday, President Obama said that the crisis had convinced him to order the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do a comprehensive review of the safety of nuclear plants in the United States. After a day in which American and Japanese officials gave radically different assessments of the danger from the nuclear plant, the two governments tried on Thursday to join forces. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Experts met in Tokyo to compare notes. The United States, with Japanese permission, began to put the intelligence-collection aircraft over the site, in hopes of gaining a view for Washington as well as its allies in Tokyo that did not rely on the announcements of officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates Fukushima Daiichi. American officials say they suspect that the company has consistently underestimated the risk and moved too slowly to contain the damage. Aircraft normally used to monitor North Korea’s nuclear weapons activities — a Global Hawk drone and U-2 spy planes — were flying missions over the reactor, trying to help the Japanese government map out its response to last week’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake, the tsunami that followed and now the nuclear disaster. President Obama made an unscheduled stop at the Japanese Embassy to sign a condolence book, writing, “My heart goes out to the people of Japan during this enormous tragedy.” He added, “Because of the strength and wisdom of its people, we know that Japan will recover, and indeed will emerge stronger than ever.” Later, he appeared in the Rose Garden at the White House to offer continued American support for the earthquake and tsunami victims, and technical help at the nuclear site. Video But before the recovery can begin, the nuclear plant must be brought under control. On Friday, steam that was likely laced with radioactive particles was again rising over the plant, this time billowing from reactor No. 2, which suffered an explosion Tuesday. But Japanese authorities said they did not yet know the cause of the latest release. American officials, meanwhile, remained fixated on the temperature readings inside that reactor and two others that had been operating until the earthquake shut them down, as well as at the plant’s spent fuel pools, looking for any signs that their high levels of heat were going down. If the fuel rods are uncovered and exposed to air, they heat up and can burst into flames, spewing radioactive elements. So far the officials saw no signs of dropping temperatures. And the Web site of the International Atomic Energy Agency , the United Nations nuclear watchdog, made it clear that there were no readings at all from some critical areas. Part of the American effort, by satellites and aircraft, is to identify the hot spots, something the Japanese have not been able to do in some cases. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Critical to that effort are the “pods” flown into Japan by the Air Force over the past day. Made for quick assessments of radiation emergencies, the Aerial Measuring System is an instrument system that fits on a helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft to sample air and survey the land below. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Daniel B. Poneman, the deputy secretary of energy, said at a White House briefing on Thursday that preliminary results of the initial flights “are consistent with the recommendations that came down from the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” which led to the 50-mile evacuation guideline given to American expatriates. Although the worst contamination is closer to the plant, the recommendation takes into account the possibility of shifting winds or greater emissions. The State Department has also said it would fly out of the country any dependents of American diplomats or military personnel within the region of the plant and as far south as Tokyo. Space will be made for other Americans who cannot get a flight, it said. Getting the Japanese to accept the American detection equipment was a delicate diplomatic maneuver, which some Japanese officials originally resisted. But as it became clear that conditions at the plant were spinning out of control, and with Japanese officials admitting they had little hard evidence about whether there was water in the cooling pools or breaches in the reactor containment structures, they began to accept more help. The sensors on the instrument pod are good at mapping radioactive isotopes, like cesium 137, which has been detected around the nuclear plant and has a half-life of 30 years. In high doses, it can cause acute radiation sickness . Lower doses can alter cellular function, leading to an increased risk of cancer . Cesium 137 can enter the body through many foods, including milk. On Wednesday, when the American Embassy in Tokyo, on advice from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told Americans to evacuate a radius of “approximately 50 miles” around the Fukushima plant, the recommendation was based on a specific calculation of risk of radioactive fallout in the affected area. In a statement, the commission said the advice grew out of its assessment that projected radiation doses within the evacuation zone might exceed one rem to the body or five rems to the thyroid gland. That organ is extremely sensitive to iodine 131 — another of the deadly byproducts of nuclear fuel, this one causing thyroid cancer . The commission says that the average American is exposed to about 0.62 rem of radiation each year from natural and manmade sources. The American-provided instruments in Japan measure real levels of radiation on the ground. In contrast, scientists around the world have also begun to draw up forecasts of how the prevailing winds pick up the Japanese radioactive material and carry it over the Pacific in invisible plumes. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Private analysts said the United States was also probably monitoring the reactor crisis with spy satellites that can spot the heat from fires — helping it independently assess the state of the reactor complex from a distance. Jeffrey G. Lewis, an intelligence specialist at the Monterey Institute, a research center, noted that the Japanese assessment of Reactor No. 4 at the Daiichi complex seemed to depend in part on visual surveillance by helicopter pilots. “I’ve got to think that, if we put our best assets into answering that question, we can do better,” he said in an interview. One main concern at No. 4 has been a fire that was burning there earlier in the week; American officials are not convinced that the fire has gone out. American officials have also worried that the spent-fuel pool at that reactor has run dry, exposing the rods. Japanese officials, however, have concentrated much of their recent efforts on Reactor No. 3, which has been intermittently releasing radiation from what the authorities believe may be a ruptured containment vessel around the reactor. Temperatures at that reactor’s spent fuel pool are also high. Perhaps because of the difficulties experienced Thursday trying to accurately drop water from helicopters, the Japanese military announced Friday that it was halting those efforts for at least a day.	– Japan is considering burying its troubled nuclear plant in sand and concrete—the same move made in Chernobyl 25 years ago, Reuters reports. “It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete. But our priority right now is to try and cool them down first,” said an official, as authorities work to restore power. Smoke has been rising from the No. 2 reactor at the plant, and authorities aren’t sure of the cause—though it may be linked to the explosion there Tuesday, notes the AP. New damage has been discovered in the fuel pool at the plant’s No. 4 reactor, hampering cooling efforts to refill it with water (click for more on the alarming situation). US data-collecting flights suggest that radiation hasn’t expanded outside a 19-mile area—but Japan has raised its threat level from 4 to 5 out of 7, pointing to danger that extends beyond the local. The crisis could continue for weeks, said a US official. Meanwhile, the Huffington Post notes, authorities are using every cooling method available, from fire trucks to water cannons.
FILE - In this July 20, 2015, file photo, Actor Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson attends the premiere of "Southpaw" at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square in New York. The rapper says in a Connecticut bankruptcy court... (Associated Press) FILE - In this July 20, 2015, file photo, Actor Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson attends the premiere of "Southpaw" at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square in New York. The rapper says in a Connecticut bankruptcy court... (Associated Press) HARTFORD, CONN. (AP) — Rapper 50 Cent says in a Connecticut bankruptcy court filing he spends $108,000 a month on his expenses, including $5,000 for gardening. He has a monthly income of $185,000, mainly from royalties and interest on his investments. But he's paying $72,000 a month to maintain his suburban Hartford mansion. He filed for bankruptcy last month after New York City jurors ordered him to pay $7 million to a woman who said he posted online a crudely narrated sex tape she made with a boyfriend. His Monday court filing says he also owes money to his stylist, his barber and his fitness coach. The rapper was born Curtis Jackson III. His album "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" helped make him one of the world's best-selling artists. He's due back in bankruptcy court Wednesday. \|\|\|\|\| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. \|\|\|\|\| Is Fiddy really broke? Details of 50 Cent’s financial standing filed in a Connecticut court Monday claim he’s underwater, with $25 million in assets but $33 million in liabilities. The rapper, actor, business mogul and boxing promoter filed for bankruptcy last month on the heels of being ordered to pay $7 million to Lastonia Leviston, who sued him after he allegedly posted a sex tape featuring her online. Fiddy (real name: Curtis Jackson III) claims in court he has $25 million in assets, including an $8 million Connecticut mansion, a $572,000 home in Valley Stream, LI, and an Atlanta home worth $464,000. But the “bankrupt” rapper is also claiming $33 million in debts, most from the $7 million judgment owed to Leviston and an $18 million debt to electronics company Sleek Audio after they sued Fiddy after a deal to produce headphones went sour. He makes $3 million a year from his performing and recording career, according to the filing. He also rakes in another $370,000 from his boxing-promotions company SMS Promotions, and another $771,000 from books, films and touring under his G-Unit, and other, entities. The filing also claims Fiddy has $10 million in cash, and $500,000 worth of cars including three Chevy Suburbans and a 2010 Rolls-Royce. But he also has about $108,000 in monthly expenses, including a $5,745-per-month Bentley car lease and $12,000 in child support for two kids. Since April, the well-dressed rapper has paid more than $330,000 to American Express and another $52,000 to his stylist Erin McSherry. Reps for 50 Cent didn’t get back to us.	– 50 Cent might have stretched the truth a bit in court when he told a lawyer all his Lamborghinis, Bentleys, and Rolls Royces were rented. New bankruptcy filings show he actually owns seven cars, including a Rolls Royce and three Chevy Suburbans, worth $500,000, report People and Page Six. But apparently he still doesn't have a ton of cash to throw around—relatively speaking, anyway. The AP reports the rapper pulls in about $185,000 per month but has $108,000 in monthly expenses, including $72,000 a month for the utilities, mortgage, property tax, and insurance on his 50-room Hartford mansion. Where else is his money going? He spends $9,000 on security, $5,000 on gardening, $1,000 on grooming, and $3,000 on his wardrobe each month. Another $5,745 goes toward a car lease, while $14,600 is used to support his two children and grandfather. On top of all that, he reportedly owes his stylist $5,245 in back pay, as well as unspecified debts to his barber and personal trainer. His biggest debt of all: $18 million to electronics company Sleek Audio—the result of a lawsuit over a failed headphones deal—in addition to the $7 million 50 Cent has been ordered to pay in a sex-tape lawsuit. The rapper is due back in court tomorrow.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A winter storm was bearing down on the Northeast, promising heavy snows, strong winds and bitter temperatures that will make commutes hazardous for the first work day of the new year. People enjoy a snow-covered Cloud Gate at Millennium Park in downtown Chicago, which became a great photo opportunity for visitors, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2014. As much as 9 inches of snow has fallen in some... (Associated Press) Snow began falling overnight in parts of New England and New York but the real brunt of the storm wasn't expected to hit until later Thursday. As much as a foot of snow or more was forecast for some areas overnight Thursday into Friday, and temperatures were expected to plummet, with some areas seeing highs just above zero, the National Weather Service said. "There will be travel problems," said Hugh Johnson, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Albany, N.Y. "It will be very cold." Up to 14 inches of snow is forecast for the Boston area and the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for Long Island — where 8 to 10 inches of snow could fall and winds could gust up to 45 mph — from Thursday evening into Friday afternoon. The storm dropped a half-foot or more of snow in Illinois on Wednesday, prompting hundreds of flight cancellations into and out of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, according to the aviation tracking website FlightAware.com. More than 900 U.S. flights were canceled for Thursday, with O'Hare and Newark Liberty International most affected. Authorities said the weather may have been a factor in a fatal crash Wednesday evening involving a pickup and a bus carrying casino patrons in Indiana. Police said the truck's driver was killed and 15 bus passengers were hurt in the collision on a snow-covered and slushy highway in Rolling Prairie. Sections of interior southern New England and New York could get up to a foot of snow by the time the storm moves out, with forecasts generally calling for 6 to 12 inches. New York City, likely to see 3 to 7 inches, issued a snow alert. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged the city's commuters to leave their cars at home in case major highways are closed for Thursday's evening rush hour. "We are looking at a serious storm situation," Cuomo said. Although lesser amounts of snow were forecast to the south, Philadelphia and parts of southern New Jersey were expected to see 3 to 7 inches of blowing, drifting snow. In Toms River, N.J., Jonas Caldwell said he was prepared for whatever the storm might bring. "Santa brought me a snow blower, and I've got rock salt for the ice, so now I'm just waiting for the storm," he said while grabbing a coffee at a convenience store. Caldwell, an investment adviser, said he could work from home if necessary, but he was hoping that wouldn't be the case. "There are too many distractions at home," he said. "But I won't be stupid ... If it gets as bad as they say it will be, or looks like it will, I'll be staying put." In Hartford, Hal Guy, of nearby Glastonbury, was shopping for snow shovels — three, to be exact. "We broke a couple in the last storm," he said. "We have four kids, so, three shovels, and we still have a little one back home." Guy said three of his kids, girls ages 8, 10 and 12, have been out of school for two weeks for the holidays and hope to get a couple more days off with the snow. Over in Maine, where some communities are still recovering from a recent ice storm that cut power to more than 100,000 customers, people seemed prepared for more winter weather. Kelly St. Denis, of Auburn, went skiing Wednesday at the Sunday River ski area with family and friends. She said it's been cold but the skiing has been good. "Hey, it's winter in Maine," she said. "We go with it." ___ Associated Press writers Wilson Ring in Montpelier, Vt., Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H., and David Sharp in Portland, Maine, and Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, N.J., contributed to this report. \|\|\|\|\| Story highlights Midnight, Friday's midday high tides could produce coastal flooding in Massachusetts Website: Over 2,200 U.S. flights are canceled Thursday; about 1,000 so far Friday Parts of New York, Massachusetts and Maine are under blizzard warnings In addition to the snow and wind, frigid temperatures are a major concern An onslaught of fast-falling snow, whipping winds and bitter cold socked parts of the Northeast on Thursday, spurring a slew of travel woes, highway closures and worries that the headaches will only get worse as temperatures fall further. This kind of weather, this time of year, in this region is nothing new: Connecticut's governor, for instance, noted the snow totals won't come close to the 40 inches that buried parts of his state last February. At the same time, by Thursday night, it was already causing a mess -- whether you were waiting at an airport, had skidded off a road or were stuck at home hoping that your lights and perhaps your heat wouldn't suddenly stop working. "Mother Nature has come to wish us happy new year," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. The nor'easter, forming off the East Coast of the United States, prompted blizzard warnings from Thursday into Friday for New York's Long Island, Cape Cod, Massachusetts' South and North Shores, plus communities along Maine's coast. Boston, for example, was already getting buried by snow late Thursday afternoon. About one-third of the nation, approximately 100 million people in 22 states, was in the path of the storm, which was expected to be at its fiercest between 8 p.m. Thursday and 10 a.m. Friday, according to CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen. The complicated storm system "will raise havoc" this week, dumping a foot of snow and spreading subzero wind chills across parts of the region, the National Weather Service warned. "Falling and blowing snow with strong winds and poor visibilities are likely," the Weather Service said . "This will lead to whiteout conditions making travel extremely dangerous. Do not travel." Across the country, the nasty weather has snarled travel plans for many. More than 2,200 U.S. flights had been canceled as of 10:45 p.m. Thursday, reported FlightAware.com , which tracks cancellations due to weather and mechanical problems. It's not like things will suddenly clear up: the same website reports that some 1,000 flights already have been canceled in advance for Friday. Thursday's most affected airport was Chicago's O'Hare, with more than 650 cancellations in and out and about the same number of delays. Newark's Liberty International Airport, New York's LaGuardia and Cleveland's Hopkins also were affected. American, US Airways, United, Many airlines are allowing passengers to make fee-free itinerary changes for destinations expected to be affected by winter storms. Delta Southwest/AirTran and JetBlue have all posted weather advisories on their websites. Inside some airports, would-have-been travelers scrambled to rearrange flights or find a place to stay knowing that some things were out of their control. "The warning has been coming for a couple of days, so we expected it," a man from South Carolina said from Boston's Logan Airport, as he headed with his family to a hotel and, hopefully, a Boston Bruins game knowing they couldn't fly, reported CNN affiliate WCVB . "We are stuck, we'll make the best of it." Brenda Kopytko is luckily home in South Windsor, Connecticut, having ventured out into the snow earlier. A New England winter veteran, she's taking it in stride -- "This is nothing" -- if not the possibility of strong winds and power outages, particularly after being in the dark for nine days after last winter's storm. "Once the winds start going and the branches start snapping, then I get a little nervous," Kopytko said. Here's a breakdown of what to expect where: New York and Long Island As of Thursday night, New York City was under a winter storm warning, as were many other densely populated areas in seven other states. The city of 8 million people could get 9 inches of snow, subzero wind chills and turbulent winds, forecasters said. New York City is expecting to see 6 to 12 inches of snow overnight, with more possible on Long Island, where Nassau and Suffolk counties will be under a blizzard warning until 1 p.m. Friday, with predictions of 8 to 10 inches of snow, wind chills as low as 10 below zero and sustained winds of at least 35 mph. Bitter cold will follow, with temperatures in the single digits by Saturday morning. Upstate, the capital city of Albany could get buried under 14 inches of snow, with wind chills of 15 to 25 below zero, the National Weather Service said. Cuomo declared a state of emergency for all of New York shortly after 3:45 p.m. Thursday, one of several steps taken to try to minimize the wild wintry weather's toll. Among them is shutting down parts of Interstate 84, an east-west highway that goes from Connecticut to Pennsylvania, to commercial vehicles late Thursday afternoon, with nearby I-87 south of Albany closing at midnight. That's the same time the Long Island Expressway -- in a different part of the state -- will close to traffic at the border between Nassau County and the Queens borough of New York. The hope is to reopen all these roads around 5 a.m., though that timing is very much subject to change. "We'll make sure no one is in a state of danger on those roads," said Cuomo. Massachusetts By Friday night, Boston is expected to be covered by 10 to 18 inches of snow, about twice the amount forecast just one day ago, and shivering in temperatures as low as 6 degrees below zero. Citing likely "near blizzard" conditions Thursday night into late Friday morning, the state's emergency management agency warned that some areas could be hit hard -- including up to two feet of snow on parts of the North Shore and South Shore, as well as Cape Cod. The forecast was so bad for Boston that the city canceled school for Friday two days in advance, with scores of other school districts quickly following suit. "I guess Mother Nature wanted to give me one more gift," Mayor Thomas Menino told reporters Thursday in one of his last days in the job he has held since 1993. "Take precautions and take public transportation and take care of one another," he urged. But, he added, the city was doing its part, with 700 pieces of equipment on city streets. "Our team is ready," he said. The combination of extreme cold, snow and strong winds had officials at homeless shelters preparing. "Our main emphasis is getting people inside, where it is safer and warmer," said Jennifer Harris, a spokeswoman for the Pine Street Inn shelter system in Boston, where a snow emergency has been declared. "Pine Street Inn is making sure to have extra staff and food and water. We are geared up to provide to a greater number of people." Blizzard warnings haven't been issued for Boston itself, but are in effect for parts of nearby Essex and Plymouth counties -- including the communities of Gloucester, Brockton and Plymouth -- as well as the Cape. Because of the storm, the state Emergency Management Agency warned that the midnight and Friday midday high tides could produce "significant flooding" along the coast. To this point, the towns of Scituate and Duxbury requested voluntary evacuations for residents of certain low-lying areas. Connecticut Wind chills in parts of Connecticut are expected to range from -5 to -20 degrees Thursday night and Friday; the National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for most of the state through Friday morning. Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy urged residents to take it slow and give themselves extra time for their commutes Thursday and Friday. He said he expects there will be delays, but not cancellations, in public transit. Addressing reporters, Malloy said the worst time for the state would be overnight -- between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., when there could be blizzard conditions. Still, the storm's impact could linger well beyond that if roads are blocked or the electricity goes out. He acknowledged that this kind of weather is hardly unprecedented in Connecticut this time of year. Still, the governor added, what sets this system apart is the frigid temperatures forecast for the coming days. That's a big concern throughout the region, especially for the homeless and people stranded -- whether along a road or inside without adequate heat or power -- by the bad weather. "(This) is not a big New England storm, but it is a particularly cold New England storm," Malloy said. Chicago and points beyond Seven to 11 inches of snow were possible Thursday in Chicago, according to the National Weather Service. Windy City residents will feel frigid temps -- wind chills during the day Friday will creep down to minus 12 -- and emergency director Gary Schenkel said more snow is possible later in the week. Though snow in Chicago in the winter is a common event, it "can still wreak havoc on daily routines," he noted. Next week could be no better for some U.S. residents. A new shot of colder air will start to move into the northern Midwest by Saturday and will dive south Monday and Tuesday, carrying zero-degree cold as far south as Nashville. "That's the coldest air we've seen that far south in several years," said Hennen, the CNN meteorologist. The cold air will kick off a new storm Sunday into Monday that could affect a number of high-profile NFL playoff games this weekend. In Wisconsin, the Green Bay Packers will give a cold welcome to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, when temperatures could bottom out at -17. But it will be relatively balmy Sunday in Cincinnati, where snow and rain are possible when the city's Bengals host the San Diego Chargers in another NFL playoff matchup. Of course, while the players might not have a choice, fans don't have to brave the cold for either game. The big worries are for those who travel in the coming days. Authorities in New York, for example, said they may shut the Long Island Expressway if whiteout conditions make driving along the east-west highway too perilous. Kevin Willims isn't taking any chances, nor is he predicting a world-ending storm. The New Yorker said he plans to sit tight and let Mother Nature do her thing. "There's not much you can do," Willims said. "When it's snowing and these streets lock up, there's really nowhere you can go, so it's best to just stay in." That sentiment was echoed by James Montford, who told CNN Boston affiliate WHDH that he is looking forward to creating some art in the comforts of home. "This a great day to kind of hunker down," Montford said. \|\|\|\|\| Alexus Laster walks through snow in Buffalo on the way to church on Dec. 26, 2013. More snow is forecast over the next few days. (Photo11: Sharon Cantillon, AP) Story Highlights Chicago will pick up 6-8 inches over the next couple of days Blowing and drifting snow expected in New York City on Thursday After the snow, some of the coldest air in years will spread over the Northeast A major winter storm could complicate the first post-New Year's Day back to work and school for millions in New England and beyond. The storm, predicted to affect the USA from the upper Midwest to the East Coast from Wednesday through Friday, is expected to bring the heaviest snow across southern New England on Thursday and early Friday. "Over a foot of snow will fall in localized areas of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut and the cities of Hartford, Conn., Providence, R.I., and Boston," predicted AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. Lesser amounts, in the 6- to 12-inch range, are likely in northeastern Pennsylvania, in New Jersey and in southeastern New York state. This includes all of New York City, where the National Weather Service is warning that the storm's strong winds will cause blowing and drifting snow later Thursday. In anticipation of the storm, the weather service placed the entire New York City area under a winter storm watch for Thursday and Friday. A winter storm watch means there is potential for significant snow accumulations that may affect travel. The weather service on Wednesday warned that several inches are possible through early Friday along the Interstate 90 corridor from Chicago to Boston. Calling all weather photos: Sunsets, snowfall - We want to see your photos Dot Joyce, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino's press secretary, said city officials were monitoring the storm, but that it was too early to say whether students' first day back to school, slated for Friday, would be canceled. "We are New Englanders — we get snow and we get cold weather and we're hardy," she said. Boston teachers are due back Thursday, and Joyce expects "a regular city work day," since the storm is not expected to bring snow "in earnest" until after 4 p.m., she said. Snow will also fall on Wednesday across portions of the Midwest and the Great Lakes. The heaviest snow will fall mainly in northern Illinois, northern Indiana, southern Michigan and southern Ohio. Chicago could see as much as 6-8 inches of snow from late Tuesday through late Thursday, which WGN meteorologist Tom Skilling says will arrive "in waves rather than a single stretch." The Weather Channel has named the storm "Hercules" as part of its winter storm naming system. Meanwhile, the weather service said, rain — at times heavy — will push through the Southeast. The Winter Classic outdoor NHL hockey game in Ann Arbor, Mich., between the Maple Leafs and Red Wings, was played in snowy conditions Wednesday. Arctic chill will also still be a concern on Wednesday, as the "bitter cold will continue over the Northern Plains and upper Midwest, with temperatures running as much as 20 to 30 degrees below normal," the weather service predicted. So far this month, International Falls, Minn., has endured eight days when the temperature has dropped below minus-30 degrees, which is a record, according to meteorologist Cory Mottice of AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions. Some of the coldest air in years will roar into the Northeast after the snowstorm departs Friday, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Bernie Rayno. "This is likely to be the coldest weather for much of the Northeast since January 2009," Rayno said. Lows in cities such as Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore will drop into the single digits Friday night. Contributing: Greg Toppo	– Mother Nature isn't making it an easy transition back to work in the new year, throwing a whole lot of snow, whipping winds, and freezing temperatures at commuters in the Northeast this week. As much as a foot of snow is expected in New England and New York today into tomorrow; more is expected in Boston, which will see "near blizzard" conditions, CNN reports, and Philadelphia and southern New Jersey could see 3 to 7 inches. "The wind is going to whip around the snow and reduce the visibility, creating near-blizzard conditions" through much of the Northeast, one meteorologist tells NBC News. Some 900 US flights are already cancelled today alone, as temperatures fall to highs just above zero in some areas, the National Weather Service said, per the AP. "There will be travel problems," a meteorologist said. "It will be very cold." Adds another, the snowstorm, dubbed "Hercules" by the Weather Channel, could stretch into parts of the Midwest, USA Today reports. "Falling and blowing snow with strong winds and poor visibilities are likely," particularly in NY and Long Island, the Weather Service said, per CNN. "This will lead to whiteout conditions making travel extremely dangerous. Do not travel."
A 17-year-old Queens boy's $72 million earned on the stock market are "about as real as monopoly money," a public relations firm for the teen said late Monday. Mohammed Islam's story of earning multi-millions based off of knowledge gleaned from an investment club at Stuyvesant High School was first published by New York Magazine and soon after went viral. But on Monday evening, Islam and a close friend also featured in the story, Damir Tulemaganbetov, came clean to the New York Observer, explaining the story was a rumor that media attention spun out of control into a full blown lie. "The NY Magazine article about Mohammed Islam is inaccurate," Ronn Torossian, president of 5W Public Relations, told NBC News. "A 17-year old boy who lives in Elmhurst, Queens responded to a reporter's inquiry and created an inaccurate story. He sincerely regrets this." "While Mr. Islam runs an investment club at Stuyvesant High which does simulated trades, his millions are about as real as monopoly money," the statement continued. Torossian said the teen "simply didn't realize the consequences of his actions" and is sorry and hurt by the embarrassment the fabricated story caused his family. SOCIAL: #RTLNY: Because a Stuyvesant senior made $72 million trading stocks on his lunch break http://t.co/cHu1QAkJTY pic.twitter.com/HofWdKFTJs — New York Magazine (@NYMag) December 15, 2014 —Richie Duchon and TODAY's Deb Huberman \|\|\|\|\| It’s been a tough month for fact-checking. After the Rolling Stone campus rape story unraveled, readers of all publications can be forgiven for questioning the process by which Americans get our news. And now it turns out that another blockbuster story is—to quote its subject in an exclusive Observer interview—”not true.” Monday’s edition of New York magazine includes an irresistible story about a Stuyvesant High senior named Mohammed Islam who had made a fortune investing in the stock market. Reporter Jessica Pressler wrote regarding the precise number, “Though he is shy about the $72 million number, he confirmed his net worth is in the �?high eight figures.’ ” The New York Post followed up with a story of its own, with the fat figure playing a key role in the headline: “High school student scores $72M playing the stock market.” And now it turns out, the real number is … zero. In an exclusive interview with Mr. Islam and his friend Damir Tulemaganbetov, who also featured heavily in the New York story, the baby-faced boys who dress in suits with tie clips came clean. Swept up in a tide of media adulation, they made the whole thing up. Speaking at the offices of their newly hired crisis pr firm, 5WPR, and handled by a phalanx of four, including the lawyer Ed Mermelstein of RheemBell & Mermelstein, Mr. Islam told a story that will be familiar to just about any 12th grader—a fib turns into a lie turns into a rumor turns into a bunch of mainstream media stories and invitations to appear on CNBC. Here’s how it happened. Observer: What was your first contact with the New York magazine reporter? Mohammed Islam: My friend’s father worked at New York magazine and he had the reporter contact me. Then she [Jessica Pressler] called me. You seem to be quoted saying “eight figures.” That’s not true, is it? No, it is not true. Is there ANY figure? Have you invested and made returns at all? No. So it’s total fiction? Yes. Are you interested in investing? How did you get this reputation? I run an investment club at Stuy High which does only simulated trades. If you had been playing with real money, would you have done really well? The simulated trades percentage was extremely high relative to the S&P. Where did Jessica Pressler come up with the $72 million figure? I honestly don’t know. The number’s a rumor. She said “have you made $72 million?” [I led her to believe] I had made even more than $72 million on the simulated trades. At this point the PR reps jumped in with Law & Order-style objections. A conference outside the room ensued. Back into the room came Mr. Islam. All I can say is for the simulated trades, I was very successful. The returns were incredible and outperformed the S&P. Damir, tell me where you fit into this. Damir Tulemaganbetov: Well, I got excited by this whole trading thing and I said hey, let me get on board. I heard about this article coming out and Mohammed invited me and I met Jessica. But you guys are pals outside of this? We go to social gatherings and friends’ places. Are you into stock-picking as well? I haven’t been into it but I’m interested. Mohammed, you’re from Queens and you go to this elite public high school. Is this a hobby of your parents as well or would you be the first person in your family to pursue high finance? Mohammed Islam: In my immediate family, just me. So what did your parents think when they’re reading that you’ve got $72 million? Mohammed Islam: Honestly, my dad wanted to disown me. My mom basically said she’d never talk to me. Their morals are that if I lie about it and don’t own up to it then they can no longer trust me. … They knew it was false and they basically wanted to kill me and I haven’t spoken to them since. You haven’t? Where did you sleep last night? Mohammed Islam: At a friend’s house. But we didn’t sleep. Damir Tulemaganbetov: We stayed awake all night. We’ve been checking out news all over the world. Are your friends blowing up your phones? Damir Tulemaganbetov: He had 297 unread messages and 190 LinkedIn. All the friends shared it. Mohammed Islam: It was hyped up beyond belief. Damir Tulemaganbetov: We were at CNBC. That’s why we’re dressed up. But we were there and literally in the building stressing out. We had 20 minutes. Then we three times asked them could we have 20 seconds to talk? [The boys ended up cancelling the CNBC appearance.] Where do you go from here? Damir Tulemaganbetov: Socially, people will be mad about it. But we’re sorry. Especially to our parents. Like my dad would read this and be like, “Oh my God,” because he’s a very humble man and I portrayed him like a bad father. Mohammed Islam: At school, first things first. I am incredibly sorry for any misjudgment and any hurt I caused. The people I’m most sorry for is my parents. I did something where I can no longer gain their trust. I have one sister, two years younger, and we don’t really talk. So that’s that. There was no $72 million, no “eight figures,” not even one figure. The story is already coming unglued as the commenters on New York�?s site hammer the reporter for even thinking this was possible. New York has now altered its headline to back away from the $72 million figure but the story itself remains. Even if this working-class kid had somehow started with $100,000 as a high school freshman on day one at Stuy High, he’d have needed to average a compounded annualized return of something like 796 percent over the three years since. C’mon, man. It’s not hard to see why the story was tough to resist for New York, which placed Mr. Islam’s alleged acumen at No. 12 in its 10th annual “Reasons to Love New York” issue. Ms. Pressler quoted him saying, “It’s not just about money. We want to create a brotherhood. Like, all of us who are connected, who are in something together, who have influence, like the Koch brothers …” Yep, nothing says success—or search engine optimization—quite like “Koch brothers.” No one asked for my opinion, but I’m going to provide it anyway, having sat with these kids for a good bit on a tough day. They got carried away. They’re not children. But they’re not quite adults, either, and at least Mr. Islam was literally quaking as we spoke. So yeah, they probably should have known better. But New York and the New York Post probably should have, as well. This story smelled fishy the instant it appeared and a quick dance with the calculator probably would have saved these young men—and a couple reporters—some embarrassment. \|\|\|\|\| Editor's Note: In the most recent edition of New York, its annual Reasons to Love New York issue, the magazine published this story about a Stuyvesant High School senior named Mohammed Islam, who was rumored to have made $72 million trading stocks. Islam said his net worth was in the "high eight figures." As part of the research process, the magazine sent a fact-checker to Stuyvesant, where Islam produced a document that appeared to be a Chase bank statement attesting to an eight-figure bank account. After the story's publication, people questioned the $72 million figure in the headline, which was written by editors based on the rumored figure. The headline was amended. But in an interview with the New York Observer last night, Islam now says his entire story was made up. A source close to the Islam family told the Washington Post that the statements were falsified. We were duped. Our fact-checking process was obviously inadequate; we take full responsibility and we should have known better. New York apologizes to our readers. Rumors, on Wall Street, can be powerful. A whisper can turn into a current that moves markets, driving a stock price up or sending it tumbling. There may be only one other place where gossip holds such sway, and that is high school. Late last year, a rumor began circulating at Stuyvesant that a junior named Mohammed Islam had made a fortune in the stock market. Not a small fortune, either. Seventy-two million. An unbelievable amount of money for anyone, not least a high-school student, but as far as rumors go, this one seemed legit. Everyone at Stuy knew that Mohammed, the soft-spoken son of Bengali immigrants from Queens and the president of the school’s Investment Club, was basically a genius. As the news spread, Mo’s stock went up. The school paper profiled him, Business Insider included him on a list of “20 Under 20,” and Mo became “a celebrity,” as his friend Damir Tulemaganbetov put it on a recent Friday night at Mari Vanna near Union Square. “A VIP!” Mo, a cherubic senior with a goatee and slight faux-hawk, smiled shyly. “He’s quiet today,” said Patrick Trablusi, who was seated with Mo and Damir at a table littered with empty glasses. “Humble.” And tired: “This is our third meeting of the day,” Damir said, signaling to the waitress for another round. “We saw a real-estate agent, a lawyer, you …” “Next we’re going to see a hedge-fund guy,” Patrick said. The friends locked eyes and started to giggle. “He basically wants to give us $150 million,” Mo explained, a blush like a sunset creeping over his cheeks. The waitress arrived with a tray of green drinks. “Freshly squeezed apple juice,” Damir said, passing them around. “It’s very good. Do you like caviar?” After Mo became a celebrity, things got a little awkward at school. (“Aren’t you the kid who made all that money?” a teacher asked him.) So he “reconnected” with kids from his old school, Allen-Stevenson. One of them introduced him to Patrick, an aspiring financier, who introduced him to Damir at a poker game attended by kids whose parents are, according to Damir, “the one percent of the one percent.” The son of a Kazakh oligarch, Damir is tall, slim, and cocky, like a cigarette wearing a fedora. “I call the poker game ‘Destiny,'"he said. The waitress arrived with a plate. “Here, have some caviar.” Over late nights out and dinners at Morimoto, the three hatched a plan to start a hedge fund. “There are a lot of steps we have to follow through,” said Patrick, calling to mind a more serious Chuck Bass. “But we’re on the right track.” They plan to launch in June, after Mo turns 18 and can get his broker-dealer license. “Mo’s our maestro,” Patrick said. “He’s going to be earning the big bucks. We’re just going to try to fill his needs.” All three plan to attend college next year, but they’re not concerned about classes getting in the way of their goal: “A billion dollars!” Damir said. “By next year!” Mo affirmed the number with a nod. “But it’s not just about money,” he added. “We want to create a brotherhood. Like, all of us who are connected, who are in something together, who have influence, like the Koch brothers …” “Like in Wolf of Wall Street!” Damir interjected. “And Mo is Jordan Belfort.” “No, but, not like that,” Patrick said, blanching slightly. Like Belfort, Mo started with penny stocks. A cousin showed him how to trade. He loved the feeling of risk—the way his hand shook making the trade—but he swore it off after losing a chunk of the money he’d made tutoring. “I didn’t have the balls for it,” he said. He was 9. It was a while before he was ready to try again. In the meantime, he became a scholar of modern finance, studying up on hedge-fund managers. He was particularly enamored of Paul Tudor Jones. “I had been paralyzed by my loss,” Mo said. “But he was able to go back to it, even after losing thousands of dollars over and over. Paul Tudor Jones says, ‘You learn more from your losses than from your gains.’ ” Mo got into trading oil and gold, and his bank account grew. Though he is shy about the $72 million number, he confirmed his net worth is in the “high eight figures.” More than enough to rent an apartment in Manhattan—though his parents won’t let him live in it until he turns 18—and acquire a BMW, which he can’t drive because he doesn’t yet have a license. Thus, it falls to his father to drive him past Tudor Jones’s Greenwich house for inspiration. “It’s because he is who he is that made me who I am today,” Mo said. Which is to say: a believer in Wall Street. “A lot of young people do start-ups, but I think it’s a bubble. Trading and investments will always be there. Money will always be rotating—” “Money never sleeps!” Damir added. “That’s from the Wall Street movie.” “It all comes down to this,” Mo continued. “What makes the world go round? Money. If money is not flowing, if businesses don’t keep going, there’s no innovation, no products, no investments, no growth, no jobs.” The check arrived for the caviar and apple juice. It totaled $400. “New York, that’s where the money’s at,” Damir shouted, pulling out a credit card. This reminded me of an old joke about robbing banks because that’s where the money is. Damir grinned. “My father has a quote,” he said. “It’s really dope: ‘You can rob a bank with a gun, but you can rob the whole world with a bank.’ ” Patrick buried his face in his hands. “At the end of the day,” he said, “we’re young kids.”	– A New York City high school senior grabbed plenty of headlines yesterday after being named one of New York magazine's "Reasons We Love New York." What was so loveable and New York-y about Mohammed Islam? As the headline of reporter Jessica Pressler's piece proclaimed, "Because a Stuyvesant Senior Made $72 Million Trading Stocks on His Lunch Break." Except the 17-year-old totally didn't, Mohammed now tells the Observer's Ken Kurson. In an interview that took place in the offices of his newly engaged PR firm, with a lawyer by his side, Mohammed says "No, No, Yes" as answers to the following: Did he, as Pressler wrote, make eight figures? Has he invested and made anything off it? Is the story complete fiction? He tells the Observer that he does run an investment club at his school, and that his simulated trades' return was pretty impressive. And, yeah, he did lead Pressler to believe "I had made even more than $72 million on the simulated trades." But as the head of his new PR firm says in a statement to NBC News, "A 17-year old boy who lives in Elmhurst, Queens, responded to a reporter's inquiry and created an inaccurate story. ... His millions are about as real as monopoly money." Kurson's take? A few minutes with a calculator would have prevented another fact-checking mess. "Even if this working-class kid had somehow started with $100,000 as a high school freshman on day one at Stuy High, he’d have needed to average a compounded annualized return of something like 796% over the three years since. C’mon, man." New York, for its part, maintains that "Mohammed provided bank statements that showed he is worth eight figures, and he confirmed on the record that he’s worth eight figures."
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southwest Airlines flight landed in Los Angeles with one more passenger than when it took off. A passenger gave birth shortly after Flight 623 took off from San Francisco on Tuesday and the Phoenix-bound jet diverted to Los Angeles International Airport. The woman was assisted by the flight crew and a doctor and nurse who were aboard, airline spokeswoman Emily Samuels said. She said hopefully the airline has a new customer for life. Paramedics boarded the aircraft and the mother and newborn, whose names have not been released, were taken to a hospital in good condition, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott said. The aircraft was taken out of service for cleaning and the other passengers went on to Phoenix aboard another plane, arriving more than two hours behind schedule. Passenger Julie Dafoe said she and Kurt Reed were sitting next to the woman. "One of the nurses that helped she said she was like walking around pacing in the airport so they were thinking she was having contractions," Dafoe told Phoenix TV station KTVK. "All of a sudden I heard a baby cry like a gurgling sound, like a baby that had too much milk or whatever and I'm like 'There's no babies on this flight,'" Reed said. Passengers said they had heard the call for a doctor, but nothing about what the medical emergency was. "The captain announced congratulations for the arrival of this new baby boy," another passenger Aarti Shahani told KTVK. "So we all started applauding, but it was confusing because we thought someone was going to die not be born." \|\|\|\|\| A baby born on a plane mid-flight joined a very different kind of mile high club. Southwest Airlines Flight 623 bound for Phoenix was diverted shortly after taking off from San Francisco on Tuesday when a pregnant passenger went into labor, the airline confirmed to ABC News. But before the plane could make an emergency landing in Los Angeles, the baby was born with the help of a doctor and nurse who were on board. "Never thought I'd experience that, yeah, everyone was saying the same thing. It was just amazing that that happened on a plane," pasenger Ely Alexander told ABC station KABC-TV in Los Angeles. "No one freaked out, no, it was all very calm," Alexander said. "It was really amazing how calm it was and how many people came to help." A team of medics met the plane when it did land in Los Angeles. The airline did not make public the baby's gender. The other 111 passengers on board flight 623 boarded another flight to Phoenix. The identity of the mother has not yet been released, but she was transported to a hospital. This isn't the first time a baby was born mid-air on a Southwest Airlines flight. In 2009 a passenger gave birth to a baby boy while on a flight from Chicago to Salt Lake City. Babies born on flights are usually given a birth certificate from the state in which their plane lands.	– A baby born yesterday probably has more frequent-flier miles than any other newborn alive. A Southwest Airlines flight bound for Phoenix from San Francisco made an emergency landing in LA not long after takeoff yesterday when a woman on board the plane went into labor and produced an addition to the passenger manifest, the AP reports. A Southwest spokeswoman says the flight crew, as well as a nurse and doctor on the flight, helped usher in the new neonatal nomad, and the unidentified mom and baby were whisked off to the hospital by paramedics when the plane landed and were said to be in good condition. If all follows the usual protocol, the baby will likely be given a birth certificate from California, the state in which the plane landed, ABC News reports. It was a somewhat confusing moment for some of the passengers. "All of a sudden I heard a baby cry like a gurgling sound, like a baby that had too much milk or whatever, and I'm like, 'There's no babies on this flight,'" a passenger who had been seated near the mother tells the AP. Another passenger experienced relief upon finding out what the in-air request for a doctor was all about: "The captain announced congratulations for the arrival of this new baby boy, so we all started applauding. … It was confusing because we thought someone was going to die, not be born." The other 111 passengers were redirected onto another plane to Phoenix, and the birthing plane was removed from service for cleaning. (Click to read about how a baby born to a Ugandan woman who resides in the US ended up a Canadian citizen after being born on a flight from Amsterdam to Boston.)
Swiss scientists broke a four-decade-long informal ban on LSD research yesterday when they announced the results of a study in which cancer patients received the drug to curb their anxiety about death. The study, which was published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, looked at the safety and efficacy of LSD when used in combination with talk therapy. The researchers used the semisynthetic psychedelic drug to facilitate discussions about the cancer patients' fears of dying. The patients who took LSD, most of whom were terminally ill, experienced 10-hour-long supervised "trips." One patient described the trips to The New York Times as a "mystical experience," where "the major part was pure distress at all the memories I had successfully forgotten for decades." These periods of distress are regarded as therapeutically valuable because they allow patients to address their memories and the emotions they evoke. The patients underwent 30 such trips over the course of two months. A year after the sessions ceased, the patients who had received a full dose of LSD — 200 micrograms — experienced a 20 percent improvement in their anxiety levels. That was not the case for the group who received a lower dose, however, as their anxiety symptoms actually increased. They were later allowed to try the full dose after the trial had ended. "We want to break these substances out of the mold of the counterculture." Because of the small number of study participants, the researchers are reluctant to make any conclusive statements about the LSD treatment's effectiveness. Indeed, the results were not statistically significant. But the fact that the study took place at all bodes well for psychedelic drug research, as the drug caused no serious side effects. Rick Doblin, executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a foundation that has funded many of these studies, thinks that revisiting LSD-based treatments is worthwhile. "We want to break these substances out of the mold of the counterculture," Doblin told The New York Times, "and bring them back to the lab as part of a psychedelic renaissance." \|\|\|\|\| Login Login with your LWW Journals username and password. Login with your LWW Journals username and password. Username or Email: Password: Remember me Forgot Password? Forgot your Password? Enter and submit the email address you registered with. An email with instructions to reset your password will be sent to that address. Email: Password Sent Link to reset your password has been sent to specified email address. Remember me What does "Remember me" mean? By checking this box, you'll stay logged in for 14 days or until you logout. You'll get easier access to your articles, collections, media, and all your other content, even if you close your browser or shut down your computer. 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DEPENDENCY IN ADULT PATIENTS FOLLOWING EARLY MATERNAL BEREAVEMENT.	– Researchers experimented with LSD in psychiatric treatment until such research was effectively banned in the US in 1966—but now a Swiss psychiatrist has conducted the first controlled trial of the hallucinogenic drug in more than four decades, with US FDA approval. Dr. Peter Gasser's study involved 12 people who were dying, most of terminal cancer, and suffering from "deep anxiety," the Seattle Times reports. After undergoing talk therapy, eight of the patients were given a 200-microgram dose of LSD designed to "produce the full spectrum of a typical LSD experience" on two occasions; the other four received a 20-microgram "active placebo" that wasn't expected to have an impact. They took their 10-hour "trips" in Gasser's office, and, he says, "Their anxiety went down and stayed down." Specifically, subjects who received full doses of LSD saw a 20% improvement in their anxiety symptoms, and for those who were still alive a year later, the improvement had lasted, the New York Times reports. Those who took the placebo reported increased anxiety. It doesn't sound like a comforting experience at first: The Verge says the purpose of administering the psychedelic drug was to "facilitate discussions about the patients' fears of dying," and one patient reports that "the major part was pure distress at all these memories I had successfully forgotten for decades. These painful feelings, regrets, this fear of death." But he talked about all that with Gasser, something he'd found difficult prior to the trip; the Times refers to such distress as "therapeutically valuable," and many subjects had similar experiences. Other than that, no serious side effects were seen.
Why The Mali Coup Threatens All Of West Africa Following the March 22 coup that ousted President Amadou Toumani Touré, the north of Mali is in the hands of a Tuareg rebellion. It is a rolling series of events that has leaders across the region worrying about similar threats. by: admin Tuaregs, like this man in Algeria, live in several different countries in North and West Africa (Garrondo) LE MONDE/Worldcrunch The very existence of the West African country of Mali is currently under threat. The whole of the north of the country is in the hands of a Tuareg rebellion, which nothing seems able to stop. President Amadou Toumani Touré was ousted on March 22 by a junta of captains calling themselves the National Council for the Recovery of Democracy and the Restoration of the State (CNRDRE). Taking advantage of the ensuing power vacuum in the capital Bamako, the rebels have gained possession of northern Mali at lightning speed. The rebels, the majority of whom are members of the nomadic Tuareg people, refuse to be called Malian, and they want to establish an independent Tuareg state called Azawad. Currently the rebels only hold the northern part of Mali, but with potential reinforcements arriving from other areas of the Sahel, a transition zone between the Sahara in the north and the savannahs to the south, and in particular from neighboring Niger, that could all change. In the meantime, the Malian army is falling apart. The captains who overthrew the president justified their actions by claiming to be working to end the decline of Mali. However, the coup has had precisely the opposite outcome. Despite the fall of city after city in the north over the past few days, the CNRDRE has not sent any troops north to defend the country from the rebels. Quick response, deep concerns West African leaders are responding quickly to try and avoid an outright collapse of the Malian state, and they have reacted with commendable promptness. At the impetus of, in particular, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, a diplomatic emergency committee has been formed that is threatening the junta with heavy sanctions if it does not relinquish power. However, none of the heads of states involved is entirely blameless. Some, like Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré, have faced mutinies in their own countries. The desire of the presidents of the region to return constitutional order to Bamako is therefore influenced by a certain degree of self-preservation. Who can blame them? Only recently emerging from the Ivorian crisis, with Guinea still fragile and Senegal only just managing to avoid serious upheaval following its electoral turmoil, West Africa could do without the collapse of Mali. In Bamako, regional pressures run counter to public opinion; Mali has developed a strong dislike for its neighbors’ interference. But at this stage the only options left are likely to be hard to implement, not least the junta stepping down as Sanago, president of CNRDRE, holds tight to power. The West African heads of state will need plenty more energy to achieve their joint objectives: firstly, getting the Malian military back to their barracks; and secondly, helping them to launch a counter-attack. If this doesn’t happen, the North will quickly be lost and the division of the country becomes an ever-growing threat. Until now, West Africa’s efforts have met with relative indifference from the international community. It is imperative that the outside world offers its support and realizes that the situation in Mali will have significant consequences for the whole of the Sahel region. Read more from Le Monde in French. Photo – Garrondo All rights reserved ©Worldcrunch - in partnership with Le Monde \|\|\|\|\| Image copyright AFP Image caption Timbuktu's mud and wood architecture is unique The fighting in northern Mali could damage the World Heritage Site of Timbuktu, the UN's cultural agency Unesco has warned. Timbuktu's "outstanding architectural wonders" must be safeguarded, it said. Separatist Tuareg rebels joined forces with Islamist fighters to take the town on Sunday, and residents have told the BBC that Islamic law is being imposed. The African Union has joined West African nations in imposing sanctions on Mali after a recent coup. Meanwhile, representatives from the new military leadership are in Nigeria for talks with the authorities. The military junta overthrew Mali's government nearly two weeks ago, saying the campaign against the recent Tuareg rebellion had been poorly run. Junta head Capt Amadou Sanogo has said the army is not leaving power, but has promised to consult local political forces to set up a transition body "with the aim of organising peaceful, free, open and democratic elections in which we will not take part". 'Bars ransacked' Correspondents say long lines have formed at petrol stations in the capital, Bamako, in response to sanctions. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Timbuktu mayor Halle Cisse: "We don't know who's in charge" A farmer, who was filling up 15 jerry cans with diesel, told the BBC that he was worried about not being able to irrigate his crops with a generator once fuel reserves run out. Landlocked Mali has to import all its fuel - and reporters say the country will struggle to survive an economic blockade. But the Tuareg rebels have taken advantage of the political situation and made rapid advances in the past few days - and now control of a third of the West African country, including the key northern towns of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu. Timbuktu's literary patrimony... reveals a continent with an immensely rich literary and scientific heritage Writer Lydia Syson Why do we know Timbuktu? The rebels are divided into two groups - the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), which wants independence for the northern Tuareg homelands, while Ansar Dine, which is linked to the North African branch of al-Qaeda, wants to remain part of Mali but impose Sharia. Residents in Gao and Kidal told the BBC that Islamist fighters have ransacked bars serving alcohol and banned Western music on local airwaves. In Timbuktu, people told the BBC that Ansar Dine members are going from door-to-door telling occupants that they now have to live by the principles of Islamic law. The BBC's Alou Diawara in the capital, Bamako, says some civilians are fleeing the central town of Mopti, fearing a rebel advance further south. According to the UN refugee agency, since January the violence has uprooted more than 200,000 people, including around 100,000 who have fled the country. Tourist attraction Timbuktu - on the edge of the Sahara desert - is littered with impressive architecture, using mud and wood in a unique style. Structures include the great mosques of Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahia and 16 cemeteries. "They are essential to the preservation of the identity of the people of Mali and of our universal heritage," Unesco head Irina Bokova said, calling on all parties to fulfil international obligations to safeguard heritage in times of war. Once an important centre of Islamic study, Timbuktu is home to about 700,000 ancient manuscripts, held in approximately 60 private libraries. "At its zenith in the middle of the 15th Century Timbuktu was known all over the world as a repository for all sorts of knowledge, including Arabic Islamic writing, science, maths and history," Lydia Syson, an expert on Mali, told the BBC. Today, Timbuktu is poor and parts of it are sinking under the encroaching desert sands. Nevertheless, in recent years a lot of money has been invested in trying to preserve Timbuktu's manuscripts, some of which have already been destroyed. Many collections have been digitised and local scholars trained in how to interpret the literary treasures, most of which are family collections that have been handed down from generation to generation. Image copyright AFP Image caption Ancient family manuscripts have been handed down from generation to generation The rebel takeover could disrupt these efforts and prevent access to the manuscripts. "What is so important about Timbuktu's literary patrimony is that it is a challenge to Western ideas that Africa is a land of song and dance and oral tradition," Ms Syson said. "It reveals a continent with an immensely rich literary and scientific heritage," she said. The UN Security Council is due to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis in Mali later on Tuesday. The coup and Tuareg rebellion have exacerbated a humanitarian crisis in Mali and some neighbouring countries, with aid agencies warning that 13 million people need food aid following a drought in the region. \|\|\|\|\| Malians lined up outside gas stations holding jerrycans, water bottles and plastic jugs, as the landlocked West African nation braced itself Tuesday for sanctions imposed overnight as a consequence of a coup last month. In an effort to force out the soldiers that seized control of the country on March 21, Mali's neighbors decided at an emergency summit Monday to impose an embargo, shutting their borders and freezing its account at the regional central bank. The nation roughly twice the size of France imports all its fuel, which is trucked in overland from neighboring Ivory Coast and Senegal, both located on Africa's Atlantic Coast. The country's electricity grid is also expected to falter in coming weeks. April is one of the hottest months of the year in the country located on the southern edge of the Sahara desert, and the nation's hydropower system is unable to carry the load because of low water levels. Fuel is used in the hot months to run diesel generators. Mali's president was sent into hiding when a group of disgruntled soldiers started a mutiny at a military base located around 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the presidential palace. From the base, they decided to march on the palace. In a matter of hours, they succeeded in reversing more than two decades of democracy. The Economic Community of West African States, representing 15 nations in the region, has been uncharacteristically harsh in their condemnation of the coup. They gave the putschists a 72-hour deadline to restore civilian rule, which expired Monday. When the junta failed to do so, they announced that sanctions would go into effect immediately. Bathily Seye, the owner of a local chain of gas stations called Afrique Oil, said that if no new shipments are allowed in, his 15 pumps will run dry in days. "We don't have our own gas. It's all imported," he said. "There is absolutely nothing here. We don't have any refining capacity. ... I don't have the stock. In two days, my pumps will run out of gas." At a Shell pump in downtown Bamako, the line of cars was so long Tuesday that the vehicles were idling on the highway leading to the station. At the front of the queue, farm employee Baba Kounta had climbed into the back of his minibus, where he was filling 12 20-liter jerrycans. He said he needs the gas to power the generators that run the irrigation system at the orange farm outside Bamako where he works. "We don't have a choice. We're obliged to make provisions," said Kounta, as he watched the gauge on the pump race past 73,700 francs (around $147). "In the hot season, the generator eats 40 liters (more than 10 gallons) per day." Waiting his turn behind the minibus was 50-year-old computer tech Nouhoum Kamate, who was sitting in the suffocating heat of his unventilated old-model Mercedes. A government employee, he had come to the gas station with his March paycheck. It's unclear if the junta will be able to pay civil servants in April because the country's bank account is now frozen. "I got my salary this past month, but next month? I don't think we will get to that point," said Kamate. "I think we will find a solution. They can't do this embargo forever." The soldiers who grabbed power said they did so because of the former president's mishandling of an insurgency in the north by Tuareg rebels. Since the coup, however, the rebels have effectively seized control of the entire northern half of the nation, taking the three major towns of Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu over the weekend. A former minister, Mohamed Ag Erlaf, identified himself as the chief negotiator for Mali's junta and said the main rebel group that seized the north is willing to hold talks on the future of the country. Reached by telephone, Erlaf said Tuesday that the rebel National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad is open to discussions. However, an NMLA spokesman in Paris told France 24 TV late Monday that the rebels have had no direct contact with the junta which toppled Mali's government. Moussa Ag Attaher said they do not recognize coup leader Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo. He said: "Neither the international community nor the population of Mali recognize him. If we are to negotiate, it needs to be with someone that is recognized." ___ Associated Press Writer Michelle Faul contributed to this report from Niamey, Niger.	– Since we last checked in, the situation in Mali following a soldiers' coup has spiraled, with rising concerns over food and gas shortages, violence, and indeed the country's "very existence," according to Le Monde. An update: The coup has driven more than 200,000 people from their homes to other parts of the region, the AP reports. The UN worries that major food shortages could be imminent, and "mayhem in these towns and cities is increasing," says a rep. Neighboring countries have established an embargo against the rebels who ousted the president; they've closed off their borders and frozen the country's regional bank account. That has prompted residents of Mali, which imports all its fuel, to rush to gas stations to collect fuel. The country's electricity grid may also be headed for failure. UNESCO is citing a threat to Timbuktu, a World Heritage Site full of "architectural wonders," notes the BBC. Mosques there are "essential to the preservation of the identity of the people of Mali," says the group. Yet "nothing seems to be able to stop" the Tuareg coup, Le Monde reports. West African leaders need to help Mali's military fight back before the instability spreads beyond the country's borders.
Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more \|\|\|\|\| Miss Claudette is on the mend. Orange Is the New Black star Michelle Hurst, known to fans of the Netflix series as Piper Chapman's neatnik roommate, has awoken from a medically induced coma following a serious car accident a few weeks ago. PHOTOS: Celeb injuries According to a fundraising page set up to help Hurst with her hospital bills, the actress is currently in the ICU at UNC Chapel Hill Hospital in Chapel Hill, N.C. "Michelle Hurst was in a bad car accident just before the holidays," the page reads. "She had major injuries, so the doctors put her in a medically induced coma to avoid movement while they did multiple surgeries near her spine." PHOTOS: Celeb health scares The explanation goes on to note that Hurst is now out of the coma — after 16 days — and has opened her eyes. "She is progressing slowly, but progressing!" an update notes. Hurst's OITNB costars Natasha Lyonne (Nicky Nichols) and Matt McGorry (John Bennett) tweeted links to the page and asked their followers to donate to her cause. "Please give what you can to help Michelle Hurst — the amazing actress who plays Miss Claudette on OINTB," Lyonne wrote on Jan. 16. PHOTOS: 2013's breakout stars The fundraisers' goal was to raise $5,000 to "help pay for her medical expenses and time off of work." As of Friday, Jan. 17, however, more than double that amount — a total of $12,256 — had been donated by 216 supporters. "People, you are amazing," tweeted Piper Kerman, the author whose memoir inspired Orange Is the New Black. "In less than 2 days you raised double the goal for Michele Hurst, a.k.a. 'Miss Claudette.'" Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox! Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now! \|\|\|\|\| Michelle Hurst, who plays Miss Claudette on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, woke up from a medically induced coma Thursday morning. According to a fundraising page, the actress is currently in the ICU at UNC Chapel Hill Hospital and is responsive. The page asks for donations to help Michelle's sister pay for her medical expenses and the time she's taken off of work. So far, the fundraiser has been a success—raising $8,684 out of their $5,000 goal. The page gave fans an update about her current condition, saying, "She is progressing slowly, but progressing!"	– The actress who plays Miss Claudette on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black emerged from a medically induced coma yesterday after 16 days, reports Us. Doctors put Michelle Hurst in the coma after a bad car accident, and supporters set up an online fundraising page for her medical bills, notes E! Online. Thanks to public tweets from the likes of Piper Kerman, whose memoir about prison life is the basis of the series, and actress Taylor Schilling, who plays the role of Piper in the show, the page has raised more than $14,000 toward its $20,000 goal. Hurst's condition isn't clear, but the page says she is "responsive" and "progressing slowly."
Copies of the New York Daily News are for sale at a news stand in New York, Monday, July 23, 2018, after the paper told employees that the newspaper is reducing its editorial staff by 50 percent. (AP... (Associated Press) Copies of the New York Daily News are for sale at a news stand in New York, Monday, July 23, 2018, after the paper told employees that the newspaper is reducing its editorial staff by 50 percent. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) (Associated Press) Copies of the New York Daily News are for sale at a news stand in New York, Monday, July 23, 2018, after the paper told employees that the newspaper is reducing its editorial staff by 50 percent. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) (Associated Press) Copies of the New York Daily News are for sale at a news stand in New York, Monday, July 23, 2018, after the paper told employees that the newspaper is reducing its editorial staff by 50 percent. (AP... (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — The New York tabloid Daily News will cut half of its newsroom staff, saying it wants to focus more on digital news. The paper was sold to tronc Inc. last year for $1, with the owner of the Chicago Tribune assuming liabilities and debt. In an email sent to staff Monday, tronc said staff at the Daily News will focus on breaking news involving "crime, civil justice and public responsibility." Revenue and print circulation have been sliding at the newspaper for years, even as it provided critical coverage of health issues in public housing and for first responders after the Sept. 11 attacks. Revenue slid 22 percent between 2014 and 2016, and the paper had already been letting people go. "Since the year began, we've worked hard to transform the New York Daily News into a truly digitally-focused enterprise - one that creates meaningful journalism, delivers it more quickly and more frequently, and develops new approaches to engage our readers," an email sent to staff said. "We've gained a deeper understanding of our readership. We've redefined our structures. But we have not gone far enough." Editor-in-chief Jim Rich and Managing Editor Kristen Lee are both included in the layoffs. Robert York, editor of Tronc-owned The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania, will take over as editor of The Daily News. Tronc Inc., based in Chicago, owns the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, the Orlando Sentinel, and other media operations. \|\|\|\|\| Ambitious projects like the series on New York Police Department’s abuse of eviction rules — for which The News shared a Pulitzer Prize with ProPublica in 2017 — would seem difficult to pull off with an even smaller staff. Sarah Ryley, the reporter on the series, who left The News last year, said it had taken three years to complete because she and the rest of the staff were stretched thin after the layoffs under Mr. Zuckerman. “You used to go into the office and feel the energy,” said Frank Isola, a sports columnist at The News for nearly 25 years, who was among those laid off on Monday. “I’ve probably been in the office, I would say, maybe three times in the last three years. People tell me: ‘Don’t come in. It’s depressing.’” Since Tronc bought the ailing tabloid from Mr. Zuckerman in September 2017 — for a reported $1; yes, one dollar — the company has been working to transform The News into something more digital. “But we have not gone far enough,” the company said in a memo to the staff that announced its decision to reduce “the size of the editorial team by approximately 50 percent” and to shift its focus to breaking news. Some News employees started packing last week, after the media newsletter Study Hall reported that the company planned to lay off a large portion of the staff. Although daily print circulation had sunk to roughly 200,000, Mr. Rich breathed new life into the paper. During two stints as editor — a 13-month run that ended in 2016, and an encore that began in January — he regularly published front pages that captured the staccato energy of social media. He was typically combative in a Twitter post on Monday: “If you hate democracy and think local governments should operate unchecked and in the dark, then today is a good day for you,” he wrote. Mr. Rich also dropped the Daily News affiliation from his Twitter bio. “Just a guy sitting at home watching journalism being choked into extinction,” it reads. \|\|\|\|\| Tronc Slashes 'New York Daily News' Staff By Half Enlarge this image toggle caption Drew Angerer/Getty Images Drew Angerer/Getty Images The newspaper publishing company Tronc has moved to slash the New York Daily News newsroom, announcing cuts of 50 percent to the paper's editorial staff, according to an internal memo obtained by NPR and other news outlets. The staff learned of the cuts Monday morning from a memo emailed from the paper's "talent engagement" account. It said the moves were necessary to seize the opportunities of digital news and financial challenges ahead. A Tronc spokeswoman confirmed the veracity of the memo. Tronc said in the memo that the Daily News would be "re-focusing much of our talent on breaking news — especially in areas of crime, civil justice and public responsibility." Tronc purchased the famed New York City tabloid last fall for $1 in a reunion of sorts; the paper was founded by Tronc's corporate predecessor, the Tribune Co., in 1919 and sold off in 1991. The Daily News endured waves of cuts under subsequent owners and declining paid circulation in recent years though it has remained on most lists of top 10 circulation papers in the U.S. Tronc is the owner of other papers in Chicago, Baltimore, Hartford, Florida, and Virginia, among others. Tronc's continuing cuts and shift in emphasizing quick-turn pieces for digital audiences led to successful unionization drives at both the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, then its two largest papers, earlier this year. Tronc subsequently sold the LA Times. Last fall, the Chicago Tribune called Tronc's acquisition of the Daily News "a stunning and bold bet on the future of newspapers." Tronc's CEO (and now chairman) Justin Dearborn said at the time, "We expect it to benefit greatly from becoming part of the Tronc ecosystem." The move now to gut the Daily News's newsroom will be a blow to local watchdog journalism in the nation's largest city. It has retained a punch in local news at a time when the The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have retreated from metro coverage. The Daily News won a Pulitzer Prize last year, its 11th, with ProPublica, for its exposure of how the New York Police Department used an obscure civil enforcement law to evict hundreds of poor people from their homes without their being able to challenge the move first. The paper has also made a meal of the Donald Trump presidency from the populist left, depicting the New York-based real estate developer, long familiar to readers of its gossip pages, as a malevolent, autocratic and cartoonish figure. Former Daily News editor-in-chief Jim Rich was rehired as the tabloid's editor after Tronc acquired it last September. Rich and Managing Editor Kristen Lee are out as part of the cuts. Rich made his anger toward the cuts known on Twitter, first by tweeting early Monday morning: "If you hate democracy and think local governments should operate unchecked and in the dark, then today is a good day for you." He subsequently changed his Twitter bio to this: "Just a guy sitting at home watching journalism being choked into extinction." Tronc has appointed a new editor-in-chief, Robert York, previously editor and publisher of the smaller Tronc sister paper, the Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call. Below is the Tronc memo: \|\|\|\|\| To put a twist on one of the most famous front pages in history: “Tronc to New York Daily News: Drop Dead!” That’s what it feels like today in the wake of the publisher’s decision to lay off half the editorial staff at the storied tabloid, leaving a skeleton crew to run a newspaper that covers national news, issues, and events impacting the biggest city in the country. The rumors started circulating last week, and on Sunday, Tronc sent an email to staffers prepping them for “an important message from Grant Whitmore,” Tronc’s eastern region general manager. This morning, the axe dropped: “We are fundamentally restructuring the Daily News,” says an email from Tronc to staff. “We are reducing today the size of the editorial team by approximately 50 percent and re-focusing much of our talent on breaking news — especially in areas of crime, civil justice and public responsibility.” The realignment of the priorities of the paper, which has a largely working-class readership and a history of uncovering municipal corruption and City Hall scandal, aroused outrage from many commenters, including former News reporter Tom Robbins: Just some of the stories broken by the @NYDailyNews in past few weeks: –A mini race-riot among FDNY members in the Bronx; –NYPD failure to discipline officers despite blatant evidence; –NYPD move to charge Pantaleo in Garner death; –Non-stop exclusives re NYCHA scandal. — Tom Robbins (@tommy_robb) July 23, 2018 It’s just the latest round of cuts at the financially struggling Daily News, which Tronc bought last summer for $1, promptly terminating some roles at the paper and moving some functions to the publisher’s Chicago headquarters.	– The New York Daily News will this week become half of what it once was, at least in terms of staff. Parent company Tronc, which acquired the paper in September for $1, on Monday announced in a memo that it would be cutting its editorial staff by roughly 50% to focus more on digital news and "address the significant financial challenges we have faced for years." The AP reports revenues sank 22% between 2014 and 2016, and prior cuts had taken place. Those ousted include editor-in-chief Jim Rich, who NPR reports communicated his displeasure on Twitter, where he changed his bio to "Just a guy sitting at home watching journalism being choked into extinction." The New York Times, which reports the newsroom staff had numbered 75 to 100, notes he tweeted the following at 1:40am Monday, "If you hate democracy and think local governments should operate unchecked and in the dark, then today is a good day for you." Robert York, editor of the Tronc-owned Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., will fill the slot. The memo says editorial efforts will be refocused around breaking news, "especially in areas of crime, civil justice and public responsibility. ... We will, of course, continue to cover local news, sports and other events, but our approach will evolve as we adapt to our current environment." Those given the boot will receive 90 days of severance. Marcus Baram worked for the paper in the late '90s and reports on how low morale was prior to these cuts in a piece for Fast Company.
UPDATED: Joan Lee, wife of Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee, died on Thursday in Los Angeles. She was 93. Joan Lee had reportedly been hospitalized after suffering a stroke earlier this week. “I can confirm the sad news that Joan Lee passed away this morning quietly and surrounded by her family,” a spokesperson for the family said in a statement to Variety. “The family ask that you please give them time to grieve and respect their privacy during this difficult time.” Joan, a former British hat model, married Stan on Dec. 5, 1947. The two, who were married for 69 years, met when Stan was supposed to take her friend on a blind date. Together, they had two children: Joan Celia (J.C.) and Jan, who died three days after her birth. Before meeting Stan, Joan impulsively married an American soldier during World War II, in what turned out to be an unhappy relationship. After a six-week stay in Reno, Nevada, a judge granted her divorce, and he married her and Stan in a room next door. The newlyweds returned to New York, where Stan Lee worked for Timely/Atlas Comics, now known as Marvel Comics. Stan cited Joan as inspiration for the burgeoning Fantastic Four project he co-created with Jack Kirby in 1961. They moved to California in 1981 so Stan could develop Marvel TV and film works. Joan did voice work on “Fantastic Four” as Miss Forbes and “Spider-Man” as Madame Web in the 1990’s animated Marvel shows. She also had a role in 2016’s “X-Men: Apocalypse.” Joan Lee authored a novel, “The Pleasure Palace,” in 1987 about a man’s mission to create the world’s most luxurious ocean liner while simultaneously balancing three romances. On Friday, Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment posted an update on his Twitter account. “On behalf of Stan, thanks for the heartfelt condolences,” read the message, accompanied by a comic book drawing of the couple. “He is well and truly appreciates the outpouring of love for Joan.” \|\|\|\|\| The pair, who met when the Marvel boss was supposed to take her friend on a date, were married for 69 years. Joan Lee, the wife of Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, died Thursday in Los Angeles. She was 95. "I can confirm the sad news that Joan Lee passed away this morning quietly and surrounded by her family," a spokesperson for Stan Lee and his family said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "The family ask that you please give them time to grieve and respect their privacy during this difficult time." Joan Lee suffered a stroke earlier in the week and was hospitalized, according to sources. The British former hat model and Lee were married on Dec. 5, 1947, and were by all accounts hopelessly devoted to each other. They had two children: J.C. (Joan Celia), who was born in 1950, and Jan, who died three days after her birth in 1953. Marvel paid tribute to her in a statement on Thursday: "We are so saddened to hear about the loss of Joan Lee. We lost a member of the Marvel family today and our thoughts and prayers go out to Stan and his daughter Joan in this difficult time." Last year, Lee recounted how he met his wife in a story for THR that celebrated his 75th anniversary in comics. After a childhood sweetheart wed another woman, Joan Clayton impulsively married an American soldier during World War II and moved to New York, where she was extremely unhappy. Meanwhile, a cousin of Lee's wanted to set up the struggling writer with a hat model. Lee tells what happened next: "When I was young, there was one girl I drew; one body and face and hair. It was my idea of what a girl should be. The perfect woman. And when I got out of the Army, somebody, a cousin of mine, knew a model, a hat model at a place called Laden Hats. He said, 'Stan, there's this really pretty girl named Betty. I think you'd like her. She might like you. Why don't you go over and ask her to lunch.' Blah, blah, blah. "So I went up to this place. Betty didn't answer the door. But Joan answered, and she was the head model. I took one look at her — and she was the girl I had been drawing all my life. And then I heard the English accent. And I'm a nut for English accents! She said, 'May I help you?' And I took a look at her, and I think I said something crazy like, 'I love you.' I don't remember exactly. But anyway, I took her to lunch. I never met Betty, the other girl. I think I proposed to [Joan] at lunch." In those days, the quickest way to get divorced was to move to Nevada and stay for six weeks to establish residency. Soon after Joan arrived in Reno, Stan received a letter from her addressed to "Jack," and that worried him. "Now I'm not the smartest guy in world," recalled Lee. "I know my name isn't 'Jack.' And so why did she write 'Dear Jack'? Maybe I better go to Reno and see what's going on. I got there and she was waiting for me. And there's three guys with her. They all look like John Wayne. Big Western guys! Rugged! And I get off the plane fresh from New York with my little porkpie hat and a little scarf and my gloves. And she's with me. I thought, 'I don't have a chance.' Luckily, I had a chance." A judge granted Joan her divorce and about an hour later that judge married her and Lee in a room next door. The couple returned to New York, where Lee worked at Marvel Comics forerunner Timely/Atlas Comics, a job he initially landed because his cousin Martin Goodman owned the company. Comics were a middling enterprise until Lee and Jack Kirby co-created the Fantastic Four in 1961 (followed by the Hulk, Avengers, Iron Man, X-Men and other characters) and turned the company, renamed Marvel Comics, into a pop culture powerhouse. In some versions of the origin of the Fantastic Four, Lee credits Joan with inspiring him. He was depressed about his career (Lee had dreams of becoming a serious novelist) and the state of comics (the industry in the 1950s was dominated by stories of war, science fiction and romance, genres he didn't like) and contemplated leaving the business. "Before you quit," Joan told him, "why don't you write one comic you are proud of?" And thus was born the Fantastic Four. In 1981, the Lees moved from New York City to California so Stan could work on developing Marvel TV and film projects. Joan did voice work on two 1990s animated Marvel shows, Fantastic Four (as Miss Forbes) and Spider-Man (as Madame Web). She also made a cameo in 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse. Joan Lee also wrote a 1987 novel, The Pleasure Palace, about a man striving to build the most luxurious ocean liner ever while romancing several women at once. According to her daughter, she had three more unpublished but finished novels at home. On Friday, Stan's Twitter account shared a cartoon of the husband and wife together, swinging off into the sunset. On behalf of Stan, thanks for the heartfelt condolences.He is well and truly appreciates the outpouring of love for Joan.-POW! Entertainment pic.twitter.com/AhtKjXWfvX — stan lee (@TheRealStanLee) July 7, 2017 Borys Kit contributed to this report. July 7, 12:22 p.m. Updated with the cartoon tweeted from Stan Lee's account.	– Sad news in the world of comics: Joan Lee, the wife of industry legend Stan Lee, is dead at age 93, reports Variety. She had a stroke last week and never recovered. Lee himself is 94 and had been married to Joan for 69 years. Her death prompted the Hollywood Reporter to recount how Stan Lee met his future wife, then a British hat model living in New York, back in the 1940s. A friend had told him about another hat model, but when he went to ask her to lunch, Joan answered the door. "I took one look at her—and she was the girl I had been drawing all my life," he once recalled. "And then I heard the English accent. And I’m a nut for English accents! She said, 'May I help you?' And I took a look at her, and I think I said something crazy like, 'I love you.' I don’t remember exactly. But anyway, I took her to lunch. I never met Betty, the other girl. I think I proposed to [Joan] at lunch.” The two married Dec. 5, 1947, in Reno, Nevada, roughly an hour after Joan obtained a divorce. The Hollywood Reporter has the full story.
Bart Palosz, 15, committed suicide in August 2013 after the first day of his sophomore year at Greenwich High School. The family of a 15-year-old Connecticut high school student who shot himself in the head is suing the town and its board of education, alleging school officials knew their son was relentlessly bullied for years and failed to protect him. Wealthy Connecticut Couple Vanishes After $2.2M Debt Ruling The family of Bartlomeij "Bart" Palosz is suing Greenwich and the town's school district for $15,000 in damages, nearly two years after the 15-year-old committed suicide after the first day of his sophomore year at Greenwich High School, the first day his recently-graduated older sister wasn't there to look after him. Toddler Dies After Being Left in 200-Degree Car The complaint alleges Palosz was "subjected to a years-long history of unremitting bullying" at Western Middle School and Greenwich High School. The last time he was bullied was the day he died, according to the complaint. Teens Cheated Out of $100K in Promised Wages at Summer Jobs Bart faced years of name-calling, teasing and physical violence that left him injured on at least one occasion, according to the complaint. He was kicked and hit on the back of the neck. Classmates stole his pencil and threw it at him and smashed his brand new smartphone, court documents allege. Harvard Student Loses Facebook Internship for App "Everyone treats him bad because he pushes people's buttons," Western Middle School Assistant Principal Albert Sackey wrote in a report after Palosz was kicked at his locker in 2012, according to the complaint. "Everyone is mean to him." Man, 19, Arrested on Two DWI Charges in 10 Hours Palosz's performance in class suffered drastically. He stopped turning in his homework and his grades plummeted in the spring of 2013, the complaint alleges. He also began biting his hands in an effort to cope with stress and anxiety. Top News Photos of the Week All the while, school administrators, teachers and counselors left Palosz "unprotected and unsupported"despite their knowledge of the bullying he endured, according to the complaint. $15M Stolen Picasso Found in NJ to Be Returned to Paris "Kids pick on him, very socially akward (sic), bullied regularly, annoying to peers," a middle school employee wrote during Bart's transition to the high school. "Bart gets bullied on a regular basis but he doesn’t tell anyone, needs to be connected, wants to be liked." Amoeba Kills Swimmer in Oklahoma Lake Another wrote: "Shoelaces tied together – Stitches in head – hit w/ locker. He won’t tell on kids. No self advocacy. Very tall and awakward (sic), will stare at other kids. Wants to be liked." Connecticut Supreme Court Overturns Death Penalty > The complaint claims Greenwich High School "failed to comply" with its anti-bullying policy, which requires staff members to provide victims with emotional support, intervene in and investigate known cases of bullying, file oral and written reports on bullying instances, contact the parents of bullying victims and discipline bullies. 'I'm Alive': Stranded 19-Year-Old Spends Night Clinging to Buoy The lawsuit cites Greenwich First Selectman Drew Marzullo as saying, "We as a community failed this child." According to family attorney Randy Savicky of Silver Golub & Teitell LLP, the town is required to respond by Sept. 8. "We feel this lawsuit is important so that other students in Greenwich don’t suffer the same kind of treatment that Bart did. It is our hope that this lawsuit will result in changes to how the Greenwich school system responds to students in need of help so that there will be no more needless deaths," the family said in a statement Wednesday. Rihanna Is Joining 'The Voice' NBC Connecticut has reached out to Greenwich Town Attorney John Wayne Fox for comment on the lawsuit. SUICIDE PREVENTION: The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (800-273-8255) is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Greenwich Student Commits Suicide A 15-year-old Greenwich High School sophomore committed suicide hours after classes started. (Published Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015) \|\|\|\|\| Family of Bart Palosz sues Greenwich, public schools for failing to protect him from bullying Almost two years after 15-year-old Bart Palosz committed suicide on the first day of his sophomore year at Greenwich High School, a lawsuit brought against the town sheds new light on the case and again raises the question of whether the school district should share the blame in the teenager’s decision to take his life. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by Bart’s parents, Anna Izabela Palosz and Franciszek Palosz, claims school staff were well aware of bullying he endured at school for years, yet did not follow mandatory anti-bullying policies, a failure they claim contributed to their son’s death. School documents that indicate what officials did know about Bart’s history, undisclosed until now, have been revealed in filings in state Superior Court in Stamford. They include a record of Bart in the district’s “sharings” program, which details important information for Greenwich High staff about incoming ninth-graders. “The middle school sharings document is a smoking gun,” said David Golub, the attorney representing the Paloszes. “It shows that the school system knew, but ignored” the Board of Education’s anti-bullying procedures. Bart is described in the sharings document as a “very socially awkward” student who was bullied regularly during his years at Western Middle School but did not tell anyone about it. The teenager was “annoying” to his peers and would stare at them, but he wanted to be liked and needed to be connected, the document states. “Social work needed” was written on the form. It was a recommendation that was never acted upon, according to the lawsuit. School records show that the bullying of Bart included name-calling and teasing, repeated incidents of property theft and hitting and kicking from classmates, according to the lawsuit. Bart was hit in the head with a locker — an injury that required stitches — and had his shoelaces tied together, according to the sharings document. “I wanted to make you aware that Bart was pretty severely bullied in middle school,” his guidance counselor wrote in a November 2012 email to Bart’s classroom teachers when he was in ninth grade, another new revelation contained in the lawsuit. “He would not report any of the incidents to the school, so the only way it was brought to light was if it was observed or if he told at home.” Superintendent of Schools William McKersie and Greenwich High Headmaster Chris Winters declined to comment on the lawsuit. They referred inquiries to Town Attorney John Wayne Fox, who was not available for comment Wednesday. First Selectman Peter Tesei did not return a message left for him by press time. Board of Education members either did not return messages or declined to comment. Lawyers for the Paloszes and the town tried for many months to negotiate a settlement, but they could not come to terms, according to Golub. The lawsuit had to be filed before a two-year statute of limitation from the date of Bart’s death went into effect on Aug. 27. “We feel this lawsuit is important so that other students in Greenwich don’t suffer the same kind of treatment that Bart did,” the Palosz family said in a statement. “It is our hope that this lawsuit will result in changes to how the Greenwich school system responds to students in need of help so that there will be no more needless deaths.” The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages in excess of $15,000, the threshold for filing in the court. The complaint marks the first legal action brought against the district and town related to Bart’s death. School and municipal officials have until Sept. 8 to respond. History of bullying Reports of bullying became widespread in the immediate aftermath of Bart’s death, a tragedy that shocked the Greenwich community. “I knew it was a matter of time, but it's very painful to relive what happened to Bart,” Lori Keegan, a friend of the Paloszes, said in an email Wednesday. “Bart was an easy target; he didn’t fight back. He was quiet and shy. I think about him every day.” Family and friends have said Bart was picked on for a number of reasons, including his socially awkward demeanor, his tall and heavy-set frame, his acne and his Polish accent. His family immigrated to the U.S. from Poland when he was four years old. Bart’s troubles were known to Western administrators, including two assistant principals, according to the lawsuit. In a May 2012 meeting with then-Assistant Principal Albert Sackey, an eighth-grade Bart reportedly admitted to several instances of being physically and verbally abused. But Palosz’s treatment by his peers apparently did not improve at Greenwich High, which Bart began attending in the fall of 2012. Less than two months into his freshman year, a classmate in a biology class smashed his new Android smartphone, according to the lawsuit. Shortly after Bart died, his sister, Beata, recalled the same incident. By the spring of his freshman year, Bart was showing major signs of his distress, the lawsuit said. His grades dropped off precipitously, he decided to stop turning in his homework and he was biting his hands in class. While he was reluctant to share his ordeals with others face-to-face, Bart did open up on the social network Google+. There, he posted plans to harm himself due to "school caused insanity." "I have chosen to go with 3 peoples (sic) advice and kill myself," he wrote in June 2013, adding that he had just swallowed pills. "I just wish it was faster." He would survive that episode and show up for the first day of classes to start his sophomore year, on Aug. 27, 2013. It would be his first and only day at Greenwich High without Beata, who had graduated the previous June. She was a crucial source of company and protection from his antagonists. After school that day, Bart returned to an empty home. He grabbed the key to a gun safe in his bedroom where his father kept his hunting rifles. With one of those weapons, he ended his life by shooting himself in the head. Culpability The lawsuit charges that teachers, administrators and counselors were negligent because they failed in a number of ways to meet the district’s anti-bullying policies and procedures. Their failure comprised a “substantial factor” in Bart’s decision to take his own life, the complaint claims. They did not, according to the lawsuit, properly carry out the following required actions: Reporting and investigating bullying of Bart. Taking the steps prescribed on the middle school “sharings” form. Notifying and meeting with Bart’s parents and the parents of students who bullied Bart. Disciplining the students who bullied Bart. Developing student safety support and intervention plans in response to the bullying of Bart. “Had defendants’ personnel complied with the mandatory provisions of the policy, as required, Bart would have received counseling, including appropriate encouragement to advocate on his own behalf (which school personnel universally recognized Bart could not do,” the lawsuit states. “Bart also would have been protected from his tormentors and would have been to feel less tormented.” While school and municipal officials have acknowledged that Palosz was bullied, they have argued that educators cared about him and did their best to help him. “We knew Bart very well,” McKersie said at Board of Selectmen meeting a couple of weeks after Bart died. “I remember his dad, I remember his mom, I remember his sister... This is a case of a young man who took his life who we knew well.” But school officials have declined to specify the support that Bart received. Citing privacy laws, they have opposed Freedom of Information requests for access to Bart’s school records. The district launched an investigation immediately after Bart’s death but handed it over less than two weeks later to the town’s legal department. In April 2014, Fox, the town attorney, reported on the findings of a draft report, but the document has never been made public. “It is clear from our investigation that this young man was subjected to acts by students or groups of students directed against him with what I would define and describe as an intent to ridicule, humiliate or to intimidate him,” Fox said at a Board of Education meeting. “It was also clear to me and to our findings that the school system was aware of those difficulties that Bart was having, was attentive to them and set up procedures and programs in an attempt to address them. There will always be a question and debate as to whether enough was done or if some things could have been done better.” Other town officials took a more emphatic position. “We as a community failed this child,” Selectman Drew Marzullo said in February 2014. “We tried very hard to resolve this matter with the town without the need for a lawsuit, but unfortunately were unable to do so,” Golub said. “It’s a shame that the town, while admitting that it ‘failed this child,’ won’t actually take responsibility for what happened here.” Golub said the town decided against settling, but he declined to specify the reason. pschott@scni.com; 203-625-4439; twitter: @paulschott	– The parents of a 15-year-old who killed himself in 2013 after years of "unremitting bullying" have sued their Connecticut town and its board of education, accusing them of ignoring the problem and their own anti-bullying policy, NBC New York reports. According to the Greenwich Time, Bartlomeij "Bart" Palosz shot himself with his father's hunting rifle after his first day as a sophomore following a failed attempt to kill himself with pills a few months earlier. Bart's parents are seeking an unspecified amount greater than $15,000 in their lawsuit. The family's lawyer tells the Time that recently revealed documents compiled on Bart by his middle school and shared with his high school are a "smoking gun." In these documents, staffers are quoted as saying "everyone" was mean to Bart because he "pushes people's buttons" and that he wanted to be liked but was "very socially awkward" and "annoying to peers," according to NBC. The Time reports the documents show incidents of verbal and physical bullying—one resulted in stitches—and include the phrase "social work needed." The lawsuit claims this proves the schools knew about the bullying but didn't protect Bart or punish his tormentors as required by their anti-bullying policy.
Cameras catch BART janitor who made $270,000 in a year spending hours in Powell St. closet Last November, a nonprofit called Transparent California reported that a BART janitor named Liang Zhao Zhang made $271,000 in a single year — over $162,000 of that in the form of overtime. Now, a KTVU investigation into Zhang's hours and pay revealed that he disappears into a storage closet at the Powell St. station, sometimes for hours a day. In order to observe how Zhang spent his sometimes 17-hour work day, KTVU requested surveillance video from BART. On it, they saw Zhang entering a storage closet twice in one day, once for 54 minutes and again for 90 minutes later in the day. On another day, they observed Zhang in the closet for 90 minutes in the afternoon and another 78 minutes in the evening. More: Parking fee increase at 5 East Bay BART stations starts today Zhang tells the TV crew he is taking his meal breaks during that time, although a BART representative told KTVU employees eat their lunch in the separate break room. BART employees are normally given 30 minutes for lunch, although BART doesn't track their breaks. KTVU also discovered that Zhang failed to clock in or out 16 times in one year. Click ahead to read about the weirdest BART antics in the news lately. A BART train pulls into the Powell St. station. Click ahead to read about the weirdest BART antics in the news lately. A BART train pulls into the Powell St. station. Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close Cameras catch BART janitor who made $270,000 in a year spending hours in Powell St. closet 1 / 23 Back to Gallery Last year, BART spokesperson Alicia Trost told SFGATE that Zhang was paid every single day in 2015 and provided a breakdown of his pay and benefits for the year: For regular hours he did: 1420.73 regular hours 24 hours of protected sick leave 192 of vacation hours 48 hours of holiday pay 3.27 of administrative leave For overtime he did: 63 hours of "holiday work" 1821.53 hours of time and a half (1.5 for regular day off 1). 601 hours of double time (2 for regular day off 2) Transparent California found that Zhang worked 17 hours a day for 18 days in a row in July 2015, a feat that a writer from the nonprofit called "super human." "This employee signs up for every overtime slot that becomes available," Trost told SFGATE. "He is likely working almost every day of the year cleaning our stations. He is signing up for time that is also available to others — if he doesn't take the hours, someone else will. The sign-ups are based on seniority." MORE: Some BART workers are nearly tripling their salary with overtime pay BART confirmed that 49 other janitors made over $100,000 in 2015 and that no city, state or federal regulations prevented employees from working that much voluntary overtime. None of those employees have been audited, BART told KTVU. \|\|\|\|\| SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) -- A BART janitor who earned more than a quarter million dollars in salary, overtime, and benefits made headlines for his eye-popping pay. But now 2 Investigates has uncovered some serious questions about how he earned all that money and why supervisors haven’t taken a closer look. The janitor, Liang Zhao Zhang, earned $57,945 in base pay in 2015 for cleaning San Francisco’s Powell Street station. But according to public records uncovered by Transparent California, his also raked in an additional $162,050 in overtime, bringing his total salary and benefits that year to $271,243. “It’s absolutely outrageous,” said Robert Fellner, with Transparent California. Fellner has examined public employee salary information for years, and says he has never seen anything like this. “For Janitors that’s obscene! It’s unconscionable!” 2 Investigates obtained Zhang’s timecard data and plotted it out over the calendar year. The results showed the BART paid Zhang every single day in 2015. Most days he worked overtime, clocking in about 17 hours of work. He also used some days of paid vacation and holidays in order to rake in pay for 365 days that year. In one stretch during July 2015, Zhang worked 17 hour days for 18 days straight, according to timecard records. “Super human!” said Fellner. “The average reaction to that is ‘How is that possible?'" RELATED STORY BART’s Chief Transportation Officer Roy Aguilera says it’s possible because Zhang never refuses extra work and picks up much of the overtime hours offered. Aguilera says the population of homeless people who spend time in the Powell Street station means the janitorial staff spends much of their time cleaning up urine, feces, and needles, which he calls “totally unacceptable.” “People are not raising their hands and saying, ‘I want some of that overtime.’ Mr. Zhang has said yes, he’s worked hard, he’s completed his assignments, so I stand by the work he’s done,” Aguilera said. When asked whether he’s check up on Zhang’s performance, time cards, or overtime hours, Aguilera said he personally hasn’t but the supervisors working under him have. 2 Investigates learned that BART has never conducted an extensive investigation of Zhang’s time cards, despite the janitor earning more than $705,000 in pay and benefits during the four years from 2012 to 2015. Graph Source: BART Spokesperson Alicia Trost There have also been 49 other BART janitors who have earned more than $100,000 in 2015, and the agency also confirmed it has not audited or investigated those employees either. In an email, BART spokesperson Alicia Trost said “There are multiple management systems in place to ensure hours worked and assignments are completed.” She also confirmed there is no future audit being considering after KTVU’s investigation. But when 2 Investigates randomly checked on Zhang’s performance and timesheets, discrepancies and questions quickly arose. While inspecting two random days of surveillance video from BART’s own security cameras, KTVU investigators spotted Zhang working, sweeping, mopping on a riding machine, and taking out the trash. But, according to the timestamp on BART’s video, Zhang also appears to have disappeared inside a storage closet for hours at a time. On the first day that 2 Investigates logged, Zhang appears to go into the closet twice, for 54 minutes and 90 minutes respectively. On the second day of video, he spends 90 minutes in the closet in the afternoon, and another 78 minutes behind the door later that evening. A BART spokesperson said she cannot be certain that Zhang is the janitor pictured in one of the video clips, but that in other instances it is “obvious.” She said the janitors may be cleaning, repairing equipment, or taking breaks in that closet, but the agency does not track breaks. Earlier, though, Aguilera had said the closet is not a break room and employees eat their lunches in a separate room in a different part of the station. But he wouldn’t allow 2 Investigates to see inside the closet. 2 Investigates also found questions on Zhang’s timesheet. Over two months, he failed to clock in or out to verify his hours three times. BART General Manager Grace Crunican said she wasn’t aware of those discrepancies. “Well, this piece is news to me, yes that would be concerning if we had an examination with the supervisor and there wasn’t a good reason for that.” Crunican also said she has not personally seen the surveillance video of Zhang spending hours inside the Powell Street station closet. She said she does not believe, based on the information she’s seen, that Zhang’s high pay and time sheet warrants an audit. “We’ve increased the staffing two years in a row, we’ve reduced the overtime this past year,” she said, “we’ve reduced the number of hours for overtime.” 2 Investigates also showed Crunican video of dirty conditions at Powell Street station taken over several days. It shows sticky handrails, trash on the floor, and dirt and dust built up under benches. “I do agree with you that those levels those standards are not good,” she said. Aguilera argued that because of the constant need to clean up human waste and drug at Powell Street that janitors do not have time to keep the rest of the station clean. He showed 2 Investigates a list of the janitors’ daily duties and cleaning the elevators was listed as No. 2. Aguilera said the cleaning crew can rarely get past cleaning the elevators because of the constant mess. Cleaning the “restroom, offices, lunch room, and locker rooms” is number 11 on that list, and cleaning the “janitor’s room” is at the bottom. BART administration says that Zhang’s direct supervisor approved all his timesheets and overtime, and they insist he is one of their best employees. But Fellner disagrees, insisting that enough questions exist about how custodians are being managed that BART should have audited their overtime and pay years ago. “I would say a catastrophic management failure there.” Source: Data compiled from timecard information provided by BART	– There's quite a difference between making $58,000 a year and $270,000, and that huge gap is why some are now poking around to see how a San Francisco janitor has been pulling in the latter. The San Francisco Chronicle reports on Liang Zhao Zhang, who cleans the BART system's station at Powell Street and has a base salary of $57,945, per public records culled by Transparent California. But thanks to about $162,000 in hefty overtime pay and other compensation and benefits, Zhang raked in what amounts to $271,243 in 2015. Robert Fellner, a research director for the watchdog group, tells KTVU he's been keeping an eye on public employee salaries for years and has never seen a janitor get paid such an "obscene" and "unconscionable" amount. Nearly 50 other unaudited BART janitors also earned in the six figures in 2015. Fellner wants to know, for instance, how the "superhuman" Zhang worked 17-hour days for 18 days in a row during July 2015, a fact found during an analysis of Zhang's timecards, which turned up several "discrepancies and questions." Roy Aguilera, BART's chief transportation officer, says Zhang just grabs extra hours no one wants. But when KTVU gained access to video on BART's security cameras for two random days, it witnessed Zhang head into a storage closet and hole up there for hours (on one day he was in the closet for 90 minutes, then later on for another 78). A BART rep says Zhang may have been fixing equipment or taking a break, though Aguilera tells KTVU there's a dedicated break area elsewhere. Fellner says the situation is a "catastrophic management failure" that should've been audited long ago. (The worst-paying jobs you have to go to college for.)
At Newsline 9 we're always on the lookout for the next news story. Our sources are wide and varied. A recent obituary posted on social media caught our eye and we knew we had to share her story with you. It's of a remarkable Milwaukee woman who is being remembered for her life devoted to others.Mary Agnes Mullaney, better known as "Pink" was born in Milwaukee in 1927. She passed away earlier this week."She was an amazing woman. A very gentle, kind person," said longtime friend Ann Kenwood.Survived by her six children and 17 grandchildren, her family knew a normal obituary just wouldn't work for an extraordinary woman."We wanted something that showed who she was," explained daughter Maryanne "We said, how can we be like her and carry her pinkness across."The following are excerpts from the colorful death announcement."Go to church with a chicken sandwich in your purse. Give the chicken sandwich to your homeless friend after mass." "Go to a nursing home. Kiss everyone.""Invite new friends to thanksgiving dinner. Bonus points if they're from another country," read Maryanne from the obituary. "Never say mean things about anybody; they're poor souls to pray for."Days after Pink's death, in a small room tucked away from hundreds of visitors at Feerick Funeral Home, her family reflects."We'd go to the grocery store with her and before she'd get out of the car we'd say, promise you won't stop and talk to everybody and kiss every baby. I can't make that promise she would say," explained her daughter Meg.It's because Pink's life was devoted to others."From the Northshore doctor to the homeless person they were all equal in my mother's eyes," said Maryanne.The obituary explains it best, "allow the homeless to keep warm in your car while you are mass," it reads. "Take magazines you've already read to your doctors office for others to enjoy. But do not tear off the mailing label." "Because if someone wants to contact me that be nice.""She really reached out to people and they reached back," said Meg.If Pink didn't see you on the street, or meet you in the grocery line, chances are she wrote to you."She would see a dress with a person's name on it, or a flier and she'd write to them," said longtime friend Stan Kenwood.In fact, there were thousands of letters. Some of them were for fun, others serious. One of those letters Kenwood says he'll never let go of."We need a lot more people like her," he said.That was the essence of "Pink"."The life that she lived should be an example to others," said Maryanne.So now family, friends, even total strangers gather to remember. Because in the words of the obituary, "those who have taken her lessons to heart will continue to ensure that a cold drink will be left out for the overheated garbage collector and mail carrier."People will choose to believe the best about people, no matter what.We are sorry we didn't have the chance to introduce you to Pink while she was with us. We want to make sure that doesn't happen again. We've been inspired by her story to return a special Newsline 9 series, "Someone You Should Know."This is where you come in. Is your neighbor, friend, or family member doing something the community should know about? Let us know so we can spread the word. If you know someone we should all know, send us an email to someone@waow.com Link to obituary: http://www.feerickfuneralhome.com/notices.php?id=1036 \|\|\|\|\| The death of a loved one is undoubtedly the hardest thing we face in our short, ridiculous years on Earth. The simple fact that someone isn’t coming back is perhaps the most difficult part of the grieving process, and one that can only be tempered by time. In the end, all we can do is cherish our memories of the person who has gone before us, and learn a few lessons from a life well lived. Newspaper obituaries are rarely the place to impart such lessons, but every now and then they can be used for much more than simply stating the facts of a person’s life. Take the obituary for Mary A. “Pink” Mullaney, an 85-year-old Wisconsin woman who passed away September 1. Her obituary begins with “If you’re about to throw away an old pair of pantyhose, stop,” and only gets more amazing—and oddly inspirational—from there. Here are a few of our favorite lessons contained in this warm, affectionate, and funny look back on woman who was clearly adored and loved by her family: • “Never throw away old pantyhose. Use the old ones to tie gutters, child-proof cabinets, tie toilet flappers, or hang Christmas ornaments.” • “If a possum takes up residence in your shed, grab a barbecue brush to coax him out. If he doesn’t leave, brush him for twenty minutes and let him stay.” • “Go to church with a chicken sandwich in your purse. Cry at the consecration, every time. Give the chicken sandwich to your homeless friend after mass.” • “Put picky-eating children in the box at the bottom of the laundry chute, tell them they are hungry lions in a cage, and feed them veggies through the slats.” • “Believe the hitchhiker you pick up who says he is a landscaper and his name is ‘Peat Moss.’” • “Take magazines you’ve already read to your doctors’ office for others to enjoy. Do not tear off the mailing label, ‘Because if someone wants to contact me, that would be nice.’” The full obit—which, again, will be the best thing you read all day—can be found here. [h/t Ted Perry]	– The AV Club loves the obituary for an 85-year-old woman in Wisconsin named Mary "Pink" Mullaney. Why? Maybe because her family filled it with lessons imparted by Mullaney in life, including, “Never throw away old pantyhose. Use the old ones to tie gutters, child-proof cabinets, tie toilet flappers, or hang Christmas ornaments.” Explains Mullaney's daughter to WAOW: "We said, 'How can we be like her and carry her pinkness across?'" Some other gems: "Go to a nursing home and kiss everyone." "Put picky-eating children in the box at the bottom of the laundry chute, tell them they are hungry lions in a cage, and feed them veggies through the slats." "Never say mean things about anybody; they are 'poor souls to pray for.'" "Make the car dance by lightly tapping the brakes to the beat of the song on the radio." "If a possum takes up residence in your shed, grab a barbecue brush to coax him out. If he doesn't leave, brush him for twenty minutes and let him stay." Read the full obituary here. Or read a moving, self-written obit from a Seattle writer.
Story highlights Autopsy shock: Teen's organs removed, cavity filled with newspaper "We thought we were burying Kendrick, not half of Kendrick," father says Kendrick Johnson was found dead in a rolled-up gym mat in January His death was ruled accidental; a private autopsy challenged that finding The death of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson was awful enough for his parents. Then came the doubts about investigators' conclusion that it was an accident. But the discovery that their son's body and skull had been stuffed with newspaper before burial added a horrific new dimension to their anguish and further fueled their skepticism of the official findings. "We have been let down again," his father, Kenneth Johnson, told CNN. "When we buried Kendrick, we thought we were burying Kendrick, not half of Kendrick." Kendrick Johnson was found dead in a gym at Lowndes County High School in January. State medical examiners concluded that the three-sport athlete suffocated after getting stuck in a rolled-up gym mat while reaching for a sneaker. Death was not accidental, family's autopsy finds His parents, Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson, never have bought that explanation. They won a court order to have their son's body exhumed and a second autopsy performed in June. During an autopsy, internal organs are removed and examined before being returned for burial. But when Dr. Bill Anderson, the private pathologist who conducted the second autopsy, opened up the teen's remains, the brain, heart, lungs, liver and other viscera were missing. Every organ from the pelvis to the skull was gone. JUST WATCHED New evidence in Kendrick Johnson's death Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH New evidence in Kendrick Johnson's death 06:52 JUST WATCHED Dead teen's parents speak out Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Dead teen's parents speak out 03:09 JUST WATCHED New autopsy finds teen death not accident Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH New autopsy finds teen death not accident 04:16 "I'm not sure at this point who did not return the organs to the body," Anderson said. "But I know when we got the body, the organs were not there." Two entities had custody of Kendrick Johnson's body after his death -- the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which conducted the first autopsy in January; and the Harrington Funeral Home in Valdosta, which handled the teen's embalming and burial. GBI spokeswoman Sherry Lang told CNN that after the autopsy, "the organs were placed in Johnson's body, the body was closed, then the body was released to the funeral home." That's normal practice, Lang said. The funeral home would not comment to CNN. But in a letter to the Johnsons' attorney, funeral home owner Antonio Harrington said his firm never received the teen's organs. Harrington wrote that the organs "were destroyed through natural process" due to the position of Kendrick Johnson's body when he died, and "discarded by the prosector before the body was sent back to Valdosta." A prosector dissects the body for pathological examination. Scene points to foul play Stuffing a body with old newsprint and department-store circulars -- "like he was a garbage can," as Jacquelyn Johnson put it -- isn't exactly standard practice in forensic pathology or the mortician's trade. Vernie Fountain, the founder of a Missouri embalming school, called it "not consistent with the standards of care" in the industry. And Dr. Gregory Schmunk, the president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, told CNN, "I have never heard of this practice." Organs are typically placed in plastic bag, which is then put back into the body cavity after an autopsy, Schmunk told CNN in an e-mail. While individual organs may be kept back for further testing, he wrote, "This would not amount to all of the organs in any circumstance that I can imagine." Funeral homes are licensed by the Georgia Secretary of State's office, which has opened an investigation into how Johnson's body was treated, said Jared Thomas, a spokesman for the agency. Anderson, who was hired by the Johnson family for a second autopsy, found Kendrick Johnson had sustained a blow to the right side of his neck that was "consistent with inflicted injury." Challenging the state autopsy's finding of positional asphyxiation, he concluded the teen died as the result of "unexplained, apparent non-accidental, blunt force trauma." And death scene imagery obtained exclusively by CNN has led a former FBI agent to question how Johnson died: "I think this young man met with foul play," said Harold Copus, now an Atlanta private investigator. Lowndes County Sheriff Chris Prine refused to discuss the matter with CNN, calling Johnson's death a closed case. The U.S. Justice Department announced in September that it wouldn't open a civil rights investigation into the case. But federal prosecutors in south Georgia have met with the family's representatives and are weighing whether to open their own probe, said Michael Moore, the U.S. attorney whose district includes Valdosta. "This is about getting to the facts and the truth, and we want the Johnson family and the community of Valdosta to have confidence in the process," Moore said. "I am cognizant of time, and we continue to move the process along." Moore urged anyone with information about Johnson's death to contact his office. Johnson's parents have come to believe their son's death was no accident, and the macabre discovery about their son's body has only deepened that belief. "It's unbearable, just about," Jacquelyn Johnson said. "The only thing that wakes you up in the morning is to just keep pushing." \|\|\|\|\| See more disturbing developments in the Kendrick Johnson case on 'AC360" tonight, 8pm ET Valdosta, Georgia (CNN) -- For the local sheriff's department, the death of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson is a closed book: A tragedy, but an accident. State medical examiners concluded that Johnson suffocated in January after getting stuck in a rolled-up gym mat while reaching for a sneaker. That's a finding his family has never accepted, and one challenged by the findings of a second autopsy they commissioned. Now, death scene imagery obtained exclusively by CNN has led a former FBI agent to question how the three-sport athlete died. Original story: Family demands answers in teen's death "I don't believe this was an accident. I think this young man met with foul play," said Harold Copus, now an Atlanta private investigator. And Johnson's father, Kenneth Johnson, said he believes authorities aren't leveling with his family. "They know something happened in that gym, and they don't want it to come out," he said. 'Accidental' death challenged by new autopsy A 15-minute video and nearly 700 photos taken by sheriff's investigators in Lowndes County documented the horrific scene. Johnson's body, clad in jeans and and layered orange and white T-shirts, was found wedged into a rolled-up wrestling mat in January. His face was bloated with pooled blood, some of which had poured out of his body, soaking his dreadlocks and spilling onto the floor. There were more streaks of blood on a nearby wall -- but it wasn't Johnson's, according to investigators. Meanwhile, Copus said there appeared to be no blood on a sneaker that the teen supposedly was attempting to reach, located inches beneath him. A pair of orange-and-black gym shoes found a few yards from the body had a substance that looked like blood on them, but investigators told CNN the stains weren't blood -- and so the shoes weren't collected as potential evidence. The same went for a hooded sweatshirt found a few feet away from the teen. Copus said he can't explain how investigators handled items found around the gym. Family: Kendrick's death wasn't accidental "If you're running a crime scene, then you're going to say 'That's potential evidence. Obviously, we're going to check this out and find out who does it belong to,' " he said. Lowndes County Sheriff Chris Prine refused to discuss the case with CNN, saying, "Our case is closed." But in June, an independent pathologist who conducted a second autopsy for the Johnson family found the teen suffered a blow to the right side of his neck that was "consistent with inflicted injury." In May, sheriff's Lt. Stryde Jones told CNN that investigators tested the bloodstains on the nearby wall, "and it was not the blood of Kendrick Johnson." Investigators haven't determined whose blood it was, "but it doesn't appear to be involved in our crime in any way," he said. "In the opinion of our crime scene personnel, after looking at it closely, the blood appeared as if it'd been there for an extended period of time. It didn't appear to be very fresh," Jones said. But Copus said it's difficult to believe that old bloodstains weren't cleaned up. "There is no way that they would allow whoever was supposed to clean this gym to leave that blood on that wall," he said. In September, the Justice Department said it wouldn't open a civil rights investigation into Johnson's death. But federal prosecutors in south Georgia are reviewing the imagery to determine whether a separate investigation is necessary, the U.S. attorney's office in Macon told CNN. For Johnson's father, the evidence is clear. "Someone murdered him," he said. "They should be in jail." Justice Department won't probe teen's death Watch Anderson Cooper 360° weeknights 10pm ET. For the latest from AC360° click here.	– The plot has again thickened in the mysterious death of Georgia teen Kendrick Johnson: A second autopsy on the 17-year-old's exhumed body has found that before burial almost all of his organs were replaced with newspaper. Kendrick was found dead in a rolled-up wrestling mat at his school in January, in what was originally ruled an accidental asphyxiation. But his parents were suspicious and had him exhumed and examined by a private doctor. That doctor found evidence of "non-accidental" trauma, and now reveals that every organ from Kendrick's pelvis to skull—including his brain, lungs, heart, and liver—is missing, CNN reports. Newspapers were stuffed into the cavities the organs should have occupied "like he was a garbage can," his mother says. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which conducted the first autopsy, says it put all the organs back in afterward. But the funeral home that embalmed Kendrick tells the family's attorney that before it got the body the organs "were destroyed through natural process," and then "discarded by the prosecutor." The county sheriff, meanwhile, says the death is a closed case and refuses to discuss it. Yesterday, CNN revealed photos and video from the scene of Kendrick's death that raise serious questions about investigators' work, showing among other things blood stains on the wall that weren't investigated. "They know something happened in that gym," Kendrick's father says, "and they don't want it to come out." Click for more on the case.
The seed for Wide00014 was: - Slash pages from every domain on the web: -- a ranking of all URLs that have more than one incoming inter-domain link (rank was determined by number of incoming links using Wide00012 inter domain links) -- up to a maximum of 100 most highly ranked URLs per domain - Top ranked pages (up to a max of 100) from every linked-to domain using the Wide00012 inter-domain navigational link graph \|\|\|\|\| Have you ever had a voice in your head that didn't feel like your own? Or heard a voice speaking out loud that you know wasn't really there? Psychologists used to say these were signs of mental illness. But now it turns out that they aren't that unusual — and even people who hear a lot of voices have a wide range of experiences with them. Illustration by John T Takai A new study published this week in The Lancet Psychology is the result of an online survey and in-depth analysis of 153 people who have heard voices. What the researchers found was that there is huge variation in ways that people "hear things." For example, the stereotype of a person with schizophrenia is that they hear angry voices telling them to do terrible things — we've all seen this in countless bad movies. But many people who hear voices say that they aren't so much "voices" as they are characters, with personalities, who are trying to hold conversations. Often they are internal voices and don't say anything aloud. It's almost as if they are exaggerated of the kinds of internal dialogues we have in our heads every day, as we debate what to do after work or whether we should really blow a bunch of money on the new MacBook. Advertisement Indeed, Durham University researcher Angela Woods, who led the study, noted that as many as 15 percent of people who report hearing voices haven't been diagnosed with any psychological disorder. She and her colleagues believe that "hearing voices" is far more complicated than anyone had ever realized — sometimes they even involve physical sensations like tingling in the hands and feet. People who hear voices say that they can be troubling, but they can also be friendly. Often, therapies can help them understand the voices as parts of themselves, cluing them into subconscious concerns. In a release, Woods said: We call into question the presumed auditory quality of hearing voices and show that there is an unrecognised complexity in the 'character' qualities of some voices. It is crucial to study mental health and human experiences such as voice-hearing from a variety of different perspectives to truly find out what people are experiencing, not just what we think they must be experiencing because they have a particular diagnosis. We hope this approach can help inform the development of future clinical interventions. The implication here is that there are a wide range of experiences for people who hear voices, and that many of them don't fit the typical definitions. Woods and her colleagues believe that psychology researchers need to talk to more people who hear voices in order to understand the full range of what the experience is like — as well as how we can treat it, when needed. The entire study is available online at The Lancet Psychology. \|\|\|\|\| « A Bias in Field Goals and Penalty Kicks? \| Blog Home Page \| Review: 'Strongest' Research Shows No Link Between Gun Ownership Rates and Higher Crime » Posted by Ross Pomeroy In the Biblical story of Jacob told in Genesis 28, Jacob settled down for the night when trekking through the deserts of Canaan and fell asleep: “And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and by you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth bless themselves.” Jacob thought he received a message from God, but most modern cognitive scientists would say that's unlikely. Instead, they would proffer that his mind had manufactured vivid images, emotions, ideas, and sensations. Jacob's apparent theophany was a dream, nothing more. In Ancient Greece and Rome, people believed that dreams were direct messages from deities. While the precise mechanism for dreams remains unknown, scientists have narrowed down their origin to somewhere in the brain, not the beyond. Sleep is divided into four distinct stages. In the final stage, called rapid-eye movement (REM), the brain lights up with electrical activity, almost as if awake. REM sleep is when most dreaming occurs, and when they are most vivid. During this phase, in our sleeping minds, we are transported. We see, hear, and feel. We experience things we would never experience in real life. We face the otherworldly and the supernatural. It is no wonder then that dreams have played a major role in the historical evolution of religions, says Patrick Mcnamara, a neurologist at Boston University, and Kelly Bulkeley, a Visiting Scholar at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, in a new paper published to Frontiers in Psychology. Researchers working in many different parts of the world have found that people in traditional societies treat dreams as the sources of their religious ideas, including their concepts of their gods and other supernatural beings. It is likely that ancestral populations also treated them as such. Dreams were considered proof of the gods and a spirit realm since dreams were involuntary and emotionally vivid experiences that involved the dreamer’s soul encountering other beings including long deceased relatives and so on. Why do people occasionally prescribe sacred status to figures in our dreams? One theory from evolutionary psychology holds that humans are inclined to presume intelligence or agency in unlikely places, as doing so might help recognize patterns that might have been missed, thus granting a better chance of survival. As the intuitive argument goes, it's better to assume the sound of a snapping twig was caused by a bear or a tiger, rather than just a falling branch. And so in dreams, we might be more likely to assume that advice or warning from a talking tree or a burning bush comes from a higher being who's looking out for us -- it's not merely meaningless drivel. Dreams offer, perhaps, the perfect setting to "converse" with a deity, Bulkeley and Mcnamara say, for three major reasons. First, dreams bring forth "mental stimulations of alternate realities." Second, they are replete with theory of mind attributions, in which we attribute mental states to other beings or entities. And third, they allow us to give value or significance to our experiences. "The neurobiology of... sleep states is now understood to involve forebrain mesocortical dopaminergic systems that directly compute value and dis-value," Bulkeley and Mcnamara write. Considering these factors, Bulkeley and Mcnamara reach an intriguing conclusion. "All humans are endowed with brains innately primed to daily generate god concepts in dreaming." Source: Mcnamara P and Bulkeley K (2015). Dreams as a source of supernatural agent concepts. Front. Psychol. 6:283. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00283 (Image: Shutterstock)	– Religions throughout the world—and throughout history—have put dreams at the center of their belief systems, and researchers say there's a good reason for that. We do much of our intense dreaming during REM sleep, when the highly active brain acts almost like it's awake, writes Ross Pomeroy at Real Clear Science. All that activity can lead to dreamed situations that feel very real—in some cases, even religious. In a new paper in Frontiers in Psychology, a neurologist and theological scholar argue that dreams are well-suited to create experiences in which we believe we've spoken to a deity of some kind. That is in part due to the feeling of an alternative reality we get in dreams, the researchers say. What's more, in dreams, we often ascribe emotions and thoughts to those we believe we're encountering. We give them an "exaggerated degree of agency" because our dreaming brains have trouble understanding our thoughts as our own, the researchers write. The researchers also note that unclear boundaries between REM sleep and wakefulness can be linked to schizophrenia—but at Gizmodo, Annalee Newitz notes that the feeling of "hearing voices" may not necessarily mean a person is dealing with mental illness. A recent survey found that 15% of respondents who say they've heard voices have no diagnosis of disorder, and the "hearing" involved isn't necessarily auditory; the voices may not feel as though they're external at all, researchers say. (Researchers last year described schizophrenia as not one, but eight different illnesses.)
FILE - In this July 20, 2017, file photo, the Kenmore Elite Smart French Door Refrigerator appears on display at a Sears store in West Jordan, Utah. Private equity firm ESL Investments is offering to... (Associated Press) FILE - In this July 20, 2017, file photo, the Kenmore Elite Smart French Door Refrigerator appears on display at a Sears store in West Jordan, Utah. Private equity firm ESL Investments is offering to buy struggling Sear’s Kenmore brand and home improvement unit. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File) (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — Sears' biggest shareholder appears to be pushing for a breakup of the 125-year-old company that has survived two world wars and the Great Depression. Chairman and CEO Edward Lampert — whose hedge fund has forwarded millions in funding to keep the ailing chain afloat — has asked the struggling retailer to sell its prominent Kenmore appliance brand and its home improvement business, the company said Monday. The private equity firm ESL Investments said it might buy the assets if the company is willing to sell. That sent shares of Sears Holding Corp., which have lost more than 70 percent of their value in the past year, up nearly 5 percent. Lampert, who combined Sears and Kmart in 2005 after helping bring Kmart out of bankruptcy, has long pledged to turn the company's fortunes around. He said the retailer would find ways to capitalize on its best-known brands like Kenmore appliances and DieHard car batteries, as well as its vast holdings of land. But as the company has seen shoppers move on to Target, Walmart and Amazon, and has closed hundreds of stores, cut costs and sold brands to deal with falling sales, Lampert now appears to have reconsidered. In his letter to the board, Lampert said Sears has been trying to sell the Kenmore businesses for nearly two years but it has been unable to do so. Kenmore could have substantial value. Amazon.com began selling Kenmore appliances on its site almost a year ago. ESL said its non-binding proposal gives the appliance and home improvement business an enterprise value of $500 million. ESL said it also would be open to making an offer for Sears' real estate, including the assumption of $1.2 billion in debt. "In our view, pursuing these divestures now will demonstrate the value of Sears' portfolio of assets, will provide an important source of liquidity to Sears and could avoid any deterioration in the value of such assets," Lampert wrote. Sears, which started in the 1880s as a mail-order catalog business, was a back-to-school and appliance shopping destination for generations. Its storied catalog featured items from bicycles to sewing machines to houses, and the company's stores were a fixture of suburban malls from the 1950s to 1970s. \|\|\|\|\| Sears CEO Eddie Lampert has proposed a deal to raise cash for the struggling department-store chain. AP Sears CEO Eddie Lampert has proposed a massive deal between the retailer and his hedge fund, ESL Investments, to raise cash for the struggling department-store chain. In a letter dated April 20, Lampert proposed that ESL Investments purchase Sears' Kenmore brand, its home-improvement business, its Parts Direct division, and some of the company's real estate. Sears' shares spiked more than 8% in early-morning trading Monday. "We understand that Sears has marketed certain of these assets for nearly two years but, with the exception of the Craftsman divestiture, has been unable to reach agreement with potential purchasers on acceptable terms," Lampert wrote in the letter, which Sears posted on its website on Monday. He said ESL valued Sears' home improvement and Parts Direct businesses at $500 million collectively. He also said ESL would "be open to making an offer for Sears' real estate," including the assumption of $1.2 billion in debt obligations tied to the properties. The deal would raise much-needed cash for the struggling department-store chain, which has been selling off brands and real estate to stay afloat amid years of falling sales. The company's sales have dropped from $53 billion in 2006 to $16.7 billion in 2017. In a statement to Business Insider, an ESL spokesman said the firm hoped the proposal would "enable Sears to improve its debt profile and liquidity position, creating the runway to help continue its transformation, and allow these businesses to unlock their considerable potential by further expanding their presence in the marketplace." Here's the full letter: Ladies and Gentlemen, Funds affiliated with ESL Investments are the largest stockholders of, and substantial lenders to, Sears Holding Corporation ("Sears"). We continue to see value in Sears and its underlying assets and believe strongly that with an appropriate runway Sears will be able to complete its transformation to respond to the challenging retail environment. We also are of the view that the portfolio of Sears' assets has substantial value that is not being reflected in the capital markets or being maximized under the current organizational structure. These assets include the Kenmore brand and related assets ("Kenmore"), the Home Improvement business of the Sears Home Services division ("SHIP"), and the Parts Direct business of the Sears Home Services division ("Parts Direct"). We understand that Sears has marketed certain of these assets for nearly two years but, with the exception of the Craftsman divestiture, has been unable to reach agreement with potential purchasers on acceptable terms. We are writing to confirm the view that we have recently expressed to you that Sears should aggressively pursue a divestiture of all or a portion of Kenmore, SHIP and Parts Direct and to express ESL's interest in participating in such divestitures. In our view, pursuing these divestitures now will demonstrate the value of Sears' portfolio of assets, will provide an important source of liquidity to Sears and could avoid any deterioration in the value of such assets. In particular: ESL believes that Kenmore is an iconic brand with substantial value and Sears should aggressively pursue a divestiture of all, or a portion of, Kenmore in the near term. If Sears believes it would be helpful, ESL would be prepared to submit a proposal for such a transaction and believes it would be able to close such a transaction within 90 days. ESL is pleased to submit a non-binding indication of interest to acquire SHIP and Parts Direct on the terms set forth below. Additionally, if requested by the Sears Board of Directors, ESL also would be open to making an offer for Sears' real estate (including the assumption of the $1.2 billion of debt obligations secured by such real estate), with the expectation of entering into an ongoing master lease for some or all of the stores to allow for their continued operation. ESL would like to emphasize that its principal interest is seeing that the Kenmore, SHIP and Parts Direct businesses are divested in the near term at a full and fair value, regardless of whether ESL or a third party is the ultimate buyer, so that Sears is able to improve its debt profile and liquidity position. As a result, to ensure a fair process, ESL hereby confirms that: Edward S. Lampert and Kunal S. Kamlani will not participate on behalf of Sears (as officer or director) in any discussions, deliberations, negotiations or decisions with respect to a potential transaction in which ESL participates as a buyer, except to the extent specifically requested by the committee referred to below. ESL will not participate in any such transaction as a buyer unless such transaction is both (i) recommended by the related party transaction committee (or another committee of independent directors) of the Sears Board of Directors, which is fully empowered to consider such transaction, and (ii) approved by the holders of a majority of the shares of Sears held by disinterested stockholders. ESL would accept that any transaction in which ESL participates as a buyer would be subject to a "go shop" process on reasonable terms. We believe that adherence to the foregoing procedures will ensure that any transaction with ESL will be on fair and reasonable terms. Key terms of our proposal to acquire SHIP and Parts Direct are set out below: Valuation: We are interested in acquiring 100% of the equity of SHIP and Parts Direct based on an enterprise value of $500 million. The purchase price would be paid in cash and SHIP and Parts Direct would be acquired on a debt-free and cash-free basis with normalized levels of working capital. Other Agreements: We would expect that Sears will enter into certain interim and long-term agreements with SHIP and Parts Direct to enable the continued operation of those businesses as they operate today. These agreements would include transition services agreements with Sears for a period of time, a brand licensing agreement for SHIP and Parts Direct and other customary ancillary documents for a transaction of this type. Our proposal is also subject to receiving the required consents to assign the supplier agreements to the buyer from the suppliers of each of SHIP and Parts Direct. Financing: The cash consideration for the transaction would be financed with equity contributions from ESL and third party debt financing. At the appropriate time, we would also be open to discussing with you the possibility of partnering with third parties who might be interested in contributing equity financing. We do not anticipate any financing condition, since we plan to have our financing fully committed at the time we sign a definitive agreement. Exchange and Tender Offers: The transaction would be undertaken in connection with (i) an exchange offer with respect to 50% of approximately $600 million in outstanding 2nd lien indebtedness not secured by real estate for equity in Sears of equal value, and (ii) a tender offer for 100% of Sears' approximately $900 million in outstanding unsecured indebtedness at a discount to par reflective of the current trading prices or, alternatively, for Sears equity. ESL believes that the exchange offer and the tender offer would be beneficial to the debt holders, by providing liquidity, to Sears, by reducing its debt obligations, and to equity holders, by reducing risk and giving Sears time to pursue value maximizing strategies. Assuming the proceeds from the contemplated divestitures is sufficient to allow Sears to substantially reduce its overall leverage, ESL would consider participating in such exchange offer and tender offer. Timing and Advisors: We are prepared to move as quickly as possible to complete customary due diligence for a transaction of this nature and enter into definitive agreements. We believe that an expedited process is in the best interest of all parties involved. We have retained Moelis & Company as financial advisor and Cleary Gottlieb Steen& Hamilton LLP as legal counsel. Please feel free to reach out to any of the below regarding this Proposal. This letter reflects ESL's non-binding indication of interest. Nothing in this letter should be considered to constitute or create a binding obligation or commitment of ESL to proceed with, or consummate, any transaction. Any transaction among the parties will be subject to, and qualified in its entirety by, the execution and delivery of a mutually acceptable definitive agreement. This proposal, including the exchange offer and tender offer and any alternative transactions with third parties, are part of a comprehensive solution to create a viable and healthy Sears, and will allow Sears to reduce its debt, extend its maturity profile and alleviate its liquidity challenges. We are very enthusiastic about our ownership interest in Sears and its future, and will remain so whether or not a transaction is consummated. We are available to discuss the foregoing at your convenience. Very truly yours, ESL INVESTMENTS, INC. /s/ Edward S. Lampert Edward S. Lampert Chairman and CEO	– Sears' biggest shareholder appears to be pushing for a breakup of the 125-year-old company that has survived two world wars and the Great Depression. Chairman and CEO Edward Lampert—whose hedge fund has forwarded millions in funding to keep the ailing chain afloat—has asked the struggling retailer to sell its prominent Kenmore appliance brand and its home improvement business, the company said Monday. His private equity firm, ESL Investments, said it might buy the assets if the company is willing to sell. That sent shares of Sears Holding Corp., which have lost more than 70% of their value in the past year, up nearly 5%. Lampert, who combined Sears and Kmart in 2005 after helping bring Kmart out of bankruptcy, has long pledged to turn the company's fortunes around, per the AP. He said the retailer would find ways to capitalize on its best-known brands like Kenmore appliances and DieHard car batteries, as well as its vast holdings of land. But as the company has seen shoppers move on to Target, Walmart, and Amazon, and has closed hundreds of stores, cut costs, and sold brands to deal with falling sales, Lampert now appears to have reconsidered. In his letter to the board, Lampert said Sears has been trying to sell the Kenmore businesses for nearly two years but has been unable to do so. "In our view, pursuing these divestures now will demonstrate the value of Sears' portfolio of assets, will provide an important source of liquidity to Sears and could avoid any deterioration in the value of such assets," he wrote. (Business Insider has the full letter.)
The iPad is breaking out in a very mainstream fashion: An ad for the Apple device just aired during the Oscars. The ad explains why Apple CEO Steve Jobs was spotted on the red carpet earlier. We've got a screenshot and we'll post video as soon as it comes in (update: video added below). Apple iPad Commercial During the Oscars Steve Jobs on the Oscars Red Carpet [img credit: TheFullM0nty [img credit: Wayne Sutton \|\|\|\|\| iPad ad debuts during 2010 Oscars BY MARK W. SMITH FREE PRESS WEB EDITOR Apple debuted its new iPad commercial during last night's 2010 Academy Awards telecast, sparking immediate buzz on Twitter and leading tech blogs. The iPad ad isn't a departure from Apple's established creative style and doesn't show off any features we haven't already seen. You have to wonder if the computer maker has some more tricks up its sleeve as the iPad's April 3 release nears. Tech blog Mashable posted a picture from earlier in the evening showing Apple CEO Steve Jobs on the red carpet Sunday at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Jobs is a board member at Walt Disney, which owns Pixar -- the studio that produced last night's animation Oscar-winner "Up." What do you think of the commercial? Will you be getting an iPad? Contact MARK W. SMITH: msmith@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @markdubya or follow a feed of blog updates at @browserblog.	– The Apple iPad made its television debut last night with a 30-second commercial on the Academy Awards telecast, which you can view above. The keen eyes at Mashable caught CEO Steve Jobs on the red carpet, and the spot "explains" why he was there. Alternatively, the Detroit Free Press reports, the Disney board member could merely have been supporting subsidiary Pixar's Up, a best picture nominee.
The long-running drama over the sale of the highest-priced home in the U.S. appears to be heading to its finale. Candy Spelling's 57,000-square foot Los Angeles home, which had a $150 million asking price, is in contract to be sold to 22-year-old heiress Petra Ecclestone, daughter of billionaire Formula One racing boss Bernard Ecclestone. WSJ's Juliet Chung and Candace Jackson report. The 57,000-square foot Los Angeles mansion built by the late TV producer Aaron Spelling is slated for sale to a 22-year-old heiress to a Formula One racing fortune. The home on five acres of property in Holmby Hills has a bowling alley, beauty salon, several gift-wrapping rooms and parking for 100 cars. "The Manor," as the property is known, had a list price of $150 million that didn't budge during the real-estate downturn that sent prices in Los Angeles down by more than a third. The sales price was not disclosed. The buyer, Petra Ecclestone, will be splitting her time between London and Los Angeles after her planned August wedding to entrepreneur James Stunt, according to a spokeswoman. Ms. Ecclestone's father is the British billionaire and Formula One racing boss Bernie Ecclestone. The seller, Candy Spelling, Mr. Spelling's widow, declined to comment. Mr. Spelling produced such TV shows as "Mod Squad," "Charlie's Angels," "Dynasty," "Starsky and Hutch," "Beverly Hills, 90210," and "Melrose Place." Spelling Mansion Sells View Slideshow Ms. Spelling and her husband bought the property in the early 1980s and tore down the existing house to build the French chateau-style home in 1991. The home has a double staircase inspired by "Gone With the Wind." It was considered the largest home in Los Angeles by far when it was built. There's also a flower-cutting room, a china room, a "Prince Charles suite," named after its one-time royal guest, and a library in which Ms. Spelling bound her husband's scripts. The estate has been shown since 2008 and was officially listed in March 2009. If completed, the sale would underscore the importance of foreign buyers in the U.S. real-estate market. Earlier this year, Russian investor Yuri Milner bought a Silicon Valley home for $100 million, the highest-known price paid for a single-family home in the U.S. Russian composer Igor Krutoy and his wife, Olga, recently bought a condominium at New York's Plaza for $48 million. Overall, though, the real-estate market in the U.S. is struggling, with prices sinking to 2002 levels in the first quarter, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller National Index released earlier this month. Getty Images Petra Ecclestone during the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix in May. Petra Ecclestone also has a six-story house in London's Chelsea neighborhood purchased for £56 million ($90.9 million), according to press reports. In 2004, her father sold a mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens to steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal for £57 million, according to reports. Ms. Spelling has said she wanted to downsize. She closed in December 2010 on a 15,555-square-foot condominium in nearby Century City for $35 million. She had earlier agreed to pay $47 million for the two-story penthouse in Related Cos. Art Deco-inspired tower, "The Century," but Related dropped prices amid the weak market. The new price also reflected a smaller square footage and other changes. Rick Hilton and David Kramer of Hilton & Hyland, a Christie's International Real Estate affiliate, represent Ms. Ecclestone. Mr. Hilton and Jeff Hyland of the same firm share the listing with Sally Forster Jones of Coldwell Banker. Write to Juliet Chung at juliet.chung@wsj.com and Candace Jackson at candace.jackson@wsj.com \|\|\|\|\| What is an estimate? “An 'Estimate' is a computer-generated approximation of a property's market value calculated by means of the Automated Value Model (AVM). As such, an Estimate is calculated on the basis of: Publicly available tax assessment records for the property Recent sale prices of comparable properties in the same area There are many additional factors that determine a property's actual market value, including its condition, house style, layout, special features, quality of workmanship, and so on. For this reason, an Estimate should not be viewed as an appraisal, but rather as an approximate basis for making comparisons, and as a starting point for further inquiry. A REALTOR® who specializes in the given area will be able to provide a more accurate valuation based upon current market trends, as well as specific property and neighborhood characteristics.” In some parts of the country, Realtor.com does not have access to public records data or the available estimates are not considered accurate. In these instances, the company does not display an estimated value.	– It's probably just like your first house: 57,000 square feet, double staircase inspired by Gone With the Wind, parking for 100, bowling alley, beauty salon, flower-cutting room, gift-wrapping rooms, etc. But all this can no longer be yours for the paltry price of $150 million, as the iconic home—the highest-priced in the country—of late television producer Aaron Spelling and his wife, Candy, has gone under contract. Candy Spelling had signaled her intent to sell in 2008, and officially listed The Manor, as it's known, in 2009. The sale price is unknown until the deal closes, but Spelling had stuck to her $150 million mark even as the LA real estate market took a drubbing in the housing crisis. The buyer is Petra Ecclestone, the 22-year-old daughter of the founder of Formula One racing, notes the Wall Street Journal. She'll live there part time. Click for more on The Manor and its 27 bathrooms.
Flight attendants had just begun to take drink orders when the explosion rocked the cabin. National Transportation Safety Board Aerospace Engineer Chris Babcock carries the flight recorders from Southwest flight 812 that experienced a rapid decompression and made an emergency landing in Yuma,... (Associated Press) In this photo provided by passenger Christine Ziegler, unidentified passengers take photos with cell phones of an apparent hole in the cabin on a Southwest Airlines aircraft Friday, April 1, 2011 in Yuma,... (Associated Press) In this photo provided by passenger Joshua Hardwicke, shows a cell phone image of an apparent hole in the cabin on a Southwest Airlines aircraft Friday, April 1, 2011 as it makes an emergency decent into... (Associated Press) In this photo provided by passenger Christine Ziegler, shows an apparent hole in the cabin on a Southwest Airlines aircraft Friday, April 1, 2011 in Yuma, Ariz. Authorities say the flight from Phoenix... (Associated Press) Southwest Airlines flight 812 passenger Carrie Hobbs, right, is hugged by her children Gavin, left,and Kylie, center, after arriving at Sacramento International Airport Friday, April 1, 2011. A fuselage... (Associated Press) The flight recorders from Southwest flight 812 that experienced a rapid decompression and made an emergency landing in Yuma, Ariz., Friday, April 1, 2011, is carried by National Transportation Safety... (Associated Press) This photo provided by passenger Don Nelson, shows fuselage rupture that happened in-flight on a Southwest Airlines aircraft Friday, April 1, 2011. The plane made an emergency landing at Yuma Marine Corps... (Associated Press) National Transportation Safety Board Aerospace Engineer Chris Babcock carries the flight recorders from Southwest flight 812 that experienced a rapid decompression and made an emergency landing in Yuma,... (Associated Press) FILE - Copilot Mimi Tompkins helps a man slide down a chute of a severely damaged Aloha Airlines 737 jet shortly after arrival in Kahului, Hawaii in this April 28, 1988 file photo. Pilot Robert Schornstheimer,... (Associated Press) Southwest Airlines flight 812 passenger Mary Flores, left, is hugged by her granddaughter, Dylan Dean, 9, center and daughter Desiree, right, after arriving at Sacramento International Airport Friday,... (Associated Press) An unidentified Southwest Airlines flight 812 passenger, left, is hugged by a loved one after arriving at Sacramento International Airport Friday, April 1, 2011. A fuselage rupture and a sudden drop... (Associated Press) An unidentified Southwest Airlines flight 812 passenger, right, is hugged by a loved one after arriving at Sacramento International Airport Friday, April 1, 2011. A fuselage rupture and a sudden drop... (Associated Press) An unidentified Southwest Airlines flight 812 passenger, right, is hugged by a loved one after arriving at Sacramento International Airport Friday, April 1, 2011. A fuselage rupture and a sudden drop... (Associated Press) Aboard Southwest Flight 812, Shawna Malvini Redden covered her ears, then felt a brisk wind rush by. Oxygen masks fell, the cabin lost pressure, and Redden, now suddenly lightheaded, fumbled to maneuver the mask in place. Then she prayed. And, instinctively, reached out to the stranger seated next to her in Row 8 as the pilot of the damaged aircraft began a rapid descent from about 34,400 feet in the sky. "I don't know this dude, but I was like, 'I'm going to just hold your hand,'" Redden, a 28-year-old doctoral student at Arizona State University, recalled Saturday, a day after her Phoenix-to-Sacramento flight was forced into an emergency landing at a military base in Yuma, Ariz., with a hole a few feet long in the roof of the passenger cabin. No serious injuries were reported among the 118 people aboard, according to Southwest officials. What caused part of the fuselage to rupture on the 15-year-old Boeing 737-300 was a mystery, and investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived Saturday in Yuma to begin an inquiry. NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt said investigators were going to cut a piece out of the fuselage, which would be studied for fracture patterns. He said they would also examine the plane's black box and flight recorders, which arrived Saturday at NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C. Southwest, meanwhile, grounded about 80 similar planes so that they could be inspected, and said that as a result some 300 flights were being canceled Saturday. Airline spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said it was too soon to estimate the cost of grounding a portion of its fleet. Southwest operates about 170 of the 737-300s in its fleet of about 540 planes, but it replaced the aluminum skin on many of the 300s in recent years, Rutherford said. The planes that were grounded Saturday have not had their skin replaced, she said. "Obviously we're dealing with a skin issue, and we believe that these 80 airplanes are covered by a set of (federal safety rules) that make them candidates to do this additional inspection that Boeing is devising for us," Rutherford said. Julie O'Donnell, an aviation safety spokeswoman for Seattle-based Boeing Commercial Airplanes, confirmed "a hole in the fuselage and a depressurization event" in the latest incident but declined to speculate on what caused it. A total of 288 Boeing 737-300s currently operate in the U.S. fleet, and 931 operate worldwide, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. "The FAA is working closely with the NTSB, Southwest Airlines and Boeing to determine what actions may be necessary," the FAA said Saturday. Southwest officials said the Arizona plane had undergone all inspections required by the FAA. They said the plane was given a routine inspection Tuesday and underwent its last so-called heavy check, a more costly and extensive overhaul, in March 2010. An Associated Press review of FAA records of maintenance problems for the plane show that in March 2010 at least eight instances were found of cracking in the aircraft frame, which is part of the fuselage. Those cracks were repaired, the records indicated. It's not uncommon for fuselage cracks to be found during inspections of planes that age, especially during scheduled heavy maintenance checks in which they are taken apart so that inspectors can see into areas not normally visible. The 737-300 is the oldest plane in Southwest's fleet, and the Dallas-based company is retiring 300s as it takes deliveries of new models. But the process of replacing all the 300s could take years. Seated one row from the mid-cabin rupture, Don Nelson said it took about four noisy minutes for the plane to dip to less than 10,000 feet. "You could tell there was an oxygen deficiency," he said. "People were dropping," said Christine Ziegler, a 44-year-old project manager from Sacramento who watched as a flight attendant and a passenger nearby fainted. Nelson and Ziegler spoke Friday after a substitute flight took them on to Sacramento. Brenda Reese described the hole as "at the top of the plane, right up above where you store your luggage." At an altitude above 34,000 feet, the Southwest pilots would have had only 10 to 20 seconds of "useful consciousness" to get their oxygen masks on or pass out, said John Gadzinski, an airline pilot and aviation safety consultant. "The higher you are the less useful consciousness time you have," said Gadzinski, president of Four Winds Consulting in Virginia Beach, Va. "It's a credit to the pilots that they responded so quickly." A loss of cabin pressure just after takeoff knocked out the pilots of a Helios Airways Boeing 737 in August 2005. The plane flew into a hillside north of Athens in Greece, killing all 121 people aboard. In that case, an investigation found the pilots had failed to heed a warning that the pressurization system wasn't working correctly. In this case, the hole and subsequent depressurization wouldn't have affected the pilots' ability to control the plane as long as they had their oxygen masks on, Gadzinski said. "The fact that you have a breach hole doesn't affect the aerodynamics of the plane. The plane still flies exactly the same," he said. A similar incident happened in July 2009 when a football-sized hole opened up in-flight in the fuselage of another of Southwest's Boeing 737s, depressurizing the cabin. The plane made an emergency landing in Charleston, W.Va. It was later determined that the hole was caused by metal fatigue. In response to that incident, Southwest changed its maintenance plan to include additional inspections, which FAA reviewed and accepted, said John Goglia, a former NTSB member and an expert on airline maintenance. The details of the plan are considered proprietary and aren't made public, he said. The latest incident "certainly makes me think there is something wrong with the maintenance system at Southwest, and it makes me think there is something wrong with the (FAA) principal maintenance inspector down there that after that big event they weren't watching this more closely," Goglia said. There was "never any danger that the plane would fall out of the sky," Goglia said. "However, anybody on that airplane with any sort of respiratory problems certainly was at risk." Four months before that emergency landing, Southwest had agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle charges that it operated planes that had missed required safety inspections for cracks in the fuselage. The airline inspected nearly 200 of its planes back then, found no cracks and put them back in the sky. In 1988, cracks caused part of the roof of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 to peel open while the jet flew from Hilo to Honolulu. A flight attendant was sucked out of the plane and plunged to her death, and dozens of passengers were injured. After that incident, Boeing made changes to its designs "to prevent the airplane from ever coming apart in that way again, by using different materials and manufacturing methods," Goglia said. Three years ago, an exploding oxygen cylinder ripped a hole the fuselage of a Qantas Boeing 747-438 carrying 365 people. The plane descended thousands of feet with the loss of cabin pressure and made a successful emergency landing. As for Friday's flight, there was obvious relief when it touched down safely. When the pilot emerged after the landing, passengers "clapped and cheered," Redden said. "If overhead bins weren't in the way, I'm pretty sure we would've given him a standing ovation," she said. ___ Associated Press writers Lien Hoang, Don Thompson and Adam Weintraub contributed to this report from Sacramento, Calif.; David Koenig contributed from Dallas; Joan Lowy from Washington, D.C.; and Mark Evans and Robert Seavey from Phoenix. \|\|\|\|\| (Updates with possible impact on Sunday, other details) By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES, April 2 (Reuters) - Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) canceled hundreds of flights over the weekend as it inspected 79 aircraft from its Boeing 737 fleet after one of its planes with a gaping hole in the fuselage made an emergency landing, the airline said on Saturday. The airline said was canceling some 300 flights on Saturday, a day after the emergency landing, and could cancel around that number again on Sunday. "We don't at this time know what the impact will be, but it's possible that it could be in the 300-flight range again tomorrow," Southwest spokesman Brandy King told Reuters. Passengers aboard Southwest Flight 812 from Phoenix to Sacramento on Friday heard a loud noise and the hole appeared suddenly at about mid cabin, forcing the pilot landed at a military base in Yuma, Arizona. The emergency aboard the Boeing (BA.N) 737-300 prompted the airline to examine similar aircraft within its fleet, with a total of 79 inspections planned at five locations over the next several days, Southwest said in a statement. Southwest normally has about 3,400 flights on Saturday, King said, so the cancellations accounted for nearly 9 percent of that total. "We did our best to accommodate those passengers on other Southwest flights," King said. A total of 931 Boeing 737-300s are operated by all airlines worldwide, with 288 of them in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The Southwest flight that was forced to make an emergency landing had 118 passengers and five crew members on board. Southwest and Boeing engineers will inspect the grounded aircraft, and the airline is working with federal authorities to determine the cause of the incident, Southwest said. The pilot made a rapid descent from about 34,400 feet (10.3 km) to 11,000 feet (3.4 km), following standard practice to reach an altitude where supplemental oxygen is no longer required, the FAA said. One flight attendant and at least one passenger were treated at the scene for minor injuries, Southwest said. The Boeing 737 landed at 4:07 p.m. local time after declaring an emergency, said Ian Gregor, an FAA spokesman. The airline said it arranged for another aircraft to take the passengers from the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station to Sacramento. Passengers described the harrowing scene to the CBS television affiliate in Sacramento, detailing the damage to the plane. "They had just taken drink orders when I heard a huge sound and oxygen masks came down and we started making a rapid descent. They said we'd be making an emergency landing," a woman identified as Cindy told the station. "There was a hole in the fuselage about three feet (91 cm) long. You could see the insulation and the wiring. You could see a tear the length of one of the ceiling panels." (Additional reporting by David Schwartz in Phoenix and Lauren Keiper in Boston; Editing by Greg McCune and Vicki Allen)	– Fatigue cracking has been found along the entire 5-foot section of a Southwest Airlines jet that ripped open on Friday, forcing an emergency landing in Arizona. The NTSB says that mechanics will cut a 9-foot by 3-foot section of the plane and send it to Washington, DC, for testing. Southwest has responded by grounding at least 79 planes, reports the AP; at least 300 flights were canceled yesterday. And more cancellations were on the horizon today: "We don't at this time know what the impact will be, but it's possible that it could be in the 300-flight range again," a Southwest spokesman told Reuters.
Plano East Senior High School students commit suicide within hours of each other News 2 Plano East Senior High School students commit suicide within hours of each other Police in Murphy are investigating the suicides of two young women who were acquaintances and students at Plano East Senior High School. - Police in Murphy are investigating the deaths of two young women who were friends and students at Plano East Senior High School. Relatives called 911 after finding the body of Ritu Sachdeva on Saturday in her home. Several hours later the remains of Hillary Kate Kuizon were found by Murphy officers in a wooded area just south of Kimbrough Stadium. Investigators believe both 17-year-old girls committed suicide. "Both deaths occurred within hours of each other under circumstances that have led investigators to presume they were both self-inflicted. No motives have been identified, and no evidence of foul play has so far been detected,” the Murphy Police Department said in a statement. Rumors have begun circulating about a possible suicide pact. Investigators are talking to relatives to determine if there is any connection between the two deaths. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the two families," said Chief Arthur Cohen. "We are treating these two cases with the care and compassion they deserve, and will continue to seek answers for the families." Friends of the girls told FOX 4 neither one showed any outward signs of being depressed. They were described as bubbly and energetic. They were liked by many. Plano ISD officials are helping with the case. Flags flew at half-staff at the school on Monday and 20 counselors were on campus for grieving students and faculty. "A lot of people really sad and stuff," said junior Marwan Kamal. "They just couldn't accept it that much." Murphy police said Monday night there were no new developments in the cases. \|\|\|\|\| Updated at 10:30 p.m. Two Plano East High School friends were found dead within hours of each other over the weekend, and their deaths are being investigated as suicides, Murphy police said. Relatives found the body of Ritu Sachdeva in her Murphy home shortly after midnight Sunday and called emergency services. A couple of hours later, police found the body of Hillary Kate Kuizon in a wooded area south of Kimbrough Stadium, near Murphy Middle School and McMillen High School, police said. A missing child report had been posted on social media for Kuizon on Saturday night by Murphy and Richardson police. It’s not clear if the deaths of the two 17-year-old girls are related or if there is any reason to believe so, police said. Investigators are speaking with relatives to determine any relationship between the deaths. “If that happened that there was some sort of pact, we need to know that because it may lead to further tragedies such as this one,” city spokesman Celso Martinez said. “We don’t know if it was but we don’t want to discount the possibility offhand.” The causes of death will be determined by the medical examiner. No evidence of foul play has been found. Murphy police believe there is no threat to area residents. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the two families,” said Murphy Police Chief Arthur Cotten. “We are treating these two cases with the care and compassion they deserve, and will continue to seek answers for the families.” Classmates have taken to Twitter to express heartbreak and remember the teens. They were described as amazing friends and beautiful souls. Plano ISD provided grief counselors at the school Sunday and will provide additional counselors on Monday, district spokeswoman Lesley Range-Stanton said. The Plano East Fellowship of Christian Athletes will hold a prayer meeting at 7:15 a.m. Friday. \|\|\|\|\| Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook \| Twitter COLLIN COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) – It will be a somber and tough day for students at Plano East Senior High School. Administrators, staff, teachers and students are all mourning the loss of two young women. Police think the girls both committed suicide over the weekend. As the Murphy Police Department continues to investigate the two deaths, grief counselors prepare to help students as they return to class. Those grief counselors will be at the school for the second day in a row. A district spokesperson says about 100 people, including students and families, were at the campus Sunday to get help from the counselors. According to police, family members found the body of 17-year-old Ritu Sachdeva at her home. Hours later, police found her classmate, Hillary Kate Kuizon. The body of that 17-year-old was found in a wooded area close to Kimbrough Stadium. According to investigators there was no evidence of foul play detected at either location. Police say the young women were friends, and those that knew them describe both girls as smart, beautiful and nice. Student Christian Lewis didn’t know the girl’e personally but said, “I’ve seen them probably a couple times in the past. They were good students, always on time, always kept their grades up.” Some students of campus said if there is anything good that can come out of the tragedies, it’s that maybe there will be more of an open dialogue when it comes to talking about suicide or suicidal thoughts. Student Praharsha Sunkara said, “I don’t know what the school can do, or anyone else can do to prevent stuff like this really. But I really think that just talking about it would help.” Murphy Police Chief Arthur Cotton issued a statement saying — “Our thoughts and prayers are with the two families. We are treating these two cases with the care and compassion they deserve, and will continue to seek answers for the families.” Police say they’re still trying to determine if the deaths are related, but at this point it’s not clear if there is a connection. The medical examiner will determine the exact cause of both deaths. Anyone contemplating suicide or is dealing with the suicide death of someone they know is encouraged to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to talk with a skilled, trained counselor at a crisis center in their area. Call 800-273-TALK — that’s 800-273-8255. (©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)	– On Saturday night, 17-year-old Hillary Kate Kuizon was reported missing. By a few hours after midnight Sunday, both she and a friend, 17-year-old Ritu Sachdeva, had both been found dead by suspected suicide in Murphy, Texas. "If ... there was some sort of pact, we need to know that because it may lead to further tragedies such as this one," a city spokesman says, per the Dallas Morning News. "We don’t know if it was but we don’t want to discount the possibility offhand." Relatives found Ritu's body in her home, and within just a few hours, police found Hillary's body in a wooded area. The medical examiner has yet to release the causes of death of the Plano East High School students—who were friends, police tell CBS DFW. "Both deaths occurred within hours of each other under circumstances that have led investigators to presume they were both self-inflicted," says the Murphy Police Department in a statement. "No motives have been identified, and no evidence of foul play has so far been detected." Friends of the girls tell Fox 4 they didn't seem depressed, and were well-liked. (An Alaska village recently experienced a suicidal domino effect.)
UPDATE: The Globe And Mail is now reporting that Madonna's camp has issued and distributed a press release denying she told volunteers to turn away from her. The following is an excerpt from the press release: "Neither Madonna nor her security ever gave instructions for the volunteers to turn away from Madonna. In fact she was so impressed with the volunteers that she publicly thanked them from the stage for their hard work before the premiere of her film last night which earned a standing ovation. She had a wonderful time at the festival and was especially delighted that she got to spend so much time with her fans in front of the theatre which is a famous tradition at the Festival ... We are still trying to figure out who and why anyone would ask the volunteers to turn away from Madonna. She has never and would never ask anyone to do that ever" _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ At the Toronto International Film Festival, each movie showing opens with a pre-roll of messages meant to inform the press, industry folk and public about different aspects of the major event. Amongst the most prominent of these ads is a series of sketches featuring famous directors in messy scenarios, a sort of parallel universe that would explode without the help of the festival's ubiquitous and dutiful orange-shirted volunteers. The ad ends with a thank you to the unpaid staff for all their hard work, and the audience, on cue, applauses resoundingly. Maybe she hasn't seen a movie at the festival yet, or maybe they gave her a bouquet of hydrangeas; either way, Madonna, according to a report in Toronto's Globe and Mail, did not quite show the same appreciation for the volunteers' tireless hustle. The "W.E." director premiered her film at the festival Monday night, and earlier in the day, sat down for a press conference with a gaggle of international reporters. Backstage, before the event, word is that she refused to allow the volunteers to even look at her in the eye. Instead, as a volunteer told the paper, they had to turn their backs to her as she made her way to speak with the assembled masses. Clearly, Madonna doesn't deal well with the little people press events; it was in Venice that she made her infamous hydrangea diss. Which, by the way, she refuses to let go away. PHOTOS: BACK TO ARTICLE Madonna 1 / 20 ADVERTISEMENT CURRENT TOP 5 SLIDES RATE THIS PHOTO 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 VOTE USERS WHO VOTED ON THIS SLIDE SLIDESHOW THUMBNAILS WATCH: \|\|\|\|\| Director Madonna poses before the news conference for the film ''W.E.'' at the 36th Toronto International Film Festival September 12, 2011. TORONTO \| TORONTO (Reuters) - Madonna on Monday said she said she doesn't mind any criticism of her filmmaking abilities, so long as it is directed at her movie and not at herself. The pop star told reporters at the Toronto International Film Festival, where she is promoting her second film "W.E.", she had to earn her reputation as a musician and she expected to do the same as a film director. "I had the same kind of pressure when I began my music career," Madonna told reporters. "I was nervous, and I didn't know what to expect, and people didn't know what to expect." The film, which premiered at the Venice film festival and is screening at Toronto, has been characterized by critics as visually stunning, but lacking in focus and burdened by weak performances. "I can tell when people are reviewing my film and when they're reviewing me personally," Madonna said when asked whether she cared about what critics thought. "So when they stick to the film, then I do care." "W.E." stars Abbie Cornish as a young New Yorker in the 1990s who becomes infatuated with the 1930s marriage of King Edward VIII and American divorcee Wallis Simpson, played by Andrea Riseborough. It follows Madonna's first feature, 2008's "Filth and Wisdom," which performed poorly at the box office. Britain's The Guardian newspaper was the harshest among the critics, giving the film just one star out five, while the Daily Telegraph gave a more positive three star review. The budget of W.E. is estimated to be around $15 million, and it hits movie theaters in the United States in December, prompting one journalist to ask Madonna about her Oscar hopes for the film. "My legs and my fingers are crossed," she quipped. (Reporting by Julie Gordon, editing by Christine Kearney) \|\|\|\|\| Madonna described King Edward VIII as "very punk rock," at the North American opening of her film W.E about his infamous romance with American divorcee Wallis Simpson - and his subsequent abdication. The singer-turned-film-director was explaining how an anarchist anthem by punk band The Sex Pistols ended up on the soundtrack for her second directorial work, starring British actors James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough. The band's 1977 single "God Save the Queen" attacked social conformity and deference to the Crown. Madonna said: "I thought he (King Edward VIII) was quite rebellious and cutting edge in his point of view about life and about how to run the empire and using the Sex Pistols was a perfect marriage." In Venice, where the film premiere earlier this month, the Queen of Pop said there were "elements of myself" in the film, and said she could sympathise with Wallis as an outsider, an American living in London. "I empathize with Wallis. Public figures or icons are often just reduced to a sound-bite, just a handful of attributes. I think people tried to diminish her... I tried to make her human," she said in Venice. At the Toronto International Film Festival, Madonna added that Wallis "was and is a very provocative character. She is also a mysterious and enigmatic creature, not conventionally beautiful, not young, twice divorced, not anything fabulous about her background and somehow she managed to capture the heart of the man who at the time held the most important position in the world. "That story intrigued me immensely and I wanted to understand it." "But also I was interested in the concept of the cult of celebrity which we are all consumed with now, and then." Polish classical composer Abel Korzeniowski set up the movie's haunting score. He tried to explain to reporters that Madonna had urged him to "not try to be talented." Madonna interrupted, "No, I said: 'Don't over-think it.' I always wanted you to be talented." The clash of his classical and Madonna's pop backgrounds, he continued, resulted in "the most interesting thing." "I found myself learning very interesting things (from Madonna) about music, which helped me in my classical thinking," Korzeniowski added. During filming, it was also revealed that Madonna and the cast held sing-a-longs "to pass the time" during rainy days when shooting was interrupted. In Toronto, Madonna serenaded journalists with a few impromptu lyrics they had sung together: "We're making a movie, isn't it groovy, welcome to my house". But Madonna has already conquered the music industry, and is more focused on filmmaking now. "I had to earn my way ... to be taken seriously in the music department, and now I'm well aware that I have to do the same in the world of film," she said, welcoming critics' reviews of her film (not her personal life). W.E is scheduled for wide release in December at the peak of the pre-Oscar season. "I'm keeping my legs and fingers crossed" for a nod, she quipped. \|\|\|\|\| W.E. is Madonna's first film as director and received some negative reviews when it debuted at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month. Speaking at the Toronto Film Festival, the singer said she wanted reviewers to focus on her work as a director – not on her personal life. "I can tell when people are reviewing my film and when they're reviewing me personally," she said. "I welcome criticisms of my film when it's viewed as an artistic form and not when people are mentioning things about my personal life or my achievements in any other field because they're irrelevant to the film. So when they stick to the film then I do care, I pay attention to it." Madonna said she has always been fascinated by the relationship between Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII. Despite being based on true historical figures, the film is not a straight-forward biopic but vacillates between the historical love affair and a contemporary romance between a married woman and a Russian security guard. While she takes her work seriously, the director said there was plenty of time on set where the cast relaxed with one another. "We did have sing alongs. It was a way to pass time. When it was pouring down rain and you were shooting outside and you were stuck inside some grey dirty shack waiting for the sun to come out, what can you do but make up a song."	– Madonna doesn’t mind criticism of her new movie, WE—a good thing, since it bombed at the Venice Film Festival and, Reuters notes, subsequently received a one-star review in the Guardian—as long as that criticism is directed at the movie, and not at the Material Girl. "I can tell when people are reviewing my film and when they're reviewing me personally," Madonna said yesterday at the Toronto International Film Festival, where WE is screening. "So when they stick to the film, then I do care" what critics think, she explained. She also described King Edward VIII, whose romance with Wallis Simpson is depicted in the film, as “very punk rock,” the Telegraph reports. That’s why she put the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” on the soundtrack, she explained: “I thought [the king] was quite rebellious and cutting edge in his point of view about life and about how to run the empire and using the Sex Pistols was a perfect marriage.” (She also, the Telegraph adds, broke into song at one point during the Q&A session—watch at left.) Click for another story coming out of the film festival—apparently, Madge doesn't like to be looked at by volunteers...
Photo by Chris Brunskill/Getty Images The Hollywood Reporter has a long, stunning investigative article out today called “Animals Were Harmed.” THR journalist Gary Baum presents compelling evidence that the American Humane Association, the nonprofit organization charged with monitoring film and TV productions for animal abuse, has systematically hidden animal deaths in the interest of preserving friendly relations with powerful Hollywood producers. The deaths of three horses on the set of HBO’s horse racing series Luck—which was overseen by the AHA—are well known (and probably contributed to Luck’s cancellation), but the stomach-turning incidents go far beyond Luck: There’s the dog that was punched by its trainer on the set of Eight Below, the chipmunk that was dropped and stepped on by its handler during the filming of Failure to Launch, and the dozens of sheep and goats that died during a hiatus in the filming of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The AHA, which receives most of its funding from industry groups, excused these and other incidents by saying that they were unintentional, or that because they happened off-camera, they don’t count. Most of Baum’s sources are anonymous, but there are a few jaw-droppingly wrongheaded quotes, like this one: In an interview with THR, Candy Spelling, a national AHA board member, defends the organization’s intent behind the “No Animals Were Harmed” end credit. “I think what people think [it means] is that when a horse dies in the movies, it didn’t really die,” she says. “I think that people think [the AHA’s monitoring] is just when the cameras are rolling.” Advertisement Right. No one cares if you punch, step on, or starve animals as long as there’s no camera turned on nearby. If that’s the best defense the AHA can come up with, I hope the Department of Agriculture, the governmental agency usually tasked with protecting animals from neglect and abuse, begins sending agents to Hollywood very, very soon. Baum’s article is the kind of public interest journalism that ought to result in policy changes, and the entire thing is worth reading. \|\|\|\|\| These releases reflect the views of the issuing entity and are not reviewed or edited by the Sacramento Bee staff. More information on PR Newswire can be found on their web site . You can contact the service with questions or concerns here /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Hollywood Reporter recently ran a story that distorts the work and record of a respected nonprofit organization that has kept millions of beloved animal actors safe on film and television sets around the world for more than 70 years. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101108/DC97343LOGO) The article paints a picture that is completely unrecognizable to us or anyone who knows American Humane Association's work. Far from allowing abuse or neglect to occur, we have a remarkably high safety record of 99.98 percent on set. Over a span of many years, despite our best efforts, there have occasionally been rare accidents, most of them minor and not intentional. Regrettably, there have even been some deaths, which upset us greatly, but in many of the cases reported, they had nothing to do with the animals' treatment on set, or occurred when the animals were not under our care. For example: The article claimed that a dog suffering from cancer died during the production of "Our Idiot Brother." Sadly, a dog did take ill and was indeed diagnosed with cancer, but the illness was not work-related and was not due to any activity related to production. Sadly, a dog did take ill and was indeed diagnosed with cancer, but the illness was not work-related and was not due to any activity related to production. The article suggested that a horse died during post-production after being filmed for "War Horse." What it does not say however is that AHA's jurisdiction does not extend to post-production and transit. In fact, the horse mentioned finished its work and was checked out of production. In transit home, according to a veterinarian, it died of natural causes. The article seemed to lay blame for 27 animal deaths during "The Hobbit" when in fact the animals were not under AHA's jurisdiction or authority in any way. We only monitor animals when they are on the set. When we heard reports months afterwards that animals might have died on a working farm there, we voluntarily sent representatives out to the farm to inspect it and make safety recommendations, which were instituted by production at considerable cost, ensuring better welfare for all the animals on the farm. We were transparent with all the details and our outrage over the regrettable loss of life. Here is our official public statement we made at the time for the record: http://www.americanhumane.org/about-us/newsroom/news-releases/aha-the-hobbit-animal-deaths.html When a Certified Safety Representative is on the set and an incident occurs, the animal stops working, is given veterinary care and not allowed to return to work until it is reported sound by the attending veterinarian. This practice is vital. Recognizing injury is vital to preventing abuse from occurring, thus providing humane protections for animal actors. Although the article criticizes the distinction between accidental injury and intentional harm, that is precisely why the program exists - to reasonably make that distinction. This program is about prevention and as with any good safety program, American Humane Association is continually improving . Under the new senior administration of American Humane Association, a comprehensive program review of the No Animals Were Harmed® program was conducted in 2011 and 2012. These actions are bringing about game-changing innovations and enhancements that are being implemented to further increase the rigor of the safety standards while improving the quality of oversight for enhanced protections for animals working in entertainment. This new administration has made broad, sweeping changes for enhanced protections for animals working in film and entertainment. These changes were necessary, mission-driven, and will continue to build a better and safer future for the animals we love. The improvements include: 1) The creation of a Scientific Advisory Committee, composed of global experts in animal welfare, who are right now reviewing our comprehensive and science-based "Guidelines for the Safe Use of Animals in Filmed Media" – the bible of the industry – to make sure we are doing everything possible to protect animal actors and include the newest findings and research on animal welfare 2) We have brought on Dr. Kwane Stewart, a respected veterinarian, to head the program and bring a new level of rigor and science to our mission and passion to protect the animals in our care 3) As part of our efforts to further improve safety, we recently posted positions to hire licensed veterinarians to serve as our Certified Safety Representatives, and place them in geographic areas across the country where high volumes of filmmaking occurs, including Texas, New Mexico, New York, and Louisiana. We are top-tiering our staff to bring an even higher level of expertise to our important work, and basing our safety reps closer to sets, which will help keep down travel and housing costs for the charity 4) Earlier this year, we implemented a policy that if any animal is seriously injured or dies on set to commission an independent, third-party investigation to find out what happened so that we may prevent as much as is possible such incidents in the future American Humane Association has made tough changes to ensure that the No Animals Were Harmed® program is structured to meet the humane charter with which we have been entrusted. It's all about the animal actors and ensuring their safety . Abuse in film and entertainment is not pervasive, as the salacious headlines imply; rather our experience is that most everyone we work with in production settings want to do right by the animals, as do we. We are extremely proud of the work American Humane Association has done for more than 70 years to protect millions of animals on movie and television production sets. We are a mission-driven small nonprofit that has not only worked to protect animals working in film and entertainment across the country and around the globe, we have done so by utilizing millions of dollars of our own funds so that the certified animal safety representatives could be on more than 2,000 sets a year, making sure that some 100,000 of our most beloved animal co-stars are treated humanely and kept safe each and every year. For us, the welfare of the animals always comes first, which is reflected by our remarkable safety rate of 99.98 percent. Our overall record for years is one of caring and success. SOURCE American Humane Association Read more articles by American Humane Association	– That "no animals were harmed" disclaimer that crops up at the end of movies courtesy of the American Humane Association seems straightforward enough. But an investigation by Gary Baum at the Hollywood Reporter finds that plenty of animals do, in fact, get harmed on sets—even for movies that end up with the label. In one of the more buzzed-about pieces from the story, Baum gets hold of an email from an AHA rep on the set of Life of Pi that describes how the "tiger damn near drowned," instructs the recipient to keep it quiet, and adds, "I have downplayed the f--- out of it." (Salon reprints the full email here.) There's also the chipmunk that got stepped on and killed in Failure to Launch, the dog that got repeatedly punched by its trainer in Eight Below, the nearly 30 goats and sheep that died in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and all manners of injuries and even deaths to horses over the years on a slew of films. The examples go on and on—there's all kinds of wiggle room from the AHA, especially if the accident occurred off-camera instead of during filming or was accidental—and Baum's piece suggests that AHA has gotten too "cozy" with the industry to adequately protect animals. It includes this quote from an AHA board member defending the "no animals were harmed" disclaimer: “I think what people think [it means] is that when a horse dies in the movies, it didn’t really die,” she says. "I think that people think [the AHA's monitoring] is just when the cameras are rolling." At Slate, LV Anderson finds that tough to take: By those standards, "no one cares if you punch, step on, or starve animals as long as there’s no camera turned on nearby," she writes. "If that’s the best defense the AHA can come up with, I hope the Department of Agriculture, the governmental agency usually tasked with protecting animals from neglect and abuse, begins sending agents to Hollywood very, very soon." The AHA, meanwhile, calls the piece an inaccurate hatchet job in a statement picked up by the Sacramento Bee. Click to read the THR story in full.

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