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– "Everyone has their stories of what they did," Hinda Miller tells NPR. "I used to use two bras." The sports bra—invented by University of Vermont staffers Miller, Lisa Lindahl, and Polly Smith in 1977—celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Miller had started jogging but didn't know how to handle the painful bouncing of her breasts. Lindahl was having a similar problem and went to Smith, who made costumes for the university's theater department. The three women put their heads together on building a better bra, eventually finding inspiration when Lindahl's joking husband put two jock straps around his chest. The women bought two unused jock straps, and the "Jogbra" was born. "The waist band became our rib band," Miller says. "We crossed the straps in the back because we didn't want them to fall, and it went over our head. And that was it." Now sports bras are a $7 billion industry and integral to the rise of female athletes. "These things may seem small, but they lower the barrier for women’s participation in sports," the Mary Sue says of the sports bra and other athletic gear for women. "I couldn't play without my cleats, and I wouldn't and couldn't play without my sports bra," Brandi Chastain tells NPR. And the former professional soccer player knows a thing or two about sports bras.
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NPR recently published a piece for the 40th anniversary of the modern sports bra, a clever piece of sportswear innovation produced by Hinda Miller and Lisa Lindahl, which made it way more comfortable for women with breasts to participate in sports and up their exercise game. While it’s a seemingly small thing, and while government interventions like Title IX make far more difference in women’s athletics, it was undoubtedly a game-changer. At least, I definitely appreciate the difference when I’m running.
Thinking about the effects of this invention, I got to thinking: what else do we need from women’s athletic wear?
Of course, there have been a number of innovations in women’s sportswear since the sports bra. Sports bras themselves are now available in plus sizes (you know, for the women who arguably need them the most?) at many outlets, though certainly not enough of them. Athletic hijabs, which have been around for a while now, are finally getting big-name promotion from brands like Nike. Leggings are less see-through. At the Rio Olympics, the South Korean team even wore jackets meant to protect them from mosquito bites (and therefore Zika).
These things may seem small, but they lower the barrier for women’s participation in sports, and they make it less uncomfortable and more enjoyable for us to exercise – particularly when we want to exercise in public. The sports bra is also a great example of how some necessary innovations will only get made when women are involved in the process, and can speak to their own needs and discomforts.
Thinking about what a difference a sports bra makes, I was curious what other innovations we might be missing. For example, how can athletic wear better serve trans women? I know from my own friend group that it can often be damn-near impossible for trans women to find a women’s swimsuit that fits them. Or how could sportswear better serve religiously observant women, or women with disabilities? How can small clothing changes make it a little bit easier for women in rural areas, or women without access to athletic facilities, to exercise safely and comfortably?
Clothes obviously aren’t the end-all or be-all, but they’re a start – and they’re a way to address the ways that athletic wear is often made, first and foremost, with men in mind, and the ways that women’s athletic gear is often designed to fit a narrow, prescriptive body type.
What do you, personally, most need from your sportswear that you’re not getting? Let’s invent!
(Via NPR; image via Shutterstock)
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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.— ||||| 40 Years Of Athletic Support: Happy Anniversary To The Sports Bra
Enlarge this image toggle caption Hector Mata/AFP/Getty Images Hector Mata/AFP/Getty Images
Title IX is often credited with getting more girls involved in sports, but there's another, more intimate milestone in the women-in-sports story that deserves some recognition: This year, the Jogbra turns 40.
In 1977, Hinda Miller had just started working at the University of Vermont and had taken up jogging. But she found she had a problem: What to do with her breasts? "I used two bras," she says. "You know, everyone has their stories of what they did."
Across campus, Lisa Lindahl was in the same predicament. She reached out to a friend — Polly Smith, who made costumes for the university's theater department, where Miller also worked — and the three of them got together to build a better bra.
"We bought some bras, tore them apart," Miller remembers. "I was taking notes; Lisa was running. 'Does that feel good? Does that feel good?' "
None of it felt good. See, breasts move — a lot. Up and down, side to side, even back to front. And they can be really heavy. Try as they might, the women couldn't figure out how to make a bra that could stop the painful bounce. At one point, Lindahl's then-husband came downstairs with two jockstraps slung over his chest. He was teasing them, but it led to an idea. Miller remembers thinking, "That's what we want to do — we want to pull everything close to the body."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Jane Lindholm/VPR Jane Lindholm/VPR
She ran to the store, bought two jockstraps and brought them back to the costume shop. "The waist band became our rib band," Miller says. "We crossed the straps in the back because we didn't want them to fall, and it went over our head. And that was it."
They thought about calling their creation the Jockbra, but decided Jogbra was a better fit. The design caught on, and Miller and Lindahl made Jogbra into a national brand.
Two decades later, at the 1999 World Cup, the sports bra got its moment in the sun. U.S. women's national team star Brandi Chastain scored the winning penalty kick of the championship game. Then, filled with emotion, Chastain pulled off her shirt in celebration, revealing a simple black sports bra. Images of that moment were featured on the covers of Newsweek and Sports Illustrated, and on the front pages of countless newspapers.
These days, women have all kinds of options when it comes to their sports bras: There are sports bras as outerwear and sports bras that are glittery, patterned or have crisscrossing straps that peek out prettily when you're doing yoga. They're big business: Global sales topped $7 billion in 2014. But the foundational truth remains: The best sports bra is the kind that allows girls and women to move the way they want to move, without worrying about their anatomy.
Chastain says sports bras are more than clothing — they're an essential piece of equipment. "I couldn't play without my cleats, and I wouldn't and couldn't play without my sports bra."
The sports bra may be the unsung hero in the rise of women in sports, quietly claiming its place under a T-shirt. And it all comes back to two jockstraps sewn together in 1977.
Jane Lindholm (@JaneLindholm) hosts Vermont Public Radio's Vermont Edition. |||||
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Where will the music industry be in 20 years, 30 years, 50 years?
Before I tell you my thoughts on the matter, you should know that you're reading the opinion of an enthusiastic optimist: one of the few living souls in the music industry who still believes that the music industry is not dying…it's just coming alive.
There are many (many) people who predict the downfall of music sales and the irrelevancy of the album as an... ||||| For no obvious reason, but presumably because she wanted a stipple, Taylor Swift has an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. It's about the future of the music industry and how she has hope despite declining album sales (which, as many have noted, is easier to say when you are one of the only artists still selling albums by the million). A sample: "I'd like to point out that people are still buying albums, but now they're buying just a few of them. They are buying only the ones that hit them like an arrow through the heart or have made them feel strong or allowed them to feel like they really aren't alone in feeling so alone." Albums like hers, you see. Swift goes on to say that she does realize "it isn't as easy today as it was 20 years ago to have a multiplatinum-selling album," but "that should challenge and motivate us." To form that bond. To make that arrow album. To take those selfies:
There are a few things I have witnessed becoming obsolete in the past few years, the first being autographs. I haven't been asked for an autograph since the invention of the iPhone with a front-facing camera. The only memento "kids these days" want is a selfie. It's part of the new currency, which seems to be "how may followers you have on Instagram.
And can you guess whom she's talking about here?
A friend of mine, who is an actress, told me that when the casting for her recent movie came down to two actresses, the casting director chose the actress with more Twitter followers. I see this becoming a trend in the music industry. For me, this dates back to 2005 when I walked into my first record-label meetings, explaining to them that I had been communicating directly with my fans on this new site called Myspace. In the future, artists will get record deals because they have fans—not the other way around.
If Taylor's vision comes true, you'll be seeing lots more YouTube celebs and Vine stars crossing getting record deals. As for Taylor herself? Here is her parting wish: "I'd also like a nice garden." ||||| Taylor Swift's essay for the Wall Street Journal's 125th anniversary issue has just gone up online, and never has the haunting chorus of Swift's runaway 2009 hit "You Belong With Me"—
She wears short skirts.
I wear T-shirts.
She's Cheer Captain and
I'm providing a logically sound if overly simplistic and only intermittently lucid analysis of the value of "albums in today's music marketplace.
—rung so true.
The essay is titled "For Taylor Swift, the Future of Music Is a Love Story."
There's a lot to love about "For Taylor Swift, the Future of Music Is a Love Story": the woodcut portrait of Swift that accompanies it; the multi-paragraph comparison of fans' relationships to romantic relationships that appears under the italicized subhed "Arrows Through the Heart."
There is, however, also a great deal that will have to be discussed during office hours.
The basic gist of Swift's modest proposal is that Swift, a self-described "enthusiastic optimist," who, according to Forbes estimates, made $64 million last year thanks to the music industry, believes that the music industry is not dying. She also thinks that music should not be free. But these observations, as Swift states again and again (three times total), are just her opinions. ("It's my opinion that music should not be free," explains Swift, on the subject of should music be free.)
At least one person in the music industry made $64 million last year. It's important to be an optimist and have a good attitude.
Stylistically, Swift makes frequent ellipses in her writing, apparently as pauses for effect, rather than to indicate the intentional omission of words.
Before I tell you my thoughts on the matter, you should know that you're reading the opinion of an enthusiastic optimist: one of the few living souls in the music industry who still believes that the music industry is not dying…it's just coming alive.
Several of her sentences end with prepositions ("Some music is just for fun, a passing fling (the ones [consumers] dance to at clubs and parties for a month while the song is a huge radio hit, that they will soon forget they ever danced to)"); fewer with coherent thoughts ("My hope for the future, not just in the music industry, but in every young girl I meet…is that they all realize their worth and ask for it.").
The second sentence of one paragraph is devoted entirely to clearing up an imagined confusion regarding the words used in the sentence preceding it.
I think forming a bond with fans in the future will come in the form of constantly providing them with the element of surprise. No, I did not say "shock"; I said "surprise."
Did Taylor Swift say "shock"? No. She swears to God she did not. If you truly believe she said "shock," go back to the beginning of the paragraph and read it again. It is Taylor Swift's opinion that, upon doing so, you will quickly discover that she did not say "shock" until the sentence denying her initial use of that word. Of course, by now she has used "shock" multiple times. But that is a topic for another essay.
At times, Taylor Swift's logic is so sound it becomes redundant, doubling back on itself to form a perfectly circular circle, as when she states that (in her opinion) the financial value of an album is based in part on its financial value.
In my opinion, the value of an album is, and will continue to be, based on the amount of heart and soul an artist has bled into a body of work, and the financial value that artists (and their labels) place on their music when it goes out into the marketplace.
Elsewhere, as on the topic of the scarcity of art, her logic seems stretched.
Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for.
And occasionally mathematically sweaty.
There will always be an increasing fixation on the private lives of musicians, especially the younger ones.
Perhaps inevitably for a millionaire so famously humble, Swift's essay is peppered with humble brags.
It isn't as easy today as it was 20 years ago to have a multiplatinum-selling album, and as artists, that should challenge and motivate us.
In the YouTube generation we live in, I walked out onstage every night of my stadium tour last year knowing almost every fan had already seen the show online.
A friend of mine, who is an actress...
I haven't been asked for an autograph since the invention of the iPhone with a front-facing camera.
One thing Taylor Swift did not brag about: the shit-ass gardens junking up the premises of each of her multimillion dollar homes:
And as for me? I'll just be sitting back and growing old, watching all of this happen or not happen, all the while trying to maintain a life rooted in this same optimism. And I'd also like a nice garden.
Of course, it is Gawker's opinion that the entire essay is worth reading, particularly for fans of opinions.
What can you do? She's better in rhyme.
[Image via Getty] ||||| 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 ||||| Photo by Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images
Taylor Swift has written an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal about the future of the record business. “There are many (many) people who predict the downfall of music sales and the irrelevancy of the album as an economic entity. I am not one of them,” she declares. What might save the industry? Love, of course. From there on, the piece lets loose a spectacular string of metaphors, similes, and analogies comparing music to affairs of the heart. Which is to say, it’s exactly what you’d want from a Taylor Swift op-ed in America’s most prestigious business newspaper. Its major points:
Artists and labels are just like underappreciated girlfriends.
In recent years, you've probably read the articles about major recording artists who have decided to practically give their music away, for this promotion or that exclusive deal. My hope for the future, not just in the music industry, but in every young girl I meet … is that they all realize their worth and ask for it.
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People treat music like romance.
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The way I see it, fans view music the way they view their relationships. Some music is just for fun, a passing fling (the ones they dance to at clubs and parties for a month while the song is a huge radio hit, that they will soon forget they ever danced to). Some songs and albums represent seasons of our lives, like relationships that we hold dear in our memories but had their time and place in the past.
However, some artists will be like finding "the one." We will cherish every album they put out until they retire and we will play their music for our children and grandchildren.
And if a couple can stay together for decades by occasionally mixing it up in the bedroom, so too can artists create long-term bonds with their fans.
I think forming a bond with fans in the future will come in the form of constantly providing them with the element of surprise. No, I did not say "shock"; I said "surprise." I believe couples can stay in love for decades if they just continue to surprise each other, so why can't this love affair exist between an artist and their fans?
People will pay for music that makes them feel feelings.
I'd like to point out that people are still buying albums, but now they're buying just a few of them. They are buying only the ones that hit them like an arrow through the heart or have made them feel strong or allowed them to feel like they really aren't alone in feeling so alone. |||||
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– Taylor Swift: singer-songwriter, winner of all the awards, serial dater, and now, Wall Street Journal guest columnist. Swift offers up her opinion on the state of the music industry in the Journal, noting that though "many (many) people ... predict the downfall of music sales and the irrelevancy of the album as an economic entity," people are still buying albums—but they only buy "the ones that hit them like an arrow through the heart." That means it's harder nowadays to put out a multiplatinum album, but artists should feel challenged and motivated by that, she writes. Instead of practically giving their music away ("Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable."), artists should focus on keeping their fans engaged. How? Well, Swift notes that since most of her fans can watch her concerts on YouTube before actually attending a show, she brings out "dozens of special guest performers" to keep things fresh; she also recommends mixing genres and trying new things because nowadays, "anything goes." Kids these days "want to be caught off guard, delighted, left in awe," she writes. Her other piece of advice: Engage with your fans on social media. "In the future, artists will get record deals because they have fans—not the other way around." Predictably, many bloggers have responded to Swift's op-ed: "At least one person in the music industry made $64 million last year," writes Caity Weaver on Gawker. "It's important to be an optimist and have a good attitude." Indeed, writes Lindsey Weber on Vulture, Swift's main point seems to be that people are still buying albums ... "Albums like hers, you see." "Of course, Taylor Swift is 'enthusiastic'" about the music biz, writes Esther Zuckerman on The Wire. "You've seen her 'surprise face,' right?" "The piece lets loose a spectacular string of metaphors, similes, and analogies comparing music to affairs of the heart," writes Jordan Weissmann on Slate. "Which is to say, it’s exactly what you’d want from a Taylor Swift op-ed in America’s most prestigious business newspaper."
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– One family's dream vacation at Niagara Falls turned into a nightmare over the weekend when a 10-year-old boy toppled off a railing and fell into a gorge. Police say the boy was on the Canadian side of the falls when his family decided to take a picture of Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the three falls composing Niagara Falls. He was sitting on the railing having his picture taken by his mother when he apparently lost his balance, fell over the railing, and plunged 100 feet, injuring his head, the BBC reports. Police say they were called to the scene at about 4:34pm, the Buffalo News reports. Members of the Niagara Falls Fire Department, Niagara Parks Police High Angle River Team, and Niagara Emergency Medical Service were able to stabilize the boy so he could be taken by helicopter to McMaster Children's hospital in nearby Hamilton, Ontario. The boy's injuries were originally considered life-threatening, but the hospital later changed his condition to serious but stable. (A daredevil's very peculiar death at Niagara left cops perplexed.)
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A 10-year-old boy visiting Niagara Falls, Ontario with his family was seriously injured Sunday when he fell about 80 feet off a railing into the gorge near the base of the Horsehoe Falls.
Niagara Parks Police reported that they were called to the Niagara Parkway near the Horseshoe Falls at 4:34 p.m.
The child was visiting from another country and was sitting on the gorge railing so his mother could take a photo. When he tried to adjust himself for the picture, he lost his balance and fell into the gorge, police reported.
Members of the Niagara Falls Fire Department, Niagara Parks Police High Angle River Team and Niagara Emergency Medical Service reached the injured boy and stabilized him so he could be taken to the hospital. They said his injuries initially were considered to be life-threatening.
The child was flown to McMaster Children’s hospital in Hamilton by Air Orange. The hospital later reported the child was in serious, but stable, condition. ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Millions of tourists visit Niagara Falls each year
A 10-year-old boy is in hospital after falling about 30 metres (100ft) over the railing at Niagara Falls into a gorge below.
Police told the BBC the boy was sitting on the railing so his mother could take a picture on Sunday.
He apparently lost his balance and plummeted backwards, striking his head.
A helicopter took the boy, whose injuries were initially described as critical, to McMaster Children's Hospital in nearby Hamilton, Ontario.
Police said the boy was now in a stable condition and they were still investigating the incident.
The boy was visiting Niagara Falls on the Canadian side with his family when they stopped to take a picture at the Horseshoe Falls, the largest of three waterfalls that make up Niagara Falls.
About a dozen people have gone over the falls since 1901, usually intentionally, inside a barrel or some other kind of protective device.
In 2017, Kirk Jones died after going over the falls in an inflatable ball after surviving a similar stunt in 2003.
In 2011, a Japanese exchange student died when she slipped and fell into the falls after climbing a pillar to get a better view. |||||
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Asia Argento, a #MeToo activist and one of Harvey Weinstein‘s most high-profile accusers, agreed to pay $380,000 to her own accuser, according to a bombshell report by The New York Times.
Citing documents sent to the newspaper anonymously and verified with three people familiar with the case, the report says that in the months after her allegations against Weinstein last October, the 42-year-old Italian actress reached a financial settlement with Jimmy Bennett, who once played Argento’s son in 2004’s The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things. (Argento also directed and co-wrote the film.)
The actor and musician, now 22, claimed that in 2013, then-37-year-old Argento sexually assaulted Bennett in a California hotel room two months after he turned 17, the report says. (In California, 18 is the age of consent.)
Bennett claimed in the documents that Argento kissed him before performing oral sex on him and engaging in intercourse at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey, California, according to the Times.
An agent for Argento did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment, and the Times says Argento and her reps did not respond to multiple requests leading up to the story’s publication on Sunday.
Reps for Bennett did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. Though he declined an interview with the Times, the outlet reports that Gordon K. Sattro, Bennett’s attorney, told the newspaper, “In the coming days Jimmy will continue doing what he has been doing over the past months and years, focusing on his music.”
Vincenzo Lombardo/Getty
Argento’s late boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain — who died of suicide on June 8 — “helped Ms. Argento navigate the matter,” the Times reports, though additional details about his involvement were not available.
As part of the settlement, Bennett forfeited the copyright to a selfie from May 9, 2013 — which was among the documents the Times says it received — of Bennett and Argento lying in bed, according to the Times.
Bennett’s notice of intent to sue — sent in November to Richard Hofstetter, a lawyer for both Argento and Bourdain — asked Argento for $3.5 million in damages for the intentional infliction of emotional distress, lost wages, assault, and battery, according to the Times.
Sattro wrote in the notice of intent that Bennett’s “feelings about that day were brought to the forefront recently when Ms. Argento took the spotlight as one of the many victims of Harvey Weinstein,” the Times reports.
In April, Argento’s attorney lawyer Carrie Goldberg reportedly wrote Argento about the agreement and payment plan in an email obtained by the Times, describing the money as “helping Mr. Bennett.”
“We hope nothing like this ever happens to you again,” Goldberg wrote, according to the Times. “You are a powerful and inspiring creator and it is a miserable condition of life that you live among s—ty individuals who’ve preyed on both your strengths and your weaknesses.”
RELATED VIDEO: Asia Argento Tells Uma Thurman ‘We Need’ Your Voice After Her Response to Weinstein Goes Viral
Argento is one of the over 60 women who have accused disgraced movie mogul Weinstein of sexual assault, harassment, and rape. In October, she alleged in a New Yorker piece by Ronan Farrow that Weinstein forced oral sex on her in 1997.
“I was not willing,” she told Farrow of Weinstein. “I said, ‘No, no, no.’ … It’s twisted. A big fat man wanting to eat you. It’s a scary fairy tale.”
Argento also told Farrow that she had “consensual sexual relations with [Weinstein] multiple times over the course of the next five years” after the alleged assault. She described the incidents as “one-sided and ‘onanistic,’” Farrow wrote, and worried Weinstein would “ruin her career if she didn’t comply.”
A spokesperson for Weinstein previously told PEOPLE in a statement that “any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.”
RELATED: Anthony Bourdain Was Fierce #MeToo Supporter After Asia Argento Accused Harvey Weinstein of Rape
Anthony Bourdain and Asia Argento in 2017 Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock
After the New Yorker story was published in October, Bourdain tweeted to his girlfriend, “I am proud and honored to know you. You just did the hardest thing in the world.”
.@AsiaArgento I am proud and honored to know you. You just did the hardest thing in the world. https://t.co/i2Lsb6h5vU — Anthony Bourdain (@Bourdain) October 10, 2017
“In 1997, I was raped by Harvey Weinstein here at Cannes,” Argento said at the Cannes Film Festival’s Closing Ceremony earlier this year. “I was 21 years old. This festival was his hunting ground.”
She later added: “Even tonight sitting among you there are those who still have to be held accountable for their conduct against women, for behavior that does not belong in this industry, does not belong in any industry or workplace. You know who you are, but most importantly, we know who you are and we’re not going to allow you to get away with it any longer.” ||||| The fallout from “a sexual battery” was so traumatic that it hindered Mr. Bennett’s work and income and threatened his mental health, according to a notice of intent to sue that his lawyer sent in November to Richard Hofstetter, Mr. Bourdain’s longtime lawyer, who was also representing Ms. Argento at the time.
Ms. Argento, who lives in Rome, subsequently turned to Ms. Goldberg — a prominent lawyer for victims of online attacks — to handle the case. (Mr. Hofstetter is now handling the estate of Mr. Bourdain, who killed himself in June. Although Mr. Bourdain helped Ms. Argento navigate the matter, neither Mr. Hofstetter nor Kimberly Witherspoon, Mr. Bourdain’s longtime agent and now a spokeswoman for his wife, Ottavia Busia, from whom he was separated, would comment for this article.)
Mr. Bennett’s notice of intent asked for $3.5 million in damages for the intentional infliction of emotional distress, lost wages, assault and battery. Mr. Bennett made more than $2.7 million in the five years before the 2013 meeting with Ms. Argento, but his income has since dropped to an average of $60,000 a year, which he attributes to the trauma that followed the sexual encounter with Ms. Argento, his lawyer wrote.
In October, a month before Mr. Bennett sent his demand for money, The New Yorker published an article by Ronan Farrow that included Ms. Argento among 13 women who accused Mr. Weinstein of harassment and rape.
Ms. Argento, whose father, Dario Argento, is a noted director of Italian horror films, began her acting career as a child. She went on to win two David di Donatello Awards, the Italian equivalent of Oscars, and has directed films, written a novel and recorded music.
After she spoke out about Mr. Weinstein, Ms. Argento quickly emerged as a powerful voice for women who have been mistreated by men. In May, she gave a riveting speech at the Cannes Film Festival in which she called the festival Mr. Weinstein’s “hunting ground.” She said he had raped her there in 1997, when she was 21.
The relationship with Mr. Weinstein continued for years afterward and sometimes included sex, The New Yorker reported. Ms. Argento, who had acted in a movie Mr. Weinstein produced, told the magazine that she feared angering him. It was a complicated situation in which she said she felt powerless. “After the rape, he won,” she told Mr. Farrow. |||||
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– One of Harvey Weinstein's most prominent accusers settled a sexual assault claim from her own accuser last year, according to legal documents. Months after she came forward with her allegations against Weinstein last year, Asia Argento paid $380,000 to Jimmy Bennett, who played her son in the 2004 movie The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, according to documents provided to the New York Times. He alleged that he had a sexual encounter with Argento in a California hotel room in 2013, when she was 37 and he was 17, below the state's age of consent. In November last year, he sent a notice of intent to sue for $3.5 million for emotional distress and lost wages. The legal documents provided to the Times include a selfie of Argento and Bennett in bed. The legal notice states that the encounter left Bennett “extremely confused, mortified, and disgusted” and his income dried up in the following years. In a letter to Argento, her lawyer, Carrie Goldberg, described the settlement as "helping Mr. Bennett." "We hope nothing like this ever happens to you again," Goldberg wrote. "You are a powerful and inspiring creator and it is a miserable condition of life that you live among s****y individuals who’ve preyed on both your strengths and your weaknesses." Bennett's rep says he is now focusing on his music career, People reports. (Argento faced online harassment after the suicide of boyfriend Anthony Bourdain in June.)
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BOSTON — The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an amazing and colorful deep view of the universe, showing galaxies shining in ultraviolet light during their wild, star-forming "teenage" years.
The new image, which was released today (June 3), is the most comprehensive view of the evolving universe ever captured by the space telescope, Hubble representatives said. Hubble previously imaged the same patch of sky shown in the new image between 2004 and 2009 to create a super-detailed view known as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field.
The new Hubble telescope picture — a composite of exposures taken from 2003 to 2012 — is called the Ultraviolet Coverage of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field and contains about 10,000 galaxies, with the ultraviolet (UV) images rendered in blue. The image also extends very far back in time, capturing a snapshot of galaxies just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. [The Universe: Big Bang to Now in 10 Easy Steps]
This image by the Hubble Space Telescope is the most comprehensive view yet of the universe's evolution as seen by a space telescope. The coloful image, released June 3, 2014, contains 10,000 galaxies, with the different colors denoting different wavelengths. Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay (STScI)
Find out how Hubble has stayed on the cutting edge of deep-space astronomy for the past 20 years here. [ See the full Hubble Space Telescope Infographic here. Credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com Infographics Artist
"The reason we want to do this is to study galaxies in what you might call their 'teenage years,' while they're still growing up," Harry Teplitz, the project's principal investigator and a researcher at the California Institute of Technology, told reporters here today at the 224th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
"What we did that's new is that we took ultraviolet images, and the reason we want to study things in the ultraviolet is that it tells us about the youngest, most massive, hottest stars that are forming within galaxies," Teplitz added.
The new ultraviolet images could also help fill in a gap in scientists' knowledge about galaxies. In the past, Hubble has imaged distant, primitive galaxies that came into existence not long after the Big Bang using near-infrared capabilities, and scientists have been able to study nearby galaxies that have already "grown up."
But the period of galactic evolution between those two phases has remained mysterious. The new ultraviolet data could help clear up some of the mystery, Teplitz said.
"In between 5 [billion] and 10 billion years ago, when UV light was emitted, we've not had the facility to explore that range in the ultraviolet — so that's why we wanted to fill in the gap," he said. "To understand why that's important, it's sort of like having studied people or families by first studying infants, and then studying grown-ups after they've gone to college, but completely missing everything in between and not knowing about school."
By adding ultraviolet observations to the original Hubble image, scientists can now see star formation in galaxies as they are growing during their most productive years. Therefore, astronomers can potentially learn more about how galaxies grow and turn into what is seen today.
Hubble has revolutionized astronomers' understanding of the universe since its April 1990 launch. Test your knowledge of the telescope in this quiz. Start the Quiz 0 of 10 questions complete
Hubble Quiz: Do You Know the Famous Space Telescope? Hubble has revolutionized astronomers' understanding of the universe since its April 1990 launch. Test your knowledge of the telescope in this quiz. 0 of questions complete
Once Hubble goes offline sometime within the next decade, astronomers will not have a way to obtain ultraviolet data that can be used to probe the universe in this way, Hubble representatives said.
Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, will get great looks at the universe in infrared light; however, it will not be able to obtain the ultraviolet data that Hubble collects. Scientists are therefore using Hubble to get more ultraviolet data in preparation for its successor.
Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. ||||| One of the biggest leaps in astronomy made by the Hubble Space Telescope was something dreamed up long after it launched: Taking extremely long exposure images of a part of the sky unobscured by foreground junk (like stars, gas, and dust in our own galaxy) to see what could be seen. These images were called the Hubble Deep Fields, because they could see extraordinarily faint galaxies deep in the Universe.
Phil Plait Phil Plait writes Slate’s Bad Astronomy blog and is an astronomer, public speaker, science evangelizer, and author of Death From the Skies!
Since the first one was taken in 1995, there have been many others. Some looked at different areas of the sky, some combined the data from other telescopes, and some looked in different wavelengths of light. That last part is important: When massive stars are born, they emit ultraviolet light, but due to the expansion of the Universe, that gets shifted to the red by the time the light gets here. Looking in the infrared lets us see those stars forming more than 10 billion light years away.
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But what about the intermediate Universe? Galaxies 5–10 billion light years away pour out a lot of UV light that gets here redshifted, but still in the ultraviolet. We could really use a UV Deep Field.
And now we’ve got one! Behold:
All photos by NASA,ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay (STScI)
(Click to embiggen; I only used part of this amazing image here.)
That spectacular picture is a combination of images taken by two Hubble cameras that can detect light from the UV to the IR; in fact, it combines images taken in 11 filters to provide a wide-spectrum look at the intermediate Universe. What’s displayed as blue is actually UV light, green is visible light (the kind we see), and red is IR. So what you see as blue is actually bluer than blue, and what’s red is redder than red.
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So to speak.
It’s an astonishing panoply of galaxies. There are 10,000 such beasts in this image, a feast for astronomers who want to understand how the Universe evolves. Remember, it takes light billions of years to reach Earth from these galaxies, so we’re seeing them when the Universe was substantially younger. This helps fill in the gap in our knowledge of this cosmic era.
As usual in these images, the galaxies show every possible shape and size. Many are distorted, victims of collisions with other galaxies, their mutual gravity pulling them into weird shapes like taffy quadrillions of kilometers across. Many are very blue, showing active star formation, while others are exceedingly red, probably galaxies much farther away, their light taking far longer to reach us. Note that most of the very red galaxies are smaller dots, another indication of their tremendous distance.
There are some stars in the image as well, and they look, well, garish. That’s due to an optical effect together with the way they were observed. Hubble has a big mirror 2.4 meters across that gathers the light from the sky. This is reflected onto a secondary mirror, which in turn reflects the light into the cameras so the images can be recorded.
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That secondary mirror is held inside the telescope by very thin metal strips. Light has a peculiar property that when it encounters a thin obstacle it can bend around it, something like the way waves in water in a flowing creek will bend around an obstacle. This is called diffraction, and is what creates those “diffraction spikes” around stars.
Different colors of light bend by different amounts. That means the spikes appear different when viewed through different colored filters, brighter at different points along the spikes. When all the color images are combined, you get that weird Christmas light look to the stars. Strange, but also quite pretty.
This works best for bright point sources of light; galaxies are dimmer and spread out, washing away the effect—though note in the image above two galaxies with spikes; those must have very bright nuclei, probably with black holes gobbling down matter. These can make them extremely luminous, what we call "active galaxies." They're relatively rare, and I only spotted a few in this image.
That makes stars pretty easy to spot in an image like this, and astonishingly, I only see about a dozen or so. Some of the fainter blips might be stars, too, but too faint to create spikes. Either way, it’s clear that the overwhelming majority of objects you see here are galaxies; collections of billions or even hundreds of billions of stars, spread across the Universe.
Images like this will keep astronomers busy for years. Decades. The knowledge they will glean from this will be incredible. ||||| Gaze upon the vastness of creation, ye mighty, and despair.
The Hubble telescope may be on its last legs — it's expected to cease functioning sometime between 2014 and 2020 — but for now, the trusty 24-year old orbital camera is still sending back scenes of unsurpassing beauty in the heavens. Such as this picture NASA released Tuesday, a photograph 11 years in the making:
What are we looking at here? Some 10,000 galaxies. Light that goes back 12 billion years, almost all the way to the beginnings of the universe (take that, Creationists). And an image that, for the first time, stretches across the full spectrum of light, from infra-red to ultra-violet, catching what looks like just about every frequency in between.
See also: Watch a Gigantic Solar Eruption Happen in Slow Motion
Hubble took more than 840 orbits to assemble this image, staring at the same patch of sky over and over until the ultraviolet galaxies — the hottest form of light — started to show up in the exposure. They're particularly important because they hail from a range of time between 5 and 10 billion years ago, a period of time when we don't have a lot of data about star formation, which also happens to be the period when most of the stars in the universe formed.
And as great and meticulous a shot as this is, it's nothing compared to what we're going to get from the next great space telescope, the infrared-friendly James Webb, launching in 2018. So use this one as your desktop for now, but be prepared to blow your mind with a lot better shots than this in a few years' time. |||||
Write a summary.
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– Thousands of galaxies of all ages, shapes, and colors can be seen in a stunning new image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Some of the oldest galaxies visible appear as light from nearly 12 billion years ago, almost as old as the universe, but NASA says the most exciting part of the image is the use of ultraviolet light, which reveals the "missing link" of galaxies 5 billion to 10 billion years old—the chunk of time when most of the universe's stars came to be. A Caltech astronomer likens the previous lack of information from ultraviolet light to studying "families by first studying infants, and then studying grown-ups after they've gone to college, but completely missing everything in between and not knowing about school. ... The addition of the ultraviolet fills in this missing range." The light shows up in the photo as bright blue. The image, 11 years in the making, was taken over 841 orbits of the telescope. Many of the approximately 10,000 galaxies it shows "are distorted, victims of collisions with other galaxies, their mutual gravity pulling them into weird shapes like taffy quadrillions of kilometers across," writes Phil Plait at Slate. But as amazing as Hubble's latest image is, the infrared-friendly James Webb telescope is expected to send back even greater deep-space shots after its launch in 2018, notes Chris Taylor at Mashable. "Use this one as your desktop for now, but be prepared to blow your mind with a lot better shots than this in a few years' time," he writes. (Another recent Hubble discovery: Jupiter's red spot is shrinking quickly.)
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Here is a news article: A 61-year-old woman has became what is believed to be China’s second oldest mother, according to media reports, in a growing trend of older births among desperate couples who have been left childless by Beijing’s draconian one-child policy.
The woman, who was identified by her surname Zhang, gave birth to a boy in China’s eastern Zhejiang province through in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The C-section delivery came two years after the death of her 30-year-old daughter, who was her only child at the time. ||||| Experts urge caution after woman, 61, gives birth Updated: 2016-07-08 07:51 By Liu Kun in Wuhan and Shi Xiaofeng in Hangzhou(China Daily)
Liu Hongmei (left), 54, and her husband take care of their baby after Liu gave birth to the boy on June 27 in Xiangyang, Hubei province.[Gong Bo/provided to China Daily]
Obstetrics experts are urging women who want to become mothers again at an advanced age to think twice, after news of a 61-year-old woman giving birth went viral online this week.
The mother, surnamed Zhang, gave birth to a boy through a C-section at a hospital in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on June 27, two years after her 30-year-old daughter, her only child at the time, died of illness.
She was discharged from the Women's Hospital Affiliated With the School of Medicine of Zhejiang University on Tuesday, and both mother and son were in good condition, said Sun Meiyan, a hospital spokeswoman.
The hospital said Zhang endured hardships during pregnancy. She suffered bleeding twice as well as pregnancy-induced hypertension syndrome, and she fought her way through after-delivery difficulties including anesthesia problems, bleeding and unstable blood pressure.
The hospital was hesitant to publicize that Zhang broke a provincial record for oldest new mother because it did not want to encourage women to give birth at or around retirement age, Sun said.
"The quality and quantity of eggs of women 35 or older have declined, so they will face a lower success rate of pregnancy and higher risks of miscarriage and birth defects," said Zhu Yimin, director of the hospital's reproductive and endocrine department.
Additionally, Zhu said, "During the prime time of the child's development, the parents are in their 70s. How can they spare efforts to accompany their children?"
Zhang became the province's oldest mother with the help of in-vitro fertilization, and is believed to be the country's second-oldest mother. A 62-year-old woman in Zibo, Shandong province, gave birth to a boy in May last year and is believed to have been the oldest known pregnant woman in China, according to media reports.
Women who give birth at an advanced age have made headlines in recent years. Many of them seek a chance to rebuild their family after losing their only child.
Just six days before Zhang's delivery, Liu Hongmei, 54, of Xiangyang, Hubei province, gave birth to a boy who was conceived through in vitro fertilization. She lost her first son in a traffic accident two years ago.
According to the National Health and Family Planning Commission, there are an estimated 1 million families nationwide in which the parents have lost their only child, a number that is increasing by about 76,000 a year. By the end of 2012, there were 355,000 such families in which the mother was age 49 or above.
Sun, the women's hospital spokeswoman, said the hospital's second-child counseling clinic has been popular this year, particularly among those in their 40s or older.
"The majority of women anxious to conceive in advanced age are those who have lost their only child," Sun said.
Zhou Wenting and Liang Shuang contributed to this story. |||||
A summary of this is?
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– China's one-child policy may have been abolished last October, but it's still having widespread repercussions in the country, where older and older women are risking pregnancy to have a second child, the Telegraph reports. According to China Daily, a 61-year-old woman named Zhang gave birth via C-section June 27. She's believed to be China's second oldest mother ever, behind only a 62-year-old woman who gave birth last May. Less than a week before Zhang had her baby boy, a 54-year-old woman named Liu Hongmei gave birth to her own baby boy. Both Zhang and Liu lost their only children—to illness and a traffic accident, respectively—two years ago. Chinese people rely heavily on their children for support, both monetarily and personally, when they get older. But the one-child policy has left an estimated 1 million families childless after their only offspring passed away. For those childless families, including approximately 335,000 women over 49, the future isn't promising. That's why many older couples want the government to fund in vitro fertilization treatments. But officials and doctors aren't eager to do that. One hospital director says older women attempting to have another child face increased risks of miscarriage and birth defects. He also worries about parents trying to raise children while in their 70s. Zhang's was anything but an easy pregnancy and birth—with anesthesia, blood pressure, and bleeding issues following—but both she and her new child appear to be doing well. (Here's how women are getting pregnant at 50 without IVF.)
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News article:
Eddie Mansius, left, Cullen McMillian, Nick Rhyne, Duncan Rule and Maddie Moore have had 4.5 million views of their 10 installments of “The Hunger Games.” Cullen joined the original four North Carolina high school students after the first video. (John W. Adkisson / For the Los Angeles Times / )
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Duncan Rule discovered "The Hunger Games" shortly after the novel came out four years ago. He recommended it to Eddie Mansius, his best friend since seventh grade. Eddie urged Nick Rhyne and Maddie Moore to read it.
Maddie devoured the book, which meshes a teenage coming-of-age story with reality TV and war, in three days.
"It was like I never wanted it to end," said Maddie, who went to YouTube and was disappointed to find a movie hadn't been made.
She and her three friends, high school sophomores at the time, decided to make their own.
Maddie played Katniss, the 16-year-old heroine who is forced to fight other children to the death for the entertainment of a vapid futuristic society. Nick played Gale, the heroine's love interest; Eddie portrayed Peeta, a former schoolmate of Katniss' who teams up with her in the arena. Friends and family members were enlisted to round out the cast.
Their budget starting out: $30.
When they needed to shoot interiors, they used Duncan's home in Charlotte's Eastover neighborhood. Exteriors were shot at Maddie's family farm an hour north of Charlotte, or at the park down the street from Eddie's house. Costumes came from Goodwill or their own closets.
After their first video and subsequent installments went live on the Internet, they were on their way to becoming celebrities.
These days, the friends — minus Duncan, who is camera shy — get stopped in all sorts of places; outside the Sprint store, at Wendy's and at summer camp. Nick was recognized while on vacation with his family in Turks and Caicos Islands in the Bahamas.
Even the new girl at their school who arrived from Ireland last year had seen the videos. "Don't I know you from somewhere?" she said to Eddie and Maddie in an honors French class.
Last spring Eddie, Maddie and Nick were invited to ConCarolinas, a science fiction convention in Charlotte, to sit on panels including "Film Directing 101" and "Everything You Wanted to Know About Filmmaking." Then they entered an overflowing screening room and watched their videos on a big movie screen for the first time.
It was billed as their North American premiere.
On a recent Saturday evening, Eddie and his friends gathered outside Duncan's house to shoot a sequence from "Catching Fire," the second book in the trilogy. The scene involves Katniss stumbling up the steps of the house and falling into Gale's waiting arms.
Duncan lighted the scene with a $40 LED video light. Cullen McMillian, a friend of Eddie's, held a makeshift boom built from a shotgun microphone attached to a broken camera tripod.
Eddie, who directs the videos, looked down at his camera. "This isn't going to work," he said. "Duncan, make sure to follow her with the light. Cullen, you don't need to do boom because there is no dialogue in this scene. Maddie, walk slower this time."
Two more takes and the scene was done. They put it on YouTube on Jan. 4. The feature film version is scheduled to come out in November.
So far, the group has written, produced, edited and starred in 10 videos based on the "Hunger Games" trilogy, each about eight minutes long and posted on YouTube under the name L4gMast3Rz. The teenagers posted their first video in December 2010, more than a year before Hollywood's first film came out. That episode was quickly picked up by the "Hunger Games" fan site Mockingjay.net and in less than a week was viewed 6,000 times.
The friends were so excited they filmed a video thanking their fans for watching it.
It has become easier for amateur productions to find an audience beyond indulgent friends and relatives. Sites such as YouTube and Vimeo give even the most amateur backyard auteur access to millions of viewers.
Today, the friends' DIY videos altogether have been viewed more than 4.5 million times. Their videos are popular, but the friends haven't made any money from them.
"YouTube said they would send us a check when we hit a certain threshold from the advertising on our videos, but that hasn't happened yet," Eddie said.
It's not unusual for high school friends to make home movies. Steven Spielberg made his first film as a teenager in 1958. He used a Super 8 camera. Soon the family camcorder became popular. Now, inexpensive digital cameras and desktop editing software can let any teen produce polished videos.
The friends are embarrassed by their early videos, shot with their parents' camcorders in fall 2010. The sound is a bit muffled, and the picture quality isn't great, but there are moments of beauty — the shots of nature that run behind the credits, a close up of Maddie's fingers worrying the rim of a water bottle as her character contemplates her next move.
"Production value doesn't matter if a video captures the spirit of the books," says Crystal Watanabe, an administrator at Mockingjay.net. "Our audience just wants to relive the feeling they had when they were reading the books for the first time."
With homework, extracurricular and family commitments, the friends, now seniors at Charlotte County Day School, don't have a lot of time to shoot these movies. Filming goes quickly when it's just Maddie, Eddie or Nick in a scene, but with guest actors, the results can be mixed. Eddie was directing a somber scene on a Sunday morning from the second book with Maddie's mother and 10-year-old sister, who play Katniss' mother and sister. They were watching President Snow, the villain, announce that 24 previous victors, including Katniss, would be heading back to the arena to fight, once again, to the death. But whenever Eddie pointed the camera at Maddie's mom and sister, they started to giggle.
"Imagine your cat dying," Eddie said, trying to get them to look appropriately depressed.
"Stare off at a point and try to blur it with your eyes," Maddie said.
It took 20 minutes, but finally Eddie ended up with footage he could use. Then he shot Maddie looking grave. She nailed it in one take.
Over the years the group has learned that their fans — mostly tween girls — demand adherence to the source material.
"When we started we were writing the scripts from memory, and our fans would write in if even one word was different from the book," Eddie said. Now he will re-shoot a scene if one of his actors misses even a single word.
The friends are graduating high school in June and hope to make at least one more "Hunger Games" video from the third book, "Mockingjay," before they head their separate ways in the fall.
Their venture has been rewarding in many ways: Eddie was admitted early to Brown University, and he thinks his essay on making the videos made a difference.
Maddie had an especially exciting payoff: She was cast as an extra in the Hollywood version of "The Hunger Games," which was being filmed a few hours away from Charlotte, when several people on the set, including director Gary Ross, recognized her.
"You're the girl from YouTube," Ross said. Then he moved her to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jennifer Lawrence, who played Katniss, in the reaping scene where a group of gray-faced children gather to see who will be selected to fight in the arena.
"You can see almost my whole body in profile except my face," Maddie said. "Although you can see my face for half a second."
Her friends were thrilled.
[email protected] ||||| North Carolina State Archives and State Library of North CarolinaArchive-It Partner Since: Sep, 2005Organization Type: State Archives & LibrariesOrganization URL: http://webarchives.ncdcr.gov The mission of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History is to collect, preserve, and utilize the state's historic resources so that present and future residents may better understand their history. To this purpose the office safeguards the documentary and material evidence of past generations for the education of all citizens and the protection of their democratic rights. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?
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– She gets stopped on the street sometimes, recognized for her portrayal of Katniss in a series of Hunger Games videos. No, she's not Jennifer Lawrence; her name is Maddie Moore and she's one of a group of teens in Charlotte, NC, that has been making videos based on the popular books since 2010. The idea came to them after they finished reading the series, but more than a year before the first movie came out. "It was like I never wanted it to end," Moore tells the Los Angeles Times. Their 10 installments have racked up 4.5 million views so far and have gained the teens a degree of celebrity. The filmmakers were high school sophomores when they started the project, with a budget of $30. Moore's family farm, a nearby park, and cast members' homes served as sets; costumes were often sourced from Goodwill. When the videos started getting popular, Moore and two of her friends were invited to a science fiction convention to talk about filmmaking—and watch their mini-movies (each is about eight minutes long) on the big screen. So far, the teens haven't seen any money from the videos, but Moore has experienced one exciting perk: She was cast as an extra in the first Hunger Games feature film—and the director recognized her. Watch all the videos here.
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– A shocking report from the Wall Street Journal emerged Friday, detailing what it says "would amount to a decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct" by one of Las Vegas' biggest casino moguls. Based on more than 150 interviews with past and current employees, as well as court records, the Journal reports on disturbing sexual misconduct accusations against Steve Wynn, CEO and chairman of Wynn Resorts and finance chair for the RNC. Many of the allegations revolve around incidents said to have occurred while he was receiving salon services or massages at Wynn Las Vegas, with tales of female workers hiding in the bathroom or in other areas when they heard Wynn was coming for an appointment. "Everybody was petrified," says one of the salon's ex-artistic directors, who noted he and others had brought up Wynn's behavior to higher-ups but "nobody was there to help us." One ex-massage therapist said Wynn pressured her into masturbating him during sessions; she says she drew the line at his oral sex requests. Meanwhile, a manicurist says she was forced to have sex with him; she reportedly received a $7.5 million settlement. Others mention incidents in which Wynn would let his genitals hang out of his shorts and proposition workers. In a statement to the Journal, Wynn, who turns 76 Saturday and has been called a "great friend" by President Trump, calls the allegations "preposterous" and points the finger at ex-wife Elaine Wynn, whom he married and divorced twice, saying a "terrible and nasty lawsuit" from her for a divorce payout is to blame. The Journal report made an immediate impact: Bloomberg reports Wynn Resorts shares fell more than 8% after the news hit, the largest drop since July. Read more on the accusations against Wynn at the Journal.
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LAS VEGAS—Not long after the billionaire casino mogul Steve Wynn opened his flagship Wynn Las Vegas in 2005, a manicurist who worked there arrived at the on-site salon visibly distressed following an appointment in Mr. Wynn’s office.
Sobbing, she told a colleague Mr. Wynn had forced her to have sex, and she repeated that to others later.
After... ||||| SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share Tweet Post Email
Wynn Resorts Ltd. shares sank more than 8 percent after the Wall Street Journal reported that its founder, casino industry legend Steve Wynn, sexually harassed numerous women over many years.
Wynn, also the finance chairman for the Republican National Committee, paid $7.5 million to settle claims brought by a former manicurist at his resort who said the executive pressured her to have sex with him, the Journal said. Wynn pressured massage therapists to perform sex acts for $1,000 tips, and others at the spa created fictitious appointments to avoid contact with him, said the newspaper, which contacted more than 150 people who worked with the casino magnate.
Wynn, who turns 76 on Saturday, denied the allegations. “The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous,” he told the Journal. His fortune is valued at about $3.7 billion, most of it in Wynn shares, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Steve Wynn Photographer: Jerome Favre/Bloomberg
The allegations jolted a company whose reputation is synonymous with that of its founder, who starred in TV commercials with the likes of Frank Sinatra to promote his properties.
Wynn Resorts fell as much as 8.2 percent to $184.13 in New York, the biggest drop since July 2017. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did the Republican National Committee, which urged the Democratic National Committee last year to return campaign donations from movie mogul Harvey Weinstein when he was accused of sexual assault.
“If the DNC truly stands up for women like they say they do, then returning Weinstein’s dirty money should be a no-brainer,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted last year.
The legal settlement detailed by the Journal in Friday’s report has become a major focus of a lawsuit between Wynn and his ex-wife Elaine Wynn, who is seeking to gain control of her 9 percent stake in the casino giant. Steve Wynn has long sought to maintain his hold over the company because he lost his previous business, Mirage Resorts, to an unsolicited bid from mogul Kirk Kerkorian.
Wynn’s second-in-command and heir apparent at Wynn Resorts is Matt Maddox, a 16-year company veteran who rose from vice president of investor relations to president. Wynn is chairman of the board, whose lead director is former Nevada Governor Robert J. Miller. Maddox and Miller didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
While Wynn Resorts is based in Las Vegas, it generates more than 70 percent of its business in the Chinese gambling market of Macau. After reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings this week, the company said it plans to develop the next phase of the $4.2 billion Wynn Palace there on 11 acres (4.45 hectares).
The company also announced plans for a new 2,500-room property across Las Vegas Boulevard from its current towers on the site of the former Frontier casino and is constructing a new hotel, convention and lake resort behind its existing properties.
— With assistance by Jennifer Epstein ||||| 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. |||||
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Article:
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* ||||| A seemingly good-spirited selfie taken at the Miss Universe pageant has caused a political stir. Miss Lebanon, Saly Greige, is being criticized for being caught in a photo with Miss Israel, Doron Matalon, along with two other women.
After Matalon posted the snapshot on her Instagram profile, Lebanese television station Al Jadeed quipped that, since one of her hobbies is reading, she should have read that Lebanon and Israel are enemies.
Greige explained the situation on her Facebook page, saying she had been trying to avoid communicating with and taking a photo with Miss Israel since arriving at the competition, but while she "was having a photo with Miss Japan, Miss Slovenia and myself; suddenly Miss Israel jumped in, took a selfie, and put it on her social media." Greige said she hoped she would still have the support of the Lebanese people.
Matalon was less apologetic. She posted an article about the photo on Facebook and Instagram Sunday, saying the situation "doesn't surprise me but it still makes me sad." Matalon said she wished "hostility" could be forgotten for the three-week duration of the competition so that "we can meet girls from around the world and also from the neighboring country." Miss Israel served two years in the Israeli Defense Forces, according to her profile on the Miss Universe website.
The pageant will be televised next Sunday, Jan. 25, on NBC at 8 p.m. ET.
— Paul Goldman and Elisha Fieldstadt ||||| doronmatalon via Instagram Miss Lebanon Saly Greige (center l.) says that Miss Israel, Doron Matalon, (l.) photo-bombed her selfie with Miss Japan and Miss Slovenia at the Miss Universe pageant. Michele Eve/© Michele Eve/Splash News/Corbi Miss Israel Doron Matalon said it saddened her the picture caused such controversy. Previous Next
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She may become Miss Universe, but she can kiss Miss Congeniality goodbye.
The international beauty pageant may need to add a diplomatic relations competition after Miss Lebanon Saly Greige accused Miss Israel of trying several times to have a picture taken with her.
A selfie featuring the two contestants, as well as Miss Japan and Miss Slovenia, was posted Jan. 11on Doron Matalon's Instagram accountand has caused a fury in Greige’s home country for appearing with the Israeli beauty queen.
In the photo, Greige is smiling and looks straight into the camera along with the other three women.
Both contestants have multiple pictures on their social media account appearing with other contestants in the competition, which airs Jan. 25.
But many Lebanese citizens are upset at their representative for a appearing with the Israeli since the two countries are technically at war and have had multiple military battles in their history.
The two sides have been relatively peaceful since the last major conflict in 2006, but Lebanese people risk prison if they call or travel to Israel. All Israeli-made products are banned in Lebanon.
Greige tried to stop the criticism — with some demanding she be removed from the contest — in a message to all her supporters and Lebanese citizenson her Facebook page Saturday morning.She claimed to reveal the "truth behind the photo."
"Since the first day of my arrival to participate to Miss Universe, I was very cautious to avoid being in any photo or communication with Miss Israel (that tried several times to have a photo with me) … I was having a photo with Miss Japan, Miss Slovenia and myself; suddenly Miss Israel jumped in, took a selfie, and put it on her social media,"she wrote.
"This is what happened and I hope to have your full support in the Miss Universe contest,"she wrote.
Matalon responded to the controversyon her Instagram page Sunday morning.She did not respond to the allegations she had been stalking Greige, but said the situation makes her feel sad.
ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images Greige wrote on her Facebok page Saturday that she had tried to avoid the Israeli, but she tried several times to take a picture with her.
"It doesn't surprise me, but it still makes me sad. Too bad you cannot put the hostility out of the game, only for three weeks of an experience of a lifetime that we can meet girls from around the world and also from the neighboring country,"she wrote.
With News Wire Services
[email protected] |||||
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– Politics haven't been left behind at this year's Miss Universe pageant, where a selfie taken by Miss Israel is becoming an international incident. After Doron Matalon posted the photo of herself with Miss Lebanon, Miss Slovenia, and Miss Japan on Instagram, Lebanese beauty queen Saly Greige faced calls for her to be stripped of her title for posing with the representative from her country's bitter enemy. Since Greige says one of her hobbies is reading, she should have known Lebanon and Israel are enemies, sniped one critic on Lebanese TV, according to NBC. Others say Greige should lose the crown for "mingling with the citizen of an enemy state," reports Lebanon's Daily Star. Greige, in a plea for Lebanon's continued support, said she had been doing her best to avoid Matalon but was "photobombed," reports the New York Daily News. "I was having a photo with Miss Japan, Miss Slovenia, and myself; suddenly Miss Israel jumped in, took a selfie, and put it on her social media," she wrote on Facebook. Matalon says the situation makes her feel sad. "Too bad you cannot put the hostility out of the game, only for three weeks of an experience of a lifetime that we can meet girls from around the world and also from the neighboring country," she wrote. (Olivia Culpo, the most recent American Miss Universe, outraged Indian authorities with a Taj Mahal fashion shoot.)
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– The US Justice Department will be deploying election monitors and observers in 28 states to help things run smoothly and look for any disruptions or signs discrimination when Americans go to the polls on Tuesday, NPR reports. Around 500 observers will be deployed, which is actually less than were used in 2012; the Supreme Court's 2013 decision to strike down parts of the Voting Rights Act reduced the Justice Department's authority to conduct oversight operations, the New York Times reports. The observers will be in an important position, especially as Donald Trump continues to repeat his dogged accusation that the election will be rigged. Trump has encouraged his supporters to conduct independent monitoring, the New York Times reported last month, a plan that some Democrats say is a "thinly veiled" attempt at voter intimidation. Despite all these efforts to ensure a fair election, a recent poll found that just 43% of voters feel there's a high probability their vote will be properly counted, while 17% have little confidence their vote will be counted accurately.
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With Fewer Legal Tools In Hand, Justice Department Prepares To Monitor Election
Enlarge this image toggle caption Alex Wong/Getty Images Alex Wong/Getty Images
The U.S. Justice Department says it will have more than 500 monitors and observers out Tuesday watching polling sites in 28 states. They'll be looking for any voting rights violations, such as whether voters are discriminated against because of their race or language.
"The bedrock of our democracy is the right to vote, and the Department of Justice works tirelessly to uphold that right, not only on Election Day, but every day," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement.
This number of observers and monitors is about two-thirds the number of people the department had watching the polls in 2012. The reduction is due to the Supreme Court's 2013 ruling striking down a key portion of the Voting Rights Act, which the department says authorized the use of DOJ observers in states and other jurisdictions covered by the law. Those areas were under federal oversight because of past discrimination against voters.
The change also means that of the 500 personnel, fewer DOJ personnel will be stationed inside polling places as official poll observers. Instead, more will be monitoring the election from outside, which gives federal authorities less opportunity to spot irregularities and correct them while individuals are voting.
The department will not release a breakdown of how many observers versus monitors there will be on Election Day.
But Vanita Gupta, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said in a statement: "In most cases, voters on the ground will see very little practical difference between monitors and observers. We work closely and cooperatively with jurisdictions around the country to ensure that trained personnel are able to keep an eye on the proceedings from an immediate vantage point."
Some civil rights groups are concerned about the reduction in observers, in light of increased tensions in this year's elections. Republican candidate Donald Trump has repeatedly said he thinks the election is rigged, and he called on his supporters to go watch the polls for possible cheating. This has raised fears of intimidation of voters, especially minorities.
In addition, a number of states have new voting requirements — such as strict voter ID laws — that civil rights advocates say could cause confusion at the polls and lead to some individuals being denied a chance to vote.
DOJ says it will have people watching voting sites in 67 jurisdictions around the country, including many in Florida, North Carolina, Texas and Pennsylvania.
The agency says voters should report any disruptions at polling places to election officials or local law enforcement authorities, then to DOJ. The department will have staff members taking complaints on a toll-free hotline, 1-800-253-3931, and by email at [email protected].
Numerous other groups will have people watching the polls for problems, including civil rights organizations and groups that say they're on the lookout for any fraudulent voting. In addition, most polling places will have official poll watchers, often one Democrat and one Republican, sitting inside to help ensure that the process is fair. ||||| WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said on Monday that it would deploy more than 500 people in 28 states on Tuesday to monitor Election Day practices and guard against intimidation and disruptions.
The number is a sharp decrease from the 2012 presidential election, when the Justice Department had more than 780 personnel in place on Election Day at the close of what was a much less tumultuous campaign.
Officials placed blame for the shrinking federal presence on a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that limited their ability under the Voting Rights Act to deploy observers in jurisdictions — mainly in the South — with a history of voting discrimination.
In announcing the assignment of monitors and observers, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said, “We will continue to have a robust election monitors program in place on Election Day.” She said the personnel “will perform these duties impartially, with one goal in mind: to see to it that every eligible voter can participate in our elections to the full extent that federal law provides.” ||||| Executive Summary Direction of Country Pessimism about the direction of the country is considerably higher today (74%) than it was at this time during the 2012 presidential race, when 57% of the public said the country was off on the wrong track. Americans are more likely to say that things veered off track some time ago than to believe it occurred in the last few years (44% vs. 30%).
A majority (53%) of Americans approve of how President Barack Obama is handling his job as president, up from a 38% job approval rating just before the 2014 midterm elections. Americans are divided about whether American culture and way of life have changed for worse (51%) or better (48%) since the 1950s. About seven in ten likely voters supporting Donald Trump (72%) say American society and way of life has changed for the worse since the 1950s, while seven in ten likely voters supporting Hillary Clinton (70%) say things have changed for the better.
A majority (56%) of white Americans say American society has changed for the worse since the 1950s, while roughly six in ten black (62%) and Hispanic (57%) Americans say American society has changed for the better.
Class differences among whites are pronounced. A majority (56%) of white college-educated Americans say American society is generally better now than it was in the 1950s, while nearly two-thirds (65%) of white working-class Americans say things are now worse.
No group has a dimmer view of American cultural change than white evangelical Protestants: nearly three-quarters (74%) say American culture has changed for the worse since the 1950s. Leadership: Authoritarianism, Political Correctness, and Gender Americans are closely divided over the question of authoritarian leadership. Forty-six percent of Americans agree with the statement, “Because things have gotten so far off track in this country, we need a leader who is willing to break some rules if that’s what it takes to set things right,” compared to 52% who disagree. A majority (55%) of Republicans agree we need such a leader, while a majority (57%) of Democrats disagree. Nearly six in ten (57%) Americans say it is important to speak frankly about sensitive issues and problems facing the country even if certain people are offended. About four in ten (39%) say it is important to avoid using language that is hurtful and offensive to some people when discussing sensitive issues. Nearly seven in ten (68%) Republicans say it is important to speak openly about problems facing the country even if some people are offended, while only about four in ten (41%) Democrats agree. Most (58%) Americans believe the country would be better off if there were more women serving in public office. More than three-quarters (77%) of Democrats say the U.S. would benefit from more women serving in political leadership roles. Fewer than four in ten (37%) Republicans—including only 42% of Republican women—believe the country would be better off with more women holding public office. More than six in ten (62%) Republicans disagree. There is broader consensus among the public about the achievement double standard women face in employment. Two-thirds (67%) of all Americans, including 80% of women and 54% of men, agree women often have to be more qualified than men to be considered for the same job. Roughly one in three (32%) disagree. The Candidates and Political Parties More than six in ten (61%) Americans say neither political party represents their views anymore. Dissatisfaction with America’s two major parties has risen significantly since 1990, when fewer than half (48%) of Americans believed neither political party represented their views. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump continue to have historically low favorability ratings with fewer than half of the public viewing each candidate positively (41% vs. 33%, respectively). Clinton is viewed less favorably than the Democratic Party (49%), but Trump’s low favorability rating is more consistent with the Republican Party’s low favorability (36%). The public is more likely to attribute a number of positive qualities to Clinton than to Trump. The public is divided over which presidential candidate is more honest and trustworthy (45% Clinton, 44% Trump) and over who is a stronger and more decisive leader (47% Clinton, 47% Trump). But on every other attribute, Clinton has a substantial advantage over Trump, including having “the right temperament and personality” (61% Clinton, 33% Trump) and having “the right background and experience” (64% Clinton, 31% Trump). Confidence in the Electoral Process Fewer than half (43%) of the public say they have a great deal of confidence that their vote will be counted accurately. Roughly four in ten (38%) Americans report having only some confidence, while close to one in five (17%) say they have little confidence their vote will be accurately counted. There are stark differences among likely voters, with 70% of Clinton supporters—but only 41% of Trump supporters—reporting a great deal of confidence their votes will be counted accurately. Americans are almost evenly divided over what constitutes the more significant problem with U.S. elections today: People casting votes who are not eligible (37%) or eligible voters being denied the right to vote (41%). Roughly one in ten (9%) Americans volunteer that voter apathy is the most significant problem. Roughly two-thirds (66%) of Republicans believe voter fraud is a bigger problem than voter disenfranchisement, compared to only 19% of Democrats. More than six in ten (62%) Democrats say eligible voters being denied access is the bigger problem facing the election system. A majority (57%) of Americans agree politics and elections are controlled by people with money and by big corporations so it doesn’t matter if they vote, compared to roughly four in ten (42%) who disagree. Partisan Segregation in Social Circles and Congregations In 2016, Americans’ social networks are strongly segregated by party loyalties. Three-quarters of black Americans (75%) and a majority of Hispanic Americans (56%) report having no close friend or family member who is supporting Trump, compared to only 24% of white Americans. Nearly half (46%) of white working-class Americans report that they do not have a single person among their immediate family and friends who is supporting Clinton, while only 22% of white college-educated Americans say the same. There is also evidence that American churches are highly segregated by party. More than eight in ten (83%) Trump supporters who attend religious services at least weekly estimate that most of their fellow church members are supporting Trump. Similarly, more than three-quarters (78%) of Clinton supporters who attend religious services at least weekly estimate that most of their fellow church members are supporting Clinton. Campaign Issues No issue is viewed by more Americans as important today than terrorism, with seven in ten (70%) Americans, including 83% of Republicans and 65% of Democrats, saying it is a critical issue to them personally. In fact, a majority (53%) of Americans report they are at least somewhat worried that they or someone in their family will be a victim of terrorism. There are major partisan divides on other issue priorities. Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats to say the federal deficit (66% vs. 37%, respectively) and immigration (60% vs. 37%, respectively) are critical issues. By contrast, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say the growing gap between rich and poor (70% vs. 29%, respectively) and race relations (61% vs. 31%, respectively) are critical to them personally. Americans are closely divided about the benefits of free trade. Forty-three percent of the public say free trade agreements are mostly helpful because they open markets to U.S. companies and allow Americans to buy goods more cheaply. Half (50%) of Americans take the opposite view: free trade agreements are mostly harmful because they send jobs overseas and drive down wages in the U.S. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Republicans, compared to only 40% of Democrats, believe free trade is generally harmful. Nearly six in ten (57%) Americans say the decline in American manufacturing jobs was caused by government policies and poorly negotiated trade deals, while only 37% blame globalization and technological advances. A majority of Republicans (71%) and independents (57%) say manufacturing declines in the country are primarily the result of bad deals and policies. Democrats are about equally as likely to blame government decision-making (46%) as they are to blame globalization and technological advances (48%). The public is split over whether the U.S., as a member of NATO, should use military force to defend any member country when it is attacked or whether the U.S. should only use military force if its immediate security is threatened (49% vs. 45%, respectively). There are no significant partisan differences in views about NATO. Americans are divided over the cultural contributions immigrants make to American society. Close to half (46%) of Americans say the growing number of newcomers from other countries threatens traditional American customs and values, while 44% say these immigrants strengthen our society. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of Republicans report the growing number of newcomers threatens American customs and values, while only 29% of Democrats say the same. More than six in ten (63%) Democrats say immigrants strengthen American society. Roughly four in ten (41%) Americans favor building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, while nearly six in ten (58%) are opposed. Support for this policy has remained unchanged since May 2016. Roughly three-quarters (73%) of Republicans favor this policy compared to fewer than four in ten (38%) independents and only about one in five (19%) Democrats. Most (56%) Americans reject a policy of temporarily banning Muslims from other countries coming to the U.S., although a sizeable minority (43%) express support for the policy. Seven in ten (70%) Republicans favor a policy of temporarily banning Muslims from other countries from entering the U.S., compared to only 23% of Democrats. A majority (52%) of Americans agree that police officers generally treat nonwhite and white Americans the same, while 47% disagree. This represents an 11-point increase from 2015, when only 41% of the public said police officers treat nonwhite and white people the same. Roughly eight in ten (79%) black Americans and more than six in ten (62%) Hispanic Americans reject the idea that police officers treat everyone the same. In stark contrast, nearly two-thirds (64%) of white Americans, including strong majorities of white working-class (66%) and white college-educated Americans (59%), agree that police officers are generally evenhanded in their treatment of nonwhite and white Americans.
that police officers are generally evenhanded in their treatment of nonwhite and white Americans. Fully eight in ten (80%) Republicans, but only about one-third (32%) of Democrats, agree police officers generally treat blacks, other minorities, and whites the same. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of Americans agree that people who have been convicted of felonies should be allowed to vote after they complete their sentences. Roughly one-quarter (26%) disagree. Support for restoring voting rights for felons after they serve their sentence is high across all segments of American society. Majorities of Democrats (83%), independents (73%), and Republicans (62%) agree with this policy, as do strong majorities of blacks (85%), Hispanics (78%), and whites (71%).
I. The State of the Nation Direction of the Country Americans are overwhelmingly pessimistic about the direction of the country. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of Americans say things in this country have gotten seriously off on the wrong track, compared to just one-quarter (25%) who say things are generally going in the right direction. More than nine in ten (92%) Republicans say America is headed down the wrong track, a view shared by about eight in ten (79%) independents and close to six in ten (57%) Democrats. Pessimism about the direction of the country is considerably higher today than it was at this time during the 2012 presidential race, when 57% of the public said the country was off on the wrong track.1 However, Americans are much more likely to say things got off track a long time ago (44%) than in the last few years (30%). There are substantial partisan differences about when the country veered off track. Republicans are roughly divided about whether the country got off on the wrong track a long time ago (42%) or just in the last few years (49%). Democrats are more likely to say the country took a wrong turn a long time ago (36%) than more recently (21%). Independents are more than twice as likely to say the country took a wrong turn a long time ago (53%) than in the last few years (25%). *Note: Full question text is: “Do you think things in this country are generally going in the right direction or do you feel things have gotten pretty seriously o on the wrong track? And do you think things have gotten o track in just the last few years or do you think things have been o track for a long time?” One percent of respondents who said “wrong track” did not provide a time estimate. They are not shown in chart above. Critical Issues No issue is viewed by more Americans as important today than terrorism, with seven in ten (70%) saying it is a critical issue to them personally. About six in ten (61%) say jobs and unemployment is a critical concern, while majorities also cite crime (54%) and the growing gap between rich and poor (52%) as critical issues. Nearly half of Americans view the federal deficit (49%) and race relations (47%) as issues of critical importance, and roughly four in ten say the same about the issues of immigration (44%) and the fairness of presidential elections (41%). Only one-third (33%) of Americans say trade agreements with other countries are critically important to them. Issue priorities vary substantially by race and ethnicity. Nearly eight in ten (79%) black Americans say crime is a critical issue to them personally, a view shared by only about half of Hispanic (53%) and white Americans (50%). Blacks (73%) are also somewhat more likely than Hispanics (65%) and whites (57%) to view jobs and unemployment as a critical issue. Similarly, more than seven in ten (72%) blacks and a majority (54%) of Hispanics cite race relations as a critical concern, while only about four in ten (41%) whites say the same. And while two-thirds (67%) of blacks and a majority (53%) of Hispanics view the growing gap between rich and poor as critical, less than half (48%) of whites hold this view. Notably, Hispanics are the most likely to view immigration as critical (53%), a view shared by 45% of whites and fewer than four in ten (37%) blacks. The issue concerns of white Americans are not monolithic, however. White working-class Americans are significantly more likely than white college-educated Americans to say a range of issues are personally critical to them. For example, white working-class Americans are more likely than white college-educated Americans to cite terrorism (76% vs. 62%, respectively), crime (59% vs. 38%, respectively), immigration (51% vs. 39%, respectively), the fairness of presidential elections (44% vs. 28%), and trade agreements with other countries (39% vs. 25%, respectively) as critical issues. Unsurprisingly, the issue priorities of partisans also differ markedly. Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats to say terrorism (83% vs. 65%, respectively), the federal deficit (66% vs. 37%, respectively), immigration (60% vs. 37%, respectively), and trade agreements with other countries (42% vs. 28%, respectively) are critical issues. In contrast, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to list the growing gap between rich and poor (70% vs. 29%, respectively) and race relations (61% vs. 31%, respectively) as critical to them personally. Concerns about Personal Safety and Security Americans report a number of concerns about their personal safety and security. More than six in ten Americans say they are at least somewhat worried they or someone in their family will be a victim of violent crime (61%) or that someone in their household will become unemployed (61%). A majority (53%) of Americans report they are at least somewhat worried they or someone in their family will be a victim of terrorism. And more than one-third (36%) say they are at least somewhat worried about the Zika virus. Fears about personal safety and security cut across the political divide, with Republicans, independents, and Democrats all about as likely to express concerns on these issues. Is the U.S. Too Politically Correct? Most of the country generally rejects the idea that greater sensitivity is required when discussing controversial subjects. Nearly six in ten (57%) Americans say it is important to speak frankly about sensitive issues and problems facing the country even if certain people are offended. About four in ten (39%) say it is important to avoid using language that is hurtful and offensive to some people when discussing sensitive issues. Compared to black and Hispanic Americans, white Americans are less likely to say it is important to avoid using language others may find offensive when discussing sensitive issues. Six in ten (60%) whites—including 69% of white men and 52% of white women— believe it is important to speak frankly about sensitive subjects even if some are offended; only 35% of whites say it is important to avoid using hurtful language. Nonwhite Americans are much more divided on this question. While about half of black (50%) and Hispanic (51%) Americans agree it is important to speak frankly, even if some people are offended, 46% of both blacks and Hispanics say it is important to avoid using hurtful language when discussing sensitive issues. Attitudes on the importance of being sensitive to the views of others when discussing delicate subjects differ markedly among partisans. Nearly seven in ten (68%) Republicans say it is important to speak openly about problems facing the country even if some people are offended, while only about four in ten (41%) Democrats agree. A majority (55%) of Democrats say it is important to avoid hurtful language that could offend others when discussing sensitive topics. The Current Political Climate Obama Job Approval A majority (53%) of Americans approve of how President Barack Obama is handling his job as president, up from a 38% job approval rating just before the 2014 mid-term elections.2 Views of Obama’s job performance are highly polarized by race and ethnicity. Nearly nine in ten (88%) black Americans say they approve of the way Obama has handled his job as president, as do nearly seven in ten (69%) Hispanic Americans. In contrast, only about four in ten (42%) white Americans approve of Obama’s performance as president, while a majority (57%) disapprove. Among white Americans, class differences in attitudes about Obama’s performance are considerable. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of white working-class Americans disapprove of Obama’s job performance, compared to only 35% who approve. By contrast, a majority (54%) of white college-educated Americans approve of how President Obama has performed as president, while 45% disapprove. Nearly nine in ten (89%) Republicans disapprove of Obama’s presidential performance, while a nearly identical number (90%) of Democrats approve. Independents are closely divided: 51% approve, 48% disapprove. Dissatisfaction with the Political System The Need for an Authoritarian Leader Americans are closely divided over the question of authoritarian leadership. Forty-six percent of Americans agree with the statement, “Because things have gotten so far off track in this country, we need a leader who is willing to break some rules if that’s what it takes to set things right,” compared to 52% who disagree. There are only modest racial and ethnic differences in attitudes about the type of leadership the country needs. A slim majority (51%) of Hispanic Americans say America is in need of a leader who will break rules because things have gotten so off track, a view shared by 49% of black Americans and 45% of white Americans. White Americans, however, are divided by class on this leadership question. A majority (55%) of white working-class Americans agree America needs a leader who would be willing to break rules to get things back on track, while 44% disagree. In sharp contrast, seven in ten (70%) white college-educated Americans disagree things are so off track in America that we need a rule-breaking leader to make things right, and only about three in ten (29%) agree with the statement. Partisans also differ considerably in their preference for a leader who will break rules, with Republicans expressing the strongest support for such a leader. A majority (55%) of Republicans believe that because things are so off track in America, we need a leader willing to break some rules to set things right, while a nearly identical number of Democrats (57%) disagree. The views of independents closely mirror the views of Americans overall. Frustration with the Parties and Elections Most Americans do not feel well-represented by either of the major political parties. More than six in ten (61%) Americans say neither political party represents their views anymore, while fewer than four in ten (38%) disagree. Dissatisfaction with America’s two major parties has risen significantly since 1990, when fewer than half (48%) of Americans believed neither political party represented their views. More than six in ten Hispanic (62%) and white Americans (61%) say their views are not reflected by either major political party, while a slim majority (52%) of black Americans say the same. Notably, white Americans’ level of dissatisfaction with the two parties does not differ by class. Unsurprisingly, independents are more likely than Democrats and Republicans to say their views are not reflected by the two parties, though large numbers of partisans from both sides of the aisle also express this opinion. Nearly eight in ten (77%) political independents and a majority (54%) of Republicans believe neither major political party represents their views today. Fewer than half (46%) of Democrats agree, while a majority (52%) of Democrats disagree with this statement. America’s Best President No one president stands out as the singular favorite among Democratic and Democratic-leaning Americans.3 More than one-third (35%) of Democrats cite President Barack Obama as their favorite president, while about one in five name John F. Kennedy (21%) or Bill Clinton (20%) and another 15% name Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Only five percent of Democrats say Jimmy Carter is their favorite president, and one percent each select Lyndon Johnson or Harry Truman. President Obama is especially popular with black and Hispanic Democrats. A majority (57%) of black Democrats and a plurality (41%) of Hispanic Democrats say Obama is their favorite Democratic president. White Democrats, in contrast, are roughly evenly divided in support for Obama (24%), Kennedy (23%), Roosevelt (22%), and Clinton (19%). President Obama also wins out among young Democrats. Close to half (44%) of Democratic young adults (age 18-29) list Obama as their favorite Democratic president, with Kennedy (19%), Roosevelt (16%), and Clinton (14%) finishing far behind. By contrast, Democratic seniors (age 65 and older) are largely divided among Kennedy (26%), Roosevelt (23%), and Obama (19%). On the Republican side, Ronald Reagan is far and away the most popular president. Nearly seven in ten (69%) Republicans and Republican leaners say Reagan is their favorite president, while George W. Bush (12%) finishes in a distant second. Seven percent of Republicans name Dwight Eisenhower as their favorite Republican president, five percent select George H.W. Bush, two percent select Richard Nixon, and just one percent select Gerald Ford. Reagan is the overwhelming favorite among every major demographic group of Republicans. Notably, Republican young adults are the only demographic group in which a majority do not select Reagan: 45% of Republican young adults cite Reagan as their favorite Republican president, followed by George W. Bush at 28%.
II. The 2016 Election Views of the Candidates Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump fare poorly in the eyes of the public, but Clinton continues to retain a modest advantage over her opponent. Roughly four in ten (41%) Americans have a favorable view of Clinton, while 57% view her unfavorably. Only one-third (33%) of Americans view Trump favorably, while nearly two-thirds (65%) express a negative opinion of him. Neither candidates’ favorability ratings have changed significantly since they captured their respective party’s nominations. Notably, Clinton is viewed less favorably by the public than the last two Democratic presidents, each of whom have net positive favorability ratings. A majority (54%) of Americans have a favorable opinion of Barack Obama, while more than half (52%) of the public report a favorable view of former president Bill Clinton. The public’s views of the Democratic Party are more divided (49% favorable vs. 48% unfavorable). Trump also is viewed far less favorably than George W. Bush (45% favorable vs. 53% unfavorable), the last Republican president, but his favorability ratings are comparable to the low favorability ratings of the Republican Party (36% favorable vs. 60% unfavorable). Candidate Traits While the public is roughly divided over whether being honest or trustworthy or whether being a strong and decisive leader best describes Clinton or Trump, across a range of other attributes, Americans are more likely to ascribe positive qualities to Clinton. The public is divided over which presidential candidate is more honest and trustworthy (45% Clinton, 44% Trump) and over who is a stronger and more decisive leader (47% Clinton, 47% Trump). Perceptions of the candidates’ honesty varies significantly by race, ethnicity, and class. A majority (53%) of white Americans say Trump is the more honest and trustworthy candidate, a view sharply at odds with black and Hispanic Americans, who say this better describes Clinton (71% and 59%, respectively). Nearly six in ten (59%) white working-class Americans believe Trump is the more honest and trustworthy candidate; white college-educated Americans are divided, with nearly equal numbers saying this attribute describes Clinton (45%) as it does Trump (43%). Clinton has an advantage over Trump in being perceived as having strong religious beliefs (50% vs. 36%, respectively). Notably, white evangelical Protestants are much more likely to say having “strong religious beliefs” better describes Trump than Clinton (58% vs. 28%, respectively). Americans are also more likely to perceive Clinton as being someone who “cares about people like you” than Trump (52% vs. 40%, respectively). A majority of black (76%) and Hispanic (68%) Americans believe Clinton is the candidate who cares more about people like them, while white Americans are divided by class. A majority (56%) of white working-class Americans say Trump cares more about people like them, while roughly as many white college-educated Americans (55%) say Clinton is the candidate who most cares about people like them. The public overall is more likely to believe Clinton, rather than Trump, is likely to use American military power responsibly (55% vs. 39%, respectively). Clinton has a similarly-sized advantage over Trump in perceptions that she better understands the problems of poor Americans (57% vs. 35%, respectively). Finally, Americans are roughly twice as likely to say Clinton is better described as having the right background and experience (64% vs. Trump’s 31%) and having the right temperament and personality (61% vs. Trump’s 33%). Understanding the Problems of People Like You Few Americans believe either Clinton (35%) or Trump (25%) better understands the problems that people like them face. In fact, a plurality (39%) say neither candidate really understands the problems of people like them. Perceptions of the candidates’ ability to understand average Americans’ problems vary widely by race and class. More than six in ten (63%) black Americans say Clinton is the candidate who better understands their problems, while just five percent say the same of Trump. Hispanics are also more likely to say Clinton, rather than Trump, has a better understanding of the problems they face (40% vs. 12%, respectively). White Americans are more divided. Twenty-eight percent of whites say Clinton better understands their concerns, while one-third (33%) say Trump has a better understanding. Nearly four in ten (38%) whites say neither candidate really understands the challenges they face. There is a sizable class division among white Americans. White working-class Americans are more likely to believe Trump understands the challenges that people like them are facing (36% vs. Clinton’s 22%). White college-educated Americans are more likely to say Clinton, rather than Trump, has the better grasp of their problems (37% vs. 26%, respectively). Single Most Important Trait this Election By far the most important trait Americans believe a presidential candidate should possess is honesty. Nearly four in ten (39%) Americans name honesty is the single most important candidate quality. More than one in five (22%) say experience is the most important quality, while slightly fewer (16%) mention strength. Fewer than one in ten Americans say an “even temperament” (9%) or compassion (6%) is the most critical characteristic. There are sharp divisions between partisans in views about the most important candidate attribute. A majority (54%) of Republicans say honesty is the most important quality for a presidential candidate to possess, while only about half as many (25%) Democrats agree. Republicans are also much more likely than Democrats to stress the importance of strength (28% vs. 10%, respectively). Conversely, Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to emphasize the importance of experience (35% vs. 7%, respectively) and an even temperament (15% vs. 3%, respectively). Relatively few Democrats (8%) and Republicans (3%) say compassion is a singularly important quality in a candidate. Confidence in the Election System Fewer than half (43%) of the public say they have a great deal of confidence that their vote will be counted accurately. Roughly four in ten (38%) Americans report having only some confidence, while close to one in five (17%) say they have little confidence their vote will be accurately counted. Confidence in the voting system varies substantially by race and class. Close to half (46%) of white Americans have a great deal of confidence that their vote will be counted compared to roughly four in ten black (42%) and Hispanic Americans (38%). However, blacks are about twice as likely as whites (28% vs. 15%, respectively) to say they have hardly any confidence that their vote will be counted properly. Roughly one in five (22%) Hispanics say they have hardly any confidence. Class divisions are even more stark. Only about one-third (35%) of white working-class Americans report having a great deal of confidence in the voting system, while more than six in ten (61%) white college-educated Americans say the same. Democrats are more likely than Republicans and independents to report a high degree of confidence in the voting system (55% vs. 44% and 35%, respectively). There are stark differences among likely voters, with 70% of Clinton supporters—but only 41% of Trump supporters—reporting a great deal of confidence their votes will be counted accurately. Despite the fact that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, Americans are roughly evenly divided over what constitutes the more significant problem with U.S. elections today: people casting votes who are not eligible (37%) or eligible voters being denied the right to vote (41%). Roughly one in ten (9%) Americans volunteered that voter apathy is the most significant problem. The issue of voter fraud sharply divides the public along political lines. Roughly two-thirds (66%) of Republicans believe voter fraud is a bigger problem than voter disenfranchisement. More than six in ten (62%) Democrats say eligible voters being denied access is the bigger problem facing the election system, compared to only 19% who say voter fraud is the bigger problem. Independents reflect the views of the public overall. Americans also express considerable frustration with the power of money and big corporations in politics. A majority (57%) of Americans agree politics and elections are controlled by people with money and by big corporations so it doesn’t matter if they vote, compared to roughly four in ten (42%) who disagree. There is rough agreement among Americans across racial and ethnic divides. The political cynicism of white Americans does vary considerably by social class, however. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of white working-class Americans agree elections are controlled by those with money so it doesn’t matter if they vote, a view shared by only about four in ten (42%) white college-educated Americans. A majority (57%) of the white college educated reject this idea. Independents express more cynical views of the political system than both Democrats and Republicans. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of independents say voting is ineffective because elections are controlled by big corporations and the wealthy, while slim majorities of Republicans (53%) and Democrats (51%) say the same. Nearly half of both Democrats (49%) and Republicans (47%) disagree. Additionally, young adults (age 18-29) are significantly more jaded than seniors (age 65 and older) in their attitudes about the futility of voting. About two-thirds (66%) of young adults believe politics and elections are controlled by corporations and those with money so their vote does not matter, an opinion shared by fewer than half (49%) of seniors. The 2016 Vote At this stage in the campaign,4 Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump among likely voters by a significant margin (49% vs. 41%, respectively).5 The motivations of likely Clinton and Trump voters varies. Nearly six in ten (57%) Trump voters report that their primary reason for supporting Trump is to oppose Clinton. Only 42% of Trump voters say their vote is primarily about supporting the Republican nominee. A slight majority (52%) of voters who support Clinton say their vote is mostly about opposing Trump; close to half (48%) of Clinton voters say their vote is about supporting Clinton. Who is Motivated, and Who Will Win? Feeling Motivated to Vote Likely voters appear quite engaged in the campaign. More than eight in ten (85%) voters say they feel highly motivated to vote this year, while 15% say they do not feel that highly motivated. Each candidate’s supporters report being about equally motivated to vote this year. More than eight in ten Donald Trump supporters (89%) and Hillary Clinton supporters (86%) say they are highly motivated to turn out. There are only modest differences in motivations among voters by race and ethnicity. Nearly than nine in ten (88%) white voters, 82% of Hispanic voters, and 76% of black voters say they are highly motivated to vote. Predicting the Winner By a margin of nearly two to one, more Americans say Clinton is more likely than Trump to win the presidential election (63% vs. 34%, respectively). Partisans are much more likely to say their respective nominee will win the election, but Democrats are more confident in Clinton’s chances than Republicans are about the likelihood of a Trump victory (86% vs. 64%, respectively). Independents closely resemble Americans overall. Partisan Segregation In 2016, Americans’ social networks are strongly segregated by party loyalties. More than three in ten (31%) Americans say there is no one among their close friends and family who is supporting Hillary Clinton, while a similar proportion (36%) say no one among their close friends and family is supporting Donald Trump. The degree of political segregation varies widely by race and ethnicity. Three-quarters of black Americans (75%) and a majority of Hispanic Americans (56%) report having no close friend or family member who is supporting Trump. In contrast, fewer than one in four (24%) white Americans say their social network does not include a Trump supporter. Whites are more likely to have a member of their immediate social circle who is supporting Trump than Clinton (75% vs. 60%, respectively). However, these patterns vary significantly by class. White college-educated Americans are much more likely than white working-class Americans to have a close friend or family member who is supporting Clinton (76% vs. 50%, respectively). White working-class Americans are more than twice as likely as white college-educated Americans to report that they do not have a single member of their immediate social network who is supporting Clinton (46% vs. 22%, respectively). Among religious groups, nearly half (48%) of white evangelical Protestants and more than four in ten white mainline Protestants (41%) say they have no one in their immediate social network who is supporting Clinton. In contrast, nearly eight in ten (77%) black Protestants, 61% of Hispanic Catholics, 45% of religiously unaffiliated Americans, and 43% of members of non-Christian religions say they have no one in their immediate social network who is supporting Trump. Partisans also have highly segregated social networks. A majority (56%) of Democrats report that they do not have a close friend or family member who is supporting Trump. Similarly, a majority (52%) of Republicans do not have a single close friend or family member who is supporting Clinton. Democratic and Republican Churches? Roughly half (45%) of Americans who attend religious services at least a few times a year report that most members of their church or place of worship are supporting Clinton. Nearly an equal number (42%) report that most of their congregation is supporting Trump. However, the politics vary markedly by religious affiliation. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of white evangelical Protestants and a majority (53%) of white mainline Protestants who attend services at least occasionally say most of their fellow congregants are supporting Trump. By contrast, nine in ten (90%) black Protestants say most of their fellow congregants will be supporting Clinton. More than eight in ten (83%) Trump supporters who attend religious services at least weekly estimate that most of their fellow church members are supporting Trump. Similarly, more than three-quarters (78%) of Clinton supporters who attend religious services at least weekly estimate that most of their fellow church members are supporting Clinton.
III. Progress, Nostalgia, and Cultural Change Looking Back: Evaluating Cultural Changes Since the 1950s Americans are divided about whether American culture and way of life have changed for worse (51%) or better (48%) since the 1950s. This assessment has been relatively stable over time, though there are notable differences based on political affiliation, race, class, age, and gender. Democrats take a decidedly more positive view about the cultural changes that have occurred over the last 60 years. Roughly two-thirds (66%) of Democrats say American culture has generally changed for the better since the 1950s, while roughly two-thirds of Republicans (68%) and a majority of independents (55%) say American society and way of life has only gotten worse. Supporters of each presidential candidate are divided along similar lines. About seven in ten likely voters supporting Donald Trump (72%) say American society and way of life has changed for the worse since the 1950s, while seven in ten likely voters supporting Hillary Clinton (70%) say things have changed for the better. There are profound differences in views about the direction the country has taken since the 1950s by race, ethnicity, and class. A majority (56%) of white Americans say American society has changed for the worse since the 1950s, while roughly six in ten black (62%) and Hispanic (57%) Americans say American society has changed for the better. Class differences among whites are pronounced. A majority (56%) of white college-educated Americans say American society is generally better now than it was in the 1950s, while nearly two-thirds (65%) of white working-class Americans say things are now worse. White Christians are more likely than members of other religious groups to say recent changes in American culture have been, on balance, bad for the country. No group has a dimmer view of American cultural change than white evangelical Protestants: Nearly three-quarters (74%) say American culture has changed for the worse since the 1950s. Nearly six in ten white mainline Protestants (59%) and white Catholics (57%) also believe the American way of life has taken a turn for the worse over the past 60 years. In contrast, at least six in ten religiously unaffiliated Americans (66%), members of non-Christian religions (66%), Hispanic Catholics (65%), and black Protestants (60%) say American society has mostly changed for the better since the 1950s. Looking Forward: Evaluating America’s Future A similar picture emerges when Americans are asked if the country’s best days are ahead of us (48%) or behind us (50%). Views are largely unchanged from late 2015, and divisions in the American public follow expected patterns, with Republicans and the white working class expressing the most pessimistic views about America’s future. White Americans, especially white working-class Americans, are more likely than black and Hispanic Americans to believe America’s best days are in the past. A majority (54%) of whites say that the country’s best days are behind us, compared to only 47% of Hispanic and 40% of black Americans. The views of white Americans diverge sharply by social class. More than six in ten (61%) white working-class Americans believe America’s best days have passed, a view shared by only 43% of white college-educated Americans. A majority (57%) of white college-educated Americans say country’s best days are yet to come. Perspectives on America’s future are polarized by partisan identity, with Republicans holding a much bleaker view than Democrats. Sixty-one percent of Republicans and a majority (54%) of independents say America’s best days are in the past, while only 38% of Democrats believe that to be true. More than six in ten (61%) Democrats say the country has yet to experience its best days. Women in Political Leadership and Gender-based Double Standards Most (58%) Americans believe the country would be better off if there were more women serving in public office. Four in ten (40%) Americans disagree that the country would necessarily be better off. Democrats and Republicans have sharply contrasting views about the importance of women serving in politics. More than three-quarters (77%) of Democrats say the U.S. would benefit from more women serving in political leadership roles. Fewer than four in ten (37%) Republicans—including only 42% of Republican women—believe the country would be better off with more women holding public office. More than six in ten (62%) Republicans disagree. Predictably, the views of men and women are also substantially different when it comes to the benefits of female leadership in politics. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of women, but only half (50%) of men, say it would be better for the country if more women served in public office. Americans overall acknowledge that there is an achievement double standard against women. Two-thirds (67%) of Americans agree women often have to be more qualified than men to be considered for the same job. Roughly one in three (32%) disagree. There is general consensus across the political divide that qualification requirements for women are higher than they are for men, although there is some variation in the strength of agreement. A majority (57%) of Republicans, nearly two-thirds (65%) of independents, and eight in ten (80%) Democrats agree women often need greater qualifications to be considered for the same job as men. There is a notable gender gap on this question. Eight in ten women (80%), but only 54% of men, agree women often have to be more qualified than men to be considered for the same job. Evaluating America’s Economic Future and Upward Mobility Pessimism about Next Generation Americans express notable but declining pessimism about their children’s economic future. Nearly four in ten (39%) Americans—a plurality—believe their generation is better off financially than their children’s generation will be. More than one-third (36%) say the next generation will be in a similar financial situation and only about one-quarter (24%) say their generation is worse off than their children’s generation will be. Although relatively few believe that their generation is worse off than their children’s generation will be, the number of Americans saying their generation is better off has declined. In 2013, a majority (52%) of Americans said their generation was better off than their children’s would be, while roughly one in five (18%) said they would be in about the same financial situation. Interestingly, Americans today are not any more likely to think they are worse off than their children will be. In 2013, a similar number (26%) of people reported that their generation was worse off than their children’s generation would be. Older Americans are more likely than young adults to say their generation is financially better off than the one following it. A slim majority (51%) of seniors (ages 65 and older) believe their generation is in a better financial situation than their children’s generation will be. In contrast, fewer than one in four (23%) young adults (age 18-29) believe their generation is in better shape financially than the one to follow. *Note: For respondents without children, question was asked about “the next generation of young people.” Does Hard Work Guarantee Success? Most Americans express doubts about whether a key element of the American Dream—working hard is enough to get ahead—still holds true. A majority (57%) of Americans say hard work and determination do not guarantee success for most people, while 42% say it does. While this skepticism is widely shared among the public, there are key political, racial, ethnic, and class divisions. More than six in ten (62%) Democrats and 58% of independents do not believe hard work alone is enough to guarantee success. Fewer than half (46%) of Republicans agree with this pessimistic view. A majority (54%) of Republicans disagree with the idea that hard work does not always yield success. Skepticism about the connection between hard work and success spans racial and ethnic divides. More than six in ten black (65%) and Hispanic Americans (63%) and a majority of white Americans (54%) agree hard work is not a surefire path to success for most people. Nearly six in ten (58%) members of the white working class agree that hard work doesn’t always result in success. White college-educated Americans are divided in their views; nearly half (49%) agree, while a similar number (50%) disagree.
IV. Trade and Foreign Policy Americans are closely divided about the benefits of free trade. Forty-three percent of the public say free trade agreements are mostly helpful because they open markets to U.S. companies and allow Americans to buy goods more cheaply. Half (50%) of Americans take the opposite view: free trade agreements are mostly harmful because they send jobs overseas and drive down wages in the U.S. There are modest differences in views about free trade by race and ethnicity. However, white Americans are divided sharply by class. Six in ten (60%) white working-class Americans say free trade agreements are mostly harmful, a view shared by only about four in ten (42%) white college-educated Americans. Democrats and Republicans sharply diverge over the benefits of free trade. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Republicans believe free trade is generally harmful. By contrast, only 40% of Democrats see free trade agreements as mostly harmful, while a majority (54%) say free trade agreements are mostly helpful because they open markets and lower the price of goods. Political independents mirror views of the general public. Among Democrats, views about free trade vary considerably by region. Midwestern Democrats are much less likely to see the benefit of free trade than those in the Northeast and South (44% vs. 59% and 58%, respectively). Western Democrats are somewhat divided with close to half (49%) expressing a positive view about the benefits of free trade and four in ten (40%) expressing a negative view. Republican views on free trade are not significantly different across regions. Most Americans believe the loss of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. is primarily the result of poorly negotiated trade deals and government policy as opposed to the rise of globalization and technological advancements. Nearly six in ten (57%) Americans say the decline in American manufacturing was caused by government policies, while only 37% blame globalization. A majority of Republicans (71%) and independents (57%) say manufacturing declines in the country are primarily the result of bad trade deals and government policy. Democrats are about equally as likely to blame government decision-making (46%) as they are to blame globalization and technological advances (48%). There are striking divisions among Americans by educational attainment on this issue. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Americans with a high school education or less believe government policy is largely responsible for the decline in American manufacturing jobs. Four-year college graduates are evenly divided over the culprit, with as many citing government policy (47%) as globalization (47%). In contrast, six in ten (60%) Americans with a post-graduate degree fault globalization and technological advances for the decline in American manufacturing jobs. There are also sharp contrasting views among different generations. Young adults (age 18-29) are more likely than any other age group to say that manufacturing jobs have declined due to globalization. Nearly half (48%) of young adults say globalization and technological advancement precipitated the decline, a view shared by only one-third (33%) of seniors (age 65 and older). Defending NATO Allies The public is split over whether the U.S., as a member of NATO, should use military force to defend any member country when it is attacked or whether the U.S. should only use military force if its immediate security is threatened (49% vs. 45%, respectively). There are no significant political differences in views about NATO. The issue divides Republicans, Democrats, and independents about equally. A majority (53%) of Republicans and nearly half of independents (49%) and Democrats (48%) support the use of military force in defense of NATO allies. Fewer than half of Republicans (44%), independents (46%), and Democrats (47%) say military force should only be employed if America’s immediate security is threatened. There is a pronounced gender divide about when the use of military force is required. A majority (56%) of men say the U.S. should defend any NATO ally with military force, while only 42% of women agree. A majority (52%) of women say the U.S. should only use military force if its own immediate security is threatened.
V. Immigration and Protectionist Policies Views of Immigrants Americans are divided over the cultural contributions immigrants make to American society. Close to half (46%) of Americans say the growing number of newcomers from other countries threatens traditional American customs and values, while 44% say these immigrants strengthen our society. There are notable racial, ethnic, and class divisions in perceptions of immigrants. A majority of Hispanic Americans (56%) say newcomers strengthen American culture, while 37% say they threaten it. Black Americans are evenly divided over the contributions immigrants make to society: equal numbers say immigrants threaten American culture (46%) as say strengthen it (46%). A slim majority (51%) of white Americans say immigrants are a threat to American culture, while 40% believe immigrants contribute positively to American culture. However, whites are divided sharply by class. More than six in ten (62%) white working-class Americans say immigrants threaten American culture, compared to only about one-third (34%) of white college-educated Americans. A majority (54%) of white college-educated Americans believe immigrants are a source of strength for American society. There are stark partisan differences over whether Americans perceive immigrants as a threat or a source of strength. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of Republicans report the growing number of newcomers threatens American customs and values, while only 29% of Democrats say the same. More than six in ten (63%) Democrats say immigrants strengthen American society. Independents mirror the general population. Protectionist Policies: Building a Wall and Banning Muslims Building a Wall on the U.S.-Mexico Border Most Americans reject the proposal that the U.S. should build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Roughly four in ten (41%) Americans favor building a wall, while nearly six in ten (58%) are opposed. Support for this policy has remained unchanged since May 2016. Public attitudes are highly polarized by race, ethnicity, and class. Roughly three-quarters of Hispanic (76%) and black (74%) Americans are opposed to building a wall. In contrast, white Americans are more divided over the policy: 52% oppose; 47% favor. There is notable disagreement among whites by social class. A majority (56%) of white working-class Americans favor building a wall, a view shared by only 35% of white college-educated Americans. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of white college-educated Americans are opposed to the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. There is a substantial partisan divide in support for building a wall along the Mexican border. Roughly three-quarters (73%) of Republicans favor this policy compared to fewer than four in ten (38%) independents and only about one in five (19%) Democrats who say the same. More than six in ten (62%) independents and eight in ten (80%) Democrats oppose building a wall along the southern U.S. border. The gap between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton supporters dwarfs partisan disagreement over the proposal. More than eight in ten (86%) Trump supporters favor the construction of a wall, a position favored by only 12% of Clinton backers. Nearly nine in ten (88%) Clinton supporters say they do not support building a wall along the border, including 61% who strongly oppose it. Banning Muslims from Entering the U.S. Most (56%) Americans reject a policy of temporarily banning Muslims from other countries coming to the U.S., although a sizeable minority (43%) express support for the idea. A similar pattern emerges among Americans by race, ethnicity, and social class. More than seven in ten (72%) black Americans and more than six in ten (62%) Hispanic Americans oppose banning foreign Muslims from other countries from entering the U.S. White Americans are split on the issue, with a slim majority (51%) opposing such a ban and 47% favoring it. Notably, a majority (56%) of white working-class Americans favor a temporary ban on Muslims from entering the U.S., compared to roughly one-third (35%) of white college-educated Americans. Republicans and Democrats are also deeply divided over the proposal. Seven in ten (70%) Republicans favor a policy of temporarily banning Muslims from other countries from entering the U.S., while fewer than three in ten (29%) oppose such a policy. In contrast, three-quarters (75%) of Democrats oppose banning Muslims from entering the country, while fewer than one in four (23%) favor this policy. Independents mirror the general population on this issue. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump supporters also register diametrically opposed views on this issue. Close to eight in ten (78%) Trump supporters favor a temporary ban on Muslims, while fewer than one in five (18%) Clinton supporters endorse the idea. Eighty percent of Clinton supporters reject such a ban. The issue also divides Americans by religious affiliation. A majority of white evangelical Protestants (62%) and white mainline Protestants (54%) favor the temporary ban on Muslims. White Catholics are split in their views of the proposal, with about equal numbers expressing support (48%) as opposition (49%). Conversely, a majority of Hispanic Catholics (62%), black Protestants (68%), members of non-Christian religions (70%), and religiously unaffiliated Americans (74%) reject a temporary ban on Muslims.
VI. Raising the Minimum Wage, Free College Tuition, and Taxation Increasing the Minimum Wage to $15 The public expresses fairly strong support for raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Six in ten (60%) Americans favor more than doubling the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour, while approximately four in ten (39%) are opposed to such a hike. Support for a $15 minimum wage is unchanged from last year. Support for a minimum wage increase varies considerably by race and ethnicity. Eight in ten (80%) black Americans and nearly three-quarters (73%) of Hispanic Americans support raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. White Americans, in comparison, are more divided: a majority (53%) favor a $15 minimum wage, while 46% are opposed. Notably, whites’ strength of support for a minimum wage increase is steady across social classes. A majority of both white working-class (55%) and white college-educated Americans (52%) favor raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Eight in ten (80%) Democrats favor increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour, compared to roughly one-third (35%) of Republicans. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Republicans oppose such an increase. The views of independents mirror those of the general public. Americans are also more likely to say raising the minimum wage helps rather than hurts the economy. A majority (54%) of Americans say raising the minimum wage generally helps the economy because it allows more workers to pay for basic goods and services without government help, while four in ten (40%) Americans say minimum wage increases generally hurt the economy by making it more difficult for small businesses to pay and hire new workers. Democrats and Republicans diverge in their views about the relative economic benefit or harm of raising the minimum wage. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of Democrats say raising the minimum wage helps the economy by allowing workers to pay for basic goods and services, while fewer than three in ten (27%) Republicans say the same. Two-thirds (67%) of Republicans believe minimum wage increases hurt the economy by making it difficult for small businesses to hire new workers. College Tuition Americans express strong support for eliminating tuition for public university students whose families make less than $125,000 annually. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Americans agree tuition to public colleges and universities should be free for all students whose families make less than $125,000 per year; fewer than four in ten (36%) Americans disagree. More than eight in ten black (83%) and Hispanic Americans (81%) believe students whose families make less than $125,000 annually shouldn’t have to pay tuition at public colleges and universities, while fewer than six in ten (57%) white Americans say the same. There are divides among white Americans by class, however. More than six in ten (62%) white working-class Americans agree tuition to public colleges and universities should be free for those who came from families making less than $125,000 per year, compared to a slim majority (51%) of white college-educated Americans. Half (50%) of the white college educated do not support this policy. More than eight in ten (83%) Democrats support making tuition free at public colleges and universities for all students whose families make less than $125,000 per year. In contrast, roughly four in ten (42%) Republicans support such a proposal, while a majority (57%) are opposed. There is considerable support for this policy across generations, although young adults voice the strongest support. Nearly seven in ten (68%) young adults (age 18-29) and a majority (57%) of seniors (age 65 and older) agree tuition should be eliminated for students at public colleges and universities whose families make less than $125,000 annually. Increasing Taxes on the Wealthy The public overwhelmingly supports raising taxes on wealthier Americans. More than seven in ten (72%) Americans favor increasing the tax rate on Americans earning more than $250,000 per year, while fewer than three in ten (27%) are opposed. Support for increasing taxes on the wealthy has risen since 2014, when 57% favored such a policy. ||||| Warning darkly of a stolen election, Donald J. Trump has called on supporters to turn out in droves on Election Day to monitor polling places, telling them they need to be vigilant against widespread voter fraud and a rigged outcome.
“Voter fraud is all too common, and then they criticize us for saying that,” he said at a rally Tuesday in Colorado Springs. “But take a look at Philadelphia, what’s been going on, take a look at Chicago, take a look at St. Louis. Take a look at some of these cities, where you see things happening that are horrendous.”
His language has stirred increasing fears of intimidation of minorities inside polling places, where their qualifications to vote could be challenged, or outside, where they would face illegal electioneering.
But as Mr. Trump casts doubt on the integrity of the presidential election, there are no signs of a wave of Trump poll watchers building. Like much else about his campaign, his call to “get everybody to go out and watch” the polls seems to be a Potemkin effort, with little or no organization behind it. |||||
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Shark attacks on humans are extremely rare despite today's fatality on Auckland's west coast, according to shark experts.
There have been 44 shark attacks recorded in New Zealand since 1847, 11 of them fatal. The last confirmed shark fatality was in 1976 at Te Kaha in the Bay of Plenty.
Shark expert Riley Elliot says the protected fish has been misunderstood.
Story continues below...
"We need to understand the context and the animals themselves before we start acting inappropriately and irresponsibly on these cases," he said.
"A Great White's predatorily response is to hit something and leave it alone and until it bleeds out and dies."
Experts say there is no need to be alarmed by today's attack and are urging the public to wait on a Coroner's report to confirm the cause of the victim's death.
NIWA scientist Dr Malcolm Francis believes today's tragedy may have been a case of mistaken identity.
"Seals are a favourite prey for great white sharks and if they see a silhouette of a person in the water above them that could look very much like a seal floating in the surface," he said.
Shark sightings
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Today's shark attack comes after reported sightings of Great White sharks over the summer period.
Great White sharks had been spotted off the Kapiti Coast in December.
The Department of Conservation's Clinton Duffy said at the time that it was not uncommon to see the predator in New Zealand waters at this time of year.
In March last year, a knee boarder was left with multiple lacerations on his leg after he was attacked by a shark at a Taranaki surf break.
While most attacks involved Great White sharks, mako and bronze whalers also have been known to cause fatal injuries. Great White sharks have been responsible for most of the 11 fatal attacks in New Zealand where the shark has been identified.
Australia has the second highest rate of shark fatalities in the world. There have been 689 attacks reported since 1791, 201 of them fatal. A Great White was believed to have killed 24-year-old man near Perth last year.
||||| A man killed in a great white shark attack off the coast of New Zealand was an award-winning short film director.
Police recovered the body of 46-year-old Adam Strange on Wednesday afternoon at Muriwai, a popular surfing beach near Auckland, on the county’s North Island.
The shark, possibly four metres (14ft) long attacked Mr Strange, then disappeared after police attempting to save him fired gunshots at the predator.
A statement on Mr Strange's Facebook page said: "The family are grieving the loss of a glorious father, husband and friend. We are in deep shock ... "
The television director won a Crystal Bear award for best short film at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival, according to his company's website.
Police in a helicopter directed inflatable boats to the scene
Mr Strange, who has worked across the world, has made television commercials for companies such as Pepsi, Toyota and Samsung. He has been a finalist in the Cannes International Advertising Awards and the London International Advertising Awards.
On his website he said: "When I get a spare 5 minutes, I like to … surf some big waves out on the West Coast, point my skis down a mountain ... haul my mountain bike up and down a few hills, drink some Pinot while scratching away at a film script … "
Witness Stef McCallum, 18, said she saw a police officer go out in a surf lifesaving boat and fire "about 20" shots into the water at the shark.
"Everybody was evacuated from the water. Word of mouth, 'shark', and everybody left the water," she said.
As many as 200 people were on the beach at the time of the attack
Another witness to the attack, Pio Mose, claimed he saw three sharks.
He told The New Zealand Herald he saw the swimmer struggle against one "huge" shark. He told the man to swim to the rocks, but it was too late.
"All of a sudden there was blood everywhere," Mr Mose said. "I was shaking, scared, panicked."
Another witness told television station 3 News NZ that he spotted the lone swimmer while he was fishing at the beach.
The distressed man signalled for help when he was attacked, before he was pulled underwater. At this point, the witness said, three or four other sharks appeared in the area.
Police Inspector Shawn Rutene said the swimmer was about 650ft (200m) offshore when the shark attacked.
It is not clear whether the shark was killed.
Inspector Matt Sillars said: "We're not sure at this stage whether or not the deceased died prior to the shark arriving on the scene, or whether the shark was a contributing factor towards the death."
Earlier this week, surfer Bourne Nobel Buiski had posted on Facebook that there had been a "massive" shark spotted near surfers on Monday at Piha, 14km south of Muriwai.
Fatal shark attacks are relatively rare in New Zealand with just over a dozen deaths since record-keeping began in the 1830s. |||||Summary:
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– The swimmer killed today by what witnesses say was a "huge" shark was Adam Strange, an award-winning short film and commercial director, Sky News reports. After the rare attack in New Zealand, police in inflatable boats shot at and hit the shark, which is believed to have been a great white around 14 feet long, but they say it swam away, the New Zealand Herald reports. Citing local reports, TMZ says at least three more sharks were drawn to the initial attack, and the body of one eventually washed up onshore. A fisherman says he saw the shark attack Strange when he was about 650 feet off the popular Muriwai beach near Auckland. "All of a sudden there was blood everywhere," says the fisherman, who saw the shark swim off after a struggle with Strange before returning for a second attack, which attracted the additional sharks. "I yelled at him to swim to the rocks. There was blood everywhere. The water was red. It's pretty scary," he says. Great whites are often seen in New Zealand waters at this time of year, but there have been just 15 fatal attacks recorded since records began in 1837, with the last confirmed one in 1976, reports TVNZ. Strange, 46, was "a glorious father, husband, and friend," says a family statement.
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All the outstanding questions of the 2010 campaign boil down to this: How big is the wave?
Republicans appear to be on the cusp of a historic victory, potentially extending into every level of state and federal government. Beyond the race-by-race polling — across 435 House districts, 37 Senate races and 37 gubernatorial races — all the large-scale signals point toward the GOP.
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The POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll showed in late October that 64 percent of likely voters believe the country is on the wrong track, as opposed to just 29 percent who say it’s headed in the right direction. Gallup found independent voters leaning toward the GOP by a 28-percentage-point margin, 59 percent to 31 percent.
Whether Republicans can fully exploit that environment — or whether Democrats have adequately braced themselves for impact — is another story.
Here are the most important results we’ll be watching on election night for clues about where the 2010 campaign is headed — and what it all means:
The early returns: Indiana and Kentucky
The first polls begin closing at 6 p.m. Eastern time in Indiana and Kentucky, where a handful of House and Senate races could signal just how ugly the night is likely to be for Democrats. The GOP is expected to take the Senate seats in both states. If tea party favorite Rand Paul wins Kentucky going away — as polls suggest he will — that’s a bad sign for Democrats hoping that voters will recoil from hard-core conservative candidates elsewhere.
Democrats are defending three congressional seats in Indiana: The 2nd District, held by Rep. Joe Donnelly; the 8th District, an open seat currently held by Rep. Brad Ellsworth; and the 9th District, held by Rep. Baron Hill. Democrats have all but written off Ellsworth’s seat, but if they can save either of the others it might be a sign that they’ve managed to hold down their losses.
In Kentucky, Republicans have mounted a serious challenge to 6th District Rep. Ben Chandler, a popular moderate from a prominent political family. If Chandler goes down, few Democrats may be safe.
Turnout, turnout, turnout
If two words can sum up the GOP’s hopes for Election Day, they’d probably be: “enthusiasm gap.” Republicans have been campaigning for months on the assumption that, by a wide margin, their supporters are more likely to vote than Democrats. A Gallup Poll this week told the whole story: Republicans were 15 percentage points ahead of Democrats among likely voters, 55 percent to 40 percent, but they led by just 4 points among all registered voters, 44 percent to 40 percent. ||||| Republicans captured control of the House of Representatives on Tuesday and expanded their voice in the Senate, riding a wave of voter discontent as they dealt a setback to President Obama just two years after his triumphal victory.
A Republican resurgence, propelled by deep economic worries and a forceful opposition to the Democratic agenda of health care and government spending, delivered defeats to House Democrats from the Northeast to the South and across the Midwest. The tide swept aside dozens of lawmakers, regardless of their seniority or their voting records, upending the balance of power for the second half of Mr. Obama’s term.
But Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, narrowly prevailed and his party hung onto control by winning hard-fought contests in California, Delaware, Connecticut and West Virginia. Republicans picked up at least six Democratic seats, including the one formerly held by Mr. Obama, and the party will welcome Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky to their ranks, two candidates who were initially shunned by the establishment but beloved by the Tea Party movement.
“The American people’s voice was heard at the ballot box,” said Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, who is positioned to become the next speaker of the House. “We have real work to do, and this is not the time for celebration.”
The president, who watched the election returns with a small set of advisers at the White House, called Mr. Boehner shortly after midnight to offer his congratulations and to talk about the way forward as Washington prepares for divided government. Republicans won at least 58 seats, not including those from some Western states where ballots were still being counted, surpassing the 52 seats the party won in the sweep of 1994.
The most expensive midterm election campaign in the nation’s history, fueled by a raft of contributions from outside interest groups and millions in donations to candidates in both parties, played out across a wide battleground that stretched from Alaska to Maine. The Republican tide swept into statehouse races, too, with Democrats poised to lose the majority of governorships, particularly those in key presidential swing states, like Ohio, where Gov. Ted Strickland was defeated.
One after another, once-unassailable Democrats like Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Representatives Ike Skelton of Missouri, John Spratt of South Carolina, Rick Boucher of Virginia and Chet Edwards of Texas fell to little-known Republican challengers.
“Voters sent a message that change has not happened fast enough,” said Tim Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Republicans did not achieve a perfect evening, losing races in several states they had once hoped to win, including the Senate contests in Delaware and Connecticut, because some candidates supported by the Tea Party movement knocked out establishment candidates to win their nominations. But they did score notable victories in some tight races, like Pat Toomey’s Senate run in Pennsylvania.
Senator Reid said in a speech that he was “more determined than ever” after his victory. “I know what it’s like to get back on your feet.”
The outcome on Tuesday was nothing short of a remarkable comeback for Republicans two years after they suffered a crushing defeat in the White House and four years after Democrats swept control of the House and Senate. It places the party back in the driver’s seat in terms of policy, posing new challenges to Mr. Obama as he faces a tough two years in his term, but also for Republicans — led by Mr. Boehner — as he suddenly finds himself in a position of responsibility, rather than being simply the outsider.
In the House, Republicans found victories in most corners of the country, including five seats in Pennsylvania, five in Ohio, at least three in Florida, Illinois and Virginia and two in Georgia. Democrats braced for the prospect of historic defeats, more than the 39 seats the Republicans needed to win control. Republicans reached their majority by taking seats east of the Mississippi even before late results flowed in from farther West.
Throughout the evening, in race after race, Republican challengers defeated Democratic incumbents, despite being at significant fund-raising disadvantages. Republican-oriented independent groups invariably came to the rescue, helping level of the playing field, including in Florida’s 24th Congressional District, in which Sandy Adams defeated Representative Suzanne Kosmas; Virginia’s 9th Congressional District, where Mr. Boucher, a 14-term incumbent, lost to Morgan Griffith; and Texas’s 17th Congressional District, in which Mr. Edwards, who was seeking his 11th term, succumbed to Bill Flores.
Democrats argued that the Republican triumph was far from complete, particularly in the Senate, pointing to the preservation of Mr. Reid and other races. In Delaware, Chris Coons defeated Christine O’Donnell, whose candidacy became a symbol of the unorthodox political candidates swept onto the ballot in Republican primary contests. In West Virginia, Gov. Joe Manchin III, a Democrat, triumphed over an insurgent Republican rival to fill the seat held for a half-century by Senator Robert C. Byrd. And in California, Senator Barbara Boxer overcame a vigorous challenge from Carly Fiorina, a Republican.
But Democrats conceded that their plans to increase voter turnout did not meet expectations, party strategists said, and extraordinary efforts that Mr. Obama made in the final days of the campaign appeared to have borne little fruit.
The president flew to Charlottesville, Va., on Friday evening, for instance, in hopes of rallying Democrats to support Representative Tom Perriello, a freshman who supported every piece of the administration’s agenda, but he was defeated despite the president’s appeals to Democrats in a state that he carried two years ago.
In governors’ races, Republicans won several contests in the nation’s middle. They held onto governorships in Texas, Nebraska and South Dakota, and had seized seats now occupied by Democrats in Tennessee, Michigan and Kansas. Sam Brownback, a United States Senator and Republican, easily took the Kansas post that Mark Parkinson, a former Republican turned Democrat, is leaving behind.
Though Democrats, who before the election held 26 governors’ seats compared to 24 for the Republicans, were expected to face losses, there were also bright spots. In New York, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo easily defeated the Republican, Carl P. Paladino, even as Republicans were expected to pick up seats in the state legislature and the congressional delegation. In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick won a second term.
As the election results rolled in, with Republicans picking up victories shortly after polls closed in states across the South, East and the Midwest, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and other party leaders made urgent appeals through television interviews that there was still time for voters in other states to cast their ballots. |||||
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– Here we go. The first polls have closed in Kentucky and Indiana, and cable pundits and bloggers will be talking and typing pretty much nonstop into the wee hours. Head here if you need primers on key races to watch. For overviews, see the New York Times and Politico.
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The band Van Halen has a long history of guitar solos, radio hits, and teases of reunions that end up going nowhere. But this weekend the band announced more-concrete-than-usual plans for a second reunion tour with their original singer, David Lee Roth (though they gave no release date or details about the alleged new album the group has been working on for Interscope). Tickets go on sale January 10, according to their website, and you know they're good for it: After all, they finished their whole 2007 reunion tour, even making up the dates they had to postpone when Eddie Van Halen ducked into rehab for a refresher course. So get ready to see Dave high kick and wave microphone stands phallically like only a 57-year-old can!*
* This post was corrected to fix multiple errors. ||||| This post has been updated. See below for details.
There are some universal truths that most rock fans can’t deny, be they punkers, funkers, rockers or metalheads: That at their prime in the 1970s and '80s, Van Halen was one of the greatest flat-out rock bands on the planet, and that the combination of David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen was a force of nature. The band, which rose in Los Angeles in the mid-'70s, announced on Monday an extensive 2012 tour -- minus bassist Anthony, unfortunately.
At their peak, the best rock band to ever come out of Pasadena had all the bases covered: As a rhythm section, Alex Van Halen and Anthony worked as a solid but fluid unit in support of Eddie with the magic riffs and fingers, who showboated his technique but understood the importance of a solid melody. (That’s him, remember, soloing on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.") And "Diamond" David Lee Roth: There was no better lead singer in all of rock in the '80s than Roth at his peak, a funny, charismatic charmer whose onstage scissor kicks created a template for dozens of lesser hair metal singers who arrived in his wake.
Van Halen's evolution has tested the limits of its fan base. There was that whole Gary Cherone nightmare of 1998; and, at the risk of taking sides in a long-running argument, the Sammy Hagar years are best left unmentioned. In 2007 three of the original members -- without Anthony, who was replaced on bass by Eddie’s son Wolfgang Van Halen -- undertook part of a tour before canceling it midway through so Eddie, who was drinking heavily, could enter rehab. The aborted tour had been well received, and in 2010 rumors started flying about Van Halen being in the studio, and upcoming tour plans. The band signed to Interscope Records in November 2011.
No word yet on a release date for the record or specific stops on the tour. But videos on the band’s website say that tickets will go on sale on Jan. 10, and show a revived band doing their best approximation of its '80s peak -- absent, unfortunately, Anthony, swinging across the stage slugging Jack Daniels. And it’s a pretty good bet that Diamond Dave won’t be singing "Right Now," “Why Can’t This Be Love?” or anything else from the Van Hagar years.
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Updated: The original version of this misidentified the year in which Gary Cherone performed with Van Halen. It was 1998, not 2006.
-- Randall Roberts
Photo: Van Halen's Eddie Van Halen, left, and David Lee Roth perform in 2008 in Las Vegas. Credit: Ronda Churchill / Associated Press
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Shorter version: – Van Halen is back: The iconic rock band announced a tour yesterday featuring original members Eddie and Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth. (Eddie’s son, Wolfgang Van Halen, replaced original bassist Michael Anthony in 2007.) The band has had its problems—the Los Angeles Times cites “that whole Gary Cherone nightmare of 1998,” as well as the “best left unmentioned” Sammy Hagar era. A 2007 tour featuring the same mostly-original line-up was well-received, but ended early so Eddie could go to rehab. A 2006 tour, that one featuring Hagar instead of Roth, was also canceled due to Eddie’s drinking problem, New York notes. This time around, thanks to his stint in rehab, the tour is much more likely to see its way to completion—but “Diamond Dave” did claim to be leaving the band, again, just last month, so refundable tickets are advised. Also last month, Van Halen signed to Interscope Records. No details yet on the band’s upcoming record or tour stops, but tickets will go on sale Jan. 10.
question: News article:
The Grateful Dead with Trey Anastasio, Jeff Chimenti and Bruce Hornsby 3 Day Pass Tickets (July 3-5)
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Add this event to your public wishlist and share it with your friends. ||||| The Grateful Dead's Fare Thee Well show has sold out in minutes, but Deadheads with deep pockets are still in with a chance. Stubhub is offering tickets for the three-day show with a top-price at $116,000 (and change), down to the "cheap-seats" at a touch under $1,350. According to various news outlets, a million dollar ticket was posted on Stubhub, the largest secondary ticket marketplace, but that the offer is no longer online.
The farewell event, set for Chicago's Soldier Field July 3-5, has officially sold-out at about 210,000. Requests for tickets are believed to be in the millions, Billboard reported, and nearly 500,000 were online waiting to purchase tickets when the "box office" opened at 10 a.m.
The Grateful Dead with Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio will perform in a 360-degree configuration, allowing the venue to be filled to maximum capacity. When the onsale started, tickets were priced from $59.50 to $199.50 per day, with capacity at 70,000 per day. The shows are produced by Peter Shapiro, 42, in association with AEG-owned Madison House Presents.
First broken on Billboard.com Jan. 16, Fare thee Well will feature Anastasio joining original members of the Grateful Dead -- the "core four" of Bob Weir; Phil Lesh; Mickey Hart; and Bill Kreutzmann -- for these three 50th-anniversary shows. |||||
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– The "core four" original members of the Grateful Dead are reuniting for a three-day 50th anniversary show in Chicago, and let's just say people really, really want to see it. The farewell show, appropriately titled Fare Thee Well, sold out, but tickets are being sold on the secondary market for as much as $116,000 each. Even the least-expensive tickets are around $1,350, Billboard reports, and CNN notes that some of those have an obstructed view. Soldier Field, where the July 3-5 event is being held, seats about 70,000; the original ticket prices ranged from $59.50 to $199.50 per day. Phish frontman Trey Anastasio will be taking over for the late Jerry Garcia.
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– Banksy's latest high-profile mural makes a point about the plight of Syrian refugees though the example of Steve Jobs—and authorities in France are making sure the mural sticks around for a while. The artist painted a life-size mural of Jobs, whose biological father was a Syrian native, at a migrant camp in Calais, reports the Guardian. It depicts Jobs as a migrant himself, carrying an early model Apple computer, along with a bag of belongings slung over his shoulder. "We found out about the presence of this artwork on Friday and have decided to protect it, so it is not damaged," says a spokeswoman for the city of Calais. Authorities will shield it with glass or plastic panels, reports Reuters. Banksy generally doesn't comment on his work, but he made an exception in this case: "We’re often led to believe migration is a drain on the country’s resources but Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant," says the artist's statement. "Apple is the world’s most profitable company ... and it only exists because they allowed in a young man from Homs.” Fair enough, but Issie Lapowsky at Wired thinks Banksy is missing a crucial point. Sure, there may be some Jobs-like people among the refugees, but millions of others affected won't go on to change the world. They need help, too, and "they're no less deserving of it." Banksy also announced that wood and other material from his bleak Dismaland exhibit will be used to build shelters for refugees in Calais.
Let's expand this into a news article: LILLE, France British graffiti artist Banksy's mural of late Apple founder Steve Jobs as a refugee on a wall in the Calais migrant camp and two other Banksy works in other parts of the city will be protected, local authorities said on Saturday.
The Banksy mural depicts a life-size Jobs carrying a shoulder bag and an early-model Apple computer on a wall at the entrance of the Calais camp, surrounded by immigrants' tents. The mural pictures are posted on Banksy's website.
Authorities in Calais, northern France, said they plan to shield the murals with glass or transparent plastic panels.
"We found out about the presence of this artwork on Friday and have decided to protect it, so it is not damaged," a Calais city spokeswoman said.
Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart told local newspaper Nord Littoral that the artwork is an opportunity for Calais.
"It is very good, and it has a message," she said.
Banksy, whose identity has never been confirmed, said in a rare statement to British media that Apple only exists because U.S. authorities allowed in a young man from Homs, Syria.
"We're often led to believe migration is a drain on the country's resources but Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant," said Banksy, who is famous for painting ironic murals in unexpected places.
Some 6,000 migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East live in a so-called "jungle" of camps in Calais and are trying repeatedly to enter Britain by jumping onto lorries, hiding on trains and walking through the tunnel in the hope of better lives there than in continental Europe.
In a second Banksy mural by the Calais beach, a child looks towards Britain through a telescope, with a vulture perched on the telescope.
A third work in the city, close to the immigration office, reproduces a black-and-white version of "The Raft of the Medusa", a famous painting of shipwreck survivors by 19th century French painter Theodore Gericault.
It shows survivors on a raft desperately waving to catch the attention of what looks like a modern yacht on the horizon.
The Banksy website carries a photo of the mural with the subscription "We're not all in the same boat".
In September, the artist said on his website that timber and fixtures from his temporary "Dismaland" theme park in western England would be sent to build shelters for migrants in Calais.
For a link to the Calais pictures, click on: banksy.co.uk/
(Reporting by Pierre Savary in Lille and Estelle Shirbon in London, writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Clelia Oziel) ||||| A new piece by the renowned street artist Banksy popped up overnight in a refugee camp in Calais, France. The painting portrays the late Steve Jobs wearing his trademark turtleneck and jeans, with an early personal computer in one hand and a sack of stuff slung over his shoulder in the other.
The message in the mural is clear: People who want to ban refugees from entering their country could be depriving the world of the next Steve Jobs, who was himself the son of a Syrian immigrant. The painting is poignant, and Banksy clearly meant well. By posting the images on his website, he’s calling attention to the deplorable conditions in ever-growing refugee camps around the world, and that’s worth something.
Still, in a lot of ways, the message Banksy’s sending misses a crucial point about the refugee crisis.
Yes, there are among the 60 million people fleeing war or persecution from Syria to Sudan plenty of people destined for the singular greatness that Jobs achieved. But there are also millions more who aren’t—millions of people who, like the rest of us, will not turn out to be the next Jobs, or the next Albert Einstein, or any of the other famous refugees whose names have been tossed about as proof that refugees are worthy of our help. Millions of ordinary human beings are suffering. They may not change the world, but they’re no less deserving for it.
In a statement to The Independent, Banksy explained the thinking behind the painting, writing, “We’re often led to believe migration is a drain on the country’s resources, but Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant. Apple is the world’s most profitable company, it pays over $7 billion a year in taxes—and it only exists because they allowed in a young man from Homs.”
Such economic arguments are, of course, part of any immigration debate, so I don’t fault Banksy for trying to appeal to those interests. Still, I hope the world will rally to help the millions of refugees who are in need simply because they are in need, and not because they may someday invent the next iPhone. |||||
– After John Galliano's alleged anti-Semitic rant and subsequent arrest, the British fashion designer filed a defamation claim against the couple accusing him. But he may have a harder time defending himself now, because it turns out he was caught on video saying, among other things, "I love Hitler." It's not clear if the cellphone video is from Thursday night's incident or another time, although it was filmed in the same cafe, the Telegraph reports. Galliano is heard slurring, "People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers, would all be f***ing gassed." The people in the group to whom he was speaking were French and Italian, not Jewish, the Sun reports. When asked if he has a problem, Galliano replies, "With you. You're ugly." Then, when asked where he's from: "Your a**hole." (Watch the video here.) Meanwhile, Galliano denies the incident for which he was arrested, claiming that his accuser actually insulted him, not the other way around—and that her boyfriend threatened him with a chair. New York magazine takes a look at the conflicting reports surrounding the incident; at least one witness supports Galliano and says the couple started the problem. Vogue UK adds that a second woman filed a police complaint against Galliano Saturday alleging anti-Semitic remarks, in an incident which may or may not be related to Thursday's.
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Let's expand this into a news article: 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 ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| galliano What Really Happened With John Galliano Last Night?
Christian Dior issued a public statement this morning that John Galliano had been suspended from his position due to accusations that he made anti-Semitic remarks during an altercation last night in Paris. "Christian Dior has an unequivocal zero-tolerance policy regarding anti-Semitism and racism," stated Sidney Toledano, chairman and CEO of Dior Couture. Galliano's suspension is pending the results of the French police's investigation of the incident.
But what exactly happened? There are several conflicting reports. The alleged victim of Galliano's verbal assault granted an interview to French news network Europe 1 (she wished to remain anonymous). According to her statement, Galliano sat down at an outdoor café table next to her and a male friend of Asian descent around 9 p.m. He reportedly ordered himself a mojito and began to "me traiter de pute" (translation: "refer to me as a bitch"). The woman called the police when he, in English, allegedly continued, "Dirty Jewish face, you should be dead ... Fucking Asian bastard, I will kill you." The woman contends that she had no idea who Galliano was until a nearby diner exclaimed, "C’est une star, c’est John Galliano." The woman is not Jewish.
Another eyewitness tells a different story. According to website sleek-mag.com (which was also quoted by the Times' Cathy Horyn), an unnamed bystander said that Galliano was simply trying to chat with the pair. The witness said that the man told Galliano, “You’re ugly, you’re disgusting, move away from here,” at which point Galliano reportedly replied to the woman, “You’re ugly, and your bag is ugly, too.” Galliano then allegedly referred to the man as Asian, at which point the man and woman called the police.
Vogue U.K. spoke to the same witness, who maintained that Galliano "wasn't 'busted' aggressively by police, it was very quiet and peaceful. I definitely didn't hear him say anything anti-Semitic, or against any religion, it was all very calm."
We spoke with a source today who has worked closely with Galliano on several projects and "can't imagine he would do this to anyone." He added, "I'm an observant Jew, and I know from my own experiences with him that there's no way he hates Jewish people. He's incredibly gentle." ||||| Updated Thursday 3 March 7.06pm: The John Galliano show has been cancelled due to the events of last week. Instead editors and buyers will be invited to view the new collection at a smaller scale presentation on Sunday, the news agency AFP reports. The designer will not be in attendance.
Updated Wednesday 2 March 6.04pm: Sky News has announced that the Paris Prosecutors Office has decided to put Galliano on trial over his alleged racial insults. The proceedings could take place in the second quarter of the year. If found guilty the designer could face six months imprisonment or a €22,500 (£19,085) fine.
Updated Wednesday 2 March 5.03pm: John Galliano has just issued this statement regarding the events of the last week via his British legal team.
"Since the events of last Thursday evening I have not been able to make any public comment on what took place based upon advice from my French lawyer. However, given the continuing delays at the French Prosecutor's Office I should make my position clear.
I completely deny the claims made against me and have fully co-operated with the Police investigation.
A number of independent witnesses have given evidence and have told the Police that I was subjected to verbal harassment and an unprovoked assault when an individual tried to hit me with a chair having taken violent exception to my look and my clothing. For these reasons I have commenced proceedings for defamation and the threats made against me.
However, I fully accept that the accusations made against me have greatly shocked and upset people.
I must take responsibility for the circumstances in which I found myself and for allowing myself to be seen to be behaving in the worst possible light. I only have myself to blame and I know that I must face up to my own failures and that I must work hard to gain people's understanding and compassion. To start this process I am seeking help and all I can hope for in time is to address the personal failure which led to these circumstances and try and earn people's forgiveness.
I have fought my entire life against prejudice, intolerance and discrimination having been subjected to it myself. In all my work my inspiration has been to unite people of every race, creed, religion and sexuality by celebrating their cultural and ethnic diversity through fashion. That remains my guiding light.
Anti-Semitism and racism have no part in our society. I unreservedly apologise for my behaviour in causing any offence."
Updated Wednesday 2 March 3.17pm: More details about the seller of the video of John Galliano have been revealed. Philippe Checinski, founder of the paparazzi broker company CitizenSide, spoke to French radio station Europe1 yesterday, explaining, "a contributor sent us the video. As soon as we received it we knew it was a big deal." The video was originally filmed in December 2010 at La Perle; it was only after the charges were filed against Galliano did the owner try to sell the content, The Daily reports. Checinski explained that no French media outlets were willing to buy the video - possibly because the price was too high, possibly because they feared strict French privacy laws - so it was eventually sold to the Sun for an undisclosed amount. "I can tell you that the contributor is very happy," Checinski added. The owner of the video stands to receive 65 per cent of the price of all sales in France and 50 per cent of the price all sales internationally.
Updated Tuesday 1 March 4.16pm: Doubt hangs over the future of the John Galliano label, following the designer's dismissal from Dior earlier today, since the company owns much of his eponymous brand. "Dior holds 92 per cent of John Galliano," a spokesperson for the label told us today - but could not confirm whether Dior was preparing to sever all ties with the company as well as with the designer himself.
Updated Tuesday 1 March 3.38pm: Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman said of Galliano's dismissal this afternoon: "I think John Galliano made a terrible mistake and such offensive behaviour could not be ignored. It is all the same true that he has a huge talent and has contributed enormously to the resurrection of the house of Dior. Who can predict what the future will bring?"
Updated Tuesday 1 March 2.41pm: Christian Dior has fired John Galliano as creative director of the house. "I unequivocally condemn the statements made by John Galliano, which are in total contradiction to the longstanding core values of Christian Dior," Sidney Toledano, Dior's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement today. The house confirmed that the "odious behaviour" exhibited by Galliano in the video released yesterday was the last straw resulting in his dismissal.
Updated Tuesday 1 March 12.05pm: A spokesperson for John Galliano's eponymous label told us this morning that the show will go on this Sunday at Paris Fashion Week. He was not able to confirm whether Galliano would be present or not but asserted that the team was continuing to organise the show as normal.
Updated Tuesday 1 March 8.17am: Natalie Portman has condemned John Galliano, following the release of a video of him using anti-Semitic language. Portman, who is the face of Christian Dior's Miss Dior Cherie fragrance, is Jewish.
"I am deeply shocked and disgusted by the video of John Galliano's comments that surfaced today," the Oscar winner said in a statement released last night. "In light of this video, and as an individual who is proud to be Jewish, I will not be associated with Mr Galliano in any way. I hope at the very least, these terrible comments remind us to reflect and act upon combating these still-existing prejudices that are the opposite of all that is beautiful."
Updated Monday 28 February 6.03pm: John Galliano attended a police station in Paris yesterday with his lawyer, Stephane Zerbib, and was questioned for four hours before being released. Zerbib said that Galliano was "in great shape" and maintained, despite the video's release, that he had "never made an anti-Semitic remark in more than ten years at Dior". Zerbib had no comment to make on the video itself, but asserted, "What matters isn't what's on the internet, what matters are the testimonies and the hearings". Making anti-Semitic remarks carries a prison sentence of up to six months in France, the Telegraph reports.
Updated Monday 28 February 5.28pm: Italian Vogue's Franca Sozzani has defended John Galliano for his videotaped outburst, stating that Galliano "was clearly provoked, and filmed while obviously inebriated". She also suggested that the woman who taped it might have done so for financial motives, NY Magazine reports.
Updated Monday 28 February 4.46pm: Giorgio Armani says he feels sorry for John Galliano. Following his autumn/winter 2011-12 show earlier today, the Italian designer told the Telegraph's Hilary Alexander, via an interpreter backstage, that he was sorry to hear what had happened to Galliano - acknowledging that it must be a difficult time for him - adding that he was sorry that Galliano had been videotaped without his knowledge.
Updated Monday 28 February 12.30pm: Another complaint alleging anti-Semitic remarks against John Galliano was filed on Saturday with Paris police, the designer's lawyer Stéphane Zerbib confirmed today. A second woman, as yet unnamed, has accused the designer, WWD reports, but it is not yet clear if the incident relates to the film which emerged today (see below for more information). Géraldine Bloch and her companion, Philippe Virgiti, filed charges against Galliano on Thursday - and the designer filed a counter-claim of defamation, injury and menace against Bloch and Virgiti later the same day.
Updated Monday 28 February 11.03am: Following the release of the video footage of John Galliano, we caught up with a representative for the label this morning: "As announced in Sidney Toledano's statement on Friday, John Galliano is suspended pending the results of the police investigation. We did the right thing corporately, which is to allow the police to investigate any new evidence that emerges. It's out of the company's hands - and with the police - and Galliano will be suspended until it is resolved. I know there have been rumours about a possible announcement today, but it's not something I can confirm."
Updated Monday 28 February 10.37am: A video has emerged of John Galliano, reportedly in the same bar where Thursday's incident took place, using anti-Semitic insults towards a group of friends drinking at a nearby table. The designer appears drunk in the film, taken on a mobile phone and released by the Sun this morning.
Updated Monday 28 February 8.48am: Rumours on the Milan front row this morning suggest that a Dior announcement about the fate of Galliano is imminent - and may even happen today. A decision this week would mean that Galliano will either be reinstated in time to take his famous bow at the end of the Christian Dior catwalk show next Friday, or will be absent from his first Dior show in 15 years.
Updated Sunday 27 February 2.36pm: John Galliano is set to come face to face with his the woman who has accused him of using anti-Semitic insults towards her, Géraldine Bloch. The meeting, organised by the Paris public prosecutor's office, is set to take place tomorrow night to get to the bottom of what really happened at the incident on Thursday night.
"They have to find out the truth," John Galliano's lawyer Stéphane Zerbib told WWD, adding it is impossible to determine how long the investigation will take and whether it will end up in court. "If the public prosecutor's office decides it is an emergency case, things could go very quickly."
Updated Saturday 26 February 10.02am: John Galliano is reportedly fighting back against allegations that he was heard making anti-Semetic and racist remarks to a couple in a Paris restaurant on Thursday night, accusing them of defamation. His lawyer added that he is "shocked" by his suspension from Christian Dior.
"He is not guilty and is not embroiled in a court case or anything," Zerbib told WWD. "He feels it is a decision that has been made without verification of the facts and based on one side of the story and he is very shocked about that."
Updated Friday 25 February 2.15pm: Christian Dior has confirmed that John Galliano has been suspended from his role with the company pending investigation.
"Dior affirms with the utmost conviction its policy of zero tolerance towards any anti-Semitic or racist words or behaviour," Dior chief executive Sidney Toledano said in a statement which we received this afternoon. "Pending the results of the inquiry, Christian Dior has suspended John Galliano from his responsibilities."
Updated Friday 25 February 8.22am: John Galliano has been arrested for an alleged assault, as well as alleged anti-Semitic remarks, reports on international news agency AFP suggest today - but all may not be as it seems. We spoke to someone this morning who was in the cafe at the time of the altercation - and her story suggests Galliano may not have been at fault.
"We had a table at La Perle and John Galliano sat next to us," our eyewitness told us. "He spoke to a couple at a nearby table to say 'Cheers' and they insulted him. An argument started and the police came, so Galliano's bodyguard suggested that they should go to the police station to sort it out. He wasn't 'busted' aggressively by police, it was very quiet and peaceful. I definitely didn't hear him say anything anti-Semitic, or against any religion, it was all very calm."
Sources told AFP earlier this morning that the Christian Dior creative director was apprehended in Paris last night for assault, following an altercation in the city's Marais district. He was reportedly released by police this morning. The designer was allegedly accused of verbally abusing a couple who were sitting on a cafe terrace - and was found to have been drinking alcohol when he was arrested.
"For the moment we don't know what led him to address the couple," the police source said.
A Christian Dior spokesperson said this morning that the label does not have any official comment as yet. See a full eyewitness interview on www.sleek-mag.com.
YOU SHOULD SEE: Who is favourite to replace him at Dior...
YOU SHOULD SEE: What the fashion world thinks of Galliano's dismissal from Dior...
YOU SHOULD SEE: Galliano's career, from London wonder boy to Parisian couturier...
YOU SHOULD SEE: The latest Christian Dior show...
YOU SHOULD SEE: Galliano's most memorable fashion moments... ||||| John Galliano Declares 'I Love Hitler' in Shocking New Video
Email This Less than a week after his
The controversial video, posted by the U.K.'s
Galliano goes on to tell the pair, who are of French and Italian origin, "People like you would be dead today. Your mothers, your forefathers would be f**king gassed."
Watch the video inside. Less than a week after his arrest for making anti-Semitic remarks to a couple at a Parisian hotspot, new video has surfaced of Dior designer John Galliano hurling racially motivated insults at two other patrons at the same bar.The controversial video, posted by the U.K.'s Sun newspaper, shows a seemingly intoxicated Galliano telling two customers at Paris bar Le Perle, "I love Hitler" after the two ask him the color of his hair.Galliano goes on to tell the pair, who are of French and Italian origin, "People like you would be dead today. Your mothers, your forefathers would be f**king gassed."
Filed under: Troublemakers
- WTF
- Videos
Galliano, who took over as Dior's head designer from Gianfranco Ferre in 1996, continues his tirade of abuse, telling the woman with whom he began the argument, "You're ugly."When asked by the same individual, "You don't want peace in the world?" Galliano responds, "Not with people that are ugly."The man who shot the video said of Galliano's outburst, "We were stunned by what Galliano was saying, but then he started making vile anti-Semitic comments. His words were disgusting. He made it clear the Italian girls weren't welcome and should go home. This was pure racism."Galliano was taken into custody by French police under suspicion of "incitement of racial prejudice" last week after telling a customer at bar Le Perle that she had a "dirty Jew face," in addition to using racial slurs against her companion, who is of Asian descent. He has since been suspended by Dior. |||||
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– For most women, the ideal place to welcome your child into the world is a hospital surrounded by doctors or home with a midwife nearby. For others, however, their deliveries came unexpectedly in unusual settings. Airplane: A 23-year-old Canadian gave birth on a flight from Calgary to Tokyo. Apparently, Ada Guan had no idea she was pregnant until the birth of her baby girl. Luckily, there were three doctors on the plane. Wilderness: Stranded in the forest is the last place you want to be when your water breaks, but that's exactly what happened to one California woman who decided to take the back way to her parents' home. After running out of gas and cell service, Amber Pangborn gave birth on her own. She and the baby were rescued three days later after she started a fire that caught the attention of a helicopter crew. Interstate: When President Obama visited Louisville, Ky., earlier this year, he caused a traffic jam that left one pregnant woman stuck in gridlock, unable to get to the hospital. Luckily, dispatchers and a nurse who was also stuck in traffic helped her give birth along the shoulder of I-65. McDonald's: Do you want fries with that baby? A California woman delivered a baby inside a mall food court where she was eating with her husband and 3-year-old daughter. Paramedics arrived but left after her labor pains subsided; she ended up getting an assist from a mall cop. Office bathroom: Not all of these end well: Earlier this year, a 25-year-old Michigan woman was accused of giving birth in the restroom of her workplace, reports HLN. She allegedly tried to conceal the birth by sealing the baby in a plastic bag, and hiding him in a tote bag at her desk. She's facing charges of child abuse and murder. Click for 10 more crazy places babies have been born.
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– Record rainfall wreaked havoc across a swath of the Plains and Midwest yesterday, causing flash floods in normally dry riverbeds, spawning tornadoes, and forcing at least 2,000 people in Texas from their homes. A firefighter in Oklahoma was swept to his death: Fox23 reports Claremore Fire Capt. Jason Farley, a 20-year veteran, helped rescue a woman and six children through the window of a flooded home where they were celebrating a girl's 5th birthday party. KFOR reports it's believed rushing water swept him into a storm drain during the rescue; he's thought to have drowned. Two other deaths were reported: A woman in Tulsa died in a traffic-related crash, and in Texas, a man's body was recovered from a flooded area along the Blanco River. That river rose 26 feet in just one hour and left piles of wreckage 20 feet high, authorities said. Weather.com calls the flash flooding "catastrophic" and reports that in Wimberley, Texas, the Blanco River broke a crest record set in 1929—by 7 feet. "It looks pretty bad out there," said Hays County emergency management coordinator, describing the destruction in Wimberley, a community that is part of a fast-growing corridor between Austin and San Antonio. "We do have whole streets with maybe one or two houses left on them and the rest are just slabs," she said. As many as 400 homes were destroyed in Wimberley, many of them washed away. This May is already the wettest on record for several cities in the southern Plains states, with days still to go and more rain on the way. So far this year, Oklahoma City has recorded 27.37 inches of rain. Last year the state's capital got only 4.29 inches.
Expand this summary.
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CLAREMORE, Okla. – The body of a firefighter was found in a storm drain two hours after he went missing late Saturday night.
Claremore Fire crews responded near the intersection of Archer Dr. and Archer Ct. around 10:30 p.m. to help flooding victims of nearby duplexes.
About an hour after they arrived, one firefighter was believed to have stepped into rushing water, which swept him into a storm drain, according to fire officials.
The body of Claremore Firefighter Captain Jason Farley was found inside the storm drain around 1 a.m. Sunday, Fox23 reports.
Officials suspect Farley drowned, but a medical examiner will determine the cause of death.
A second firefighter, Zane James, attempted to save the Captain Farley, but reports say he was also knocked down by the rushing water and had to be rescued.
He suffered minor injuries.
Report a typo ||||| Daytime heating is helping fuel a resurgence in thunderstorm activity across the beleaguered Plains states on this Sunday afternoon, prompting two tornado watches and concerns for additional flash flooding in areas already hard-hit by up to a foot of rain since Saturday.
A destructive, catastrophic flash flood hit a stretch of the Blanco River in and near Wimberley, Texas overnight Saturday night into early Sunday morning, and has since moved downstream into the San Marcos River. Officials estimate that about 1,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed, and at least one person has died.
(FORECASTS: Record Rainfall and Flash Flooding | Severe Weather Forecast)
Countless water rescues have been reported in Oklahoma and Texas since Saturday, and several tornadoes have been confirmed so far this weekend.
(MORE: State by State Coverage of Ongoing Flooding)
Here are the latest reports of flooding and severe weather.
Across the Region
Several tornado watches have been issued in the central U.S. For a map of the latest watches, see the radar maps below the live blog.
Severe thunderstorms blew trees onto homes near Marshall, Texas, early Sunday afternoon. The storms damaged an 18-wheeler on nearby Interstate 20.
The National Weather Service confirms that a tornado struck the west side of Corpus Christi, Texas, around 1:30 a.m. local time. The agency has not finished its survey and has not yet assigned the damage a rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
The Houston Fire Department responded to the partial collapse of an apartment complex on the city's southwest side early Sunday on Nairn St. Four people were injured, and 10 units sustained severe damage. The National Weather Service says a brief tornado is to blame for the damage, and has given a preliminary EF1 rating to the twister.
Lake Texoma is now flowing over the spillway at the Denison Dam, which impounds the Red River to form the lake. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the lake was at 107 percent of its flood control capacity Sunday afternoon, meaning the lake was holding nearly 55 billion gallons more than its full flood-control pool of 1.62 trillion gallons. Lake Texoma is along the Texas-Oklahoma border north of Dallas.
Mandatory evacuations were issued for properties below the Lewis Creek Dam west of Willis, Texas, about 50 miles north-northwest of downtown Houston. These were ordered as a precaution given the potential for more heavy rain. A Red Cross shelter was opened at the Lone Star Community Center in Montgomery.
At least one swift-water rescue was performed early Sunday morning in Arlington, Texas, where a shopping center was also flooded.
A firefighter in Claremore, Oklahoma, died after he was swept away performing a water rescue in the city early Sunday. A few houses were flooded in the city.
Multiple high-water rescues were reported Sunday morning in Venus, Texas (Johnson County), in the south Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex. Farther south, rescues were also performed in the cities of Uvalde, D'hanis and Yancy, Texas.
High water was reported on Interstate 20 in both directions near Carrier Parkway in Grand Prairie Sunday morning, west of downtown Dallas. Numerous roads remained closed as of early Sunday morning in Ellis County, Texas. Part of a block of county road 1418 near Covington, Texas was reported to be partially washed out Sunday morning.
Catastrophic Flash Flood near San Marcos, Texas
At least one man has died in San Marcos, Texas, as a result of the catastrophic flash flood that developed on the Blanco River late Saturday night before emptying into the San Marcos River Sunday morning.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency late Sunday morning for the San Marcos River from San Marcos to Luling, Texas. This included parts of southeastern Hays, western Caldwell and northern Guadalupe counties. San Marcos is a city of about 55,000 people between Austin and San Antonio. A surge of floodwater continues to roll downstream along the San Marcos River into Luling, Texas.
The San Marcos River is rising fast in Martindale and Luling, Texas. Palmetto State Park at Ottine is experiencing severe flooding with at least 6 feet of water in the pavilion building likely, based on Sunday afternoon's NWS river stage report. Much of the Luling Golf Course is likely to flood, and some of the lowest homes north and northeast of the golf course may flood depending on exactly how high the river gets.
A curfew has been declared beginning at 9 p.m. Sunday and ending at 7 a.m. Monday for the cities of San Marcos and Wimberley, Texas, as well as unincorporated areas of Hays County.
An estimated 1,000 homes have been flooded in Hays County, Texas. Some residents are still stranded in their homes, but officials said Sunday afternoon that there are no longer any people waiting on rooftops for rescue. Up to 12.32 inches of rain fell near Kendalia, Texas in this event.
The Blanco River at San Marcos, Texas, crested just over 43 feet early Sunday morning, a rise of over 31 feet since late Saturday night. That 31-foot surge in the river level included a rise of 17 feet in just 30 minutes. Water levels remain high this morning as the flood crest rolls downstream.
The Blanco River rose more than 33 feet in just 3 hours in Wimberley, Texas, reaching a level more than 27 feet above flood stage at 1 a.m. Sunday. This broke the all-time record crest from 1929 by nearly 7 feet, before the river gauge stopped reporting. Wimberley is about 25 miles southwest of Austin. Emergency management reported residents were trapped on rooftops due to the sudden rise in floodwaters. Officials opened shelters to house those forced from their homes by the swollen river.
(ON THIS PAGE: Radar, Watches, Warnings | Severe Weather Live Blog)
All tornado warnings, along with other relevant information from The Weather Channel and local National Weather Service offices in current threat areas, will appear here.
Information updates automatically; no need to reload or refresh your browser. Time stamps on the left are in Eastern time; subtract one hour for Central time, two hours for Mountain time and three hours for Pacific time.
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(MORE: View National Interactive Radar Map | Difference Between a Watch and a Warning)
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(PHOTO/VIDEO GALLERIES: Severe | Storms)
PHOTOS: Severe Storms, Tornadoes Strike the Plains on May 6, 2015 ||||| By Morgan Downing
Claremore Fire Capt. Jason Farley drowned Saturday night while rescuing a woman and six children from dangerous flooding.
The flag is at half-staff at the fire station in honor of the 20-year veteran. FOX23 was there as people stopped by to place flags on the station lawn.
A chaplain is assisting firefighters as they deal with the loss. Many in the area have also found it hard to cope.
Farley was helping a rescue operation where water was rushing into a home during a young girl’s 5th birthday party. All of the children and one adult were rescued through a window but Farley was pushed into a storm drain where he drowned.
“He’s our hero. That’s for sure. It could have been our grandkids or my daughter. I pray for his family and the other firefighters. They’re like family to each other,” Steven Darnell said.
Darnell’s grandchild was rescued by Farley.
The support for Farley’s family and fellow firefighters has been huge as fire departments across the state shared their condolences through social media.
">May 24, 2015Those wanting to donate to Jason Farley's Memorial Fund can do so at http://de.gofund.me./vdh2x8
Claremore Firefighters IAFF Local 1077 will also establish a memorial fund to aid in transferring funds to the Farley family and for local donations.
Donations are also being accepted at Fire Station #1.
Checks can be made payable to “Jason Farley Memorial Fund”.
You can contact Lieutenant Mike Peters at [email protected] or (918)724-0744 with any questions regarding donations. |||||
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– Since President Trump made the decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, he has received criticism from across the political and social spectrum, from immigrants-rights groups and Fortune 500 CEOs to evangelical Christian preachers and Republican members of Congress. Now the president can add the pope to that list. On Monday, Pope Francis addressed the DACA issue during a press conference while returning from a trip to Colombia, the Hill reports, saying the president should reconsider his decision to rescind the program if he actually wants to be "pro-life." "The president of the United States presents himself as pro-life and if he is a good pro-lifer, he understands that family is the cradle of life and its unity must be protected," Francis said. This isn't the first time the pope and the president have squared off. Last year, Francis criticized then-candidate Trump's proposed border wall between the US and Mexico, saying building walls is "not Christian," CNN reports. Trump responded by calling the pope's comments a "disgrace." And Francis isn't the only Catholic official upset over Trump's DACA plans. Last week the US Conference of Catholic Bishops spoke out against the president's decision, to which former Trump adviser Steve Bannon responded by saying Catholic churches in the US have an "economic interest" in seeing DACA survive. "They need illegal aliens to fill the churches," Bannon told CBS News. (That shiner under the pope's eye? Blame the popemobile.)
Let's expand this into a news article: Pope Francis said that President Trump should reconsider his decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program if he considers himself to be “pro-life.”
"The President of the United States presents himself as pro-life and if he is a good pro-lifer, he understands that family is the cradle of life and its unity must be protected," Francis said, according to CNN.
Francis made the comments during a press conference Monday as he returned from a trip to Colombia, where he had called for others to defend the rights of immigrants.
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The pope said he was unfamiliar with the specifics of the program, but that he hoped Trump could reverse his decision to end the protections that prevent the deportation of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as minors.
"I think this law comes not from parliament but from the executive," Francis said. "If that is so, I am hopeful that it will be re-thought."
DACA was enacted by President Obama in 2012.
Francis also called for climate change deniers to change their stance on the topic, comments that came as Hurricane Irma became the second major hurricane to strike the U.S. in recent weeks.
"Whoever denies it has to go to the scientists and ask them," Francis said. "They speak very clearly, scientists are precise.
"Then they decide, and history will judge those decisions."
Francis has criticized Trump over his stance on immigration before, saying last year that Trump is “not Christian” if he wants to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
Trump fired back, calling Francis’s comments “disgraceful.” ||||| 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. |||||
– More change at McDonald's: The chain has made a big change to how it cooks items, including McMuffins and biscuits, ditching liquid margarine for real butter, reports CNBC. Sources say the change is happening at restaurants nationwide once they exhaust their supplies of liquid margarine, and signs are being posted saying the chain is "proud to cook breakfast items on the grill with real butter," which should also warn the lactose-intolerant. Meanwhile, McDonald's has rejected Burger King's offer to team up and make a McWhopper for a day, but Denny's has offered to team up for a "Slopper," and slider specialist Krystal says it's up for making a "Kropper," Fortune reports. (A few weeks ago, McDonald's quietly made its burgers beefier.)
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Let's expand this into a news article: Two sources said the rollout would occur once locations deplete the supply of liquid margarine.
McDonald's did not respond to CNBC's requests for comment.
Read MoreMcDonald's quietly changes its Quarter Pounder size
One sign at a Manhattan location says, "We're proud to cook breakfast items on the grill with real butter and we toast our English Muffins, biscuits and bagels with real butter too."
The signs are meant to both highlight the "real dairy" addition and warn those who are not able to eat items made with milk products.
The move is just the latest in a series by the fast food giant aimed at tweaking the way it makes its food as it continues trying to turn around its struggling U.S. business. As part of the overhaul, McDonald's has said it would toast its buns longer, change how it sears and grills its beef, and increase the Quarter Pounder patty size. ||||| Denny’s wants in on the Burger King-McDonald’s mashup burger
After McDonald's rejected Burger King's proposal for a mashup burger , Denny's recognized a potential business opportunity.
Burger King very publicly suggested that it "end the beef" with McDonald's by collaborating on a burger in honor of Peace Day on September 21. They took out full-page ads and even set up a website explaining that all " McWhopper " proceeds would benefit a non-profit organization called Peace One Day.
McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook responded the offer on Facebook , rejecting the idea and ending with "A simple phone call will do next time."
After seeing this, Denny's took to Twitter with a proposal of its own. It wants to combine its own Bacon Slamburger with Burger King's Whopper to make a "Slopper," or something else that sounds a bit more appetizing:
Denny's isn't the only one trying to get in on Burger King's Peace Day deal. Krystal, an Atlanta-based fast food restaurant that specializes in sliders, also extended an offer to the royal fast food giant via Facebook :
We'd be honored to join y'all (Burger King and Peace One Day) in continuing your day of peace in Atlanta. We propose working together to create the first tiny square Whopper. (We're partial to the Kropper, the Whystal, or the Tiny King.)
Burger King has not responded to either offer. |||||
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Police forensic officers work on the road in between Borough Market and London Bridge in London on June 4 as police continue their investigations following the June 3 terror attack. | Getty Trump fires away on Twitter after London attack On Sunday, he tweeted: 'We must stop being politically correct.'
President Donald Trump on Sunday called for an end to political correctness, suggesting that terrorism “will only get worse” if the U.S. doesn’t “get smart” and reinstate his administration’s travel ban.
“We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people. If we don’t get smart it will only get worse,” the president warned in a tweet Sunday morning.
Story Continued Below
Trump’s initial response to Saturday’s terror attack in London — which claimed seven lives, left dozens more hospitalized and ended with police shooting dead three attackers — urged the courts to reinstate the travel ban.
“We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!” the president wrote Saturday night, minutes before assuring London and the United Kingdom that the U.S. will do whatever it can to assist in wake of the attack.
On Sunday, though, the president took a different tack, stoking fears from his personal Twitter account while also criticizing London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, and noting “we are not having a gun debate right now … because they used knives and a truck!”
Authorities said a white van mounted the pavement on the London Bridge on Saturday night, hitting a number of pedestrians. The van later drove to Borough Market, a venue with many bars and restaurants on the south side of the river Thames and very close to London Bridge. The attackers jumped out of the van and stabbed a number of people but were shot dead by police within eight minutes of the first emergency call.
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Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, told the BBC that no words could describe the grief and anger London feels.
“I’m appalled and furious that these cowardly terrorists would deliberately target innocent Londoners and bystanders enjoying their Saturday night. There can be no justification for the acts of these terrorists, and I’m quite clear that we will never let them win, nor will we allow them to cower our city of Londoners,” Khan said.
He added that Londoners will see an increased police presence over the next few days but said there’s no reason to be alarmed by that.
Trump, who drew criticism for promoting a Drudge Report tweet that NBC’s “Nightly News” refused to share because “the info is unconfirmed,” mischaracterized Khan’s remark Sunday.
“At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’” Trump said. His social media director, Dan Scavino, urged Khan to “WAKE UP!!!!”
Khan criticized Trump during the U.S. presidential campaign, tweeting in May 2016 that his “ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe” and “risks alienating mainstream Muslims.”
Later Sunday, Trump spoke at Ford's Theatre in Washington. He offered "unwavering support" to the British while reiterating his determination to put an end to such attacks. "We renew our resolve, stronger than ever before, to protect the United States and its allies from a vile enemy that has waged war on innocent life," the president said, according to pool reports.
During 2015-16, candidate Trump proposed a “Muslim ban,” but his administration has maintained that its executive order is not a ban on Muslims entering the country but rather a national security directive to keep Americans safe.
After a rampage at a casino in Manila, Philippines, early Friday, Trump labeled it a terrorist attack. But authorities said the incident was likely a robbery attempt.
Trump has often tweeted following terrorist attacks. In April, the president wrote that a shooting on Paris’ Champs Elysées “will have a big effect on presidential election.” Authorities said the attack was “likely terrorist-related.” And following an attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, Trump called the attacker an “evil loser” during remarks while he was overseas in Bethlehem.
Trump has asked the Supreme Court to revive his complex and controversial travel ban executive order, which has been repeatedly blocked by lower courts — even after the administration introduced a revised order in March.
The Justice Department on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to temporarily lift injunctions barring officials from carrying out Trump’s directive to suspend visa issuance to citizens of six majority-Muslim countries and halt the flow of refugees to the U.S. from across the globe. The high court could review the legality of the travel ban this fall.
Republicans in Congress, however, are skeptical about the fate of the ban. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Sunday that she disagrees with the president’s view that the travel ban needs to be enacted now.
“I think that the travel ban is too broad, and that is why it has been rejected by the courts,” she told "Face the Nation” on CBS. “The president is right, however, that we need to do a better job of vetting individuals who are coming from war-torn countries into our nation, but I do believe that the very broad ban that he has proposed is not the right way to go.”
Asked on “Fox News Sunday” whether the Supreme Court would reinstate Trump’s travel ban, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) couldn’t say.
“I don’t know what the court will decide,” he said.
Trump spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May by phone on Saturday, according to a readout from the White House, which said the president “offered his condolences” and “praised the heroic response of police and other first responders.”
May said Saturday that the attack was being treated as a “potential act of terrorism,” which she confirmed on Sunday.
“We believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face as terrorism breeds terrorism, and perpetrators are inspired to attack not only on the basis of carefully constructed plots after years of planning and training — and not even as lone attackers radicalized online — but by copying one another and often using the crudest of means of attack,” May said. “We cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are.”
Jeremy Corbyn, head of the opposition Labour Party, refrained from campaigning for this week's election for part of the day, but came out swinging in the evening. He accused May and her government of trying to protect Britain "on the cheap."
“You cannot protect the public on the cheap," Corbyn said Sunday. "The police and security services must get the resources they need not 20,000 police cutsI"
The Anne Frank Center, a nonprofit that focuses on civil and human rights activism, condemned Trump’s first response Saturday, tweeting “SHAME ON YOU … for dedicating your first Tweet after tonight's #LondonBridge attack to your immoral #MuslimBan.”
“Terrorism includes violence that destroys people, as well as prejudice that destroys people's souls. The response cannot be a #MuslimBan,” the center said Sunday.
James Randerson contributed to this report.
||||| Emergency personnel on London Bridge after an incident in central London, Saturday, June 3, 2017. British police said they were dealing with "incidents" on London Bridge and nearby Borough Market in... (Associated Press)
LONDON (AP) — The Latest on an incident on London Bridge (all times local):
4 a.m.
London's police say six people died and 20 were injured in the attacks in the center of London. Police shot dead three suspects.
The Metropolitan Police's head of counter-terrorism Mark Rowley said early Sunday that police believe all the attackers were killed but are conducting further investigation to make certain this is the case.
Rowley says the suspects were confronted and shot by police "within eight minutes of the first call."
Rowley says the three attackers were wearing what appeared to be suicide vests but they turned out to be hoaxes.
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3:12 a.m.
Japan has issued a travel advisory warning its nationals to avoid places of what it calls potential targets in London, including sightseeing spots, department stores, markets, concert venues and political rallies.
The warning comes amid unfolding terrorist attacks at London Bridge and nearby Borough Market.
The Foreign Ministry says Japanese visitors should "pay close attention to the surroundings, and leave quickly if any suspicious signs are seen."
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2:47 a.m.
The London Ambulance Service says more than 20 people have been injured in the vehicle and knife attack in the London Bridge area.
The service says "we have taken at least 20 patients to six hospitals across London." Several other people were treated at the scene for less serious injuries.
It is urging people only to call an ambulance in an emergency as they treat victims of the attack.
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2:20 a.m.
The U.S. State Department says that the "United States condemns the cowardly attacks targeting innocent civilians in London this evening."
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Saturday evening: "The United States stands ready to provide any assistance authorities in the United Kingdom may request."
She said: "Our hearts are with the families and loved ones of the victims. We wish a full and quick recovery to those injured in the attacks. All Americans stand in solidarity with the people of the United Kingdom."
The agency's statement was similar in tone to a tweet from President Donald Trump earlier in the evening: "Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the U. K., we will be there - WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS! "
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2:15 a.m.
Australia's foreign minister describes the incidents at London Bridge and London's Borough Market as a "shocking situation."
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says in a statement: "We stand ready to support the British government as it responds to these attacks and our thoughts are with those injured and their families."
The Australian Government is seeking to determine if any Australians are involved or affected in any way.
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2:10 a.m.
The editor of the Sun tweeted that the newspaper has confirmed the blasts heard outside its offices were police-controlled explosions.
The blasts occurred at 1:23 a.m. and 1:25 a.m.
A third explosion was heard a few minutes later near The Shard, an iconic skyscraper close to London Bridge, the Sun reported. Several fire engines were parked outside the building at the time of the blast.
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1:55 a.m.
The Sun newspaper reported that two explosions were heard outside the paper's offices near London Bridge. The blasts, which occurred at 1:23 a.m. and 1:25 a.m., are believed to have been controlled explosions carried out by police, the newspaper said.
A third explosion was heard a few minutes later near The Shard, an iconic skyscraper close to London Bridge, the Sun reported. Several fire engines were parked outside the building at the time of the blast.
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1:50 a.m.
As in Manchester two weeks ago, Londoners were quick to offer assistance to those caught up in the attacks at London Bridge and Borough Market.
Phaldip Singh, who describes himself as an entrepreneur and youth activist, tweeted that Sikh Gurdwaras were open to provide food and shelter for those affected by the attacks. Gurdwaras are places of worship that traditionally serve simple meals to anyone, regardless of their religion.
The Royal Oak pub in Southwark opened its doors to people evacuated from hotels inside the area cordoned off by police. At least one minicab company tweeted an offer of free rides for people stranded in the area.
___ 1:40 a.m.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has condemned the incidents at London Bridge and on Borough Market, describing them as "a deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners."
The mayor issued a statement early Sunday in which he urged the public to remain calm as the situation is still unfolding.
He says that his thoughts are with everyone affected.
"This was a deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners and visitors to our city enjoying their Saturday night," Khan said. "I condemn it in the strongest possible terms. There is no justification whatsoever for such barbaric acts."
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1:15 a.m.
U.S. President Donald Trump is arguing in favor of his controversial travel ban as London authorities respond to reports of a string of attacks.
London authorities are investigating reports that a vehicle has hit pedestrians on London Bridge. Two other incidents also are being reported.
Trump began tweeting about the attacks an hour or so after initial news reports. One tweet read: "We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!"
Federal courts have blocked Trump's travel ban on six mostly Muslim countries and refugees from anywhere in the world. His administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate it.
Trump also tweeted a pledge of help and support for London.
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1:05 a.m.
Police say a hit-and-run and stabbings on and near London Bridge have been officially declared a "terrorist incident."
Armed officers flooded the busy area of the city after a van struck multiple people on the bridge. Witnesses also reported seeing people being stabbed by at least one man.
Police say the incidents occurred on the bridge and at Borough Market a short distance away.
The force initially said they were also responding to a reported third incident, in the Vauxhall area of London. But they said later that turned out to be an unrelated stabbing.
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12:55 a.m.
Police say they are working with Royal Naval Lifeboat Institution to evacuate public from the London Bridge incident.
Police say a vehicle reportedly ran down pedestrians on London Bridge, and there were reports of stabbings nearby.
The BBC says more than one person has been killed.
British Prime Minister Theresa May says the incident "is being treated as a potential act of terrorism."
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12:42 a.m.
British Prime Minister Theresa May says an incident involving a vehicle and reported stabbings in London "is being treated as a potential act of terrorism."
May says it is a "fast-moving investigation" and her thoughts are with those caught up in the "dreadful events."
Police say a vehicle reportedly ran down pedestrians on London Bridge, and there were reports of stabbings nearby. They has also responded to an incident in another area of London, Vauxhaul.
The BBC says more than one person has been killed.
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12:36 a.m.
Jeremy Corbyn, the head of the Labour Party, said on Twitter: "Brutal and shocking incidents reported in London. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. Thank you to the emergency services."
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12:19 a.m.
Downing Street says Prime Minister Theresa May will chair a meeting of the government's emergency response committee on Sunday.
A spokesman for May says the prime minister is in contact with officials and is being regularly updated.
May has not commented yet but in the past she has convened her emergency security Cabinet known as Cobra after major incidents.
Britain's official terror threat had recently been lowered from "critical" after a bombing killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.
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12 a.m.
London police say they are responding to reports that a vehicle hit pedestrians on London Bridge and that there were stabbings at busy Borough Market nearby.
Soon after they responded to another incident in the Vauxhall area, over a mile away.
The Metropolitan Police says armed officers have been sent to the scenes and shots were fired. They did not say if officers fired the shots.
The force has tweeted a warning telling people in the area to run to safety, hide and then call police if it is safe to do so.
___
11:50 p.m.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May says she is being briefed on the incident at London Bridge.
The spokesman says the prime minister is in contact with officials and is being regularly updated.
May has not commented yet but in the past she has convened her emergency security Cabinet known as Cobra after major incidents.
Britain's official terror threat had recently been lowered from "critical" after a bombing killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.
U.S. President Donald Trump's spokesman says Trump has been briefed by his national security team and he will be provided with updates.
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11:40 p.m.
British transport police say there are reports of multiple casualties following a major incident on London Bridge.
Nick Brandon of the British Transport Police control room says he has received reports of an incident possibly involving a knife and a vehicle.
Witnesses have reported seeing people hit by a vehicle on London Bridge. Police say they're responding to an incident there and another at Borough Market, a busy area of pubs and restaurants nearby.
He said the seriousness of the injuries is not yet known.
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11:30 p.m.
London police are treating injured people on a small street some 500 meters (yards) southwest of London Bridge, where witnesses say pedestrians were hit by a vehicle and police say they are responding to an incident.
Britain's Press Association news agency says members of the public were told to run away as fast as they could from the area, which is filled with restaurants and pubs.
Nick Archer, who was in the London Bridge area, says he came out of a bar and looked to his left and saw a man lying on the ground. He thought the person had been drinking, but then police vans flew by.
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11:25 p.m.
London police say they are responding to an incident at Borough Market, a popular tourist area with restaurants and bars a short distance from London Bridge, where a vehicle is reported to have hit pedestrians.
The Metropolitan Police force says armed officers are responding at both scenes.
Witnesses have reported seeing injured people on the ground on the bridge. Police have closed a nearby railway station and told people to get away from the area.
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11:10 p.m.
London's transportation authority has closed three London Underground stations near London Bridge, where police say they are dealing with an incident and witnesses report seeing a vehicle hitting pedestrians.
An eyewitness tells Sky News he saw people who seemed to have been run over and people being placed in an ambulance covered in blankets.
London Metropolitan Police have said only that they are dealing with an incident on the bridge, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted that people should follow police on Twitter for updates.
Another eyewitness tells Sky he heard a burst of gunfire during the incident.
___
11 p.m.
British police say they are dealing with an "incident" on London Bridge.
Witnesses report a vehicle hitting pedestrians and injured people on the ground.
Transport for London says busy London Bridge station has been closed at the request of police. |||||
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– Police say at least seven people are dead in a terrorist attack on and near London Bridge, per the AP. Another 20 were injured. Police say they shot and killed three suspects and don't believe any others are at large, reports the BBC. Authorities say a speeding van deliberately drove into pedestrians on London Bridge, about 10pm local time. Police say the vehicle continued on into Borough Market, a neighborhood filled with restaurants and bars, where three men in the van got out and began stabbing people. Police say the suspects were wearing what appeared to be suicide-bomb vests, but the vests turned out to be hoaxes. Another incident, in the Vauxhall area of London, turned out to be an unrelated stabbing. Prime Minister Theresa May said that "following updates from police and security officials, I can confirm that the terrible incident in London is being treated as a potential act of terrorism." President Trump tweeted his support: "Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the U. K., we will be there - WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS!" Prior to that tweet, as the events were unfolding, he tweeted about the need for a travel ban: "We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety," notes Politico. Britain's terror threat had recently been lowered from "critical" after a bombing killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.
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MANZANILLO, Mexico -- Hurricane Patricia headed toward southwestern Mexico Friday as a monster Category 5 storm, the strongest ever in the Western Hemisphere that forecasters said could make a "potentially catastrophic landfall" later in the day.
Residents of a stretch of Mexico's Pacific Coast dotted with resorts and fishing villages on Thursday boarded up homes and bought supplies ahead of Patricia's arrival.
With maximum sustained winds near 200 mph, Patricia is the strongest storm ever recorded in the eastern Pacific or in the Atlantic, said Dave Roberts, a hurricane specialist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted a photo of the hurricane from space:
Patricia's power was comparable to that of Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,300 dead or missing in the Philippines two years ago, according to the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization.
"This is really, really, really strong," WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis told a U.N. briefing in Geneva, according to Reuters.
In Mexico, officials declared a state of emergency in dozens of municipalities in Colima, Nayarit and Jalisco states that contain the bustling port of Manzanillo and the posh resort of Puerto Vallarta. The governor of Colima ordered schools closed on Friday, when the storm was forecast to make what the Hurricane Center called a "potentially catastrophic landfall."
Teams of police and civil protection were walking along Puerto Vallarta's waterfront Friday morning advising people to evacuate.
According to the 2010 census, there were more than 7.3 million inhabitants in Jalisco state and more than 255,000 in Puerto Vallarta municipality. There were more than 650,000 in Colima state, and more than 161,000 in Manzanillo.
REUTERS
Evacuations were under way in Puerto Vallarta Friday, with officials taking people to 14 shelters, mostly in schools, according to the Jalisco government's webpage. Exact numbers of those evacuated were not immediately available.
Luis Felipe Puente Espinosa, national coordinator for civil protection, said that three airports in the path of Patricia in southwestern Mexico have been shut down as the storm approaches.
Roberto Ramirez, the director of Mexico's National Water Commission, which includes the nation's meteorological service, said that Hurricane Patricia will be powerful enough to lift up automobiles, destroy homes that are not sturdily built with cement and steel and will be able to drag along people caught outside when the storm strikes.
Ramirez said that the people in the most danger from the hurricane will be those on the coast, especially in the state of Jalisco.
Rain pounded Manzanillo late Thursday while people took last-minute measures ahead of Patricia, which quickly grew from a tropical storm into a Category 5 hurricane, leaving authorities scrambling to make people safe.
At a Wal-Mart in Manzanillo, shoppers filled carts with non-perishables as a steady rain fell outside.
Veronica Cabrera, shopping with her young son, said Manzanillo tends to flood with many small streams overflowing their banks. She said she had taped her windows at home to prevent them from shattering.
Alejandra Rodriguez, shopping with her brother and mother, was buying 10 liters of milk, a large jug of water and items like tuna and canned ham that do not require refrigeration or cooking. The family already blocked the bottoms of the doors at their home to keep water from entering.
Manzanillo's "main street really floods and cuts access to a lot of other streets. It ends up like an island," Rodriguez said.
In Puerto Vallarta, restaurants and stores taped or boarded-up windows, and residents raced to stores for last-minute purchases ahead of the storm.
The Hurricane Center in Miami warned that preparations should be rushed to completion, saying the storm could cause coastal flooding, destructive waves and flash floods.
"This is an extremely dangerous, potentially catastrophic hurricane," center meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said.
Feltgen said Patricia also poses problems for Texas. Forecast models indicate that after the storm breaks up over land, remnants of its tropical moisture will likely combine with and contribute to heavy rainfall that is already soaking Texas independently of the hurricane, he said.
"It's only going to make a bad situation worse," he said.
In Colima, authorities handed out sandbags to help residents protect their homes from flooding.
Patricia's maximum sustained winds had increased to 200 mph - a Category 5 storm, the highest designation on the Saffir-Simpson scale used to quantify a hurricane's wind strength.
By late afternoon, Patricia's center was about 60 miles west of Manzanillo, and about 110 miles south-southeast of Cabo Corrientes. The Hurricane Center said Patricia was expected to remain an "extremely dangerous" Category 5 storm through landfall late afternoon or evening, before weakening over the inland mountains.
A hurricane warning was in effect for the Mexican coast from San Blas to Punta San Telmo, a stretch that includes Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta. A broader area was under hurricane watch, tropical storm warning or tropical storm watch.
The Hurricane Center said Patricia was expected to bring rainfall of 6 to 12 inches, with isolated amounts of up to 20 inches in some locations. Tropical storm conditions were expected to reach land late Thursday or early Friday, complicating any remaining preparation work at that point.
"We are calm," said Gabriel Lopez, a worker at Las Hadas Hotel in Manzanillo. "We don't know what direction (the storm) will take, but apparently it's headed this way. ... If there is an emergency we will take care of the people. There are rooms that are not exposed to wind or glass." ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
/ Updated By Alex Johnson and Jason Cumming
Hurricane Patricia became the strongest storm ever measured on the planet early Friday, with experts warning it could trigger 40-foot waves along southwestern Mexico and "life-threatening" flash flooding.
More than 7 million residents — and an estimated tens of thousands of U.S. citizens visiting or living there — were told to prepare for the "worst-case scenario" as the ferocious storm was expected to race ashore on Mexico's Pacific coast between 6 to 10 p.m. ET Friday.
At 5 p.m. ET, Patricia was about 60 miles west of Manzanillo, and about 110 miles south-southeast of Cabo Corrientes.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Patricia was expected to make landfall "in the next several hours." A hurricane warning was in place for San Blas to Punta San Telmo.
The tourist magnets of Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo were directly in the Category 5 storm's projected path, and Puerto Vallarta's airport was closed Friday out of precaution as some stranded vacationers described their inability to fly out of a "nightmare."
By 5 p.m. winds had weakened slightly to 190 mph, the Hurricane Center said. Winds of 200 mph were measured earlier, and the Hurricane Center labeled Patricia as the "strongest hurricane on record" in the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific Basins.
Mexico has not formally requested help from the U.S., but State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Friday that America "stands up to offer any assistance that we can in the aftermath of what at least appears to be a pretty epic event in terms of the intensity and size of the storm."
NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins warned that Patricia would be "the most devastating storm to ever hit Mexico" with "catastrophic damage" likely between the posh resort of Puerto Vallarta and the bustling port city of Manzanillo.
While typhoons Nancy and Violet had stronger estimated winds, Patricia was the strongest storm ever actually observed, Karins added. Patricia already has "put on quite a show" in how rapidly and unexpectedly it has strengthened, he said.
Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated the Philippines in 2013, made landfall with 190 mph winds.
While Patricia weakened slightly to 190 mph winds since the afternoon, "Patricia is expected to remain an extremely dangerous category 5 hurricane through landfall," the NHC said. “Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion.”
Hurricane warnings stretched from San Blas to Punta San Telmo, an area that includes Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo. CONAGUA, the Mexican national water commission, predicted waves about 40 feet at landfall.
The National Hurricane Center said the hurricane was expected to produce deadly rip currents and "life-threatening flash floods and mudslides."
It added: "Some fluctuations in intensity are possible today, but Patricia is expected to remain an extremely dangerous Category 5 hurricane through landfall."
Up to 20 inches of rain was predicted for the Mexican states of Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero through Saturday, the NHC said.
The Mexican government declared a state of emergency.
The U.S. Consulate General in Guadalajara urged Americans in the hurricane warning area to "make preparations immediately to protect life and property."
Rogelio Estreda, a representative for the Grand Fiesta Americana Resort in Puerto Vallarta, told NBC News that the site would be evacuated at 7 a.m. local time (8 a.m. ET).
"We are expecting something bad, but maybe nothing will happen," Estreda said. "It can change at any time."
Patricia would be only the second Category 5 hurricane to hit the entire Pacific coast since full record-keeping began in 1949. An unnamed storm struck in late October 1959 near Manzanillo, killing an estimated 1,800 people — 800 of them from mudslides alone.
Karins added that 10 inches of rain were already predicted for Texas over the next three days, warning that "what's left of Patricia will make flooding in south Texas even worse" on Sunday.
Laura Diane Rebholz, who co-owns a modeling agency in Scottsdale, Arizona, told NBC News early Friday that she felt it was "safer to ride the storm out" at the Puerto Vallarta hotel where she's vacationing.
"It's almost as if it's literally 'the calm before the storm,'" she said. "It's very much business as usual around the resort with staff seemingly unfazed by the hurricane."
But Australian newlywed Natalie Griffin said Friday that she and her husband were trying to catch an early flight out of Puerto Vallarta after five days of vacationing. At the hotel on Thursday, she said, guests were told that they could be evacuated by bus to Guadalajara, Jalisco's capital city located further inland.
Griffin said she decided to take her chances at the airport early Friday, but flights out were looking grim.
"We were all excited as we thought we were about to board, and now they have said the airport is closed but they want to get special permission to fly this plane out," she told NBC News. "Everyone wants to know if we are flying or not so we can make plans to leave the area."
Among those hunkering down include Atlanta-born Ian Hayden Parker, who founded the Vallarta Daily News in Puerto Vallarta, which has established 18 hurricane shelters.
"We live in a resort town, but outside of the tourist zone, there is still a lot of poverty and people without computers, Internet or phones," said Parker, who hopes to continue to inform locals about the storm's impact.
After residents were urged to begin storm preparations Thursday, Parker said, "many people followed our advice and are now just playing the wait and see game." |||||
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– Hurricane Patricia may turn out to be "the most devastating storm to ever hit Mexico," and millions of residents have been told to prep for a "worst-case scenario," reports NBC News. It's the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Western hemisphere, with maximum sustained winds of 200mph, Weather.com reports, and the NOAA is labeling it "potentially catastrophic" when it touches down. The eye of the storm, expected to still be a Category 5 hurricane when it reaches the Mexican coast, is set to make landfall Friday night in Jalisco state, which includes Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara—making it the first time in eight years North American land has been threatened by a Category 5 hurricane (that time was from Hurricane Felix). Expected in Jalisco and adjoining states are floods, mudslides, and "large, battering ocean waves" up to 39 feet crashing onshore, Weather.com reports. While Mexico will be bearing the brunt of the storm, Texas can also expect to be affected, CBS News reports. Already being battered by heavy rain, Texas will likely also draw in Patricia's tropical moisture, which is "only going to make a bad situation worse," a National Hurricane Center meteorologist tells the network. Residents in a 25-county swath of central and south Texas, as well as along Interstate 35 from the Austin-San Antonio region to Dallas-Fort Worth, should look out for downpours of up to 12 inches and flash floods. The only other time a Category 5 hurricane has settled onto Mexico's Pacific coast was in 1959, a storm that resulted in 1,800 deaths, the site notes. Patricia is breaking other records, too: Per Weather.com, it has the lowest minimum central pressure of any hurricane ever recorded, beating out Wilma's 882 millibars with an 880.
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LONDON (Reuters) - Prince Philip, the 95-year-old husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, joked on Thursday about no longer being able to “stand up much” as Buckingham Palace announced he would retire later this year from active public life.
Philip, who is also known as the Duke of Edinburgh and has sometimes drawn attention with headline-grabbing gaffes, has been by the queen’s side throughout her 65 years on the throne and she has described him as “my strength and stay”.
“Prince Philip will attend previously scheduled engagements between now and August, both individually and accompanying The Queen,” the palace said in a statement.
“Thereafter, The Duke will not be accepting new invitations for visits and engagements, although he may still choose to attend certain public events from time to time.”
The queen, the world’s longest-reigning living monarch who celebrated her 91st birthday in April, will continue to carry out a full program of official engagements, the statement added. Polls show Elizabeth, who ascended to the throne in 1952, remains hugely popular among Britons.
At an engagement at St James’s Palace in central London with his wife on Thursday, a guest told Philip he was sorry to hear he was standing down.
“I can’t stand up much,” quipped the prince, whose off-the-cuff remarks have sometimes landed him in hot water.
The announcement of Philip’s retirement was made following a meeting of all senior royal staff at Buckingham Palace, news of which prompted media speculation about the health of the royals.
However a well-placed source said there was no cause for concern about the health of the queen or Philip, who turns 96 next month. The couple, who married at Westminster Abbey in 1947, are due to celebrate their platinum, or 70th, wedding anniversary in November.
They have both been cutting their workload in recent years, passing on many responsibilities to son and heir Prince Charles, and grandsons, Princes William and Harry.
Philip conducted 184 official appearances in the year to March 2016 and has racked up a total 22,191 solo engagements since 1952, official figures show.
Prime Minister Theresa May offered the country’s “deepest gratitude and good wishes” to Philip on his retirement.
GAFFES
Outspoken, irascible and intensely private, Philip, a Greek-born former naval officer, developed a reputation for brusque comments and occasional gaffes at some of the thousands of ceremonial events he has attended.
Britain's Prince Philip leaves Buckingham Palace in London, May 4, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall
A stray remark about “slitty eyes” during a visit to China in the 1980s became symbolic of his gruff and often unguarded manner. Even into his 90s, his off-the-cuff remarks could still get him into trouble, such as when he exasperatedly swore at a photographer at an event in 2015.
However, the queen and other royals say he has been a crucial figure during her long reign.
“He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years,” Elizabeth said in a very rare personal tribute to Philip during a speech to mark their 50th wedding anniversary in 1997.
Despite being at the forefront of the royal family for almost 70 years and also patron, president or a member of more than 780 organizations, he has no clear-cut constitutional role and has admitted struggling to carve out a role for himself as the queen’s consort.
“There was no precedent. If I asked somebody ‘what do you expect me to do?’ they all looked blank - they had no idea, nobody had much idea,” he told the BBC in an interview to mark his 90th birthday.
Both the queen and Philip have suffered some health issues in recent years. The queen missed a traditional Christmas church service last year for the first time in decades due to a heavy cold and was hospitalized in March 2013 with symptoms of gastroenteritis.
Philip underwent “an exploratory operation following abdominal investigations” in 2013.
He was also hospitalized for a bladder infection during the queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations the year before, and spent Christmas 2011 in hospital where he underwent an operation to clear a blocked heart artery after suffering chest pains.
Slideshow (32 Images)
Such setbacks did not deter Philip from his royal duties. He even drove former U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife around the grounds of the royals’ Windsor Castle residence during a visit last year.
“I have to say I have never been driven by a Duke of Edinburgh before, but I can report it was very smooth riding,” Obama said. ||||| This article is over 1 year old
Duke of Edinburgh’s reputation for plain speaking has often led to controversy, but he has also been called a national treasure
The Duke of Edinburgh has shocked and sometimes delighted the public with his outspoken comments and clangers.
His reputation for plain speaking has often led to controversy, but he was once called a “national treasure” by the press for his inability to curb his off-the-cuff remarks.
Prince Philip to retire from public engagements, says palace Read more
He claimed he was misunderstood. In fact, the duke has been “misunderstood” almost everywhere he has been.
Here are some of Philip’s famous phrases:
“What do you gargle with, pebbles?” (speaking to the singer Tom Jones after the 1969 Royal Variety Performance)
(speaking to the singer Tom Jones after the 1969 Royal Variety Performance) “I declare this thing open, whatever it is.” (on a visit to Canada in 1969)
(on a visit to Canada in 1969) “Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed.” (during the 1981 recession)
(during the 1981 recession) “If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.” (at a 1986 World Wildlife Fund meeting)
“It looks like a tart’s bedroom.” (on seeing plans for the Duke and Duchess of York’s house at Sunninghill Park in 1988)
(on seeing plans for the Duke and Duchess of York’s house at Sunninghill Park in 1988) “Yak, yak, yak; come on, get a move on.” (shouted from the deck of Britannia in Belize in 1994 to the Queen, who was chatting to her hosts on the quayside)
“How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?” (to a driving instructor in Oban, Scotland, during a 1995 walkabout)
“Bloody silly fool!” (in 1997, referring to a Cambridge University car park attendant who did not recognise him)
“It looks as if it was put in by an Indian.” (pointing at an old-fashioned fusebox in a factory near Edinburgh in 1999)
(pointing at an old-fashioned fusebox in a factory near Edinburgh in 1999) “Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf.” (to young deaf people in Cardiff, in 1999, referring to a school’s steel band)
(to young deaf people in Cardiff, in 1999, referring to a school’s steel band) “They must be out of their minds.” (in the Solomon Islands, in 1982, when he was told that the annual population growth was 5%)
Facebook Twitter Pinterest (Prince Philip supposedly asked the Queen at her coronation: ‘Where did you get that hat?’ Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock
“If you stay here much longer, you’ll all be slitty-eyed.” (to British students in China, during the 1986 state visit)
“You can’t have been here that long – you haven’t got a pot belly.” (to a Briton in Budapest, Hungary, in 1993)
“I wish he’d turn the microphone off.” (muttered at the Royal Variety Performance as he watched Sir Elton John perform in 2001)
(muttered at the Royal Variety Performance as he watched Sir Elton John perform in 2001) “Do you still throw spears at each other?” (in Australia in 2002, talking to a successful Indigenous Australian entrepreneur)
(in Australia in 2002, talking to a successful Indigenous Australian entrepreneur) “You look like a suicide bomber.” (to a young female officer wearing a bullet-proof vest on Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, in 2002)
“There’s a lot of your family in tonight.” (after looking at the name badge of the businessman Atul Patel at a palace reception for British Indians in 2009)
“Do you have a pair of knickers made out of this?” (pointing to some tartan, to the Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie at a papal reception in Edinburgh in 2010)
“I hope he breaks his bloody neck.” (when a photographer covering a royal visit to India fell out of a tree)
(when a photographer covering a royal visit to India fell out of a tree) “If it doesn’t fart or eat hay, she’s not interested.” (on the Princess Royal)
(on the Princess Royal) “When a man opens a car door for his wife, it’s either a new car or a new wife.” (on marriage)
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The Duke of Edinburgh's public engagements often produce memorable one-liners that can make some people chuckle and others cringe.
Prince Philip is renowned for speaking his mind - often explained as his attempt to lighten the mood - and that outspoken nature has at times led to controversy with some of those remarks teetering on the edge of being offensive.
Here are some of his most famous quips.
1966: "British women can't cook".
1969: "What do you gargle with, pebbles?" To Sir Tom Jones after a Royal Variety Performance.
1981: "Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed." During the 1981 recession.
1984: "You are a woman, aren't you?" In Kenya after accepting a small gift from a local woman.
1986: "If you stay here much longer you'll all be slitty-eyed." To a group of British students during a royal visit to China.
Image copyright PA Image caption The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh visited China in 1986
1988: "It looks like a tart's bedroom." On seeing plans for the Duke and Duchess of York's house at Sunninghill Park.
1992: "Oh no, I might catch some ghastly disease." In Australia when asked to stroke a koala.
1993: "You can't have been here that long, you haven't got a pot belly". To a Briton he met in Hungary.
1994: "Aren't most of you descended from pirates?" To a wealthy islander in the Cayman Islands.
1995: "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test." To a Scottish driving instructor.
1996: "If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?" In response to calls to ban firearms after the Dunblane shooting.
1997: "Bloody silly fool!" Referring to a Cambridge University car park attendant who did not recognise him.
1999: "Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf." Speaking to a group of young deaf people in Cardiff who were standing near a steel band.
1999: "It looks as if it was put in by an Indian." Referring to an old-fashioned fuse box in a factory near Edinburgh.
2001: "You're too fat to be an astronaut." To 13-year-old Andrew Adams who told Prince Philip he wanted to go into space.
2002: "Still throwing spears?" Question put to an Australian Aborigine during a visit.
Image copyright PA
2002: "You look like a suicide bomber." To a young policewoman wearing a bullet-proof vest on Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.
2009: "There's a lot of your family in tonight." After looking at the name badge of businessman Atul Patel at a Palace reception for British Indians.
2009: "Well, you didn't design your beard too well, did you?" To designer Stephen Judge about his tiny goatee beard.
2010: "Do you have a pair of knickers made out of this?" To Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie Pointing while pointing to some tartan in Edinburgh.
2010: "Do you work in a strip club?" To 24-year-old Barnstaple Sea Cadet Elizabeth Rendle when she told him she also worked in a nightclub.
2012: "I would get arrested if I unzipped that dress." To 25-year-old council worker Hannah Jackson, who was wearing a dress with a zip running the length of its front, on a Jubilee visit to Bromley, Kent.
2013: "The Philippines must be half empty as you're all here running the NHS." On meeting a Filipino nurse at Luton and Dunstable Hospital.
2013: "[Children] go to school because their parents don't want them in the house." To Malala Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban and now campaigns for the right of girls to go to school without fear.
2017: "You look starved." To a pensioner on a visit to the Charterhouse almshouse for elderly men. ||||| A Labour shadow minister has been branded "shameful" for using the Duke of Edinburgh's decision to retire to promote a campaign about pension inequality.
Chi Onwurah was forced to defend her decision to tweet about Prince Philip's announcement after Conservative candidate Nadhim Zahawi called on her to apologise for the remarks.
Ms Onwurah tweeted: "Congratulations to Prince Philip on retiring in financial security at time of his choosing from a job he enjoys #forthemanynotthefew #waspi." ||||| That, in my experience, is what usually happens and it is always most impressive because by that time the seal is usually missing and the writing is both illegible and unintelligible anyway.’
He strongly advised them to look after the charter ‘because, throughout history, a document of some sort had always been looked upon as a sort of passport to respectability and, without it, you will never be able to prove – whatever it is you want to prove.’
On modernising Buckingham Palace
He also tackled the age-old custom of the bottle of whisky that appeared by the Queen’s bedside every night, even though she had not ordered it. He discovered that Queen Victoria had once had a cold and had asked for a Scotch before bedtime. As the order had never been rescinded, the servants continued to bring whisky every night some eighty years later.
On popularity
Prince Philip was never much taken in by his opulent surroundings. ‘In the first years of the Queen’s reign, the level of adulation – you wouldn’t believe it,’ he said. ‘You really wouldn’t. It could have been corroding. It would have been very easy to play to the gallery, but I took a conscious decision not to do that. Safer not to be too popular. You can’t fall too far.’ ||||| While Elizabeth mourned her father, Philip mourned the end of his free life and the year ahead was to be a bruising one as he struggled to find a new sense of purpose. “There were plenty of people telling me what not to do,” he recalled. “I had to try to support the Queen as best I could without getting in the way. The difficulty was to find things that might be useful.”
He determined to act as Elizabeth’s “eyes and ears”, getting around the country, visiting factories and coal mines, broadening her experience by proxy and keeping her informed about public opinion. But at every turn, there seemed to be an attempt to undermine him. He felt deeply wounded by a decision that the family name of Windsor should be retained and his children would therefore not bear his surname.
They were obliged to move from Clarence House to Buckingham Palace, where he found he was no longer master of his own house. His modernising instincts did not go down well with some of the starchier courtiers - though a veteran of three reigns later admitted that the questions Philip asked were “exactly those which lots of us had wanted to ask for years.” Edward Ford, a young courtier, thought his arrival was “like a breath of fresh air.”
Philip broke new ground by carrying his own luggage and refusing to ring a bell to order food. When electric frying pans came onto the market, he took to cooking his own eggs and bacon in their private dining room – until Elizabeth complained that the smell lingered until lunchtime. |||||Summary:
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– Prince Philip was making jokes at a public appearance after his upcoming retirement was announced Thursday. During an event at St. James's Palace, when a guest told the Duke of Edinburgh he was sorry to hear he would be standing down, the 95-year-old replied, "I can't stand up much," Reuters reports. Philip's off-the-cuff quips and remarks—often seen as gaffes—have been the subject of much media attention in the wake of the announcement. That, and other coverage: The BBC has a timeline of some of Philip's biggest gaffes. In 1986, for example, he told a group of British students visiting China, "If you stay here much longer you'll all be slitty-eyed." The Guardian has its own list of Philip's "clangers," including the time he asked an indigenous Australian entrepreneur, "Do you still throw spears at each other? But Philip was also known for being humorous—the Telegraph calls him "by far the funniest" royal, and takes a look at Philip in his own words via nuggets from a book about him. The Telegraph also looks back at how Philip wooed Queen Elizabeth. One adorable detail? During their courtship, Elizabeth often listened to "People Will Say We're in Love" from the musical Oklahoma! Speaking of the queen, the Times of London says that many have long wondered how she'll fare without him by her side at royal engagements. Its take on the matter here. One UK politician is being criticized for using Philip's resignation to promote a campaign about pension inequality. The Independent has the story. Brits are responding with quips of their own; one Twitter user joked that the queen "trolled the entire world" by calling an emergency meeting of the royal household staff, making the situation seem more dire than it turned out to be. The Washington Post has a roundup of reactions. One Brit, though, is calling for an end to the monarchy. Despite his often xenophobic gaffes, "this man has continued to be allowed to at least partly represent Britain for more than 50 years. If there were ever a moment to question our own complacency as a nation, this is it," writes Sirena Bergman in the Independent.
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Around 400,000 years older than previous discovery of homo lineage, 2.8m-year-old jaw and five teeth was found on rocky slope in Afar region
A lower jaw bone and five teeth discovered on a hillside in Ethiopia are the oldest remains ever found that belong to the genus Homo, the lineage that ultimately led to modern humans.
Fossil hunters spotted the jaw poking out of a rocky slope in the dry and dusty Afar region of the country about 250 miles from Addis Ababa.
The US-led research team believes the individual lived about 2.8m years ago, when the now parched landscape was open grassland and shrubs nourished by tree-lined rivers and wetlands.
The remains are about 400,000 years older than fossils which had previously held the record as the earliest known specimens on the Homo lineage.
The discovery sheds light on a profoundly important but poorly understood period in human evolution that played out between two and three million years ago, when humans began the crucial transformation from ape-like animals into forms that used tools and eventually began to resemble modern humans.
“This is the the first inkling we have of that transition to modern behaviour. We were no longer solving problems with our bodies but with our brains,” said Brian Villmoare at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.
The new fossil, found at a site called Ledi-Geraru, has a handful of primitive features in common with an ancient forerunner of modern humans called Australopithecus afarensis. The most well-known specimen, the 3m-year-old Lucy, was unearthed in 1974 in Hadar, only 40 miles from the Ledi-Geraru site. But the latest fossil has more modern traits too. Some are seen only on the Homo lineage, such as a shallower chin bone.
The picture that emerges from the fossil record is that 3m years ago, the ape-like Australopithecus afarensis died out and was superseded by two very different human forms. One, called Paranthropus, had a small brain, large teeth and strong jaw muscles for chewing its food. The other was the Homo lineage, which found itself with much larger brains, a solution that turned out to be more successful.
“By finding this jaw bone we’ve figured out where that trajectory started,” said Villamoare. “This is the first Homo. It marks in all likelihood a major adaptive transition.”
What drove Australopithecus to extinction and led to the rise of Homo is a mystery, but researchers suspect a dramatic change in the environment transformed the landscape of eastern Africa. “It could be that there was some sort of ecological shift and humans had to evolve or go extinct,” said Villmoare.
Other fossils recovered nearby the new human remains suggest that the region was much wetter than Hadar where Lucy was found. Remnants of antelopes, prehistoric elephants, primitive hippos, crocodiles and fish were all recovered from the Ledi-Geraru site, researchers said. Details of the discoveries are reported in two papers published in Science.
The human jaw was discovered in January 2013 by Chalachew Seyoum, an Ethiopian national on the team, and a student at Arizona State University. He was part of a group that had set off from camp that morning to look for fossils on a hill that was later found to be brimming with ancient bones.
Villamoare, who was on the expedition, recalled the moment of discovery. “I heard people yelling Brian! Brian! And I went round the corner and there was Chalachew. He recognised it, and said: ‘We’ve got a human.’ It had eroded out of the stratigraphy. It was in two pieces and was missing some of the teeth, but it was clearly of the genus Homo.”
The fossil bones are too fragmentary to give them a human species name. The jawbone could belong to Homo habilis, known as “handy man”, the earliest known species on the Homo lineage. But Villamoare is not convinced. It could be a new species that lived before Homo habilis.
Other researchers agree. In a separate paper published in Nature, Fred Spoor at University College, London, reports a virtual reconstruction of a Homo habilis skull. “By digitally exploring what Homo habilis really looked like, we could infer the nature of its ancestor, but no such fossils were known,” said Spoor. “Now the Ledi-Geraru jaw has turned up as if on request, suggesting a plausible evolutionary link between Australopithecus afarensis and Homo habilis.”
But until more remains are found, the mystery will remain. The US-led team has been back to the site this January to look for more fossils, but Villamoare said he cannot yet talk about what they did or did not find.
||||| NEW YORK (AP) — A fragment of jawbone found in Ethiopia is the oldest known fossil from an evolutionary tree branch that eventually led to modern humans, scientist reported Wednesday.
This 2013 photo provided by ASU graduate student Chalachew Seyoum shows him holding a 2.8 million years old jawbone fragment he found at an archaeological dig in Ethiopia. The site is not far from where... (Associated Press)
This image provided by William Kimbel shows different views of the LD 350-1 mandible. The scale bars indicate 1 cm. The jawbone fragment is the oldest known fossil from an evolutionary tree branch that... (Associated Press)
This 2013 photo provided by Kaye Reed shows the LD 350-1 mandible just steps from where it was sighted in Ethiopia by Chalachew Seyoum, an ASU graduate student. The jawbone fragment is the oldest known... (Associated Press)
The fossil comes from very close to the time that our branch split away from more ape-like ancestors best known for the fossil skeleton Lucy. So it gives a rare glimpse of what very early members of our branch looked like.
At about 2.8 million years old, the partial jawbone pushes back the fossil record by at least 400,000 years for our branch, which scientists call Homo.
It was found two years ago at a site not far from where Lucy was unearthed. Africa is a hotbed for human ancestor fossils, and scientists from Arizona State University have worked for years at the site in northeast Ethiopia, trying to find fossils from the dimly understood period when the Homo genus, or group, arose.
Our species, called Homo sapiens, is the only surviving member of this group.
The jaw fragment, which includes five teeth, was discovered in pieces one morning by Chalachew Seyoum, an Ethiopian graduate student at Arizona State. He said he spotted a tooth poking out of the ground while looking for fossils.
The discovery is described in a paper released Wednesday by the journal Science.
Arizona State's William Kimbel, an author of the paper, said it's not clear whether the fossil came from a known early species of Homo or whether it reveals a new one. Field work is continuing to look for more fossils at the site, said another author, Brian Villmoare of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Analysis indicates the jaw fossil came from one of the earliest populations of Homo, and its age helps narrow the range of possibilities for when the first Homo species appeared, Kimbel said. The fossil dates to as little as 200,000 years after the last known fossil from Lucy's species.
The fossil is from the left lower jaw of an adult. It combines ancestral features, like a primitive chin shape, with some traits found in later Homo fossils, like teeth that are slimmer than the bulbous molars of Lucy's ilk.
Despite that mix, experts not involved in the paper said the researchers make a convincing case that the fossil belongs in the Homo category.
And they present good evidence that it came from a creature that was either at the origin of Homo or "within shouting distance," said Bernard Wood of George Washington University.
The find also bolsters the argument that Homo arose from Lucy's species rather than a related one, said Susan Anton of New York University.
The new paper's analysis is first-rate, but the fossil could reveal only a limited amount of information about the creature, said Eric Delson of Lehman College in New York.
"There's no head, there's no tools, and no limb bones. So we don't know if it was walking any differently from Australopithecus afarensis," which was Lucy's species, he said.
It's the first time that anything other than isolated teeth have turned up as a possible trace of Homo from before 2.3 million years ago, he said.
"This fills a gap, but it hasn't yet given us a complete skeleton. It's not Lucy," Delson said. "This is always the problem. We always want more."
Also on Wednesday, another research team reported in a paper released by the journal Nature that the lower part of the face of Homo habilis, the earliest known member of the Homo branch, was surprisingly primitive. That came from reconstruction of a broken jaw that was found 50 years ago.
The finding means the evolutionary step from the Ethiopian jaw to the jaw of Homo habilis is "not so large," said an author of the Nature study, Fred Spoor of University College London and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
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Online:
Science: www.sciencemag.org
Nature: www.nature.com/nature
___
Malcolm Ritter can be followed at www.twitter.com/malcolmritter ||||| Image copyright Brian Villmoare Image caption The fossil's teeth are smaller than those of other human relatives
Scientists have unearthed the jawbone of what they claim is one of the very first humans.
The 2.8 million-year-old specimen is 400,000 years older than researchers thought that our kind first emerged.
The discovery in Ethiopia suggests climate change spurred the transition from tree dweller to upright walker.
The head of the research team told BBC News that the find gives the first insight into "the most important transitions in human evolution".
This is the most important transition in human evolution Prof Brian Villmoare, University of Nevada
Prof Brian Villmoare of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas said the discovery makes a clear link between an iconic 3.2 million-year-old hominin (human-like primate) discovered in the same area in 1974, called "Lucy".
Could Lucy's kind - which belonged to the species Australopithecus afarensis - have evolved into the very first primitive humans?
"That's what we are arguing," said Prof Villmoare.
But the fossil record between the time period when Lucy and her kin were alive and the emergence of Homo erectus (with its relatively large brain and humanlike body proportions) two million years ago is sparse.
The 2.8 million-year-old lower jawbone was found in the Ledi-Geraru research area, Afar Regional State, by Ethiopian student Chalachew Seyoum. He told BBC News that he was "stunned" when he saw the fossil.
"The moment I found it, I realised that it was important, as this is the time period represented by few (human) fossils in Eastern Africa."
The fossil is of the left side of the lower jaw, along with five teeth. The back molar teeth are smaller than those of other hominins living in the area and are one of the features that distinguish humans from more primitive ancestors, according to Professor William Kimbel, director of Arizona State University's Institute of Human Origins.
These new studies challenge us to consider the very definition of what it is to be human Prof Chris Stringer, Natural History Museum, London
"Previously, the oldest fossil attributed to the genus Homo was an upper jaw from Hadar, Ethiopia, dated to 2.35m years ago," he told BBC News.
"So this new discovery pushes the human line back by 400,000 years or so, very close to its likely (pre-human) ancestor. Its mix of primitive and advanced features makes the Ledi jaw a good transitional form between (Lucy) and later humans."
A computer reconstruction of a skull belonging to the species Homo habilis, which has been published in Nature journal, indicates that it may well have been the evolutionary descendant of the species announced today.
The researcher involved, Prof Fred Spoor of University College London told BBC News that, taken together, the new findings had lifted a veil on a key period in the evolution of our species.
"By discovering a new fossil and re-analysing an old one we have truly contributed to our knowledge of our own evolutionary period, stretching over a million years that had been shrouded in mystery," he said.
Climate change
The dating of the jawbone might help answer one of the key questions in human evolution. What caused some primitive ancestors to climb down from the trees and make their homes on the ground.
A separate study in Science hints that a change in climate might have been a factor. An analysis of the fossilised plant and animal life in the area suggests that what had once been lush forest had become dry grassland.
As the trees made way for vast plains, ancient human-like primates found a way of exploiting the new environmental niche, developing bigger brains and becoming less reliant on having big jaws and teeth by using tools.
Prof Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London described the discovery as a "big story".
He says the new species clearly does show the earliest step toward human characteristics, but suggests that half a jawbone is not enough to tell just how human it was and does not provide enough evidence to suggest that it was this line that led to us.
Image copyright J Ramón Arrowsmith Image caption The jawbone was found close to the area where Lucy was discovered
He notes that the emergence of human-like characteristics was not unique to Ethiopia.
"The human-like features shown by Australopithecus sediba in South Africa at around 1.95 million years ago are likely to have developed independently of the processes which produced (humans) in East Africa, showing that parallel origins are a distinct possibility," Prof Stringer explained.
This would suggest several different species of humans co-existing in Africa around two million years ago with only one of them surviving and eventually evolving into our species, Homo sapiens. It is as if nature was experimenting with different versions of the same evolutionary configuration until one succeeded.
Prof Stringer added: "These new studies leave us with an even more complex picture of early humans than we thought, and they challenge us to consider the very definition of what it is to be human. Are we defined by our small teeth and jaws, our large brain, our long legs, tool-making, or some combination of these traits?"
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What is a shorter version of the above article?
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– It's just a small piece of a jawbone with five teeth, but its discovery in Ethiopia is changing the timeline of human origins. Researchers say the bone is from an individual who lived 2.8 million years ago and belonged to the genus Homo, the lineage from which modern humans emerged. In fact, this is the earliest known member of the group ever found—by about 400,000 years, reports AP. A student from Arizona State University found the fossil in 2013 in the same general area where one of the most famous fossils in history was discovered, that of "Lucy," an ape-like ancestor that lived about 3 million years ago. The newly discovered fossil might be the link between Lucy, or Australopithecus afarensis, and the first primitive humans, reports the BBC. "That's what we are arguing," says Brian Villmoare of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. "By finding this jaw bone we’ve figured out where that trajectory started. This is the first Homo. It marks in all likelihood a major adaptive transition.” It's not clear yet whether the fossil belongs to a species of Homo previously known, such as Homo habilis, or is an entirely new one, reports the Guardian. An expert from George Washington University not involved with the find says it seems safe to conclude that the creature was either at the start of the Homo line or "within shouting distance." (Elsewhere, archaeologists found a long-lost city under the Honduran jungle.)
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Image copyright Court exhibit Image caption Dellen Millard at his father's firm MillardAir
A former Canadian millionaire and twice-convicted murderer has been convicted of killing his father, whose death was initially ruled a suicide.
Dellen Millard wept when he heard the judge pronounce him guilty of murdering his father Wayne Millard.
Millard is already serving two life sentences for the murders of Laura Babcock and Tim Bosma.
He inherited the family fortune after his father was found shot in the head.
The 2012 death was originally ruled a suicide, but on Monday an Ontario Superior Court judge found him guilty of shooting his father while he slept.
Millard had told police his father had been depressed and an alcoholic.
"He carried some great sadness with him throughout life that I never knew - he never wanted to share that with me," he said the day after his father died.
But employees at MillardAir, the family's aviation company, said there had been tensions between Millard and his father, according to a CBC investigation.
Six months later, the disappearance of Tim Bosma set off a chain of investigations that would eventually lead to Millard being charged with three murders.
'It was just a truck'
The 32-year-old was trying to sell his vehicle when Millard responded to an ad online. Millard and his friend Mark Smich met Bosma at his family home outside Hamilton, Ontario.
Bosma agreed to go with the pair while they took it for a test drive in May 2013. He was never seen again.
"It was just a truck, a stupid truck," Bosma's wife said, before Smich and Millard's arrest.
Bosma's truck was eventually found by police on a property owned by Millard's mother, and soon he and Smich became prime suspects in his murder. The truck had been stripped, but gunshot residue and traces of his blood were found inside.
Police also began digging around into Millard's past, his father's death, and the disappearance of his former partner Laura Babcock the year before.
The first killing
Three months before his father's death, Babcock had gone missing.
Eventually, police would learn that she had been involved in a love triangle between Millard and his current girlfriend, and that Millard had promised to "remove her from our lives".
Her body was never found, but soon after her disappearance Millard purchased an incinerator. Police have never been able to identify Babcock's and Bosma's remains, but believe both were shot and their bodies burned.
Millard and Smich were found guilty of Bosma's murder in 2016; they were also found guilty of murdering Babcock in 2017.
Father and son
Police then began to re-examine Wayne Millard's apparent suicide following the convictions,
Prosecutors alleged Millard wanted to kill his father to protect his inheritance, which was being used to fund a new aviation business.
Millard said he was at Smich's house the night of his father's death, but phone records reveal he travelled back to his father's house in the early hours of the morning.
A gun purchased by Millard illegally was also found next to his father with Millard's DNA on it.
Smich was not charged in the death of Millard's father. ||||| A Toronto man who stood to inherit a multimillion-dollar aviation company was found guilty of first-degree murder in his father’s death Monday, a ruling that marked his third such conviction.
Applause broke out as a judge declared Dellen Millard had carried out a planned and deliberate killing of his father, whose death was initially ruled a suicide.
Wayne Millard, a wealthy 71-year-old businessman, was found dead in his bed with a bullet lodged in his brain on Nov. 29, 2012. His son had pleaded not guilty in the death but the judge hearing the case found otherwise.
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“I am satisfied that Dellen Millard killed his father by shooting him in the left eye as he slept,” said Justice Maureen Forestell. “I can find no theory consistent with innocence.”
Millard, 33, cried softly as the decision was read out to a packed courtroom.
Among those who had gathered for the ruling in the judge-alone trial were the parents of Millard’s two other victims, Toronto woman Laura Babcock and Hamilton man Tim Bosma. Babcock’s father said all three families would be forever linked as a result of Millard’s crimes.
“It’s been proven that not only has the Bosmas and ourselves have lost a loved one, the Millard family must live with the fact this heinous individual murdered his own father,” Clayton Babcock said outside court. “There’ll be not a day in our lives when the loss of Laura, Tim or Wayne won’t be felt.”
Crown attorney Ken Lockhart said he was grateful for the outcome of the case.
“I hope that the process has brought (the families) some kind of closure,” he said.
Wayne Millard’s death was Dellen Millard’s second murder.
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He had killed Babcock, a 24-year-old woman he had been seeing, months earlier in July 2012. Six months after his father’s death, Millard killed Bosma after taking the 32-year-old man’s truck for a test drive.
Millard’s friend, Mark Smich, was also convicted of first-degree murder for the Babcock and Bosma slayings. The pair are serving life in prison with no chance for parole for 50 years for those murders.
Police reopened the case of Wayne Millard’s death after arresting the younger Millard for Bosma’s killing.
The latest trial unfolded in June without a jury. The Attorney General granted a defence request for a judge-alone proceeding after agreeing that Millard’s notoriety, given the Bosma and Babcock murders, would make it impossible to find fair jurors.
Prosecutors alleged Millard killed his father because millions in potential inheritance money was being squandered on a new aviation business.
Forestell rejected significant parts of the Crown’s case, including the motive for money, saying it played no role in her decision. Instead, she found the case turned on a lie Millard told investigators after his father’s death.
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The trial heard Millard told police he found his father dead in bed around 6 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2012. He said he last saw his father alive around noon the day before and had then stayed the night at Smich’s house. But phone records indicated that one of Millard’s phones moved from Smich’s house around 1 a.m. on Nov. 29, 2012, to his father’s home where it stayed until shortly after 6 a.m.
“I do not believe the statement of Dellen Millard that he stayed at Mark’s,” Forestell said. “I find it was fabricated to conceal he was involved in the death of his father.”
Forestell also said Millard created a false alibi after leaving his truck, credit card and his other phone at Smich’s house.
The trial also heard that Dellen Millard, who did not testify in his own defence, bought a handgun found next to his father’s body from a weapons dealer – evidence Forestell accepted. Dellen Millard’s DNA was on the gun.
The defence argued Wayne Millard’s death was a suicide.
Dellen Millard told police his father was depressed, an alcoholic and under a tremendous amount of stress because of his efforts to turn around the family’s aviation business, court heard.
“He carried some great sadness with him throughout life that I never knew – he never wanted to share that with me,” Dellen Millard told police in an interview played in court.
Wayne Millard had inherited the family aviation business, Millardair, from his father, Carl Millard, in 2006. It had been launched as a cargo carrier in 1963 and later flew passengers before going bankrupt in 1990, court heard.
The company then rented out aircraft hangars at Toronto’s Pearson airport until 2010, when Wayne Millard moved into the maintenance, repair and overhaul business and built a massive, multi-million dollar hangar at the Region of Waterloo International Airport by 2012.
The trial heard that Dellen Millard blamed his father for the company’s financial issues.
“The last time I spoke to him, I told him the company’s financial troubles were his doing and that he was a failure,” Millard wrote in a text to his girlfriend that was presented in court. “Usually he tells me not to worry. But this time he said maybe I was right.”
Days after his father’s death, Dellen Millard fired everyone at Millardair and wound the business down, court heard.
A sentencing hearing for Millard is scheduled for Nov. 16. The Crown said it will seek an additional 25 years of parole ineligibility for Millard in his father’s death. |||||Summary:
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– A Toronto man has been found guilty in the 2012 murder of his father, a death that was originally ruled a suicide. Per the BBC, Dellen Millard told authorities his father, businessman Wayne Millard, suffered from alcoholism and depression as they investigated the death. After investigators concluded the gunshot wound that killed 71-year-old Millard was self-inflicted, the younger Millard was set to inherit millions from the family's aviation business. However, information provided to authorities by employees at MillardAir sparked a new investigation that would eventually change the suicide ruling to a homicide and lead to two more murder victims that police traced back to Dellen Millard. According to the Globe and Mail, investigators pinned Millard and a friend to the murder of Laura Babcock, a 24-year-old woman he'd been dating who was killed months before Wayne Millard. Unbelievably, Millard and the friend, Mark Smich, were soon also connected to the murder of 32-year-old Tim Bosma, which occurred months after the elder Millard was found dead. Millard and Smich were both convicted in the murders of Babcock and Bosma. They were already serving their time when Millard was found guilty in his father's death. Millard is due to be sentenced in this latest case Nov. 16.
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One of the new features in iOS 9 is the ability to train Siri to only recognize your voice so your phone doesn’t respond to commands from just anybody. According to a report from Wired, though, a pair of researchers at ANSSI—a French government agency—have figured out a way to use radio waves to silently activate Siri or Android’s Google Now from across the room.
The hack only works if the target device has Siri or Google Now enabled, and has headphones or earbuds plugged in that also have a microphone. Wired explains, “Their clever hack uses those headphones’ cord as an antenna, exploiting its wire to convert surreptitious electromagnetic waves into electrical signals that appear to the phone’s operating system to be audio coming from the user’s microphone.”
In theory, the attack could be used to anything you can do using the Siri or Google Now voice interaction. The attacker could make calls, send text messages, open malicious websites, send spam or phishing emails, or post to social networks like Facebook and Twitter. By placing an outbound call to the attacker’s own phone the hack could be used to surreptitiously eavesdrop on the victim.
That’s the doomsday scenario version. Now, let’s scale it back and look at how plausible it is for an attack like this to actually work. Most of the time that you have headphones plugged in to your smartphone you’re also listening to them. When Siri or Google Now are activated—even if initiated silently over the airwaves—they typically make some sort of noise indicating that they’re ready to listen to your voice command, and they respond verbally by default so if you’re wearing the headphones you should immediately realize something suspicious is going on.
Even if you’re not actively wearing the headphones—maybe your headphones are plugged in but the smartphone and headphones are just sitting on a table in front of you—it would be challenging to activate the virtual assistant without alerting you. The display generally comes to life and displays your request along with the response from Siri or Google now. If you’re sitting there, minding your own business, and your smartphone suddenly springs to life you’d probably notice.
Assuming your smartphone has the headphones plugged in, but you’re not wearing the headphones to hear the voice interaction, and the smartphone is lying face down so you can’t see the interaction on the display it is theoretically possible, but still highly unlikely. The attack requires unique hardware and only has a range of between six and sixteen feet according to the researchers—depending on the size and power of the radio and antenna.
"Additional functionality, especially concerning user convenience, has often come at the cost of some security,” stressed Gavin Reid, VP of threat intelligence for Lancope. “In this case the hack needs proximity to work and is a proof of concept needing specialized hardware. High security government equipment and installations have often come with additional shielding specifically to limit emanations and any covert channels.”
It’s conceivable that an attacker could position the radio in a Starbucks or similar public location and generate commands to all of the devices within range and direct them to call a specific phone number that generates cash for the attacker. The odds of that happening are relatively low, though. As Reid explains, “This attack is less likely to be leveraged by the criminal underground especially with other methods much easier to implement". ||||| Siri may be your personal assistant. But your voice is not the only one she listens to. As a group of French researchers have discovered, Siri also helpfully obeys the orders of any hacker who talks to her—even, in some cases, one who’s silently transmitting those commands via radio from as far as 16 feet away.
A pair of researchers at ANSSI, a French government agency devoted to information security, have shown that they can use radio waves to silently trigger voice commands on any Android phone or iPhone that has Google Now or Siri enabled, if it also has a pair of headphones with a microphone plugged into its jack. Their clever hack uses those headphones’ cord as an antenna, exploiting its wire to convert surreptitious electromagnetic waves into electrical signals that appear to the phone’s operating system to be audio coming from the user’s microphone. Without speaking a word, a hacker could use that radio attack to tell Siri or Google Now to make calls and send texts, dial the hacker’s number to turn the phone into an eavesdropping device, send the phone’s browser to a malware site, or send spam and phishing messages via email, Facebook, or Twitter.
‘The sky is the limit here. Everything you can do through the voice interface you can do remotely and discreetly through electromagnetic waves.’
“The possibility of inducing parasitic signals on the audio front-end of voice-command-capable devices could raise critical security impacts,” the two French researchers, José Lopes Esteves and Chaouki Kasmi, write in a paper published by the IEEE. Or as Vincent Strubel, the director of their research group at ANSSI puts it more simply, “The sky is the limit here. Everything you can do through the voice interface you can do remotely and discreetly through electromagnetic waves.”
The researchers’ work, which was first presented at the Hack in Paris conference over the summer but received little notice outside of a few French websites, uses a relatively simple collection of equipment: It generates its electromagnetic waves with a laptop running the open-source software GNU Radio, a USRP software-defined radio, an amplifier, and an antenna. In its smallest form, which the researchers say could fit inside a backpack, their setup has a range of around six and a half feet. In a more powerful form that requires larger batteries and could only practically fit inside a car or van, the researchers say they could extend the attack’s range to more than 16 feet.
Here’s a video showing the attack in action: In the demo, the researchers commandeer Google Now via radio on an Android smartphone and force the phone’s browser to visit the ANSSI website. (That experiment was performed inside a radio-wave-blocking Faraday cage, the researchers say, to abide by French regulations that forbid broadcasting certain electromagnetic frequencies. But Kasmi and Esteves say that the Faraday cage wasn’t necessary for the attack to work.)
Your browser does not support HTML5 video.
The researchers’ silent voice command hack has some serious limitations: It only works on phones that have microphone-enabled headphones or earbuds plugged into them. Many Android phones don’t have Google Now enabled from their lockscreen, or have it set to only respond to commands when it recognizes the user’s voice. iPhones have Siri enabled from the lockscreen by default, but the the new version of Siri for the iPhone 6s verifies the owner’s voice just as Google Now does.1 Another limitation is that attentive victims would likely be able to see that the phone was receiving mysterious voice commands and cancel them before their mischief was complete.
Then again, the researchers contend that a hacker could hide the radio device inside a backpack in a crowded area and use it to transmit voice commands to all the surrounding phones, many of which might be vulnerable and hidden in victims’ pockets or purses. “You could imagine a bar or an airport where there are lots of people,” says Strubel. “Sending out some electromagnetic waves could cause a lot of smartphones to call a paid number and generate cash.”
Although the latest version of iOS now has a hands-free feature that allows iPhone owners to send voice commands merely by saying “Hey Siri,” Kasmi and Esteves say that their attack works on older versions of the operating system, too. iPhone headphones have long had a button on their cord that allows the user to enable Siri with a long press. By reverse engineering and spoofing the electrical signal of that button press, their radio attack can trigger Siri from the lockscreen without any interaction from the user. “It’s not mandatory to have an always-on voice interface,” says Kasmi. “It doesn’t make the phone more vulnerable, it just makes the attack less complex.”
Of course, security conscious smartphone users probably already know that leaving Siri or Google Now enabled on their phone’s login screen represents a security risk. At least in Apple’s case, anyone who gets hands-on access to the device has long been able to use those voice command features to squeeze sensitive information out of the phone—from contacts to recent calls—or even hijack social media accounts. But the radio attack extends the range and stealth of that intrusion, making it all the more important for users to disable the voice command functions from their lock screen.
The ANSSI researchers say they’ve contacted Apple and Google about their work and recommended other fixes, too: They advise that better shielding on headphone cords would force attackers to use a higher-power radio signal, for instance, or an electromagnetic sensor in the phone could block the attack. But they note that their attack could also be prevented in software, too, by letting users create their own custom “wake” words that launch Siri or Google Now, or by using voice recognition to block out strangers’ commands. Neither Google nor Apple has yet responded to WIRED’s inquiry about the ANSSI research.
Without the security features Kasmi and Esteves recommend, any smartphone’s voice features could represent a security liability—whether from an attacker with the phone in hand or one that’s hidden in the next room. “To use a phone’s keyboard you need to enter a PIN code. But the voice interface is listening all the time with no authentication,” says Strubel. “That’s the main issue here and the goal of this paper: to point out these failings in the security model.”
1Correction 10/15/2015 12:00pm EST: An earlier version of the story stated that Siri doesn’t have verification of the owner’s voice. In fact, that feature was introduced with the iPhone 6s. Apologies for the error. ||||| Page Not Found We're sorry. We cannot find a page that matches your request. Below are some suggestions that may assist: Return to the IEEE Xplore Home Page.
Use your browser's Back button to return to the previous page.
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– Using radio waves, hackers at the French government agency ANSSI say they've been able to silently trigger voice commands on any smartphone thanks to access via Google Now and Siri. Reporting in the journal IEEE, they say it's possible to operate the voice-activated command tools to do things like open malware sites, send texts or phishing emails, and even call specific phone numbers that generate cash for the hacker. But as "clever" as Wired reports this trick to be—the headphone cord is used as an antenna—it has several limitations, including that headphones with a microphone must be plugged into the jack; the hacker must be within 16 feet of the phone; and Google Now or Siri must be enabled. "Additional functionality, especially concerning user convenience, has often come at the cost of some security," Gavin Reid, VP of threat intelligence for Lancope, tells Forbes. "In this case the hack needs proximity to work and is a proof of concept needing specialized hardware." And while it's possible for people with this hardware to position themselves in crowded places such as airports and trigger some kind of attack on any qualifying phones within range, he adds that the odds are low. "This attack is less likely to be leveraged by the criminal underground, especially with other methods much easier to implement." Even so, Vincent Strubel at ANSSI says, "The sky is the limit here. Everything you can do through the voice interface you can do remotely and discreetly through electromagnetic waves." (Some 95% of Androids are open to a major hack.)
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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. ||||| Stand clear of the dead bodies.
“Leaking” corpses of people killed by subway trains are often brought to employee lunch rooms and other break areas inside stations, disgusted union officials and sources said Monday.
In an effort to restore service quickly, bodies are simply carted off to “whatever room happens to be nearest,” a union source told The Post.
“If a lunch room is the nearest, they’ll put it in the lunch room,” the source said.
And that’s enough to make transit workers lose their lunch.
LaShawn Jones, 52, who has been a station agent for 18 years, said she was coming into work at the 103rd Street 1 train station about five years ago — and made a quick stop in the employee bathroom when she saw some NYPD Emergency Service Unit officers handling a body inside.
“They weren’t aware that I was coming in and I wasn’t aware that they were in there,” Jones told The Post. “All I remember seeing was a black bag with purplish stuff.”
Jones returned to the bathroom on her lunch break — and though the body was gone, she saw some “hair and scalp and basically body parts in the sink,” she said.
Jones said she immediately went to her booth and called her supervisor. The mess was eventually cleaned up, “but the fact I had to experience that was disgusting,” she said.
“That can totally mess with your psyche, not just for that day but for the future as well,” Jones added. “I couldn’t go home. I was hysterical and I was crying, but by the time the supervisor got there, I calmed myself down.”
Others are so traumatized that they need to take time off, said Derick Echevarria, vice president of stations for Transport Workers Union Local 100.
“To see pieces of a body is traumatizing,” he said. “It stays with them to see something like that.”
Theresa Green, a station agent for 28 years who is a member of the TWU Local 100 union, told the Chief-Leader, which was the first to report the story, that dead bodies at subway stations have been handled this way for years and “nothing was ever done.”
“I saw this on April 7, 2008, when someone committed suicide in the Franklin Avenue C station in Brooklyn, and it still goes on because this is their procedure,” Green told the paper.
Union officials said it takes at least two hours for a corpse to leave the station.
“The police are forced [to] store the bodies in utility rooms and other subway rooms while waiting for Medical Examiner’s Office staff to arrive. It’s unacceptable that transit workers have to endure this on the job,” a TWU Local 100 spokesperson said in a statement. “Mayor de Blasio and his administration have failed to provide enough staffing for the Medical Examiner’s Office to quickly retrieve and remove bodies from the subway after these tragedies.”
An MTA source said bodies are temporarily kept in non-public areas by the NYPD while they wait for the medical examiner to show up.
In a statement, an MTA spokesperson said that “it’s of the utmost importance” that anyone who dies in the subway system is removed from the tracks and platforms as fast as possible “to restore service quickly and to give humane treatment to the deceased and their family.”
“The placement and removal of bodies are handled by NYPD and the NYC Medical Examiner, and we’re discussing with TWU officials how any of the current practices can be enhanced for the comfort of our workers,” the statement said.
A City Hall spokeswoman said in a statement that the ME’s office and the NYPD “are committed to reducing our response times even further to ensure both the humane treatment of the deceased and the health of subway workers and straphangers.”
Only members of the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit can remove dead bodies from a subway track or tunnel, according to a section of the department’s patrol guide provided to The Post. |||||
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– Ever wonder where the bodies of people hit by subway trains are brought to immediately after an accident? "Whatever room happens to be nearest" in New York City's subways, even if that room is an employee lunchroom, bathroom, or other break area, a transit union source tells the New York Post. MTA workers describe encountering gruesome scenes, including "leaking" corpses and hair, scalp pieces, and other "parts" left in bathroom sinks. Some workers say this has gone on for years, with union officials noting it can take up to two hours for a body to be handed off to the medical examiner's office. It's then up to station cleaning staff to clean up, a Transport Workers Union Local 100 station rep tells the New York Daily News. The MTA says workers are trained to handle "infectious waste," adding that cops are supposed to be stationed so MTA workers don't see remains. "People eat there, people drink water there, store their clothes there," the TWU rep tells the Daily News. "No body should be placed in these rooms." "It's unacceptable that transit workers have to endure this on the job," a TWU statement notes, per the Post, blaming Mayor Bill de Blasio for not providing adequate medical examiner staff to deal quickly with such situations, per the Post. A City Hall statement notes both cops and the medical examiner's office want to cut down on response times for "both the humane treatment of the deceased and the health of subway workers and straphangers." Meanwhile, the MTA issued its own statement saying rapid removal of bodies from public areas is of "utmost importance" and that it will be conversing with TWU officials to see how it can better provide for MTA workers' "comfort." (This probably doesn't make NYC's "summer of hell" any better.)
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A man whose vehicle carrying a rice cooker and propane tank triggered a scare on Capitol Hill Sunday afternoon called it a big misunderstanding.
Israel Shimeles of Alexandria, Virginia, told News4 he is a law-abiding citizen.
U.S. Capitol Police smelled gas coming from his vehicle parked near the U.S. Capitol and called in the bomb squad. They broke out the back window, removed the rice cooker and propane tank and disrupted them with explosives.
Shimeles said he understands they needed to protect the crowd gathering for the evening Memorial Day concert.
Pressure Cooker Found, Destroyed Near U.S. Capitol
A bomb squad safely destroyed a pressure cooker found in a "suspicious" vehicle left unattended Sunday afternoon on the National Mall near the U.S. Capitol building and the vehicle's owner was located and arrested, a U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman said. (Published Monday, May 25, 2015)
"Right in front of the Capitol, of course I would have done the same thing,” he said. “You know I would have freaked out and I would have done the same thing."
Shimeles said he operates a food truck. He needed space in it so he removed the rice cooker and a propane tank and put them in his car. They were in the car when he parked near the Capitol.
“I just happened to be there,” he said. “I should have thought about it a little bit more. You know, if I had to do it again, absolutely I would have been a little more careful."
Shimeles said he's sorry for delaying anyone trying to get to the Memorial Day concert.
He was cited for driving on a suspended license.
Authorities have noted that pressure cookers have been used in the past to create explosive devices. Three people were killed and more than 260 others wounded in April 2013 when two pressure-cooker bombs were set off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC4 Washington ||||| Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts apologized to the city's officers Tuesday night, saying he put them in harm's way during the Freddie Gray unrest last month.
The Baltimore Sun has obtained an audio recording of his comments, which he made during a meeting with members of the police union.
Batts said he failed to follow his intuition that problems were coming and officers got hurt as a result. He concluded his comments, which lasted about four minutes, by urging officers to stay focused on fighting crime.
"We had a 9-year-old kid shot yesterday by these knuckleheads, gangsters, thugs, whatever you want to call them," he said. "We have innocent people getting shot on the streets of Baltimore.
"People think we're down. People are giving up on us," Batts said. "I mean this with all my heart: We need to show how f-----g good we are. ... I stand ready to lead you out of this."
Batts addresses the FOP Audio (edited for language) from Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts' apology to the FOP for letting them down as crime in the city has spiked in recent weeks. (Baltimore Sun) Audio (edited for language) from Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts' apology to the FOP for letting them down as crime in the city has spiked in recent weeks. (Baltimore Sun) See more videos
Batts spoke four weeks after the city erupted in riots. On the day of Gray's funeral, people threw rocks at police and looted and burned businesses. Officials said more than 100 police officers were injured.
The riots ended after a day, but street violence in Baltimore has surged in the weeks since, with 41 people killed and dozens more shot and wounded.
During the same period, department figures show, officers have made less than half as many arrests as before the unrest. That has led to questions about whether they are easing up on the job.
Gene Ryan, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he invited Batts to speak to members. The union is conducting what Ryan has called an unprecedented review of the decision-making the day of the riots, including whether officers were properly equipped and the types of orders they were given.
Ryan said he believes many officers want the commissioner to be replaced, but he wants to complete the review.
"We'll make a decision which way we'll go then," Ryan said. He praised Batts for appearing and speaking at the meeting.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake also lauded Batts for appearing and for the "frank" comments he made.
"It's very clear the relationship between the commissioner and the rank-and-file is strained," she said. "The commissioner is working very hard to repair that relationship. I think it's essential for the department to continue to move forward that they have that ability to have those open dialogues, to get things off their chests, for the commissioner to say how he feels to the rank-and-file officers."
The mayor described the challenge confronting Batts.
"He has a dual role in the sense that he has to be the leader of the department in good times and challenging times and he also has an obligation to the community," she said. "It's often challenging to balance on that tight rope. I commend him for doing the outreach he's done in the community and also having frank and tough conversations with the FOP."
Batts told the officers that he took time during the holiday weekend to "look at myself and things that I wasn't understanding, nor was I hearing."
"I want to come here and tell you guys that I think I let you guys down," he said. "I say that with a humble heart, I say that with honesty, and I say it coming from my heart."
Batts said he "saw this stuff coming." He was apparently referring to the unrest.
"In my intuition, I didn't stay with it," he said. "People said, 'We haven't had a riot here in 40 years,' and my intuition told me I should've went another direction. And by not going another direction, my guys got hurt. By not going with my intuition, my guys got hurt. By not going with my intuition, I put you guys in a tough position."
Reached for comment Wednesday, Batts wrote in an email that he has tried to improve police training since coming to Baltimore in 2012, and the local demonstrations that followed the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Eric Garner in New York and others had given officers experience with crowd control.
But he wrote that he had yet to implement "mobile field force" training, which prepares departments to handle "aggressive crowds."
"It is true that officers have felt vulnerable, frustrated, hurt, and off-balance," Batts wrote. "It is imperative that officers feel they are appreciated, are assured that people care about them and the difference they make in our city every day. Central to my job as a leader is to ensure that our officers know this."
Batts told reporters last week he had experienced "seven or eight" riots in his police career. He started reaching out to other police agencies to secure extra resources in the days leading up to the first large-scale protest downtown.
"There were good things, there were bad things," he told reporters. "There are things we can grow and learn from."
Some have said officers were told to "stand down," and Ryan said that will be part of the union's review.
The officers "feel like they have no control. Everything was thrust upon them," Ryan said last week. "We want them to have a voice and feel like they have a little bit of control."
Batts told the officers Tuesday night that he understood their frustrations.
"You guys have been f----d so many different ways, excuse my language, whether it's through your retirement, whether through pay, whether through so many times you have been screwed around time and time again, and you believe I let you down again too and that I screwed you. I didn't try to screw you.
"From day one when I walked in, officers' safety has been job one for me. But I got my guys hurt and I've got to own that."
Baltimore Sun reporter Luke Broadwater contributed to this article.
[email protected] ||||| SAVANNAH, GA (May 26, 2015): Emergency communications officers at the Savannah-Chatham County 911 Center were surprised and a little bit gratified Friday when they received a hand-written, hand-delivered note from a sixth-grade student apologizing for a prank call.
In it, the youth apologized for the prank after he gave in to a dare from friends. His parents were not amused and ordered him to write the apology and then drove him to the 911 Center to read it aloud to the on-duty shift.
The 911 staff was impressed enough to accept his apology and to take him and his parents on a tour of the facility to turn the trip into a positive experience. His parents still have him on “lockdown” for the prank.
“I know this was stupid but I was not listening to myself, but I knew it was wrong,” he wrote, adding, “Please forgive me for what I said. I know there will be consequences … I will not complain about them.”
The visit gave 911 staff the opportunity to show them how they work, how prank calls interrupt that work, and how it puts the general public at risk by taking both dispatchers and first responders away from legitimate situations.
Lt. Jeff Olson was so impressed with the parenting skills that he called the parents to thank them. “Things like this prove that we do make a difference, one person at a time,” he said. |||||
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– A kid's sincere mea culpa and a newspaper's embarrassed one were among the public apologies making headlines this week: An apology done right: “I am writing an apology letter for what I did last night. ... I know there will be consequences, and I will not complain about them. I am sorry for what I did and I hope you can forgive me.”—Unnamed sixth-grader, in an apology note to police dispatchers in Georgia after making a crank 911 call about "deez nuts." Impressed police posted the letter under "Apology Accepted." A little too far: "The Daily Item apologizes for our failure to catch and remove the inappropriate paragraphs in the letter directed at President Obama. We will strive to do better in the future."—Editorial at the Pennsylvania newspaper, after printing a letter advocating the execution of Obama. Chief's regret: "I'm apologizing that we didn't have a chance to do enough training."—Anthony Batts, Baltimore police commissioner, in a message to the city's officers over the Freddie Gray unrest. Batts said he knew trouble was coming but didn't prepare officers properly. Unsportsmanlike: "I'm so sorry about my insensitive post earlier today. I didn't fully understand how many people are struggling in Houston right now and I feel horrible."—Colin Kaepernick, 49ers quarterback, in a tweet, after making light of the deadly Texas floods. Shaky judgment: "I apologize to inconvenience all those people."—Israel Shimeles of Alexandria, Va., after he caused a major scare ahead of a Memorial Day concert in DC by leaving a pressure cooker in his parked car.
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“I have almost always voted the party line,” said Gloria Bolender, a Republican from Clarence who is caring for her 80-year-old mother. “This is the second time in my life I’ve voted against my party.”
Pat Gillick, a Republican from East Amherst , who also cast a ballot for Ms. Hochul, said, “The privatization of Medicare scares me.”
The district, which stretches from Buffalo to Rochester , has been in Republican hands for four decades, producing influential figures like Representative Jack Kemp and siding with Carl P. Paladino , a Republican, over Andrew M. Cuomo in the governor’s race last year.
The campaign drew intense interest, with both major parties in Washington and their allies flooding the district with radio and television advertising. Total spending exceeded $6 million.
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Of course, there are limits to how much broader meaning can be extrapolated from a special election, which can be shaped by local dynamics and personalities.
Still, on Tuesday, Republicans were examining the results and debating how the party lost the seat, despite outspending the Democrats.
Some Republicans suggested that it would be oversimplifying to attribute the results to a single issue, saying that Ms. Corwin proved a less nimble and ultimately less appealing candidate than Ms. Hochul, who campaigned energetically and with great focus. When Medicare erupted in the race, Ms. Corwin, a wealthy former Wall Street analyst, was knocked off balance and struggled to respond.
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In the closing hours of the race, Ms. Corwin admitted as much, saying about her rival’s attacks: “When she started making these comments, I thought, ‘This is so outrageous no one would ever believe it.’ Apparently some people did.”
Others cited the presence of the third candidate, Mr. Davis, who ran on the Tea Party line after failing to win the Republican nomination. He not only drew conservative support away from Ms. Corwin, but also turned his aggressive attacks on her in the end, contributing to her high negative numbers.
On the other hand, Ms. Hochul maintained a positive image conveying a homespun quality, speaking with a Buffalo accent, connecting naturally with voters.
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In her victory speech Tuesday night, she noted that her mother and father, who have retired to Florida , were making phone calls to voters on her behalf for months.
“I was talking to voters as far away as Dansville, and they said, ‘You know, I was talking to your mother,’ ” she said. “And I know that you don’t say no to my mother.”
Party luminaries like former President Bill Clinton recorded phone calls for Ms. Hochul’s campaign, and on Tuesday evening Ms. Hochul was fielding congratulatory messages from Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and others.
As the clerk of Erie County, she oversees the automobile bureau, which issue driver’s licenses; Ms. Hochul gained prominence in 2008 when she challenged former Gov. Eliot Spitzer ’s plan to issue licenses to illegal immigrants.
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“I remember when she was in the auto bureau in Buffalo, she did a lot with the license plates,” said Jim Van Wagner, a Republican and former auto worker from Albion, adding, “She’s a good one.”
Still, given the makeup of the district, one of four in the state that John McCain carried in 2008, Republicans said they needed to understand if they had misread the public.
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“It’s a Republican district with a solid Republican candidate,” said Representative Peter T. King , a Republican from Long Island . “What went wrong? We definitely have to determine the extent to which the Medicare issue hurt us.”
Ms. Corwin, in her concession speech, said she had not enjoyed the national attention the race had drawn. But she also offered a strong defense of the need for the country to grapple with tough issues, suggesting the Democrats were simply playing crass politics.
“While the pundits and political strategists, many of whom don’t even live here, will talk about what we should or should not have done in this campaign, I just want everyone to know that I confronted the issues head on. That leadership isn’t about ducking from the issues, leadership isn’t about running away from what you believe in.”
She added: “My parents raised me to dig in my heels and fight for what you believe in, to take a stand and to work with others to accomplish great things.
The seat became vacant in February when Representative Christopher Lee , a Republican, abruptly resigned after he e-mailed a shirtless photo of himself to a woman and it was published on the Internet.
Top Republicans, including the House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio , and the majority leader, Eric Cantor of Virginia , traveled to the district to provide support to Ms. Corwin. At the same time, the national party and its allies, including the United States Chamber of Commerce and a group tied to the Republican strategist Karl Rove , jumped in, spending at least $1.1 million on radio and television ads supporting Ms. Corwin.
Democrats brought out their heavy hitters, including Representative Nancy Pelosi of California , the House Democratic leader, who sent out fund-raising solicitations casting the race as an opportunity for Democrats to win in the backyard of Republicans.
The race also marked the debut of House Majority PAC, a group recently established by Democratic strategists as a counterbalance to the slew of conservative organizations that helped Republicans make significant gains in the 2010 elections. House Majority PAC spent nearly $400,000 on advertising in the race. ||||| Democrat Kathy Hochul (HOH'-kuhl) says her win in a conservative upstate New York House district is because of voters who were willing to "look beyond party labels."
Republican candidate for the 26th District Congressional seat Jane Corwin votes in Clarence, N.Y., Tuesday, May 24, 2011. Corwin is running against Democrat Kathy Hochul and tea party candidate Jack... (Associated Press)
Republican candidate for the 26th District Congressional seat Jane Corwin votes in Clarence, N.Y., Tuesday, May 24, 2011. Corwin is running against Democrat Kathy Hochul and tea party candidate Jack... (Associated Press)
Republican candidate for the 26th District Congressional seat Jane Corwin, right, and her husband Phil leave the polling place after voting in Clarence, N.Y., Tuesday, May 24, 2011. Corwin is running... (Associated Press)
Democratic candidate for the 26th District Congressional seat, Kathy Hochul, left, talks with Kate Wagner, right, during a campaign stop at a restaurant in Amherst, N.Y., Tuesday, May 24, 2011. Hochul... (Associated Press)
Democratic candidate for the 26th District Congressional seat, Kathy Hochul, left, talks with Debra Norton, right, and her husband Morrie Newman, front, during a campaign stop at a restaurant in Amherst,... (Associated Press)
Republican candidate for the 26th District Congressional seat Jane Corwin talks with a reporter after voting in Clarence, N.Y., Tuesday, May 24, 2011. Corwin is running against Democrat Kathy Hochul and... (Associated Press)
Democratic candidate for the 26th District Congressional seat, Kathy Hochul arrives at a campaign stop at a restaurant in Amherst, N.Y., Tuesday, May 24, 2011. Hochul is running against Republican Jane... (Associated Press)
Democratic candidate for the 26th District Congressional seat, Kathy Hochul, right, greets a customer during a campaign stop at a restaurant in Amherst, N.Y., Tuesday, May 24, 2011. Hochul is running... (Associated Press)
Republican candidate for the 26th District Congressional seat Jane Corwin, left, hugs a supporter after voting in Clarence, N.Y., Tuesday, May 24, 2011. Corwin is running against Democrat Kathy Hochul... (Associated Press)
Democratic candidate for the 26th District Congressional seat, Kathy Hochul arrives at a campaign stop at a restaurant in Amherst, N.Y., Tuesday, May 24, 2011. Hochul is running against Republican Jane... (Associated Press)
Hochul scored an upset win in a special election Tuesday that had long been expected to be an easy victory for Republicans. But GOP candidate Jane Corwin lost her early lead after expressing support for a GOP budget plan that would cut billions from Medicare.
Scores of Hochul supporters, roaring with delight and chanting "Kathy, Kathy, Kathy," jammed into a UAW union hall in Amherst, a Buffalo suburb, for Hochul's victory speech.
The crowd chanted "Medicare, Medicare" and Hochul told them they had the right issues on their side.
Corwin told supporters she was proud she had confronted hard issues during the campaign.
With 89 percent of precincts reporting, Hochul led Corwin by 48-to-42 percent.
___
Fouhy reported from New York City. Associated Press Writer Ben Dobbin in Buffalo contributed to this report.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
Democrats picked off a heavily Republican upstate New York congressional seat Tuesday night in a special election that became a referendum on Medicare.
Erie County Clerk Kathy Hochul edged past Republican state Assemblywoman Jane Corwin to win the seat in the 26th Congressional District.
The rural-suburban district between Buffalo and Rochester is one of the state's most conservative. But Corwin saw her early lead dissolve after coming out in favor of a Republican budget plan that would cut billions from Medicare, the government health plan for seniors.
With 83 percent of precincts reporting, Hochul had 48 percent of the vote, compared with 42 percent for Corwin.
A chant of "Kathy, Kathy" went up at the Hochul headquarters at a suburban Amherst union hall.
A third candidate, tea party contender Jack Davis, also siphoned votes away from Corwin.
The seat became vacant in February when Republican Rep. Chris Lee resigned after shirtless photos he sent to a woman surfaced online.
The 26th Congressional District, which covers a swath of rural and suburban towns between Buffalo and Rochester, was one of only four districts in the state _ out of 29 _ that favored Republican John McCain over President Barack Obama in 2008.
But Corwin, a multimillionaire state assemblywoman, watched her lead evaporate after expressing support for a plan crafted by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to strip billions from Medicare and recast it as a voucher program. Corwin said she supported the Ryan plan as a way to ensure Medicare for future generations.
Hochul quickly seized on Corwin's position and cast herself as the protector of Medicare in a district with a large population of voters over 55. Her television ads hammered the issue even as Corwin tried to shift her position, suggesting she'd favor changing the Ryan plan if elected.
Davis further vexed Republicans in a district that has many tea party supporters. Local GOP leaders tried to make hay of an encounter between Davis and a videographer Davis appeared to shove after the videographer taunted him for refusing to appear in a debate with Hochul and Corwin. The GOP tried to use the video to paint Davis as a bully.
But it backfired when the videographer turned out to be Corwin's chief of staff.
The race drew attention and more than $2 million from both national parties and several independent groups. Ryan and New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie endorsed Corwin, while former President Bill Clinton recorded a phone call for Hochul and New York's popular Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo released an ad supporting her.
The married Lee, who had just started his second term, abruptly resigned after a gossip website published a shirtless cell phone photo he sent to a woman he'd been flirting with on Craigslist. |||||
What is a summary?
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– Democrat Kathy Hochul has scored an upset win in one of New York state's most conservative congressional districts. Republican Jane Corwin had been expected to easily win the special election in the state's 26th district but her support ebbed away after she expressed support for the GOP's plan to cut billions from Medicare, AP reports. The Medicare issue drew national attention to the race and many voters said they voted for Hochul because they trusted her to protect the program, the New York Times notes. "It’s a Republican district with a solid Republican candidate,” said Rep. Peter King, a Republican from Long Island. "What went wrong? We definitely have to determine the extent to which the Medicare issue hurt us." The special election was called to replace Chris Lee, who stepped down after he was caught cruising for women on Craigslist.
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– Iraq has launched what a military spokesman says is no less than a battle for the country's future: An operation to retake Mosul, once the country's second-largest city, from ISIS, which seized it more than two years ago, has begun. The US-led coalition is supporting Iraqi troops and Kurdish peshmerga forces in the operation. "The hour of victory has come, the operation to liberate Mosul has started," Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a televised address to the nation early Monday, the BBC reports. The offensive, many months in the planning, follows more than one false start and is expected to last weeks or even months. "This is the final battle. This is to be or not to be," a spokesman for Iraqi special forces says, per BuzzFeed. "The future of Iraq is at stake in Mosul. And we will be in the front." The Guardian reports that the operation will involve at least 35,000 troops, including American, British, and French special forces, who have been advising peshmerga forces and will play a key role in calling in airstrikes. ISIS—which has mined roads leading to Mosul and lit oil fires to slow Monday's offensive—is believed to have at least 6,000 fighters in the city. The UN fears that more than a million civilians could be forced to flee their homes during the operation, the AP reports.
Expand this summary.
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Iraq’s Golden Division Special Forces moving toward Erbil from Baghdad to get ready for the Mosul offensive, Oct. 11, 2016. Warzer Jaff for BuzzFeed News ID: 9797224
BAGHDAD — Soldiers cheered and honked the horns of their Humvees as their convoy rolled north on the highway out of Baghdad. One filmed the procession on his phone to mark the event: The Iraqi military was getting ready to return to Mosul. “I’m higher than the palm trees,” another soldier said.
The Iraqi military surrendered Mosul to ISIS in June 2014, leaving behind its US-supplied weapons and setting the stage for the declaration of ISIS’s caliphate. Now the same Iraqi military, reinforced with more than two years of US training and aid, is beginning a massive offensive to win the city back. Kurdish forces will soon initiate attacks on outlying villages as part of the offensive — and Iraqi troops, who will be the primary force in the offensive, will follow suit.
Prime Minister Haber Haider al-Abadi took to Iraqi television in the early hours of Monday morning to announce the long-awaited operation’s beginning. “The time of victory has come and operations to liberate Mosul have started,” he said. “Today I declare the start of these victorious operations to free you from the violence and terrorism of [ISIS].”
The stakes for all sides are high. For ISIS, Mosul is the most populous and important city it holds. ISIS was the first modern terrorist group to control its own state — and losing Mosul would set the stage for that state’s demise. For the Iraqi government, retaking Mosul is crucial to rebuilding the country. And the Mosul offensive will be the capstone of a long and expensive US effort against ISIS that has seen it arm and train local forces, launch thousands of airstrikes, and send US troops to the front lines.
The offensive is also critical for an Iraqi military still trying to bounce back from 2014’s historic collapse — and the fate of the battle will rest with its soldiers. The start of the offensive raises a pressing question: Can the same military that lost Mosul to ISIS win it back?
Iraqi and US military planners will lead with their best shot. The troops in the convoy were members of Iraq’s elite special forces units, which have been the most effective forces in battling the militants in their Sunni Arab strongholds. Known as the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) — as well as Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces, Iraqi Special Operations Forces, or simply the Golden Division — they were founded by the US military after its invasion of Iraq in 2003. The CTS went on to become a key US partner during the occupation, helping to fight ISIS’s predecessor, al-Qaeda in Iraq, as well as Shiite militia. Many of its members were trained by US troops and are quick to recount fighting alongside them.
In the war on ISIS, the CTS has led the way with key victories across the country. Its reward will be an exhaustive deployment in the largest battle against ISIS to date. “This is the final battle. This is to be or not to be,” said Sabah Noori, a spokesman for Iraqi special forces in Baghdad. “The future of Iraq is at stake in Mosul. And we will be in the front.”
The convoy’s drive north from Baghdad this week, to a makeshift base some 30 miles outside Mosul, stretched for 300 miles through war-scorched terrain. Towns and villages along the roadside had been reduced to rubble by the grueling campaign to roll back ISIS, and many still stood empty many months after being reclaimed. Toppled electric towers, destroyed homes, and car frames twisted from airstrikes were all common sights.
Humvees in the long convoy bore signs of the long struggle too — almost all had indents from gunshots in their bulletproof glass. Gas tankers, armed personnel carriers, supply trucks, and transport buses, painted in the CTS’s trademark black, filled out the procession.
The vehicles arrived throughout the night in an abandoned village, and the troops scrambled to arrange their makeshift base. “One day I will be proud that I participated in the start of this offensive,” said one of the CTS’s top commanders, Maj. Salam Hussein, standing on a rooftop and looking out toward Mosul. “Right now we have a job to do.”
Iraq’s Golden Division Special Forces settle in a village outside Erbil in preparation for the Mosul offensive, Oct. 13, 2016. Warzer Jaff for BuzzFeed News ID: 9797269
When the battle for Mosul begins, US fighter pilots will be flying over a uniquely modern field of war. On one side will be ISIS’s multinational militant army, with its squadrons of suicide bombers and fleets of armor-plated truck bombs. On the other, the Iraqi army, Kurdish peshmerga, and Sunni Arab tribesmen will be advancing with small groups of US commandos among their ranks, as uniformed US soldiers may cover their advances with heavy artillery. Shiite militia fighters, who are sanctioned by the Iraqi government and have worked in the past with advisers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, will be working in coordination with these US-backed forces.
Spurred by the shock of Mosul’s fall and put together on the fly amid the chaos that followed, often with a reluctant White House getting in the way, the strategy US military planners have created to roll back ISIS will face its most important test in Mosul. This strategy has relied on local forces, supported by US air power and advisers, to do the bulk of the fighting, shifting the burden of executing the war from masses of conventional US soldiers to small and elite units of US commandos who act as a force multiplier. These commandos are embedded with a dizzying array of armed groups — from neo-Marxist Kurdish militia in Syria to Arab tribesmen in Iraq and the peshmerga. They help to coordinate battles as well as arm and train their local allies, while also working in the shadows on select missions to take the fight to ISIS themselves.
If the US-led effort is successful, it will signal the end of ISIS as a land-holding force in Iraq, setting the stage for the isolation and eventual loss of its remaining territory in the country. At the peak of its military surge in the summer of 2014, ISIS controlled as much as 40% of Iraq. That number has shrunk to 10% today, with the bulk of people living under ISIS control concentrated in Mosul, which the Iraqi government estimates to contain at least 1 million civilians. ISIS’s Syrian capital of Raqqa, far smaller with some 200,000 residents, could be won more easily once its supply routes from Iraq are cut.
A defeat in Mosul would also be a defeat for the revolutionary core of the ISIS ideology — the idea of creating a caliphate across the borders of established countries, the promise to let its members live its hardline vision in the here and now, and the call for recruits to create a new world order as they destroy the old. Mosul has been crucial to ISIS’s identity from the start: While in Syria it won its territory from weaker rebel groups, in Mosul it defeated the US-backed Iraqi army. It then paraded the captured US tanks and weapons for its TV cameras and bulldozed the border with Syria. It was at central Mosul’s Grand Mosque that ISIS’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared himself the new global caliph, delivering a call to arms: “Do jihad in the cause of God, incite the believers, and be patient in the face of this hardship.”
Golden Brigade commander Major-General Fadhil Barwari at a village outside Erbil where the special forces just got settled speaking to commanders, Oct. 13, 2016. Warzer Jaff for BuzzFeed News ID: 9797307
Because of the importance of Mosul to ISIS, soldiers and analysts alike expect the militants there to put up a bitter fight. They have been preparing their defenses for more than two years — digging tunnels, planting IEDs, and, recently, filling trenches with oil to burn for cover from airstrikes. “I lean toward a heavy fight,” said Omar Lamrani, a military specialist at the intelligence firm Stratfor, who said that at least 5,000 ISIS fighters remained in the city. “And we’ve seen so much planning — tunnels, mines. I think it will be a significant stand.”
There were two Iraqi military divisions, numbering some 20,000 soldiers, posted in Mosul when ISIS invaded the city with an estimated 1,500 fighters. Most simply panicked and fled — and soldiers who were part of the rout later recounted that phone calls alerting them that the feared militants were coming were enough to get entire units to desert their posts.
The US government suffered a black eye in the defeat too: When the Obama administration decided, in the face of heated domestic objections, to pull US troops from the country in 2011, it argued that the US-trained and -equipped Iraqi military could manage Iraq’s tenuous security situation on its own.
Mosul provides a chance for both sides to right the wrong. And though Iraqi special forces have proven their merit in battling the militants, it is the still-reeling Iraqi military that will have to provide the bulk of the soldiers for the offensive — and hold the ground once it is won.
Key to that mission is the Iraqi army’s 15th Division, which was built from scratch with the help of the US military and its allies in the aftermath of Mosul. Many of its soldiers and officers were part of the divisions that collapsed in Mosul — and eager for redemption, said Michael Knights, an Iraq expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who has embedded with local forces around the country. “Their story was we want to get back there and we’re feeling a bit of shame,” he said. “The guys who ran away are coming back.”
Shaping operations to set the stage for the offensive has been underway for months. From here, the offensive will likely play out in two stages. First, anti-ISIS forces are expected to advance toward the city and attempt to encircle it. Next would be the push into the city itself. “The main assault [of the first phase] is to happen west of the Tigris heading up north toward the mountains overlooking Mosul,” Lamrani said. “This will be the main thrust and spearheaded by 25,000 Iraqi military and CTS and supported by tribal militia. And peshmerga would attack at the same time. At the end of that we’ll get to the point where Mosul is surrounded on all sides.”
US planners would likely seek to leave a small opening toward Syria “in the hope that ISIS fighters take that gap and flee because they would rather fight them in the open rather than in the city, especially in Mosul, where they have high-density civilian areas,” Lamrani said.
As CTS troops readied for the offensive at their base 3o miles outside Mosul, a senior officer with a long history of fighting ISIS cautioned against trying to predict how the battle with the extremists would play out. “You’re operating in an environment where your enemy is ready to do anything. Not just die — when I say ready to do anything, I mean he is ready to put civilians in danger to the furthest extent that he can.”
An official with the Kurdistan Regional Government likewise cautioned that it could be a difficult and unpredictable fight. “We are expecting up to six months of house-to-house fighting,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t permitted to share this internal assessment. “It’s going to be a long, long battle.”
Just as crucial to winning the battle for Mosul will be the way that it is carried out.
Aid groups have been sounding the alarm about a looming humanitarian disaster due to the civilians packed into the city. Shiite militia, which have faced accusations of committing crimes against Sunni civilians, have also vowed to push into Sunni-dominated Mosul, despite US objections, as part of the assault. The way those civilians are treated — and the way the assault on their home city plays out — will have a big effect on how they see the government that comes next. “This is probably the one time that Mosul will greet Americans with flowers and candy as they had predicted back in 2003,” said Rasha Al Aqeedi, a Mosul native and analyst at the Al Mesbar Studies and Research Center in Dubai. “I do believe that at this point that [Mosul residents] are so desperate they just want anyone to liberate them. They just don’t want the city to be completely ruined, and they want to survive it.”
Warzer Jaff for BuzzFeed News ID: 9797322
||||| Long-awaited offensive begins to recapture city that has been under Islamic State control
A long-awaited offensive to seize back Mosul after two years of Isis control has begun with columns of armour and military starting to move on the northern Iraqi city.
The start of the offensive, which has been months in the planning, was announced in an address on state television by Iraq’s prime minister in the early hours of Monday morning.
Battle for Mosul begins: Iraqi and Kurdish forces launch assault on Isis stronghold – latest news Read more
Haider al-Abadi said: “We have been battling Isis for more than two years. We started fighting Isis in the outskirts of Baghdad, and thank God we are now fighting them in the outskirts of Mosul, and God willing the decisive battle will be soon.
“These forces that are liberating you today, they have one goal in Mosul which is to get rid of Daesh and to secure your dignity. They are there for your sake,” he said.
After a month-long buildup, the last urban stronghold of Islamic State in Iraq has for several days been almost completely surrounded by a 30,000-strong force.
On Monday morning just before dawn, columns of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters could be seen lined up for the offensive to the north-east of the city. The forces had taken control of seven villages and the main road linking Mosul with the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital, Irbil, by 10am BST, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported.
Soldiers had earlier stood by bonfires singing battle hymns while in the distance the sound of airstrikes reverberated along with a regularly artillery barrage.
Why is the battle for Mosul significant? Mosul is Islamic State's last urban stronghold in Iraq, and the assault is the most critical challenge yet to the group's caliphate. Since Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the establishment of a caliphate from the city in June 2014, Mosul has been central to the group’s ambitions to spread its ruthless interpretation of Islamic law throughout the Arab world and beyond. Victory over Isis appears very likely, but there are concerns about what comes next: how to provide for up to 1.3 million refugees and how to re-establish governance in a city brutalised by tyranny.
South of the city, Iraqi forces, which had driven hundreds of miles for what Baghdad has hailed as a last battle against the terrorist group, moved into their final positions on Friday.
Also on the ground are US, British and French special forces, which have been advising the peshmerga and will play a prominent role in calling in airstrikes against Isis targets inside the city.
Skirmishes have flared outside Iraqi’s second largest city over the last few days with an airstrike on one of its main bridges on Sunday. It is not clear who was responsible for the strike on the al-Hurriya bridge but Amaq, the news agency associated with Isis, blamed US forces. It is thought that the destruction of the bridge could hinder Isis fighters trying to flee the city.
Early on Monday, a dense, noxious haze hung over the mountains and the plains leading to Mosul – a haze caused by oil fires lit by Isis in anticipation of the attack.
Pehmerga forces are aiming to take three villages and advance up to 12km on the first day of the offensive but insist they will not enter Mosul itself. Isis is believed to have heavily mined the roads leading into its territory with large numbers of improvised devices and the Iraqi government has previously warned Mosul resident to stay in their homes.
Ahead of Abadi’s televised statement, thousands of four-page leaflets were dropped across the city telling civilians to avoid certain parts of the city and declaring it was “victory time”.
Ahmed al-Assadi, a lawmaker and spokesman for the militias, said: “We promise you that it will be a great victory fitting with the greatness of Iraq and its history and its people.”
The fight is expected to last weeks, if not months, and if the battles to wrest Falluja and Ramadi from the grip of Isis are any indication, Mosul is predicted to be a protracted and difficult affair.
The assault on the city is the most critical challenge yet to Isis’s two-year-old caliphate, which has shredded state authority in the region’s heartland, caused a mass exodus of refugees, attempted a genocide of minorities and led to grave doubts over the future of the country.
Isis is thought to have about 6,000 fighters ready to defend Mosul, hidden among an estimated civilian population of approximately 600,000, most of whom are expected to flee as the battle intensifies. Before its occupation by Isis, the city was home to more than 2 million people.
Five key questions about the battle for Mosul Read more
The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that the battle for the city could result in a humanitarian crisis with up to a million refugees fleeing.
Militants have banned civilians from leaving the city, set up checkpoints on outwards roads and blown up the homes of those who fled.
While leaving can mean trekking through minefields and the risk of discovery and punishment by Isis, those who stay know they face airstrikes, street battles, a potential siege by the Iraqi security forces and the grim possibility of being used as human shields by Isis.
The US has recently deployed an additional 600 troops to aid in the city’s capture, bringing the total number of US personnel to more than 5,200, according to the Pentagon.
Victory over Isis will not solve Iraq’s problems | Ranj Alaaldin Read more
Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said: “This is the last big holdout in Iraq for Isil.”
The US said on Sunday night that it was proud to stand with its allies in the offensive to retake Mosul. In a statement, the defence secretary, Ash Carter, said: “This is a decisive moment in the campaign to deliver Isil a lasting defeat.
“The United States and the rest of the international coalition stand ready to support Iraqi security forces, Peshmerga fighters and the people of Iraq in the difficult fight ahead. We are confident our Iraqi partners will prevail against our common enemy and free Mosul and the rest of Iraq from Isil’s hatred and brutality.”
If the Mosul offensive is a success, what could this mean for Isis? Read more
Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the coalition against Islamic State, said in a message on Twitter. “Godspeed to the heroic Iraqi forces, Kurdish peshmerga, and Ninewa volunteers. We are proud to stand with you in this historic operation.”
The UN deputy secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief voiced grave concern about the risks faced by civilians.
“I am extremely concerned for the safety of up to 1.5 million people living in Mosul who may be impacted by military operations to retake the city from Isil,” Stephen O’Brien said.
He warned that families were at extreme risk of being caught in crossfire or targeted by snipers. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mosul assault: On front line with Kurdish fighters
An Iraqi operation to recapture the city of Mosul, the last major stronghold of the so-called Islamic State (IS) in the country, has started.
Artillery began firing on the city early on Monday, in a long-awaited assault from Kurdish peshmerga, Iraqi government and allied forces.
Tanks are now moving towards the city, which has been held by IS since 2014.
The UN has expressed "extreme concern" for the safety of up to 1.5 million people in the area.
The BBC's Orla Guerin, who is with Kurdish forces east of Mosul, says tanks are advancing on the city, throwing up clouds of dust.
As the operation began, one Kurdish general told our correspondent: "If I am killed today I will die happy because I have done something for my people."
Kurdish forces say they have retaken a number of villages in their advance.
Meanwhile pro-government forces are attacking from an airbase in Qayyarah, about 60km (37 miles) to the south, which was recaptured in August.
The US-led coalition fighting IS is backing the assault with air strikes, The operation is complex and analysts say it could last for weeks, if not months.
The start of the operation was announced by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in a televised address in the early hours of Monday (local time). "The hour of victory has come," he said.
"God willing we will meet in Mosul to celebrate the liberation and your salvation from Isis (IS) so we can live together once again, all religions united and together we shall defeat Daesh to rebuild this dear city of Mosul," Mr Abadi said.
Who is fighting?
About 30,000 pro-government troops are involved in the operation. The main assault is being led by Iraqi army troops based south of Mosul.
About 4,000 Kurdish peshmerga militia have begun clearing villages in the east.
Sunni tribal fighters and Shia-led paramilitary forces are also due to take part. Planes from the US-led coalition against IS are providing air support.
Image copyright AFP Image caption The Iraqi army has scored important gains against IS recently
US Special Operations personnel are advising forces on the ground. Elite Iraqi counterterrorism forces are expected to join in the coming days.
An estimated 4,000-8,000 Islamic State fighters are defending the city.
How will battle unfold? By Michael Knights, Washington Institute for Near East Policy
What can be said with certainty is that the liberation of Mosul will be a multi-phased operation.
First the logistical base for the operation must be established at Qayyarah airbase. This is also the collecting point for the Iraqi forces that will liberate Mosul.
The next phase will be a multi-pronged advance on the outskirts of Mosul. This phase will unfold in fits and spurts: one day 10 miles will be gained easily, another day there will be tough fighting at an IS strongpoint or a pause to bring up supplies.
During November and December the main battle will probably begin. But for the Iraqi and coalition forces, the issue of civilians will be a tricky factor.
Read more here
Why Mosul matters
Mosul, the oil-rich capital of Nineveh province, was Iraq's second-largest city before IS militants overran it in June 2014.
Its capture became a symbol of the group's rise as a major force and its ability to control territory. It was there that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a "caliphate" in parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
The city was one of Iraq's most diverse, comprising ethnic Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians and Turkmens, as well as a variety of religious minorities.
While members of those minorities largely fled the onslaught by IS, many local Sunni Arabs initially welcomed the militants, angered by the sectarian policies of the previous Shia Arab-led central government.
But after two years of brutal IS rule, opposition has reportedly grown inside Mosul.
One major concern for those still there is the involvement of Shia militiamen in the offensive, after they were accused of sectarian abuses in other cities that have been recaptured.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has sought to reassure them by saying only Iraqi security forces would be allowed to enter Mosul.
Even if IS is driven out of Mosul, the group will still control areas of northern and eastern Iraq.
What about the civilians in Mosul?
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mosul diary: 'I feel like I'm living in a prison'
The UN's under-secretary for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Stephen O'Brien, asked for civilians to be protected and be given access to assistance "they are entitled to and deserve".
"I am extremely concerned for the safety of up to 1.5 million people living in Mosul who may be impacted," he said in statement.
As many as a million people could be forced to flee their homes because of the operation, he added.
There are no firm figures on how many people remain in Mosul, but there were more than two million there when IS took the city more than two years ago. ||||| This photo released on his official Facebook page shows Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, center, surrounded by top military and police officers as he announces the start of the operation to liberate... (Associated Press)
This photo released on his official Facebook page shows Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, center, surrounded by top military and police officers as he announces the start of the operation to liberate the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State militants early Monday, Oct. 17, 2016. The push to... (Associated Press)
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of military operations to liberate the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State militants on Monday, launching the country on its toughest battle since American troops left nearly five years ago.
State TV aired a brief statement in the early hours Monday announcing the start of the widely anticipated military offensive to drive IS out of Iraq's second-largest city.
Broadcasts showed the prime minister, dressed in the uniform of the elite counterterrorism forces, speaking while flanked by senior military officers.
"These forces that are liberating you today, they have one goal in Mosul which is to get rid of Daesh and to secure your dignity. They are there for your sake," he told the city's residents, using an alternate name for the militant group. "God willing, we shall win."
The thuds of sporadic artillery shelling rumbled across the rolling Nineveh plains in the direction of Mosul, witnesses said. State TV broadcast patriotic music within minutes of the announcement.
The push to retake Mosul will be the biggest military operation in Iraq since American troops left in 2011 and, if successful, the strongest blow yet to the Islamic State. A statement on Al-Abadi's website pledged the fight for the city marked a new phase that would lead to the liberation of all Iraqi territory from the militants this year.
In Washington, Defense Secretary Ash Carter called the start of Iraqi operations to liberate Mosul "a decisive moment in the campaign" to deliver a lasting defeat to the Islamic State group.
Carter said the United States and other members of the international coalition "stand ready to support the Iraqi Security Forces, Peshmerga fighters and the people of Iraq in the difficult fight ahead."
Iraqi forces have been massing around the city in recent days. They include members of the elite special forces, who are expected to lead the charge into the city itself.
Mosul is home to more than a million civilians. The city fell to IS fighters during a lightning charge in June 2014 that left nearly a third of Iraq in militants' hands and plunged the country into its most severe crisis since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
After seizing Mosul, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi visited the city to declare an Islamic caliphate that at one point covered nearly a third of Iraq and Syria.
But since late last year, the militants have suffered battlefield losses in Iraq and their power in the country has largely shrunk to Mosul and small towns in the country's north and west. Mosul is about 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of the capital, Baghdad.
The operation to retake Mosul is expected to be the most complex yet for Iraq's military, which has been rebuilding from its humiliating 2014 defeat.
Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, said in a statement that the operation to regain control of Mosul could take "weeks, possibly longer."
"This may prove to be a long and tough battle, but the Iraqis have prepared for it and we will stand by them," he said.
Iraqi forces began moving into Nineveh province to surround Mosul in July, when ground troops led by the country's elite special forces retook Qayara air base south of the city. Thousands of Iraqi troops were deployed there ahead of the planned operation along with large numbers of tanks, armored personnel carriers and heavy artillery.
The base is ringed by a series of trenches, sand berms and other fortifications.
Iraqi troops were also positioned east of Mosul in the Khazer area, along with Kurdish Peshmerga forces, and to the north of the city near the Mosul Dam and Bashiqa areas.
Before the prime minister's announcement, Brig. Gen Haider Fadhil told The Associated Press in an interview that more than 25,000 troops, including paramilitary forces made up of Sunni tribal fighters and Shiite militias, will take part in the offensive that will be launched from five directions around the city.
In addition to carrying out airstrikes, the U.S.-led international coalition will also offer artillery fire, he added. American troops are providing logistical support to the operation.
Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the coalition against IS, said Abadi's order called for "major operations" to free the city.
"Godspeed to the heroic Iraqi forces, Kurdish #Peshmerga, and #Ninewa volunteers. We are proud to stand with you in this historic operation," he tweeted.
The role of the Shiite militias has been particularly sensitive, as Nineveh is a majority Sunni province and Shiite militia forces have been accused of carrying out abuses against civilians in other operations in majority Sunni parts of Iraq.
According to U.N. estimates, up to 1 million people could be displaced from Mosul during the operation, exacerbating the humanitarian situation in the country. The conflict in Iraq has forced 3.3 million people to flee their homes, with most of them living in camps or informal settlements.
Fadhil voiced concern about potential action from Turkish troops based in the region of Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul. Turkey sent troops to the area late last year to train anti-IS fighters there.
But Baghdad has seen the Turkish presence as a "blatant violation" of Iraqi sovereignty and has demanded the Turkish troops withdraw, a call Ankara has ignored.
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Associated Press journalists Ahmed Sami in Baghdad, Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Khazer, Iraq, and Vivian Salama in Washington contributed reporting.
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Members of President Obama’s administration are debating over the size and scope of the post-2014 mission in Afghanistan, and just how big of a residual force to leave in the country. (Hoshang Hashimi/AP)
Groups within the Obama administration are pushing to keep no more than a few thousand troops in Afghanistan after 2014, U.S. officials said, raising the prospect that the United States will be unable to keep its promise to fully train and equip Afghan security forces.
As the debate over the size and scope of the post-2014 coalition mission nears its end, some in the administration are pressing for a force that could be as small as 2,500, arguing that a light touch would be the most constructive way to cap the costly, unpopular war.
Those troop levels are significantly lower than what some senior military officials have advocated, arguing that a sudden disengagement could lead to the collapse of a frail state and the onset of a new civil war. The low number also is a far cry from figures in the 10,000-to-30,000 range discussed among NATO allies and some U.S. officials as recently as a year ago.
The scope and size of a post-2014 force are at the top of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s agenda during his visit to Washington this week, which includes a meeting with President Obama on Friday.
White House officials said Tuesday that they have not ruled out leaving no troops at all when the U.N. security mandate sanctioning the international coalition expires, saying they might find non-military means to meet U.S. objectives in Afghanistan.
1 of 21 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Life and war in Afghanistan: Jan. 2013 View Photos Photos of everyday life in Afghanistan as coalition forces attempt to transfer responsibilities to Afghan troops. Caption Photos of everyday life in Afghanistan as coalition forces attempt to transfer responsibilities to Afghan troops. Jan. 27, 2013 Afghan men, gathered by the Afghan Uniform Police and brought in for registration, pray outside Command Outpost AJK (short for Azim-Jan-Kariz, a nearby village) before being fingerprinted and photographed by U.S. troops in Maiwand district, Kandahar province. Andrew Burton/Reuters Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
The United States has committed to continue supporting Afghanistan’s security forces and intends to maintain counterterrorism capabilities that would prevent al-Qaeda from regaining a foothold in the country where the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were planned.
“There are, of course, many different ways of accomplishing those objectives, some of which might involve U.S. troops, some of which might not,” Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, told reporters in a conference call Tuesday afternoon.
Some senior military officials and analysts have pressed for a more robust force, arguing that a hasty disengagement would be reckless and could cause Afghanistan’s security forces to crumble. The United States has invested $50 billion in training and equipping the Afghan army and police.
Others say that a small, well-managed contingent could accomplish the Obama administration’s key objectives while markedly lowering the United States’ profile in a region where anti-American sentiment runs high.
“The real question is what kind of mission we’re looking at,” said a senior U.S. defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing deliberations. “The challenge will be the temptation to keep doing many of the things we’ve been doing.”
A debate about U.S. goals
Determining the size of a possible post-2014 force is the first step to charting out the timeline for withdrawing the remaining 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon. Keeping troops there after 2014 would require a bilateral agreement stipulating the authority of the contingent and the legal protections its members would enjoy — thorny questions that Obama and Karzai are expected to tackle this week.
Among the issues are whether the U.S. troops can conduct counterterrorism operations on their own and whether they would be immune from Afghan law.
The troop levels under serious consideration range from 2,500 to 6,000, the senior defense official said.
A senior U.S. military official involved in Afghanistan policy said officials at the Pentagon have all but given up hope for a post-2014 force of at least 10,000, which some commanders had deemed the bare minimum. These officials have said that a force of that size is needed to accomplish the training objective while maintaining counterterrorism capabilities.
The debate is fundamentally about U.S. goals and expectations. Military leaders who have made a case for keeping a large presence after 2014 appear to be losing out to those who want the future of U.S. engagement in Afghanistan to mirror the lower-profile roles that Washington has played in places such as Yemen and Colombia.
Afghanistan presents unique challenges, given its forbidding topography, resilient insurgency and weak government. So a force of a few thousand is likely to have a limited effect.
“You’ll end up doing nothing outside of Kabul,” said another senior U.S. official involved in Afghanistan, referring to the 2,500 figure.
With 6,000 troops, the United States would retain the capability to run Bagram air base, a key hub outside the capital. But that could leave the United States without a military presence in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban’s heartland and the focus of Obama’s 2010 troop surge.
“It would mean walking away from commitments we made in 2009 and 2010,” said retired Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik, who argued in a policy paper published by the Institute for the Study of War that an international force of about 30,000 troops is needed to keep the Afghan security forces afloat. He said the Afghans have become good at combat but remain stymied by weak logistics, training and equipment systems.
Kalev Sepp, a senior lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., who has studied U.S. military assistance missions, said the American interventions in El Salvador in the 1980s and Colombia in the 1990s demonstrated that thinly staffed advisory missions can have a huge effect. A small support team places the onus on the local force, he said.
“It makes them fight for their own country,” Sepp said. Army leaders, he said, are too often inclined to draw up plans for large-scale missions. “It is not in their operational doctrine to send very small numbers of people.”
Outcomes and concerns
Afghan leaders would like for a post-2014 U.S. presence to be focused on training the local army and police. But Stephen Biddle, an Afghanistan expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said a small residual force would probably have a strong emphasis on counterterrorism.
“Among the problems with that is that it is not a popular mission in Afghanistan,” Biddle said, referring to Afghans’ strong aversion to tactics such as night raids and airstrikes. “While you’re flying at 10,000 feet, the country burns underneath you,” he added, describing the way a counterterrorism-focused mission could be viewed.
On the other hand, planning for a substantial force after 2014 has the potential to boost the Taliban’s narrative that Afghanistan is an occupied country led by men subservient to Washington. The militant group issued a statement Saturday calling any bilateral agreement for a post-2014 force a “personal deal” between Karzai and the Americans that would be devoid of “legal credibility.”
Washington’s NATO allies are watching the debate closely. Britain, the second-largest troop contributor to the mission, announced last month that it intended to draw down from roughly 9,500 to 5,200 service members this year. Despite strong lobbying behind the scenes by U.S. officials, few of Washington’s allies have committed to keeping a significant number of troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014. The low numbers the administration is mulling are likely to further curb the meager appetite in NATO capitals for a continued military presence in Afghanistan.
“Everyone is looking at the U.S. to see what the Obama administration will come up with and what this bilateral agreement will entail,” said a senior European diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the concerns the debate is generating on the continent.
Karen DeYoung contributed to this report. ||||| U.S. and Afghan soldiers take a knee near a U.S. Army Chinook during an operation near the town of Walli Was in Paktika province November 1, 2012. Picture taken November 1.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration does not rule out a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan after 2014, the White House said on Tuesday, just days before President Barack Obama is due to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The comments by U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes were the clearest signal yet that, despite initial recommendations by the top military commander in Afghanistan to keep as many as 15,000 troops in the country, Obama could opt to remove everyone, as happened in Iraq in 2011.
Asked about consideration of a so-called zero-option once the NATO combat mission ends at the end of 2014, Rhodes said: "That would be an option that we would consider."
Rhodes made clear that a decision on post-2014 troop levels is not expected for months and will be made based on two U.S. security objectives in Afghanistan - denying a safe haven to al Qaeda and ensuring Afghan forces are trained and equipped so that they, and not foreign forces, can secure the nation.
"There are, of course, many different ways of accomplishing those objectives, some of which might involve U.S. troops, some of which might not," Rhodes said, briefing reporters to preview Karzai's visit.
In Iraq, Obama decided to pull out all U.S. forces after failing in negotiations with the Iraqi government to secure immunity for any U.S. troops who would remain behind.
The Obama administration is also insisting on immunity for any U.S. troops that remain in Afghanistan, and that unsettled question will figure in this week's talks between Obama and Karzai and their aides.
"As we know from our Iraq experience, if there are no authorities granted by the sovereign state, then there's no room for a follow-on U.S. military mission," said Douglas Lute, special assistant to Obama for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Jeffrey Dressler, an Afghanistan expert at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War who favors keeping a larger presence in Afghanistan, questioned whether the White House comments might be part of a U.S. bargaining strategy with Kabul.
"I can't tell that they're doing that as a negotiating position ... or if it is a no-kidding option," Dressler said. "If you ask me, I don't see how zero troops is in the national security interest of the United States."
SHOULDN'T JUST "LEAVE THEM"
U.S. officials have said privately that the White House had asked for options to be developed for keeping between 3,000 and 9,000 troops in the country, a lower range than was put forward initially by General John Allen, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.
Allen suggested keeping between 6,000 and 15,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Retired General Stanley McChrystal, a former U.S. commander of the Afghan mission who resigned in 2010, said in an interview with Reuters on Monday there was a value to having an overt U.S. military presence in Afghanistan after 2014 - even if it wasn't large.
"The art, I would say, would be having the smallest number so that you give the impression that you are always there to help, but you're never there either as an unwelcome presence or an occupier - or any of the negatives that people might draw," he said, without commenting on any specific numbers.
The United States now has about 66,000 troops in Afghanistan and Rhodes confirmed there would be steady reductions in troop levels through 2014.
Also on the agenda for the Obama-Karzai talks are tentative reconciliation efforts involving Taliban insurgents. Those efforts have shown flickers of life after nearly 10 months of limbo.
Still, hopes for Afghan peace talks have been raised before, only to be dashed. Last March, the Taliban suspended months of quiet discussions with Washington aimed at getting the insurgents and the Karzai government to the peace table.
Washington has also had a strained relationship with Karzai, who in October accused the United States of playing a double game in his country by fighting the war in Afghan villages instead of going after those in Pakistan who support insurgents.
Karzai will give a joint press conference with Obama on Friday and will visit the Pentagon on Thursday, meeting with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the U.S. top military officer, General Martin Dempsey.
Still, it is unclear what, if any, concrete agreements might emerge from Karzai's visit to Washington.
Michael O'Hanlon, a defense analyst at Brookings, cautioned against expecting too much from the visit, which he said is best seen as an opportunity for Washington and Kabul to "shore up this partnership that has had such a troubled status and a weak foundation."
"There are a lot of scars in this relationship. There are a lot of hurt feelings," O'Hanlon said. "It's sort of like a bad marriage and it's very easy for just the wrong word to immediately set people off in an emotional way."
(Additional reporting by David Alexander.; Editing by Eric Beech and Christopher Wilson) ||||| WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to slash U.S. forces in Afghanistan by more than half during the next 16 months, a faster withdrawal than top commanders once considered prudent, officials said.
Gen. John R. Allen, who commands the international forces in Afghanistan, had wanted to keep the bulk of the 66,000 U.S. troops in place through the summer, traditionally the heaviest months of fighting against Taliban insurgents.
But in recent weeks Allen's advisors and top Obama administration officials have developed a timetable for steady reductions that would reduce troop levels to fewer than 66,000 this summer and to 25,000-30,000 in spring 2014, with further withdrawals later that year, the officials said.
The emerging consensus has narrowed the split between the Pentagon and the White House over the extent to which the U.S. needs to remain engaged militarily in Afghanistan to prevent the country from slipping back into lawlessness and civil war after the bulk of foreign troops withdraw.
The administration is still discussing the size of the American force that will remain in Afghanistan after 2014, talks that will intensify this week when Afghan President Hamid Karzai meets President Obama at the White House. Pentagon officials are pushing for 6,000 to 9,000 troops, though White House aides are considering a force of 3,000 or even fewer.
The plan to accelerate the pace of the U.S. drawdown has emerged as military planners have examined the cost and logistical complexity of waiting until next year to bring out tens of thousands of troops, the officials said.
Keeping troop levels near 60,000 would require the Pentagon to extend deployments of troops currently on nine-month deployments or to send additional units for short tours, officials said, noting that neither option is likely to be popular with the public or the White House.
Deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters Tuesday that Obama "is committed to continuing steady reductions," and that "we are not going to plateau at" 66,000 until 2014 "and then remove our troops."
At the same time, U.S. officials want to keep as many as 30,000 troops in Afghanistan through April 2014, when the nation is scheduled to hold elections to choose Karzai's successor. That size force is considered large enough to serve as a deterrent to efforts by the Taliban to disrupt the elections or by presidential contenders to seize power by force, officials said.
Many senior military officers remain deeply concerned that the post-2014 U.S. troop presence under consideration is too small to meaningfully assist the fledgling Afghan security forces. But these officers acknowledge that they are unlikely to win the argument with a White House that is intent on reducing the U.S. footprint as much as possible.
Rhodes did not rule out the possibility that Obama could eventually decide to leave no U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014. The "zero option" would be considered, he said.
Whether or not troops remain, the U.S. will help Afghanistan with training, equipment and aid, Rhodes said.
Earlier concern among senior U.S. commanders that a rapid U.S. withdrawal could jeopardize security has eased as many Afghan army and police units have successfully taken over security responsibilities in some areas.
"That's a surprising fact, so with that variable in play you have more room to maneuver," said a U.S. official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The Obama administration is also making a renewed push for peace talks with some factions of the Taliban, in hope that reducing the strength of the insurgency will make it easier for Afghan security forces, which now number nearly 352,000, to handle security with limited U.S. backing.
"We believe ultimately that [negotiating ] is an essential part of a process that would lead to a more peaceful and stable Afghanistan," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.
[email protected]
Times staff writer Christi Parsons contributed to this report. |||||Summary:
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– How many US troops should stay in Afghanistan after the NATO combat mission ends next year? For the first time, officials are now saying zero is an option. Commanders recommend keeping a force of up to 15,000 in the country, but Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, speaking to reporters ahead of Hamid Karzai's meeting with President Obama later this week, says withdrawing all troops will be considered if conditions allow, Reuters reports. As recently as a year ago, officials were talking about leaving a 30,000-strong force to combat al-Qaeda, but now officials are considering as few as 2,500, the Washington Post reports. What's more, the troops will be pulled out faster than previously deemed prudent, officials tell the LA Times; General John Allen had asked to keep most of his 66,000 troops for this summer's fighting season, but now the consensus is that troop levels will dip significantly lower than that. The US will demand legal immunity for any troops it does wind up leaving behind, the denial of which led to the complete withdrawal from Iraq.
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Here is a news article: Can we say this any louder?
Sam Carter, lead singer for the metal band Architects, has rightly been hailed a hero for stopping in the middle of a show to defend a fan from a groper.
The band was performing at the Lowlands Festival in Biddinghuizen, the Netherlands, Friday night when Carter saw the sexual assault.
“I saw a girl, a woman, crowdsurfing over here, and I’m not gonna fucking point the piece of shit out that did it, but I saw you fucking grab at her boob,” Carter said. “I saw it. It is fucking disgusting and there is no fucking place for that shit.”
The Dutch public radio channel NPO 3FM posted the speech to Twitter, where it quickly went viral.
'So, i've been going over in my f*cking mind about whether I should say something about what I saw during that last song....' @Architectsuk pic.twitter.com/zm5L4zlXpw — NPO 3FM (@3FM) August 18, 2017
“It is not your fucking body,” Carter continued. “It is not your fucking body and you do not fucking grab at someone. Not at my fucking show.”
Crowd surfing during concerts make fans particularly vulnerable to these types of sexual assaults. Rapper Iggy Azalea pointed this out in 2014, when she said she stopped crowd surfing at her own shows for fear of men attempting to “finger” her.
Carter said at Friday’s concert that he initially wasn’t sure about whether he should say anything. But he decided to speak out, and the crowd cheered for his passionate defense of the unidentified woman.
He finished his speech by inviting anyone who wanted to continue to assault fans to leave the show.
After the clip was posted to social media, both fans and people who hadn’t even heard of the metal band shared words of gratitude to Carter.
@samarchitects thank you for saying something, it makes me so happy to see that people are talking about this issue instead of ignoring it — cait🥀 (@disasteroIIogy) August 19, 2017
I have never heard this bands songs before but I'm gonna fukken check it out now. Respect 🖤 — Aimee K (@AimeeK13) August 19, 2017
I have no idea who you are but I can tell you that I love you and you have a new 'Mom Fan' in Portland, Oregon. ❤️ — MelMed🦋 (@mel_med_larson) August 19, 2017
I started sneaking into shows in high school and have seen countless bands.This is the FIRST I've heard a band call out this obvious problem pic.twitter.com/yrioyY7veA — 😒 (@TehSoundTehFury) August 19, 2017
good on u for calling it out, so tired of some men thinking they're entitled to grope women simply for daring to enjoy their time at a show — rei (@sadcrisis) August 19, 2017
Thank you so much, watching this made me want to cry. Knowing there are musicians who see this bullshit and call it out gives me such hope 💜 — aimee Ω (@aimeemthompson) August 19, 2017 ||||| 'So, i've been going over in my f*cking mind about whether I should say something about what I saw during that last song....' @ Architectsukpic.twitter.com/zm5L4zlXpw ||||| Get celebs updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
The frontman of metalcore band Architects has been praised by fans and women's groups for calling out a groper during one of their live gigs.
Sam Carter, who has been the vocalist for the Brighton-born band since 2004, stopped the show at the Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands and launched into an expletive-fuelled rant about the sexual assault he had just witnessed.
"So I've been going over in my f***ing mind about whether I should say something or not about what I saw in that last song. And do you know what? I'm going to f***ing say it," he told the crowd.
(Image: Yoitube)
"I saw a girl - a woman - crowdsurfing over here, and I'm not going to f***ing point the piece of s*** out who did it, but I saw you f***ing grab at her boob, I saw it and it's f***ing disgusting and there is no f***ing place for that s***."
The audience roared their approval as Sam continued to shout into his mic.
"It is not your f***ing body, it is NOT your f***ing body, and you do not f***ing grab at someone. Not at my f***ing show."
He then left the crowd in no doubt to what would happen to the next person who tried it on.
(Image: Yoitube)
"So if you feel like doing that again, walk out there, f*** off and don't come back.
"Let's keep this going, let's keep this a f***ing safe place for everybody, and let's have a f***ing good time."
He later tweeted a video of the interruption on Twitter, captioning it: "There's no room for this at any kind of show."
Architects' female fans have been praising Sam on social media, with many thanking him for calling out male violence against women.
(Image: Redferns)
"Thank you for saying something, it makes me so happy to see that people are talking about this issue instead of ignoring it," one told him.
"Much love and respect for doing that and looking out for your fans you earned a diehard fan for life," said another.
"How a real man behaves when seeing a woman assaulted. Bravo!" a third replied.
Sam has since urged people to follow SafeGigs4Women, an organisation that promotes awareness about sexual assault and harassment in concert venues.
"We've had a flurry of activity overnight thanks to Architectsuk - thanks so much for what you did. We need more bands to do the same," tweeted the organisation.
Were you at the Architects gig when this happened? Drop [email protected] to tell your story |||||
A summary of this is?
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– The leader of a British heavy metal band literally stopped the show Friday to defend a female fan from sexual assault. Sam Carter was performing with his band, Architects, Friday afternoon at the Lowlands Festival in Biddinghuizen, the Netherlands, when he witnessed a man groping the female fan while she was crowdsurfing, the Huffington Post reports. “I saw a girl, a woman, crowdsurfing over here, and I’m not gonna f------ point the piece of s--- out that did it, but I saw you f------ grab at her boob,” Carter said. (See the video here.) Visibly upset, Carter then said anyone taking part in such behavior should leave. The crowd cheered Carter's speech and video of the incident went viral when Dutch public radio channel NPO 3FM posted it to Twitter, sparking many people to thank Carter online for addressing what they feel is a common problem at rock shows. SafeGigs4Women, an organization that raises awareness about women's safety issues at concerts, said they'd seen a flurry of activity and interest since Carter's speech, the Mirror reports.
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Summarize this article:
The woman accused of spray-painting “Hail Trump” alongside a racial slur onto a neighboring home appeared before a judge Monday.
RELATED: Neighbor charged after Toledo home spray-painted with N-word
Patricia Edelen, 47, of the 600 block of Ogden Avenue, was arraigned in Toledo Municipal Court on misdemeanor charges of ethnic intimidation, criminal mischief, criminal damaging, and obstructing official business.
Warning: The following video posted on Facebook depicts explicit language.
WATCH: Vandalism reported at 600 block of Ogden Avenue
A judge continued bond at $25,450, issuing a no-contact order with the victim. Ms. Edelen pleaded not guilty to all counts.
RELATED CONTENT: Papa John’s Founder resigns as chairman
Neighbors across the street on Saturday morning recorded the Ogden Avenue vandalism, which included a message of the “N-word” and "keep out" on the house. They told police they were afraid someone would burn down the home because of what was painted on it, according to an incident report.
A Realtor selling the property streamed video of the vandalism on Facebook Live, drawing a wide response. Several nearby residents saw the online video and worked together to clear the property. They scrubbed and used a power washer on the spray paint.
This offense does not meet the federal standard of a hate crime, and so authorities charged Ms. Edelen with ethnic intimidation under state law, Toledo police Lt. Kevan Toney said.
That increases the severity of each misdemeanor charge, Lieutenant Toney said.
Police conducted their investigation and filed warrants against Ms. Edelen. They forced entry Saturday evening after she shut and locked the outer screen door on them, Lieutenant Toney said.
“Once we filed the warrants, our crews remained in the area and set up surveillance until we could determine she was inside the house,” Lieutenant Toney said.
Investigators are pleased residents assisted, allowing for a quicker action, Lieutenant Toney said.
“Any crime that appears to be racially motivated, we follow up immediately and aggressively, and that's what we did in this case. We're grateful we had good evidence and witness cooperation in the neighborhood,” Lieutenant Toney said.
Ms. Edelen's next hearing date has not yet been set. She remained held in the Lucas County jail as of Monday.
Contact Ryan Dunn at [email protected], 419-724-6095, or on Twitter @RDunnBlade. ||||| ...
eadio for our MLK Day event this year. We thought you should all have the chance to see it! Thanks to Will, our planning committee, our sponsors and our partners at University of Toledo for their many contributions to the event this year!
This tremendous video was produced by Will Lucas and the folks at Cr ||||| Overnight a racist, hate crime occured in Toledo. Today a dozen Toledo citizens, witthout being asked by anyone, came… Posted by Peter Ujvagi on Saturday, July 14, 2018
A 47-year-old Toledo woman pleaded not guilty Monday to “ethnic intimidation” after a house across the street from hers was covered in pro-Trump and anti-black graffiti over the weekend.
Police say the charge is rarely used. Rarer still is the story of how a community woke up Saturday morning to a shocking obscenity — and by evening the city had rallied to condemn and erase all traces of it, while police frog-marched the suspect through her yard in bedroom slippers.
The following story was assembled from police reports, social media posts and original reporting by the Toledo Blade and ABC 13-WTVG.
When Monica Davis was called to see what had been done to the Ogden house, the neighbor on the other end couldn’t even describe it.
“He was so distraught he couldn’t tell me what it was,” Davis told the Blade. “He said, ‘I’d just rather send you a picture.’ But I knew what it was.”
Davis had been a real estate agent for 13 years, she told her Facebook viewers after she arrived at the house Saturday morning, as she panned her camera across the yard so the world could see what she saw. “I see this happen all the time,” she said wearily.
Maybe not quite like this, though. The house at 626 Ogden Ave., a red brick two-bedroom home that Davis had hoped to close on next week, had been spray painted in giant white letters just beneath its front picture windows.
Left of the porch: “HAIL TRUMP.”
On the right: “N—–S KEEP OUT.”
(Warning: The video below depicts the slur above, uncensored.)
White woman spray-painted “Hail Trump” and a racial slur on her Black neighbor’s home early Saturday, about 2 miles from — and just hours before — Toledo’s annual African-American Parade.
This wasn't the first time! pic.twitter.com/BgctNeA6ha — Kim WhyNot (@kimblackproud) July 15, 2018
“Someone got my sign a little bit too,” Davis said, pointing the camera at her paint-splattered photo planted in the grass. “This stuff is happening every single day, and we can’t ignore this stuff.”
No one was occupying the house at the time, according to the Blade. The seller was in financial trouble, Davis told her Facebook Live viewers, and had been counting on the sale to go through.
“I ask you guys to help me make this go viral,” she said. “Help this lady get this off her house.”
People did that, and much more.
Less than three miles away, near the river, Toledo’s annual African American Parade had just kicked off. “Minutes after Ms. Davis’s video was online, community members appeared bearing power hoses to help remove the graffiti,” the Blade wrote.
Among them was a 15-year-old cheer student, Jayla Mitchell, who told the newspaper that “it makes me feel different about the city.”
At least two city council members also showed up, including Peter Ujvagi, who wrote that he had never been more dismayed — or more proud — as he photographed a dozen people blasting “Hail Trump” and “Keep Out” into invisibility.
By early afternoon, the Blade wrote, the mayor and police chief had been briefed on the incident, and a detective and officers were dispatched to Ogden Avenue to find the accused vandal.
As it turned out, this was not very difficult.
A man identified only as Christopher in the police report told officers that he had recorded his neighbor — 47-year-old Patricia Edelen — as she went about the vandalism that morning with no great subterfuge.
[‘Rapist!’ she yelled at a Hispanic man. ‘She’s quoting the president,’ he thought.]
“I can see her going across,” he recalled to WTVG. “I can see her shaking a can of spray paint. And we can see this person spraying, we can hear this person spraying, and walking back across. She made multiple trips.”
“It appeared that she was trying to paint some kind of gang sign,” on the front door, between the two messages, police wrote in their report. One of the TV stations called the symbol a swastika.
Christopher told reporters that he’d had “issues” with Edelen in the past, without going into detail. After seeing his video, police went about securing an arrest warrant.
They had the document in hand shortly before sundown, by which time the crowd had departed the vandalized house, leaving behind no trace of the messages.
Across the street, officers banged on the doors and windows of Edelen’s house for several minutes, according to the police report. She didn’t reply, but a few neighbors came by to tell police they had seen her cooking inside before they showed up.
Rather than wait until Sunday, police staked out the block. Edelen eventually stepped out onto her porch, but allegedly fled back inside and locked the screen door when she saw a squad car pull up.
“In hot pursuit, officers forced entry to the enclosed porch door,” police wrote in their report.
In footage aired by WTVG, two uniformed officers simply ripped open a light screen door and walked into the house. Edelen emerged in handcuffs and bedroom slippers. One of the officers locked up her house for Edelen after the arrest, according to the report, and left her key with a jail guard.
While the mayor called the vandalism a “hate crime,” Edelen was booked into jail on misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief and damage, and obstructing a public official.
But she also was charged with “ethnic intimidation.”
A police spokesman told The Washington Post that his department, “fortunately,” rarely has cause to use the latter charge. According to the Ohio State Bar Association, it allows misdemeanors to be upgraded to felonies with harsher punishments, providing “the criminal act was motivated by race, color, religion or national origin.”
Edelen pleaded not guilty to all charge Monday and was held in jail on a $25,000 bond, according to the Blade. It’s unclear whether she has an attorney, and she could not be reached.
Davis couldn’t be reached either to find out how the home sale is going. But her effort to call out what happened to the house was evidently successful. Her Facebook video had been viewed more than a half-million times by Tuesday.
Read more:
‘First day of paper route and we are pulled over by police’: The latest in #LivingWhileBlack
A barista refused to serve a man ‘being very racist’ to a Muslim. Her bosses backed her.
‘You’re out of your cotton-picking mind’: A Fox News guest explains hate speech to a black man ||||| Toledo police arrested Patricia Edelen for spray painting racial slurs on her neighbor's home Friday night.
"She had multiple warrants. She ran from the officers inside her residence. The officers were forced to make forced entry into her residence and took her in to custody without further incident," said Sgt. Paul Davis.
Police patrolled Ogden Ave. Saturday afternoon waiting for proof Edelen was home. Police say once she let out her dog, they went inside and arrested her for three first-degree misdemeanor charges.
The police report lists the charges as "ethnic intimidation by reason of race, color, religion or national origin, criminal mischief, and criminal damaging/endangering property to cause/create substantial risk of physical harm."
The police report says Edelen spray painted "N" (word) stay out" "Hail Trump" and a Swastika on her neighbor's home.
Chris lives next door to Edelen and says he's had issues with her in the past. He says he installed surveillance cameras on his home because of her.
Police used the video from his cameras to identify Edelen are said they can not share the video with 13abc at this time.
Chris described the video.
"I can see her going across, I can see her shaking a can of spray paint, and we can see this person spraying. We can hear the person spraying and walking back across, and she made multiple trips," said Chris.
Pat Balderas lives a few doors down.
"It's a hate crime, it's more than a misdemeanor. It can't happen, it has to be stopped," said Balderas.
The vandalism is now gone. Several community members and neighbors came together to wash away the racial slurs from the brick home.
"The good feeling that came from fixing that situation outweighed the initial shock of 'whoa in my neighborhood?." said Balderas.
Edelen is being held in the Lucas County jail.
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– A white Toledo woman was hit with charges including ethnic intimidation Monday after allegedly spray-painting "Hail Trump," "N--- keep out," and a swastika across the front of her black neighbor's home over the weekend. Patricia Edelen, 47, pleaded not guilty; she was ordered not to have any contact with the victim, who is in the process of selling the house. The incident went viral after Monica Davis, the victim's realtor, posted a video on social media showing the vandalism, which took place less than three miles away from the location where, mere hours later, the Ohio city's annual African American Parade would be kicking off. Davis called for the video to go viral, and it did: Soon, community members were at the house, power washing and scrubbing away the spray-painted words, the Toledo Blade reports. "This morning we had a great time celebrating our community’s diversity at the African American Festival parade. At the same time, a family in our community experienced a hate crime," Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz posted on Facebook on Saturday. But since the alleged crime does not meet the federal standards for a hate crime, the ethnic intimidation charge was filed, which increases the severity of the other misdemeanor charges Edelen is facing—criminal mischief, criminal damaging, and obstructing official business. Police tell the Washington Post the charge is rarely used. A neighbor caught Edelen on video allegedly vandalizing the home, and police used the recording to identify her, ABC 13 reports. They had to force their way into her house to arrest her Saturday night after she refused to allow them in. "I have never been more dismayed and [then] more proud of Toledo than today," a resident posted Saturday along with pictures of the clean-up.
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Print Share + Kerry On Yacht-Taxes Issue: 'Nothing More To Say'
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
Senator John Kerry found himself answering questions Monday about his new $7 million yacht and the controversy about where he's docking it "There's nothing more to say about it," he told reporters at an event at the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station Monday.The "Isabel" is docked in Rhode Island rather than at Kerry's summer home on Nantucket or in Boston Harbor. That means he avoids paying nearly $500,000 in taxes to Massachusetts and he doesn't have to pay a $70,000-a-year excise tax.Rhode Island repealed those taxes in 1993. That has made the state something of a nautical tax haven."Let's get this very straight, I've said consistently we will pay our taxes, we have always paid our taxes. It's not an issue period," he said.Last week, when the Boston Herald broke the story, Kerry's office released a statement saying, "The boat was designed by and purchased from a company in Rhode Island, and it's based in Newport at the Newport Shipyard for long term maintenance, upkeep and charter purposes, not tax reasons.""It's being worked on," Kerry said on Monday. "It's under warranty down there. It's being worked on and it will come to Massachusetts and I look forward to that."Kerry's aide told WBZ Monday night that the senator will pay whatever taxes he owes on the Isabelle. She says the Department of Revenue will determine how much he owes.When asked "Did you berth the boat in Massachusetts?" he replied, "That depends on who owns it."Then, he said to his driver, "Can I get out of here please?"Kerry spokesperson David Wade said the vessel was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine and purchased in the Ocean State. It was built in New Zealand by Friendship Yachts.The Nantucket Boat Basin confirmed to WBZ on Monday that the Isabel has been docked at the marina "numerous" times this summer.A spokesperson with the Department of Revenue who did not want to comment specifically on Kerry's case said ownership by an out-of-state corporation wouldn't matter. And, the law states if you bring the purchased property into the state within six months of buying it, you would be subject to the sales tax.Coast Guard registration records show the vessel is owned by Great Point LLC, a limited liability corporation based in Pittsburgh, Heinz's longtime home.The 76-foot sloop has two cabins, a pilot house fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage, according to the Herald.It derives its moniker from the middle name of Kerry's mother and the name his wife, Teresa Heinz, planned to give a daughter.Instead, she had three sons.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.) ||||| Forget “Isabel” - Liveshot Kerry should rename his $7 million sloop “The Botched Joke.”
You remember that was how he tried to explain away his nasty little dig at the military, back in 2006, saying that if kids don’t study hard, they’ll end up in Iraq. He said it was a botched joke. So I wonder how Liveshot is trying to explain this latest botched joke to his ancient gold-digging bride in her $9.2 million mansion on Brant Point in Nantucket. ||||| Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.
Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.
But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.
Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?
Cash-strapped Massachusetts still collects a 6.25 percent sales tax and an annual excise tax on yachts. Sources say Isabel sold for something in the neighborhood of $7 million, meaning Kerry saved approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000.
The senior senator’s chief of staff David Wade denied the old salt was berthing his boat out of state to avoid ponying up to the commonwealth.
“The boat was designed by and purchased from a company in Rhode Island, and it’s based in Newport at the Newport Shipyard for long-term maintenance, upkeep and charter purposes, not tax reasons,” Wade told the Track.
And state Department of Revenue spokesguy Bob Bliss confirmed the senator “is under no obligation to pay the commonwealth sales tax.”
But back in 2006, then-gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos took some flack for avoiding some $23,000 in Bay State sales tax and $1,320 in local excise taxes by berthing his motor yacht in Rhode Island. But Mihos paid just $475,000 for his 36-foot vessel Ashley and readily admitted that he used the boat at his West Yarmouth summer home.
However, according to Bliss, if Kerry berths the Isabel in Massachusetts waters within six months of purchasing the boat, there’s a “presumption of use” and the Heinz-Kerrys would have to walk the plank and pony up to the Bay State. After six months, should the boat change its berth to, say, Nantucket, then it’s up to the state to go after them for the taxes, Bliss added.
Yesterday, the Isabel, which lists Great Point LLC of Pittsburgh, Penn., as its owner, was getting a spruce-up at the Hinckley shipyard in Portsmouth, R.I. Sources say the senior senator is demanding that some warranty work be done.
Fontaine, a protege of legendary sailboat designer Ted Hood, was tight-lipped about the owners of Isabel but he did confirm the boat was built in New Zealand. According to Internet reports, Kerry was seen in Whangarei last December inspecting his new high-seas plaything.
File Under: Shipping Up To Boston (Not). ||||| New England boat builders say shame on Sen. John Kerry for buying a $7 million New Zealand-built luxury yacht while local ship makers struggle to find work.
“Darn, that would have been a wonderful job for a Maine builder,” said Jane Wellehan, president of the trade group Maine Built Boats. “If someone comes to build a $7 million boat that would employ half the population of some towns for a year or two. Boat building is such a critical component of our coastal economy.” |||||
What is a summary?
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– John Kerry says there's "nothing more to say about" the PR disaster surrounding his decision to save $500,000 in taxes by keeping his new $7 million yacht in Rhode Island rather than cash-strapped Massachusetts—but taxpayers in the senator's home state think otherwise. "Do as I say, not as I do," Howie Carr writes for the Boston Herald, which broke the story in its gossip column. "Taxes for thee but not for me." "Let's get this very straight, I've said consistently we will pay our taxes, we have always paid our taxes," Kerry told WBZ. "It's not an issue period." But it is for plenty of other people, including the American boatwrights fuming because the senator's new ride came from New Zealand. "Darn, that would have been a wonderful job for a Maine builder," the head of an industry group tells ... the Herald, again. Carr notes, "You can tell how devastating it is by the way the Globe is giving it a good leaving-alone." For more on Kerry, and one pundit's contention that he's partly to blame for the Scott Brown phenomenon, click here.
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Summarize this article:
Archaeologists have discovered the wreck of a Mongolian ship that was part of a fleet dispatched by Kublai Khan to invade Japan in the 13th century.
The ship is the second to be located off southern Japan from two massive armadas – each reputedly made up of more than 4,000 ships and with an invasion force of 140,000 men – sent by the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty to conquer Japan in 1274 and 1281.
Both invasion fleets were destroyed by devastating typhoons, with the storms going down in Japanese history as "kamikaze", or divine wind, that saved the nation from foreign invasion. The kamikaze were again invoked in the dying days of the Second World War, with the crew of aircraft and miniature submarines carrying out suicide missions against the Allies.
The Mongolian vessel has been located in a bay close to the city of Matsuura, on the west coast of the island of Kyushu, and archaeologists believe it was taking shelter from the storm when it foundered.
Part of the hull of the ship was found beneath a thin layer of sediment around 75 feet beneath the surface.
• Pinning down Kublai Khan
Porcelain that was made in China was found around the remarkably well-preserved wreck, including a vase and a white bowl, Atsuyuki Nakata, the head of the cultural properties division of the Matsuura city board of education, told The Telegraph.
Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan
"One thing that we hope to learn from the wreck is the kind of materials that were used by the Mongolians 730 years ago, as well as the techniques used in the construction of the ship," he said.
"In the first ship that we located, in 2011, we found a number of coins, but we have yet to find any on this latest vessel," he added. Other finds on the new discovery include roof tiles and iron utensils.
The wreck found in 2011 (Ryukyu University)
The ship is estimated to have measured 65 feet from bow to stern and had a beam of around 23 feet, making it smaller than the vessel found four years ago. The hull was divided by nine wooden bulkheads, which remain clearly visible, and laden with rocks that appear to have served as ballast.
The local board of education has been working with archaeologists from Okinawa's University of the Ryukus, with Prof Yoshifumi Ikeda claiming that his team has already identified three more sites that may be the wrecks of Mongolian ships and that the search for more, using ultrasound equipment, continues.
• Travelling hopefully with Marco Polo
History does not record how many of the two fleets managed to return to mainland Asia, but Mr Nakata is convinced that many more wrecks remain to be found in the bays of western Kyushu.
"We have covered the wreck with silt again, in order to preserve the timber, and we are having discussions about whether we should attempt to raise it," he said. ||||| For centuries the imperial palace of Kublai Khan’s Yuan dynasty was shrouded in mystery.
After the dynasty collapsed, there were no clues as to where it was and it lived on only in legend through writings such as those of 13th century Venetian merchant Marco Polo.
If Polo is to be believed, the walls of “the greatest palace that ever was” were covered with gold and silver and the main hall was so large that it could easily seat 6,000 people for dinner.
Chinese archaeologists solve mystery of Beijing’s Forbidden Palace
“The palace was made of cane supported by 200 silk cords, which could be taken to pieces and transported easily when the emperor moved,” he wrote in his travel journal.
It was a vision of grandeur but the palace disappeared, seemingly without trace.
Explore the Forbidden City dig
The Yuan dynasty lasted for a less than a century, spanning the years from 1279 to 1368, and it is widely believed that the capital of the empire was Beijing.
But in the centuries since, one question has dogged historians and archaeologists in China: just where was the dynasty’s palace?
Craftsmen who built China’s Terracotta Army ‘ate dogs’: study
Now experts at the Palace Museum in Beijing believe that they have some answers, clues they stumbled upon during upgrades to the heritage site’s underground power and fire-extinguishing systems.
According to historical records, the Yuan palace in Beijing was abandoned by its last emperor, Toghon Temür, who was overthrown by rebel troops that established the Ming dynasty in the 14th century.
Some experts believe the palace was razed by Ming soldiers who took over the city, while others insist the buildings were removed by Ming workers on the site of what was to become the Forbidden City.
The foundations for the sprawling Forbidden City were laid in 1406 and construction continued for another 14 years. It was the imperial palace for the Ming rulers and then the Qing dynasty until 1912.
Light finally shed on some of the wonders of Beijing’s Forbidden City
The complex has been built up, layer by layer, but researchers sifting through the sands of archaeological time said last month that they had found evidence that at least part of the Yuan palace was beneath the site.
The researchers from the museum’s Institute of Archaeology said the proof was a 3 metre thick rammed earth and rubble foundation buried beneath the layers of Ming and Qing dynasty construction.
Institute deputy director Wang Guangyao said the foundation unearthed in the central-west part of the palace was in the same style as one uncovered in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, in the ruins of Zhongdu, one of the four capitals of the Yuan dynasty.
Some of the rubble in the newly discovered Yuan foundation dated back even further to dynasties such as the Liao (907–1125) and the Jin (1115–1234), Wang said.
Wang said a foundation of such size was rare in Yuan buildings and could have been used to support a palatial hall.
More exploration of the dig at the Forbidden City
At the very least, the find proved that the Yuan palace was built on the same site as the Ming palace, though it was still too early to say these two completely overlapped.
At least we now know that the palace was not built somewhere else but here
Wang Guangyao, deputy director of the Palace Museum’s Institute of Archaeology
“At least we now know that the palace was not built somewhere else but here,” Wang said.
“From a historical perspective, it gives us evidence that the architectural history runs uninterrupted from the Yuan, to the Ming and Qing dynasties.”
The discovery has also revived debate about the Central Axis of Beijing – a 7.8km strip that runs from Yongding Gate to the Drum and Bell towers and included the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party leadership compound.
Many Chinese believe the axis has been the city’s “sacred backbone” since the Ming dynasty but others argue that it goes back further to the mid-13th century.
Wang said it was still too early to conclude whether the Yuan, Ming and Qing were built along the same axis.
“As archaeologists, we can only define what we have found,” Wang said. “But it gives us a direction for future exploration.”
Wang said it wasn’t easy to excavate in one of the country’s most important cultural sites and more work was still to be done.
Amazing journey: how China hid palace artefacts from Japanese invaders
“Even if we think a certain site is important for an archaeological finding, we can’t just dig the ground up because it is not allowed,” Wang said.
“All we can do is to wait and collect as much evidence as we can until sometime later, probably in a generation or two, work is done in those places and we can put all the finds together to see if they are all connected.”
The new discovery would be open to the public soon, Wang said. ||||| Chinese archaeologists believe they may have solved one of the great mysteries of antiquity in Beijing – the site of the imperial palace of the Yuan dynasty established by Kublai Khan in the 13th century.
And while the Yuan palace was always believed to have been located near the present Forbidden City, experts from the Palace Museum now think it was under their feet, literally, in the centre of China’s most famous royal residence, Youth.cn reports.
Undersea treasure: archaeologists find submerged Qin dynasty ‘seaside palace’ of China’s first emperor
Announcing the rare find yesterday, the experts said they had uncovered the foundations of a royal residence seven centuries old at the bottom layer of an archaeological dig in the centre of the Forbidden City.
The sprawling complex, built between 1406 and 1420, was the imperial palace of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and then the Qing dynasty until 1912.
The exact site of the Yuan imperial palace had remained a mystery but was thought to be close to the Forbidden City.
However, Palace Museum experts started a series of archaeological digs at the centre of the complex in 2014 in the hope of learning more about its construction history.
Locked tomb in eastern China may hold key to fate of little-known emperor 2,000 years ago
One of the excavation sites, in the centre of the Forbidden City, revealed four layers of historic foundations – starting with Qing at the top, late Ming then early Ming, and finally the Yuan at the bottom.
Li Ji, director of the museum’s archaeology department, told the news website Youth.cn that workers from the Ming dynasty removed all the Yuan era buildings on the site before they started construction of the Forbidden City, so such a discovery was extremely rare.
Other recent discoveries nearby include the ruins of a garden palace for the emperor’s mother, as well as a refuse pit for abandoned Qing Dynasty porcelain.
. ||||| China has a love-hate relationship with what is foreign. Traditionally all people beyond the Great Wall were barbarians - only part human. But invaders have sometimes been welcomed, in time, into the Chinese family. One was Kublai Khan.
In the 13th Century, no-one knew how big the world was so it was not so wild for the Mongols to set off from the grassland with the idea that they were going to conquer all of it.
When the mighty Genghis Khan died in 1227, he had already claimed an empire stretching from the Pacific to Europe. His grandson Kublai set out to finish the job, and started by moving south to attack China's Song dynasty.
But China had been a united empire on and off for more than 1,000 years. So what did the Song dynasty rulers make of Kublai's ambition?
"For the Song, it would been absolutely inconceivable that the Mongols could take over the whole of China," says John Man, author of a biography of Kublai Khan.
"It would have been like, I don't know, the Picts taking over the Roman Empire or the Sioux in North America taking over the whole of Canada and the United States - inconceivable. So when it actually happened, the shock was catastrophic."
The child emperor committed suicide. So did many loyal officials and their families.
Over centuries, the Chinese had got used to regarding themselves as THE world civilisation, and now this civilisation was at the mercy of people they viewed as barbarians.
"Barbarians are these people who are not Chinese - savages, hovering between human and some kind of beast," says Xun Zhou, a historian at Hong Kong University.
As History is My Witness Former BBC Beijing correspondent Carrie Gracie presents a 10-part series on figures from Chinese history who reveal something about China
Programmes can be heard every weekday on BBC Radio 4 at 13:45 BST
Alternatively, listen again on the BBC iPlayer China: As History Is My Witness Download the podcast
She points out that unease about the barbarian or foreign devil is embedded in Chinese writing. Part of the character used to refer to them is the one used for animals.
"These people looked different. And that difference proposed a problem," says Xun Zhou. "For China, they don't really know how they should react to these people."
Mongol pleasures included wrestling, fermented mare's milk and throat singing, where the singer sings chords instead of single notes.
All very different from the southern Chinese elites who wore exquisite silks, admired each other's poetry and went to art exhibitions. They paid armies to do the fighting.
Kublai was hugely outnumbered. The Song dynasty was a "a monumental culture" of 70 million people, says Man, and 10 to 100 times stronger in military terms.
The Mongols had to be clever. One major battle took place at Xiangyang, a city with impenetrable walls dominating the Han River, a tributary of the Yangtze.
Having a porous sense of what is Chinese is itself part of the Chinese tradition
"This turned into a sort of a mini Troy," says Man.
"The siege went on for five years. The Chinese could not break out, the Mongols could not break in. There were countless attempts to sneak in, to break in, to break out - all foiled. So there had to be some sort of a new initiative, and the initiative was suggested by the empire itself."
The Mongol empire, that is.
Kublai's relatives ruled all the way to Eastern Europe and he had heard of great catapults the Christians had used during the Crusades. He summoned two Persian engineers, who built the equivalent of heavy artillery - a catapult that could sling 100kg (220lb) of rock over 200m-300m (650ft - 1,000ft).
After a few shots to get the range, it brought down a mighty tower in a cloud of dust. The capture of the city allowed the Mongol fleets access to southern China which, for the first time, was taken by barbarians.
Kublai, in fact, ruled over all of present-day China. Yunnan in the south-west bordering Vietnam and Burma, Xinjiang stretching into central Asia, and of course Tibet. It is paradoxical that the country owes its enormous size to invaders with expansionist ambitions.
Kublai Khan's pleasure dome The Venetian merchant Marco Polo left a description of Kublai Khan's palace which, slightly shortened, goes like this: "It is enclosed all round by a great wall with five gates on its southern face, the middle one never opened on any occasion except when the Khan himself goes forth or enters. This is the greatest palace that ever was. The roof is very lofty, and the walls of the palace are all covered with gold and silver. The hall is so large that it could easily dine 6,000 people. The roof is vermilion, yellow, green and blue, the tiles fixed with a varnish so fine that they shine like crystal and can be seen from a great distance."
Kublai's capital was Beijing. The city today goes on putting up scaffolding and high-rises. But it was Kublai who gave it its first big makeover.
He gave his dynasty a Chinese name, Yuan, and he ruled through a Chinese civil service. Chinese history has returned the compliment by absorbing the Mongol dynasty into its own imperial story - and absorbing part of Mongolia itself into the Chinese state.
Today the Mongolians form one of China's 56 ethnic groups, along with Tibetans, Uighurs and the dominant Han.
Having a porous sense of what is Chinese is itself part of the Chinese tradition.
The same applies to innovations the barbarians brought with them and which China found useful. Chinese medicine absorbed Islamic medicine, points out Xun, "but they never talk about it".
Galloping as they did from one end of Eurasia to the other, the Mongols had picked up plenty of useful novelties.
"They introduced buttons," says Verity Wilson, an expert on Chinese clothes and textiles.
"Prior to this time, men and women had always closed their robes with some sort of belt. But, the Yuan dynasty is credited with bringing to China the toggle-and-loop button, which now today we just call Chinese. It's a real marker of Chinese dress that they're closed with these toggle-and-loop buttons. But they didn't really come in until the Yuan dynasty."
This process of assimilation has continued ever since. Chillies are a later example, arriving from the New World in the Ming dynasty of the 15th and 16th centuries.
"But now they've been absolutely incorporated into the Chinese way of life, and we can't really think about Chinese cooking without chillies," says Wilson.
"And the other thing we think about is teapots. Teapots have very much become an item associated with China. But pre-Ming dynasty, there were no teapots in China. So I think all those things which we take to be quintessentially Chinese have actually been absorbed by the Chinese from other cultures."
The arrival of the bicycle some 500 years later was initially greeted with scorn.
To begin with, it was only so-called "foreign devils" who rode them. No self-respecting Chinese gentleman - and even less a woman - would be seen sweating under their own locomotion. But soon it would become the Chinese worker's vehicle of choice.
Just 50 years ago, if a Chinese had declared a preference for American food, it might have cost them their liberty, if not their life. China rid itself of Japanese occupation at the end of World War II and the communists had thrown out Westerners after 1949. Soon, even the Soviets were sent packing.
It was part of the party's narrative of a united China standing up to foreign aggressors.
But by the 1980s, foreigners were being welcomed back. Which is why, 20 years ago, I attended the opening of the first McDonald's restaurant in Beijing. Now it feels as if there is American fast food or coffee on every corner.
Image caption McDonalds has more than 1,400 restaurants in China
In some ways, today's penetration of foreign products - American fast food, German cars and Japanese electronics - mirrors that of a century ago when the colonial powers had forced open Chinese ports to trade. The difference is that this time it is at China's invitation.
Columbus heads for China History throws up some very strange ironies. If it was not for Kublai Khan, the Western powers might never have got to China by the 19th Century. It was his legend which inspired the European age of exploration. "Because of Marco Polo's account of Kublai Khan, Columbus decided to head to China," says John Man. "He headed west and discovered that China was not where he thought it was, that America was in the way and so in the end it was Kublai through Marco Polo that inspired Columbus to discover America."
Kublai's own dream of world domination would never be realised. Twice he launched an armada against Japan, the largest the world had ever seen or would ever see again until the Allied invasion of Europe 700 years later. And twice his navy was scattered by what the Japanese called their kamikaze, or "divine wind".
The Mongol dream of world conquest sank with Kublai's ships.
"He became old, he became fat, he became ill. His only son and heir died, his wife died, and he himself died in 1294 and left this part of the empire to his heirs, and none of them matched him in competence," says Man.
"So 80 years later, they were chased out in a revolution and went back to the grassland from which they originally emerged."
The revolution put a home-grown emperor on the throne, but only until the next foreign dynasty which again brought China new territory and ideas.
The very last emperor of all loved bicycles, by the way. He is said to have removed doorstops in the Forbidden City so that he could cycle around, but that is another story. The point I want to make is that there is complicated history around what is Chinese… and what is not.
Translation of The Travels of Marco Polo by Colonel Sir Henry Yule. |||||
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– In the 13th century, Kublai Khan—grandson of Genghis Khan—conquered China, effectively ruling over all of it from Beijing. The Mongolian bestowed upon his dynasty a Chinese name, Yuan, and built a palace that Marco Polo described as "the greatest ... that ever was," with a vermilion, yellow, green, and blue roof and a dining hall with a capacity of 6,000, per the BBC. But Polo's writings have been among the best remains of the imperial palace, which effectively disappeared sometime after the Yuan dynasty's 1368 end—until, perhaps, now. The South China Morning Post reports that archaeologists believe they know where the Yuan palace was built. The Forbidden City served as the palace for the Ming and then Qing dynasties, and the Post reports that it's long been thought the Yuan palace stood near there. A little closer than "near," it turns out: Archaeologists found a 10-foot-thick "rammed earth and rubble foundation" beneath three previous layers of construction done under early and late Ming and Qing rulers. Wang Guangyao, the deputy director of the Palace Museum's Institute of Archaeology, tells the Post the style of the foundation is identical to the ruins of another capital of the Yuan dynasty. Wang adds that the size of the foundation is atypical of Yuan buildings and suggests it could have been part of a massive hall. It's not the only recent Kublai Khan-related find: Last July archaeologists found a portion of the hull of a ship he sent as part of an armada that tried in vain to invade Japan, the Telegraph reported. (Another recent, "truly miraculous" find: the original Alamo?)
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input: President Donald Trump left many people — including former first daughter Chelsea Clinton — confused Saturday night when he suggested that something terrible had happened in Sweden the previous evening.
No tragedy occurred that day in Sweden, which the internet had fun pointing out. On Sunday, Clinton made sure to highlight the Trump administration's penchant for inventing terrorist attacks.
What happened in Sweden Friday night? Did they catch the Bowling Green Massacre perpetrators? — Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) February 19, 2017
Solid burn, Chelsea.
In case you missed it, Trump made the remark during a campaign-style rally in Melbourne, Florida this weekend about two hours north of his Mar-a-Lago Club.
From a transcript of the speech:
"Here's the bottom line. We've got to keep our country safe. You look at what's happening. We've got to keep our country safe. You look at what's happening in Germany, you look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this. Sweden. They took in large numbers. They're having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what's happening in Brussels. You look at what's happening all over the world. Take a look at Nice. Take a look at Paris. We've allowed thousands and thousands of people into our country and there was no way to vet those people. There was no documentation. There was no nothing. So we're going to keep our country safe."
Don't worry, the people of Sweden are doing just fine.
[H/T: The Hill] ||||| The White House worked to clarify President Donald Trump‘s comments from Saturday, when he seemingly referred to an act of terrorism in Sweden the night before, saying he was in fact referring to a news report on rising crime in that country.
Speaking to reporters Sunday, principal deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters that Trump was referring to general incidents of rising crime in Sweden committed by refugees, and not an act of terror. A Fox News segment Friday night included a report from a documentary filmmaker claiming a link between refugee admissions and rising crime.
“You look at what’s happening in Germany. You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden — Sweden — who would believe this? Sweden, they took in large numbers, they are having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what’s happening Brussels, you look at what’s happening all over the world,” Trump said Saturday evening at a campaign rally.
“He was talking about rising crime and recent incidents in general, and not referring to a specific incident,” Sanders said. “I think he was referring to a report he had seen the previous night that spoke specifically to that topic,” Sanders added, declining to confirm that Trump had specifically watched the Fox News segment.
Shortly after Sanders spoke, Trump tweeted to confirm he was referring to the Fox News report. ||||| Tweet with a location
You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more |||||
summary: – After roughly 24 hours of confusion about what President Trump meant when he referenced an incident in Sweden on Friday night, an answer from the president himself. "My statement as to what's happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden," he tweeted Sunday evening. The story was likely an interview with documentary maker Ami Horowitz that aired on Fox; Horowitz's latest film examines Sweden's crime rate and whether it's related to the nation's open-door policy toward refugees. Time reports that shortly before Trump's tweet, principal deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders said much the same thing: "He was talking about rising crime and recent incidents in general, and not referring to a specific incident. I think he was referring to a report he had seen the previous night that spoke specifically to that topic," Sanders said, though she didn't specify Fox News by name. Twitter has been full of jokes on the topic, from those about ABBA to some shade thrown the president's way by Chelsea Clinton.
input: Set to the all-new sonic backdrop of Awesome Mixtape #2, Marvel Studios' "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" continues the team's adventures as they traverse the outer reaches of the cosmos. The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mystery of Peter Quill's true parentage. Old foes become new allies and fan-favorite characters from the classic comics will come to our heroes' aid as the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to expand. ||||| This will appear next to all of your comments
This will NOT appear anywhere on Newser |||||
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– Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 rocketed to an estimated $145 million debut, kicking off Hollywood's summer movie season with something the movie business has been lacking: a sequel more successful than the original. Studio estimates released Sunday said James Gunn's second Guardians film opened 54% higher than the 2014 runaway hit. That release debuted with $94 million in its first weekend. Once a little-known, oddball property in Marvel's vault, the AP reports that Guardians of the Galaxy have grown into one of the comic-book factory's biggest brands. The latest in the franchise marks the 15th straight No. 1 opening for Marvel Studios, notes CNN, and its fifth biggest debut overall. Guardians currently has a 81% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, though audience ratings push that number to 90%. The Walt Disney Co. validated Guardians, too, by moving it to the first weekend in May, the start of the lucrative summer movie season. Fearing the might of Guardians, no other major studio releases debuted over the weekend.
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Write a summary based on this article:
In 2013, President Obama’s quietly met with students at Chicago’s Hyde Park Academy High School who were participating in the “Becoming a Man” program for inner-city youth.Obama has used the meetings as motivation for a new White House initiative on young men of color, which he promised to launch in this year’s State of the Union. Here are a few of the students he met.
In 2013, President Obama’s quietly met with students at Chicago’s Hyde Park Academy High School who were participating in the “Becoming a Man” program for inner-city youth.Obama has used the meetings as motivation for a new White House initiative on young men of color, which he promised to launch in this year’s State of the Union. Here are a few of the students he met.
In 2013, President Obama’s quietly met with students at Chicago’s Hyde Park Academy High School who were participating in the “Becoming a Man” program for inner-city youth.Obama has used the meetings as motivation for a new White House initiative on young men of color, which he promised to launch in this year’s State of the Union. Here are a few of the students he met.
He has lamented growing up without a father before. He has acknowledged, in speeches and in a best-selling autobiography, his anger and confusion about that fact. He has admitted youthful drug use and the pull of other temptations.
But with the ornate East Room of the White House as a backdrop, Barack Obama on Thursday became the first U.S. president ever to publicly utter, “I got high.” He said those three, once politically devastating words standing in front of 19 at-risk black and Hispanic teenagers, to remind them that he was once like them.
He was not just the first black president or a black father. He was a concerned black leader seeking to stir public outrage over the disparities in educational achievement and incarceration faced by young minority men — a demographic he once approached with political hesitation for fear he would be accused of racial favoritism.
Early in his presidency, in attempting to sand the rough edges of the George W. Bush administration, Obama would use his story as evidence that the United States — far from bullying and intolerant — is a country that forgives, overcomes and works toward a more perfect union, to use a phrase that he turns to often.
On Thursday, though, he held up his story as a sunny exception to the cloudier rule.
Many young black and Latino men in this country face far steeper hills than their white counterparts — or than he did as a young black man raised in a white middle-class neighborhood in Honolulu. Obama condemned the nation’s apathy toward obstacles to minority progress, and called for greater public attention to knocking them down.
“The group that is facing some of the most severe challenges in 21st century America is boys and young men of color,” the president said. “I believe the continuing struggles of so many boys and young men, the fact that too many of them are falling by the wayside, dropping out, unemployed, involved in negative behavior, going to jail, being profiled — this is a moral issue for our country.”
Obama’s remarks came at an event highlighting a new White House initiative, “My Brother’s Keeper,” to secure commitments from foundations and businesses to help keep young minority men in the classroom and out of prison. He characterized the moment as part of a “year of action” in which he is using his executive authority to accomplish his goals.
But it was clear that this was no ordinary White House event. Obama was channeling his life experience, from the beaches of Hawaii to the streets of Chicago, and was projecting forward to what he would do when he leaves the White House at age 55.
“The president has made clear the challenges facing young men and boys of color is something of great personal importance to him,” said Valerie Jarrett, his senior adviser and longtime friend. “And for this reason, this initiative is something that is one that the president has been closely involved in every step along the way, and one that he and the first lady will remain committed to after the end of his presidency.”
The initiative features $200 million worth of commitments by organizations such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies to invest in programs that help young black and Hispanic men.
Obama also established a federal task force that will seek to marshal federal programs in the effort. The group will focus on evaluating and promoting the best policies for improving the lives of young men of color, and the best metrics for assessing success or failure.
The president spoke in front of an audience that included many black and Hispanic leaders. Also attending were the parents of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, two unarmed black teenagers from Florida who were shot dead in separate incidents, causing national outrage.
It was the shooting of Martin, and the subsequent not-guilty verdict in the jury trial of George Zimmerman, that led Obama to redouble his focus last year on what his administration can do to help young black men. But the president framed his message Thursday as a way to appeal to the entire nation.
“If I can persuade, you know, Sharpton and O’Reilly to be in the same meeting, then it means that there are people of good faith who want to get some stuff done,” he said, referring to opposing television personalities Al Sharpton and Bill O’Reilly, both of whom attended.
In personal language, Obama sought to make the case that the nation must act as a whole to lift up struggling young men.
“I know if I had a son, on the day he was born, I would have felt everything I felt with Malia and Sasha — the awe, the gratitude, the overwhelming sense of responsibility to do everything in my power to protect that amazing new life from this big world out there,” he said. “I don’t have a son, but as parents, that’s what we should want not just for our children but for all children.”
After speaking nearly 5,000 words, Obama turned away from the microphone and gave a personal message to one of the teenagers, telling him, “I’m counting on you.” ||||| “My Brother’s Keeper” has a much nicer ring than “stop and frisk.” It also promises to be a more effective, less self-defeating way to address the interlocking social and economic crises afflicting young men of color.
I’ll go out on a limb and predict that President Obama gets some heat for launching a program whose benefits are aimed solely at African American and Hispanic men and boys. The nation’s first black president gets slammed by critics who accuse him of “playing the race card” every time he acknowledges that race and racism still play a role in determining opportunities and outcomes.
Eugene Robinson writes a twice-a-week column on politics and culture, contributes to the PostPartisan blog, and hosts a weekly online chat with readers. In a three-decade career at The Post, Robinson has been city hall reporter, city editor, foreign correspondent in Buenos Aires and London, foreign editor, and assistant managing editor in charge of the paper’s Style section. View Archive
But obviously they do. My Brother’s Keeper, which Obama announced Thursday, is the kind of targeted public-private initiative that might actually do some good, even without tons of new federal money thrown in.
I suppose other critics might ask what took Obama so long. The president bristles at this line of questioning, pointing to the fact that his most ambitious achievements — including the Affordable Care Act — have their greatest impact among disadvantaged minorities.
Obama also understands that even if he had a Congress that would give him carte blanche, solving the problems that face young men of color would take many years of sustained effort.
1 of 12 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Will 2014 be the year of progressives? View Photos Post columnists E.J. Dionne and Katrina vanden Heuvel explain why the left should look forward to this year. Caption Post columnists E.J. Dionne and Katrina vanden Heuvel explain why the left should look forward to this year. For progressives, a positive year ahead “The reemergence of a Democratic left will be one of the major stories of 2014,” says Post columnist E.J. Dionne . “The widespread predictions that 2014 will witness only more of the same,” adds fellow columnist Katrina vanden Heuvel , “ignore the growing reality that, outside the Beltway, people are beginning to stir and change is in the air.” Jose Luis Magana/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
You’d have to fix broken schools and broken families. You’d have to eliminate the racial bias in policing and the justice system that makes African American and Hispanic men far more likely to be stopped, arrested and sent to prison than whites who engage in similar illegal behavior. You’d have to somehow bring enough commerce and industry back into hollowed-out neighborhoods to provide decent jobs. You’d have to convince millions of young men that the odds are not stacked against them, despite copious evidence to the contrary.
Where do you even start? Down in the trenches.
“We have credibility on these issues because we’ve been working on the ground,” La June Montgomery Tabron, president and chief executive of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, told me over lunch this week.
Kellogg is one of 10 major foundations that have agreed to join business leaders and the federal government in the Brother’s Keeper initiative. Collectively, the foundations are already spending more than $150 million on programs aimed at young men of color. They are now pledging to invest at least an additional $200 million, coordinating their efforts to channel the funds toward approaches that deliver measurable results.
The other participating foundations deserve a shout-out: the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropies, the California Endowment, the Ford Foundation, the John R. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Kapor Center for Social Impact, the Open Society Foundations, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Bloomberg Philanthropies. Thanks and kudos to all.
As the foundations identify factors that either create or destroy opportunity for young men of color, Obama has pledged to adjust federal policy accordingly. One example is the disparity in school suspensions. The Education Department recently issued new guidelines for enforcing “zero tolerance” school disciplinary policies after studies found that minorities were more likely than whites to be suspended for infractions. Students who miss class time due to suspensions are less likely to graduate. And in the case of far too many young men of color, during the suspensions — when they’re not in the relative sanctuary of school — they are more likely to find themselves in potentially dangerous situations.
As Montgomery Tabron reminded me, Trayvon Martin’s home was in Miami, far from the central Florida town where he died. At the time of his fatal encounter with George Zimmerman, Martin was staying with his father for a few days because he had been suspended from school. Authorities had found what they said was marijuana residue in his backpack.
No one is arguing that young men of color are all angels. Obama has consistently preached the need for at-risk youths to take personal responsibility for their lives. Some commentators have criticized the president — unfairly, he feels — for “blaming the victims” rather than the societal forces that work against them.
But the reality is that if you’re male and African American or Hispanic, you can’t afford to make the same youthful mistakes that your white counterparts get to make. For example, blacks and whites are equally likely to smoke weed, according to surveys. But blacks are four times more likely to be arrested and jailed on marijuana charges.
That’s one of the many reasons why this race-specific initiative is so badly needed. My Brother’s Keeper isn’t a solution. But it’s a start.
Read more from Eugene Robinson’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A. ||||| “That’s what ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ is all about. Helping more of our young people stay on track. Providing the support they need to think more broadly about their future. Building on what works – when it works, in those critical life-changing moments.”
- President Barack Obama, February 27, 2014 Read President Obama's remarks on the My Brother's Keeper initiative.
President Obama Mentoring Legacy
Kevin Durant on MBK Success Mentors Initiative
Kevin Durant shares why he's proud to be part of the My Brother's Keeper Success Mentors Initiative, and how everyone can join in helping students succeed
Read more.
Two Years of My Brothers Keeper
Since MBK’s first anniversary report a little more than one year ago, more than 50 additional communities have accepted the My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge, including those in seven new states, independent private sector support for grants and in-kind resources has more than doubled to more than $600 million, and more than 80% of the recommendations the MBK Task Force sent to the President two years ago are complete or on track.
This report tracks progress achieved in the past year on efforts to make a measurable difference in the lives of young people.
Check out the slideshow to see the progress we've made.
Read and download the report.
FACT SHEET: My Brother’s Keeper – Two Years of Expanding Opportunity & Creating Pathways for Success
President Obama and Steph Curry on Mentoring
You don’t need to be an NBA star or the President of the United States to be someone’s hero. You have the power to change a young person’s life by becoming a mentor at Mentor.gov.
More Videos
I Am MBK: Proud to Present Watch on YouTube
Kendrick Lamar: Pay It Forward Watch on YouTube
Michael B. Jordan: Mentor In Real Life Watch on YouTube
Two Years of My Brother's Keeper: Building Lasting Bridges of Opportunity for Young People
Nov. 20, 2014. Fulfilling their promise, the President and First Lady have lunch with youth from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe at a restaurant in Washington, D.C. Earlier in the day, the youth toured the White House and had meetings with the President and First Lady and other White House officials.(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
On the two year anniversary of My Brother's Keeper, MBK Task Force Chair Broderick Johnson reflected on MBK's impact across the country and on the work still underway:
"MBK is about obliterating the barriers our kids face. It’s about building strong, lasting bridges to opportunity for boys and girls, young men and young women, no matter what their background or the circumstances into which they were born. It’s about investing in what works, acting with a sense of urgency, basing strategies on data and evidence, and having the courage to call-out and tear down discrimination in every system and policy where it shows up. And, in two years we could not be more excited about the momentum, energy, and enthusiasm that has been sparked all across the country."
Read the full post here.
Report: Economic Costs of Youth Disadvantage, and High-Return Opportunities for Change
A report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers explores the barriers that disadvantaged youth face, particularly young men of color, and quantifies the enormous costs this poses to the U.S. economy. In particular, this report focuses on the significant disparities in education, exposure to the criminal justice system, and employment that persist between young men of color and other Americans.
The report outlines why it's important for our nation — from business, faith, and civic leaders, to local law enforcement — to invest in the lives of our nation’s young people. In launching the My Brother’s Keeper initiative, the President and his entire Administration are doing just that.
Read the full report here. ||||| Race in America
It’s a worthwhile effort to reach out to young black men. But fundamental change will only happen if Americans—not just politicians—want it to happen.
On Thursday afternoon, President Obama announced his plan to help black boys beat the odds. Like he did. “I made bad choices. I got high, not always thinking about the harm it could do. I didn’t always take school as seriously as I should have. I made excuses. Sometimes I sold myself short,” he said.
But he had the advantage of good schools, good neighborhoods, and a stable home life. And to extend those resources to other young men and women of color, Obama will work with private organizations to corral resources and provide services to kids at risk. The program is called My Brother’s Keeper:
Under Obama’s initiative, businesses, foundations and community groups would coordinate their investments to come up with, or support, programs that keep youths in school and out of the criminal-justice system, while improving their access to higher education. Several foundations pledged at least $200 million over five years to promote that goal.
Meanwhile, Obama signed a presidential memorandum creating a government-wide task force to evaluate the effectiveness of various approaches, so that federal and local governments, community groups and businesses will have best practices to follow in the future.
All of this is good. It is worthwhile. And the same goes for Obama’s words on the importance of parental involvement. There’s nothing wrong with telling the audience—and by extension, America—that fathers who take “active roles” in the lives of their children can help keep them out of trouble.
At the same time, we should understand the limits of this approach. For as much as it “might up the odds of success for young men of color,” it does nothing to change the odds that they’ll fall into a particular set of circumstances. As outlined by President Obama, these kids are more likely to live in economically impoverished neighborhoods with bad schools, violent crime, and few opportunities. Their families are less likely to be intact, and they are less likely to have the skills and habits necessary to succeed outside of their environments.
Yes, you can do a lot to mitigate this by providing mentors, training, college prep, and other services. But there’s no way this approach can help the large majority of the young men and women in these environments who aren’t as lucky or talented as those who “got out.”
To do that—to build a world where you don’t have to leave, where the odds are forever in your favor, or at least, where being black or Latino isn’t a risk factor—you need the full weight of American society.
After all, that’s how we got here. If these young men are coming from neighborhoods that are poor, segregated, and violent, it’s because—for most of the 20th century—it was the policy of the United States to make them that way.
For half a century, we siphoned wealth from black families. We denied them loans, closed them off in housing projects, redlined their neighborhoods, and left them to fester. If they saw any investment, it was in police. Not to help the residents, but to keep them in their place.
This wasn’t a lark, something that could be fixed with a few adjustments. In a real sense, this project—turning blacks into pariahs, isolated from the wealth of the society they helped build—was a national obsession, and it formed the basis for policymaking across the spectrum of American government, from cities and localities to states and the federal government.
You can say that people are fully responsible for their choices, and that’s where we should turn our attention. But choices aren’t made in a vacuum, and if Anacostia is a place where people to choose to sell drugs, buy guns, and kill each other, it’s because we made it that way.
Put simply, history matters. And the only way to truly change the odds for these kids is to take that into account. Indeed, that goes for young men like Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, who had active fathers, who lived in decent neighborhoods, who had opportunities. They didn’t die because their parents weren’t involved enough; they died because they lived in a country where their lives were feared and devalued.
The president is smart enough, and historically aware enough, that he almost knows this. He even alluded to it in his address, asking Americans to put aside our debates about the origins of the status quo, and focus on doing as much as we can to help our young people of color.
Yes, this is tough talk for people like me, who want to step back to 30,000 feet and critique the incrementalism of people like Obama. At the same time, this focus on pragmatism is a tacit acknowledgment from the president. He can talk about racial inequality and racial injustice, but he can’t act as an avatar for racial justice. It’s beyond the limits of his office.
Since, ultimately, fundamental change will only happen if Americans want it to happen. There’s no politician who can make it happen.
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– In announcing his My Brother's Keeper initiative yesterday to help the nation's young black men, President Obama became the first president to publicly utter the phrase, "I got high," notes an analysis in the Washington Post. Why? Obama wanted to remind the teens behind him at the podium that "that he was once like them," write Zachary Goldfarb and Scott Wilson. It's a shift for the president, who once shied away from this demographic. He's signalling through this public-private initiative—the idea is to establish programs specifically to help black and Hispanic young men—that the subject is going to be a focus of his life's work even after the presidency ends. Obama will surely take flak from some critics for creating a program so tailored to a particular group of minorities and from other critics for not doing it earlier, writes Eugene Robinson in the Post. But Robinson is on board. "My Brother’s Keeper isn’t a solution," he writes. "But it’s a start." Less optimistic is another African-American writer, Jamelle Bouie in the Daily Beast. The program may be "worthwhile," but it's not nearly enough. "If these young men are coming from neighborhoods that are poor, segregated, and violent, it’s because—for most of the 20th century—it was the policy of the United States to make them that way." Until that changes, until Americans en masse cause it to change, not much else matters. "I want to be optimistic, but given America’s steadfast refusal to accept the reality of its racist past, I don’t think I’ll wait for that train to come."
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– Trace Adkins' 12 years of sobriety ended not with a whimper, but with a drunken bar brawl ... with a Trace Adkins impersonator at karaoke night on a cruise ship. Yes, really. The country star was headlining a country-music-themed cruise, which was headed from Miami to Jamaica, when he got into a fight with the impersonator, who was performing karaoke, on Monday night. As soon as the boat reached Jamaica, Adkins got off and went directly to rehab, sources tell TMZ. "Trace has entered a treatment facility after a setback in his battle with alcoholism," his rep confirms to People. "As he faces these issues head-on, we ask that his family's privacy will be respected." Adkins was last in rehab in 2001, after a family intervention, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Let's expand this into a news article: 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. ||||| Trace Adkins is reportedly headed back to rehab — after more than a decade of sobriety.
The "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" singer and Grammy nominee, who was headlining a seven-day country music cruise heading out of Miami, on Monday night found himself intoxicated in an onboard bar scrapping physically with a Trace Adkins impersonator who'd been singing karaoke, TMZ first reported Wednesday.
When the ship arrived at its first destination, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Adkins got off and headed to a rehab facility, a spokesperson confirmed to People. The ship was also scheduled to stop in George Town, Grand Cayman, and in Cozumel, Mexico.
Montgomery Gentry, Wynonna & the Big Noise and Love and Theft were only a few of the dozens of other entertainers performing on the cruise.
The 52-year-old baritone "has entered a treatment facility after a setback in his battle with alcoholism," his representative told several media outlets in a statement.
Adkins, who recently cohosted the American Country Awards with racecar driver Danica Patrick, faced an intervention by his family in 2001 that led to 28 days in rehab.
“I wish for anybody out there to never have to go through one of those intervention things where you sit down there and people start telling you what you’re doing to them,” he said in a 2009 chat for a special with Great American Country. “You’re so weak that it’s come to this. Man, I hated myself at that moment.”
Adkins has also been a contestant on the "Celebrity Apprentice" franchise twice, finishing as runner-up to Piers Morgan the first time around and then winning ahead of Penn Gillette in the first "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice" back in May.
On Sunday, the first day of the cruise, he'd tweeted, "Up here in my suite, overlooking the pools. Behave yourselves."
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Follow Christie D'Zurilla on Twitter and Google+. Follow the Ministry of Gossip on Twitter @LATcelebs and on Facebook facebook.com/ministryofgossip. |||||
– An off-duty police officer in Kentucky was pulled over and shot dead by a suspect impersonating an officer, police say. Phillip Meacham, a 38-year-old Hopkinsville officer, was fatally shot in the small Kentucky city Thursday afternoon when his private vehicle was pulled over, ABC 11 reports. Police say the suspect, 35-year-old local man James Kenneth Decoursey, fled the scene on foot before stealing a white Chevrolet pickup truck. A manhunt was launched and Kentucky State Police troopers announced early Friday that the suspect had a "brief encounter" with police in which he "was shot and died from his injuries" about 30 miles away in Clarksville, Tenn., reports the AP. Hopkinsville Police Chief Clayton Sumner says the department is familiar with Decoursey, though police haven't commented on why the suspect was impersonating an officer. Meacham, the married father of two school-age children, served in the Christian County Sheriff's Office for 12 years before joining the Hopkinsville force last year, the New York Daily News reports. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that state lawmakers held a moment of silence for Meacham Thursday night and Gov. Matt Bevin paid tribute to the fallen officer. "Tonight a police officer in Hopkinsville, KY was killed in the line of duty," the governor tweeted. "There is no greater sacrifice than that of a person willing to lay down their life for another."
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Let's expand this into a news article: Tweet with a location
You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| James Kennith Decoursey
Hopkinsville Police said Thursday that an off-duty officer was fatally shot after being stopped by a man pretending to be a law officer. The suspect remains at large.Kentucky State Police said Thursday night at a news conference that 38-year-old off-duty Hopkinsville officer Phillip Meacham was shot that afternoon and was taken to a hospital, where he died. Meacham was married and had two "school-age" children.The off-duty officer was in his personal vehicle when he was pulled over by the suspect, who police identified as 35-year-old James Kennith Decoursey.Police were looking for Decoursey, who they said fled on foot and then stole a 1997 white Chevrolet pickup with license plate 2070GH.Police said Decoursey should be considered armed and dangerous. They ask that anyone who sees him or that white pickup call 911 immediately.State Trooper Rob Austin said law officers know Decoursey stole the white truck but it is possible he may no longer be in that vehicle. He would not elaborate on Decoursey possibly impersonating a law officer, citing the sensitive nature of the ongoing investigation.Hopkinsville Police Chief Clayton Sumner said he spoke briefly to Meacham's wife, telling her "we'll find him," and offering condolences.Sumner said his department is familiar with Decoursey, who has had previous arrests.Gov. Matt Bevin also announced the death on Twitter.In Frankfort, lawmakers in the House stood for a moment of silence after Rep. Walker Wood Thomas of Hopkinsville announced that an officer had been shot.Hopkinsville is about 73 miles northwest of Nashville, Tennessee. ||||| 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 suspect pretending to be a police officer killed an off-duty cop in Kentucky on Thursday, authorities said.
James Kennith DeCoursey, 34, pulled Hopkinsville police officer Phillip Meacham over while he was in his personal car, police said.
DeCoursey fatally shot Meacham at around 5:10 p.m. and fled the scene on foot before stealing a 1997 white pickup truck, according to police.
Meacham, a 38-year-old married father-of-two, was taken to the Jenny Stuart Medical Center where he died.
James DeCoursey, 35, shot and killed an off-duty police officer while posing as a cop in Hopkinsville, Ky. on Thursday. (Kentucky State Police)
Police launched a manhunt for DeCoursey, who was considered "armed and dangerous."
Hours later, the suspect was killed by law enforcement in Clarksville, Tenn. about 30 miles south of Hopkinsville, according to the Logan County Sheriff's Office.
Officers found the stolen pickup truck in a restaurant parking lot, and a tipster told police that a man matching DeCoursey's description was asking for a cigarette at a hotel.
Hopkinsville Police Officer Phillip Meacham was fatally shot around 5:10 p.m. on March 29, 2018. (Hopkinsville Police Department)
They were en route to the hotel when they spotted the suspect walking toward the restaurant early Friday.
"DeCoursey appears to have ignored repeated commands and the situation escalated, resulting in the law enforcement officers firing upon DeCoursey, killing him," The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a press release.
The Bureau is investigating the circumstances around the shooting.
Pray for healing.
Pray for peace.
Pray for our brother.
Pray for his family.
Pray for Hopkinsville Police.
Pray the suspect is caught and brought to justice.
Our community has been rocked by the unspeakable. #thinblueline #officerdown #HPD ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️🔵🔵⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️ — Christian Co Sheriff (@CCSODeputies) March 30, 2018
Tributes poured in for Meacham, who served in the Christian County Sheriff's Office for 12 years before he joined the Hopkinsville Police Department in May 2017.
He had a wife and two school-age children.
Hopkinsville police chief Clayton Summer said, “I want to ask everyone for their thoughts and prayers for family and for men and women out their trying to find this criminal."
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin tweeted, “Tonight a police officer in Hopkinsville, KY was killed in the line of duty. There is no greater sacrifice than that of a person willing to lay down their life for another."
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With Megan Cerullo ||||| This photo provided by the Kentucky State Police shows Officer Phillip Meacham. The off-duty police officer was shot and killed Thursday, March 29, 2018, in Hopkinsville, Ky., and authorities were searching... (Associated Press)
This photo provided by the Kentucky State Police shows Officer Phillip Meacham. The off-duty police officer was shot and killed Thursday, March 29, 2018, in Hopkinsville, Ky., and authorities were searching for a suspect who fled in a stolen truck, Kentucky State Police said. (Kentucky State Police... (Associated Press)
This photo provided by the Kentucky State Police shows Officer Phillip Meacham. The off-duty police officer was shot and killed Thursday, March 29, 2018, in Hopkinsville, Ky., and authorities were searching for a suspect who fled in a stolen truck, Kentucky State Police said. (Kentucky State Police... (Associated Press) This photo provided by the Kentucky State Police shows Officer Phillip Meacham. The off-duty police officer was shot and killed Thursday, March 29, 2018, in Hopkinsville, Ky., and authorities were searching... (Associated Press)
HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Latest on the fatal shooting of a police officer in Kentucky (all times local):
3:50 a.m.
A man suspected of fatally shooting an off-duty police officer in a small Kentucky city has been killed by law enforcement officials in Tennessee.
Kentucky State Police Trooper Rob Austin says in a statement Friday that 34-year-old James K. Decoursey of Hopkinsville "had a brief encounter with law enforcement" officials in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he "was shot and died from his injuries."
Kentucky State police say Decoursey shot and killed 38-year-old Hopkinsville officer Phillip Meacham Thursday afternoon, then fled on foot then before taking off in a pickup truck.
Meacham, who was married and had two school-age children, had been with the Hopkinsville department since May 2017. Before that worked for about 14 years with the Christian County Sheriff's Department.
Hopkinsville is about 73 miles (117.48 kilometers) northwest of Nashville, Tennessee.
____
1:03 a.m.
The manhunt continues for a man suspected of fatally shooting an off-duty police officer in a small Kentucky city, then fleeing in a stolen truck.
Kentucky State police say 38-year-old Hopkinsville officer Phillip Meacham was shot Thursday afternoon.
Police identified the suspect as 34-year-old James K. Decoursey of Hopkinsville. They say he fled on foot then took off in a 1997 white Chevrolet pickup truck with license plate 2070GH. Police say Decoursey should be treated as armed and dangerous. A Tennessee Highway Patrol helicopter was aiding the search.
Meacham, who was married and had two school-age children, had been with the Hopkinsville department since May 2017. Before that worked for about 14 years with the Christian County Sheriff's Department.
Hopkinsville is about 73 miles (117.48 kilometers) northwest of Nashville, Tennessee. |||||
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Shoppers made their feelings clear about an EU ban on models of more than 1,600 watts by visiting stores or online sellers in their droves
The stampede to buy powerful vacuum cleaners intensified yesterday as retailers reported a fourfold surge in sales.
Shoppers made their feelings clear about an EU ban on models of more than 1,600 watts by visiting stores or online sellers in their droves.
Many have been stockpiling two or more high-power models to beat regulations that came into effect yesterday.
The new EU directive is intended to reduce energy use, but it has infuriated the public, who say they’ll have to spend longer using the appliances.
Online electrical retailer ao.com said weekly sales had soared 380 per cent compared with the first week of August.
The most popular model was the 2,400-watt Bosch Pro Energy BSGL3126GB cylinder vacuum cleaner costing £99, which sold out yesterday.
It currently has two models left in stock that are over 1,600 watts, but expects to have more this week.
There was clear evidence of customers stockpiling vacuums, it added, particularly in the 2,000+ watt ranges, where 3 per cent of sales were generated by shoppers buying two or more.
‘We saw a huge surge in sales of corded vacuums over 1,600 watts over the weekend, with sales quadrupling,’ said head of small domestic appliances Leanne Beswick.
‘Having reviewed our stocking levels it looks like we still have a limited number of high wattage vacuum cleaners in our warehouse and we are expecting another two models to come back into stock this week.’
Sales at the Cooperative Electrical Shop over the past two weeks leapt by 129 per cent compared with the same period last year.
Currys said sales were up 94 per cent compared with the same weekend 12 months ago.
A spokesman added: ‘They have been flying off the shelves and that has been across the board – from uprights to cylinders.’
Scroll down for video
THE OTHER HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES IN THE EU'S SIGHTS Under threat: Food blenders may also be targeted Some 30 devices – mostly domestic electrical items – are facing overhauls to meet the EU guidelines, including: Air conditioning in cars – blamed for increasing fuel consumption although critics point out the drag created by opening a window uses more energy. Window heaters and seat heating will also be looked at. Fitness equipment – many modern exercise bikes and rowing machines use electricity to generate resistance. Hairdryers – power savings of 30 per cent may be required, although salons argue they will spend longer drying hair. Blenders – smoothies and soups may take longer to prepare if new rules are introduced. Fax machines – under scrutiny despite all but dying out in homes as people switch to email. Photocopiers, printers and scanners are on the list too. Power tools – they could face changes despite the Commission’s report stating the potential improvements are ‘small’. Lawnmowers – all types, including electrical and petrol, could be affected. Patio heaters – a key target due to the amount of energy lost. Kettles – may have to be redesigned to switch off sooner or slash surface heat loss. Toasters – they waste power if one or more slots is empty.
Tesco has previously reported sales rocketing by 44 per cent over the past fortnight with models selling out including the 2,300-watt Hoover Breeze BR2306.
Argos said it had seen an increase in sales despite 97 per cent of its stock being compliant with the new legislation since July. Retailers can continue selling existing stock until it runs out but they cannot import more and manufacturers are no longer allowed to produce them.
Vacuums will also have to carry ratings from A to G similar to those on fridges and washing machines, explaining energy use, cleaning performance on carpets and hard floors, and dust emissions.
The crackdown affects five of the seven vacuums given ‘Best Buy’ status by Which?, and the consumer watchdog last week advised people to ‘act quickly’ before stocks of powerful models run out. A 2012 report by retail analyst Mintel found 76 per cent of consumers rated suction power the most important feature when buying a vacuum.
Senior household care analyst Richard Caines said: ‘I’m not 100 per cent convinced it will save a lot of energy as if a vacuum is not providing as much suction it will have to be used for longer.’ ||||| Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption The EU says most vacuum cleaners waste too much energy
Mr Vacuum Cleaner has swept into the debate over the EU's import ban on high-wattage vacuum cleaners.
James Brown, who runs the vacuum cleaner museum in Derbyshire, says a high wattage is no guarantee of good suction.
He said plenty of appliances would clean well whilst using less than the new 1600 watt limit imposed this week.
He alleged that some manufacturers increase the wattage of their appliances every few years to fool customers into thinking they will suck more strongly.
Mr Brown, who calls himself Mr Vacuum Cleaner, considers himself an expert on vacuum cleaner performance.
His views appear to be supported by the German official testing agency Stiftung Warentest, who told BBC News that 38 models of cleaner would work effectively within the new limits.
This is at odds with the Which? report that triggered a panic-buying spree when it warned its readers that five out of seven of its best buys would fail to meet the new import standards.
Experts say it is almost impossible to compare one set of tests against another, but Prof Will Stewart from the Institution of Engineering and Technology told BBC News that there was likely to be considerable room for energy efficiency improvement in engineering and design of new cleaners.
'Room for improvement'
Mr Vacuum Cleaner told BBC News: "Most modern machines are built to be used for a couple of years, like mobile phones. You can't mend them so you throw them away. There are plenty of older cleaners that will outperform today's cleaners using a much lower wattage.
"Often, more wattage just makes the cleaner hotter. Some of the manufacturers just keep pushing up the wattage with every new model because people will look at it and think 'that must be better because it uses more power', when that's not necessarily the case."
Erika Gehrke, an expert from the independent German testers Stiftung Warentest, told BBC News that "plenty" of vacuums cleaned well whilst using less than 1600 watts. But she warned of the challenge ahead when 900 watts becomes the limit from 2017.
"Only three cleaned well when using just 900 watts, but we think manufacturers can improve," she said.
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Prof Stewart said there was less room for improvement in kettles
Prof Stewart said different appliances had varying potential for efficiency improvement. Cleaners probably had substantial potential to improve, he said.
"The same goes for hairdryers - it has been suggested that a hairdryer of half the wattage will take twice as much time to dry hair, but that's not right. You might be able to improve hair dryer efficiency by a factor of two. The key would probably be in improving the jet.
"Kettles are different: a kettle is an element in water. There is not much room for improvement - a lower powered element will just take longer to boil."
Prof Stewart said he would prefer that the EU improved efficiency labelling on appliances, rather than imposing standards.
According to the European Commission, the new rules will help combat climate change and reduce energy costs by saving 19 terawatt-hours every year by 2020. That amounts to the electricity produced by more than four nuclear power plants for 5.5 million households.
Which? has defended its warning to customers. It said its tests are based on several factors, including the ability to pick up super-fine sand from Arizona; collect pet hairs; keep dust inside the machine; ease of use; and noise.
A Which? spokesman would not comment on whether they agreed with the EU efficiency legislation - a move which has prompted calls from some newspapers for the UK to leave the EU.
Follow Roger Harrabin on Twitter @rharrabin ||||| Which? tells consumers to buy now as Best Buy cleaners fall foul of EU energy label that prohibits motors above 1,600w
Consumers are being urged to buy powerful vacuum cleaners while they can after it emerged that some of the most powerful models on the market will disappear in September when a new EU rule comes into force.
An EU energy label, to be introduced from 1 September, means manufacturers will not be able to make or import vacuum cleaners with a motor that exceeds 1,600 watts.
The Which? consumer group said many of its Best Buy models had motor sizes that exceeded this, "so if you're in the market for a powerful vacuum, you should act quickly, before all of the models currently available sell out". The wattage will be limited to only 900 watts by 2017 – further restricting choice. Current cleaners typically boast an average of 1,800 watts.
Which? warned that many of the models that appear in its Best Buy tables have motor sizes in excess of the new limit.
Of seven awarded Best Buy status since January 2013, five have motors of more than 1,600 watts. A Best Buy 2,200w vacuum costs around £27 a year to run in electricity – around £8 more than the best-scoring 1,600w it has tested.
The consumer group argues that the move is self-defeating – claiming that householders would simply use the less powerful models for longer to achieve the same degree of cleaning.
The move has also angered manufacturers who agree the move will do nothing to make cleaners more environmentally friendly and will simply reduce efficiency in the home.
For the first time, the labels will give vacuum cleaners A to G ratings for energy use, cleaning performance on carpets and hard floors, and dust emissions. The label also requires a minimum level of performance for the vacuum to be sold in the EU.
But the label is self-regulating and it is unclear whether figures are being corroborated by an independent third party.
Manufacturers' tests that will be used to provide the labelling information are also being questioned. Vacuums are typically tested new and empty and – unlike the testing by Which? – don't take into account loss of suction as the container fills. So manufacturers that give themselves A ratings across the board often don't do so well in independent tests.
Popular cleaners that will be phased out next month by the new rule include a Miele S6210 2,000w bagged cylinder vacuum cleaner and the Panasonic bagged upright vacuum cleaner (also 2,000w).
Dyson vacuum cleaners score highly in the ratings. However, the manufacturer has many concerns about flaws in the system that will ultimately be unhelpful for consumers. It is seeking a judicial review of the legislation at the European court of justice, with judgment due in December 2015. Sir James Dyson, whose company pioneered "bagless" vacuums, said he believed the label itself was a good idea, pointing out that he had never made a machine over 1,600 watts. But he said there were many engineering aspects other than the size of the machine to take into account, and he feared strong performing vacuum cleaners would be rated badly and lead the consumer to buy a machine that simply did not work efficiently.
The European commission believes the new regulations will mean better vacuum cleaners for consumers. European commission spokeswoman for energy Marlene Holzner said in a blog: "As a result of the new EU eco-design and labelling regulations, consumers will also get better vacuum cleaners. In the past, there was no legislation on vacuum cleaners and companies could sell poorly performing vacuum cleaners." |||||
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– You can ban their e-cigs, you can ban their plastic bags—but do not, under any circumstances, take away the people's high-powered vacuum cleaners. Brits stocked up on supersuction devices before a EU ban went into effect yesterday, with retail sales of models 1,600 watts or higher increasing fourfold and some people wheeling out two or more units at a time, reports the Daily Mail. "They have been flying off the shelves, and that has been across the board—from uprights to cylinders," says a spokesman for the Currys electronics chain. The European Commission's rationale for the ban is to help stave off climate change and cut down on energy costs, notes the BBC. Retailers are allowed to dump the inventory they already have, but they can't import any more units, and manufacturers are banned from churning out more. But although people are complaining that less suction will mean more time pushing their vacuums around—therefore no significant reduction in energy use—a man who runs a vacuum museum in Derbyshire and goes by the name "Mr. Vacuum Cleaner" tells the BBC that high wattage doesn't guarantee great suction anyway. Sir James Dyson of the Dyson vacuum empire agrees, pointing out that his company doesn't even make a machine over 1,600 watts, but he's still worried that current regulations will hurt the industry overall and keep people from buying powerful cleaners, reports the Guardian. (See what happened to AK-47 sales when sanctions against Russia took effect.)
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– A CNET reporter has left the tech review site after owner CBS stepped in to alter a story. When the CNET team picked a Dish Network product as the best home theater and audio item at the Consumer Electronics Show, CBS rejected the choice. That's because CBS is in the midst of a legal battle with Dish, the AP reports. So CNET picked another product to top its list. The switch prompted Greg Sandoval's exit. "I just want to be known as an honest reporter," Sandoval tweeted. "CNET wasn't honest about what occurred regarding Dish." Hours later, CNET Reviews Editor-in-Chief Lindsey Turrentine posted at the site that "the conflict of interest was real" and apologized to staff and readers for not announcing the true winner. For its part, CBS called the spat "an isolated and unique incident" regarding "a product that has been challenged as illegal," the Verge reports. When it comes to "actual news, CNET maintains 100% editorial independence, and always will."
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Technology reviews by website CNET have long been respected for their thoroughness and integrity, but that reputation has come under scrutiny after a top reporter quit over what he says is editorial interference by its parent company, CBS Corp.
The dispute centers on CNET's choice of best gadgets from last week's International CES show in Las Vegas.
CNET voted Dish Network Corp.'s "Hopper with Sling" the best home theater and audio product. Because CBS is in a legal fight with Dish over the Hopper's ad-skipping capabilities, CBS vetoed the selection, saying the product couldn't be considered "Best of CES." Instead, CNET's official selection was a sound bar from TV maker Vizio.
Reporter Greg Sandoval tweeted on Monday morning that he was resigning, saying he had lost confidence that CBS is committed to editorial independence.
"I just want to be known as an honest reporter," he tweeted, adding "CNET wasn't honest about what occurred regarding Dish."
In an apparent response to the resignation, CNET Reviews Editor-in-Chief Lindsey Turrentine posted a story on the site a few hours after Sandoval's tweet saying that around 40 CNET editorial members voted, and Dish's Hopper won the designation because of "innovative features that push shows recorded on DVR to iPads."
She said "the conflict of interest was real" and said she contemplated quitting as well, but stayed on to explain the situation to staff and prevent a recurrence. She said CNET staff was asked to re-vote after the Hopper was excluded, and regretted not revealing at first that it had won.
"I wish I could have overridden the decision not to reveal that Dish had won the vote," she wrote. "For that I apologize to my staff and to CNET readers."
A spokesman for CBS, which also owns such marquee journalism properties as CBS News and 60 Minutes, declined to comment on how a similar situation might be handled if it occurred at its other news properties.
"In terms of covering actual news, CNET maintains 100 percent editorial independence, and always will," CBS said in a prepared statement.
CBS bought CNET for $1.8 billion in June 2008. In December, the site had 33.4 million visitors, up 8 percent from a year earlier. ||||| Are news and reviews subject to different ethical standards? That appears to be the message from CBS in response to Dish's controversial Hopper DVR. Official CBS policy now bans CNET from reviewing products implicated in lawsuits, but claims CNET still has complete editorial independence over "actual news."
On Monday, CBS issued a statement to the New York Times calling the ban on the Hopper "an isolated and unique incident in which a product that has been challenged as illegal." A spokesperson noted that not only CBS but other media companies had brought suit against Dish. "CBS has nothing but the highest regard for the editors and writers at CNET… and, in terms of covering actual news, CNET maintains 100% editorial independence, and always will." (Spokespeople for CBS, CBS Interactive, and CNET did not return requests to respond directly to The Verge for comment on this story.)
Meanwhile, CNET Reviews editor Lindsey Turrentine expressed regret that the publication did not clearly state that the Hopper with Sling had won the editors' vote for Best In Show. CBS Corporate insisted on using language that obfuscated that fact, after Turrentine and CNET editorial staff had already lost its fight to stand by the original vote. "I wish I could have overridden the decision not to reveal that Dish had won the vote in the trailer," writes Turrentine. "For that I apologize to my staff and to CNET readers."
"The least of [our disappointment] is the loss of the award."
"I'm looking for a word more descriptive than disappointment," said Bob Toevs, head of corporate communications at Dish, in a phone interview. "The least of it is the loss of the award. It's really everything to do with editorial independence and integrity, which we've valued from CNET in the past and cheer for its restoration in the future. It's terribly unfortunate they've been put in this position [by CBS], and it's completely avoidable."
Typically, Toevs says, journalistic outlets have handled conflicts regarding ongoing lawsuits with an asterisk and a simple disclosure. "It says, the conflict is out there, it's no secret. That's absolutely appropriate and fine. If you look at publications by News Corp. [also currently involved in a lawsuit with Dish Networks concerning the Hopper], that's how they handle it. And that kind of open disclosure enhances their credibility as a result."
CBS intervention is "terribly unfortunate" and "completely avoidable," says Dish
Last Wednesday, editors at CNET told representatives at Dish that Dish's Hopper with Sling would be a finalist for CNET's "Best of CES" award. On Thursday morning, about 25 minutes prior to its announcement of the winner, CNET told Dish that the Hopper with Sling had been withdrawn from consideration due to Dish's lawsuit with CNET's parent company CBS over the Hopper DVRs' commercial-skipping feature. CNET did not indicate to Dish, or to anyone else outside the company, that its editors had in fact already voted to name the Hopper with Sling Best in Show, nor that editors had been made to revote on a directive from CBS CEO Les Moonves. That conversation Thursday morning was the last communication between representatives at Dish and those at CNET, CBS Interactive, or CBS regarding ongoing reviews coverage of the Hopper or any current Dish products.
Are reviews journalism?
The distinction between news and reviews may be the thorniest part of CBS's response, apart from its interference with CNET's editorial team in the first place. CBS may say that the case of the Hopper is "isolated and unique," but has also said that CNET "will no longer be reviewing products manufactured by companies with which we are in litigation with respect to such product." So CNET's editorial staff is permitted to cover Timehop DVRs, Aereo's online TV service, or CBS' lawsuits with Dish and Aereo themselves as "news," but not allowed to evaluate those products and services for its readers as "reviews."
It's difficult to see how a distinction between full editorial independence for news and limited editorial independence for reviews can be maintained without eroding reader trust in the reviews. "It seems impractical," says Dish's Toevs. "I don't know how [CNET's editorial team] would like to live with that policy. And it raises the question of how much editorial oversight CBS is giving CNET on any given story."
Transparency is the beginning of trust, not trust itself
It's equally difficult to see how disclosures to readers alone can solve these ethical and professional dilemmas for news organizations. CNET admits erring in concealing the results of its CES awards vote, but disclosure alone is not sufficient to clear CBS of the charge of editorial interference. By CNET's own account, CBS' corporate division took the decision to give an award out of CNET's hands and dictated editorial content on CNET's site, in the form of the editor's note removing the Hopper from the list of award finalists. Since that note is now the offical policy of CBS and CNET, charges of editorial inference will not end here, even when CBS and other networks' lawsuits with Dish are resolved.
"We're dealing with a rapidly evolving landscape regarding how media and technology interact with each other," says Toevs. "Today this is about Dish and the merits (or not) of our product. Where will it be tomorrow?" |||||
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Write a summary based on this article:
Back on Sept. 12, when the Cardinals were still several games out of even a Wild Card spot, a bettor walked up to a window at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
He placed two bets. One was $250 on the Cardinals winning the National League title. That was at 500/1 odds. The other was $250 on the Cardinals winning the World Series. That was at 999/1.
The first bet already paid out: $125,000.
The second bet, with the Cardinals and Rangers tied at 2-2 in the World Series, hangs in the balance, along with another $250,000.
That would be $375,000 if the Cardinals win it all.
Photos of what seem to be the unidentified man's betting slips surfaced online and have been flying across the web, with people marveling at the bettor's good fortune.
MGM International confirmed Monday the bets were real.
Such long-shot bets are not unusual, said Jay Rood, an MGM vice president who sets odds at 12 Nevada-based sports books.
But bettors typically put $10 or $20 down at 500/1. What set apart these Cardinals bets were the size. This bettor showed "stronger confidence" by laying out $500.
In fact, this bettor wanted to bet even more money on the Cardinals, but "we scaled it back" to limit potential losses, Rood said.
Rood said he did not know the identity of the bettor. Some websites claim he is a Cardinals fan.
The betting slip for the Cardinals winning the National League has already been claimed, Rood said. Several commenters online questioned the wisdom of posting full pictures of the betting slips, since it opened the door to potential fraud. "It's not the smartest thing to put a photo of a ticket on the web," Rood said. Any disputes about tickets are passed on to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. But since the first ticket has been cashed, it is assumed the same person would claim the second ticket.
In placing his bets, this bettor had "perfect timing," Rood said. One more day and the odds would have been substantially lower.
Such long-shot bets do hit -- but rarely. When the Minnesota Twins won the 1987 World Series, the team had been at least 500/1 during the season, Rood said.
When the St. Louis Rams won the 2000 Super Bowl, the team had been 300/1 early in the season.
Rood said he has re-evaluated his decision to put the Cardinals at 999/1 odds to win the World Series. He said he probably had too much faith in the Braves not collapsing and too much faith in the Phillies playing well in the playoffs.
"Looking back, I would've been a little more cautious about it," Rood said.
Still, he could not discount just how remarkable the Cardinals' run from early September to now has been.
"If you calculate it all out, the true odds for something like this to happen is 10,000/1," he said. ||||| We don't know his name. We just know he's out there, somewhere, and he has possessed two betting slips worth a total of $375,000 after the St. Louis Cardinals won Game 7 of the World Series on Friday night.
[Related: Cardinals win World Series the easy way | Highlights]
As we reported (thanks to Deadspin and Joe Sports Fan), an unnamed individual made two wagers at the MGM sports book in Las Vegas on Sept. 12 that the Cardinals would win the National League pennant and the World Series, respectively. He put $250 on each possibility and won $125,000 after the Cards beat the Brewers in the NLCS. He has since cashed in that slip.
The Redbirds were 999-to-1 to win the World Series when the man placed his bets and, as we know, the Cards won their 11th World Series on Friday, making Johnny No-Name $250,000 richer. (Although, he technically came out ahead with $150,000 more because he hedged his bets before the Series started, Deadspin says, putting a hundred grand on Texas to win just in case.)
[Related: Eight unbelievable celebration bills rung up by athletes]
Still, that's a net of $275,000 won betting on baseball — betting on a team that was 10 1/2 games out of a playoff spot on Aug. 25. Jay Rood, an MGM vice president who sets the line at 12 books in Nevada, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the man bet with "perfect timing."
One more day and the odds would have been substantially lower.
Such long-shot bets do hit — but rarely. When the Minnesota Twins won the 1987 World Series, the team had been at least 500/1 during the season, Rood said.
When the St. Louis Rams won the 2000 Super Bowl, the team had been 300/1 early in the season.
Rood said he has re-evaluated his decision to put the Cardinals at 999/1 odds to win the World Series. He said he probably had too much faith in the Braves not collapsing and too much faith in the Phillies playing well in the playoffs.
Him and Philly both. Matt Sebek of JSF says he has been in contact with the gambler, but that "he won't do an interview."
[Related: David Freese wins World Series MVP, gets cool car]
Harumph. I've got too many questions about this guy for him to stay quiet forever. Maybe he'll start talking now that he's no longer under the emotional gun of the wager. Show yourself, betting man! And do you want to wager on whether Albert Pujols(notes) stays in St. Louis?
[Y! Sports shop: Buy Cardinals title gear]
Follow Dave on Twitter — @AnswerDave — and engage the Stew on Facebook throughout the playoffs
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The earliest vertebrate animals to walk on land were ancient four-limbed tetrapods that waggled their way across the ground like salamanders. Yet researchers still haven’t found many intermediate species showing just how swimming fish evolved to walk on land. Now, an endangered species only found in a handful of caverns in Thailand might finally help straighten things out.
Related Content A Rare Blind Salamander’s Eggs Are Finally Hatching
The species in question is a type of blind cave fish called Cryptotora thamicola, or the waterfall-climbing cave fish. Documented in a study recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, the creature uses its four fins to crawl over rocks and up slick walls. The fish even has a full pelvis fused to its spine—a skeletal feature absent from any of the other 30,000 fish species in the world. This particular feature, however, is found in terrestrial vertebrates and fossils of the earliest tetrapods, making the waterfall cave fish a unique window into evolution.
“It’s really weird,” John R. Hutchinson, a biologist at the Royal Veterinary College at the University of London tells Carl Zimmer at The New York Times. “It’s a good example of how much fish diversity there’s left to be discovered.”
The species was first found in Northern Thailand in 1985 in eight caves near the Myanmar border. The Thai government is now extremely protective of those caves, allowing only a handful of researchers to examine them and their strange fish.
Last year, Apinun Suvarnaraksha, an ichthyologist from Maejo University in Thailand and Daphne Soares, a biologist at the New Jersey Institute of Technology observed the fish on an expedition to those caves and took a video . When Soares shared the images with her NJIT colleague Brooke Flammang, a biomechanics researcher, she was stunned. “I was like, ‘Fish can’t do that,’” Flammang tells Diane Kelly at Wired. “That’s ridiculous.”
Flammang hoped to get specimens of the rare fish to study, but that was not possible. So she began working with Suvarnaraksha, who returned to the caves and began briefly capturing the fish and putting them in an aquarium for filming before releasing them. He was also able to perform a CT scan of a preserved museum specimen of Cryptotora thamicola at a local dental school.
Armed with that data, Flammang began to unravel the secrets of the cave fish. It didn’t take long. “When they sent me the files, I thought someone was playing a trick on me,” she tells Kelly. “There was this gigantic pelvis [on the CT scan] that looks nothing like any fish pelvis.”
While it’s highly unlikely that the waterfall cave fish is an ancestor of ancient tetrapods, its evolution sheds some light on how other fish could have evolved to move on land. It also calls into question some of the 400-million-year-old tetrapod “footprints” scientists have found in recent years.
Researchers may now need to evaluate those prints—the next likely candidate is the giant waddling fish. “The physics are the same,” Flammang tells Zimmer. ||||| Nature 463, 43-48 (7 January 2010) | doi :10.1038/nature08623; Received 21 July 2009; Accepted 29 October 2009
Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki1, Piotr Szrek2,3, Katarzyna Narkiewicz3, Marek Narkiewicz3 & Per E. Ahlberg4
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Abstract
The fossil record of the earliest tetrapods (vertebrates with limbs rather than paired fins) consists of body fossils and trackways. The earliest body fossils of tetrapods date to the Late Devonian period (late Frasnian stage) and are preceded by transitional elpistostegids such as Panderichthys and Tiktaalik that still have paired fins. Claims of tetrapod trackways predating these body fossils have remained controversial with regard to both age and the identity of the track makers. Here we present well-preserved and securely dated tetrapod tracks from Polish marine tidal flat sediments of early Middle Devonian (Eifelian stage) age that are approximately 18 million years older than the earliest tetrapod body fossils and 10 million years earlier than the oldest elpistostegids. They force a radical reassessment of the timing, ecology and environmental setting of the fish–tetrapod transition, as well as the completeness of the body fossil record. ||||| Pelvic girdle morphology
We found that Cryptotora had a pelvic girdle that is connected to the axial skeleton via fusion with a hypertrophied rib of the seventh vertebra (Fig. 2A–C, Supplementary Video 2). The basipterygium, or puboischiadic plate (pu, tan, Fig. 2C), was broad in both anteroposterior and lateral directions and more heavily ossified than is typical of fishes (Fig. 3), with a large concavity for ventral attachment of muscles to the large processes at the base of the fin rays (pf, blue, Fig. 2B,C). The heads of the fin rays articulated with the lateral edges of the ischium.
Figure 2: Computed microtomography scan (voxel size = 8 μm) of Cryptotora thamicola (47 mm total length). (A) transverse view of pelvic girdle, (B) dorsal (left) and ventral (right) view pelvic girdle (cranial to top), (C) anterolateral view of pelvic girdle. il, iliac region (dark purple); im, intermuscular bone (light purple); is, ischial region of puboischiadic plate (tan); pf, pelvic fin (blue); pu, pubic region of puboischiadic plate (tan); sr, sacral ribs (dark purple). Vertebrae numbers 6,7,8 designate position from skull, (D) close-up image of acetabular symphysis, (E) close up image of obturator foramen, of. Full size image
Figure 3: Computed microtomography scan (voxel size = 7 μm) of goldfish Carassius auratus pelvis (38 mm total length). (A) Transverse view of puboischiadic plate (basipterygium, tan), pelvic fins (blue), and axial skeleton (grey), (B) dorsal (left) and ventral (right) view pelvis and axial skeleton (cranial to top), (C) anterolateral view of pelvis and axial skeleton. (D) dorsal view of pelvis and fins. Full size image
The ribs of Cryptotora were broader and extended more laterally than is typical of other fishes; the common goldfish (Carassius auratus), also of the order Cypriniformes, is shown for comparison (Figs 2 and 3). Notably, the goldfish pelvis did not articulating with the ribs, but was held in a muscular sling; this is typically the case for all other fishes in which the pelvis is not fused to the pectoral girdle anteriorly. In Cryptotora, the first seven ribs were broad and flat with an arch reflecting the dorsoventral compression of the fish body. The seventh rib (sr, purple, Fig. 2C) was more heavily calcified than more anterior ribs, which were only calcified around their edges. In addition, the seventh rib had a large, broad, flared process similar in appearance to the iliac crest which supports attachment of large hip flexors in tetrapods. The distal end of the seventh rib (originating on the seventh vertebrae) formed a ventrally oriented iliac process that passed through an arch formed by the pubis and ischium to fuse on the anterolateral aspect of the puboischiadic plate (Fig. 2C). The area of this arch where the puboischiadic plate and iliac process of the sacral rib united was the acetabular symphysis. (Fig. 2D). While extant fishes lack femora, they have historically had the posterior ridge of the pelvis, where the pelvic fins articulate, identified as the area of the acetabulum15,16. Exctinct fishes Gooloogongia, Eusthenopteron, and Panderichthyes posessed more cup-like acetabula in a similar posterior position, despite lacking limbs16,17. In contrast, Cryptotora had an acetabular symphysis separate from and anterior to the pelvic fin articulation with the puboischiadic plate. Also visible posterior to the acetabular symphysis was the obturator foramen, an opening formed between the ischium and pubis through which blood vessels and nerves may pass (Fig. 2E). The eighth rib did not originate off the vertebral centra as the seventh rib did, but instead originated off a transverse process of the eighth vertebra and extended laterally and hooked anteriorly, which may provide additional area for muscle attachment on the dorsal aspect of the fin.
Based on their positions, we presume that the dorsolateral projections from the vertebral centra are intermuscular bones (im, light purple, Fig. 2C) - intramembranous ossifications which form in myosepta as a result of mechanical stress18. The intermuscular bone associated with the seventh vertebrae was different than the rest, in that it was attached to the dorsal aspect of the sacral rib and not the vertebral centra. Anterior to the pelvis, the intermuscular bones branched off of the neural arches. If these bones are in fact, not intermuscular, then they are skeletal structures that have not previously been identified in fishes.
The vertebral column of Cryptotora shared several features associated with the evolution of terrestriality and the functional need to support the body weight of an organism outside of water: in particular, the wide neural spines, zygapophyses, and transverse processes of Cryptotora are features that stabilize the vertebral column in terrestrial vertebrates19,20. Broad neural spines are typically associated with muscle attachment along the vertebral column15. Large transverse processes extended laterally off the vertebral centra and zygapophyses extended in anterior and posterior directions (Fig. 2C). The centra of the sacral vertebrae were tapered ventroposteriorly, resulting in narrowing of the notochord which passed through the center.
While a study of the development of the pelvic girdle in this cavefish has not yet been possible, it appears that structurally, the pelvic girdle of Cryptotora converges on tetrapodal morphology that supports muscular attachment and transfer of forces for terrestrial walking16,21. In other fishes, including those that can walk by crutching or lunging, there is no bony connection between the pelvis and vertebral column and the pelvis is held in place by a muscular sling (Fig. 3)16 or fused anteriorly to the pectoral girdle, as in the mudskipper22. However, in tetrapods, the ilium originates from the pubis and extends dorsally to fuse with a sacral rib16. The incomplete fusion of these two skeletal elements is visible in amphibians (Fig. 4), in which the sacral rib and ilium are joined by cartilage.
Figure 4: Computed microtomography scan (voxel size = 7 μm) of salamander Eurycea longicauda (USNM 543595) pelvis (30.9 mm body length minus tail). Anterolateral view of pelvic girdle. fe, femur (green); il, iliac bone (pink); is, ischial region of puboischiadic plate (tan); pu, pubic region of puboischiadic plate (tan); sr, sacral rib (dark purple). Full size image
Walking kinematics
Cryptotora thamicola walked on rough and smooth wet surfaces while out of water. We observed that Cryptotora could walk towards the direction of flowing water (Supplementary Video 3). Hillstream loach relatives of Cryptotora in the family Homalopteridae are known to have epidermal ridges and spines to facilitate adhesion to surfaces in fast-flowing water1,23, but it was not obvious from the μCT scans that these were present on Cryptotora.
During walking, the body midline of Cryptotora (Fig. 5A) moved in a standing wave, and did not follow an undulatory, traveling wave pattern as a swimming fish might use. Swimming fish generally undulate in such a way that little lateral displacement occurs near the trunk and the greatest amplitude of undulation occurs posteriorly, in the tail24. All of the fish species that “walk” on land, including mudskippers9, lungfish12, polypterus8, snakeheads, climbing perch25, and catfishes, do so by using their tail to push their bodies forward, pivoting over the pectoral fins. In Cryptotora, there was no undulation of the tail and body bending occurred primarily between the appendicular girdles, as in salamanders26, as the pectoral and pelvic girdles rotate opposite to each other. Cryptotora used a diagonal-couplets lateral sequence gait that was observed both in video taken in the fish’s natural habitat (in flow speeds of approximately 60 cm/s) and in a glass aquarium tilted to 45° and 90° (Fig. 5B, Supplementary Video 1, 3). This symmetric alternating gait is typically the most stable for tetrapods because the center of mass is supported by the triangular orientation of the limbs 19,26,27, and was characterised by semi-synchronous movement of the right forefin and lefthindfin (RF-LH) followed by semi-synchronous movement of the left forefin and right hindfin (LF-RH). There was no observable difference in kinematics between sequences collected at 45˚ and 90° inclinations. Walking motion appeared to be primarily driven by rotation of the appendicular girdles relative to the long axis of the fish rather than by protraction and retraction of individual fins; however, further analysis of higher resolution video is necessary to test this.
Figure 5: Walking kinematics of Cryptotora thamicola climbing a glass surface at a 45 degree angle, ventral view. (A) Midline spline curve from five consecutive step cycles, head is to the right and aligned to same position among frames. (B) stance phase averaged by proportion of step cycle for right forefin (RF, blue), left forefin (LF, green), right hindfin (RH, orange), and left hindfin (LH, purple). The ends of the bars are calculated as mean ± SE touchdown/liftoff for n = 10 step cycles. Boxes at the ends of bars represent 75% confidence intervals. Time zero was designated as the frame where the LH could be seen pushing away from the glass, which was chosen because this motion was consistently observed to happen in a single frame. Full size image
A step cycle (i.e. stride) was defined as the amount of time between the push off of the left hindfin (LH), which from the ventral view could be seen to rotate the pelvis to the right, until the next LH push off. The gait duty factor was the proportion of the step cycle in which a fin was in contact with the substrate. The duty factor of Cryptotora was 65% for each fin with no significant difference among fins (F(3,36) = 0.069, p = 0.976). This aquatic walking duty cycle falls between the aquatic and terrestrial modes of the salamander Dicamptodon tenebrosus, for which the gait pattern duty cycle is approximately 41% while submerged and 77% while walking on a treadmill26,28.
It has been hypothesized that early tetrapods that could not lift their bodies off the ground would use a crutching29 or walking trot gait, in which the body moved with an undulatory wave, and those that could support their weight would perform a lateral sequence walk, resulting in a standing wave of the axial body19. Cryptotora performs a tetrapodal diagonal-couplets lateral sequence walk with a standing wave but it’s body remains close to the ground, which may be hydrodynamically important when walking in high velocity flow conditions. In reality, the behaviour and morphology of Cryptotora are unique as compared to both swimming fishes and walking salamanders and represent a locomotor strategy that may be heavily constrained by their cave environment.
Evolution of walking in fishes
Tetrapod locomotion began in the water, where the first limbs were used as paddles30. A hallmark of the evolution of tetrapods is the regionalisation of vertebral column articulations between neural centra and with the pelvic girdle for support out of the buoyant fluid environment19. Indeed, the evolution of the pelvic girdle structure points to development on land21; where it is absolutely essential to have a robust mechanical connection between the axial skeleton and the ground to generate upright walking forces30. In fishes, both living and extinct, the body is supported by the surrounding fluid; pelvic fins are used primarily for stabilization against roll31.
A number of researchers have shown that it is possible to use the biomechanical knowledge of extant vertebrates to attempt to better understand the functional constraints that shaped the origin of tetrapod limbs32,33,34,35,36. Even though fish bone is anosteocytic, it has been shown to remodel and reinforce skeletal structures in response to mechanical stress37. This process is known to cause the formation of intermuscular bones in fishes15 and to increase pectoral girdle shape and thickness in polypterus, which walks on land using its pectoral fins8. Thus, the enlarged neuropophyses, ribs, and pelvic girdle of Cryptotora may have evolved as a result of mechanical stressors from climbing and walking. Developmental plasticity plays an important role in the appearance of complex heritable phenotypic traits38,39 and extreme environments, like those in caves, are catalysts for the evolution of novel traits. Standen et al. hypothesized that environmentally induced phenotypic plasticity may facilitate macroevolutionary change8; however, our current data does not allow us discriminate between selection for a robust pelvic girdle specifically or for the plastic response to extreme environmental conditions.
Interestingly, the fin shape and footfalls of walking Cryptotora (Fig. 6A) is similar to the patterns of footprints seen in the oldest known Devonian subaqueous tetrapod trackway (382–358 mya; Fig. 6B) from the Genoa River Beds in New South Wales, Australia40. In both cases the pes (hindfin) print overlies the manus (forefin) on the same side33,40. Also, the six or more digit prints at the edges of the trackway prints match the orientation and position of the distal end of fin rays in walking Cryptotora; it is not unreasonable that fin rays digging into a substrate, especially when the fin ray tips are free of webbing as they are in Cryptotora, would create a pattern like digits. No known limbed early tetrapods made such tracks33,41 but they could have been made by a fish that walked like Cryptotora. Similar trackways are known from the Valencia Slate Formation in Ireland and these sediments have an earlier date than the presumed origin of tetrapods as indicated by body fossil data19. Notably, many Homalopterid fishes are able to push their bodies off the substrate and stand perched on their fins1; however, we predict that if Cryptotora were to walk on a soft substrate (which is non-native to its cave environment), it would likely leave a body and tail imprint, like that seen with some of the tracks in the Genoa River Bed40.
Figure 6: Finprint comparison. (A) Tracing of Cryptotora fins from ventral view during walking sequence on glass at 45° angle. Final LF (green) fin tracing is shown with fin ray orientations drawn. (B) footprint outlines of earliest known tetrapod trackway from the Devonian, redrawn from Warren and Wakefield40, rotated to match walking direction of Cryptotora (towards top of page), and scaled to similar size (scale bars are 50 mm, bottom). Full size image
It is, however, crucial to note that Cryptotora is not an analogous representative of any early tetrapodamorph described to date. Description of the morphological attributes of early tetrapods that were instrumental in the fin to limb transition included the presence of zygapophyses and large neural spines on vertebrae and a pelvic girdle that was firlmly attached to the axial skeleton; Cryptotora convergently evolved these while no other fish has. However, Cryptotora obviously lacks digited appendages, which evolved before the pelvic girdle in the fin-to-limb transition.
In the Devonian period, vertebrates gained novel morphological and behavioural traits that facilitated life in a terrestrial environment. Among these, solid-substrate based locomotion, alternating gait by pelvic propulsors, and digit-bearing limbs are considered to be critical adaptations for the emergence of tetrapods12,33,42. Recent works on terrestrial locomotion in fishes have shown that pelvic appendage driven locomotion on a hard surface was possible before the evolution of digited limbs12. Our work supports those findings and goes on to show that fish are capable of evolving a robust pelvic girdle that is firmly attached to the vertebral column in the absence of digited limbs; this finding is especially worth considering given the fossils trackways showing tetrapodal locomotion that predate the origin of digited limbs. While there have been multiple cases of secondarily aquatic vertebrates, we only have fossil evidence of one period of time in which vertebrates emerged from an aquatic lifestyle and evolved terrestrial walking behaviour19. Future studies of extant fishes that convergently evolved morphological and behavioural features typical of tetrapods will offer a window into understanding the biomechanical constraints that enhanced selection on this complex transformation. ||||| When Daphne Soares got back from a trip to Thailand last year, she had something she just had to share with her hallmate at work. “Check out this cool fish I saw!” she said, pulling up a video. Brooke Flammang had never seen anything like the cave fish in Soares’ footage. It was pink. It was eyeless. It had huge fins that looked like two pairs of wings. And it was walking.
But it wasn’t the walking that threw her for a loop. Flammang studies fish locomotion at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, so she’s used to seeing fish moving on land. She wasn’t surprised to see one that could push itself over rocks and through water gushing like a fire hose. But other “walking” fish hop forward by leaning on their pectoral fins like a pair of crutches, or flex and shimmy to wriggle over surfaces. This one was taking steps, moving one of its front fins in time with the back fin on the other side of its body, alternating in a diagonal two-step like a salamander. Flammang was incredulous. “I was like, ‘Fish can’t do that,’” she says. “That’s ridiculous.”
This one did, though. And a fish that walks like an amphibian, especially when it’s more closely related to a goldfish than to any four-footed creature, could teach biologists a lot about how humans’ fishy ancestors learned how to walk. Intrigued, Flammang asked Soares if she could get a specimen of her own to examine. The answer? “Absolutely not.”
It turns out the waterfall-climbing cave fish Cryptotora thamicola is incredibly rare. It lives in just eight caves on the border of Thailand and Myanmar, and the Thai government fiercely protects the small population—fewer than 2,000 adults at last count.
Danté Fenolio/Science Source
Normally, a biologist studying anatomy and movement would capture some fish from the wild, film how they move in a lab, and dissect a few to figure out how their bones and muscles work together. No such luck with Cryptotora thamicola. If Flammang was going to get a better look at how this fish walked, she was going to have to do it inside the caves where they lived. She would have to study its skeleton without dissecting a single specimen.
Only a few years ago, Flammang would’ve been stuck. That awesome video would probably have been all she knew about this novel cavefish. Because even if she could get permission to film in the caves, she would still need a way to see what the fish’s skeleton looked like. And none of the museums that owned preserved specimens were about to let anyone cut into something that rare. “Museum specimens are everybody’s specimens,” says Paul Gignac, a biologist and 3-D imaging specialist at Oklahoma State University. “They’re not things you can sample destructively, especially when they’re very rare specimens that other people may someday need.”
Fortunately, Flammang knew something she could do.
She started by teaming up with a Thai ichthyologist, Apinun Suvarnaraksha, who was able to get permission to go into the caves and capture fish to film before rereleasing them into the wild. Suvarnaraksha had never collected kinematic data before, so Flammang trained him remotely. “I tried to give him the most explicit instructions I could, then he’d collect a few videos, upload them on Google Drive, and send them to me,” Flammang said. “And I’d notice that we needed a better camera angle, or better backlighting. It went back-and-forth for a couple of months until we got some videos to analyze.”
Brooke Flammang
Suvarnaraksha also got permission to scan a museum specimen in a high-resolution CT scanner at a local dental school, which gave Flammang the data to build a detailed 3-D model of the fish’s skeleton while leaving the specimen unharmed.
Today, they released their results. The videos confirmed that Cryptotora thamicola moves a lot like a salamander, keeping its tail straight as it steps its fins forward, utterly unlike the typical wriggly fish-out-of-water. Their model of its skeleton, published in Scientific Reports, hints at how the fish manages that feat: Its pelvis is fused to its vertebral column, which lets the fish push forces from its limbs directly into its core.
Flammang thinks that anatomy is a first for modern fish, though it’s common in terrestrial vertebrates. “When they sent me the files, I thought someone was playing a trick on me,” she says. “There was this gigantic pelvis that looks nothing like any fish pelvis.”
It’s a neat bit of convergent evolution that wouldn’t have been discovered before high-resolution consumer camcorders, widespread CT scanners, and remote collaboration via the Internet. Gignac notes that Flammang’s approach is an effective way to pull new data from rare specimens around the world. “CT lets us nondestructively get a much better understanding of their anatomy than we could from just photographing them at a museum. And one of the most important advances it’s given researchers is an ability to work collaboratively in groups all over the world.”
A CT scan isn’t quite like holding a fish in your own two hands, but for Flammang, it’s better than nothing. Way better. |||||
Write a summary.
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– According to evolutionary theory, something must have crawled from the sea onto land hundreds of millions of years ago—but what? How about a blind fish called Cryptotora thamicola, which uses four fins like crutches to wriggle up waterfalls and across slimy rocks, the Smithsonian reports. Discovered in northern Thailand more than 30 years ago, Cryptotora thamicola came to the attention of US biomechanics researcher Brooke Flammang when a colleague showed her video of the cave dweller crawling along surfaces, Wired reports. "I was like, 'Fish can’t do that,'" says Flammang. "That’s ridiculous." So she teamed up with Thai scientist Apinun Suvarnaraksha, who shot video of the endangered species and had a museum specimen CT-scanned at a dental school. Published in Scientific Reports, their results show that Cryptotora thamicola has a skeletal structure made for walking. The pelvis is bound by long ribs to the spine, and overlapping vertebrae keep the spine stiff—unlike modern fish but much like ancient four-limbed tetrapods that once crawled around like salamanders, the New York Times reports. "Functionally, it makes perfect sense, but to see it in a fish is incredibly wild," says Flammang. Scientists have identified possible tetrapod tracks dating back nearly 400 million years, Nature reported in 2009, but could it have been Cryptotora thamicola? "We see these footprints in a fish today, doing something very unfishlike," says Flammang, who believes the Thai fish may show how creatures first reached land. (Evolutionary theory could explain why we can't find alien life.)
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A fire truck carrying friends and family members of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew leads the Prescott Frontier Days Rodeo Parade Saturday, July 6, 2013 in Prescott, Ariz. The firefighters... (Associated Press)
Just as they were taken one at a time from the scene of their deaths, 19 firefighters killed in a wildfire a week ago will be returned to their home in the Arizona mountains on Sunday.
Each elite Hotshot firefighter will be in his own hearse as the hourslong procession takes the men's bodies from a coroner's office in Phoenix, through the town where they died and on to where they lived in the mountain community of Prescott.
American flags that were draped over the men's bodies in Yarnell have stayed with them since and will be with them until they are buried. After that, the flags will be given to their families.
The hearses will be accompanied by motorcycle escorts and honor guard members.
It's unclear how long the procession will last, but the route is about 125 miles long.
Since their fellow firefighters arrived at the scene where they were killed, the fallen firefighters have not been alone, a tradition among those in the profession in the U.S.
"Since they were discovered, they have never been out of the presence of a brother firefighter," said Paul Bourgeois, a Phoenix-area fire chief who is acting as a spokesman in Prescott for the firefighters' families. "From the time they were taken to the medical examiner in Phoenix, while they're at the medical examiner's office, when they are received in a funeral home _ there will always be a brother firefighter on site with them until they are interred.
"That's something people don't realize. We never leave your side," he said of the tradition. "It's a comfort to the survivors, whether they're families or fellow firefighters."
The firefighters were killed a week ago in the Yarnell Hill fire, sparked by lightning on June 28. It was 90 percent contained Saturday, after destroying more than 100 homes in Yarnell and burning about 13 square miles. The town remained evacuated.
The crew of Hotshots was working to build a fire line between the blaze and Yarnell when erratic winds suddenly shifted the fire's direction, causing it to hook around the firefighters and cut off access to a ranch that was to be their safety zone.
The highly trained men were in the prime of their lives, and many left behind wives _ some pregnant _ and small children.
An investigation into the tragedy has found only that winds took the firefighters by surprise; more thorough findings will come much later. ||||| 1 of 3. A motorcade of hearses carrying the remains of 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots firefighting team, who were killed fighting the Yarnell Fire, departs from the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's office in Phoenix, Arizona July 7, 2013.
PHOENIX |
PHOENIX (Reuters) - A solemn procession of 19 white hearses carrying the remains of firefighters killed battling an Arizona wildfire left Phoenix accompanied by police motorcycle outriders on Sunday on a final journey passing through the crew's hometown.
An honor guard of firefighters and police officers stood to attention as the caravan pulled slowly away from the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's office shortly after midday as bagpipers played a dirge.
The convoy passed beneath a large U.S. flag suspended from crossed fire ladders over a street leading to the Arizona capitol flanked with fire trucks as it headed for Prescott Valley, about 100 miles north of Phoenix.
The firefighters were from the Prescott Fire Department's Granite Mountain Hotshots team. They became trapped when their position was overrun by flames from the Yarnell Hill fire, southwest of Prescott, on June 30.
"Knowing that they risked their lives and paid the ultimate sacrifice, it's an honor for us to be here and know that we are with them ... they will not be alone," Captain Larry Nunez of the Phoenix Fire Department told Reuters outside the medical examiner's office.
Hundreds of residents, some sheltering beneath parasols in the 104-degree (40 Celsius) heat, stood solemnly at curbside as the procession of hearses passed by, each bearing the name of a firefighter who lost his life.
"They gave up their lives to save other lives," said onlooker Richard Galaviz, his voice unsteady with emotion. "The least I can do is come here and pay my respects so that they can go back home and get rest."
The route taken by the cortege was set to pass through Yarnell, the tiny scrub- and chaparral-ringed town the firemen lost their lives trying to protect, before heading on to their hometown of Prescott.
The convoy's final destination is the Yavapai County Medical Examiner's office in Prescott Valley, 10 miles east of Prescott.
The lightning-sparked blaze has blackened some 8,400 acres of rugged, brush-covered hillsides and ravines since it erupted on June 28. The fire was reported 90 percent contained on Sunday.
A memorial service to honor the firefighters is scheduled for Tuesday at an arena in Prescott Valley. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is expected to attend, as well as firefighters from departments across the United States.
Officials plan to set up an overflow area to handle the crowd, expected to exceed the arena's seating capacity of nearly 5,000.
The deaths marked the greatest loss of life from a U.S. wildland blaze since at least 25 men died battling the Griffith Park fire of 1933 in Los Angeles.
Federal investigators are probing the reasons for the deaths. The fire crew was overcome as they tried to battle the blaze whipped up by winds that suddenly changed direction, engulfing their position in flames.
Investigators expect to release provisional findings by early September.
(Editing by Eric Walsh) |||||Summary:
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– The 19 firefighters killed in the Yarnell Hill Fire are finally going home. Nineteen white hearses left the medical examiner's office in Phoenix earlier today, flanked by an honor guard of firefighters and police officers, embarking on an hours-long, 125-mile procession that will pass through Yarnell, where they lost their lives, then onto the crew's hometown of Prescott in the Arizona mountains, Reuters and the AP report. Hundreds of residents stood out in the 104-degree heat as the procession passed by, reports Reuters. Since the bodies of the firefighters were discovered a week ago, they have not been alone. "Since they were discovered, they have never been out of the presence of a brother firefighter," says a Phoenix fire chief, per AP. "From the time they were taken to the medical examiner in Phoenix, while they're at the medical examiner's office, when they are received in a funeral home. There will always be a brother firefighter on site with them until they are interred. ... That's something people don't realize. We never leave your side."
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– While other candidates have made Iowa their home away from home, spending the night in hotels and motels before America's first caucus, Donald Trump has taken a different approach. Trump flies home to Manhattan in one of his private planes or copters so he can snooze in his own bed in Trump Tower every night, reports Reuters. For instance, Trump attended eight campaign events in Iowa in November and December, and he hightailed it back to NYC afterward each time. "It works very well for me," he tells Reuters, mentioning he uses a Boeing 757 with a larger bed when he's flying into bigger airports, and a smaller Cessna for tinier destinations. But Reuters talks to political analysts and others who think the strategy could end up costing him votes. "Not everything in a presidential campaign can be accomplished with a speech or a rally," the chairman of the American Conservative Union says. "You attend a family event of a supporter in a key state ... these have an important psychological impact." Ted Cruz has been able to go to about 12 town halls and about two dozen smaller schmooze sessions in part because he holes up in local accommodations after his work is done—and while his numbers can't necessarily be pegged to his lodgings, he's now leading Trump in Iowa polls. Still, as one blogger notes, you can bet Trump isn't worrying about his travel habits. He "not only defies political conventional wisdom on just about every score, but he's proving to other candidates that they don't need to follow them either," writes Dan Calabrese at caintv.com. (Two women who say Bill Clinton targeted them are fans of Trump.)
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Politics: Latest Trump scandal: He flies home every night to sleep in his own bed
Image Credit: Trump Tower New York
Published by: Dan Calabrese on Friday January 8th, 2016
Political operatives aghast. No one else cares.
I'm finding myself engaged in a moronic exercise, and I should know better, but I'm still doing it. Every time the media gloms onto one of these Trump-is-doing-politics-wrong-and-it's-going-to-cost-him stories, I wait for the inevitable result in which the whole issue either has no effect at all on Trump or, as seems more likely, actually helps him. That happens every time. That's not the moronic part.
The moronic part is what I expect will happen next, which is that the political media finally, at long last, smacks itself in the forehead and says, Holy crap, these stories are idiotic because a) no one cares; and b) Trump not only defies political conventional wisdom on just about every score, but he's proving to other candidates that they don't need to follow them either, thus rendering the whole Trump's-not-following-the-rules huffing and puffing self-evidently absurd. And they will stop doing the stories.
That's what I keep thinking will happen. This will be the one where they figure it out.
Nope, I'm a complete moron:
U.S. presidential candidates are spending long days on the campaign trail and their nights in a succession of budget hotels, often in small towns. Not Donald Trump. After nearly every rally, the billionaire real estate developer hops into one of his planes or helicopters and returns to New York so that he can sleep in his own bed in his marble-and-gold-furnished Trump Tower apartment in Manhattan. . . . Trump's determination to sleep at home every night raises eyebrows among election campaign veterans, who say it could cost him. Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire often want more personal attention; they feel they play a special role in choosing presidential nominees because their contests are held first. . . . Strategists said Trump not only risks alienating potential supporters but also the political operatives in states that can help turn out the vote. "Not everything in a presidential campaign can be accomplished with a speech or a rally," said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, a grassroots conservative political group, and a former White House political director for President George W. Bush. The group has not endorsed a candidate. "You attend a family event of a supporter in a key state: weddings, funerals, graduations, Christmas parties - these have an important psychological impact," he said. Trump said he has stayed in Iowa "numerous times," but a campaign source who did not want to be identified said he remembered Trump staying overnight only once in Iowa and once in New Hampshire.
So this is what we've come to - campaign operatives requesting anonymity so they can dish juicy dirt on how many times the candidate stayed in a hotel in a given state in a given month, much to the disapproval of "campaign veterans" whose job it is to disapprove of such things.
Here's what the political media have such a hard time getting their brains around: Trump has a job, and unlike officeholders who have the freedom not ignore the current jobs while they run for another one, Trump actually has to do his. So he takes advantage of his wealth - the wealth that gives him access to a jet and a helicopter - and he makes one-day roundtrip journeys that make it possible for him to be at his home base in the morning while being anywhere he needs to go later in the day.
Political media were similarly scandalizes some months back when Trump skipped a campaign appearance to close an important business deal. This icky man apparently doesn't understand that politics is the be-all and end-all of life, and that it's simply not done to choose any other priority when the scribes' pens are getting itchy.
When you read that something is raising eyebrows among political operatives, there's a very good chance that means someone is acting like a normal person, and the heads of political people are exploding over it.
Dan recently served as editor for a youth adventure novel written by his son Tony. Titled Shadow Island, it's about a mysterious island in the middle of Lake Michigan, which is discovered by four young Chicago residents - only to unleash a force that threatens the entire city of Chicago. Aimed at young readers, it's available in hard copy or in e-book download formats. Follow all of Dan's work by liking his page on Facebook. ||||| GOP presidential frontrunner billionaire Donald Trump tells Breitbart News in an exclusive interview that the women who former President Bill Clinton has allegedly targeted, including Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones and others, have “gone through a lot.”
When asked to respond to Willey’s comments to Breitbart Jerusalem Bureau editor Aaron Klein—where Willey thanked Trump for bringing the issue back to the forefront—Trump said he was “honored” that Willey thanked him.
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“Thank you very much, Mr. Trump, for asking the right question at the right time. And please keep asking more,” Willey, who has accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault, stated.
She also called for more alleged victims to come forward:
I would just like to encourage any woman who has suffered at the hands of Bill Clinton to please try to find the courage and bravery to come forth. Because it’s okay now. Nobody can hurt you now. It’s as simple as that,” Willey said. “Nobody can touch you now. The word is out. You will be okay but you will be doing the right thing for all the right reasons and you will be helping your fellow sisters.
Meanwhile, Juanita Broaddrick—who has accused Bill Clinton of rape—told The Hill newspaper she likes Trump, even though she’s not a member of either major political party.
“He says the things I like to hear,” Broaddrick said.
Trump, in response to both Willey and Broaddrick, told Breitbart News exclusively that he was “honored” they said these things about him—and that he knows both of them have been through hell thanks to the Clintons.
“I was honored that they said that about me,” Trump told Breitbart News. “I know they’ve gone through a lot. But I’m honored that they said they said that about me. That was very nice, and very much appreciated.”
Trump also, in this exclusive interview on Monday, recounted how the whole battle has resurfaced. He said that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—who is running for the Democratic nomination for president, and is Bill’s wife—accused him of having a “penchant for sexism.” But, Trump said that Hillary’s decision to keep Bill around proves that is just not the case: It’s actually Hillary who has that issue.
“She said I have a ‘penchant for sexism,’ she used that exact statement,” Trump told Breitbart News. “That was before and she was referring to me.”
Trump is confident that if he wins the GOP nomination in 2016 that he will do better with women than Clinton in a general election.
“There’s nobody that respects women more than I do,” Trump said.
There’s nobody that will do more for women than I will—and included in that is that I’m going to make our country secure. That benefits women and men and everybody. There’s just nobody that is going to do what I am going to do for women, and there’s nobody that has the respect that I have for women. So when she said that I said ‘wait a minute, you have somebody who’s on the campaign trail right now talking for you and he’s had serious problems including all of the charges’ that you could go into if you want. That’s how it all started, and after that I haven’t been active with respect to this issue, but I just thought it was very inappropriate that she would mention such a thing. She wasn’t an innocent victim, she was an enabler. You can ask the people—and when we talk about things like women and women’s rights and all the things we want to talk about, she’s got a very big issue there. Look, nobody respects women more than I do and that includes Hillary Clinton.
Breitbart’s Klein has been spotlighted by the news media in recent days for exclusively interviewing Bill Clinton’s famous sex accusers, including Broaddrick, Paula Jones, and Willey.
Gennifer Flowers, who had consensual relations with Clinton, also warned about a Hillary presidency on Klein’s show.
The interviews helped to spark the current debate about Bill’s alleged female victims, a topic that has engulfed Hillary’s frontrunning campaign.
The Washington Post on Thursday cited a Breitbart article in which Klein described how his radio program had become “a support center of sorts” for Bill Clinton’s female accusers — “a safe-space for these women to sound off about the way they were allegedly treated by both Bill and Hillary.” ||||| Ted Cruz speaks at Charlie’s Steakhouse during a campaign stop at the Carrollton Inn in Carroll, Iowa, on Monday. Mark Kauzlarich/Reuters
WINTERSET, Iowa – Ted Cruz wants to talk like he’s the Iowa front-runner, but has little interest in declaring himself the leader of the pack.
“Almost a couple of weeks ago, almost every Republican in the field was attacking Donald Trump,” the Republican Texas senator told reporters before his stop here Monday night. “Today, almost every Republican candidate in the field is attacking me.”
Not quite. But Mr. Cruz on Monday continued his weeks-long foreign policy barb-trading with rival Sen. Marco Rubio, and Rick Santorum — targeting social conservative voters who backed his 2012 campaign who have since flocked to Mr. Cruz — used his first television advertisement to attack Mr. Cruz. Mr. Trump, during a Sunday appearance on CBS, accused Mr. Cruz of “copying” his strict immigration platform.
Mr. Cruz was having none of that here, the fourth stop in his six-day, 28-town Iowa bus tour.
“It’s very easy for a candidate when he or she is running for office to suddenly discover illegal immigration as an issue, to suddenly discover that we have to stop amnesty, to suddenly discover that we’ve got to secure the borders,” Mr. Cruz said, in a refrain useful for both his attacks against Mr. Rubio and to separate himself from Mr. Trump, whose positions on immigration have propelled his candidacy.
Now the Iowa polling leader, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average, Mr. Cruz dismissed a reporter’s suggestion that he’s now the front-runner here.
“The only way I’ve ever campaigned is as the underdog, and that is certainly the way I view myself,” he said, before taking another shot at Mr. Rubio, whose campaign has bet that he’ll reach more Iowa voters through cable television appearances than through 18-hour days hustling across rural Iowa.
“We’re spending a lot of time in small, rural counties, where men and women from Iowa can look you in the eye and take the measure of the candidate,” Mr. Cruz said. “That’s the way campaigning should operate in Iowa. It doesn’t work from a TV studio in New York City.”
Mr. Rubio, incidentally, has three town hall events planned for Tuesday, starting at 8 a.m. in Cedar Rapids. ||||| NEW YORK U.S. presidential candidates are spending long days on the campaign trail and their nights in a succession of budget hotels, often in small towns. Not Donald Trump.
After nearly every rally, the billionaire real estate developer hops into one of his planes or helicopters and returns to New York so that he can sleep in his own bed in his marble-and-gold-furnished Trump Tower apartment in Manhattan.
In November and December, Trump held six rallies in Iowa, visited a local production plant and held one town hall, flying home each night. His nearest rival for the Republican nomination, Ted Cruz, has zigzagged around the state, holding around a dozen town halls and twice as many "meet-and-greet" sessions, and bedding down between stops in hotels.
Tweet ID: "682291228898115585"
Trump's determination to sleep at home every night raises eyebrows among election campaign veterans, who say it could cost him. Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire often want more personal attention; they feel they play a special role in choosing presidential nominees because their contests are held first.
Trump leads in polls in New Hampshire but he has slipped behind Cruz in Iowa. Cruz has done what U.S. presidential candidates typically do: He has made the state a virtual second home in the run-up to Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucus.
This week Cruz is crisscrossing the state in a bus, cruising through small hamlets with stops at a pizza place, coffee house and even a water park.
Trump's schedule this week, by contrast, illustrates his tendency to get out of town quickly. On Monday evening he addressed a crowd in Lowell, Massachusetts, and was due to address a rally in Claremont, New Hampshire, just a couple of hours north the following day. Instead of overnighting in a hotel, he flew home. On Tuesday Trump flew to Claremont and then returned to New York.
Tweet ID: "684197871009292292"
In an interview, Trump said he needs time each morning in his Manhattan office to run his businesses, which include a string of high-end hotels and resorts.
"It works very well for me," he said, adding that he can quickly get to and from campaign stops thanks to his private aircraft fleet. "For the smaller airports, the (Cessna) Citation X, and for the larger airports, the Boeing 757," which has a big bed.
He also has a helicopter, which he used while traveling between his Palm Beach mansion and a rally in Hilton Head, South Carolina, on Dec. 30, where once again he did not stay the night.
"HOMEBODY" TRUMP
"Trump is a man who likes to be on the couch with a good cheeseburger and likes to watch TV - he's a homebody," said his friend and former adviser Roger Stone, who recently founded a pro-Trump Super PAC, a political group that can raise unlimited funds to advocate for Trump as long as it does not coordinate with his campaign.
"He likes being in his own bed, even if it means coming into Teterboro or LaGuardia after midnight," he added, referring to two airports Trump uses in the New York area.
Tweet ID: "683522343680000000"
Trump rejected Stone's explanation.
While Trump breakfasts in his Manhattan quarters, with sweeping views of Central Park, his opponents are waking up in Holiday Inns or Courtyard Marriotts.
Cruz spent Monday night in a motel in Missouri Valley, Iowa, where vending machines sold items with long-past expiry dates. His campaign manager Jeff Roe fired off a series of bemused tweets about the state of the motel, lamenting the presence of "the long hair on the pillow" that he found in his room.
Strategists said Trump not only risks alienating potential supporters but also the political operatives in states that can help turn out the vote.
"Not everything in a presidential campaign can be accomplished with a speech or a rally," said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, a grassroots conservative political group, and a former White House political director for President George W. Bush. The group has not endorsed a candidate.
"You attend a family event of a supporter in a key state: weddings, funerals, graduations, Christmas parties - these have an important psychological impact," he said.
Trump said he has stayed in Iowa "numerous times," but a campaign source who did not want to be identified said he remembered Trump staying overnight only once in Iowa and once in New Hampshire.
ON THE ROAD
That's a far cry from candidates like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has logged more hours in New Hampshire than any other Republican still in the race. Christie and others regularly hold meet-and-greets, attend local government meetings and find ways to make themselves approachable to voters ahead of the state's Feb. 9 primary election.
In Iowa, where state residents will attend caucuses on Feb. 1, Cruz is in the middle of a week-long bus tour that will take him to 36 different counties.
Former Democratic candidate Chris Dodd took the practice to an extreme in 2008, when he went so far as to move his entire family to Iowa, enrolling his children in school there. He nonetheless lost to Barack Obama.
Trump sees it more as a numbers game. His rallies attract between 3,000 and 20,000 people each time he appears and are often broadcast on television.
"I have more people at one event than most candidates see in a month," he said.
Even so, Trump said he planned to do smaller events in the future and may even decide on some campaign stops that are veritable pilgrimages for his competitors. One such spot is the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester, New Hampshire, where candidates are expected to stop by and greet customers.
"It's a distinct possibility," he said.
He also said he would begin making multi-day trips to early primary states like Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada, where he can choose to stay at his own hotel, the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas.
(Reporting By Emily Flitter in New York; Additional reporting by Michelle Conlin in Iowa, editing by Ross Colvin) |||||
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17-year-old Andrew Green suffered a brain injury while attempting to surf on top of a car.
- It has been a long road for 17-year-old Andrew Green, and it’s not over. In his final weeks of high school, he's missed being in a school musical, choir and band concerts, prom -- but before heading home from the hospital on Thursday, he explains how a few seconds playing a daring game almost killed him.
Andrew admits doing well is a relative term. His headache is so severe from his brain injury, it hurts to pick his head off the pillow.
“I could be paralyzed. I could have lost my ability to talk like this. There are so many things that could have happened,” he said.
BACKSTORY - Car surfing accident leaves Columbia Heights, Minn. teen in critical condition
He has been at North Memorial Hospital, and now, Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare since April 12, the day the high school senior, school mascot, choir and band enthusiast was goofing around with friends and decided to do some car surfing, something he has done before.
“One of my friends ran into the car and then I went onto the hood, and I said go, go, go,” he said.
Laying on his stomach, holding onto the front grill, he fell off the hood when his friend took a turn at 20 miles per hour. The injury from hitting his head on the pavement forced doctors to remove part of his skull and put him into a medically-induced coma for a month.
“If I never jumped on the car, this wouldn't be a thing,” Andrew said. “I'd still be at school, I would have gone to all the theater stuff I missed.”
Eight weeks later, his days are filled with therapy sessions and he’ll require more surgery, but his advice to other teens is clear: Car surfing isn't worth the risk.
“If I ever have the chance to tell someone or stop someone, I want to take that chance. I don't want anyone to end up like this, and there is a possibility they could end up even worse than this,” Andrew said.
The Anoka County sheriff's office is still investigating this accident and will soon be turning the case over the county prosecutor to consider charges against the driver, but he’s adamant he and his family do not want charges filed.
MORE - Teen critically hurt car surfing, mom speaks to spare another family ||||| Buy Photo Crime (Photo: Daily Times stock image)Buy Photo
FARMINGTON — A 21-year-old woman died Sunday morning while car surfing in the Dunes Off-highway Vehicle Area, according to San Juan County Sheriff's Office Detective Lt. Kyle Lincoln.
Wilberta Becenti fell off the vehicle while standing on it as a driver drove over rough dirt roads on Bureau of Land Management property located off of New Mexico Highway 371, Lincoln said. He said the incident occurred around 4:30 a.m. Sunday.
Lincoln said Becenti was intoxicated while car surfing. He said the sheriff's office is still investigating the incident and determining whether or not the driver was also intoxicated. No charges have been filed in connection to Becenti's death.
Read or Share this story: http://www.daily-times.com/story/news/local/2016/10/10/woman-killed-while-car-surfing-sunday-morning/91852554/ ||||| This will appear next to all of your comments
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– A young woman from New Mexico taking part in a dangerous activity in the early morning hours Sunday paid for it with her life, the Farmington Daily Times reports. Wilberta Becenti, 23—though the AP notes her online obituary has her age as 21—was standing on top of a moving vehicle, or car surfing, as it drove over bumpy dirt roads on Bureau of Land Management property just south of Farmington, local cops say. At around 4:30am, however, Becenti, who police say was intoxicated, fell off the car; it's not clear if she died at the scene or after being transported to the hospital. The Daily Times reports this is at least the seventh car-surfing death this year around the country; a 2012 USA Today article notes that it's difficult to calculate exactly how many car-surfing deaths occur each year because police and ERs don't track them. Cops don't know yet if the driver was also intoxicated, and no charges have been filed. A teen from Columbia Heights, Minn., who fell off a car in April and was in a medically induced coma for a month told KMSP in June that what he did with friends that day in April wasn't worth what happened to him afterward, including missing the whole last part of his senior year in high school, enduring constant severe headaches, and having to go to therapy. But he knows he's one of the lucky ones. "I could be paralyzed. I could have lost my ability to talk like this," he says, adding that he's speaking out because "I don't want anyone [else] to end up like this." (An Iowa teen died in 2015 after falling off an SUV bumper.)
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MARCH 17--For the umpteenth time, felonious hoaxer Jonathan Lee Riches has duped the media with one of his phony lawsuits, this time pretending to be the Uber driver charged with murdering six victims during a shooting spree last month in Michigan.
Reporters unfamiliar with Riches’s oeuvre reported this week that Jason Brian Dalton, 45, had filed a $10 million civil rights lawsuit against Uber. The company, the lawsuit charged, “treats their drivers like crap” and “discriminated against [Dalton’s] mental health.”
The handwritten two-page complaint accused Uber of causing Dalton “psychological damage” and claimed that, “I busted my butt for them. They gave me no Christmas bonus, I wasn't invited to any corporate parties, they made me work when I was sick and didn't let me spend time with my 2 children.”
The purported Dalton lawsuit was mailed to the U.S. District Court in Detroit, where it was docketed Tuesday. Oddly, local reporters did not take notice of the fact that the envelope in which the lawsuit was mailed carried a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania postmark.
Dalton (seen below) is locked up in the Kalamazoo County Jail on murder charges. Riches is pictured above.
A TSG examination of the phony Dalton complaint reveals that the handwriting on the document is identical to that seen on numerous prior hoax lawsuits filed across the country by Riches, whose escapades have been chronicled in these pages for a decade.
When he first began filing his phony lawsuits, Riches would list himself as the plaintiff. But when federal courts across the country became wise to his antics, Riches switched up his routine and began impersonating public figures and notorious defendants. Riches was so successful in duping the rubes at TMZ that his Facebook page listed his occupation as a “Creative Writer” for the gossip web site.
While Riches has been imprisoned for much of the past ten years, he has not let his incarceration stand in the way of his hoaxes. Many of his recent scam filings have emerged from the state prison in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.
According to Bureau of Prisons records, Riches will be released from federal custody on May 10. He has been serving the final months of his sentence in a halfway house in--surprise, surprise--Philadelphia, from which the bogus Dalton lawsuit was mailed last week.
Though freedom is weeks away, Riches is apparently incapable of ceasing his fraudulent activity. Especially since he knows there are always new journalists to dupe. (3 pages) ||||| 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. |||||
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– When a bizarre lawsuit supposedly filed by accused Kalamazoo shooter Jason Dalton made headlines this week, police pretty quickly declared it a hoax. After all, it came from Philadelphia, and Dalton is jailed in Michigan. So if it wasn't Dalton, then who impersonated him? The Smoking Gun has the answer: It's a frequent inmate and notorious hoaxer by the name of Jonathan Lee Riches. "A TSG examination of the phony Dalton complaint reveals that the handwriting on the document is identical to that seen on numerous prior hoax lawsuits filed across the country by Riches, whose escapades have been chronicled in these pages for a decade," the site notes. (See the document here.) Riches himself cops to it on his Facebook page, writing Friday morning, "I sued as the Uber cab shooter, glad I spoofed the jerk!" Riches is currently serving the remaining weeks of his conviction on wire fraud charges at a halfway home in (ta-da!) Philadelphia, notes TSG. He's kept himself busy over the years filing literally thousands of lawsuits—including one earlier this year against a Pennsylvania couple who won the Powerball lottery, claiming somehow to be entitled to half their money, reports Forbes. But perhaps his most notorious stunt came in 2012, when he posed as the uncle of Newtown shooter Adam Lanza in Connecticut and was promptly arrested. That violation of parole (he wasn't allowed to leave Pennsylvania's Eastern District without approval) got him sent back to jail.
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(CNN) Country music star Loretta Lynn, 85, suffered a stroke Thursday at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, and has been hospitalized, according to a statement on her website.
"She is currently under medical care and is responsive and expected to make a full recovery," the statement says.
Lynn has postponed two of her four upcoming shows, one in South Carolina on Saturday night, and one in Pennsylvania on May 12, according to a schedule on the website.
Lynn has been performing professionally since the 1950s. She's been nominated for 17 Grammy Awards and won four: three competitive and one honorary. In 1988, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Some of her hit songs include "Coal Miner's Daughter," "Fist City" and "You're Lookin' at Country."
Read More ||||| Loretta wants to thank everybody for their prayers love and support.
Loretta has been moved from the hospital facility in to rehabilitation and we’re happy to report she is doing great!
Loretta, who just celebrated her 85th birthday, has been advised by her doctors to stay off the road while she is recuperating. Regrettably, upcoming scheduled shows will be postponed.
For information on when shows will be rescheduled, fans are encouraged to visit LorettaLynn.com. ||||| Country icon Loretta Lynn has been hospitalized following a stroke.
The 85-year-old singer was admitted to a Nashville hospital “after she suffered a stroke at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee,” according to a statement on her website.
Currently in the midst of a tour, and due to appear at the Alabama Theater in Myrtle Beach, SC, on May 6, that date has been postponed, says a rep for Lynn. TMZ reports that a “full recovery” is expected.
Lynn had just appeared on “CBS This Morning” in a duet performance with country newcomer Nikki Lane. The segment was taped on April 11.
Watch video of that performance below: |||||
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– The country music world is sending its best wishes to singer Loretta Lynn, who was hospitalized in Nashville after suffering a stroke at her Tennessee home Friday. She is "responsive and expected to make a full recovery," according to her website. The star is 85 and still very active after more than 60 years in music: She was in the middle of a tour, and has had to postpone a Friday concert in North Carolina, a Saturday concert in South Carolina, and a May 12 gig in Pennsylvania, CNN reports. Variety reports that Lynn, whose biggest hits include "Coal Miner's Daughter," recently appeared on CBS' This Morning for a duet with rising star Nikki Lane.
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– Police descended on the Occupy Boston protest at around 1:20am today, dispersing a second tent city that had sprung up on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, across the street from the first. A line of veterans carrying American flags tried to stand between police and the protesters, but police advanced on them and arrested the protesters, wrestling each to the ground, cable-tying them, and dragging them away, the Boston Globe reports. In a video, one can be heard screaming, “We are veterans of the United States of America!” "During the day a group of anarchists really started to run the protest," Police Commissioner Ed Davis told WCVB 5. "They weren’t listening to us." In all about 100 of the roughly 1,000 people who had occupied the Greenway were arrested. Authorities said they had demanded protesters clear the Greenway camp because they feared damage to the $150,000 worth of new shrubbery a conservancy group had planted there recently, reports the AP. Police warned protesters to leave hours beforehand, even distributing written instructions. Cops left the original camp alone, however, and Mayor Thomas Menino said protesters would be allowed to remain there.
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Boston police moved in and began arresting scores of Occupy Boston protesters who refused to leave a large part of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway early this morning.
At 1:20 a.m., the first riot police officers lined up on Atlantic Avenue. Minutes later, dozens of sheriff vans and police wagons arrived and over 200 officers in uniforms and riot gear surrounded the Greenway.
Police Superintendent William Evans and Commissioner Edward F. Davis watched from across the street. Evans gave the crowd two minutes to disperse from the park, warning that they would be locked up if they did not comply.
The crowd of protesters, energized by the sudden appearance of the Boston and Transit police officers, chanted, ‘‘The people united will never be defeated,’’ “This is a peaceful protest,” and “the whole world is watching.’’
About 10 minutes later, the first officers entered the park and surrounded the group. Evans, using a loudspeaker, gave one more warning and then each protester was individually put on his or her stomach, cable-tied, and dragged off as others tore down tents and arrested and detained people on the fringe of the park.
About 100 people were arrested, Davis said. One police officer was hit in the face.
According to police, no protesters or police were injured.
A lot of the protesters retreated from the Greenway to Dewey Square when the police arrived.
Police had earlier warned the about 1,000 protesters to leave the Greenway area, where they had settled hours before, and relocate to Dewey Square or a small, adjacent strip of the Greenway.
Officials do not want the protesters, who originally settled in Dewey Square, to occupy the space across Congress Street on the Greenway because it recently underwent a renovation project where expensive improvements were added, according to Elaine Driscoll, police spokeswoman.
Prior to moving in on the protesters, police had closed all the streets in the area.
Also, the protesters’ chants stopped as their companions were being lead off by police. Some protesters would then yell out the phone number of a lawyer group that would defend them if they were charged.
As the officers lined up this morning, some members of the crowd shouted, “you don’t have to do this” and “who do you protect, who do you serve?”
At one point, eight to 10 officers in riot gear tackled and cable-tagged one protester who appeared to be resisting. When the chanting stopped an eerie silence came over the park except for the occasional heckling from remaining members of the crowd gathered across the street.
Some in the crown also chanted, “down with Menino.”
John Nilles, 74, a Marine from Medford who served in Vietnam and is a member of the group, Veterans for Peace, said he was knocked down during the arrests.
He believes he did not get arrested in the chaos because he got knocked down, and banged up his knee.
“I have absolutely no use for police anymore,” he said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
He talked about how it reminded him of the 1960s. “This is not the world I intended to come back to,” he said in reference to Vietnam.
Occupy Boston, in a statement Monday night, said it answered the police warning by issuing a call “for any and all people to join the occupation as soon as possible.”
“From the beginning, occupiers have worked tirelessly to maintain a positive working relationship with city officials. Today’s threats by the Boston Police Department represent a sudden shift away from that dialogue,” the statement said.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s office said the city would not clear protesters from Dewey Square, however, and police did not move on those demonstrators.
After the police warning, some protesters said they were prepared to be arrested.
“I think we will stand and be arrested,” said Nadeem Mazen, who called himself a part of Occupy Boston, speaking in front of the movement’s media tent.
Earlier, hundreds of protesters, mainly college students, marched from Boston Common to Dewey Square in support of Occupy Boston and to demand fundamental and lasting economic and political reform, Occupy Boston said in its statement.
Two restaurant workers in the financial district said they saw a convoy of police vehicles, wagons, unmarked cars, and motorcycles pass by several hours ago with more than 200 officers. The convoy was driving away from the Greenway toward another financial district building where protesters believe they were staging for the late-night confrontation.
Tensions and new questions arose late Monday night when, at about 11:15, police issued written instructions and expectations of the growing group of protesters if officers demand that they disperse.
The notice informed the group of laws against trespassing on a new patch of the Greenway -- bordered by Congress Street, Atlantic Avenue, Pearl Street, and Purchase Street -- where tents have sprung up since about 4 p.m, and is also private property.
In a section titled, “What Occupy Boston Participants can expect from the BPD,” the statement said officers will “arrest those knowingly in violation of the law if necessary,” and that they will “conduct themselves in a professional, respectful and proportional manner.”
Police said they will use video to identify participants deemed to be breaking trespassing and unlawful assembly laws, which could apply to the demonstrators, who planned to encircle the camp, lock arms, and resist ejection.
Police said that if five armed people, or 10 unarmed people, are found to be unlawfully assembled, “police can demand that they immediately and peaceably disperse.”
The notice also included the potential legal consequence for unlawful assembly (up to one year in prison and up to a $500 fine) and trespassing (30 days in jail and $100 fine).
At both the Greenway and at Dewey Square, “medical tents” were set up with large red crosses taped on them and volunteers claiming to be EMTs, paramedics, and others trained in first aid with red crosses taped to their backs and shoulders.
Protesters held up signs with the phone number of the National Lawyers Guild in Boston for people to call in case they were arrested, and they passed around cards with advice from the ACLU on how to deal with police during an arrest.
Globe Correspondents Matt Byrne and Martha Shanahan and Matt Lee of the Globe Staff contributed to this report. John M. Guilfoil can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @globe_guilfoil. Derek J. Anderson can be reached at [email protected]. ||||| Embed this Video x Email
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Early Tuesday morning, hundreds of Boston police officers in riot gear forcibly removed more than 100 Occupy Boston protesters who had taken over a city park.
Police moved in at around 1:30 a.m. to arrest the dozens of protesters who wouldn’t leave a section of the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
Dozens of protesters were arrested after they ignored warnings to move from the greenway near where they have been camped out for more than a week, police said.
Most of the arrests were for trespassing.
Occupy Boston said more than 30 protesters who were arrested were released from custody by 9 a.m. Tuesday. The Suffolk County District Attorney's office said 44 were scheduled for arraignment.
The protesters had tried to expand from their original site in Dewey Square to the greenway.
“This is not right. They’re protecting grass, not people. This is not right,” said protester Ryan Chandler.
“They’re pushing people around. I definitely saw them push people over they’re pushing people left and right and pulling them,” said another protester.
Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said police were trying to ensure public safety in the midst of the demonstrations.
“During the day, a group of anarchists really started to run the protest,” Davis said. They weren’t listening to us. They were traveling all over the city. They attempted to stop travel over a bridge. It was really important for us to gain control and make sure the rules are followed so we have a safe early Tuesday morning commute.”
But Occupy Boston says anarchists did not infiltrate their group, as police say.
After removing protestors, police discarded tents and signs left behind and set up metal barriers to keep people out.
Protesters who went to a nearby police station to bail people out did not find anyone there, and by 4 a.m. they had returned to their encampment to discuss how to raise $4,000 in bail money.
Officers have allowed Occupy Boston protesters to demonstrate near the greenway, but said they removed them from the adjacent park because a local conservancy group recently planted $150,000 worth of shrubs there and officials were concerned about damage.
Police did not report any arrests from an earlier standoff Monday, where hundreds of students from 10 area colleges marched through downtown streets, briefly confronting police while attempting to hang a banner on a Boston bridge.
The protesters gathered on Boston Common and marched in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse carrying signs that read "Apathy isn't working, Raise your voice," and chanting slogans like "Fund education, not corporations" and "We got sold out. Rich got bailed out.
They later marched to a Charlestown bridge near the city's North End neighborhood hoping to hang a banner.
Police blocked the bridge, which was closed for about an hour before the protesters dispersed. Two demonstrators appeared to scuffle with officers during the standoff. Police did not immediately report any arrests.
The protesters on Wall Street and in Boston and other cities have described themselves at the "99 percent" -- referring to what they say are the vast number of Americans struggling to pay their bills while the income gap between the rich and middle class widens.
Copyright 2011 by TheBostonChannel.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ||||| More than 50 protesters from the Occupy Boston movement were arrested early Tuesday after they ignored warnings to move from a downtown greenway near where they have been camped out for more than a week, police said.
Police spokesman Jamie Kenneally said the arrests began about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday and were mostly for trespassing.
The protesters, part of the national Occupy Wall Street movement, had tried to expand from their original site in Dewey Square to a second site across the street, along the Rose Kennedy Greenway. A local conservancy group recently planted $150,000 worth of shrubs along the greenway and officials said they were concerned about damage.
Boston police had warned protesters for several hours that they would have to return to Dewey Square, where a tent city has been steadily growing, and issued leaflets saying protesters could not occupy the greenway.
Early Tuesday, about 10 police officers patrolled the greenway, some with dogs. Protesters who went to a nearby police station to bail people out did not find anyone there, and by 4 a.m. they had returned to their encampment to discuss how to raise $4,000 in bail money.
Boston resident Matt Hollander, 25, said a group of veterans carrying American flags were standing in between police and the protesters when officers advanced on them. One veteran, he said, was pushed to the ground and a group of protesters fell in a heap.
"If they wanted to arrest us they could have done that without pushing us...without tramping the flag, and without being violent," Hollander said.
Another protester, Shawdeen Vatan, 21, of Arlington, Mass., said she was not surprised at what happened. "We're being seen as a legitimate organization," she said. "People are panicking and trying to get us out of here. Unfortunately, they chose to do that with violence."
Police did not report any arrests from an earlier standoff, where hundreds of students from 10 area colleges marched through downtown Monday, briefly confronting police while attempting to hang a banner on a Boston bridge.
The protesters gathered on Boston Common and marched in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse carrying signs that read "Apathy isn't working, Raise your voice," and chanting slogans like "Fund education, not corporations" and "We got sold out. Rich got bailed out.
They later marched to a Charlestown bridge near the city's North End neighborhood hoping to hang a banner.
Police blocked the bridge, which was closed for about an hour before the protesters dispersed. Two demonstrators appeared to scuffle with officers during the standoff. Police did not immediately report any arrests.
The protesters on Wall Street and in Boston and other cities have described themselves at the "99 percent" _ referring to what they say are the vast number of Americans struggling to pay their bills while the income gap between the rich and middle class widens. |||||
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Summarize this article:
The Rachel Dolezal scandal is not even a week old, and we've already reached the inevitable porn stage. An adult film site subtly named WeFuckBlackGirls.com has come out with a public offer of $50,000 for Dolezal to shoot four separate scenes. And to make things even more bizarre, the site's parent company, Dogfart, is using the moment to make a totally sincere political statement that totally isn't gross and opportunistic.
From a press release:
We here are Dogfart feel that it is extremely unfair how Rachel Dolezal has been treated. She is a transracial woman who has worked extremely hard to achieve her level of success. She identifies as black just like Bruce Jenner identifies as Caitlyn Jenner; however, Jenner’s transition has been accepted with open arms; some even calling her a hero for the trans movement. Now that Dolezal is out of work, we would like to offer her a $50,000 contract to perform in four separate scenes for four of our different sites. She will be given creative control and get to choose the talent she works with. We hope she seriously considers this offer.
There's that pesky Caitlyn Jenner comparison again...
Who knows what Dolezal will do now that she's no longer Spokane's NAACP chapter president, but at least she has options. Hopefully, for her sake, more opportunities will come along that don't involve fucking on camera for creepy dudes that fetishize black women. ||||| 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 ||||| NAACP race faker Rachel Dolezal stepped down from her job Monday, but RadarOnline.com has learned she already has a new gig in the works: Dolezal is fielding multiple offers to film a reality show, and is seeking professional representation after her bombshell interview on the Today show.
Dolezal, currently in New York City after appearing on TODAY Tuesday morning, has been “offered two reality shows from different production companies,” an insider told Radar. “The offers were made last week along with several others that were just outrageous. Rachel recognizes that she is going to need an agent and a publicist, and is going to be hiring a professional team in the next few days.”
PHOTOS: Race Lie? NAACP Leader Pretended To Be Black – See Rachel Dolezal’s Real Look In Shocking Photos
“Rachel wants to use all of the publicity to raise awareness about race relations,” the source said.
The former NAACP Spokane chapter president was outed by her parents last week as being a white woman after years of fudging her racial identity, and allegedly lying on applications for city positions.
In an interview on Tuesday’s Today show, Dolezal addressed the confusion with Matt Lauer.
“This is not some freak, Birth of a Nation blackface performance,” she explained. “This is on a real connected level how I’ve had to go there with the experience.”
Dolezal’s “phone has been ringing constantly since the scandal broke, and she truly seems to be enjoying all of the attention,” the insider said. “Going back to her former life just isn’t an option.”
Would you watch a show about Dolezal? Let us know in the comments! |||||
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– Days after stepping down from her post at the NAACP, Rachel Dolezal may already be in talks for a new gig: her own reality show. Dolezal has reportedly been "offered two reality shows from different production companies," a source tells Radar Online. "The offers were made last week along with several others that were just outrageous." While it isn't clear if Dolezal is interested, the source says she's looking for an agent or publicist and "is going to be hiring a professional team in the next few days." Dolezal's alleged goal? "To use all of the publicity to raise awareness about race relations," adds the source. Should a reality show make it to air, it isn't clear if it'll have an audience. Twitter users are up in arms, with at least one claiming she'll "boycott any station that airs it." As for those "outrageous" offers the source noted, Complex seems to have uncovered one, reporting that Dolezal has been offered $50,000 from a company called Dogfart to shoot four porn scenes for its various websites focusing on black women. "She will be given creative control and get to choose the talent she works with," the company says in a statement. "We hope she seriously considers this offer." (Meanwhile, Dolezal says there's no biological proof her white parents birthed her.)
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News article:
(CNN) Ferrari automobiles founder Enzo Ferrari has been resting peacefully in a tomb in Modena, Italy, for nearly 30 years, and will continue to do so after police foiled an elaborate plot to steal his casket and remains.
Thirty four people were arrested in the bust this week. The accused belonged to the Anonima Sequestri, a Sardinian criminal organization that has a history of kidnap-for-ransom crimes.
The tomb of Enzo Ferrari in a cemetery in Modena, Italy.
Italian State Police say the group wanted to steal Ferrari's casket, which contains his body, and then blackmail the Ferrari family for its return.
CNN has reached out to the Ferrari family for comment.
The would-be robbers should have known Ferraris at rest tend to be difficult marks: In 1977, notorious Beverly Hills socialite Sandra West was buried in the front seat of her beloved powder blue 1964 Ferrari 250GT . She's not going anywhere, either -- to deter car thieves, the whole display was entombed in solid concrete.
Read More ||||| Formula One legend Enzo Ferrari, pictured in March 1987, is buried in a cemetery in Modena behind a plate of marble in a large chapel secured by a heavy iron gate (AFP Photo/DANIEL JANIN)
Rome (AFP) - Italian police said they caught a criminal gang Tuesday that had been plotting to steal the body of Formula One racing pioneer Enzo Ferrari for ransom.
Detectives in Sardinia said they had stumbled across the plot while investigating a group of 30 or so crooks who were involved in drug and arms trafficking on the Italian island but were exploring other cash-making ideas.
One was a plan to steal the mortal remains of the racing driver -- who founded the Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team and prancing horse brand before dying -- and demand money from his family for the body's safe return.
They had plotted in detail how to steal the coffin, hide it, and contact the family, police said.
Ferrari, who died aged 90 in 1988, is buried in a cemetery in Modena behind a plate of marble in a large chapel secured by a heavy iron gate.
Some 300 officers armed with over 30 arrest warrants clapped the gang members in cuffs early Tuesday morning, police said.
Italy is no stranger to body-abduction cases. Among the most famous was the theft in 1992 of the body of four-year-old Raffaele Bagni -- the son of a former football player -- a month after his death in a car accident.
It was Italian cases that inspired the theft in 1978 of Charlie Chaplin's coffin in Switzerland by a Polish and Bulgarian grave robber. ||||| 1/100 14 August 2017 The Chattrapathi Shivaji Terminus railway station is lit in the colours of India's flag ahead of the country's Independence Day in Mumbai. Indian Independence Day is celebrated annually on 15 August, and this year marks 70 years since British India split into two nations Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan and millions were uprooted in one of the largest mass migrations in history AFP/Getty
2/100 13 August 2017 A demonstrator holds up a picture of Heather Heyer during a demonstration in front of City Hall for victims of the Charlottesville, Virginia tragedy, and against racism in Los Angeles, California, USA. Rallies have been planned across the United States to demonstrate opposition to the violence in Charlottesville EPA
3/100 12 August 2017 Jessica Mink (R) embraces Nicole Jones (L) during a vigil for those who were killed and injured when a car plowed into a crowd of anti-fascist counter-demonstrators marching near a downtown shopping area Charlottesville, Virginia Getty
4/100 12 August 2017 White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the “alt-right” clash with counter-protesters as they enter Lee Park during the “Unite the Right” in Charlottesville, Virginia. After clashes with anti-fascist protesters and police the rally was declared an unlawful gathering and people were forced out of Lee Park Getty
5/100 11 August 2017 A North Korean flag is seen on top of a tower at the propaganda village of Gijungdong in North Korea, as a South Korean flag flutters in the wind in this picture taken near the border area near the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea Reuters
6/100 11 August 2017 A firefighter extinguishes flames as a fire engulfs an informal settlers area beside a river in Manila AFP
7/100 10 August 2017 A rally in support of North Korea's stance against the US, on Kim Il-Sung square in Pyongyang. AFP
8/100 10 August 2017 Rocks from the collapsed wall of a hotel building cover a car after an earthquake outside Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan province Reuters
9/100 9 August 2017 People in Seoul, South Korea walk by a local news program with an image of US President Donald Trump on Wednesday 9 August. North Korea and the United States traded escalating threats, with Mr Trump threatening Pyongyang “with fire and fury like the world has never seen” AP
10/100 8 August 2017 A Maasai woman waits in line to vote in Lele, 130 km (80 miles) south of Nairobi, Kenya. Kenyans are going to the polls today to vote in a general election after a tightly-fought presidential race between incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta and main opposition leader Raila Odinga AP
11/100 7 August 2017 Pro-government supporters march in Caracas, Venezuela on 7 August Reuters
12/100 6 August 2017 Children pray after releasing paper lanterns on the Motoyasu river facing the Atomic Bomb Dome in remembrance of atomic bomb victims on the 72nd anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, western Japan. REUTERS
13/100 5 August 2017 Russian President Vladimir Putin (L), accompanied by defence minister Sergei Shoigu, gestures as he fishes in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. AFP/Getty Images
14/100 4 August 2017 A family claiming to be from Haiti drag their luggage over the US-Canada border into Canada from Champlain, New York, U.S. August 3, 2017. Reuters
15/100 4 August 2017 A disabled man prepares to cast his vote at a polling station in Kigali, Rwanda, August 4, 2017 Reuters
16/100 4 August 2017 ATTENTION EDITORS -People carry the body of Yawar Nissar, a suspected militant, who according to local media was killed during a gun battle with Indian security forces at Herpora village, during his funeral in south Kashmir's Anantnag district August 4, 2017. Reuters
17/100 4 August 2017 A general view shows a flooded area in Sakon Nakhon province, Thailand August 4, 2017. Reuters
18/100 3rd August 2017 A plane landed in Sao Joao Beach, killing two people, in Costa da Caparica, Portugal August 2, 2017 Reuters
19/100 3rd August 2017 Hermitage Capital CEO William Browder waits to testify before a continuation of Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 27, 2017 Reuters
20/100 3rd August 2017 TOPSHOT - Moto taxi driver hold flags of the governing Rwanda Patriotic Front's at the beginning of a parade in Kigali, on August 02, 2017. Incumbent Rwandan President Paul Kagame will close his electoral campaigning ahead of the August 4, presidential elections which he is widely expected to win giving him a third term in office AFP
21/100 3rd August 2017 TOPSHOT - Migrants wait to be rescued by the Aquarius rescue ship run by non-governmental organisations (NGO) "SOS Mediterranee" and "Medecins Sans Frontieres" (Doctors Without Borders) in the Mediterranean Sea, 30 nautic miles from the Libyan coast, on August 2, 2017. AFP
22/100 2 August 2017 Two children hold a placard picturing a plane as they take part in a demonstration in central Athens outside the German embassy with others refugees and migrants to protest against the limitation of reunification of families in Germany, on August 2, 2017. AFP
23/100 2 August 2017 Flames erupt as clashes break out while the Constituent Assembly election is being carried out in Caracas, Venezuela, July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins Reuters
24/100 2 August 2017 People in the village of Gabarpora carry the remains of Akeel Ahmad Bhat, a civilian who according to local media died following clashes after two militants were killed in an encounter with Indian security forces in Hakripora in south Kashmir's Pulwama district, August 2, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Ismail Reuters
25/100 2 August 2017 - Incumbent Rwandan President Paul Kagame gestures as he arrives for the closing rally of the presidential campaign in Kigali, on August 2, 2017 while supporters greet him. Rwandans go the polls on August 4, 2017 in a presidential election in which strongman Paul Kagame is widely expected to cruise to a third term in office. AFP
26/100 30 July 2017 Soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) get ready for the military parade to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the foundation of the army at Zhurihe military training base in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. REUTERS
27/100 29 July 2017 Cyclists at the start of the first stage of the Tour de Pologne cycling race, over 130km from Krakow's Main Market Square, Poland EPA
28/100 28 July 2017 Israeli border guards keep watch as Palestinian Muslim worshippers pray outside Jerusalem's old city overlooking the Al-Aqsa mosque compound Ahmad Gharabli/AFP
29/100 28 July 2017 A supporter of Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif passes out after the Supreme Court's decision to disqualify Sharif in Lahore Reuters/Mohsin Raza
30/100 27 July 2017 Australian police officers participate in a training scenario called an 'Armed Offender/Emergency Exercise' held at an international passenger terminal located on Sydney Harbour Reuters/David Gray
31/100 27 July 2017 North Korean soldiers watch the south side as the United Nations Command officials visit after a commemorative ceremony for the 64th anniversary of the Korean armistice at the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas Reuters/Jung Yeon-Je
32/100 26 July 2017 Bangladeshi commuters use a rickshaw to cross a flooded street amid heavy rainfall in Dhaka. Bangladesh is experiencing downpours following a depression forming in the Bay of Bengal. Munir Uz Zaman/AFP
33/100 26 July 2017 The Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft for the next International Space Station (ISS) crew of Paolo Nespoli of Italy, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Russia, and Randy Bresnik of the U.S., is transported from an assembling hangar to the launchpad ahead of its upcoming launch, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan Reuters/Shamil Zhumatov
34/100 25 July 2017 A protester shouts at U.S. President Donald Trump as he is removed from his rally with supporters in an arena in Youngstown, Ohio Reuters
35/100 23 July 2017 Indian supporters of Gorkhaland chant slogans tied with chains during a protest march in capital New Delhi. Eastern India's hill resort of Darjeeling has been rattled at the height of tourist season after violent clashes broke out between police and hundreds of protesters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) – a long-simmering separatist movement that has long called for a separate state for ethnic Gorkhas in West Bengal. The GJM wants a new, separate state of "Gorkhaland" carved out of eastern West Bengal state, of which Darjeeling is a part. Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images
36/100 23 July 2017 Demonstrators clash with riot security forces while rallying against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela. The banner on the bridge reads "It will be worth it" Reuters
37/100 22 July 2017 The Heathcote river as it rises to high levels in Christchurch, New Zealand. Heavy rain across the South Island in the last 24 hours has caused widespread damage and flooding with Dunedin, Waitaki, Timaru and the wider Otago region declaring a state of emergency. Getty Images
38/100 22 July 2017 A mourner prays at a memorial during an event to commemorate the first anniversary of the shooting spree that one year ago left ten people dead, including the shooter in Munich, Germany. One year ago 18-year-old student David S. shot nine people dead and injured four others at and near a McDonalds restaurant and the Olympia Einkaufszentrum shopping center. After a city-wide manhunt that caused mass panic and injuries David S. shot himself in a park. According to police David S., who had dual German and Iranian citizenship, had a history of mental troubles. Getty
39/100 21 July 2017 Palestinians react following tear gas that was shot by Israeli forces after Friday prayer on a street outside Jerusalem's Old City Reuters/Ammar Awad
40/100 21 July 2017 Ousted former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra greets supporters as she arrives at the Supreme Court in Bangkok, Thailand Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha
41/100 20 July 2017 Marek Suski of Law and Justice (PiS) (C) party scuffles with Miroslaw Suchon (2nd L) of Modern party (.Nowoczesna) as Michal Szczerba of Civic Platform (PO) (L) party holds up a copy of the Polish Constitution during the parliamentary Commission on Justice and Human Rights voting on the opposition's amendments to the bill that calls for an overhaul of the Supreme Court in Warsaw Reuters
42/100 20 July 2017 A firefighter stands near a grass fire as he prepares to defend a home from the Detwiler fire in Mariposa, California Reuters
43/100 19 July 2017 Michael Lindell ,CEO of My Pillow reacts as U.S. President Donald Trump attends a Made in America roundtable meeting in the East Room of the White House Reuters
44/100 18 July 2017 Giant pandas lie beside ice blocks at Yangjiaping Zoo in Chongqing, China. Yangjiaping Zoo provided huge ice blocks for giant pandas to help them remove summer heat Getty Images
45/100 18 July 2017 People ride camels in the desert in Dunhuang, China, as stage 10 of The Silkway Rally continues AFP/Getty Images
46/100 18 July 2017 17th FINA World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Team North Korea practice under coach supervision REUTERS
47/100 17 July 2017 IAAF World ParaAthletics Championships - London, Britain - July 17, 2017 Reuters/Henry Browne
48/100 17 July 2017 Workers check power lines during maintenance work in Laian, in China's eastern Anhui province AFP/Getty Images
49/100 17 July 2017 Russia Kamaz's driver Dmitry Sotnikov, co-drivers Ruslan Akhmadeev and Ilnur Mustafin compete during the Stage 9 of the Silk Way 2017 between Urumqi and Hami, China Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images
50/100 17 July 2017 Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull talks with Special Operations Command soldiers during a visit to the Australian Army's Holsworthy Barracks in western Sydney AAP/Brendan Esposito/via Reuters
51/100 16 July 2017 Men in traditional sailor costumes celebrate after carrying a statue of the El Carmen Virgin, who is worshipped as the patron saint of sailors, into the Mediterranean Sea during a procession in Torremolinos, near Malaga, Spain Reuters/Jon Nazca
52/100 16 July 2017 People participate in a protest in front of the Sejm building (the lower house of the Polish parliament) in Warsaw, Poland. The demonstration was organized by Committee for the Defense of Democracy (KOD). Members and supporters of the KOD and opposition parties protested against changes in the judicial law and the Supreme Court EPA
53/100 16 July 2017 People prepare to swim with a portrait of late Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong on the bank of the Yangtze River in Yichang, Hubei province, China to celebrate the 51st anniversary of Chairman Mao swimming in the Yangtze River. REUTERS
54/100 15 July 2017 A woman takes a selfie picture with her mobile phone next to the statue of Omer Halisdemir in Istanbul, in front of a memorial with the names of people killed last year during the failed coup attempt . AFP/Getty Images
55/100 14 July 2017 French President Emmanuel Macron gestures next to US President Donald Trump during the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris. AFP/Getty Images
56/100 13 July 2017 Philippine National Police chief Ronald Bato Dela Rosa holds an M60 machine gun during a Gun and Ammunition show at a mall in Mandaluyong city, metro Manila, Philippines Reuters
57/100 13 July 2017 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker embrace before the EU-Ukraine summit in Kiev, Ukraine Reuters
58/100 13 July 2017 US President Donald Trump (R) and First Lady Melania Trump disembark form Air Force One upon arrival at Paris Orly airport on July 13, 2017, beginning a 24-hour trip that coincides with France's national day and the 100th anniversary of US involvement in World War I Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
59/100 12 July 2017 Iraqis walk on a damaged street in west Mosul a few days after the government's announcement of the liberation of the embattled city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters Getty
60/100 12 July 2017 Iraqi boys wash a vehicle in west Mosul a few days after the government's announcement of the liberation of the embattled city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images
61/100 11 July 2017 Afghan policeman pour fuel over jerry cans containing confiscated acetic acid before setting it alight on the outskirts of Herat. Some 15,000 liters of acetic acid, often mixed with heroin, were destroyed by counter narcotics police Hoshang Hashimi/AFP
62/100 10 July 2017 Police from the anti-terror squad participate in an anti-terror performance among Acehnese dancers during a ceremony to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the Indonesian police corps in Banda Aceh AFP/Getty Images
63/100 11 July 2017 Residents stand amid the debris of their homes which were torn down in the evicted area of the Bukit Duri neighbourhood located on the Ciliwung river banks in Jakarta Bay Ismoyo/AFP
64/100 11 July 2017 Boys play cricket at a parking lot as it rains in Chandigarh, India Reuters/Ajay Verma
65/100 10 July 2017 Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at the 22nd World Petroleum Congress (WPC) in Istanbul AFP
66/100 10 July 2017 New Mongolia's president Khaltmaa Battulga takes an oath during his inauguration ceremony in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Reuters
67/100 10 July 2017 US army 1st Division, US air force, US Navy and US Marines, march down the Champs Elysees, with the Arc de Triomphe in the background, in Paris during a rehearsal of the annual Bastille Day military parade AFP
68/100 9 July 2017 Participants run ahead of Puerto de San Lorenzo's fighting bulls during the third bull run of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, northern Spain. Each day at 8:00 am hundreds of people race with six bulls, charging along a winding, 848.6-metre (more than half a mile) course through narrow streets to the city's bull ring, where the animals are killed in a bullfight or corrida, during this festival, immortalised in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises" and dating back to medieval times and also featuring religious processions, folk dancing, concerts and round-the-clock drinking. AFP/Getty Images
69/100 8 July 2017 Iraqi women, who fled the fighting between government forces and Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in the Old City of Mosul, cry as they stand in the city's western industrial district awaiting to be relocated AFP
70/100 8 July 2017 US President Donald Trump arrives for another working session during the G20 summit in Hamburg, northern Germany AFP/Getty Images
71/100 7 July 2017 People climb up on a roof to get a view during riots in Hamburg, northern Germany, where leaders of the world's top economies gather for a G20 summit AFP/Getty Images
72/100 6 July 2017 Anti-capitalism activists protest in Hamburg, where leaders of the world’s top economies will gather for a G20 summit. AFP/Getty
73/100 7 July 2017 A military helicopter rescues people trapped on the roof of the Ministry of Finance by an intense fire in San Salvador AFP/Getty Images
74/100 6 July 2017 Donald Trump arrives to deliver a speech at Krasinski Square in Warsaw, Poland. AP
75/100 6 July 2017 A firefighter conducts rescue operations in an area damaged by heavy rain in Asakura, Japan. Reuters
76/100 6 July 2017 Crowds gather for the start of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain. AFP
77/100 5 July 2017 A member of the Iraqi security forces runs with his weapon during a fight between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq.
78/100 5 July 2017 A U.S. MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile is fired during the combined military exercise between the U.S. and South Korea against North Korea at an undisclosed location in South Korea A.P
79/100 4 July 2017 North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un looks on during the test-fire of inter-continental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 Reuters
80/100 4 July 2017 Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during a signing ceremony following the talks at the Kremlin Reuters
81/100 3 July 2017 Belarussian servicemen march during a military parade as part of celebrations marking the Independence Day in Minsk, Belarus Reuters
82/100 3 July 2017 Ambulance cars and fire engines are seen near the site where a coach burst into flames after colliding with a lorry on a motorway near Muenchberg, Germany Reuters
83/100 28 June 2017 An aerial view shows women swimming in the Yenisei River on a hot summer day, with the air temperature at about 32 degrees Celsius (89.6 degrees Fahrenheit), outside Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia, June 28, 2017 Reuters
84/100 2 July 2017 Protesters demonstrating against the upcoming G20 economic summit ride boats on Inner Alster lake during a protest march in Hamburg, Germany. Hamburg will host the upcoming G20 summit and is expecting heavy protests throughout. Getty Images
85/100 27 June 2017 Investigators work at the scene of a car bomb explosion which killed Maxim Shapoval, a high-ranking official involved in military intelligence, in Kiev, Ukraine, June 27, 2017 Reuters
86/100 1 July 2017 Protesters carry a large image of jailed Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo as they march during the annual pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong. Thousands joined an annual protest march in Hong Kong, hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up his visit to the city by warning against challenges to Beijing's sovereignty. AP
87/100 30 June 2017 Jockey Andrea Coghe of "Selva" (Forest) parish rides his horse during the first practice for the Palio Horse Race in Siena, Italy June 30, 2017 Reuters
88/100 30 June 2017 A man takes pictures with a phone with a Union Flag casing after Chinese President Xi Jinping (not pictured) inspected troops at the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Hong Kong Garrison as part of events marking the 20th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule, in Hong Kong, China June 30, 2017 Reuters
89/100 29 June 2017 A protester against U.S. President Donald Trump's limited travel ban, approved by the U.S. Supreme Court, holds a sign next to protesters supporting the ban, in New York City, U.S., June 29, 2017 Reuters
90/100 29 June 2017 Israeli Air Force Efroni T-6 Texan II planes perform at an air show during the graduation of new cadet pilots at Hatzerim base in the Negev desert, near the southern Israeli city of Beer Sheva AFP/Getty Images
91/100 28 June 2017 A woman gestures next to people spraying insecticide on a vehicle during a mosquito-control operation led by Ivory Coast's National Public and Health Institute in Bingerville, near Abidjan where several cases of dengue fever were reported AFP/Getty Images
92/100 27 June 2017 A Libyan coast guardsman watches over as illegal immigrants arrive to land in a dinghy during the rescue of 147 people who attempted to reach Europe off the coastal town of Zawiyah, 45 kilometres west of the capital Tripoli, on June 27, 2017. More than 8,000 migrants have been rescued in waters off Libya during the past 48 hours in difficult weather conditions, Italy's coastguard said on June 27, 2017 AFP/Getty Images
93/100 26 June 2017 A man leaves after voting in the Mongolian presidential election at the Erdene Sum Ger (Yurt) polling station in Tuul Valley. Mongolians cast ballots on June 26 to choose between a horse breeder, a judoka and a feng shui master in a presidential election rife with corruption scandals and nationalist rhetoric AFP/Getty Images
94/100 26 June 2017 People attend Eid al-Fitr prayers to mark the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan at a play ground in the suburb of Sale, Morocco REUTERS
95/100 25 June 2017 A plain-clothes police officer kicks a member of a group of LGBT rights activist as Turkish police prevent them from going ahead with a Gay Pride annual parade on 25 June 2017 in Istanbul, a day after it was banned by the city governor's office. AFP/Getty Images
96/100 25 June 2017 Pakistan army soldiers stands guard while rescue workers examine the site of an oil tanker explosion at a highway near Bahawalpur, Pakistan. An overturned oil tanker burst into flames in Pakistan on Sunday, killing more than one hundred people who had rushed to the scene of the highway accident to gather leaking fuel, an official said. AP
97/100 24 June 2017 Rescue workers search for survivors at the site of a landslide that occurred in Xinmo Village, Mao County, Sichuan province, China REUTERS
98/100 23 June 2017 Student activists shout anti martial law slogans during a protest in Manila on June 23, 2017 AFP/Getty Images
99/100 23 June 2017 A diver performs from the Pont Alexandre III bridge into the River Seine in Paris, France, June 23, 2017 as Paris transforms into a giant Olympic park to celebrate International Olympic Days with a variety of sporting events for the public across the city during two days as the city bids to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Reuters |||||
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– A bizarre crime tale out of Italy: Police say gang members planned to steal the body of Formula One racing pioneer Enzo Ferrari, hide it in the Apennine Mountains, and demand ransom from family members or the Ferrari company for its safe return. Luckily, they didn't get the chance, reports Motorsport. Authorities say they discovered the plot to steal the Ferrari founder's body during an investigation of gang members involved in drug and arms trafficking on the island of Sardinia, reports AFP. They belonged to syndicate Anonima Sequestri, according to CNN, which notes that the organization "has a history of kidnap-for-ransom crimes." The suspects had allegedly gotten down to the nitty gritty of the scheme: Police say they had surveyed Ferrari's resting place in a family tomb in a cemetery in Modena, where he's been since his death in 1988. They planned to use three vehicles to make their escape from the site, not far from the Ferrari plant at Maranello, and had discussed how to contact family members, police say. All 34 suspects were arrested Tuesday in a massive cross-country police raid, per the Independent.
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The mob boss had been at the federal jail in Brooklyn longer than any other inmate: four years awaiting trial and, after his conviction in 2012 on racketeering charges, nearly two more waiting to be sentenced. By the time his sentencing date arrived on Wednesday, the mobster, Thomas Gioeli, had been considered for the death penalty, convicted of conspiring to murder three mobsters and acquitted of killing a police officer; he had multiple angioplasties and, with the help of his family, even became an avid blogger and user of Twitter who taunted prosecutors and two mayors.
The measure of those six years behind bars for Mr. Gioeli — highly unusual for someone who has not yet been sentenced — were central to arguments in Federal District Court in Brooklyn on Wednesday over how much prison time Mr. Gioeli should get: the maximum 20 years, or something less.
One of Mr. Gioeli’s lawyers, Adam D. Perlmutter, said the six years had taken an especially hard toll. “He is now the senior-most person at the M.D.C.,” Mr. Perlmutter said, referring to the Metropolitan Detention Center. He named a host of medical conditions that Mr. Gioeli, 61, is living with, including diabetes, heart disease and arthritis. “People who suffer from chronic health conditions do harder time in prison than people who are healthy,” Mr. Perlmutter said. “A 20-year sentence for Thomas Gioeli is, in fact, a life sentence.”
The judge, Brian M. Cogan, said that with a 20-year sentence, credit for time served and good behavior, Mr. Gioeli would be out by his early 70s. “He’s not going to live to his early 70s?” Judge Cogan asked.
“I don’t think so,” Mr. Perlmutter answered.
A prosecutor, James Gatta, said, “Such time should not count against the sentence that the defendant should receive for his criminal conduct.”
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As the argument unfolded, Mr. Gioeli, who since his conviction last year grew a giant tuft of white hair on his chin, leaned back in his chair, twisting his white mustache, waving warmly and making baby faces at his family in the courtroom. It was odd behavior that would have been more at home at a child’s birthday party than at a sentencing for gangland murders.
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Judge Cogan knocked 16 months off the 20-year maximum and ordered Mr. Gioeli to pay $360,000 in restitution.
At the murder and racketeering trial, prosecutors said Mr. Gioeli, whom they called the former acting boss of the Colombo family, ordered the ambush and murder of an off-duty police officer, Ralph C. Dols, and ordered the killings of several other men in the 1990s. Prosecutors called admitted mob killers to testify against Mr. Gioeli (they described surprise shootings in basements, dissolving dead bodies with lye and burying them on Long Island), but the jury acquitted Mr. Gioeli of many charges, including the murder of Officer Dols. He was found guilty of one count of racketeering for conspiring to kill three mobsters.
The acts that the prosecutors described hardly meshed with Mr. Perlmutter’s portrayal of Mr. Gioeli as a family man, or “Tommy, the person,” as he called him in a long argument that roused sniffles among two or three dozen family members who showed up. “I look at their marriage and I’m jealous,” Mr. Perlmutter said of Mr. Gioeli’s relationship with his wife. It was an image that Mr. Gioeli also put forth on his blog during his years in jail, that of a family man who was wronged by zealous prosecutors.
His Twitter messages and blog posts, which family members posted after he wrote them using his prison email account, espoused a liberal vision of society, coming to the defense of the working poor, speaking out against sexism, when he was not opining on current events.
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Last month, Mr. Gioeli wrote on Twitter, “The FBI arrests old Italians for decades old robberies while allowing bankers to steal billions everyday. TSG #FBI #America #wallstreet,” signing his initials, T.S.G.
Judge Cogan, who said the evidence was overwhelming that Mr. Gioeli was a manager of the crime family and found it was more likely than not he had participated in other murders, said Mr. Gioeli was like many mobsters who are “absolutely schizophrenic in their personalities.” Judge Cogan said, “They go out there and they do things to get people murdered, and at the same time they are wonderful to their families and their communities.”
“They are vicious crimes, and they take a vicious person to do them. I recognize that’s not all there is to Mr. Gioeli.”
Judge Cogan said that Mr. Gioeli’s time served and the “wonderful” way he treated his family were mitigating factors. But he also said: “I haven’t seen any remorse. I’ve just seen self-righteousness.”
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Whether he will live to make it out after more than 18 years in prison, the judge said, “only God knows.”
A Selection of Twitter Messages From Thomas Gioeli ||||| A triple-murder suspect-turned-mob informant whose colorful stories led to the arrest of 39 underworld operators was sentenced to time served Friday — and he was even heralded by the judge for his bravery.
Thomas McLaughlin, 46, was 15 when he taken under the wing of a “bad” relative and nurtured to join the Colombo crime family, according to defense lawyer Stuart Grossman.
After getting pinched for drug trafficking and firearms possession, he went to jail for 16 years without cooperating, earning the trust of his criminal colleagues.
But in 2008 when he was released, the feds came to him and told him he would be charged with conspiracy in planning three mob hits and asked for his cooperation. Facing life in prison, he agreed to help and recorded more than 200 conversations between 2009 to 2011, leading to 39 arrests and two convictions.
He nearly put Sammy “The Bull” Gravano’s record to shame. Gravano helped jail 36 people.
‘I want to apologize for my past… I look forward to the future and continuing to be a husband and father.’ - Thomas McLaughlin
Brooklyn federal court Judge Brian M. Cohan on Friday sentenced him to the 16 years he already served and thanked him for wearing a wiretap for the government. “The number of criminal activities that were able to be prosecuted with Mr. McLaughlin’s cooperation is beyond anything I’ve ever seen… and let’s not forget the risk,” Judge Cohan said.
McLaughlin was also instrumental in the conviction of his own cousin, when he was called to testify at former Colombo boss Tommy “Tommy Shots” Gioeli 2012 trial and fingered his role in a murder.
Grossman called his client “a totally changed man,” and prosecutor Elizabeth Geddes applauded his cooperation with the government calling it “historic.”
Today McLaughlin is a family man with a “hard job. Not the kind of job you’re going to get rich on,” according to the judge, who did not say what his new employment entails.
McLaughlin addressed the court. “I want to apologize for my past, Your Honor,” he said.
“I look forward to the future and continuing to be a husband and father.”
“I’m not skeptical,” Judge Cohan said. “I’m dealing with someone who has not only gone straight but who will stay straight.” ||||| Leave the ping pong paddles, file the lawsuit.
That’s what former Colombo crime boss Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli has done — suing the federal government for $10 million over injuries from a game of prison ping-pong.
The table tennis tumble happened Aug. 29, 2013, while Gioeli was being held at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
More than a year earlier, a Brooklyn Federal Court jury had found him guilty of racketeering conspiracy connected to murder plots.
Mob rat Thomas McLaughlin sentenced to zero jail time
Gioeli, 64, and fellow defendant Dino (Little Dino) Saracino also were accused of carrying out murders, including the killing of a police officer, but acquitted on the murder charges.
According to government court papers, Gioeli argues his slip and fall occurred because of prison officials’ negligence. They knew — or should have known — about the hazardous wet floor in recreation area, pointing to the proximity of showers and an allegedly leaky slop sink pipe.
Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli, Colombo acting boss. (Jesse Ward/for New York Daily News)
The leak was reported to prison employees for days, if not weeks before the accident, Gioeli claims.
The burly Gioeli fractured his right kneecap and had to be hospitalized. The injury required surgery, physical therapy and occupational therapy, court papers obtained by the Daily News show.
Ex-Colombo hitman gets 12 years for murder of NYPD cop Dols
The government rejects any charge of negligence, saying it acted with necessary care at all times. And part of its defense is that there’s some risk that comes with playing table tennis — and Gioeli chose to take that risk.
The case has been assigned to Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto.
A bench trial is estimated to take about three days, though the case docket shows no trial date yet.
Gioeli is expected to make it up from his low-security North Carolina prison to testify about his spill and subsequent suffering, according to court papers.
Crime boss claims he got solitary for religious scapular
He did not take the stand at his criminal case.
The doctor who examined Gioeli is scheduled to testify about the mafioso’s mishap.
Another person who had been held at the lockup is expected to talk about the floor layout, prisoners tracking in water from the showers, and his complaints about the alleged leak.
The government said it plans to put on witnesses including a Metropolitan Detention Center general foreman.
Gioeli claims he slipped on a wet floor while playing table tennis. He's accusing prison officials of negligence. (wsantina/Getty Images/iStockphoto)
The man is expected to say he searched for records of reported water leaks or repair orders for leaks around the time of the incident, but found none.
Another planned government witness is a correction officer who says he found Gioeli on the wet floor, near the showers.
Gioeli is serving an 18-year prison sentence.
Both Gioeli’s lawyer Martin Schiowitz and the Bureau of Prisons declined comment Monday. ||||| 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. |||||
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– Former mob boss Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli wants $10 million from the federal government over a Ping-Pong injury. Gioeli, once a high-ranking member of the Colombo crime family, is suing over an injury he suffered during a game at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn in 2013, according to court papers seen by the New York Daily News. He says he slipped on a wet floor while playing a game and fractured a kneecap. His suit argues that the prison is negligent because employees ignored complaints about a leaky pipe that led to the slippery conditions in the recreation area. The federal government, however, says that even Ping-Pong comes with risks, and Gioeli chose to take them. Gioeli needed surgery and rehab after the fall. The 64-year-old is three years into an 18-year sentence on racketeering charges, though he was acquitted of murder charges that included the 1997 slaying of a New York City police officer. At his sentencing in 2014, his attorney argued unsuccessfully for a light sentence because his client suffered from arthritis, diabetes, and heart disease, and thus probably wouldn't live beyond his early 70s, the New York Times reported. The story also noted that Gioeli had become a colorful fan of Twitter, with tweets such as: "The FBI spends it's limited resources on terminal Italian book-makers while terrorist & cartels flourish." So how did Gioeli wind up in prison? His own cousin ratted him out, reported the New York Post. (The late Anthony Colombo had a specific influence on the Godfather films.)
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CLOSE Shannon Rae Green interview Weather reporter Doyle Rice on the storm headed for the West Coast, and about how the system got its funny name. (News, USA TODAY)
Aidan Stephenson,12, and Conor Stephenson,10, visiting from Phoenix, watch the waves break at Pacific Grove, Calif., on Wednesday. Northern California residents are bracing for a powerful storm that could be the biggest in five years and which prompted the National Weather Service to issue a high wind and flash flood warning. (Photo: Vern Fisher, AP)
A ferocious storm is forecast to batter California with drenching rain, heavy snow, pounding surf and howling winds through Friday.
The National Weather Service said the barrage is "expected to be one of the strongest storms in terms of wind and rain" since storms in October 2009 and January 2008.
Moderate rain and gusty winds began hitting Northern California late Wednesday. Officials in San Francisco, Oakland and Marin County said schools would be closed Thursday because of expected heavy rain and winds. San Francisco closed the Great Highway, a road that runs along the far western side of the city, next to the Pacific Ocean, also because of the risk of high winds and heavy rain.
Southern California saw dark clouds move in Wednesday afternoon. Los Angeles County officials closed a pair of main roads around Castaic Lake, a state recreation area in mountains north of Santa Clarita, in anticipation of mud flow.
A system fueled by the "Pineapple Express" is delivering a steady stream of moisture directly from Hawaii to the West Coast starting Wednesday. Meteorologists describe the Pineapple Express as a long, narrow plume that pipes moisture from the tropics into the western United States.
About 3-6 inches of rain is possible in parts of Northern California, including much of the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento, AccuWeather said. Some spots could see as much as 9 inches of rain.
The rainfall could overwhelm waterways and road drainage systems, possibly leading to flash floods.
RT@amhq: #Snow is bookending the US! We're talking about all the snow & #rain in the west & how it'll impact drought. pic.twitter.com/SK0W4RDxqF — The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) December 10, 2014
In the Sacramento area, strong winds expected with the storm — gusts as high as 60 mph — could take down outdoor holiday decorations.
"I'm not putting any of it up until after the storm because even though it's pretty durable, it will just blow over," Sacramento resident Tim Adams said.
People were advised to take down their holiday lights, especially inflatable decorations that are not properly anchored.
Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, issued a warning that the storm will present a risk of flash flooding and debris slides, particularly in the northern and southern areas of the state that had wildfires this year.
"Burned areas are especially at risk for debris slides. Even regions that don't experience regular seasonal flooding could see flash flooding during this intense storm system," he said in a statement.
The intense rain from this storm still won't end the region's drought, although it will be a major step in the right direction, AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said.
Runoff from the storm could cause streams to surge with high water before eventually emptying into lakes and reservoirs.
As much as 4 feet of snow could fall in the Sierra Nevada. A blizzard warning was posted for portions of the northern Sierra, where winds could rage to 80 mph with heavy, swirling snow. A winter storm warning is also in effect for the southern Sierra.
In some communities, groups opened shelters.
The weather service warned that travel in the northern Sierra will be "extremely dangerous" because of blizzard conditions: "Do not travel. If you must travel, have a winter survival kit with you. If you get stranded ... stay with your vehicle."
YOUR TAKE: In the area? Show us what you're seeing
The storm is expected to dump enough snow on California's mountains that the state's snowpack — currently only 35% of average for this time of year — could be at 75% or higher by this weekend.
CLOSE California is bracing for one of the strongest storms since 2008. Residents worry the winds and rain could send their Christmas decorations flying. VPC
Oregon and Washington were the first to see the storm's effects Wednesday. At least 24,000 customers had lost power by Wednesday afternoon because of the rain and wind in western Washington, with more outages and rough weather forecast through Thursday.
Oddly, along with the rain in Washington came warmth, as Sea-Tac Airport hit 66 degrees, the highest December temperature ever recorded there, according to the weather service.
MT @NWSBayArea: Cool wind map Thurs AM shows storm off of CA coast. Animation: http://t.co/ItvqXMIG0x Pic: pic.twitter.com/lcWqrrflXd — Meghan Mussoline ☂ (@Accu_Meghan) December 10, 2014
Impressive satellite loop showing the tropical moisture headed our way. for the loop http://t.co/[email protected]/CrvkF1zTW7 — NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) December 10, 2014
Contributing: The Associated Press; KING-TV, Seattle; KXTV-TV, Sacramento; David Castellon, Visalia Times-Delta
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1Afrvpz ||||| The "Pineapple Express" is an atmospheric river that originates in Hawaii, and runs to the Pacific coast.
The Pacific Jet Stream - a fast ribbon of air high up in the atmosphere - has moved southwards across California in recent days and will pull tropical moisture from the "Pineapple Express".
This has generated a strong storm system which will affect California during Thursday night and Friday morning.
The storm is expected to be one of the strongest in five years, and could bring gusts of up to 80mph.
The National Weather Service expects between three and five inches of rain to fall quite widely, with up to eight inches in the Sierra foothills.
Although this is welcome rain to drought-stricken California, there is a significant risk of flooding and even landslides.
Ski resorts in the northern Sierra Nevada could see more than three feet (1m) of snow.
Rough seas are also expected, with the potential for waves high as 30 feet (10 metres).
The storm is forecast to subside over the West Coast by Friday evening, moving inland to the Northern Rockies, Great Basin and the Southwest. ||||| Los Angeles (CNN) -- A brewing Pacific storm will pour desperately needed rain on California's historic drought, but the pending wet wallop promises to carry a high price as schools in San Francisco and Oakland are bracing themselves and will be closed Thursday, officials said Wednesday.
The rainfall is expected to be so significant that meteorologists call its source an "atmospheric river."
Many people in Northern California were bringing lawn items inside. But not everything.
"I'm just trying to bring some stuff down that might blow away. We are not taking down the Christmas decorations though, leaving those up unless it gets real bad," Ryan Higgins of Sunnyvale said.
Higgins, who owns a comic book store, said he and his family had a "handful of sandbags" because their residential complex tends to flood even with a little rain.
Already, the fingertips of the storm were ravaging the coast of Washington state, eroding a beachline and threatening homes, according to a CNN affiliate KOMO reporter's tweets.
The fire-hose weather system will slam into the West Coast by Thursday, forecasts say.
Atmospheric rivers are 250 to 400 miles wide and split off like a tributary from a much larger band of moisture from the tropics.
They only come occasionally but are necessary to fill up water reservoirs, the NWS says.
"Up to 50% of annual precipitation on the West Coast occurs in just a few AR events."
On the weather map, the storm looks like a cloud river in the sky flowing straight at the coast, and in combination with the storm system chasing it ashore, it is expected to dump 2-5 inches of rain in many places this week.
The highest elevations of Northern California might get 10 inches of rain, forecasters said.
San Francisco could see 2 to 4 inches in the city with up to 8 inches in the hills.
Schools shuttered
The San Francisco and Oakland Unified School District officials blamed their planned closures on the potential downpour.
"Closing schools is a serious decision," said SFUSD Superintendent Richard A. Carranza in a statement, according to CNN affiliate KRON. "I did not arrive at this lightly. First and foremost, we don't want to risk having our students injured or seriously delayed transporting to and from school. In addition to student absences, the storm could result in large numbers of staff absences, which could then lead to inadequate supervision of our students. Furthermore, power outages could affect the district's ability to feed students' school meals, among many other operational challenges."
In a message to students and staff on the district's Facebook page, Oakland school officials cited "an extreme and potentially dangerous weather system" as the reason for the closings.
"We recognize this decision will interrupt the normal routine and require some families to seek other child-care alternatives and we apologize in advance for the inconvenience. We do, however, feel it's our responsibility, given the dire reports from the National Weather Service, that we take this precaution and steps to maximize student and staff safety."
Southern California might get 1 to 2 inches with twice as much in the hilly areas.
That much rain may be more common, if you live along the Gulf or Atlantic Coasts, but for parched California, which researchers at the University of Nebraska say is the most drought-stricken state in the country, it's a lot to handle at once.
And in many areas, it comes on top of high rains last week. The weather service warned there could be moderate river flooding in California and Washington.
Folks in Oregon were expecting high winds Thursday, but in Seaside, 80 miles northwest of Portland, it was already blustery on Wednesday.
"I was waiting for trees just to go blowing right by the beach," Denise Abramson told CNN affiliate KATU. "It was really, really windy. Really bad. And the waves were probably ...15 feet high coming in. The swells are coming in really, really fast."
About 115 miles down the coast in Newport, it wasn't as bad at Jack's Surfboards.
"Right now it's probably 4- to 5-foot (surf). It's picking up for sure," employee Connor Heisgen said. And the wind? "A tiny bit."
Flooding possible
In the Bay Area on Tuesday, public works crews got ready for a downpour. A road crew vacuumed mud and trash out of a storm drain, CNN affiliate KTVU reported.
"This is not the most glamorous work that there is, even with equipment like this. This is still really hard work. Hard and dirty work but something that has to be done to make sure the system functions properly when we do have a big storm," Caltrans spokesman Bob Haus told KTVU.
The sheriff's department in Solano County, which has a lot of waterfront land, is handing out sandbags to residents.
Bay Area power crews cut pine tree limbs hanging over power lines ahead of winds of 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 70 mph.
Those howling winds will also drive in high surf up and down the West Coast, with some breakers rising 20 feet high.
They are expected to push up water levels in Washington's Puget Sound, which could have residents of Seattle and Tacoma wading through shoreline puddles.
The area will live up to its reputation for sogginess, as about half a foot of rain is expected to fall between early Wednesday and late Thursday, the weather service predicts.
Nor'easter
The wet maker on in the Northeast looks more like a circular water sprinkler, spinning in moisture from the Atlantic, where it is clashing with cold air.
The nor'easter's wet, cold misery -- from chilly rain to snow and ice -- have slushed the Northeast and will continue to as the gyrator drifts north through northern New England.
Syracuse, New York, expected more snow on Thursday.
The 6-10 inches of snow in Greenville Junction, Maine, on Wednesday will get a glazing of freezing rain more than once this week, the NWS predicts.
Winds will be high there, too, with gusts of 40 to 60 mph. They could cause coastal flooding in Maine.
Real rainmaker
There were reports of record rain on Tuesday from the New York metropolitan area with nearly 3 inches falling. At John F. Kennedy International Airport, 2.95 inches fell, the most on this date.
At LaGuardia Airport, where 2.65 inches fell, the flight delays at one point reached four hours.
According to the flight tracking website FlightAware.com, more than 2,600 flights departing from and/or landing in the United States were delayed Tuesday and 1,200 were canceled.
CNN's Steve Almasy, Dave Alsup and Tony Marco contributed to this report. ||||| OAKLAND (KTVU and Wires) -- Bay Area residents scrambled Tuesday to prepare for a powerful storm front that was approaching the region bringing with it pounding surf along the coast, heavy rains over the region, a thick blanket of new snow in the Sierra and wind gusts approaching 60 mph.
Caltrans crews were out Tuesday at a storm drain near Thornton and 880 in Fremont, using a vacuum truck to pump out mud, debris and leaves. They hoped to keep the system free and clear so the drainage system will work the way it's designed when the rain comes.
"This is not the most glamorous work that there is, even with equipment like this. This is still really hard work. Hard and dirty work but something that has to be done to make sure the system functions properly when we do have a big storm," said Caltrans spokesman Bob Haus.
Workers also spent time on the side of I-580 near High Street in Oakland, clearing Styrofoam cups and other debris out of a ditch by hand. They hoped to prevent flooding at nearby low-lying homes.
In Orinda, PG&E crews were cutting branches from a large pine tree to prevent them from crashing down onto power lines during the storm.
A cyclist riding through the area said he is happy to see crews trying to minimize power outages.
"I went out to Diablo today and there were a lot of people out taking care of stuff and cleaning out gutters and storm drains and things," said Berkeley resident Ewald Detjens.
A PGE spokesperson told KTVU if you do see a downed power line, assume it's live. Stay away and call 9-1-1.
Haus added that if you see workers or officers on the roadways this week, please move over and give them space to do their jobs safely. They are out there trying to solve problems and keep traffic moving.
At the ACE Hardware in San Rafael, owner Jeff Leopold said his staff has kept the store shelves stacked with flashlights, lanterns, tarps and pumps for customers who are getting ready for the storm.
“People need to be prepared,” he said. “If your home or garage is prone to flooding, you need to do something about it right now and not wait until Thursday.”
Residents were piling up free sandbags in their vehicles at a giveaway in Oakland. Among those taking advantage of it was Ken Lee.
“We had some heavy rain three years ago and it damaged some stuff in my garage,” he said. “So this time I want to be prepared.”
Meanwhile, David Lonestar, who is a public works supervisor for the city of Oakland, said his crew was ready for whatever Mother Nature delivered.
“Sometimes Mother Nature is not too nice to us,” he told KTVU. “Sometimes it comes at 3 o'clock in the morning.”
KTVU meteorologist Steve Paulson said a storm of this strength has not been seen in the Bay Area since Feb. 3, 1998 when more than 4 inches of rain fell over two days in San Francisco.
By 11 p.m. Thursday, Paulson was forecasting 3.38 inches for San Francisco with the cold front possibly stalling over the area on Friday and delivering more heavy rain.
Santa Rosa would see 4.50 inches or more over the same time frame Thursday night and Ukiah would receive 5.60 inches.
National Weather Service forecaster Roger Gass said the heaviest rains would strike the area late Thursday morning and could flood local roadways. "It looks like the commute is going to be kind of messy, but the heaviest rain is expected later in the morning," Gass said.
Larger rivers such as the Russian River and Napa River were expected to stay below flood level, but flooding was expected along creeks and
in poorly drained low-lying areas on Thursday.
"Most of our main stem rivers are still expected to stay below action stage, those are still handling the rain rather well. Our main concern
is going to be on the small creeks," Gass said.
The National Weather Service has already issued a number of watches and warnings for the region as the storm approach including a flash flood watch for the Bay Area and a gale warning for the coast for waves as high as 20 feet and strong winds.
In the Sierra, Bay Area skiers would be facing very difficult travel conditions to the Lake Tahoe-area residents on Thursday and Friday.
The weather service has issued a Winter storm watch from Thursday morning to Friday evening. Blizzard conditions were expected with as much as three feet of new snow at the higher elevations and hurricane force winds of over 100 mph at the highest ridges.
Travelers were being advised that they will need chains to travel though the mountain passes on Highways 80 and 50.
Marin County says it generally does not provide free sandbags to the public, although some are available at West Marin fire stations.
Here's where to get sand bags in Alameda County: |||||
Write a summary.
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– New York was pelted with record rain this week, but even more could fall on the West Coast today. California could clearly use it, but San Francisco, Oakland, and Novato could see so much rainfall—2 to 4 inches are expected in San Francisco, with up to 8 inches in the hills—that schools are being closed as residents stock up on sandbags, CNN reports. KTVU reports that Bay Area workers have been clearing storm drains ahead of the downpour, which Sky notes is being caused by the "Pineapple Express," an atmospheric river 250 to 400 miles wide that originates in Hawaii. The National Weather Service warns it could "be one of the strongest storms in terms of wind and rain" in five years, per USA Today. "We don't want to risk having our students injured or seriously delayed transporting to and from school," a San Francisco school board superintendent tells KRON, noting "power outages could affect the district's ability to feed students." Officials cite "dire reports from the National Weather Service." The NWS warned that parts of Washington and California could see river flooding following rains last week, while winds up to 40mph and gusts up to 70mph are possible. Blizzard conditions could hit the Sierra Nevada, with winds up to 80mph. Meanwhile, on the East Coast, snow is likely to fall on New York City, which saw 3 inches of rain on Tuesday. Maine could see 10 inches of snow.
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Summarize this article:
Alcoholism vaccine will give drinkers an immediate hangover if they drink even a small amount of booze
The vaccine would be effective for between six months and a year
It sends a message to the liver not to express genes that metabolize alcohol
Trials on mice begin next month with human tests planned for November
A vaccine being developed in Chile will give anyone who drinks alcohol and immediate hangover
A new vaccine will give anyone who drinks even a small amount of alcohol an immediate and very heavy hangover.
Scientists from the University of Chile have spent a year designing the drug in a bid to tackle the growing problem of alcoholism in the country.
The vaccine, which would be effective for between six months and a year, works by sending a biochemical message to the liver telling it not to express genes that metabolise alcohol.
Normally, the liver turns alcohol into the hangover-causing compound called acetaldehyde which is then broken down by a metabolising enzyme.
If someone who’s been vaccinated tries to drink alcohol, they will immediately experience severe nausea, accelerated heartbeat, and general discomfort.
Once the vaccine has been administered it cannot be reversed.
A preclinical trial using mice to determine the correct dosing is due to begin next month with researchers hoping to begin tests on human subjects in November.
The vaccine, which would be effective for between six months and a year, works by sending a biochemical message to the liver telling it not to express genes that metabolise alcohol
Dr. Juan Asenjo, director of the university's Institute for Cell Dynamics and Biotechnology said while the vaccine is not a cure-all, it could provide an important first step.
He told the Santiago Times newspaper: 'People who end up alcoholic have a social problem; a personality problem because they’re shy, whatever, and then they are depressed, so it’s not so simple.
Clanger: The hangover vaccine would be effective for between six months and a year
'But if we can solve the chemical, the basic part of the problem, I think it could help quite a bit.
'In Chile, according to the most recent 2011 study from the World Health Organization, one in 15 men have an alcohol use disorder.
Dr Asenjo belives the vaccine has the potential to help millions of people worldwide.
He added: 'If it works, it’s going to have a worldwide impact, but with many vaccines one has to test them carefully. I think the chances that this one will work are quite high.'
Inspiration for the vaccine came from the far East, said Asenjo, where between 15 and 20 pwer cent of Japanese, Chinese or Koreans have a mutation which inhibits the breakdown of alcohol in their bodies.
The idea of using drugs to combat alcoholism is not new.
Disulfiram, which was developed almost a century ago works in a similar way blocking the enzyme from breaking down alcohol, thus intensifying the body’s negative response.
However users often find the effects so unpleasant they simply stop taking the pills.
||||| Splitting headaches and waves of nausea – a drinker’s worst enemy – may soon provide alcoholics with an unlikely rescue from a crippling addiction. A preclinical trial for the Universidad de Chile’s alcoholism vaccine, set to break ground in February, will use mice to determine dosing. Researchers will apply the findings to a human trial in November this year.Dr. Juan Asenjo, director of the Institute for Cell Dynamics and Biotechnology at Universidad de Chile, thinks that although the vaccine is not a cure-all, it could provide an important first step.“People who end up alcoholic have a social problem; a personality problem because they’re shy, whatever, and then they are depressed, so it’s not so simple,” Asenjo said. “But if we can solve the chemical, the basic part of the problem, I think it could help quite a bit.” |||||
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– Imagine having a vicious hangover after just one sip of booze. Alcoholics around the world will face that very nightmare scenario if an experimental vaccine reaches the marketplace, the Daily Mail reports. Scientists at the University of Chile have designed a drug they say will give anyone who consumes alcohol an accelerated heartbeat, intense nausea, and general sickness. The vaccine works by telling the liver not to express genes that metabolize alcohol—but a scientist involved in the study warns it's no cure-all. "People who end up alcoholic have a social problem, a personality problem because they’re shy, whatever, and then they are depressed, so it’s not so simple," he tells the Santiago Times. But solving the chemical aspect of alcoholism "could help quite a bit." The vaccine is scheduled to undergo a preclinical trial on mice next month before being tested on people in November. It resembles an old drug called Disulfiram, which was so awful that people simply stopped taking it. But the new vaccine would last for 6 solid months upon injection.
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BENTON, La. (AP) — A northwest Louisiana farmhand has been sentenced to 105 years after being convicted of planting a pipe bomb under the bed of the man and wife he worked for in retaliation for the man's failure to save his horse.
"I'm going to remove you from normal society," news outlets quoted Bossier Parish Judge Parker Self as telling Douglas Holley.
Holley, 56, represented himself after firing a court-appointed attorney, and had refused a plea deal of 40 years in prison. He was convicted in August on two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of making or possessing a bomb and one of aggravated arson in connection to the bomb planted on Dec. 19, 2015.
Neither he nor Holly Hill Farm Equestrian Center owners Robert and Tracy Hewlett spoke at Tuesday's sentencing.
Tracy Hewlett told The Associated Press in December 2015 that they, their three small dogs and a cat on the bed with them all escaped unharmed when the bomb sent them flying and left shrapnel in the ceiling. "We think it was our Christmas miracle," she said.
She said the only problem they could recall with Holley was that her husband, a veterinarian, had been unable to save Holley's horse from colic during the summer. After 24 hours of treatment, she said, Robert Hewlett told Holley the illness was terminal, and Holley agreed to have the horse euthanized.
The horse's death "triggered something from which you never recovered," KTBS-TV quoted Self as saying to Holley.
The judge cited "chilling" diary entries outlining Holley's planned revenge, his choice to represent himself and his refusal of the plea deal before handing down the sentence, The Times reported.
Hewlett said she and her husband had just returned from a weeklong visit with their son in Australia and woke about 3:30 a.m., "still on Australian time." They were trying to go back to sleep when they heard a boom.
"There was a big flash of light, and both of us went flying," she said. "My husband flew over the top of me onto the floor by my side."
Sheets, blankets, quilts and pets also flew.
The couple's thick mattress helped dissipate the bomb's force, an investigator told The Times. The heavy farmhouse floors helped dissipate the bomb's force as well, KTBS reported.
Hewlett said at the time that she and her husband thought Holley must be mentally ill and, while horrified by the bombing, felt sorry for him.
"He's just ruined his life," she said then. ||||| BENTON -- A Bossier Parish horse farm handyman convicted in August for trying to kill a veterinarian and his wife by detonating a homemade bomb under their bed will spend the next 105 years in prison.
“I’m going to remove you from normal society,” District Judge Parker Self said Tuesday morning when handing down the sentence for Douglas Holley, 56.
A Bossier Parish jury convicted Holley of trying to murder veterinarian Bobby Hewlett and his wife, Tracy, by detonating a pipe bomb underneath the bedroom floor of the their home at Holly Hill Farm just outside Benton on Dec. 19, 2015.
The Hewletts, along with four pets, were knocked out of bed by the force of the blast, but the thickness of the floors of the farm house are credited with dispersing much of the force of the blast. Shrapnel from the bomb, which included fishing weights, was embedded in the couple's mattress.
Prosecutors said Holley, who worked as a handyman on the Hewletts' farm, became obsessed because the veterinarian was unable to save his horse, Charlie, which suffered from colic and was euthanized. The Hewletts said they were unaware of any animosity. The horse is buried on the farm.
The death of the horse “triggered something from which you never recovered,” Self said when sentencing Holley. ||||| CLOSE Download the Shreveport Times app to be in the know Shreveport Times
Douglas Holley, 54, was charged with two counts of attempted first degree murder and one of count of manufacturing a bomb. (Photo: Bossier Sheriff's Department)
A Bossier farmhand convicted of placing and detonating bombs under his bosses' bedroom to avenge the death of a beloved horse was sentenced to 105 years in prison Tuesday.
Douglas Holley, 56, was found guilty in August on five counts related to the December 2015 bombing — two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of manufacturing and possessing a bomb and one count of aggravated arson.
The farmhand was convicted of setting off bombs under the bedroom of Robert and Tracy Hewlett, the owners of Holly Hill Farm Equestrian Center in northern Bossier Parish.
Investigators said the Hewletts' slept as Holley set off the bombs. The thickness of the couple's Tempur-Pedic mattress was the only reason they survived the explosion, a prosecutor previously told The Times. Neither the couple nor their dogs were injured in the blast.
Holley had worked for the Hewletts' as a farmhand and handyman at the horse farm. He lived at a separate home on the property.
Investigators believed that Holley turned on the couple after Robert Hewlett, who is also a veterinarian, could not save the farmhand's beloved mare "Charlie" after the horse fell ill with colic.
The Hewletts were in the courtroom Tuesday but chose not to make a statement before Holley's sentencing. Holley also declined to make a statement before the court.
Bossier District Judge Parker Self cited Holley's "chilling" diary entries outlining his planned revenge, his choice to represent himself during the trial and his refusal of an offered plea deal before handing down the sentence.
"I'm going to remove you from normal society," Self said in court.
Holley was sentenced to 105 years for the five charges. The maximum sentence Holley could have received was 160 years, the District Attorney's department said.
Read or Share this story: https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2018/11/20/horse-farm-bomber-sentenced-105-years/2067737002/ |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?
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– A northwest Louisiana farmhand has been sentenced to 105 years after being convicted of planting a pipe bomb under the bed of the man and wife he worked for in retaliation for the man's failure to save his horse. "I'm going to remove you from normal society," news outlets quoted Bossier Parish Judge Parker Self as telling Douglas Holley. Holley, 56, represented himself after firing a court-appointed attorney, and he'd refused a plea deal of 40 years in prison, per the AP. He was convicted in August of attempted first-degree murder, making or possessing a bomb, and aggravated arson in connection to the bomb planted on Dec. 19, 2015. Holly Hill Equestrian Center co-owner Tracy Hewlett says she, husband Robert, their three small dogs, and a cat on the bed with them all escaped unharmed when the bomb went off, leaving shrapnel in the ceiling. Hewlett says she and her husband were trying to sleep when they heard the boom. "There was a big flash of light, and both of us went flying," she said. Sheets, blankets, quilts, and pets also flew. The couple's thick mattress helped dissipate the bomb's force, an investigator told the Shreveport Times. The heavy farmhouse floors also helped. Hewlett said the only problem they could recall with Holley was that her husband, a veterinarian, had been unable to save Holley's horse from colic during the summer. The horse's death "triggered something from which you never recovered," KTBS quoted Self as saying to Holley. Hewlett said at the time that she and her husband thought Holley must be mentally ill and, while horrified by the bombing, felt sorry for him. "He's just ruined his life," she said then.
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WASHINGTON — One of President Trump’s most controversial judicial nominees did not disclose on publicly available congressional documents that he is married to a senior lawyer in the White House Counsel’s Office.
The nominee, Brett J. Talley, is awaiting a Senate confirmation vote that could come as early as Monday to become a federal district judge in Alabama. He is married to Ann Donaldson, the chief of staff to the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II.
Mr. Talley was asked on his publicly released Senate questionnaire to identify family members and others who are “likely to present potential conflicts of interest.” He did not mention his wife.
District judges often provide the first ruling when laws are called into question, decisions that can put them at odds with the White House and its lawyers. Last month, for example, judges in Hawaii and Maryland temporarily blocked Mr. Trump’s travel ban. ||||| (CNN) President Donald Trump's nominee for an Alabama federal court judgeship is being criticized for not disclosing in his confirmation process his wife's role in the White House.
Brett Talley did not disclose his wife's position as chief of staff for White House Counsel Donald McGahn on his Senate questionnaire, according to The New York Times.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, said the full Senate should not consider Talley's nomination until he explains why he failed to disclose the potential conflict of interest.
"By failing to disclose that his wife is one of President Trump's lawyers," Feinstein said in a statement, "Talley has betrayed his obligation to be open and transparent with the Senate and American people."
The Senate judiciary committee advanced Talley's nomination along a party-line vote Thursday and a full Senate vote is expected soon.
Read More ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee says a nominee to an Alabama federal judgeship has made a "glaring omission" by failing to disclose to the Senate that his wife works as a White House lawyer and has been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller.
California Democrat Dianne Feinstein says Brett Talley needs to answer additional questions about a potential conflict of interest.
Talley's wife, Ann Donaldson, has reportedly been interviewed by Mueller, which Feinstein says represents "a clear conflict of interest that should have been disclosed."
The Judiciary panel approved Talley on a party-line vote last week despite his having received a rare "unqualified" rating by the American Bar Association. The 36-year-old has never tried a case. |||||Summary:
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– One of President Trump's nominee for a federal judgeship is taking flak from Democrats for failing to mention a potential conflict of interest—the fact that his wife, Ann Donaldson, is one of Trump's senior White House lawyers. Brett Talley failed to mention in the Senate questionnaire for judicial nominees that his wife is chief of staff to the White House Counsel Donald McGahn, who has been helping Trump fill judicial positions, the New York Times reports. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, says Talley made a "glaring omission" by failing to mention his wife's position and the fact that she has been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller, the AP reports. The judiciary committee advanced Talley's nomination for an Alabama judgeship last week and a full Senate vote is expected soon. His wife's job was "no secret," said Taylor Foy, a spokesman for the GOP-controlled committee, per CNN. "She was sitting behind Mr. Talley at his nominations hearing. Anyone who had any concerns about his wife's occupation could have raised them at the hearing." Talley's nomination was already controversial: The 36-year-old has never tried a case and he received a rare "not qualified" rating from the American Bar Association. According to a 2014 Washington Post profile, his side projects include writing horror novels and moonlighting as a paranormal detective.
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As of this morning, 500 million people all around the world are actively using Facebook to stay connected with their friends and the people around them.
This is an important milestone for all of you who have helped spread Facebook around the world. Now a lot more people have the opportunity to stay connected with the people they care about.
To celebrate, we've put together a collection of stories you've shared with us about the impact Facebook and your friends have had on your lives.
We're launching a new application called Facebook Stories where you can share your own story and read hundreds of others, categorized by themes and locations around the world. These stories include:
Ben Saylor, a 17-year-old high school student, who turned to Facebook to organize a community effort to rebuild the Pioneer Playhouse, the oldest outdoor theater in Kentucky, after it was damaged by floods in May.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who, during his time in office, would go jogging with 100 of his fans from Facebook.
Holly Rose, a mother in Phoenix, who credits a friend's status message telling women to check for breast cancer with her being diagnosed in time to treat the disease. She used Facebook for support during treatment and became a prevention advocate herself.
Our mission at Facebook is to help make the world more open and connected. Stories like these are examples of that mission and are both humbling and inspiring. I could have never imagined all of the ways people would use Facebook when we were getting started 6 years ago.I want to thank you for being part of making Facebook what it is today and for spreading it around the world.To show our appreciation, all of us at Facebook have put together a photo album with our messages of thanks . I hope you enjoy it, and please keep sharing your stories with us. ||||| Facebook just spent six months rolling back user privacy, appropriating data, and dealing with the resulting outrage. And yet the social network is growing as fast as ever, as neatly summarized in the attached chart from Inside Facebook's Eric Eldon.
With great fanfare, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the social network's 500 millionth user today. More interesting than the total user count, though, is the rate at which Facebook is acquiring new members. Though Zuckerberg has said Facebook's growth rate has slowed to "super-linear" instead of exponential, it's still adding 100 million users every five months, just as it did Sept. 2009 - Feb. 2010 and April 2009 - Sept 2009.
Facebook's controversial changes to its privacy policy resulted in widespread outcry from confused users and some very public account deletions; a chastened Facebook only partially rolled back its changes. We're starting to wonder if even that half-measure was necessary; judging from the speed with which Facebook graduated to 500 million users from 400 million, users would seem to need the company more than vice versa.
[Chart: Inside Facebook] |||||
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– Facebook spent the last six months pissing off users, and what do they get? More users! Though the social network sparked outrage by changing its privacy settings and appropriating user data, Zuckerberg & Co. are stronger than ever, writes Ryan Tate on Gawker, noting that yesterday the site welcomed its 500 millionth user. Apparently, Tate writes, we need Facebook more than Facebook needs us.
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Here is a news article: By Ernie Palladino
» More Ernie Palladino Columns
Sometimes it’s good to change the culture of a sport, if only to save a life or two.
There’s nothing complicated about it. We’ve seen football alter its collective behavior throughout the generations, and it’s still changing. The shape and material used in the helmets have evolved since the days when a thin piece of leather served as head protection.
Training camp — once the ultimate test of manhood — has gone from a nearly two-month torture chamber of two-a-days where coaches all but doled out water with an eye-dropper to a well-hydrated, single-practice month of tuneup before the regular season. Concussions are no longer thought of as goofy little mishaps that are forgotten once the cobwebs clear — or don’t — to serious occurrences that can shelve a player for a game, two games or more.
Hockey has seen the mandatory use of helmets, and baseball has ordered even its first- and third-base coaches to wear head protection.
Now, perhaps it is time for Major League Baseball to take another evolutionary step, an advancement that would influence every kid who dreams about becoming the next great thing.
It’s time to ban chewing tobacco.
Before anyone starts railing about the “sissyfying” of the game, let’s remember that the minors banned tobacco of all kinds from the field and dugouts as far back as 1993. The absence of Red Man from the cheeks of those players hasn’t seemed to affect their performance, as the personnel faucet continues to flow from that primary talent reservoir.
Still, it is not uncommon to see some players go back to the chaw as soon as they escape the minor-league restrictions. Somehow, it’s supposed to be cool to mimic a bunch of grizzled old-timers who didn’t know better. The camera catches them on the bench, spitting their ugly brown streams into paper Gatorade cups originally intended for hydration. The fans see the occasional hocking of a lip full of snuff on the field. It’s not only gross, but it can infuriate the grounds crew that has to rub those nasty tobacco juice stains out of artificial turf.
But this is about health, not aesthetics or cleaning bills or tradition. We’re talking about tobacco, after all, and that can kill as effectively through mastication as it can inhalation. Tony Gwynn, the legendary San Diego Padres Hall of Famer, died Monday at age 54 because of mouth cancer caused by his addiction to chewing tobacco.
Others like Bill Tuttle — the old Tigers utility infielder of the 1950s — tried to spread the same message years ago, and MLB has brought a parade of others to lecture on the dangers of chewing tobacco. But who listens to a bunch of old players without jawbones, tongues, teeth or cheeks?
They start as kids. Back in the 1970s, it was nothing to see a high-school coach reach into his back pocket and offer a 17-year-old a chaw. It became a right of passage for many, just part of the journey from teenager to man.
Those coaches were as wrong for that as they were for lighting up in the third-base coaching box. Gwynn was just the latest to prove it.
It would take nothing for MLB to ban the chaw. The league has already forbidden players from chewing in postgame interviews. Just extend it to the field. If they want to chomp their extra energy away, let them fill their mouths with gum. Fill the cabinets with it until they overflow. Help these multimillion-dollar investments protect their futures by stopping their tobacco usage now.
It’s too late for the best pure hitter of our generation. But with a little change in culture, MLB could save others.
You May Also Be Interested In These Stories ||||| Tony Gwynn taped a message speaking out against smokeless tobacco use. (Photo: Chris McGrath, Getty Images)
OAKLAND – Tony Gwynn's multitude of accomplishments, career batting average of .338 and his pioneering use of video earned him the rapt attention of players whenever he talked baseball.
Major League Baseball hopes an even more important message he's delivering posthumously sinks in as well.
Gwynn, who died of mouth cancer Monday at 54, speaks out against smokeless tobacco use in a taped segment of an informational video MLB is producing and plans to release this season. The Hall of Fame outfielder believed he developed cancer because of his years-long habit of using spit tobacco, although that was never medically confirmed.
Whether Gwynn's untimely death and his stance against smokeless tobacco will curtail its use among players remains an open question.
Research by the Pro Baseball Athletic Trainers Society revealed the number of major leaguers who use spit tobacco has declined from about 50% to 33% in the last 20 years.
However, that's still about 10 times the amount in the general population, according to the American Cancer Society, whose data from 2012 showed 3.5% of Americans 12 and older – or 9 million – use the highly addictive product.
"It's definitely ingrained and something that's part of our baseball culture, but it's not exclusive to baseball,'' said Oakland Athletics first baseman Brandon Moss, a non-user. "You would hope a figure like (Gwynn), something tragic like that happening, would be a wake-up call for everyone, not just those in baseball. … But most guys are probably going to look at it as the loss of a great man and a great baseball player and leave it at that.''
Indeed, the stance among players seems to be that they're aware of the dangers but, like smoking, it's up to every individual to decide whether to use what remains a legal product.
The National Cancer Institute says in its website that smokeless tobacco contains at least 28 chemicals that have been found to cause cancer – typically of the mouth, esophagus and pancreas – and may also lead to heart disease, gum disease and oral lesions.
"People understand the risks involved and still choose to do it,'' Texas Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. "We all do stupid things, whatever your vice happens to be. People may criticize these guys for dipping, and then somebody's texting and driving.''
And while Gwynn's passing was lamented throughout the game, it doesn't figure to be interpreted by many players – who are usually in their 20s or early 30s, with the concomitant sense of invincibility – as a cautionary tale.
"It's one of those things that's scary and obviously you hope you're not the one,'' said A's catcher Stephen Vogt, who said he dips once in a while. "I don't think it's good. I definitely don't advocate it, but at the same time, it's an adult decision.''
Baseball has taken steps to sway that decision, or at least make the practice less visible to minimize the impact on young fans.
The current collective bargaining agreement, in effect from 2012-16, bans players, managers and coaches from using smokeless tobacco during TV interviews and team appearances. And they have to keep tobacco products out of sight while fans are at the ballpark.
In addition, MLB and the players union have stepped up educational efforts, and teams – which in the past freely distributed cans of dip in the clubhouse – can no longer do so and are now required to administer oral exams as part of the spring training physicals every year.
Longtime TV announcer Joe Garagiola, who quit his smokeless tobacco habit in his 30s, made it his life's mission to warn other baseball folks about its dangers, making presentations during spring training alongside former major league outfielder Billy Tuttle, who died of oral cancer at 69 in 1998.
"I don't think we talk about it enough anymore," says Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. "I remember as a young A-ball manager, Joe Garagiola would always come around in spring training with Bill Tuttle. It was scary.
"And I still see people chewing tobacco. Not only in the big leagues, but you still see kids in junior high and high school.
For me, it's not enough yet. It's a shame."
Indeed, the sight of players constantly spitting, some sporting a large wad of tobacco inside their cheek, remains one of the game's enduring images.
"Every spring training we have a guy that comes in who's had mouth cancer through tobacco,'' Rangers utilityman Donnie Murphy said. "So you see it. But at the same time, it's like an addiction thing. You do it for so long, you're going to want to keep doing it.''
Players say using smokeless tobacco provides a form of relaxation and becomes part of their routine in a daily sport with lots of down time.
And with amphetamines now banned from baseball, the jolt of energy from the nicotine in the tobacco – absorbed during a longer stretch through dip or chew than by smoking – can help players navigate the season's six-month grind.
Commissioner Bud Selig has expressed a desire to banish smokeless tobacco from the majors the same way MLB barred it from the minors starting in 1993. But the issue is subject to collective bargaining and the players association has declined, opting to protect personal freedoms and emphasize education.
"The MLBPA discourages the use of smokeless tobacco products by its members or by anyone else. These products carry serious health risks, yet remain legally and widely available,'' union spokesman Greg Bouris said via e-mail. "In general terms, included in the smokeless tobacco policy negotiated in 2011 are restrictions/prohibitions on its use, increased emphasis on education and cessation programs, as well as oral examinations. At this point in time, player education continues to be a focus of ours.''
Contributing: Paul White in Washington
GALLERY: Baseball mourns Tony Gwynn |||||
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– Baseball great Tony Gwynn is dead at age 54 from cancer that he blamed on his years-long habit of chewing tobacco. While the number of big-leaguers that use the stuff is dropping, about 1 in 3 are still in the habit, reports USA Today, citing stats from the Pro Baseball Athletic Trainers Society. The league has taken steps to curb its use—for example, players can't have a wad in their mouth during TV interviews, and the days of free tins in the clubhouse are long gone—but this is no longer enough, writes Ernie Palladino at CBS Sports. For Major League Baseball, "it's time to ban chewing tobacco," he writes. Sure, defenders will talk about the culture of the game and worry about "sissifying" it, but that's just outdated thinking. The NFL and NHL have taken steps to make their sports safer for players, and MLB must do the same. "It’s too late for the best pure hitter of our generation," writes Palladino. "But with a little change in culture, MLB could save others." Click for his full column.
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– Typically, a voyage to the International Space Station is a two-day affair. Though it's just 250 miles from the Earth, it's constantly moving, complicating the trip. But a team of three astronauts—two Russian, one from NASA—arrived at 10:28pm last night after just a five-hour, 45-minute journey, CNN reports. Normally, a spacecraft headed to the ISS circles the Earth 16 times during the trip; in the latest excursion, the Soyuz spacecraft orbited the planet just four times, thanks in part to equipment and computer software improvements. "We're trying to cut that amount of time that they had to be in those close quarters," says a NASA rep. Still, officials may ultimately decide the longer trip is better because it gives astronauts more time to get acclimated to space. For the astronauts, many of the flight tasks are the same—they just have to be done more quickly, a NASA official says in a Space.com video. The crew will spend some six months at the ISS.
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Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| (CNN) -- In six hours, a person might walk 18 or so miles. By car, it could be 350-plus miles. A commercial airplane might get as far as 3,400 miles.
A spaceship? In that much time, you could get from Earth to the International Space Station.
That's what happened with a Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft, which launched from Kazakhstan at 4:43 p.m. ET Thursday, or 2:43 a.m. Friday local time, with three soon-to-be space station crew members on board. NASA mission control declared "contact and capture confirmed" at 10:28 p.m. ET -- four minutes earlier than planned -- indicating the spacecraft had successfully docked.
This six-hour jaunt was exponentially faster than the normal two-day adventure that astronauts and cosmonauts typically take to get to the ISS. That's because, while the live-in orbiter is a mere 250 miles from Earth, it's always moving -- so it's not a simple matter of going from Point A to Point B.
That's why it has traditionally taken so long to get there, with the spacecraft going round the Earth every 90 or so minutes, which works out to about 16 total before docking.
More space news on CNN Light Years
But this go around, the Soyuz only orbited four times before hooking up with the space station.
"We're trying to cut that amount of time that they had to be in those close quarters," NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries said, noting the spacecraft has a basic bathroom but little living space. "... They may be sharper now, if they'd have to take over the docking."
SpaceX 'Dragon' capsule returns from ISS trip
The NASA spokesman explained that equipment and computer software upgrades, among other factors, helped to make Thursday's historically fast flight possible. And it's possible space officials might decide that the longer, old-fashioned way -- allowing the crew to get its space legs over two days, however cramped they might be -- is preferable, depending on how this mission goes, Humphries said.
This pioneering, fast-track crew was made up Pavel Vinogradov and Aleksandr Misurkin from Russia's space agency, as well as NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy.
With their voyage complete -- and once the space station's hatches open for them, scheduled for soon after midnight -- they'll have plenty of time to get comfy: They are scheduled to remain on the orbiter for about six months before heading home.
READ MORE: Chinese space debris hits Russian satellite, scientists say
INTERACTIVE: Images from space track relentless spread of humanity |||||
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The CNBC-moderated debate became a debate about CNBC, as various candidates and the audience turned the tables on the network’s three moderators.
The repeated bursts of anger and anarchy were prompted, in part, by questions from the moderators that veered, at times, beyond sharp into contentiousness. By the end of the first hour, the audience seemed to be siding with the candidates, booing when CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla seemed to play gotcha with Ben Carson about his past work for a questionable company.
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Taking on the media is a time-honored tradition in Republican debates, from Ronald Reagan in 1980 to Newt Gingrich in 2012. But those were generally individual outbursts. On Wednesday night, the tension was palpable throughout the encounter and across the stage, a theme that may have dashed CNBC’s plans to use the night to showcase a broad array of its own anchors and introduce itself to millions of new viewers.
On Twitter, four of the top five moments involved times when candidates criticized the moderators or the media. And on Facebook, the top social moment was an attack on the questions being asked.
The pattern was established very early by Donald Trump, spurred by a question about his tax plan from CNBC’s John Harwood that suggested the businessman was running a “comic-book” campaign. Trump angrily proclaimed that the network’s own star host, Larry Kudlow, had praised his tax plan.
Soon after, Texas senator Ted Cruz picked up the cudgel, declaring, in response to a question from Quintanilla about raising the debt ceiling, “Let me say something at the outset. The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media. This is not a cage match . . . The questions shouldn’t be getting people to tear into each other.”
Cruz, his voice rising in indignation, cited Harwood’s “comic-book” question to Trump and one from CNBC’s Becky Quick to Carson that declared that his flat-tax plan wouldn’t bring in nearly as much revenue as he claimed. After Cruz waxed on about a double standard between Democratic and Republican debates, Quintanilla seemed visibly irritated, and he and Harwood each refused to give Cruz any extra time to answer the original question.
A few minutes later, they seemed to think better of it and did give Cruz the time. But the spuriousness of the decision left them open to further expressions of outrage by other candidates whenever the moderators tried to cut them off.
Even in their closing statements, several of the candidates went after the media and the network. Trump used his final seconds to tout his negotiating abilities in forcing CNBC to limit the length of the debate despite its desire to make more ad revenue off a longer debate.
“I could stand up here all night. Nobody wants to watch three and a half or three hours. And I have to hand it to Ben [Carson],” Trump said. “They lost a lot of money, everybody said it couldn’t be done. And in about two minutes, I renegotiated it to two hours, so we could get the hell out of here.”
“Just for the record, the debate was always going to be two hours,” responded Harwood.
“That’s not right. That’s absolutely not right,” Trump responded.
The debate had barely wrapped up when Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus marched into the spin room and blasted the network. In a statement sent out soon after, Priebus said he was disappointed in the network moderators.
"Our diverse field of talented and exceptionally qualified candidates did their best to share ideas for how to reinvigorate the economy and put Americans back to work despite deeply unfortunate questioning from CNBC," Priebus said. "One of the great things about our party is that we are able to have a dynamic exchange about which solutions will secure a prosperous future, and I will fight to ensure future debates allow for a more robust exchange. CNBC should be ashamed of how this debate was handled.”
CNBC spokesman Brian Steel defended the moderators.
"People who want to be President of the United States should be able to answer tough questions," Steel said in an email.
But the candidates seemed to join forces against the network.
"One thing that unified all the Republicans tonight was the disdain for the moderators," Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul concluded after the debate. "I felt like we were all together in thinking that maybe the moderators got kind of carried away."
Jeb Bush's campaign manager Danny Diaz was spotted in the debate hall having a heated conversation with CNBC producers while the contest was still going on. Diaz later told POLITICO that he "expressed my displeasure about the way the debate was managed and the amount of time [we got]."
Staffers from several competing networks relished in watching the meltdown, sending emails and texts saying the network was being “manhandled” and that the moderators had lost control.
"RETWEET if you think @FoxBusiness and @WSJ will put on a better debate than this #GOPDebate,” Fox host Neil Cavuto tweeted before the end of the debate.
The crush of criticism was clearly a blow to CNBC's efforts to use the debate as a way to win new viewers, from a gauzy opening photo montage to a series of network promotions emphasizing what Quintanilla, at the outset, called, “CNBC’s top experts in the markets and personal finance” and “the best team in business” journalism.
Before the debate, CNBC's efforts to showcase a large number of its on-air personalities during a disjointed preview discussion drew jeers on Twitter from reporters, political operatives and others who couldn’t stand the banter between the anchors, correspondents and pundits.
"The CNBC anchors are just desperately filling airtime with absolute nonsense to kill time,” conservative writer John Tabin tweeted.
"Please run vertical color bars until the debate starts,” wrote U.S. News and World Report’s managing editor for opinions Robert Schlesinger.
At one point in the hour between the two debates, correspondents debated how liberal the students in Colorado are. CNBC pundits made comments that, for the Beltway crowd, seemed obvious, such as “Jeb Bush needs a good night.”
“CNBC preshow illustrating why you don't hire tennis players to do color commentary on a football game,” wrote The New York Times’ Alex Burns.
But after the debate, reporters were surprised that CNBC cut away quickly to a show called "The Profit," leaving their post-debate coverage to an online livestream. Other networks filled the gap with commentary and analysis — some of it critical of CNBC.
Eliza Collins and Alex Isenstadt contributed to this story.
||||| BOULDER, Colo. — The third Republican presidential debate was expected to be a battle between Donald Trump and Ben Carson, or Trump and the rest of the field.
Instead, much of the debate was a fight between the 10 GOP candidates on stage and CNBC, the business network hosting the contest.
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Several candidates bashed the media in general and CNBC moderators John Harwood, Becky Quick and Carl Quintanilla in particular over the questions asked during the two-hour debate.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) accused the hosts of pitting the candidates against each other in order to promote a “cage match.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) ripped Quick after a question about his bookkeeping skills and whether he had the “maturity” to be president due to his finances.
“You just listed a litany of discredited attacks from Democrats and my political opponents, and I’m not going to waste 60 seconds detailing them all,” Rubio shot back.
Rubio later won applause for likening the mainstream media to a super-PAC for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner.
After the debate, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus criticized CNBC, saying it “should be ashamed of how this debate was handled.”
In a statement, he said the moderators were “extremely disappointing and did a disservice to their network, our candidates, and voters.”
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who got less screen time than many of the other candidates, also went after the network.
“They didn’t control the debate, plain and simple. It was not a fair debate in that regard,” he said in an interview on CNN afterward.
Bush campaign manager Danny Diaz said he spoke with CNBC during the debate and expressed dissatisfaction with the amount of time Bush got.
"We know we can't do debates with MSNBC. Now we can't do anything with CNBC. So I think NBC News has a problem on their hands," said Mike Shields, a former top aide at the RNC.
"The crowd turned on them, the candidates kind of stuck together. It's a real problem going forward [for the network]," Shield said, adding that he hadn't heard of campaigns expressing worry about the network ahead of the debate.
"Why would anybody think that CNBC, of all places, would be something where you would have a 'gotcha' debate?" Shields asked, noting the next debate will be held by a competing network, Fox Business.
"CNBC did a terrible job, they didn't include Sen. Paul in the promotional material, they put him in the bathroom, and they gave him very few questions. And, frankly, they did a bad job for all the candidates," Chip Englander, the campaign manager for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), told The Hill.
The "bathroom" remark alluded to the greenroom provided to Paul, which was smaller and less luxurious than those given to other candidates.
Englander also expressed dissatisfaction that CNBC didn't bring up the issue of marijuana, a topic on which Paul drew headlines in the last debate by going hard after rivals including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
"It seems so goofy that CNBC didn't have any time," Englander said. "I mean, the debate is in Colorado. ... That would have made a lot of sense, but CNBC didn't do really anything that made sense tonight."
While the focus seemed to be squarely on CNBC after the debate, the candidates also turned their fire on each other while on stage.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich opened with a blistering attack focused on Trump and Carson, suggesting neither of the leading candidates is fit for the Oval Office.
“My great concern is that we are on the verge, perhaps, of picking someone who cannot do this job,” Kasich said.
Kasich also had a fiery exchange with Trump later in the debate, when the real estate tycoon went after the former congressman for being a managing partner at Lehman Brothers, the investment bank that went bankrupt in 2008.
“I was a banker,” Kasich said of his role in the Wall Street firm, saying he traveled the country and “learned how people created jobs.”
Bush tangled with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has surpassed his former mentor in polls, by criticizing his fellow Floridian for missing Senate votes to run for the White House.
“You can campaign, or just resign and let someone else take the job,” he said.
“Someone's convinced you that attacking me is going to help you,” Rubio shot back, dismissing the criticism and insisting he wasn't running against Bush or anyone else.
Rubio's aides were beaming following his performance, with a top aide saying there was "no question" Rubio got the better of the high-profile exchange with Bush.
"We had a very good night," said Rubio spokesman Alex Conant. "I think we expected there would be more questions about the economy than there were, since it was an economic debate."
Bush perhaps had the most at risk in the debate. After announcing he was cutting staff and expenses, the onetime front-runner needed a strong performance to offer assurances to his supporters, but he did not appear to achieve it.
Carson went into the debate on par for the first time with Trump, who has led the race alone for more than three months.
The retired neurosurgeon is ahead of Trump in Iowa, and also beat the real estate mogul in a national poll from CBS and The New York Times this week.
He faced intense pressure heading into the debate to show he understands details about major economic issues and told reporters hours before the debate that he hoped those watching would be able to "find out that doctors actually do know something about economics.”
It seems unlikely the debate will knock Carson from his perch, even if he did not particularly stand out with his answers.
- Updated at 12:10 a.m. on Thursday ||||| During the third GOP debate, candidates got feisty with the CNBC moderators. They took aim at the questions asked, at the "mainstream media" and at the moderators interrupting their answers. (Victoria M. Walker/The Washington Post)
Before the candidates even took the stage at Wednesday night's Republican presidential debate, the network hosting the debate was getting pilloried on social media.
As the 8 o'clock Eastern start time came and went, CNBC's pre-debate pundits kept droning on. And on. And on. It wasn't clear why. There was no countdown clock on the screen or indication of when the show might begin.
A sampling of the reaction:
Really tired of listening to CNBC "commentators." Can we please start this debate? #CNBCGOPDebate — Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner) October 29, 2015
Listening to CNBC anchors, waiting for the #GOPDebate to start like pic.twitter.com/EGvKOEbRzc — Mic (@micnews) October 29, 2015
I feel like something awkward has happened behind the scenes at #GOPDebate and the CNBC anchors are having to filibuster to cover it up. — Scott Wilson (@PostScottWilson) October 29, 2015
I've taken a drink every time the @CNBC anchors said "ascending" and now I'm Judy Garland. #GOPDebate — Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) October 29, 2015
(The above tweet, by the way, was shown on a ticker that CNBC had going at the bottom of their screen as the debate started. Was anybody screening those? Apparently not, judging by the below.)
Once things got going, it didn't get much better. The candidates took turns ragging on the moderators for their questions and quibbled with their premises and facts. Sometimes, we would note, this was without good reason to, as when Donald Trump said he hadn't called Marco Rubio Mark Zuckerberg's "personal senator." He had. On his Web site. And going after the mainstream media is a tried-and-true GOP applause line that most candidates employed at one point or another.
But when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) took an entire 60 seconds he had to denounce the debate moderators, he found some unlikely allies. Including the aforementioned Patton Oswalt and left-leaning comedian Bill Maher.
I hate Ted Cruz with the power of a million chainsaws revving but I agree with everything he just said. #GOPDebate — Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) October 29, 2015
oh my god did i just hear Ted Cruz say something awesome that i agree with? Yes. The media is even stupider than the pols. Who's on first? — Bill Maher (@billmaher) October 29, 2015
Cruz rightly bashes CNBC for the way they are running this debate. — John Bresnahan (@BresPolitico) October 29, 2015
Even the pro-gun-control Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence -- not exactly an ally of the candidates on-stage Wednesday -- took a shot.
"The candidates and audience agreed: the moderators focused more time on divisive questions than addressing the one issue that 93 percent of Americans agree on: stopping gun violence," the group said in a statement.
Other reactions were similar:
Wow. CNBC is really blowing it tonight. — Stuart Rothenberg (@StuPolitics) October 29, 2015
CNBC debate moderator performance makes any complaints about Megyn Kelly, Bret Baier, and Jake Tapper look silly by comparison. — Jeff B@AoSHQDD (@EsotericCD) October 29, 2015
CNBC has the right idea. You can't just let candidates at a debate actually debate. Next thing you know they'll be articulating differences. — Matt Bai (@mattbai) October 29, 2015
By the end of the debate, the chatter was all about CNBC.
Strong sense in Boulder debate will be media/CNBC story above all. Words 'disaster,' 'catastrophe' flying around. Serious blowback for RNC. — Byron York (@ByronYork) October 29, 2015
And the Republican National Committee pounced. |||||
What is a summary?
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– Judging from the reaction to Wednesday night's debate, CNBC has as much chance of hosting another GOP debate as George Pataki does of becoming president. The moderating was heavily criticized not just by the candidates (as Chris Christie put it, "even in New Jersey what you're doing is called rude") but by the likes of Bill Maher, who found himself in full agreement with Ted Cruz's attack on the moderators for treating the debate like a "cage match" and failing to ask substantive questions, the Washington Post reports. Soon after the debate finished, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said he was disappointed by CNBC and the moderators, who "did a disservice to their network, our candidates, and voters" by asking too many "gotcha" questions, the AP reports. CNBC had planned to win over new viewers and show off new anchors with the debate, Politico reports, but the network itself turned out to be the target of some of the fiercest attacks. Some candidates used their closing statements for jabs at the network, including Donald Trump, who boasted that CNBC had crumbled when he threatened to boycott the debate unless it was cut to two hours. "Nobody wants to watch three and a half or three hours," he said. "They lost a lot of money, everybody said it couldn't be done. And in about two minutes, I renegotiated it to two hours, so we could get the hell out of here." Jeb Bush, who spoke little and was widely seen as the debate's biggest loser, slammed the network afterward for failing to control the debate, the Hill reports.
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Here is a news article: An Oklahoma father paid tribute to his pregnant wife’s selflessness in a beautiful viral post.
On Feb. 17, Royce Young posted a photo of his wife, Keri, on Facebook. The photo shows Keri, who is seven months pregnant with their second child, sleeping peacefully on their couch.
In the long caption, Royce explained why his wife is so inspiring to him and shared the tearjerking details of this pregnancy.
Keri is pregnant with a baby girl, whom she and her husband have decided to name Eva. Tragically, the couple learned at their 19-week ultrasound that their daughter did not have a brain. Royce described that moment in his Facebook post.
“Somehow through full body ugly crying, Keri looked up and asked, ‘If I carry her full term, can we donate her organs?’ ... There I was, crestfallen and heartbroken, but I momentarily got lifted out of the moment and just stood in awe of her. I was a spectator to my own life, watching a superhero find her superpowers. In literally the worst moment of her life, finding out her baby was going to die, it took her less than a minute to think of someone else and how her selflessness could help. It’s one of the most powerful things I’ve ever experienced. In the eight years we’ve been married (and 15 years together) I’ve had a lot of moments stop me in my tracks where I thought, “holy crap, this woman I’m married to, lucky me.” But this one was different. It hit me that not only am I married to my very best friend, but to a truly remarkable, special human being.”
Royce, who writes about basketball for ESPN.com, noted in the post that he went to New Orleans for NBA All-Star Weekend and met an “awesome” kid named Jarrius, who needs a liver transplant. Royce said meeting Jarrius inspired him to post the photo of his wife and his thoughts about her strength.
“Keri has been in the trenches the entire time, feeling every little kick, every hiccup and every roll,” he wrote. “She’s reminded every moment of every day that she’s carrying a baby that will die. Her back hurts. Her feet are sore. She’s got all the super fun pregnant stuff going on.”
He added, “But the light at the end of her nine-month tunnel will turn into a darkness she’s never felt before a couple hours or days after Eva is born. She’s the one that is going to deal with all that comes with having a baby ― her milk coming in, the recovery process, etc, but with no snuggly, soft, beautiful newborn to look at to remind you that it was all worth it.”
Ultimately, Royce wrote, they take comfort in knowing that their daughter can be a “miracle” for another family in need of an organ donation for their baby ― just as Jarrius and his family are hoping for their own miracle.
Courtesy of Royce Young Royce and Keri have a 2-year-old son named Harrison.
Royce and Keri also have a 2-year-old son named Harrison. “Whenever Harrison gets hurt, or has to pull a bandaid off or something, Keri will ask him, ‘Are you tough? Are you BRAVE?’ And that little boy will nod his head and say, ‘I tough! I brave!’” Royce wrote at the conclusion of his post.
“I’m looking at Keri right now and I don’t even have to ask,” he added. “She’s TOUGH. She’s BRAVE. She’s incredible. She’s remarkable.”
Royce’s post received over 9,000 likes. He told The Huffington Post he did not think anyone other than friends and family would read it and has been shocked and overwhelmed by the response.
The dad said he wrote it as a journal entry of sorts ― and a tribute to his wife. “I love her, and watching her courage and strength is just something that’s inspires me,” he explained.
“Keri, like me, is pretty private, and it’s hard to be vulnerable and expose your emotions,” he added. “But this is a unique situation, and throughout everything we’ve talked about trying to minimize regret. And I don’t want to look back years from now and think about how I missed an opportunity to tell people about how terrific Keri is handling this. We want to live in the present with this, and have something tangible to remember it with as we get older. “
Royce said he also wants to shed light on another aspect of reproductive freedom ― that “choice” does not exclusively refer to termination but can mean choosing to bring their baby into the world and letting her life save others.
“We love seeing the impact our little girl is having,” the dad told HuffPost, adding that parents love to talk about their kids and this is their chance to do that with Eva. ||||| (CNN) When Keri Young found out her unborn child didn't have a brain, she made an unthinkably selfless decision. She decided to carry Eva to term to donate the organs to other babies in need.
Young's wrenching story broke hearts when her husband Royce Young, a writer for ESPN, posted an emotional letter praising her brave decision.
"It would just be irresponsible to take the gifts that Eva has and not share them with others," Royce Young told CNN about his wife's decision.
The discovery
The Youngs found out Eva didn't have a brain at the 19-week ultrasound.
"Somehow through full body ugly crying, Keri looked up and asked, 'If I carry her full term, can we donate her organs?'" Royce Young wrote in his post.
"This whole process has been rough, but I say that as someone watching from the bleachers like the rest of you. Keri has been in the trenches the entire time, feeling every little kick, every hiccup and every roll. She's reminded every moment of every day that she's carrying a baby that will die."
The decision to donate baby Eva's organs wasn't the only reason.
The couple also "came to the realization Eva is alive and our daughter deserves to meet her mama and daddy," her husband wrote.
On her own Facebook page, Keri Young added, "Eva will have life even though it will be short. She'll donate anything she can and do more in her time on earth than I ever will."
The baby is due May 7.
"Choice doesn't just mean terminating," Royce told CNN. "Choice can mean life."
Here is the full text of his post:
"The other night, before I left for New Orleans, I was watching my beautiful wife sleep peacefully on the couch.
I looked at her laying there, her belly big with our daughter kicking away, a daughter that won't live more than a few days, and it just overwhelmed me of how incredible this woman is. I'm a writer so when I'm feeling something, I tend to have to write it down. So I pulled out my phone and started writing what I was thinking. And I realized tonight sitting a thousand miles away in a hotel room, especially after meeting this awesome kid named Jarrius that's been everywhere at All-Star Weekend who needs a liver transplant, that instead of just keeping this one for me like I normally do, I should tell everyone else just how incredible Keri Young is. (I also miss her five seconds after I leave the house for a trip so I'm thinking about her all the time anyway.)
I thought back to the moment where we found out Eva wasn't perfect, and how literally 30 seconds after our doctor told us our baby doesn't have a brain, somehow through full body ugly crying, Keri looked up and asked, "If I carry her full term, can we donate her organs?" I remember our doctor putting her hand on Keri's shoulder and saying, "Oh honey, that's so brave of you to say." Like, how nice of you, but come on. Keri meant it. There I was, crestfallen and heartbroken, but I momentarily got lifted out of the moment and just stood in awe of her. I was a spectator to my own life, watching a superhero find her superpowers. In literally the worst moment of her life, finding out her baby was going to die, it took her less than a minute to think of someone else and how her selflessness could help. It's one of the most powerful things I've ever experienced. In the eight years we've been married (and 15 years together) I've had a lot of moments stop me in my tracks where I thought, "holy crap, this woman I'm married to, lucky me." But this one was different. It hit me that not only am I married to my very best friend, but to a truly remarkable, special human being.
This whole process has been rough, but I say that as someone watching from the bleachers like the rest of you. Keri has been in the trenches the entire time, feeling every little kick, every hiccup and every roll. She's reminded every moment of every day that she's carrying a baby that will die. Her back hurts. Her feet are sore. She's got all the super fun pregnant stuff going on. But the light at the end of her nine-month tunnel will turn into a darkness she's never felt before a couple hours or days after Eva is born. She's the one that is going to deal with all that comes with having a baby-- her milk coming in, the recovery process, etc, but with no snuggly, soft, beautiful newborn to look at to remind you that it was all worth it.
We made our choice to carry Eva to full term for a lot of reasons, but the first and foremost was to donate her organs. We don't say that to try and sound like great people or anything. It was just a practical endgame that in our minds, before we came to the realization Eva is alive and our daughter deserves to meet her mama and daddy, gave us a purpose to continue on. Donating was on Keri's mind from darn near the second we found out and while the experience of holding and kissing our daughter will be something we cherish forever, the gift(s) she's got inside that little body of hers is what really matters. Keri saw that almost instantly. That kid Jarrius wears a shirt that says "It Takes Lives To Save Lives." I couldn't stop thinking about that all day. There's another family out there hurting and hoping for a miracle for their baby, knowing full well someone else's baby will need to die first. Eva can be that miracle.
We're getting closer to the finish line, and while it's going to be amazing to run through that tape and meet Eva, it comes at a cost. We'll go to the hospital for a birth, and go home without a baby.
A lot of people say things like, "I wouldn't change anything" after a trying circumstance, but I'm not about to say that. I would definitely change this if I could. I want my daughter to be perfect. I want her to blow out her candles on her first birthday. I want to watch her bang her head on our coffee table trying to learn to walk. I want her to run up a cell phone bill texting boys. I want to walk her down an aisle. I want to change it all so, so badly. But I can't. This is our reality. And there's no stopping it.
Whenever Harrison gets hurt, or has to pull a bandaid off or something, Keri will ask him, "Are you tough? Are you BRAVE?" And that little boy will nod his head and say, "I tough! I brave!" I'm looking at Keri right now and I don't even have to ask. She's TOUGH. She's BRAVE. She's incredible. She's remarkable. She's cut from a different cloth, combining wit, beauty, courage, silliness, character and integrity into one spectacular woman. And somehow, she's my wife. Not that I needed some awful situation like this to actually see all of that, but what it did was make me want to tell everyone else about it." ||||| Keri Young and her husband, Royce, made the difficult decision to carry their unborn baby girl to full term although the fetus was diagnosed with a terminal illness.
The Oklahoma couple, parents to a son named Harrison, learned at Keri's 20-week ultrasound that their unborn daughter, named Eva, was suffering from anencephaly.
According to the CDC, anencephaly is a condition that causes a baby to be born without parts of the brain or skull. Almost all babies born with the condition die shortly after birth.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Keri admitted she briefly considered inducing early ahead of her May 7 due date because she didn't want to go through the pain of losing her child.
Paulina Gretzky and Dustin Johnson expecting second child
"Continuing the pregnancy meant we would have mourn the loss of a child," she wrote. "We'd have to have a funeral... for a baby. OUR baby."
An Oklahoma couple will donate their baby girl's organs after they learned the fetus has a terminal condition. (Keri Young/Facebook)
However, at a follow-up doctor's appointment Keri and Royce were told that if they continued with the pregnancy some of Eva's organs - like her heart valves, kidneys and liver - could be donated. The unborn baby's lungs could be donated for research.
"Eva will have life even though it will be short," Keri wrote. "She'll donate anything she can and do more in her time on earth than I ever will."
In an update on Friday, Royce wrote that the process has been difficult but through it all his wife has remained strong.
'Today' co-host Hoda Kotb adopts baby girl
"Keri has been in the trenches the entire time, feeling every little kick, every hiccup, every roll. She's reminded every moment of every day that she's carrying a baby that will die," he posted.
"She's TOUGH. She's BRAVE. She's incredible. She's remarkable," he continued. "She's cut from a different cloth, combining wit, beauty, courage silliness, character and integrity into one spectacular woman." |||||
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– Keri Young was nearly halfway through her pregnancy when she and her husband learned that the girl she was carrying was terminally ill. Suffering from anencephaly, the fetus was developing without parts of her brain, and in almost all cases these babies die within a day or two of birth, reports the New York Daily News. But in a Facebook post that has gone viral, the Oklahoma woman wrote that she has decided to carry Eva to term, and that she'll "donate anything she can and do more in her time on earth than I ever will." Young says she made the decision when her previous doctor called to tell her it would be the most selfless thing she'd ever do. Now husband Royce, a writer for ESPN, has penned a follow-up Facebook post that has also gone viral about how his wife has been "in the trenches," feeling every kick and hiccup. "She's cut from a different cloth, combining wit, beauty, courage, silliness, character and integrity into one spectacular woman," he writes. He tells CNN it would be "irresponsible" to not share Eva with others in need, and adds that "choice can mean life." He says they're private people, but tells Huffington Post that they won't get to "brag about her grades or how pretty her hair is; this is what we get to tell people about." Doctors say that Eva's heart valves, kidneys, and liver can be donated to others, and her lungs to research. Her due date is May 7. (One man's donated heart stays in the family, by chance.)
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Article:
Importance Between 40% and 50% of women in Western countries use complementary therapies to manage menopausal symptoms.
Objective To determine the association of plant-based therapies with menopausal symptoms, including hot flashes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness.
Data Sources The electronic databases Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Central were systematically searched to identify eligible studies published before March 27, 2016. Reference lists of the included studies were searched for further identification of relevant studies.
Study Selection Randomized clinical trials that assessed plant-based therapies and the presence of hot flashes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness.
Data Extraction Data were extracted by 2 independent reviewers using a predesigned data collection form.
Main Outcomes and Measures Hot flashes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness.
Results In total, 62 studies were identified, including 6653 individual women. Use of phytoestrogens was associated with a decrease in the number of daily hot flashes (pooled mean difference of changes, −1.31 [95% CI, −2.02 to −0.61]) and vaginal dryness score (pooled mean difference of changes, −0.31 [95% CI, −0.52 to −0.10]) between the treatment groups but not in the number of night sweats (pooled mean difference of changes, −2.14 [95% CI, −5.57 to 1.29]). Individual phytoestrogen interventions such as dietary and supplemental soy isoflavones were associated with improvement in daily hot flashes (pooled mean difference of changes, −0.79 [−1.35 to −0.23]) and vaginal dryness score (pooled mean difference of changes, −0.26 [−0.48 to −0.04]). Several herbal remedies, but not Chinese medicinal herbs, were associated with an overall decrease in the frequency of vasomotor symptoms. There was substantial heterogeneity in quality across the available studies, and 46 (74%) of the included randomized clinical trials demonstrated a high risk of bias within 3 or more areas of study quality.
Conclusions and Relevance This meta-analysis of clinical trials suggests that composite and specific phytoestrogen supplementations were associated with modest reductions in the frequency of hot flashes and vaginal dryness but no significant reduction in night sweats. However, because of general suboptimal quality and the heterogeneous nature of the current evidence, further rigorous studies are needed to determine the association of plant-based and natural therapies with menopausal health. ||||| Women who have already passed through the menopause may be able to have children following a blood treatment usually used to heal wounds
Peter Dazeley/Getty
MENOPAUSE need not be the end of fertility. A team claims to have found a way to rejuvenate post-menopausal ovaries, enabling them to release fertile eggs, New Scientist can reveal.
The team says its technique has restarted periods in menopausal women, including one who had not menstruated in five years. If the results hold up to wider scrutiny, the technique may boost declining fertility in older women, allow women with early menopause to get pregnant, and help stave off the detrimental health effects of menopause.
“It offers a window of hope that menopausal women will be able to get pregnant using their own genetic material,” says Konstantinos Sfakianoudis, a gynaecologist at the Greek fertility clinic Genesis Athens.
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“It is potentially quite exciting,” says Roger Sturmey at Hull York Medical School in the UK. “But it also opens up ethical questions over what the upper age limit of mothers should be.”
Women are thought to be born with all their eggs. Between puberty and the menopause, this number steadily dwindles, with fertility thought to peak in the early 20s. Around the age of 50, which is when menopause normally occurs, the ovaries stop releasing eggs – but most women are already largely infertile by this point, as ovulation becomes more infrequent in the run-up. The menopause comes all-too-soon for many women, says Sfakianoudis.
The age of motherhood is creeping up, and more women are having children in their 40s than ever before. But as more women delay pregnancy, many find themselves struggling to get pregnant. Women who hope to conceive later in life are increasingly turning to IVF and egg freezing, but neither are a reliable back-up option (see “The pregnancy pause“).
The menopause also comes early – before the age of 40 – for around 1 per cent of women, either because of a medical condition or certain cancer treatments, for example.
“It offers hope that menopausal women will be able to get pregnant using their own genetic material“
To turn back the fertility clock for women who have experienced early menopause, Sfakianoudis and his colleagues have turned to a blood treatment that is used to help wounds heal faster.
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is made by centrifuging a sample of a person’s blood to isolate growth factors – molecules that trigger the growth of tissue and blood vessels. It is widely used to speed the repair of damaged bones and muscles, although its effectiveness is unclear. The treatment may work by stimulating tissue regeneration.
Sfakianoudis’s team has found that PRP also seems to rejuvenate older ovaries, and presented some of their results at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology annual meeting in Helsinki, Finland, this month. When they injected PRP into the ovaries of menopausal women, they say it restarted their menstrual cycles, and enabled them to collect and fertilise the eggs that were released.
“I had a patient whose menopause had established five years ago, at the age of 40,” says Sfakianoudis. Six months after the team injected PRP into her ovaries, she experienced her first period since menopause.
Sfakianoudis’s team has since been able to collect three eggs from this woman. The researchers say they have successfully fertilised two using her husband’s sperm. These embryos are now on ice – the team is waiting until there are at least three before implanting some in her uterus.
The team isn’t sure how this technique works, but it may be that the PRP stimulates stem cells. Some research suggests a small number of stem cells continue making new eggs throughout a woman’s life, but we don’t know much about these yet. It’s possible that growth factors encourage such stem cells to regenerate tissue and produce ovulation hormones. “It’s biologically plausible,” says Sturmey.
Fertilised eggs
Sfakianoudis’s team says it has given PRP in this way to around 30 women between the ages of 46 and 49, all of whom want to have children. The researchers say they have managed to isolate and fertilise eggs from most of them.
“It seems to work in about two-thirds of cases,” says Sfakianoudis. “We see changes in biochemical patterns, a restoration of menses, and egg recruitment and fertilisation.” His team has yet to implant any embryos in post-menopausal women, but hopes to do so in the coming months.
PRP has already been helpful for pregnancy in another group of women, says Sfakianoudis. Around 10 per cent of women who seek fertility treatment at his clinic have a uterus that embryos find difficult to attach to – whether due to cysts, scarring from miscarriages or having a thin uterine lining. “They are the most difficult to treat,” says Sfakianoudis.
But after injecting PRP into the uteruses of six women who had had multiple miscarriages and failed IVF attempts, three became pregnant through IVF. “They are now in their second trimester,” says Sfakianoudis.
Fertility aside, the technique could also be desirable for women who aren’t trying to conceive. The hormonal changes that trigger menopause can also make the heart, skin and bones more vulnerable to ageing and disease, while hot flushes can be very unpleasant. Many women are reluctant to take hormone replacement therapy to reduce these because of its link with breast cancer. Rejuvenating the ovaries with PRP could provide an alternative way to boost the supply of youthful hormones, delaying menopause symptoms.
Steve Gschmeissner/SPL
However, Sfakianoudis’s team hasn’t yet published any of its findings. “We need larger studies before we can know for sure how effective the treatment is,” says Sfakianoudis.
“One woman had been in menopause for 5 years. Six months after treatment, she had a period“
Some have raised concerns about the safety and efficacy of the procedure, saying the team should have tested the approach in animals first. “This experiment would not have been allowed to take place in the UK,” says Sturmey. “The researchers need to do some more work to make sure that the resulting eggs are OK,” says Adam Balen at the British Fertility Society.
To know if the technique really does improve fertility, the team will also need to carry out randomised trials, in which a control group isn’t given PRP.
Virginia Bolton, an embryologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London, is also sceptical. “It is dangerous to get excited about something before you have sufficient evidence it works,” she says. New techniques often find their way into the fertility clinic without strong evidence, thanks to huge demand from people who are often willing to spend their life savings to have a child, she says.
If the technique does hold up under further investigation, it could raise ethical questions over the upper age limits of pregnancy – and whether there should be any. “I lay awake last night turning this over in my mind,” says Sturmey. “Where would the line be drawn?”
Health issues like gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia and miscarriage are all more common in older women. “It would require a big debate,” says Sturmey.
Sperm home test kit How are the little swimmers doing? Low sperm counts or poor sperm quality are behind around a third of cases of couples who can’t conceive. A visit to a clinic for a test can be awkward, but a smartphone-based system lets men determine whether that’s necessary by checking their fertility at home. Men often find it embarrassing to give a semen sample at a clinic, says Yoshitomo Kobori at the Dokkyo Medical University Koshigaya Hospital in Japan. So Kobori devised an alternative. “I thought a smartphone microscope could be an easy way to look at problems with male fertility,” he says. Kobori and his colleagues came up with a lens less than a millimetre thick that can be slotted into a plastic “jacket”. Clipped on to the camera of a smartphone, it magnifies an image by 555 times – perfect for looking at sperm. To do a home test, a man would apply a small amount of semen to a plastic sheet around five minutes after ejaculation and press it against the microscope. Watch them swim The phone’s camera can then take a 3-second video clip of the sperm. When viewed enlarged on a computer screen, it is easy for someone to count the total number of sperm and the number that are moving – key indicators of fertility. Kobori says the system works as well as the software used in fertility clinics. When the team ran 50 samples through both systems, they got almost identical results. The work was presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology meeting in Helsinki this month. The system can’t assess the ability of sperm to fertilise an egg. “This method is only the simple version of semen analysis,” says Kobori. But that could be enough for men to identify potential fertility problems, and decide whether to seek help from a doctor.
This article appeared in print under the headline “Reversing the menopause”
Leader: “Who should we believe when it comes to fertility?” |||||Summary:
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– The hot flashes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness characteristic of menopause may no longer also signal the end of a woman's fertility thanks to a blood treatment used to heal wounds. Presenting their findings at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology annual meeting in Helsinki, Finland, this month, researchers in Greece said they were able to reverse menopause in roughly 30 women, including one who entered menopause at 40 but five years later menstruated again, reports New Scientist. The team has collected three eggs from her and, using her husband's sperm, fertilized two into embryos that they plan to implant into her uterus. Still, an outside researcher says, the development "opens up ethical questions over what the upper age limit of mothers should be." The team reports that roughly 1% of women become infertile before they turn 40 thanks to certain medical conditions and cancer treatments. "It offers a window of hope that menopausal women will be able to get pregnant using their own genetic material," says gynecologist Konstantinos Sfakianoudis. The team injected a woman's ovaries with a platelet-rich plasma—or PRP, which is made with a person's own blood to trigger tissue and blood vessel growth and has been used by the likes of Tiger Woods to speed healing from soft-tssue injuries, notes Forbes—to effectively rejuvenate them and trigger menstrual cycles. They're not yet sure exactly how it works, but they've managed to fertilize eggs from nearly all of the 30 women they studied, who are between 45 and 49 and want to have children. In related news, a meta analysis published in JAMA found that some "natural" remedies, though not Chinese "medicinal" herbs, may slightly improve certain symptoms of menopause. (Heard of snowflake moms?)
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Here is a news article: An “exhausted” and “broken hearted” Selena Gomez has been hiding a secret from her legions of adoring fans: RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned that emotional issues sent her to an Arizona rehab facility in January for a hush-hush emergency two-week stay.
The “Come & Get It” singer was admitted to Dawn at The Meadows recovery facility in Wickenburg, Ariz., on Jan. 5.
According to its website, Dawn at The Meadows rehab specializes in patients 18 to 26 years old who are struggling with emotional trauma, addiction or dual diagnosis concerns.
And while a rep for Gomez confirmed the treatment to Radar — “Selena voluntarily spent time at Meadows but not for substance abuse,” a spokesperson revealed — a source close to Gomez has revealed that in the months before her stint in rehab, she had been “partying very hard.”
Indeed, Radar has learned that Gomez, 21, had been leading a life very different from the carefully created squeaky-clean public persona: one troubled by drug and alcohol use.
PHOTOS: Celebs Who Have Been In Rehab
“With fame came a partying lifestyle,” confirmed one insider.
The former Disney princess — who first made her debut appearing as Gianna in Barney & Friends and starred in Wizards of Waverly Place — had been experimenting with marijuana and prescription drugs, including Xanax and Ambien.
Ambien, prescribed as a sleep aid, has become a drug of choice for many in Hollywood because it is similar to drinking a large amount of alcohol where one feels completely relaxed and loses control of their body.
“Her friends and family became increasingly worried that there might be a serious problem with Selena,” said another source.
Heroin Addicts, Coke Fiends & Celebrity Stoners — Hollywood Drug Dealers Tell All!
“Particularly, her parents. The partying was, at times, wild. They wanted to help her — and they very much encouraged her to go to rehab. Others very close to her also urged her to seek professional help.”
“It’s important to remember that Selena had worked in Hollywood non-stop for six years,” another insider told Radar. “She was exhausted. Selena was smart enough to understand that she needed to take control of her life.
“It just got to a point where she needed to get out of Los Angeles, get away from ‘the scene’ and the pressures of Hollywood, to also get away from those who had, admittedly, become a bad influence on her.
“Selena needed to take the opportunity to work on herself. She realized she needed help.”
PHOTOS: Selena Gomez & Justin Bieber Reunite For Her Birthday
As Radar first revealed, Gomez had also been struggling since her breakup with bad-boy ex and self-confessed pot user Justin Bieber.
“Selena came to understand just what a bad influence Justin had been on her life,” said one source. “Their relationship left her broken-hearted.”
“I don’t know whether Justin pushed her to drug use, but amongst their close knit group of friends, smoking was common place,” said another insider.
“Justin and Selena would smoke marijuana together regularly.”
SLIDESHOW: You Better Belieb It! 30 Scandals & Hidden Secrets To Hit Pop Star Justin Bieber
Indeed, in one binge session, Gomez and Bieber together with a bunch of pals “hot-boxed” inside the “Baby” hit-maker’s custom built van on a trip to a theme park, a source revealed.
Hot-boxing is the practice of smoking marijuana in an enclosed space in order to maximize the narcotic effect.
The shocking news of Gomez’s rehabilitation, revealed today for the first time in a joint Radar and STAR magazine investigation, explains why she chose to make the decision to cut off her Australian tour, citing personal reasons.
Gomez had been slated to kick off a 13-concert tour leg on Feb. 1 in Perth, Australia, but issued a statement on Dec. 20 announcing she was canceling it.
PHOTOS: Lil Za Arrested For Cocaine Possession At The Home Of Pop Star Justin Bieber
At the time, the singer said in a statement, “My fans are so important to me to me and I would never want to disappoint them.
“But it has become clear to me and those close to me that after many years of putting my work first, I need to spend some time on myself in order to be the best person I can be.”
So far, it seems to be working: As one source told Radar, “Selena is now happy and very healthy and already getting back to work.”
For more details on how a “hurtful fling” with an A-List star contributed to Gomez’s private battle, pick up the latest issue of STAR magazine for exclusive details — on newsstands now. ||||| Justin Bieber and his father were “extremely abusive” to a flight attendant as their private jet flew from Canada to New Jersey on Friday, forcing her to take refuge in the cockpit, according to an official report obtained exclusively by NBC News.
According to multiple law enforcement sources, the leased, luxurious Gulfstream IV on which the 19-year-old Canadian pop star, his father and an entourage of 10 friends traveled was so full of marijuana smoke that the pilots were forced to wear oxygen masks.
“The captain of the flight stated that he warned the passengers, including Bieber, on several occasions to stop smoking marijuana,” says the official report of the incident. “The captain also stated he needed to request that the passengers stop their harassing behavior toward the flight attendant and after several warnings asked the flight attendant to stay with him near the cockpit to avoid any further abuse.”
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According to multiple sources, the attendant was forced to spend much of the flight near the pilots as the plane travelled from Canada to Teterboro, N.J.
“The flight attendant stated the passengers, including Bieber and his father, Jeremy Bieber,” stated the report, “were extremely abusive verbally and she would not work another flight with them.”
The pilots, despite a pressurized cabin, were forced to wear their oxygen masks during the flight, according to multiple sources, so that they wouldn’t risk inhaling marijuana and failing any subsequent drug test, which would put their licenses at risk.
According to officials, when the plane landed at Teterboro, a suburban airport that caters to the rich and famous and their private aircraft, it was met by DEA and Customs and Border Protection agents and police. There was still marijuana smoke inside the cabin, according to the report.
Officials decided to question Bieber separately from the other passengers, said the report, because “in past examinations, Bieber had become argumentative and abusive when together with his security team.”
When interviewed at Teterboro, Bieber admitted smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol, but stated that he did not have any additional marijuana.
According to federal and regional sources, the troubled star, his father, and his entourage, who were headed to the New York City area to attend the Super Bowl and related parties, first drove toward the U.S.-Canadian border in a motor coach. They turned back and flew from Waterloo, Ont. to Teterboro instead.
Interior of a Gulfstream IVSP N728LB. Meridian Air Charter
After Bieber’s flight landed Friday, drug-sniffing dogs from Customs and Border Protection and the New York/New Jersey Port Authority Police Department sat down as they walked around the plane, meaning the dogs were alerting handlers to the possible presence of drugs. Authorities then boarded the jet, which multiple sources said reeked of marijuana. However, no unsmoked weed was found during the search.
The two drug dogs also alerted handlers to the possible presence of drugs in three pieces of luggage. “One bag was labeled as belonging to Justin Bieber, one was listed as belonging to his personal assistant … and one [was] labeled as belonging to his personal trainer.”
The trainer and the assistant “disavowed knowledge of the contents of the bags and stated they were actually Bieber’s bags, but they were forced to place their names on the bags,” according to the report. No “contraband” was found, however.
No members of the flight crew were willing to file charges against their passengers, so Bieber, his father and his friends were allowed to go on their way.
After the Bieber entourage left, however, two sources said that authorities performed another search of the plane and found empty bags that appeared to have once contained marijuana. None of the items could be linked to Bieber, his father, or their guests.
Neither Drug Enforcement Administration officials nor Customs and Border Protection officials would comment to NBC News. The aviation company that flew the Bieber entourage to New Jersey, Meridian Air Charter, also declined comment.
The incident was the third encounter with law enforcement in recent weeks for Bieber. In late January, he was arrested for alleged drunk driving in Miami after an alleged drag race, and then arrested in Toronto for an alleged assault on a limo driver that occurred in late December.
Bieber had planned to spend Super Bowl weekend at New York City’s Four Seasons hotel, said the report, and depart Monday.
“Bieber … stated he would be watching the game from a private suite in METLIFE stadium, but he was unsure who owned the box he would be staying in. He stated that his assistant would probably know.”
On Sunday, the 19-year-old was shunned at the door of the New York City club 1 Oak and turned away from at least four Super Bowl parties, according to the New York Daily News' Confidential column.
On Tuesday, Bieber settled a Los Angeles lawsuit with his former bodyguard, who accused the pop star of assaulting him in 2012. ||||| Who? Ben Affleck Where? Promises, California When? 2001 Why? Alcoholism After the actor checked himself into rehab in 2001, his publicist said: "Ben is a self-aware and smart man who has decided that a fuller life awaits him without alcohol. He has chosen to seek out professional assistance and is committed to traveling a healthier road with the support of his family, friends and fans."
Who? Philip Seymour Hoffman Where? Undisclosed When? May 2013 Why? Substance abuse After a ten day stint in rehab, the actor told TMZ: "It started slowly with prescription pills, and recently escalated to snorting heroin."
Who? Eva Mendes Where? Cirque Lounge, Utah When? 2008 Why? Anxiety and stress Eva denied rumours that she entered rehab to treat cocaine use. Her rep said that the actress had "made a positive decision to take some much-needed time off to proactively attend to some personal issues that, while not critical, she felt deserved some outside professional support."
Who? Matthew Perry Where? Undisclosed When? 1997, 2001 and 2011 Why? Prescription pills and alcohol After two previous spells in rehab, the former 'Friends' star returned again in 2011 as a proactive measure. He said at the time: "I'm making plans to go away for a month to focus on my sobriety and to continue my life in recovery. Please enjoy making fun of me on the World Wide Web.'
Who? Kelly Osbourne Where? Undisclosed When? On seven different occasions Why? Painkillers Kelly says she finally faced her demons after realising nobody wanted to work with her. “What changed for me was looking around and seeing that nobody liked me or wanted to work with me,” she told Cosmopolitan magazine in 2013.
Who? Zac Efron Where? Undisclosed When? 2013 Why? Cocaine addiction After reports surfaced that the former 'High School Musical' star had completed two stints in rehab, Zac took to Instagram to thank fans for their support, writing: "Hey guys! Just returned from an incredible trip to Peru with my dad and wanted to thank you all for your support these past few weeks...means the world to me. Love you guys! - Z."
Who? LeAnn Rimes Where? Undisclosed When? August 2012 Why? Anxiety and stress The American singer checked into rehab one day after her 30th birthday, saying at the time: "This is just a time for me to emotionally check out for a second and take care of myself and come back in 30 days as the best 30-year-old woman I can be.
Who? Chris Klein Where? Cirque Lodge, Utah When? 2010 Why?Alcohol The 'American Pie' star checked into rehab for a 30-day alcohol treatment program following an arrest for drink driving - his second in just over five years. He later admitted if he hadn't got sober, 'I would have died'.
Who? Britney Spears Where? Promises, California When? 2007 (amongst other times) Why? Undisclosed Britney has never revealed the reason behind her stints in rehab, which led to her losing custody of her two sons as well as being placed under the conservatorship of her father.
Who? Lindsay Lohan Where? Various When? 2007 (three times), 2010 (twice), 2013 Why? Alcohol and drugs After her most recent stay in rehab, Lindsay Lohan told Oprah Winfrey: “I feel whole again. And I have such a desire to want to keep this feeling and stay this way. And I’m willing to do whatever it takes…And I really want to be on set, like, that feeds me.”
In April 2011, the "Chicago" actress checked into rehab to treat bipolar disorder.
Demi Moore checked into rehab in spring 2012 after a disastrous fallout from ex-husband Ashton Kutcher and hospitalization after allegedly inhaling nitrous oxide, or whip-its.
"Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Kim Richards' battle with alcohol has been well-documented on the show. In December 2012, she checked into rehab again.
After years of struggling with cocaine and heroin addiction and serving jail time, the actor is clean and sober.
It came as little surprise to viewers of MTV's "The Jersey Shore" that star partier Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino checked into rehab in March 2012. The reality star said on his Facebook page that he was seeking treatment for medication used to treat exhaustion.
The "X Factor" judge has talked openly about going in and out of rehab when she was in her teens for eating disorders and mental health issues. "Treatment was so difficult at first, I remember walking around saying 'I'm in prison!' They needed to have strict rules for me to understand how sick I was," she said.
The gruff Scottish actor revealed in a 2012 article with "Men's Journal" that he hadn't touched a drink in 15 years. "I think, on a basic level, I have a pretty addictive personality. Both good and bad," he said.
In February 2011 Charlie Sheen claimed he was clean of drugs and alcohol, but high on himself. The actor has publicly struggled with addiction for years, but many doubt his claims of sobriety.
Drew was famously an addict as a child. By her own admission she said she had her first drink at 9, began smoking marijuana at 10 and began using cocaine at 12. By age 13 she entered rehab and has maintained her sobriety since.
The comedian overcame a cocaine addiction, but headed back to rehab after 20 years of sobriety in 2006 to address his issues with alcohol. ||||| Selena Gomez Blames Her Rehab Stint On Justin Bieber
Selena Gomez -- Blames Her Rehab Stint On Justin Bieber
Exclusive Details
went to rehab last month ... and sources connected with the singer say she blamesfor her predicament.We've learned Gomez went to The Meadows in Arizona for 2 weeks of treatment.Sources say Selena went for a combination of problems, including alcohol, pot and prescription Ambien. She's also addicted to Justin Bieber.We're told Selena's decision was largely based on "that crazy boy" -- aka Bieber. Selena blames a lot of her problems on the excesses she was exposed to by being around Bieber and his buddies.Sources close to Gomez tell us ... people in Selena's camp went ballistic when they found out she was hanging out again with Justin ... and saw photos of her joyriding with him on Segways. We're told that was the final straw -- she checked into rehab immediately after that.The 2-week treatment was part of a program called DAWN at The Meadows ... specifically designed for people between 18 and 26. DAWN specializes in substance dependence, trauma, family dynamics, mental health and relapse prevention.We're told Selena is not getting outpatient help now nor is she in therapy. |||||
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– Justin Bieber, apparently determined to keep spawning ridiculous headlines, leased a private jet that was searched Friday—and now NBC News has the crazy story behind the incident. Bieber and his entourage, including his father, were flying from Canada to New Jersey for the Super Bowl—and smoking so much pot on the plane that pilots had to wear oxygen masks. As if that wasn't classy enough, a flight attendant also says Bieber and his dad harassed her and were "extremely [verbally] abusive," according to an official report. The captain asked Bieber multiple times to stop smoking and stop harassing the flight attendant, to no avail. The flight attendant eventually fled to the cockpit and stayed there for much of the flight, sources say. DEA agents, Customs agents, and police met the plane in New Jersey, and Bieber admitted to smoking pot and drinking alcohol, but though the plane still reeked of marijuana, no actual drugs were found and the group was allowed to leave. In other "not great for Bieber" news, TMZ reports that Selena Gomez secretly went to rehab for two weeks last month—and sources say she blames her problems (which apparently include alcohol, marijuana, and Ambien) on spending so much time with Bieber and his entourage. But Gomez's rep tells Radar the rehab stint was not for substance abuse; the Huffington Post reports that it was for "emotional issues."
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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. ||||| We're guessing Justin Bieber has a Google alert set up for his name.
The 19-year-old singer went into full meltdown mode on Wednesday, slamming "fake stories" that are used to sell papers. The pop star has had a rough couple days, what with turning 19 and having the "worst birthday," being told to put his "f**king shirt on" by Olivia Wilde and getting flak for showing up late at a London gig.
It's apparently too much for the Biebs to handle, as he turned to Twitter, unleashing a 13-tweet rant:
rumors rumors and more rumors. nothing more nothing less. might talk about them 1 day. rt now im just gonna be positive. cant bring me down. im focused on the good things in life. im blessed and not forgetting it. im giving back every day for it. cant phase me. fake stories to sell papers i guess are part of the job. but im a good person. i know that. u cant tell me different. we know the truth as long as my family, friends, and fans r with me u can say whatever. we are all equal in God's eyes & we have a responsibility to each other.
Bieber then began addressing specific reports, writing:
So make up stories about fake fines and make no mention of the positive....or say when i came out of my show with my shirt off because after performing for 2 hours i might be sweaty i was going into a club (really?) or any girl i stand next to is my girl or that i dont care, or that i dont feel, or that a 19 year old going to a club in europe is wild...
He continued his rant, writing that he understands that being judged by others is part of his job as a pop star, but he'd like everyone to judge him on the facts and on his music:
and be careful of the judgement u pass but know this...im only judged by one power, and i serve him. so yeah I will continue being me. i will continue to serve, to perform, to care, to love, to smile, to dance, to play, to sing...and u are welcome to join, because i carry no hate. We got to much love for that. Im about the music.
Bieber concluded his mini Twitter breakdown by writing, "Gonna enjoy the day and keep smiling. so should all of u. Much love. i see u #beliebers = i love u. now back to this music."
Also on HuffPost: ||||| Young girls might be swooning over a shirtless Justin Bieber, but apparently 20-somethings aren't as hot and bothered. (Thank goodness).
Actress Olivia Wilde, 28, took to Twitter to call out birthday boy Bieber for parading his bare chest around London on March 1, tweeting:
Bieber, put your fucking shirt on. (unless you lost all your shirts in a fire in which case my condolences and please purchase a new shirt.) — olivia wilde (@oliviawilde) March 2, 2013
Come on, isn't that what we were all thinking anyway?
Of course, Wilde got some backlash from Beliebers, who tweeted her messages like:
@oliviawilde r u a lesbian or r u too old — batman ∞ (@ShakeitBieber) March 3, 2013
Bieber has had his fair share of drama over the last few weeks, but this weekend proved to be one of his toughest. The singer, who turned 19 on Friday, tweeted that he had the "worst birthday" after club security cut short his party in London. Biebs was criticized for bringing underage pals, including Jaden Smith, 14, and new flame Ella-Paige Roberts Clarke, 17, to a nightclub, which he says wasn't the case.
Sometimes u just wanna vent and not be quiet. I love my fans though. Just gonna chill with friends. London shows this week — Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) March 4, 2013
Also on HuffPost: ||||| You think Justin Bieber has been a tad bit wild lately?
Well, it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop anytime soon!
The Biebs might seem like he's reacting to his devastating teenage heartbreak due to his wrecked romance with Selena Gomez, but this oddball behavior might have been in him all along.
According to sources, the only reason we haven’t seen the shirtless, Twitter complaining, late concert giving, sad birthday boy side before is because Selenita kept that shizz in check!
A source revealed his team needed Selena to make the magic that is Justin happen:
“They’d get her to convince him to do things he needed to do. He’d listen to her.”
The power of women!
We just hope he can keep it together on his own because he’s got a lot of little Beliebers counting on him.
If not, it might be time to start shopping for a Selena replacement!
Hurry, someone call Disney!
[Image via WENN.]
Tags: break up, disney, justin bieber, out of control, party, partying, relationship, selena gomez, twitter, wild ||||| Getty (4)
Back when Justin Bieber first started wearing drop-crotch trousers in November, we did our best to convince him to ditch the unflattering trend with this open letter.
But we should have realized the quickest way to get a teenage boy to do something is to tell him not to do it. That’s why it doesn’t surprise us that the Biebs has been all about this look lately, wearing the questionable style nonstop over the past two weeks.
He’s strutted around in them while shopping, making appearances, out at a club — and it even appears that a pair of tight-at-the-calves, loose-at-the-crotch white pants are part of the singer’s official tour uniform. (He’s worn them to all his concerts in the U.K. so far.)
And while Bieber is loyal to this one silhouette, he’s not picky about the color, print or style, sporting a blue canvas pair one day, a purple cheetah pair the next, then continuing the streak with a leather design he’s clearly quite taken with.
The more he wears the pants, the more confused we become. Bieber can’t possibly like the way the pants look, right? So he must be putting them on for some other reason. Here are some explanations we came up with:
•One of the last outfits Selena Gomez saw him in before the two split included a pair of these perplexing pants. This is his way of reminding her that despite all the stories, he’s still the same guy she used to be in love with.
•Being the fashion-forward dude that he is, he’s noticed that a skinnier leg is en vogue with men, but the allover supertight style isn’t compatible with his dance moves. So he had to find a type of pant that combined flexibility with fashion. Et voilá: the drop-crotch pant.
•He’s trying to become a spokesperson for the Association of People With Long Torsos and Short Legs.
Tell us: What do you think of Justin Bieber’s drop-crotch pants? Can you think of any other reasons why he might be wearing them?
–Zoë Ruderman
PHOTOS: VOTE ON MORE CONTROVERSIAL STAR STYLES HERE! ||||| Justin Bieber's current tour may be remembered for the debacle at London's O2, where weeping fans and furious parents endured a two-hour wait for his eventual appearance, but the defining image of his UK visit appeared in the press last week. In a carpark outside a venue, a shirtless Bieber poses on a Segway, the vehicle of choice for only the most discerning pop pranny. He's wearing driving gloves, of course; one is raised so that he can show two fingers to the photographer. More tellingly, behind him, ignored by a star preoccupied with having his photograph taken and kept at a safe distance by steel security gates, a pack of fans struggles to make contact. But while a dismissive attitude to fans is one thing, is there more to Bieber's troubles?
1. The drugs
After Bieber was photographed at a Lil Twist soiree holding what looked like a spliff, he declared that he was "trying to be better". He certainly seems to have got better, if only at making sure he is not photographed with things that look like drugs.
everyday growing and learning. trying to be better. u get knocked down, u get up. — Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) January 5, 2013
2. The cheese
On last year's otherwise excellent single Boyfriend, Bieber advocated the use of fondue. In the future we will all know that the warning signs were there, yet we did nothing.
Reading this on mobile? Click here to view the video
3. The acoustic album
Bieber's quest for the approval of his desired peer group flits between the ridiculous and the hopelessly endearing, but his current project, an acoustic collection designed to show that he is a real artist, is particularly noteworthy. As keen pop-watchers will be well aware, this is a reliable signifier of Imminent Oblivion.
Reading this on mobile? Click here to view the video
4. The bad birthday
"Big night ahead," Justin tweeted over the weekend, on the evening of his birthday. All went quiet for a few hours, leaving 35 million Twitter followers to imagine the high-spirited celebration LOLs being executed by Bieber and friends. With exquisite comic timing, Bieber's next tweet, the following morning, was a simple two-word message: "Worst birthday". It turned out that some of Bieber's friends had been turned away from the club he wanted to visit for being underage. Heartbreaking.
Worst birthday — Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) March 2, 2013
5. And he was like tardy, tardy, tardy oh
Nobody who has subjected themselves to the endless stream of portentous selfies on Bieber's Instagram account will be remotely surprised that the formidably self-obsessed teen didn't bother apologising to fans until the next day, when a PR disaster was threatening to affect his career, and even then only with phrases such as "I'm not OK with things being exaggerated" thrown into his statement.
i never have any intent to upset or let anyone down. and Im not okay with things being exaggerated. once again sorry for anyone upset. — Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) March 5, 2013
Despite all this, let's not get ahead of ourselves. "Weed is not necessarily a problem," one fan recently noted. "He should just enjoy his life; nothing's wrong, he's not doing anything bad or anything." Admittedly the fan in question was Mike Tyson, but if a stand-up guy like Mike reckons there's nothing wrong, there's nothing wrong, right? Right! ||||| Selena Gomez doesn’t plan on getting back together with Justin Bieber,and a close pal exclusively tells RadarOnline.com the former Disney star is looking to date an older man this go around after splitting with “that toxic toddler.”
After dating on and off for nearly two years the couple finally split for good just before New Year’s Eve while vacationing in Mexico together, and Justin’s immature behavior was to blame.
PHOTOS: Selena Gomez Wears Sexy Suit To Berlin Premiere
“Selena is looking to date an older man this time,” a pal of the 20-year-old singer and Spring Breakers actress exclusively told Radar.
“She finally realized how toxic it was to date a toddler like Justin.”
According to the friend, Selena has been focused sharply on her career and isn’t worrying so much about matters of the heart.
PHOTOS: Selena Gomez In Her Bikini
“Selena is doing really well and feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders now that Justin is out of the picture,” the source said.
“She finds Justin to be embarrassing since their breakup. He’s turned into exactly the kind of person she’d never want to be with.”
PHOTOS: Selena Gomez Strips Down Into A Striped Bikini
As RadarOnline.com exclusively reported last month, the Canadian pop star has been on a dangerous downward spiral since December with one source saying his reputation has been “drastically tarnished in a really short time span simply because of the company he’s keeping.”
Aside from recently being booed by British fans for arriving two hours late to his concert, a paparazzo was hit and killed while following Justin’s white Ferrari (driven by pal Lil Twist), photos leaked online of Justin smoking what appeared to be marijuana while surrounded by a group of friends, he embarked on a steamy sex romp with a nursing student named Milyn “Mimi” Jensen according to Star magazine, and his Ferrari was once again pulled over by police, twice in two days — both times with his pal Lil Za at the wheel without a valid driver’s license — and a photo of Justin allegedly groping a fan’s breast was published.
PHOTOS: Selena Gomez – Sexy & Single At Magazine Cover Party
“For now Selena isn’t concerned one bit with Justin’s boyish antics. It’s the last thing she cares about,” the pal said.
“Her sights are set on a much more mature man who won’t embarrass her or cause childish fights for no reason.” ||||| Even famous people are capable of having a bad day.
Or, in the case of Justin Bieber, a very, very bad week.
The uber-famous star has been dealing with criticisms, disappointed fans and more ever since his 19th birthday party went horribly wrong last Friday in London. In fact, it’s already gone down as the worst trip Across the Pond since that time Mitt Romney came to town and everyone got upset.
So what the heck happened to poor ol’ Biebs? And, more importantly, when is the bleeding going to stop?
Check out the timeline of events, below, then share your condolences in the comments.
It all started with a tweet.
And everyone thought it was about Lil Twist getting pulled over in Bieber’s car.
But then reports circulated that his party at London’s Cirque du Soir ended in five minutes.
And then his fans got all sad and defensive, thinking the paparazzi was to blame again.
And then Cirque du Soir got all mad, alleging that Bieber tried to get underage people like Jaden Smith, 14, into the club.
And then Bieber got mad. Really mad.
And then Jaden went from Bieber to Kylie Jenner, because, why not?
And his fans went from sad and defensive to mad and impatient, because Bieber showed up late to his concert.
And then Bieber got kind of sad.
And now we’re kind of sad, too.
Cheer up, Biebs! There’s nowhere to go but up.
We still love you Biebs. Yours, Celebuzz. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?
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– Is Justin Bieber losing it? The 19-year-old went on an epic, 13-tweet rant yesterday, slamming the "rumors rumors and more rumors" and the "fake stories" made up about him by the media, the Huffington Post reports. The Twitter meltdown (click to read it in full) came at the end of a very bad few days for Bieber: Not only was he booed for showing up late to a concert, he also recently whined about having the "worst birthday" and was advised to "put your [bleeping] shirt on" by Olivia Wilde, after he was pictured shirtless in London. (He's also been pictured wearing a gas mask out and about in London.) Things have gotten so bad that Perez Hilton is reporting Selena Gomez was the only thing keeping Bieber in check; Radar quotes a Gomez pal as calling him a "toxic toddler"; People recently ran the headline, "We Need to Talk About Justin Bieber's Pants"; and the Guardian offers up five signs that the pop star "could be losing it." Among them: He was recently photographed holding what appeared to be a joint; he's putting out an acoustic album ("a reliable signifier of imminent Oblivion," writes Peter Robinson); and, as evidenced by a line from his "Boyfriend" single, he likes fondue.
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Macy's will cut more than 10,000 jobs and close nearly 70 stores after a lackluster holiday shopping season, while Kohl's warned of lower profit targets. WSJ's Suzanne Kapner discusses how department stores continue to lose ground to online shopping. Photo: AP
Macy’s Inc. said it will slash more than 10,000 jobs and detailed plans to close dozens of stores after another holiday season of weak sales, providing more evidence that department stores have lost their once-central place in American retailing.
Like its rival, Kohl’s Corp., which also warned Wednesday of lackluster holiday results, Macy’s hasn’t been able to solve consumers’ shift to online shopping. Macy’s will close stores from San Diego to Bangor, Maine, and use the savings to boost its efforts to capture more e-commerce... ||||| A sign marks the Macy's store in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., May 10, 2016. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
U.S. department store operators Macy's Inc (M.N) and Kohl's Corp (KSS.N) both cut their profit forecasts for 2016 on Wednesday, pointing to weak sales in the last months of the year and bringing shares in the entire retail sector down after hours.
Shares of Macy's fell 9 percent to $32.63 in extended trading. Kohl's Corp (KSS.N) shares fell 14.8 percent to $44.22. Other retailers were also down sharply in after-hours trading, with J.C. Penney Co Inc (JCP.N) off 4.4 percent and Nordstrom Inc (JWN.N) tumbling 6 percent.
Kohl's cut its adjusted profit forecast for the fiscal year ending Jan. 30 to $3.60-$3.65 per share from its previous forecast of $3.80-$4.00 per share.
"Sales were volatile throughout the holiday season. Strong sales on Black Friday and during the week before Christmas were offset by softness in early November and December," Kohl's Chief Executive Kevin Mansell said in a statement.
Department stores have been struggling in the face of competition from online and discount rivals. The months of November and December traditionally have stronger sales because of holiday shopping around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Macy's cut its adjusted profit forecast for the year ending Jan. 30 to $2.95-$3.10 per share from $3.15-$3.40 per share that it previously expected.
Macy's said comparable sales on an owned plus licensed basis fell 2.1 percent in November and December. On an owned basis, comparable sales fell 2.7 percent during the period.
Kohl's also reflected weak holiday performance as its comparable sales fell 2.1 percent during the November-December period, while its total sales slid 2.7 percent.
Macy's said the shutdown of 68 stores, a part of the 100-store closures the company had announced in August last year, may result in the layoff of about 3,900 associates.
(Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru; Editing by Jo Winterbottom and Matthew Lewis) ||||| Macy's said Wednesday it's shutting down 68 stores and cutting more than 10,000 jobs.
The announcement was issued alongside an unfavorable earnings report, showing comparable store sales dipped 2.1% last quarter. The news caused its stock to plunge nearly 10% during after-hours trading Wednesday.
Macy's (M) said it expects to layoff about 3,900 workers as a result of the upcoming store closures, and another 6,200 jobs will be cut as the company works to streamline its management team, according to a press release.
A few stores have already been shuttered, but 63 will close down between now and mid-2017, leaving about 660 U.S. stores left open. The closings are among the 100 stores Macy's said last August that it intends to shutter.
The expected savings from these cuts will be invested in the company's digital business as well as marketing efforts including Bluemercury, Macy's Backstage and China, Macy's said.
Mark Cohen, a professor at Columbia Business School, said it's not the last time Macy's will make this type of announcement.
Related: JCPenney, Kohl's, Macy's and Sears sued over misleading prices
"It's a very hard day for the folks involved obviously, but I would also say it's inevitable," Cohen said. "And there's definitely more to come."
He said that Macy's -- and its competitors in the brick-and-mortar retail industry -- have been "unwilling to fully acknowledge the reality of their business performance," and he expects job cuts and store closures to be an ongoing trend in 2017.
An earnings report posted by Kohls (KSS) Wednesday followed the trend. The company posted a disappointing holiday sales season and lowered its earnings guidance for the 2016 fiscal year. Its stock dipped more than 7% during extended trading hours. |||||Summary:
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– These weren't happy holidays for Macy's. CNN reports the department store announced plans Wednesday to close 68 stores and get rid of more than 10,000 jobs. November and December sales at comparable Macy's locations declined 2.1% between 2015 and 2016, according to the Wall Street Journal. Macy's chief executive says the closures will target stores that are "unproductive or are no longer robust shopping destinations." About 3,900 workers will be laid off when the stores are closed; another 6,200 jobs will be cut. Reuters reports Macy's will save $550 million this year through the store closures. It plans to invest $250 million of that into expanding and improving its digital operations and other areas. "It's a very hard day for the folks involved obviously, but I would also say it's inevitable," Columbia Business School professor Mark Cohen tells CNN. "And there's definitely more to come." Department stores seem uniquely incapable of capitalizing on the increase in sales seen by many other types of US retailers this year, whether due to the growing popularity of online shopping, the opening of brand-specific stores, or a myriad other reasons. Macy's, Kohl's, JC Penney, and Nordstrom all saw their stocks decline after holiday sales numbers were reported. And Macy's is staring at the likelihood of its eighth quarter of declining sales in a row.
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With rape allegations against Bill Cosby mounting, supermodel Janice Dickinson tells ET in a new interview that the comedian sexually assaulted her in 1982.
Dickinson, now 59, says Cosby, now 77, reached out to her during a trip to Bali, following her stint in rehab. Dickinson claims Cosby had her travel to Lake Tahoe, because he was performing there and wanted to meet with her about the possibility of a job offer, as well as help her with a singing career.
Dickinson says they had dinner in Lake Tahoe, and claims that he gave her a glass of red wine and a pill, which she asked for because she was menstruating and had stomach pains.
VIDEO: Alleged Bill Cosby Rape Victim Joan Tarshis Speaks to ET
And that's when she tells ET that things took a disturbing turn.
"The next morning I woke up, and I wasn't wearing my pajamas, and I remember before I passed out that I had been sexually assaulted by this man," she tells ET. "... Before I woke up in the morning, the last thing I remember was Bill Cosby in a patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me. And I remember a lot of pain. The next morning I remember waking up with my pajamas off and there was semen in between my legs."
Dickinson also says she tried to write about the assault in her 2002 autobiography No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel, but claims that when she submitted a draft with her full story to HarperCollins, Cosby and his lawyers pressured her and the publisher to remove the details.
"I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do, and it happened to me, and this is the true story," she says about coming out with her story now. "I believe all the other women."
Dickinson says that keeping the alleged sexual assault a secret for 32 years drove her to a life of hurting herself.
"Stuffing feelings of rape and my unresolved issues with this incident has drove me into a life of trying to hurt myself because I didn't have counsel and I was afraid," she says. "I was afraid of the consequences. I was afraid of being labeled a whore or a slut and trying to sleep my way to the top of a career that never took place."
But now Dickinson, who says she never confronted Cosby after the alleged incident, doesn't mince words when it comes to what she would say to him now.
"How dare you," she says. "Go f*ck yourself. How dare you take advantage of me. And I hope you rot."
Dickinson is the third woman to come forward with a sexual assault accusation against Cosby, after a renewed interest in the allegations began when comedian Hannibal Buress called Cosby a "rapist" during an October comedy show in Philadelphia.
On Monday, ET spoke to former publicist Joan Tarshis who says that the legendary comedian assaulted her on two occasions in 1969. She also echoed Dickinson's statements about why she stayed silent for so long.
"I want to talk about this now and I want to really support the other women who have gone through this," she told ET. "Now with people coming out..., it's being handled differently."
Tarshis is referring to another of Cosby's accusers, Barbara Bowman, who wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Post earlier this month detailing the alleged assault she says she fell victim to in 1985 when she was a 17-year-old aspiring actress.
"In one case, I blacked out after having dinner and one glass of wine at his New York City brownstone, where he had offered to mentor me and discuss the entertainment industry," she wrote. "When I came to, I was in my panties and a man's t-shirt, and Cosby was looming over me. I’m certain now that he drugged and raped me. But as a teenager, I tried to convince myself I had imagined it."
Bowman said that she was one of the alleged victims asked to testify when a woman named Andrea Constand filed a suit against Cosby in 2004. The case was eventually settled out of court.
VIDEO: Bill Cosby's Joke About Drugging Women in 1969 Resurfaces
Cosby's lawyer, Marty Singer, issued this statement on Tuesday following Janice's accusations:
"Janice Dickinson's story accusing Bill Cosby of rape is a lie. There is a glaring contradiction between what she is claiming now for the first time and what she wrote in her own book and what she told the media back in 2002. Ms. Dickinson did an interview with the New York Observer in September 2002 entitled "Interview With a Vamp" completely contradicting her new story about Mr. Cosby. That interview a dozen years ago said "she didn’t want to go to bed with him and he blew her off." Her publisher Harper Collins can confirm that no attorney representing Mr. Cosby tried to kill the alleged rape story (since there was no such story) or tried to prevent her from saying whatever she wanted about Bill Cosby in her book. The only story she gave 12 years ago to the media and in her autobiography was that she refused to sleep with Mr. Cosby and he blew her off. Documentary proof and Ms. Dickinson's own words show that her new story about something she now claims happened back in 1982 is a fabricated lie." ||||| Bloomberg News
Comedian Bill Cosby performs at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino on Sept. 26, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Cosby has canceled appearances since allegations resurfaced that he drugged and raped women more than a decade ago. Photographer: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Netflix Inc. (NFLX:US) is sticking with plans to release a Bill Cosby special, according to people with knowledge of the situation, following new rape allegations against the comedian and actor.
Netflix executives have debated how to proceed with “Bill Cosby 77,” a stand-up performance by the 77-year-old comedian, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a programming decision. The video is scheduled to go live Nov. 28 on Netflix, the world’s largest subscription streaming service, the day after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. An NBC sitcom with Cosby is still in development, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Cosby, who broke racial barriers with TV’s “I Spy” in the 1960s and “The Bill Cosby Show” in the 1980s, has canceled appearances since allegations resurfaced that he drugged and raped women more than a decade ago. The latest to come forward is Hollywood publicist Joan Tarshis, who wrote on Nov. 16 about an alleged 1969 incident.
Comedian Hannibal Buress last month called Cosby a rapist onstage, and Barbara Bowman published a Washington Post op-ed last week reiterating past accusations Cosby raped her when she was a 17-year-old aspiring actress.
“Over the last several weeks, decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr. Cosby have resurfaced,” his lawyer, John P. Schmitt, said in a Nov. 16 statement. “The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true. Mr. Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment.”
A new statement was posted yesterday to clarify that the lawyer’s comments didn’t refer to another Cosby accuser, Andrea Constand, whose 2005 civil lawsuit against Cosby was settled. She claimed to have located at least 10 other alleged victims of sexual assault by Cosby, who has never faced criminal charges. In a court filing at the time, Constand named one other witness to prior alleged sexual assaults, and nine so-called Jane Does, whose names were confidential.
New Statement
“The statement released by Mr. Cosby’s attorney over the weekend was not intended to refer in any way to Andrea Constand,” said the joint statement, from Cosby and Constand’s lawyers. “As previously reported, differences between Mr. Cosby and Ms. Constand were resolved to the mutual satisfaction of Mr. Cosby and Ms. Constand years ago. Neither Mr. Cosby nor Ms. Constand intends to comment further on the matter.”
David Brokaw, a spokesman for Cosby, declined further comment to Bloomberg News.
Cosby declined to comment when asked about the allegations in an interview with National Public Radio that aired on Nov. 15. He canceled a guest appearance on CBS Corp. (CBS:US)’s “Late Show with David Letterman,” and a guest spot on “The Queen Latifah Show” was postponed at the comedian’s request, NBC News reported.
NBC Sitcom
Tarshis, a publicist and journalist, went public on Nov. 16, offering her account in a post on the entertainment blog Hollywood Elsewhere. In 1969, Tarshis alleged, Cosby befriended and then drugged and raped her.
Subscribers to Los Gatos, California-based Netflix are accustomed to controversial topics, a factor in the company’s deliberations about how to handle the Cosby allegations, said one of the people. Executives are monitoring public reaction, the person said.
NBC has made no change to its plans to develop a sitcom starring Cosby, said the person with knowledge of the situation. The show still lacks a script, the person said. Plans for the NBC show were reported by Bloomberg and others in January.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lucas Shaw in Los Angeles at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at [email protected] Rob Golum |||||Summary:
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– Former supermodel Janice Dickinson has a message for Bill Cosby: "Go f--k yourself. How dare you take advantage of me. And I hope you rot." The America's Next Top Model judge has become the third woman in the last month to accuse Cosby of sexually assaulting her. She tells Entertainment Tonight that when she met Cosby in 1982 to discuss a job offer, things went wrong after he gave her a glass of wine and a pill. "I remember before I passed out that I had been sexually assaulted by this man," she says. "The next morning I remember waking up with my pajamas off and there was semen in between my legs." Dickinson says keeping the alleged attack a secret for 32 years has been highly damaging to herself, and she is speaking out now "because it's the right thing to do, and it happened to me, and this is the true story. I believe all the other women." She says she tried to write about the incident in her 2002 autobiography, but Cosby's lawyers managed to hush it up. Another accuser came forward on Monday. The 77-year-old star—whose stand-up routine once included a bit about drugging women's drinks—has refused to comment on the accusations. Despite the snowballing allegations, NBC is still planning to develop a new Cosby sitcom, insiders tell Bloomberg, but Netflix announced last night that it has decided to shelve a Cosby special it had planned to air the day after Thanksgiving, Deadline reports.
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ROME (AP) — A huge boulder unleashed by a landslide in northern Italy narrowly missed a farmhouse, destroyed a barn and came to a stop in vineyards.
In this photo provided by Tareom.com Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, and taken on Jan. 23, 2014, a huge boulder is seen after it stopped next to a farm house, while a second giant boulder, which detached during... (Associated Press)
In this photo provided by Tareom.com Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, and taken on Jan. 23, 2014, a huge boulder is seen after it stopped next to a farm house, while a second giant boulder, which detached during... (Associated Press)
In this photo provided by Tareom.com Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, and taken on Jan. 23, 2014, a huge boulder is seen after it missed a farm house by less than a meter, destroying the barn, and stopped in... (Associated Press)
In this photo provided by Tareom.com Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, and taken on Jan. 23, 2014, a huge boulder is seen after it missed a farm house by less than a meter, destroying the barn, and stopped in... (Associated Press)
In this photo provided by Tareom.com Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, and taken on Jan. 23, 2014, a huge boulder is seen after it missed a farm house by less than a meter, destroying the barn, and stopped in... (Associated Press)
In this photo provided by Tareom.com Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, and taken on Jan. 23, 2014, a huge boulder is seen after it stopped next to a farm house, while a second giant boulder, which detached during... (Associated Press)
A second boulder stopped just feet (about a meter) behind the traditional stone farmhouse in the rocky region of Alto-Adige.
The surreal sight was captured in a series of dramatic photographs. Nobody was injured in the tumble from mountains overlooking the village of Ronchi di Termeno. Some other boulders from the Jan. 21 landslide blocked roads. ||||| A 300-year-old Italian farm owned by an order of the Catholic Church is in ruins after a giant boulder dislodged in a rockfall rolled through the property causing millions of euros of damage.
Approximately 4000 cubic metres of rock was dislodged from a cliff face and crashed through a barn and vineyards in Tramin in northern Italy on 21 January.
After bulldozing straight through the barn, one huge boulder came to a rest just yards from another giant rock that had been dislodged in a previous rockslide.
In remarkable drone footage that shows the aftermath of the trail of destruction, another boulder is shown to have stopped next to the main house, which is owned by the Servite Order of the Catholic Church.
Speaking to South Tirol News, the manager of the estate, Baron Philipp von Hohenbühel, said the rockfall had caused millions of euros of damage.
Although no one was hurt, the area has now been evacuated as geologists fear there may be a chance of further rock falls. |||||
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– Some 141,000 cubic feet of rock tumbled from the face of an Italian cliff this month, sending a boulder tearing through a 300-year-old farm. The rock rolled through a barn in the Alto-Adige region, resulting in millions of dollars' worth of damage, says the manager of the site, which is owned by a Catholic order. No one was hurt, but experts fear another disaster, so the area has been evacuated, the Independent reports. The rock just missed a farmhouse and ended up in a vineyard, the AP reports, noting that another boulder stopped a few feet from the farmhouse. Other rocks from the same Jan. 21 rockfall blocked roads.
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– Today's global elite are "answering to constituents who grow more dissatisfied ... and information-rich," observes Ian Bremmer at the Huffington Post—and as they gather at Davos, they appear concerned about their "increasing vulnerability." That's a very good thing, notes David Frum: "Over the past decade and a half, we've seen one horrendous economic decision after another made not by voters in democracies, but by people who owed their power to their claims of superior knowledge," he writes at CNN. But since they're not elected leaders, these people aren't facing any consequences—"even though they can (and often do) exercise more power than any elected official." Those behind the euro are still running the European Central Bank, and bankers who fueled our financial mess exited with cushy severance packages. But if they're finally feeling "vulnerable," these leaders might take steps toward competence and accountability. "It's probably too much to expect the Davos gathering to feel any real remorse. But if they at least feel fear, that's a promising start on the way to reform," Frum writes. Click through for the full piece.
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It's that time of the year again, as 2,600 politicians, thought leaders, executives, and media elites make their way to a mountain in Switzerland. What compels them to make the trek? As usual, the summit--and the jet-fueled pilgrimage to attend--gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'It's not where you are; it's who you're with." A lot of excitement as everyone congregates. For my first post, I'll talk through what--and who--to expect.
Firstly, I'd just like to say how thrilled I am to be the Huffington Post's 'man on the ground' here in Davos. I'll be regularly updating this blog to give you a front row seat as events unfold--and, as always, a dose of my characteristically cranky global political outlook.
What to Expect
The World Economic Forum has set the catchphrase for this year's summit: 'Resilient Dynamism." If that's difficult to digest, it's because the risk outlook is equally cloudy and disparate. In a sentence, I take the term to mean that, in a world of shocks that strike faster and from less predictable sources, the ability to navigate them--and even grow because of them-- is paramount. Arianna Huffington's take on the term is particularly engaging. In short, last year's meeting was dominated by eurozone crisis response. This year, that risk has abated considerably, and it accordingly fades within the packed slate of issues that will compete for attention.
So what's the unifying challenge through all the noise? As the world struggles to bolster its resilience against economic and political uncertainty, the key risk is the increasing vulnerability of elites. We're seeing leaders of all kinds, in the developed and developing world, in politics as well as business and media, answering to constituents who grow more dissatisfied... and information-rich. Look at the riots in India over the recent rape scandal, the US Congress' abysmal approval ratings, or the phone hacking scandal at News Corp. Corruption, special interests, or a lack of transparency will spell trouble for leaders. The same goes for a widening gap between rich and poor. The threat to elites of all kinds comes in multiple forms: leaders who are battling for legitimacy will struggle to pursue long-term objectives rather than resort to reactive, 'quick fix' approaches. And in some instances, it could destabilize the very institutions--or even governments-- that these elites represent.
I chair the Global Agenda Council on Geopolitical Risk, where we outline the growing vulnerability of elites--as well as key risks and opportunities more generally--in our report that launched today. Feel free to take a look at the report in more depth.
En route to #Davos. Going to be a very different feel this year: financial crisis behind us, but inequality on the rise. 1/2 — ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) January 22, 2013
En route to #Davos. Political elites more vulnerable; business elites aren't...but probably should be. 2/2 — ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) January 22, 2013
Who's Turning Heads
Last year, Angela Merkel and Christine Lagarde were the big draws, and their speeches/comments stood out above the Davos noise. This year they are both attending again and their contributions will, of course, be highly anticipated. But with less attention on the eurozone, some other plenaries are very much 'must-sees' this year. I'd specifically flag David Cameron in the wake of the UK's existential concerns regarding its EU status, and Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, in light of increasing tension between the US and Russia.
Last year's #Davos, Merkel and Lagarde were the belles of the ball. Suspect much less cohesion this week..but tilt of focus to US. — ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) January 22, 2013
Medvedev, Cameron among the biggest #Davos plenaries this year, w exceptionally difficult messages to sell. — ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) January 22, 2013
For a breakdown of attendees at Davos, Quartz put out an interesting piece. Some highlights: a full two-thirds of Davos attendees hail from North America or Europe (no wonder we see such focus on the eurozone crisis!). Africa and South America? Just 4.8% and 3.1%, respectively.
Every year, Davos has celebrity attendees who take their share and more of media attention. Last year, it was Mick Jagger. The early front-runner for 2013? Charlize Theron, here representing her native South Africa. Celebrity sightings make heads swivel--but they don't move the needle much when it comes to the focus of Davos debate.
Quick scan of #Davos attendees on ride up from Zurich: Charlize Theron appears to be this year's Mick Jagger. #whatever — ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) January 22, 2013
Ian Bremmer is writing a Davos Diary exclusively for Huffington Post, and will update it several times daily. ||||| Story highlights David Frum says reports are the elites attending Davos feel vulnerable
He says that's a good sign, given all the harm their decisions have done to the world economy
Frum: Bad decisions by those with "superior knowledge" have caused great harm
Frum: He says people are looking to leaders, expecting them to make better decisions
The world of punditry is divided into two groups: those who attend the World Economic Forum at Davos and those who mock the World Economic Forum at Davos. (There's a subgroup that both attends and mocks, but it's tiny.)
Yet Davos is important, whether you attend or no. (I don't.) And if Ian Bremmer is right, this year something genuinely encouraging may be happening at the grand global gathering of business leaders, politicians and big-thinking academics.
"As the world struggles to bolster its resilience against economic and political uncertainty, the key risk is the increasing vulnerability of elites. We're seeing leaders of all kinds, in the developed and developing world, in politics as well as business and media, answering to constituents who grow more dissatisfied... and information-rich. Look at the riots in India over the recent rape scandal, the U.S. Congress' abysmal approval ratings or the phone hacking scandal at News Corp. Corruption, special interests or a lack of transparency will spell trouble for leaders."
David Frum
Bremmer, a brilliant analyst of the global economy, is a regular Davos participant. He's recording his impressions of the 2013 conference in a diary for the Huffington Post.
If he's perceiving elite anxiety, one can only say: finally.
"What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass." So snarked Queen Victoria's first prime minister, Lord Melbourne.
He might have been talking about the euro. Or the securitization of the U.S. mortgage market. Or the British government's attempt to restore prosperity through budget austerity. Or. Or. Or. Over the past decade and a half, we've seen one horrendous economic decision after another made, not by voters in democracies, but by people who owed their power to their claims of superior knowledge. Together, they have plunged us into a decade and a half of disasters, culminating in a global financial crisis triggered by new credit instruments that were advertised as ending financial crises once and for all.
Cameron at Davos: Focus on trade, taxes, transparency
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Yet by and large, these leaders have escaped public accountability or even criticism over the past six years of global crisis. The people who designed the euro continue to run the European Central Bank. The people who wrecked the American banking system walked away with multimillion-dollar severance packages. We all know that life's not fair. But this unfair?
So it's welcome news that the Davos attenders are suddenly feeling "vulnerable." They ought to. Elected leaders can at least be removed by the voters. Not so central bankers, financial regulators, and investment bankers, even though they can (and often do) exercise more power than any elected official.
Global CEOs lack confidence in 2013
Bremmer appears to suggest that the correct response to elite vulnerability is more transparency. I don't think that's quite right. If banks and regulators were delivering good results, nobody would mind their opaqueness. It's the bad results that drive the demand for transparency. But that's not because we really want more transparency.
What we really want is more competence and more success and success that benefits the many, rather than lavishly over-rewarding a privileged few even as they ruin everything and everyone around them.
According to Bremmer, the theme of this year's Davos conference is "Resilient Dynamism." It would have done better if it had adopted instead the theme, "We Messed Up." That would open the way to panels on "Why We Messed Up" and "How Not to Do it Again." More cynical attendees might opt for practical discussions on topics like, "How to Sound Contrite Even Though You're Not a Bit Sorry."
It's probably too much to expect the Davos gathering to feel any real remorse. But if they at least feel fear, that's a promising start on the way to reform.
Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter.
Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion. |||||
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This aerial photo taken Saturday, April 9, 2016, and provided by Arizona Department of Public Safety shows, a "help" sign made by Ann Rodgers, 72, in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. Rodgers got... (Associated Press)
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A woman lost in an Arizona forest for nine days survived by drinking pond water, eating plants and spelling out "help" on the ground with sticks, authorities said Tuesday.
The sign helped lead rescuers to Ann Rodgers, 72, in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona earlier this month, the state Department of Public Safety said. Rodgers declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press.
However, Rodgers told a Tucson TV station on Tuesday that she had food and water in her car but ran out after several days and turned to survival mode.
"I was eating desert plants. My dog was too, diving into clovers and finding all the places that were the easiest to go," she told KOLD.
Rodgers went missing March 31 as she headed to visit her grandkids in Phoenix. She got lost, and her hybrid vehicle ran out of gas and electric power, authorities said. Her car was discovered three days after a search began, but rescue crews struggled to find her.
Authorities came across her dog April 9, and a department flight crew spotted a "help" signal made of sticks and rocks on the ground. Rodgers had left the area, but she was found nearby on the Fort Apache Reservation after starting a signal fire.
Rodgers said she was waving to the helicopter. When it landed to rescue her, she sat down and cried.
The Department of Public Safety said Rodgers was suffering from exposure, but she was in fair condition and able to walk to and board the helicopter with little assistance. She was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Payson for treatment and later released.
Rodgers is from Tucson and was on a hike Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Public Safety said. It was not clear how she ended up in the eastern part of the state because the drive from Tucson to Phoenix is a straight shot on Interstate 10, which does not run through the area where she was found.
Rodgers' rescue came after three men who spelled out "help" with palm fronds were saved from a remote Pacific island last week. They swam to a tiny Micronesian island when their boat capsized, and searchers spotted them two days later. ||||| Officials said Ann Charon Rodgers was suffering from exposure, but was in fair condition and able to walk to and board the helicopter with little assistance. (Source: Arizona Department of Public Safety)
A 72-year-old Tucson woman and her dog survived nine days in the wilderness of the White Mountains thanks to her quick thinking and survival skills.
Ann Charon Rodgers left Tucson on March 31 to travel to Phoenix to visit her grandchildren, Arizona Department of Public Safety said.
Rodgers became lost and ended up on a remote stretch of a back-country road near Canyon Creek on the White Mountain Apache Reservation, ran out of gas and depleted the charge in her hybrid vehicle.
The first night, she spent the night in the car with her dog and cat.
“I got up the next morning hoping something would pass by - anybody, anything, even a steer. I didn’t care, just anything alive,” she said.
With no signs of life around her, she ventured up a mountain, hoping to see signs of life, and to get a cell phone signal.
“I could see where there might be humanity, some power pole anything a ranch, I didn’t care. But [there was] nothing,” she said.
Rodgers said she is always prepared. She carries food water in her car, but after several days, she was out of resources and went into survival mode.
“I was eating desert plants. My dog was, too, diving into clovers and finding all the places that were the easiest to go," she said. "She was my pathfinder on that journey."
Rodgers said she could see planes and helicopters flying by and knew she had to get their attention.
“I found a elk carcass bleached white, dead for a long time, 12 point rack. I brought it on the sandy beach, pointed it to a sign [that] said ‘help’ made out of white stones and sticks,” Rodgers said.
On April 9, a tribal Game and Fish officer found Rodgers’ dog walking out of the Canyon Creek area.
An air crew spotted Rodgers' distress signal and found a hand-written note on a rock, indicating Rodgers had run out of food and water and was proceeding down the canyon.
The rescue team discovered a shelter abandoned by Rodgers and found her a little further down the canyon standing next to a signal fire and waving to the helicopter.
It was the sound she had been waiting for, the helicopter coming down to rescue her.
“When the rescue police helicopter landed I just sat down and bawled,” she said.
DPS said Rodgers was suffering from exposure, but was in fair condition and able to walk to and board the helicopter with little assistance. She was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Payson for treatment, but has been released.
Rescue crews have her cat, she said, and she'll be reunited with him on Friday.
Copyright 2016 Tucson News Now. All rights reserved. ||||| TUCSON, Ariz. -- A woman lost in an Arizona forest for nine days survived by drinking pond water, eating plants and spelling out "help" on the ground with sticks, authorities said Tuesday.
The sign helped lead rescuers to Ann Rodgers, 72, in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona earlier this month, the state Department of Public Safety said. Rodgers declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press.
CBS affiliate KOLD via Gila County Sheriff's Office
She went missing March 31 as she headed to visit her grandkids in Phoenix. Rodgers got lost and her hybrid vehicle ran out of gas and electric power, authorities say. Her car was discovered three days after a search began, but rescue crews struggled to find her.
Authorities came across her dog April 9, and a DPS flight crew spotted a "help" signal made of sticks and rocks on the ground. Rodgers had left the area, but she was found nearby in the White Mountain Apache Reservation after starting a signal fire.
CBS affiliate KOLD reported that an air crew spotted Rodgers' distress signal and found a hand-written note on a rock, indicating Rodgers had run out of food and water and was proceeding down the canyon.
The rescue team discovered a shelter abandoned by Rodgers and found her a little further down the canyon.
Arizona Department of Public Safety
She was rescued in fair condition and has been released from the hospital.
Rodgers has Tucson-region area code, but it's not clear where she lives or how she wound up in the eastern part of the state.
The drive from Tucson to Phoenix is a straight shot on Interstate 10, which doesn't run through the area where she was found. |||||
Write a summary.
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– Ann Rodgers may not have the greatest navigation skills in the world, but the 72-year-old appears to have amazing survival skills. Authorities say that after Rodgers somehow became lost while driving from Tucson to Phoenix to visit her grandchildren, her hybrid vehicle ran out of both gas and electric power and she was stranded in the remote White Mountains for nine days, CBS News reports. Rodgers and her dog survived by drinking creek water and eating berries and desert plants, authorities say. She was rescued, in fair condition despite suffering from exposure, after an air crew spotted a "HELP" sign she had made from sticks and stones. After the sign was spotted, rescuers found a note from Rodgers indicating she had moved down the canyon, and she was found next to a signal fire she had lit. She tells Tucson News Now that she spent the first night in her car, but after she ran low on water, she decided to move on in hopes of finding people or at least a cell phone signal. Survival instructor Cody Lundin tells the Arizona Republic that it is "very rare, statistically abnormal, and freakish" for Rodgers to have survived so long, and she would have had little hope in a colder season. The AP notes that Tucson to Phoenix is a straight shot on Interstate 10, so it's not clear how Rodgers became so lost. (A "HELP" sign also saved these castaways in the Pacific.)
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Some people—mostly teenage boys—believe that I have the best job in the world. Every year, I get to try out dozens and dozens of new tech products and services. Most of the time, though, this is duller than it sounds. That’s because much of the new stuff that comes to my door isn’t very good, and some of it is downright terrible (I’m looking at you, BlackBerry Playbook!)
But I did come across a few stand-out technologies in 2011, gadgets and services that I’m guessing you’ll love as much as I did. Here are my favorite things of the year:
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A year ago, I bought Apple’s then-new 11-inch MacBook Air for one main reason: The TSA announced that it was thin enough to pass through security without removing it from your bag. That turned out to be a lie—TSA agents across the country demanded I remove it—but I fell in love with the Air anyway. Here, for the first time, was a tiny computer that didn’t feel compromised in any way: It was speedy, it had a great keyboard, and it sold for less than $1,000. Every other computer maker struggled to make something as good for so little—Intel launched a $300 million fund to spur PC-based competitors to the Air—and, indeed, this year the Air was eclipsed. Trouble was, it was Apple that did the eclipsing: This year’s models are substantially speedier than last year’s, and the prices are just as attractive. I replaced my old 11-inch with the new 13-inch. It’s the best laptop I’ve ever owned.
Windows Phone 7. Available on several phones for all major U.S. carriers.
Microsoft arrived late to the modern smartphone business, but apparently it wasn’t snoozing. Windows Phone 7—which was released late last year, and then substantially updated this year—has a terrible name, but it’s the best-looking smartphone operating system in the industry, and it’s probably the easiest to use, too. As I explained a few months ago, Microsoft has put a premium on speed; common tasks that take two or three steps—or require third-party apps—in the iPhone and Android can be done with just a click on Windows. The only downside to Windows, now, is its relatively paltry app store—but as more people buy these wonderful phones, developers will surely join the party.
Advertisement
I’ve always loved the concept behind Sonos’ wireless speaker systems: The devices work together to play music—the same music or different music, from your own collection or from online services—in one room or all of your rooms. This year, Sonos upped the ante by making its products both cheaper and easier to set up. Get a Play:5 for a room where you need big sound—the living room, for instance—and the smaller Play:3 for a more tucked-away spot (on top of the refrigerator in the kitchen). Once your speakers are set up, you can control all of your music through your smartphone or your PC. Yes, it can be expensive to accumulate several of these Sonos speakers. But this year my wife and I took the plunge and bought three of them, and now our music is finally liberated from our earbuds and tinny computer speakers. We can listen to all our music, everywhere in the house, all at once. Every day's a dance party.
The Nest was designed by Tony Fadell, the guy who created the iPod at Apple, so it’s more striking than any thermostat you’ve ever seen. But it’s more than just a pretty face: I tried the Nest out for a few weeks this winter, and I found that it really did what it promised to do—after observing my temperature preferences for a few days, the Nest automatically created a perfect heating schedule for my house. The Nest costs more than just about any other thermostat on the market, but it’s loaded with sensors and learning algorithms that other devices can’t match. If you’re in the market for a new thermostat (and who isn’t?) get this one.
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Last year I called Chrome the best Web browser on the planet. Google quietly updates Chrome seemingly every few minutes, so naturally it got even better in 2011. Among other improvements, the company added something called Instant Pages, a system that “preloads” the first Google search result into the browser’s memory. This makes for faster searching—when you click on the first link in any Google result, the page loads up in pretty much no time at all. All of Chrome’s great features are helping it win converts: This month, Chrome’s market share surpassed that of Firefox. Download it now and help it beat Internet Explorer.
I’ve got a strangely proportioned body, so finding off-the-rack dress shirts that fit me has always been a drag. This year I tried three services that promised to make shirts exactly to my size for less than I’d spend on shirts at a department store. I liked shirts from all three companies—Indochino, J. Hilburn, and Blank Label; each was better than any other shirt I’d ever purchased. But I liked Blank Label best for its low prices and terrific customer service.
Amazon Prime. $79 a year.
Prime has long been an amazing deal—for a small annual fee, you can get free shipping on millions of products at Amazon, a feature that will change your approach to shopping (you’ll start to buy everything at Amazon, and you’ll make back your Prime investment in a couple months’ time). But this year the Prime deal got even harder to resist. Amazon added thousands of movies and TV shows that you can stream for free (on your TV, computer, or Kindle Fire). Sure, most of them are bad, but hey—they’re free! Then there’s the new Kindle Owner’s Lending Library: Prime members who own a Kindle get to borrow one free book every month. Some of them are pretty good, too!
Dimmable LED light bulbs. Around $15 to $25 per bulb, depending on the model.
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This year I saw the world’s greatest light bulb—an energy-efficient alternative to the old incandescent bulb that isn’t as ugly or as toxic as compact fluorescents. The amazing new bulb—created by a company called Switch Lighting—generates light using LEDs, and it solves all the problems that have long plagued LED bulbs. The Switch bulb’s light is warm yellow, not harsh white, and you can dim it. That bulb isn’t selling to the public just yet, but many other dimmable LED bulbs are now on the market, and we’ll see a lot more next year. These light bulbs of the future may sound expensive, but many promise to last for decades. That means that over the long run, they pay for themselves.
Paying for stuff with your phone is the hot new thing in the tech industry—which is odd, because it’s a dumb idea. What’s the point of paying with your phone when you can just pay with your credit card? Square, Twitter-founder Jack Dorsey’s company, invented a better way to pay: by doing nothing. When you shop at a Card Case-compatible merchant, your phone and the store sync up without you having to remove your phone from your pocket, start up an app, or swipe and sign. Just tell the cashier your name. She sees your picture on her screen and taps it. That’s it: You’ve paid. Card Case satisfies the main requirement of any revolutionary technology—it feels like magic.
Amazon’s E Ink Kindles. Starting at $79. ||||| Last year I called Chrome the best Web browser on the planet. Google quietly updates Chrome seemingly every few minutes, so naturally it got even better in 2011. Among other improvements, the company added something called Instant Pages, a system that “preloads” the first Google search result into the browser’s memory. This makes for faster searching—when you click on the first link in any Google result, the page loads up in pretty much no time at all. All of Chrome’s great features are helping it win converts: This month, Chrome’s market share surpassed that of Firefox. Download it now and help it beat Internet Explorer.
Advertisement
I’ve got a strangely proportioned body, so finding off-the-rack dress shirts that fit me has always been a drag. This year I tried three services that promised to make shirts exactly to my size for less than I’d spend on shirts at a department store. I liked shirts from all three companies—Indochino, J. Hilburn, and Blank Label; each was better than any other shirt I’d ever purchased. But I liked Blank Label best for its low prices and terrific customer service.
Amazon Prime. $79 a year.
Prime has long been an amazing deal—for a small annual fee, you can get free shipping on millions of products at Amazon, a feature that will change your approach to shopping (you’ll start to buy everything at Amazon, and you’ll make back your Prime investment in a couple months’ time). But this year the Prime deal got even harder to resist. Amazon added thousands of movies and TV shows that you can stream for free (on your TV, computer, or Kindle Fire). Sure, most of them are bad, but hey—they’re free! Then there’s the new Kindle Owner’s Lending Library: Prime members who own a Kindle get to borrow one free book every month. Some of them are pretty good, too!
Dimmable LED light bulbs. Around $15 to $25 per bulb, depending on the model.
This year I saw the world’s greatest light bulb—an energy-efficient alternative to the old incandescent bulb that isn’t as ugly or as toxic as compact fluorescents. The amazing new bulb—created by a company called Switch Lighting—generates light using LEDs, and it solves all the problems that have long plagued LED bulbs. The Switch bulb’s light is warm yellow, not harsh white, and you can dim it. That bulb isn’t selling to the public just yet, but many other dimmable LED bulbs are now on the market, and we’ll see a lot more next year. These light bulbs of the future may sound expensive, but many promise to last for decades. That means that over the long run, they pay for themselves.
Paying for stuff with your phone is the hot new thing in the tech industry—which is odd, because it’s a dumb idea. What’s the point of paying with your phone when you can just pay with your credit card? Square, Twitter-founder Jack Dorsey’s company, invented a better way to pay: by doing nothing. When you shop at a Card Case-compatible merchant, your phone and the store sync up without you having to remove your phone from your pocket, start up an app, or swipe and sign. Just tell the cashier your name. She sees your picture on her screen and taps it. That’s it: You’ve paid. Card Case satisfies the main requirement of any revolutionary technology—it feels like magic.
Amazon’s E Ink Kindles. Starting at $79. |||||
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– Apple may top Slate's gadgets of the year, but don't look for an iPad 2 on its list. No, the best gadget of 2011 was the new-generation MacBook Air, writes Farhad Manjoo. It's small but doesn't "feel compromised in any way," he says, calling it "the best laptop I've ever owned." And it sells for less than $1,000. Other winners: Windows Phone 7. Don't let the clunky name fool you: "It’s the best-looking smartphone operating system in the industry, and it’s probably the easiest to use, too." Tasks that would take several clicks on an iPhone can be done here in one. Sonos Play:3 and Play:5 speaker systems. Starting at $300, these setups allow you to play music throughout your house, using just your laptop or smartphone to control the system. Nest Learning Thermostat. Designed by iPod creator Tony Fadell, the sleek Nest figures out your ideal heating schedule within days. Google Chrome. Manjoo has already labeled it the best browser out there, and with constant updates, Chrome keeps getting better. New Instant Pages, for example, make searching even faster. Chrome's market share has even surpassed Firefox's. Click for Farhad Manjoo's full gadget list.
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Write a summary based on this article:
Project Southern Tempest netted 678 gang members connected to international drug syndicates. It's a sign that the US is trying to help in the war against Mexican cartels.
As the wars against drug cartels rage in Mexico, US immigration and customs officials on Tuesday sought to show that they are doing their part to choke the drug trade north of the border, too.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents announced the results of Project Southern Tempest, their latest gang sweep in 168 American cities from Atlanta to South Salt Lake, Utah. The tally: 678 gang members with affiliations to 133 different gangs arrested during the past two weeks.
Project Southern Tempest is part of ICE's Operation Community Shield, a five-year fight that unites federal, state, and local law enforcement against gangs with ties to international drug syndicates – primarily those in Mexico. Southern Tempest notched the 20,000th arrest of the program.
It is a message to Mexican officials that the US trying to hold up its end of the bargain. "A Mexican criticism that we hear is, 'Why isn't the US doing more to fight the cartels north of the border?' " says David Shirk, director of the Transborder Institute at the University of California-San Diego.
Project Southern Tempest shows that "is exactly what ICE and other US government agencies are trying to do," he adds.
ICE director John Morton sought to emphasize this point. The "intensity couldn't be higher," Mr. Morton said. Among the American gangs linked to the international drug trade and targeted by ICE: MS-13, Latin Kings, The Bloods, and Jamaican Posse.
The problem for ICE, however, is that it can't control the fundamental driver of the entire equation: American demand for illegal drugs. These gang members "are breaking the law and are a threat to US communities, but ... in the end, you can arrest people all day long, and as long as the market demand remains strong there will be new entrepreneurs who rise to satisfy that demand," says Mr. Shirk of the Transborder Institute.
For their part, law-enforcement officials said during a Project Southern Tempest teleconference Tuesday that they were grateful for ICE efforts. For instance, US Attorney Sally Yates of Georgia described ICE's assistance in bringing to justice 26 MS-13 gang members in the Atlanta area, including a group of carjackers who hit a young girl with a baseball bat while trying to steal a PT Cruiser.
"These people are up to the worst sort of violent crimes in the communities they live in," said Morton. "These guys aren't in book clubs, they're in violent street gangs."
The ambush killing of an ICE agent, Jaime Zapata, in Mexico on Feb. 15 raised the concern that Mexican drug gangs have radicalized to the point that they no longer fear what Morton called America's "long hard arm of the law."
Though Morton said Mr. Zapata's shooting did not appear have a direct connection to Project Southern Tempest, ICE has agents in 47 countries supporting Operation Community Shield. ICE arrested three men in Dallas on Monday in connection with Zapata's murder.
Morton said ICE remains undeterred. The agency, he said, expects to make more arrest announcements soon, all in the attempt to help the Mexican government shorten the reach of the cartels.
"We'll do everything we can to bring the cartels down," Morton said. "It's not going to be easy, it's not going to solve everything overnight ... but just stay tuned." ||||| A sweeping federal takedown today confirms that Mexican drug cartels have penetrated the United States and have affiliated drug gangs on the streets of hundreds of American cities, federal officials said.
A total of 678 alleged gang members from 168 cities were arrested by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) task force targeting gangs with ties to drug trafficking organizations.
More than 46 percent of those arrested were affiliated with 13 different Mexican drug trafficking organizations, ICE officials said. Of the 678 arrested, 447 were charged with criminal offenses and 421 were foreign nationals.
The operation, Project Southern Tempest, was conducted from December 2010 through the end of February. In addition to the arrests, the operation also seized 86 firearms, large quantities of methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana, and more than $70,000 in cash, according to ICE officials.
"These transnational gangs are a direct threat to our safety," ICE Director John Morton said at an afternoon news conference. "We have to go after them hammer and tong."
Morton said transnational gangs are not only working the drug trade, but are frequently working in human smuggling, weapons smuggling and other crimes with a nexus to the border.
Morton pointed to the example of Rodimiro Burquez-Cortez, a Mexican national and Surenos gang member who was deported once, but re-entered the country and now faces narcotics and weapons charges. His criminal convictions included illegal re-entry, assault, DWI, carrying a concealed weapon and drug possession.
Another suspect arrested in the sweep, Shawn Allison, a Jamaican, is a member of the Jamaican Posse whose rap sheet includes convictions for possession with intent to distribute and criminal contempt, according to ICE. Now Allison faces an even more serious charge: attempted murder.
"These are not people we want walking our streets," Morton said. "They have turned to a life of violence."
Project Southern Tempest is the latest in a series of federal task force operations targeting drug gangs. The operations include local police in dozens of U.S. cities, including Atlanta.
Sally Yates, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said today that since task force operations began in 2005, they have resulted in charges in seven murder cases, at least five carjackings and several armed robberies in the Atlanta area alone.
In one of the carjacking incidents in Atlanta, gang members hit a young girl across the face with a baseball bat, Yates said.
Federal officials point out these gang bangers are not just operating in big urban centers. Project Southern Tempest arrests include alleged drug gangsters picked up in places like Reading, Pa., Provo, Utah, and Oceanside, Calif.
South Salt Lake, Utah, is not usually thought of as a hotbed of drug gang activity, but Chris Snyder, the police chief there, said today his jurisdiction has seen a surprising amount of gang crime.
"The drug dealers targeted in this operation have no regard for the law ... and degrade the quality of life in our communities," Snyder said. "Our goal in partnering with ICE and other law enforcement agencies is to make our cities safer." |||||
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– A vast multi-city gang sweep shows the extent to which Mexican drug cartels have penetrated American cities—and, say federal officials, the extent to which the government is willing to go to take them down. Some 678 gang members, including 421 nationals, were busted in 168 cities during Project Southern Tempest, ABC reports. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities say nearly half of those arrested were linked to Mexican drug gangs. "These transnational gangs are a direct threat to our safety," ICE Director John Morton said. "We have to go after them hammer and tong." Analysts, however, say ICE's problem is that it can't do anything about America's demand for illegal drugs. "In the end, you can arrest people all day long, and as long as the market demand remains strong there will be new entrepreneurs who rise to satisfy that demand," the director of the Transborder Institute tells the Christian Science Monitor.
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– British PM David Cameron made an impassioned case today for his country to stick with the European Union, but said it's time for Britons "to have their say" on the matter, reports the New York Times. He promised an "in-or-out" referendum as early as 2017—provided, of course, he wins reelection in 2015. The Conservative Party leader acknowledged that many Brits "feel that the EU is heading in a direction they never signed up to," citing increased regulation by the European Commission as particularly problematic. The Times notes that Cameron's move could be an attempt to pick up votes in the next election, but it is reverberating throughout the globe: "Germany, and I personally, want Britain to be an important part" of the EU, said Angela Merkel, while noting that a "fair compromise" must be found. Meanwhile, the BBC notes that Germany's Bild is running a headline that asks, "Is Britain destroying the EU?" In Washington, the Obama administration has been open about its desire to see the UK remain part of the EU. Cameron noted that an exit from the Union would be a "one-way ticket."
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Image caption David Cameron's renegotiation could paralyse the EU, a German MP said
The popular German tabloid Bild asked today: "Is Britain destroying the EU?" The headline reflects the unease felt across Europe over David Cameron's promise to re-negotiate its EU membership.
Europe now knows what it long suspected: many in Britain have a completely different vision of the EU than those on the continent. David Cameron's European idea is of a flexible, pragmatic union that focuses on trade. The question he asks is: can the EU, as it is currently structured, deliver prosperity? In the rest of Europe they believe that closer integration will build the European dream.
Officials in Brussels said that Cameron was offering a "pick and mix Europe". His vision was for a Europe "a la carte", where countries chose what they liked and disliked.
The German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said "cherry picking was not an option". There was a similar reaction from the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. "We can't have Europe a la carte," he said. "Imagine the EU was a football club; once you've joined up and you're in this club you can't then say you want to play rugby."
As regards trying to repatriate powers to Westminster, the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said it would be a "drawn out and cumbersome negotiation" involving long and complex procedures. The head of the German European Affairs Committee Gunther Krichbaum said the "EU was not a multiple choice event". He compared re-negotiation to "opening Pandora's box".
No special case
The German foreign minister went out of his way to say that he hoped the UK would continue to play an "active" and "constructive" role in the EU. He offered a concession: he agreed that not everything decided in Brussels needed to remain at a European level. He signalled that Germany would support some regulations returning to the member states.
Here's the dilemma. There are several states which believe that some measures, currently operated at EU level, could be returned to national governments. Any adjustments, however, they insist must include all 27 members. There is little support for Britain being treated as a special case. The problem for David Cameron is that he is fighting for a complete overhaul of Britain's relationship with Europe, not a tinkering at the edges.
The question I heard asked time and again today was what would the prime minister do if he felt he wasn't winning enough concessions. Might he recommend leaving the EU if he didn't get a good deal? A German MP said he thought this negotiation risked "paralysing the EU for years". One German minister was asked about the risk of Britain blackmailing other states to win further opt-outs. He declined to answer. So there is great uncertainty as to what these next years will bring.
One other unknown. It is far from clear whether the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, will push for a major revision of the treaties in 2015. If she doesn't, that will make Britain's task of re-negotiating far more difficult.
There are divided views in Europe about the referendum. One senior EU official said he welcomed Britain finally deciding whether it wanted to be in or out of Europe. "Let's settle it once and for all," he said. Others said a referendum was "highly risky". Voters might decide to punish the government by voting to leave the EU.
There were lots of statements about how much Europe needs the UK - but not at any price. Some officials welcomed David Cameron's positive remarks about the EU. However, ultimately David Cameron's vision for the EU - a flexible, adaptable union - is not widely shared.
The German foreign minister said: "We do not need less Europe but more integration."
Nothing said today can avoid the reality that Britain and much of the EU have very different ideas about the future of the union.
What is clear is that Britain will face a difficult and uphill battle if and when it starts to re-negotiate its membership. ||||| Photo Advertisement Continue reading the main story
BRUSSELS — The French are engaged in a lonely military adventure in Africa. The Germans are preoccupied with domestic elections rather than regional affairs. Unemployment in some countries is at historic highs and economies across Europe are still mired in recession.
Now Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain has added to Europe’s malaise, vowing to reduce British entanglement with the European Union — or allow his people to vote in a referendum to leave the bloc altogether.
The pledge from the British prompted swift retorts from France and Germany, which said no member has the option of “cherry picking” whatever European rules it wants to enforce. But it reflected a growing sense of unease, not only in Britain but across the Continent, that while the acute phase of the financial crisis has passed, the challenge to Europe’s mission and even its membership has not.
Even the United States has injected itself into the matter, with an unusually public insistence that Britain, a close ally, stay in the union, fearing that its departure would heighten centrifugal forces that would weaken Europe as a diplomatic, military and financial partner.
With the threat of a sudden breakup of the euro zone appearing to recede in recent months, Europe has seen a resurgence of narrow national interests that risks swamping always-elusive common goals. The bickering is undercutting hopes in some circles that the struggle to save the euro had laid the groundwork for “more Europe.”
“As pressure from the financial markets recedes and a sense of urgency lifts, the appetite for serious reform is melting away like butter in the sun,” said Thomas Klau, head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. “Now that markets no longer hold a knife under leaders’ throats, they are slipping back into their normal mode, which is to manage their own immediate reality.”
For Mr. Cameron, with elections coming in 2015, that means heading off a challenge from the hard-right, anti-Europe United Kingdom Independence Party while shoring up support for his government, which recently admitted that its unpopular austerity program would have to be extended to 2018, analysts said. He is also anxious to avoid the sort of ruinous intraparty split over Europe that bedeviled the prime ministerships of two of his Conservative predecessors, Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
That comes against a backdrop of declining favorability ratings for the European Union among the British — only 45 percent last year, down from 51 percent in 2011, in polls conducted by the Pew Research Global Attitudes Project.
Mr. Cameron’s speech Wednesday in London calling for a referendum had been in the works for some time but, Mr. Klau noted, it was delivered at a moment when the European Union had begun to declare victory over doomsayers who predicted the common currency and even the whole union could crumble. This mood of calm, Mr. Klau said, has given leaders “the political space” to turn their eyes from Europe toward more pressing and, for politicians seeking re-election, far more important domestic concerns.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
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The decision by President François Hollande of France to send troops to Mali to halt an advance by rebels with ties to Islamist extremists reprises a long tradition of French interventions in its former African colonies — and has bolstered the Socialist president’s previously flagging popularity.
The French move has been supported by the European Union, whose member states share French fears about the spread of radicalism across the Mediterranean. But it has superseded the bloc’s own ambitions to become a serious player in global affairs and still left the French to fight mostly on their own. The union is sending some military trainers.
Europe’s economic troubles, meanwhile, are far from over, with much of the Continent expected to be in recession this year. Even Germany seems to be losing momentum — its economy contracted by 0.5 percent in the final months of last year. Elsewhere, unemployment is soaring to levels that could threaten grave social unrest, with more than a quarter of working-age people in Greece and Spain without jobs.
But the European Union, widely criticized as not doing enough to raise employment, has been struggling to put even its own economic house in order after leaders failed in November to agree on a long-term budget for the 27-nation bloc. Leaders will take another swipe at this divisive issue early next month.
After being consumed for so long by efforts to salvage the euro zone, “leaders now think it is safe and are becoming perhaps too complacent,” said Charles Grant, director for the Center for European Reform, a London-based research unit. “The only time European leaders have agreed to take important steps is when there is a crisis. As soon as the crisis stops they relax.”
Germany, he said, has now backed away from tentative support for a change in the basic European Union treaties that could help the European Union forge common policies.
Already distracted by national elections next September, Germany could turn even more inward-looking as Chancellor Angela Merkel seeks to overcome her party’s defeat over the weekend in a down-to-the-wire state election in Lower Saxony. She remains the dominant figure in German and European affairs, but the surprise election setback has dented her aura of invincibility.
Other leaders, tightly focused on their own domestic concerns, are stalling on critical decisions about how far they want to go in engaging with the union. President Bronislaw Komorowski of Poland, for example, said Wednesday that his country should delay a decision on adopting the euro until after elections in 2015.
While the Polish economy, the biggest in central Europe, has been spared the tumult that has afflicted other nations, opinion polls show flagging interest in adopting the euro. Less than a third of Poles want to ditch the national currency, the zloty, according to recent surveys. Farther to the east in Latvia, which plans to join the euro zone next year, support for the common currency has slumped to under 15 percent in a sign of growing unease with a “European project” that most Latvians had eagerly embraced.
Domestic politics have regularly trumped broader European concerns throughout the six-decade history of the union and its predecessor organizations, to the dismay of those who want to see Europe live up to a commitment in the 1957 Treaty of Rome for an “ever closer union.”
But Mr. Cameron’s pledge to hold a referendum on European Union membership threatens to elevate national political calculations over common interests to an extent that has alarmed even countries that often share British concerns. ||||| BERLIN |
BERLIN Jan 23 (Reuters) - The European Union and Britain must be prepared to make compromises, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday after British Prime Minister David Cameron demanded a radical reform of the EU and a referendum on UK membership.
"Germany, and I personally, want Britain to be an important part and an active member of the European Union," Merkel told reporters.
"We are prepared to talk about British wishes but we must always bear in mind that other countries have different wishes and we must find a fair compromise. We will talk intensively with Britain about its individual ideas but that has some time over the months ahead," said Merkel. |||||
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In this June 2, 2016 photo, Brock Turner, 20, right, makes his way into a Santa Clara Superior Courthouse in California (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group via AP)
Courts records released Friday in the Brock Turner sexual assault case in Santa Clara County, Calif., include numerous exhibits and documents related to the prosecution of the former Stanford University swimmer.
[“Did you rage?" In Stanford sexual assault case, court records shed new light]
Among them are statements submitted to the court before Turner was sentenced on June 2 to six months in jail and three years of probation for the sexual assault of an unconscious woman in January 2015. At the time Turner was a freshman.
Below is a statement from the victim’s sister. The identities of both women were redacted in the court documents. ||||| NEW YORK -- Brock Turner, the ex-Stanford swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, is allegedly pictured smoking from a pipe in images prosecutors say were extracted from his cell phone. The newly-released images are included as an exhibit attachment to a sentencing memo submitted by Deputy District Attorney Alaleh Kianerci that alleges Turner lied about using drugs in a statement to probation officials.
Santa Clara County Superior Court
Turner was sentenced to six months in jail and three years of probation for three counts of sexual assault, but can be released in as soon as three months. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky's sentence has led to widespread outcry and a campaign to recall him, though some have defended the sentence.
Turner has also come under fire for his statement to probation officials, obtained by CBS News, in which he blames his behavior on alcohol and the "college lifestyle." In the statement, he also implies he hadn't had experience with partying and drinking prior to the sex assault.
"Coming from a small town in Ohio, I had never really experienced celebrating or partying that involved alcohol," he said in the statement.
A probation report also says Turner denied that he had used drugs.
Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department/Handout via Reuters
In the sentencing memo, however, prosecutors point to cell phone evidence they say proves otherwise. In a search of Turner's cell phone, prosecutors say they found photos of Turner smoking a pipe and a Dec. 27, 2014 video of Turner smoking a bong and drinking out of a liquor bottle immediately after.
Several images the prosecutors referenced surfaced Friday as a part of a release of the Turner case file by the County of Santa Clara Superior Court. CBS News had previously obtained Kianerci's sentencing memo. The new images include the photo of Turner smoking a pipe, a close-up photo of a bong, and an image of a person who prosecutors say is Turner's teammate holding a bong. The documents also include a photo of an apparent sexually explicit message sent through the "Group Me" app that investigators saw on Turner's phone the night of his arrest.
The memo includes cell phone records of Turner's text messages, but it doesn't include the "Group Me" message because it was sent from a third-party app and may have been deleted, according to the memo.
Prosecutors say the texts point to drug use, including a Dec. 18, 2014 message in which Turner asks a friend, "Do you think I could buy some wax so we could do some dabs?" referring to a highly concentrated form of marijuana. Other text messages referenced smoking, buying and sharing "weed" and trying to find a "hook up" to buy acid both while Turner was in high school and at Stanford, the memo says.
On Dec. 24, 2014, according to the memo, Turner received a message from a friend that read, "I've got a hankerin for a good acid trip when we get back." Prosecutors say Turner replied: "I'm down for sure."
The memo says he responded to a friend bragging about "candyflippin" - referring to taking LSD and MDMA together - by saying, "I gotta [expletive] try that. I've heard it's awesome."
The memo says on June 3, 2014 Turner's sister asked him via text, "Did you rage last night?" To which Turner replied, "Yeah kind of. It was hard to find a place to drink. But when we finally did we could only drink for like an hour an a half."
Prosecutors say the records show Turner was already an experienced drinker in high school, had routinely smoked marijuana and experimented with hard drugs including LSD, despite his statement.
The memo goes on to blast Turner for blaming his "predatory and repulsive" actions on "drinking, peer pressure and college culture."
In a letter that has since gone viral, the victim in the case calls on Turner to take responsibility for his actions, saying, "assault is not an accident." |||||
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– The sister of Brock Turner's victim says Turner tried to force himself on her the same night he raped her sister. That's one of a number of things revealed in court documents released Friday. The Los Angeles Times reports the victim's sister says Turner "started making out on her cheek" and grabbed her waist unprompted at the frat party in January 2015. She was able to pull away and warn a friend. “The face of the man who assaulted my sister is burned into my memory," the Washington Post quotes her as saying in a statement to the court. She also talks about the guilt she feels for leaving her sister alone at the party. “An entire part of my heart has been permanently broken," she says. “The damage you inflicted is irreversible," she tells Turner, who was sentenced to six months in jail. The newly released documents also include allegations from prosecutors that Turner lied to the court about his alcohol and drug use, CBS News reports. Part of Turner's defense was that he had "never really experienced celebrating or partying that involved alcohol" before coming to Stanford. But the documents include texts, photos, and videos that prosecutors say prove Turner had plenty of experience with alcohol and drugs, including LSD and marijuana, in high school and prior to his assault on the victim. Finally, following the release of statements from Turner's father and grandparents, the new documents include a statement from his mother. In it, she says she cries everyday and can't decorate her new home because of the trauma inflicted on her family, the Fresno Bee reports. She says Turner was just "trying to fit in."
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Rosie O'Donnell Officially Joining 'The View'
Rosie O'Donnell On 'The View' Again -- Officially Joining As Co-Host
EXCLUSIVE
has made her deal with "" ... sources connected with the negotiations tell TMZ.We're told the show will make the announcement shortly. TMZ broke the story ... the negotiations fired up a few days ago and the deal was almost completed by end of business day Monday.The deal is now complete. Rosie will joinon the show. As we reported, producers are also looking for a Latina and a conservative . Two conservative candidates who are being scoped areand'View' fans remember ... Rosie always made things interesting. ||||| Rosie O'Donnell in "Serious Talks" to Rejoin The View Seven Years After Her Contentious Exit
Everything's coming up Rosie! With the recent cast shake-up at The View, speculation is rampant about who will fill Jenny McCarthy's and Sherri Shepherd's soon-to-be vacant chairs at the table. (Barbara Walters also left this year, but of her own volition; she retired in May.) One frontrunner at the moment, a source confirms to Us Weekly, is former co-host Rosie O'Donnell, who left the show amid controversy some seven years ago.
PHOTOS: Best-dressed TV hosts
The talk show vet, 52, is "in serious talks" to rejoin the ABC series in a leading role, the insider tells Us. "Rosie is very close to signing. They aren't seriously auditioning anyone else until the deal is done, because Rosie will get a major say [in her co-hosts]," the source says. (TMZ first reported news of O'Donnell's negotiations.)
PHOTOS: Talk show controversies and feuds
O'Donnell served as moderator on The View from 2006 to 2007, at which point she broke her contract and made an early exit. During her tenure on the show, she publicly feuded with conservative co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, culminating in a heated on-air exchange (complete with a split screen!) in May 2007. The fight got ugly—and personal—with O'Donnell calling Hasselbeck "cowardly." She left the show immediately afterward.
PHOTOS: Stars who were fired
"I didn't want to argue for a living," the comedian later told Oprah Winfrey of why she quit. "It was not my show, and I didn't have the control that I was used to. And the executive producer and I did not gel."
O'Donnell steered clear of The View for seven years, but in February 2014, show creator Walters asked her back as a guest. (At that point, Hasselbeck had already left for her new gig on Fox & Friends.)
PHOTOS: The biggest celeb feuds ever
"I have great affection for Rosie and we have remained in contact through the years," Walters said of O'Donnell's much-hyped appearance. "I am happy to welcome her back to the program. She is always a lively and engaging guest and a part of the show's successful history." |||||
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– ABC is starting to fill in Whoopi Goldberg's future seatmates on the View. TMZ reports that Rosie O'Donnell has already signed on, with the producers still on the hunt for a Latina and a conservative. (Abby Hunstman is apparently in the running for the latter category.) Fans will recall that O'Donnell served as moderator on the show in 2006-07 before breaking her contract in the wake of a nasty on-air feud with Elisabeth Hasselbeck, notes US Weekly. Today, the outgoing Sherri Shepherd and Jenny McCarthy played nice before the cameras, reportedly on the network's orders.
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A deadly Brazilian wandering spider (Picture: WikiCommons/Techuser)
A family had to move into a hotel and fumigate their home after deadly South American spiders began hatching out of a bunch of Sainsbury’s bananas.
Terrified Consi Taylor, 29, said she saw something that looked like mould on a Colombian Fairtrade banana she was eating.
However, on closer inspection she said she saw some ‘funny looking spots’ and realised something was wrong.
‘I had a closer look and was horrified to see they were spiders. They were hatching out on the table, scurrying around on my carpet. I was so scared I started crying,’ she told The Sun.
Sainsbury’s initially gave Consi and her husband Richard, 37, a £10 voucher to make up for their troubles but that wasn’t the end of the story.
The couple and their two young children were forced to flee their home after sending a picture of the infestation to a pest control firm – who promptly told the Taylors they might be venomous Brazilian Wandering spiders.
The family escaped their London home for three days with Benjamin, three, and four-month-old Annabel, after the firm’s email warned: ‘The Brazilian Wandering Spider is venomous and should be considered dangerous. We have to take huge care and diligence.’
Following the lengthy fumigation, the family had to dry-clean all their clothes and racked up a total bill of £1,000 which covered hotel costs and pest control measures – which Sainsbury’s paid for them.
The spiders, also known as Phoneutria, are indigenous to South America and parts of Central America such as Costa Rica.
They are extremely toxic and can cause convulsions and in mammals if they bite them.
‘I hope I didn’t eat one but I can’t be sure. I now have a phobia of buying bananas. We don’t know whether they’ve all gone,’ Consi added. ||||| World's deadliest spiders nesting on my banana from Sainsbury's: Family forced to spend three nights in hotel and have property fumigated after Brazilian species invaded their home
Pest control firm warned of possible infestation of the deadly spiders
Consi Taylor saw the tiny spiders jump from the banana she was eating
Their home had to be fumigated for three days while they stayed in hotel
Supermarket initially offered the family a £10 voucher following discovery
They have since paid £1,000 for hotel as well as cleaning and fumigation bills
As she bit into a banana, Consi Taylor noticed some strange spots on its skin.
At first she thought it was just bruising...until each tiny mark dropped on to her carpet and scurried off into hiding.
But while her horror at the creepy-crawly stowaways was bad enough, there was worse to come.
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
The Taylors were forced to stay in a hotel when their home became infested with Brazilian wandering spiders One of the world's most venomous spiders, the female of the species can grow to have a leg span of 6in
After sending a photograph of the insects to pest control experts, she was told they were suspected to be Brazilian wandering spiders, one of the world’s most venomous types, whose bite can kill within two hours.
And worse still, her home could now be infested. The female of the species can grow to have a leg span of 6in.
Mrs Taylor, aged 29, and her teacher husband Richard, 37, were forced to spend three nights in a hotel with their children, Benjamin, three, and four-month-old Annabel, while their house was fumigated and deep-cleaned. Yesterday housewife Mrs Taylor told how her semi-detached home in Hampton, south-west London, was invaded by the toxic arachnids.'
She had taken the fruit from a £1 bunch of Colombian Fair Trade bananas bought in her local Sainsbury’s, and eaten about half when she noticed the 3mm-long dots that resembled mould or bruising. But then she spotted the white nest at the bottom of the fruit.
‘I screamed, it was horrible,’ she said. ‘I’m scared of spiders anyway so I had to get a friend to come round to hoover them up. Then we cleaned the floor with anti-bacterial wipes.’
Luckily her son had turned down a share of the banana before he went out to play football.
At first Consi Taylor thought her banana was bruised... until each tiny mark dropped on to her carpet
Sainsbury’s gave Mrs Taylor a £10 voucher when she returned the fruit, but she insisted on having the spiders identified.
She sent a picture of the creatures to a pest control company, which quickly named them as ‘lethal’ Brazilian wandering spiders – and warned there could still be some lurking in her home.
Guinness World Records lists the species as the most toxic spider on earth. Its venom is said to be 30 times more powerful than that of a rattlesnake. Humans bitten by one can suffer an irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, vomiting and eventual death. To emphasise its nastiness, the spider’s scientific name is ‘phoneutria nigriventer’ – the first word being Greek for ‘murderess’.
Hatchlings do not pack the full poisonous punch of mature adults, but the pest controllers advised evacuating the three-bedroom house. The family is now back home and Sainsbury’s has paid them £2,800 for the inconvenience.
Evacuated: Consi Taylor and her family were forced to flee their south-west London home for a hotel
Sainsbury's paid £1,000 to cover the family's hotel bill, fumigation and dry cleaning now the Taylors have returned home (file picture). They were initially offered just a £10 voucher
Yesterday a store spokesman issued an apology, saying: ‘We do have rigorous controls on imported products at all stages – from harvesting to transportation – which is why this is so rare.’ A source at the chain insisted the creatures are unlikely to survive in Britain either inside or outside, because they need warmth and humidity.
Mrs Taylor said: ‘The pest control people said every living thing in our house is now dead, but I’m still terrified one is still alive.
‘I’d never heard of Brazilian wandering spiders before all this and I can’t imagine what it would be like facing a fully grown one. I was trembling and shaking inside when I found out what they can do to you. We kill every spider we see in the house now.
‘We used to use a postcard and paper cup and carry them outside and put them in the garden, but we’re killing them all now for our safety and sanity.’
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– Yes, we have no bananas today ... because they're full of deadly South American spiders. A family in London was forced to flee its home after spiders began to hatch out of the Colombian fair-trade bananas it had bought from a supermarket chain. Consi Taylor had already eaten half the bananas when she noticed the spider nest at the bottom of the fruit, the Daily Mail reports. She vacuumed up all the spiders, but when Taylor sent photos of the pests to a pest control service, it warned her they were likely deadly Brazilian wandering spiders, and could still be lurking in her home. The Sainsbury's supermarket originally gave the family a voucher for about $15 when they returned the fruit, but has now paid about $4,500 so they could have the house fumigated and stay in a hotel. "I hope I didn’t eat one but I can’t be sure," Taylor tells Metro News. "I now have a phobia of buying bananas. We don’t know whether they’ve all gone."
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– There's something of a Sandy-related brouhaha swirling around comments Mitt Romney made in the ancient days of 2011: Seems that when asked during a Republican debate about disaster relief, Romney sounded like he wanted to gut FEMA, saying he'd shift responsibility for disaster management to the states—or even private firms. Said Romney: "Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better." Asks Eugene Robinson at the Washington Post: "Hurricane Sandy would like to know if he’d care to reconsider." "Even if Romney was just pandering to the right-wing base at that June debate, one consequence of his policies would be to squeeze funding for federal emergency relief." The New York Times editorial board echoes Robinson, asking, "Does Mr. Romney really believe that financially strapped states would do a better job than a properly functioning federal agency?" The Romney campaign took the opportunity to clarify its position, Politico reports: "States should be in charge of emergency management in responding to storms and other natural disasters in their jurisdictions." But he wouldn't abolish FEMA: The states would act "with help from the federal government and FEMA."
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The Romney campaign stressed Monday that states should take the lead in responding to emergencies like hurricanes. But the campaign said Romney would not abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“Gov. Romney believes that states should be in charge of emergency management in responding to storms and other natural disasters in their jurisdictions,” Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said in a statement. “As the first responders, states are in the best position to aid affected individuals and communities, and to direct resources and assistance to where they are needed most. This includes help from the federal government and FEMA.”
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(PHOTOS: Hurricane Sandy)
A campaign official added that Romney would not abolish FEMA.
The statement came after The Huffington Post highlighted Romney’s comments from a June 2011 CNN primary debate in which Romney said states should take on a bigger role in responding to disasters. “Mitt Romney In GOP Debate: Shut Down Federal Disaster Agency, Send Responsibility To The States,” read the Huffington Post’s headline.
“FEMA is about to run out of money, and there are some people who say, ‘Do it on a case-by-case basis.’ And there are some people who say, ‘You know what, maybe we’re learning a lesson here that the states should take on more of this role.’ How do you deal with something like that?” debate moderator John King asked Romney during the debate, pointing to the May 2011 tornado that killed more than 150 people in Joplin, Mo.
“Absolutely. And every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better,” Romney responded.
“Instead of thinking in the federal budget, ‘What we should cut?’ we should ask ourselves the opposite question, ‘What should we keep?’ We should take all of what we’re doing at the federal level and say, ‘What are the things we’re doing that we don’t have to do?’ And those things we’ve got to stop doing,” Romney continued.
(PHOTOS: Political plans: Rock me like a hurricane) ||||| Back when he was being “severely conservative,” Mitt Romney suggested that responsibility for disaster relief should be taken from the big, bad federal government and given to the states, or perhaps even privatized. Hurricane Sandy would like to know if he’d care to reconsider.
The absurd, and dangerous, policy prescription came in a GOP primary debate in June. Moderator John King said he had recently visited communities affected by severe weather and noted that the Federal Emergency Management Agency “is about to run out of money.”
Eugene Robinson writes a twice-a-week column on politics and culture, contributes to the PostPartisan blog, and hosts a weekly online chat with readers. In a three-decade career at The Post, Robinson has been city hall reporter, city editor, foreign correspondent in Buenos Aires and London, foreign editor, and assistant managing editor in charge of the paper’s Style section. View Archive
“There are some people . . . who say, you know, maybe we’re learning a lesson here that the states should take on more of this role,” King said. “How do you deal with something like that?”
Romney replied: “Absolutely. Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better.”
Romney went on to express the general principle that, given the crushing national debt, “we should take all of what we’re doing at the federal level and say, ‘What are the things we’re doing that we don’t have to do?’ ”
King gave him a chance to back off: “Including disaster relief, though?”
Romney didn’t blink. “We cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids,” he said, adding that “it is simply immoral . . . to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids.”
Now, with an unprecedented and monstrous storm bashing the East Coast, this glib exercise in ideological purity is newly relevant. Was Romney really saying that the federal government should abdicate the task of responding to natural disasters such as the one now taking place? Yes, he was. Did he really mean it? Well, with Romney, that’s always another question.
As the legendary Watergate source Deep Throat never actually said: “Follow the money.”
The dishonest “solution” proposed by Romney and running mate Paul Ryan for the federal government’s budget woes relies largely on a shell game: Transfer unfunded liabilities to the states.
Most disastrously, this is what Romney and Ryan propose for Medicaid, the health-care program for the poor. The GOP plan would give the states block grants that would not begin to cover Medicaid’s rising costs. Governors and legislatures would be forced to impose draconian cuts, with potentially catastrophic impact for millions of Americans.
Medicaid’s most expensive role — and thus, under Romney, the most imperiled — is to fund nursing-home care for seniors who classify as “poor” only because they have exhausted their life savings. Transferring the onus of Medicaid and other programs to the states would save money only by making it impossible to provide services at current levels.
For the hard-right ideologues who control the Republican Party, this would be a good thing. Our society has become too dependent on government, they believe, too “entitled” to benefits; we are unwilling to “take personal responsibility and care for” our lives, as Romney said in his secretly recorded “47 percent” speech.
Romney’s budget proposals would end all this coddling — except for the Pentagon and its contractors, who would get a big boost in federal largess, and of course, the wealthy, who would get a huge tax cut.
So-called “discretionary” federal spending would be sharply reduced. This would include spending for such agencies as FEMA. So yes, even if Romney was just pandering to the right-wing base at that June debate, one consequence of his policies would be to squeeze funding for federal emergency relief.
I guess having to survive a few hurricanes, tornados and earthquakes on our own would certainly foster personal responsibility.
And by the way, why is it that we’re having such a huge hurricane make landfall in such an unusual place at such a late date in the season? Is this another of those freakish once-in-a-century weather events that seem to be happening so often these days?
I know it’s impossible to definitively blame any one storm on human-induced atmospheric warming. But I’m sorry, these off-the-charts phenomena are becoming awfully commonplace. By the time scientists definitively establish what’s happening, it will be too late.
As has been noted, the words “climate change” were not spoken during the presidential debates. Hurricane Sandy wants to know why.
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Vandals smashed doors and windows at five Democratic offices around the country in the days surrounding the landmark House health care vote Sunday night, and a right-wing blogger in Alabama is taking credit for starting a so-called “window war.”
Here are the reports we’ve seen from around the country on the mini-epidemic of brick-throwing:
Early on the morning of March 19, someone threw a brick through the window of Rep. Louise Slaughter’s office in Niagara Falls, New York, doing $350 of damage, the Buffalo News reported. Slaughter (D-NY) briefly attracted the ire of conservatives over the “Slaughter Solution,” a procedural maneuver that was considered (but, ultimately, not used) to pass health reform.
Also in Slaughter’s district, a brick was thrown through the glass doors of the Monroe County Democratic Committee office in Rochester, NY, over the weekend, the Democrat and Chronicle reported. A note attached to the brick bore the Barry Goldwater quote, “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice,” a spokesman for the committee told the newspaper.
In the early hours of the morning on Monday just after the House health care vote, someone smashed the glass front door of the Tucson office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), the Arizona Daily Star reported. “The perpetrator likely had to hop the gated fence to get access to the door, since it’s not viewable from the parking lot,” the paper reported.
On Friday night or Saturday morning, a brick bearing unspecified “anti-Obama and anti-health care messages” was thrown through a floor-to-ceiling window at the Sedgwick County Democratic Party headquarters in Wichita, Kansas, CNN and the Kansas City Start reported.
After the passage of the bill Sunday night, a “fist-sized” rock was thrown at a window at the Hamilton County Democratic Party in Cincinnati, in the district of Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-OH), the Enquirer reports.
Pinson, Alabama-based blogger Mike Vanderboegh has been tracking the breaking of windows at Dem offices after issuing a call Friday: “To all modern Sons of Liberty: THIS is your time. Break their windows. Break them NOW.”
It’s far from clear whether Vanderboegh’s call to arms has anything to do with the incidents around the country.
The Kansas City Star identifies Vanderboegh as a former leader of the Alabama Constitutional Militia.
His blog, Sipsey Street Irregulars, identifies with the so-called “Three Percenter” doctrine: “During the American Revolution, the active forces in the field against the King’s tyranny never amounted to more than 3% of the colonists.”
The March 19 post says:
They will send the Internal Revenue Service and other federal police to do this in thousands of small Wacos, if that is what it takes to force us to submit. This arrogant elite pretends that this oppression is for our own good, while everyone else understands that this is about their selfish, insatiable appetite for control over our liberty, our money, our property and our lives.
* (This post has been updated to include the Cincinnati incident.)* ||||| Herschel's Dictum. “There aren’t too many human interaction problems that can’t be fixed with a .45 ACP 230-grain fat-boy.” -- Herschel Smith.
Always remember: "A communist is an impatient socialist." - Anonymous contributor to this blog.
The Nyberg Flag of the Three Percent
Edmund Burke reconsidered in the light of 20th Century funeral pyres.
"Remember: Evil exists because good men don't kill the government officials committing it." -- Kurt Hofmann.
Collected video links of my speeches on liberty and armed civil disobedience. From 2013 to date.
Absolved Chapter Links Click HERE.
And, as things begin to spin out of control, remember this: "All politics in this country now is just dress rehearsal for civil war." -- Billy Beck, August 2009.
From MamaLiberty over at War on Guns: "Here's an idea...If nobody wants a 'civil disturbance,' why in heck don't they quit disturbing us?"
Indeed.
"When Democracy Becomes Tyranny
"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress." I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken
On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . . Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.
In the future . . . When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"
"Smash the bloody mirror." If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh
From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe. "I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."
From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."
"Only cowards dare cringe."
The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille , Curtis Publishing, 1947.
"We fight an enemy that never sleeps." "As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said
"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ." "The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.
"We will not go gently . . ." This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.
But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.
And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.
-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008
"A common language of resistance . . ." "Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.
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What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?
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– Rocks have been flying through the windows of Democratic offices across the US, and one Alabama-based blogger is taking credit for what he calls the “window war” against the big-government supporters of health reform. “I guess that guy’s one of ours,” Mike Vanderboegh told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle about one incident in upstate New York over the weekend. “Glad to know people read my blog.” Other targets were the offices of Reps. Louise Slaughter (NY), Gabrielle Giffords (Ariz.) and Steve Driehaus (Ohio). Sipsey Street Irregulars, the blog written by Vanderboegh, 57, hails the “Three Percenter” doctrine, Talking Points Memo notes, wherein, “during the American Revolution, the active forces in the field against the King’s tyranny never amounted to more than 3% of the colonists.” The March 19 post calling for the window-smashing reads, in part: “They will send the Internal Revenue Service and other federal police to do this in thousands of small Wacos, if that is what it takes to force us to submit.”
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Summarize this article:
The ship was en route to the Bahamas.
A 29-year-old man was killed Friday night when he fell aboard a ship heading from the Port of Palm Beach to Freeport in the Bahamas, authorities confirmed Monday.
The incident occurred at about 8 p.m. Friday aboard the Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line's 1,680-passenger Grand Classica, U.S. Coast Guard spokesman John Lally said. He said a boat from the Coast Guard's Lake Worth station traveled to the ship, then 13 miles east of the port, and then brought the man to shore. Local paramedics took him by ground to St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where he was pronounced dead, Lally said.
He did not have the man's name, age or hometown.
Riviera Beach Fire-Rescue could not immediately provide any information about the incident.
Marcia Lehmann of Singer Island, who had been aboard with her husband, Robert, celebrating his 70th birthday, said Monday she was coming out of a show on the eighth deck when a "code blue" alert came over the intercom.
"I'm thinking someone had a heart attack," Marcia Lehmann said. She said she saw crowds around a stairway and looked down.
"All we could see was pools and pools of blood and (part of) a white sheet," she said. "He fell above us, so it had to have been either the 10th or 11th (deck)."
A spokesman for the cruise line would not provide any information except to say the Coast Guard evacuated a passenger "due to a medical emergency" and then continued to Grand Bahama Island, and to add that "our thoughts and prayers go out to the guest’s family at this time. We commend the crew and U.S. Coast Guard for their swift response."
The Grand Classica and its sister ship, the Grand Celebration, began operations in April.
Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line is the only provider of year-round two-night cruises and cruise and resort stays from the Port of Palm Beach to Grand Bahama Island. The company is projected to carry more than 500,000 passengers annually and be the largest contributor to tourism in Grand Bahama Island. ||||| A Florida man was just months away from marrying the love of his life when he tragically fell to his death while aboard a cruise ship traveling to the Bahamas on Friday, the Associated Press reported.
Christopher McGrory, 29, was celebrating his bachelor party with friends on the Paradise Cruise Line’s Grand Classica ship at the time of his death, according to Palm Beach Post. His wedding was planned for December 1.
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U.S. Coast Guard spokesman John Lally told the outlet guardsmen received a call about an incident that occurred around 8 p.m. nearly 13 miles away.
Lally explained a boat from the Coast Guard’s Lake Worth station rushed to the ship and McGrory was transported to shore, Palm Beach Post reported.
McGrory fell on the ship onto a lower deck and did not fall overboard. He was then taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
Passengers aboard the ship recall hearing a “code blue” alert after McGrory’s fall. “I’m thinking someone had a heart attack,” Marcia Lehmann, who was aboard the ship with her husband Robert, said to Palm Beach Post before adding she saw crowds of people gathered around a stairway.
Grand Classica ship Kefalonitis94/Wikimedia
“All we could see was pools and pools of blood and [part of] a white sheet,” Lehman continued. “He fell above us, so it had to have been either the 10th or 11th [deck].”
The cruise line did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment, but a spokesman told Palm Beach Post the Coast Guard “evacuated a passenger due to a medical emergency.” The ship then continued to its destination.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the guest’s family at this time. We commend the crew and U.S. Coast Guard for their swift response,” the spokesman added.
RELATED: Four Americans Killed in ‘Nightmare’ Rafting Accident During Bachelor Party Trip to Costa Rica
McGrory’s fiancée Jessica Arnett opened up about his sudden death on Facebook writing, “With a heavy, heavy broke heart, it kills me to write this as it all seems surreal but I should tell you all my sweet Chris was in a tragic accident and has passed away.”
For the last several years, McGrory worked as a collateral analyst at Wells Fargo in Fernandina Beach. He attended Florida State University as did his fiancée.
“I’m at a loss for words, that man was my true love and my best friend. Please keep us all in your prayers,” Arnett said. ||||| See more of Jessica Arnett on Facebook ||||| The 29-year-old man fell Friday night aboard a ship headed to the Bahamas from the Port of Palm Beach.
The man who died Friday night aboard a cruise ship was at a bachelor's party in advance of his Dec. 1 wedding, his fiancee's grandmother said Tuesday.
Christopher McGrory, 29, reportedly fell Friday night aboard the Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line’s 1,680-passenger Grand Classica, heading from the Port of Palm Beach to Freeport in the Bahamas.
The U.S. Coast Guard said a boat from its station in Riviera Beach traveled with a crew from Riviera Beach Fire-Rescue to the ship, then 13 miles east of the port, and brought the man to shore. Paramedics took him by ground to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where he was pronounced dead.
Riviera Beach Fire-Rescue has not provided details about the incident.
McGrory, who grew up in Palm Beach County, met Jessica Arnett about four years ago in Tallahassee, where both were working after having graduated Florida State University, her grandmother, Jean Arnett, said Tuesday morning from Yulee.
In 2013, school records show, McGrory received a bachelor's degree in finance from FSU.
According to McGrory's page on the Linkedin professional database, he is an analyst for Wells Fargo and has worked there since the summer of 2015. In addition to his FSU degree, the page says he received an associate of arts in business administration from Palm Beach State College.
A manager at the Wells Fargo bank in Fernandina Beach said Tuesday she was not authorized to comment.
Jean Arnett said her family has for years lived on 50 acres in Yulee, a community northwest of Jacksonville. She said McGrory moved to the property soon after meeting Jessica and was working at a bank in nearby Fernandina Beach. The wedding was to be in Yulee.
Arnett said she heard only sketchy details about what happened on the ship but did say one of the members of the wedding party was McGrory's brother.
Jean Arnett said the last few days have not been easy for her granddaughter.
"How could it be?" she said. "He was the love of her life."
McGrory's father, Brian McGrory, said Tuesday he was not up to talking.
The Martin Funeral Home in Stuart said Tuesday that a visitation for McGrory was set for 6 to 8 p.m. today, with services set for 11 a.m. Wednesday.
The Coast Guard so far has not provided either McGrory's name or hometown and said it will not release information about what might have happened on the ship while its investigation is open.
The cruise line also has not identified McGrory or provided information about what happened but did express its "thoughts and prayers" for the man's family.
The Grand Classica and its sister ship, the Grand Celebration, began operations in April.
Staff researcher Melanie Mena contributed to this story. |||||
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– With less than two months to go until his wedding, Florida's Christopher McGrory boarded Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line's Grand Classica ship planning to celebrate his last days as a bachelor. But the party was short-lived, per the Palm Beach Post. In what his fiancee calls "a tragic accident," the 29-year-old groom-to-be fell from the ship heading from Palm Beach to Freeport in the Bahamas around 8pm Friday, landing on a lower deck. One passenger who recalled seeing "pools and pools of blood" said he fell from the 10th or 11th deck, per the Post. The US Coast Guard rushed from its Lake Worth station to the ship, 13 miles from port, and transported McGrory to shore. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the guest's family at this time," a spokesman for the cruise line says, per People. Meanwhile, McGrory's fiancee, Jessica Arnett, describes "a heavy, heavy broken heart" in a Facebook post. "I'm at a loss for words, that man was my true love and my best friend. Please keep us all in your prayers," she writes. Her grandmother tells the Post that the couple, both graduates of Florida State University, were much in love, having met four years ago in Tallahassee. Instead of the expected Dec. 1 wedding date in Yulee, McGrory's funeral is set for 11am Wednesday in Stuart. (Another bachelor party this month in Costa Rica ended with the deaths of four celebrants.)
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Write a summary based on this article:
Scientists searching for lobster larvae on Investigator research vessel instead find cluster of four volcanoes thought to be about 50m years old
Four enormous underwater volcanoes, thought to be about 50m years old, have been discovered off the coast of Sydney by a team of scientists who were looking for lobster larvae.
The volcano cluster was spotted through sonar mapping of the sea floor by Investigator, Australia’s new ocean-going research vessel, about 250km off the coast.
The four volcanoes are calderas, large bowl-shaped craters caused when a volcano erupts and the land around it collapses. The largest is 1.5km across the rim and rises 700m from the sea floor. The 20km-long volcano cluster is nearly 5km underwater.
Professor Iain Suthers, a marine biologist at the University of NSW, said the volcano discovery was made when the team was searching for nursery grounds for larval lobsters.
“My jaw just dropped,” Suthers told Guardian Australia. “I immediately said, ‘What are they doing there and why didn’t we know about them before?’ It really backs up the statement that we know more about the surface of the moon than our sea floor.
“I’m elated. We went there to look at eddies in the east Australia current and it was completely serendipitous to find this volcano cluster. We can only just imagine what will be around the corner if we continue to scan this area.”
Scientists believe the volcanoes were created by a series of shifts in geological plates that caused Australia to split from New Zealand. Suthers said the area was thought to be “billiard-table flat” but the enhanced mapping capability of the Investigator unveiled the calderas.
The 94-metre Investigator was commissioned by the CSIRO in 2009 via $120m from the federal government. The vessel, which undertook its first sea tests in March, can map the seafloor at any depth, whereas its ageing predecessor, the Southern Surveyor, was limited to 3,000 metres.
Professor Richard Arculus, an igneous petrologist and volcano expert at the Australian National University, said the Investigator’s mapping ability has unveiled an “enormously exciting” discovery.
“They tell us part of the story of how New Zealand and Australia separated around 40m to 80m years ago, and they’ll now help scientists target future exploration of the sea floor to unlock the secrets of the Earth’s crust,” he said.
The team of 28 scientists, led by Suthers, included researchers from NSW, Latrobe, British Columbia, Sydney, Auckland, Technology Sydney and Southern Cross universities. The voyage left Brisbane on 3 June and arrived in Sydney on 18 June.
Science funding cuts are generating fears for jobs and research output Read more
Suthers said it was “inevitable” that other undiscovered volcanoes were in the region, but the Investigator has funding to operate at sea for only 180 days a year. For the rest of the year it is tied up at a wharf in Hobart.
“We should thank Canberra for the funding we do have but it’s frustrating to build a state-of-the-art vessel only to have it sitting in a wharf for six months of the year,” Suthers said.
“This is a vessel that Australia has been crying out for for decades. It’s an incredibly stable vessel for those of us who are seasick. Usually when you’re hit by four-metre waves you lose a couple of days of research because you’re vomiting.”
A spokeswoman for Ian Macfarlane, the industry and science minister, said the shortfall was because Labor “left absolutely no money in the budget” to operate the Investigator. ||||| While searching for baby lobsters no bigger than a 50-cent piece, Australian researchers discovered a series of giant volcanoes off the coast of Sydney.
The four previously unknown volcanoes, which are now extinct, are situated about 250 kilometres off Sydney in about five kilometres of water.
The largest is 1.5 kilometres across the rim and rises 700 metres from the sea floor.
They were uncovered by chance when marine biologists on Australia's new research vessel, the 94-metre Investigator, were searching the area for the nursery grounds of larval lobsters.
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Link Four undersea volcanoes have been discovered off Sydney. Photo: CSIRO
One of the scientists on the voyage, oceanographer Moninya Roughan, said their discovery came as a complete surprise and was serendipitous because the ship was routinely mapping the sea floor.
"It was the last night of the voyage and we'd set a path from Forster to Sydney and we just happened to go over these volcanoes," Dr Roughan, from the University of NSW, said.
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"We had the swathe mappers going constantly throughout the cruise and two support staff who were constantly watching the output and reporting on any features," she said.
"One of the guys came up and said, 'Look at these new volcanoes that have never been discovered before.' "
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Link The volcanoes sit in about 4900 metres of water. Photo: UNSW
The extinct volcanoes are now calderas, which form after a volcano erupts and the land around it collapses, forming a crater.
Volcano expert Richard Arculus, from the Australian National University, said they were at least 50 million years old and formed near the boundary of an ancient ridge separating two ocean plates.
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Link Marine biologists were searching for larval lobsters when they found the volcanoes. Photo: CSIRO
They had never been discovered before because the sonar on Australia's previous research vessel, Southern Surveyor, could map the sea floor only to 3000 metres, which left half of Australia's ocean territory out of reach.
"On board the Investigator we have sonar that can map the sea floor to any depth, so all of Australia's vast ocean territory is now within reach, and that is enormously exciting," Professor Arculus said.
The voyage, led by University of NSW marine biologist Iain Suthers, was one of the first for the Investigator, which is managed by the CSIRO and has capabilities that marine scientists in Australia have never had before.
"It's a kick-arse ship. We should be so proud of it," he said.
While the federal government has funded the ship to run 180 days a year, scientists are hopeful it will be funded to run all year long.
"With these sorts of discoveries, they'll see it's crazy to have it tied up to the wharf," Professor Suthers said.
"If we just found these volcanoes by chance chasing larval lobster, imagine what we could find with a dedicated survey," he said.
"It's ironic that we're about to get the first close-up pictures of Pluto but we had no idea about these beautiful volcanoes just off the coast of Sydney."
The first Investigator voyage was designed to find small ocean eddies, about 20 to 50 kilometres in diameter, that form in the shallow region of the east coast of Australia.
These eddies are full of nutrients and larval fish species, Dr Roughan said.
"But the thing is they're really hard to find so this was the first dedicated research group to look for these features," she said.
"On the last night we were looking at these warm core eddies that sit off the coast of Sydney, which are much easier to find, and looking for lobster larvae when we stumbled across these volcanoes.
"It was sheer luck that we went over them." |||||
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– Researchers on the last night of a voyage to find lobster larvae instead uncovered four extinct, undiscovered volcanoes some 155 miles off Australia's east coast. "My jaw just dropped," voyage leader Iain Suthers tells the Guardian. Though he says researchers believed the ocean floor in the area was "billiard-table flat," a new $120 million research vessel capable of mapping the seafloor at any depth revealed four calderas—big bowl-shaped craters shaped when the land around an erupting volcano crumples—across 12 miles. The largest, three miles below the surface, is almost half a mile tall and a mile across. Experts believe they were formed when shifting ocean plates broke Australia apart from New Zealand. "We went there to look at eddies in the east Australia current and it was completely serendipitous to find this volcano cluster," Suthers says. "We can only just imagine what will be around the corner if we continue to scan this area." Sadly, there is only enough funding to have the "kick-arse ship," the Investigator, trolling the ocean for 180 days a year, Suthers tells the Sydney Morning Herald. As it's now at dock, the "inevitable" underwater volcanoes still undiscovered will have to wait to be found next year. Not only can the Investigator search deeper than its predecessor—which could see less than two miles below the surface—but it's also "an incredibly stable vessel for those of us who are seasick," Suthers says. "Usually when you're hit by (13-foot) waves you lose a couple of days of research because you're vomiting." A volcano expert, who calls the discovery "enormously exciting," says the volcanoes "tell us part of the story of how New Zealand and Australia separated around 40 million to 80 million years ago, and they'll now help scientists target future exploration of the sea floor to unlock the secrets of the Earth's crust." (Another ocean discovery: trillions of glow-in-the-dark fanged fish.)
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input: All four members of the Polish death metal band Decapitated were arrested early Saturday in Santa Ana, California, on suspicion of kidnapping a woman after their Aug. 31 concert in Spokane.
A woman reported to police just before 2 a.m. on Sept. 1 the alleged kidnapping by the band members, said Spokane Police Department spokeswoman Cpl. Teresa Fuller. The band had performed with Thy Art is Murder at The Pin concert venue downtown as part of their “Double Homicide” tour. Fuller said she believes the woman attended the heavy metal concert.
The band members were arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office after their Friday night concert in Santa Ana. They have been identified as 27-year-old Michal M. Lysejko, 35-year-old Waclaw J. Kieltyka, 31-year-old Rafal T. Piotrowski and 30-year-old Hubert E. Wiecek. All are Polish nationals.
The four are in the Los Angeles County Jail awaiting extradition to Spokane. Fuller said additional charges are possible. The case is still under investigation by the department’s Special Victims Unit.
Defense attorney Steve Graham of Spokane said he was hired by the band on Thursday after they became aware of the investigation.
“There is another side to this,” he said. “We have witnesses that can testify to the fact that the accuser came to visit the band of her own free will and left on good terms.”
He said he told police that the band members had offered to surrender but never heard anything back.
“I made it clear that I could get the guys up here ASAP and they would cooperate,” he said.
Graham said he’s concerned that they will “languish” in the Los Angeles County Jail for weeks before being returned to Spokane, but he said the four will not fight extradition and will return to Spokane willingly. ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. |||||
summary: – The members of a Polish death metal band who were scheduled to play a show in Mesa, Ariz., last night instead found themselves in a Los Angeles County Jail cell. All four members of Decapitated were arrested early Saturday morning after their Friday night concert in Santa Ana, Calif., on suspicion of kidnapping a woman following their Aug. 31 show in Spokane, Wash., the Spokesman-Review reports. The woman told police the four men kidnapped her after she attended their show at the Pit concert hall in downtown Spokane as part of their "Double Homicide" tour. The four men, all Polish nationals, are now awaiting extradition back to Spokane. But a Spokane-based defense attorney hired by the band says there is "another side" to the story. "We have witnesses that can testify to the fact that the accuser came to visit the band of her own free will and left on good terms," says Steve Graham. He also says the members of Decapitated have offered to surrender to Spokane authorities but have yet to hear back. The band's accuser has not been identified, and the police have not said where she was taken during the alleged kidnapping, the New York Daily News reports. According to the band's Web site, Decapitated was scheduled to perform in El Paso, Texas, tonight and Albuquerque, NM, tomorrow.
input: If you’ve ever been refused boarding to a flight because your name was spelled wrong on the ticket, you might take comfort from this fairly glaring error on the side of a Cathay Pacific plane. Or should that be “Cathay Paciic”?
On Wednesday morning, photos emerged of a plane for the Hong Kong carrier, with its distinctive green livery missing an “F”.
Taking the fuselage foul-up with good grace, Cathay Pacific posted on its Facebook page: “Oops this special livery won’t last long! She’s going back to the shop!”
Shown the typo, an engineer for Haeco, a sister company of the airline, was baffled by how such a mistake could have happened.
“The spacing is too on-point for a mishap. We have stencils. Should be a blank gap in between letters if it was a real mistake I think,” the engineer said.
The error was likely to be expensive, costing several thousand dollars to fix.
It was unclear whether a Cathay Pacific engineer or someone from Haeco was to blame.
Suleman Siddiqui, posting on the Hong Kong Aviation Discussion Board Facebook forum, was unamused.
“Maybe have your painters be literate in English. That would be a good idea,” he wrote.
It is not the first time the airline has stumbled over a paint job. A few years ago, one of the earliest planes to be painted in the airline’s current branding had its green “brushwing” logo – just behind the cockpit, on the outside of the plane – painted back to front.
Costs holding Cathay Pacific back as its losses narrow to US$33 million ||||| 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 ||||| Image copyright Cathay Pacific Image caption The Hong Kong-based airline joked "Oops this special livery won't last long" after the error was pointed out
An airline has had to send a plane back to the paint shop after the company's name was spelled incorrectly on it.
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific painted its name as "Cathay Paciic" on the side of the jet.
Eagle-eyed travellers spotted the mistake at Hong Kong International Airport and contacted the airline.
"Oops this special livery won't last long! She's going back to the shop!" the company joked on Twitter.
The airline said it was a genuine mistake, although some in the industry said it was inexplicable.
"The spacing is too on-point for a mishap," an engineer for Haeco, a sister company of the airline, told the South China Morning Post.
"There should be a blank gap in between letters if it was a real mistake I think."
Social media users saw the funny side, however.
You may also like: |||||
summary:
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– Proofreaders are important. That's the message Cathay Pacific is likely contemplating today after incredulous travelers spotted one of its new planes on the tarmac at Hong Kong International Airport, the airline's name misspelled in large letters on the side of the aircraft (see a picture here). Missing from the word "Pacific," per the BBC: the letter "f," which prompted "no one gives an f" jokes online. There's some head-scratching going on over the embarrassingly prominent mistake, with an engineer for one of the airline's sister companies telling the South China Morning Post: "The spacing is too on-point for a mishap. We have stencils. Should be a blank gap in between letters if it was a real mistake, I think." The airline, which may have to pony up a few thousand dollars to fix the error, tried to have a sense of humor about it all, posting pictures of the plane on Twitter and noting, "Oops this special livery won't last long! She's going back to the shop!" (The mistake in this Simpsons episode apparently went unnoticed for 20 years.)
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An animal-loving Texas teen committed suicide by cobra.
Grant Thompson, 18, killed himself in July by letting a highly poisonous monocled cobra bite him repeatedly, according to a Travis County Medical Examiner’s autopsy report obtained by KVUE.
The teen, who worked in his family’s pet store, was found inside his SUV parked in front of an Austin Lowe’s with puncture wounds to his arm. The vehicle was filled with caged tarantulas and non-poisonous snakes — but the door to the cobra’s cage was open and the deadly snake was missing.
Thompson had a “history of suicidal ideation” and allowed the toxic serpent to bite him on the left shoulder, the medical examiner said. Shortly before he was found dying, the teen posted an ominous final message to Facebook: “I’m sorry.”
The teen did not recoil and his body showed no signs of struggle with the reptile, the report said.
Grant Thompson killed himself with a cobra, according to an autopsy report. (facebook )
The snake’s venom sent the teen’s body into paralysis and caused respiratory failure, the report said. He died at St. David's Round Rock Medical Center after going into cardiac arrest.
The Texas teen allowed the snake to bite him multiple times, officials said. (Austin Police Department)
The missing cobra sparked panic throughout Austin as animal experts and authorities hunted for the killer creature. After a two-day snake hunt, investigators found it run over by cars a short distance from Thompson’s vehicle.
It’s not clear why the Temple teen was in Austin, which is about 70 miles southwest of his hometown.
Thompson had a lifelong passion for animals and dreamed of breeding exotic pets, his heartbroken mother told the Daily News shortly after his death. The mother-son duo worked at Fish Bowl Pet Express for years.
“Animals were a passion of his,” said Seleese Thompson-Mann, 51. “When he was 4, he got his first big fish tank. We had an animal-themed birthday party. I had a zoo out in Austin bring in animals. From then, he was hooked.”
Thompson-Mann said she was not aware her son, who lived in his own apartment, owned the deadly cobra.
The 18-year-old was found unresponsive in a car parked in an Austin Lowe's parking lot in July. (Fish Bowl Pet Express/via Facebook)
Thompson worked in his family's pet shop and grew up around animals. (Seleese Schraeder Thompson-Mann/via Facebook) He had a slew of pet snake and other animals. (Grant Thompson/via Facebook) Thompson, who worked in his family's pet shop and grew up around animals, had several pet snakes.
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Life Legacy | Life Stories | Life Timeline | Historic Documents | Family Tree Life Legacy
Grant Thompson, age 18 of Temple, died Tuesday July 14, 2015. Services will be held at 10:00 AM Monday, July 20th at First Baptist Church in Temple with Tim Atkinson, Glenn Lackey and Dana Wilhelmsen officiating. Visitation will be 4:00 6:00 PM Sunday at Scanio-Harper Funeral Home.
Grant James Thompson was born in Temple on October 16, 1996. He was raised in Temple and was a member of Immanuel Lutheran Church. He attended school at Kennedy Powell, Bonham Middle School, Temple and Belton High Schools. Grants passion for animals revealed itself at an early age with weekly visits to The Fish Bowl Pet Express, membership to the Cameron Park Zoo, Zoo Camp, building of animal cities with his toys and his constant and ever changing collection of animals.
Grant surrounded himself with living things. He was always eager to share his animals with his friends, family, neighbors, Sunday School class and anyone he could bend an ear to listen, see, touch and share his love of the animals.
Grant had a unique spirit and focused vision of accomplishing his dream to own The Fish Bowl Pet Express. He wanted to be a part of the community and to move in nontraditional directions others often couldnt understand. It wounded his heart to see an animal suffer or be mistreated in any way. Each animal had a place in his circle.
His fourth birthday party was a zoo themed party with an animal program from the Austin Zoo. The spark caught fire. Grant began taking some type of an animal with him every time he left the house. He took an animal to church every Sunday to share with the class or anyone that would take a look at what was in the box he carried with him. He began taking several at one time with him to the Ralph Wilson Youth Club in the summer to the kids attending the summer programs. When his collection started to grow and it was required by his mom that he pay for their premium fruit, nuts, special diets and habitats, he and his mom created Grants Animal Programs in order to generate income to pay for them and to acquire more of the critters he couldnt get enough of owning and sharing.
Because his heart was tender for animals that were hurting and passion for their care and wellbeing, he often rescued and rehabilitated animals and it was always part of his program. He would be asked for advice and he would gladly give it or research options which included seeking advice from his network of other pet stores, vets, breeders and pet owners.
Grants hero was Steve Irwin. He watched The Crocodile Hunter when Animal Planet wasnt the cool thing to do on a Saturday night. When Irwin died he said, What do you do when your hero dies? Grant decided he would carry Steves message of being kind to animals, conserving, educating, and learning how to live on this planet with the gift of animals.
When the opportunity to purchase The Fish Bowl Pet Express presented itself the path was clear. Grants dream was realized with a future designed to include accomplishing his goal of owning the pet store he so deeply loved which included living in the apartment at the store. His vision for The Fish Bowl to be a destination for families will continue to grow, improve, change and thrive in downtown Temple. Volunteer Programs, The Delta Program from Belton High School, Birthday Parties, Ralph Wilson Youth Club, Belton Christian Youth Center, Camp Wildflower, Temple Parks and Leisure Camps, all will continue to be a part of his community.
Grant died surrounded by animals that intrigued and fascinated him. His eyes were donated to help others see the beauty of Gods world. He leaves behind to nurture his legacy his mother, Seleese Thompson-Mann and husband, Mitch of Temple and his father, John Thompson and wife, Sara of Austin, his sister, Faith Thompson of Temple and two step-sisters, Lauren Mann of Austin and Leah Mann of Temple. Also surviving are grandparents, Weldon and Reeneea Schraeder, Phyliss Thompson and Richard Mann all of Temple and Rita McKnight of Magnolia.
His broken hearted family is humbled and thankful for the short time they shared with Grant on this earth and draws strength from knowing we will see Grant in every living thing and feel him with the kindness we show everyone around us. They are blessed and strengthened by the outpouring of love and the peace of the knowledge of how many people Grants life touched. Grants friends and the community are the angels lifting his family to their feet while their wings are having trouble remembering how to fly.
The blessing of memorials can be given in memory of Grant to The Temple Animal Shelter or APAC-Association of a Pet Adoption Center in Temple. Rescuing animals was in Grants heart.
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Born: October 16, 1996 Death: July 14, 2015
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Close ||||| #austincobra found dead on I-35 (Photo: Tina Shively, KVUE News)
AUSTIN – A Central Texas teenager who died in a SUV earlier this year committed suicide by letting a deadly monocle cobra repeatedly bite him, according to the autopsy report obtained by KVUE’s Tony Plohetski.
The Travis County Medical Examiner’s office report said Grant Thompson, 18, had “several bites” from the cobra on each arm and the bites showed no sign Thompson ever tried to pull away when the snake bit him.
The autopsy report said Thompson, who was right-handed, first allowed the cobra to bite him higher on the left shoulder, which the medical examiner’s office said is consistent with someone right-handed doing so on purpose.
Medical examiners concluded that the bites “appeared to be intentional injection sites” and that Thompson had a “history of suicidal ideation.”
The autopsy showed that cobra venom causes paralysis leading to respiratory failure and death in as little as 30 minutes. Marijuana and amphetamines were also discovered in Thompson’s body.
Thompson, a reptile lover who worked in his family’s pet store in Temple, was found July 14 with his car door open and an empty container that housed the cobra. Police also discovered a viper snake and several tarantulas.
The missing cobra sparked a massive search of the area by animal control experts. The snake was found dead a few days later in an I-35 frontage road.
While the autopsy report answered the question of how he died, other parts of the case remain a mystery including why Thompson was in Austin or why he chose the location where he committed suicide.
Plohetski has reached out to the family multiple times over the past few months, but they have not responded to any interview requests.
For more on the cobra case, click here.
Read or Share this story: http://kvue.tv/1iXWcwg |||||
Write a summary.
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– Authorities say a young pet-store staffer in Texas committed suicide with help from a cobra. Grant Thompson, 18, was found in cardiac arrest inside his car in a North Austin parking lot on July 14. An autopsy report, obtained by the Austin American-Statesman, shows Thompson suffered "multiple separate bites" on his arms from a monocled cobra. The bites "appeared to be intentional injection sites" as their marks gave no indication that the teen tried to pull away from the snake. The first bite, on Thompson's left shoulder, was consistent with a right-handed person deliberately allowing the bite, according to the report, per KVUE. The report—which notes cobra venom leads to paralysis, respiratory failure, and death within 30 minutes—adds Thompson "had a history of suicidal ideation." Shortly before he died, Thompson had posted a message on Facebook reading, simply, "I'm sorry," per the New York Daily News. Though authorities didn't find the cobra in Thompson's car, which was left with the door open, the snake was discovered dead on a nearby road days later. An empty cage, a viper snake, and numerous tarantulas were also found in the vehicle. Thompson, who worked at a pet store that his mother owns in Temple, lived in an apartment attached to the store; it isn't clear why he was in Austin, which is about 70 miles from his home. "Animals were a passion of his," his mother said, adding he had an animal-themed birthday party at age 4. "From then, he was hooked," she told the Daily News. An obituary said Thompson "died surrounded by animals that intrigued and fascinated him." (This farmer bit a cobra to death.)
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– It's usually Pink who's making headlines, but the pop singer's husband has found his way to more than a few over to his response to the California wildfires. Per ET.com, Carey Hart is the center of new controversy over a photo he posted on Instagram Tuesday showing a group of men—most with their faces covered—locked and ostensibly loaded with a variety of firearms. "There have been sightings of looters breaking in to homes," the caption reads. "Well, if you are a looter, think twice if you are heading back into malibu." Hart included the hashtags #DefendYourLand and #2ndamendment. The men in the photo are seen standing behind a sign that reads: "Looters will be shot on site [sic]." Pink has also been sharing her thoughts about the fires on social media, though hers lean more toward gratitude than vigilantism, per PopCulture.com. "Just need to say THANKYOU to all of the firefighters. All of the first responders. All of the helpers," she tweeted Friday. "The thing to look for in tragedy is all of the helpers. We're all so grateful for your bravery and selflessness." TMZ reports that the couple had to vacate their home in Malibu as a result of the fire, though the structure was apparently spared by the flames. (Some celebrities didn't fare so well in the fires.)
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Pink's husband Carey Hart is taking an aggressive approach against potential looters during the California wildfires.
The former professional motorcycle racer issued an ominous warning Tuesday on Instagram, issuing a warning to looters who might want to bother the Malibu community.
"It's unfortunate that some people take advantage of others in a crisis. While the Malibu fires have been burning, some locals have been fighting off and defending their property against the fires. There have been sightings of looters breaking in to homes. Well, if you are a looter, think twice if you are heading back into malibu," he wrote in the caption, adding the hashtags, #DefendYourLand #2ndamendment
(Photo: Instagram/Carey Hart)
The post included an undated photo, as first reported by TMZ, of masked gunmen with a sign that reads, "Looters will be shot on site."
According to the outlet, looting has become a major issue in the evacuation zone of the Woolsey Fire, which has seen thousands of people displaced from their homes, giving plenty of opportunities for criminals to break in and take things.
Pink and Hart were forced to flee their beachside property in Malibu, though their home was spared from destruction.
The "Beautiful Trauma" singer also shared a message on social media related to wildfires on Friday, though hers was one of gratitude to firefighter putting their lives at risk to help contain the devastating fire.
"Just need to say THANKYOU to all of the firefighters. All of the first responders. All of the helpers. The thing to look for in tragedy is all of the helpers. We're all so grateful for your bravery and selflessness," Pink wrote on the tweet Friday.
The wildfire claimed the homes of many celebrities including Miley Cyrus and Gerard Butler.
Cyrus' boyfriend Liam Hemsworth shared a heartbreaking image of the ruins of their Malibu home Tuesday.
"It’s been a heartbreaking few days," he wrote. "This is what’s left of my house. Love. Many people in Malibu and surrounding areas in California have lost their homes also and my heart goes out to everyone who was affected by these fires. I spent the day in Malibu yesterday and it was amazing to see the community pulling together to help each other out in any way they can. Malibu is a strong community and this event is only going to make it stronger."
The actor continued, "Thankful for the all the great local guys that helped keep smaller fires out around my property. I love u guys. I love you Malibu. Thank you to all the hero firefighters around California. It’s going to be a journey to rebuild. Stay strong all." ||||| P!nk's Husband Carey Hart Warns Wildfire Looters ... Will Be Shot On Site
P!nk's Husband Carey Hart Warns California Wildfire Looters, You Will Be Shot On Site
Breaking News
P!nk's husband has a message for the spineless thugs ransacking homes left vacant in the evacuation zones of the raging SoCal wildfires ... try looting our neighborhood, and you'll be shot on site!
Carey Hart, the former pro motorcycle racer, issued the ominous warning Tuesday on IG, cautioning looters to think twice if they're coming into Malibu. The caption was paired with an undated photo of masked gunmen behind a sign that says, "Looters will be shot on site."
Looting in the evacuation zones is a major issue in the wake of the Woolsey Fire ... thieves know most homeowners have evacuated, and power outages have turned off security systems on many properties, creating prime conditions for looters.
P!nk and Carey were forced to flee their beachside property in Malibu ... though their home reportedly escaped the flames.
More than 300 law enforcement officers have been dispatched to guard the evacuation zones in L.A. and Ventura County ... but Carey is apparently taking matters into his own hands, and encouraging his neighbors to do the same. ||||| Carey Hart is making headlines.
Pink's husband caused quite a bit of controversy on Tuesday, after seemingly threatening to shoot looters following the Woolsey Fire, which caused destruction and forced evacuations across Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Malibu and other areas.
"It’s unfortunate that some people take advantage of others in a crisis. While the Malibu fires have been burning, some locals have been fighting off and defending their property against the fires. There have been sightings of looters breaking in to homes. Well, if you are a looter, think twice if you are heading back into Malibu," Hart captioned a photo of a group of men displaying their weapons behind a sign reading "Looters will be shot on site! P.D.C Posse." It is unknown if Hart is in the photo, but he added two hashtags alongside the post: "#DefendYourLand" and "#2ndamendment."
ET has reached out to reps for Pink and Hart for comment.
While some fans supported Hart's post, others called him out, noting that the area was recently plagued by a shooting, when 12 people were killed Wednesday night at Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, California. Among the victims was Tamera Mowry-Housley's 18-year-old niece, Alaina Housley.
Mowry-Housley and her husband, Adam Housley, have since condemned the "senseless" shooting, and in an interview with ET on Sunday, Jamie Foxx opened up about the surge of tragedy in the area.
"At least 25 people lost their lives, a lot of people are hurting in my neighborhood in Thousand Oaks, and of course, you know, the shootings," Foxx said.
"So, I can't tell people enough, in a world right now where it's sort of crazy times to just look for the good in people. Stop looking for the bad in people," he added. "And just pray for the kids, man, pray for everybody in California. People are losing their whole existence. we were fortunate enough to be able to move but a lot of people aren't, so just god bless all."
See more in the video below.
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Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth Donate $500K to Malibu Relief After Losing Home to Woolsey Fire |||||
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BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore police shot and killed a cow that escaped from a city slaughterhouse on a downtown street Friday morning, a spokeswoman said.
A cow shot by Baltimore police lies on a city street Friday, June 13, 2014. Police say the animal escaped from a city slaughterhouse and was shot after concerned business owners contacted police. (AP... (Associated Press)
The animal was shot shortly after 10:15 a.m. in the Mount Vernon neighborhood, and police believe it escaped from a slaughterhouse in west Baltimore, Sgt. Sarah Connolly said.
Connolly said police received calls from business owners concerned about the animal running loose. The neighborhood is home to numerous bars, restaurants and shops.
The animal was "increasingly aggressive," and officers made several attempts to trap it before killing it, police said on the department's Facebook page.
Sam Wirtz, who lives three blocks away, said he was walking to visit a friend when he saw the animal running down the street.
"I was trying to get other people to get the hell out of the way," he said.
Wirtz said he heard four shots but didn't see the animal fall.
Police did not immediately disclose the animal's gender but referred to the animal on the Facebook page as a bull. Wirtz said that based on his experience growing up around livestock in Texas, he'd call it a bull.
"This is normal for me, just not in Baltimore city," he said.
After the shooting, police moved their cars to block from view the dark-colored animal, which was lying on its side next to a black pickup with limbs straight out.
The carcass was hauled away by representatives of a company that recycles restaurant grease and animal byproducts. ||||| A steer escaped from a Baltimore butcher, running down North Avenue where Robert Queen saw the beast and shot video. It was followed by police and then shot and killed. (Baltimore Sun video)
A 780-pound steer headed for slaughter in West Baltimore seized a chance at freedom Friday, leaping a barbed-wire fence and taking a brisk two-mile walk along North Avenue that ended when the animal was gunned down by police in Mid-Town Belvedere.
The steer was first spotted about 10:15 a.m. after escaping from the George G. Ruppersberger & Sons Inc. slaughterhouse in the 2600 block of Pennsylvania Ave., according to police. It was shot less than an hour later.
Scores of people took pictures of the felled animal at North Charles and Preston Street, and the incident became fodder for social media, which lit up with pictures, Internet memes ("Cow Ripken") and fake Twitter accounts posting the supposed musings of the steer.
But witnesses also raised serious questions about the appropriateness of police opening fire on the animal with people nearby.
Ellie Beziat said the animal was trotting 15 feet from her and her boyfriend when she saw an officer lean out of a moving cruiser and fire shots at its head. She said there were about 10 other pedestrians in the street.
"I don't know whether the [animal] needed to be shot, but I do know you shouldn't be firing out of a moving police car with pedestrians standing there," Beziat said.
Police said the steer had become "increasingly aggressive" and officers were unable to contain it. "We have to take into account the safety of the surroundings of everybody," Sgt. Sarah Connolly, a police spokeswoman, said of the decision to shoot the steer.
The department has assigned its Force Investigation Team, which investigates police-involved shootings and other serious uses of force, to the case.
The Ruppersberger plant has been open since 1966, and it was the only slaughterhouse in the city until the company recently opened up a larger plant in Southwest Baltimore, according to an article on AmericanFarm.com.
William Whitfield, wearing a blood-smeared T-shirt, said he was working at Ruppersberger & Sons at the time of the escape. The slaughterhouse had received 20 steers, 10 cows and one bull that morning, he said.
Two steers got loose, but only one was able to jump a fence.
"He hit Woodbrook [Street], then Francis Street, and head on out," Whitfield said. "He got full speed."
Reached by phone, a company official declined to comment.
The incident snarled traffic, and people flocked to the area. One officer, a late arrival to the scene, was overheard saying to a fellow officer, "I thought you meant a pit bull!" when he saw the animal.
Robert Queen, a 22-year-old designer, was driving onto North Avenue from Druid Hill Avenue when he saw the animal trot by. At first he thought it was a horse that had gotten loose, perhaps from the stall of an a-rabber, the produce salesmen who use horse-drawn carts.
He pulled out his cellphone and started recording as the steer strolled along the median, past a lake trout carryout and liquor store.
In the video, a man standing alone on the corner can be seen wheeling around in disbelief. Queen's caption for the video read simply: "He out."
Police said they first started tracking the steer on North Avenue, and four police cars tried to hem it in near Eutaw Street, but the animal would not be held back, Baltimore police spokesman Lt. Eric Kowalczyk said.
"It vaulted over the hood of a car," he said.
Kowalczyk said police had almost corralled the steer near Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, but it escaped again and ran into a nearby parking garage. Police called in the large Emergency Vehicle Unit command truck, a mobile command station often used during barricade situations, to block the entrance of the parking garage and try to seal in the steer.
But Kowalczyk said the animal leaped over the bumper of the truck and squeezed through an opening. "That was when we were left with the situation where the officer was forced to discharge," he said.
Witnesses said the steer appeared to be "bewildered" and "scared" right before the shooting.
Beziat said the steer was not charging or running fast, and appeared confused.
Adam Palmer was walking along Preston Street toward the Starbucks on North Charles Street near the University of Baltimore when he saw people ducking into stores and heard the sound of what he thought was firecrackers. He then saw the steer coming toward one-way traffic on Preston Street. "It was walking, kind of wandering," he said.
Palmer believes he heard three shots, followed by another three to five, then saw the animal collapse. Palmer said he was surprised that police opened fire.
"There's tons of people here all the time, with the college, it being the middle of the day, people going to coffee," Palmer said. "It's kinda scary."
Others said they didn't want to second-guess the officers. "It was running past pedestrians, running into traffic. A decision has to be made," said Eric Long, who had seen the steer near Pearlstone Park.
Kowalczyk said officers couldn't use a tranquilizer in the situation because department policy dictates that tranquilizers only be used once animals are "contained" and do not pose a threat to bystanders.
Moreover, police can't predict how an animal on the loose would react to sedatives, he said. The department is in the process of switching out its tranquilizer medication. The current drug used in the darts "was having an adverse reaction on animals," he said.
"We were never able to get containment, and the urgency and immediacy of the incident escalated where the officer had to discharge," Kowalczyk said.
The animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals condemned the incident.
"If an animal escapes from a slaughterhouse or slaughter truck, that animal should be granted amnesty," said PETA spokeswoman Lindsay Rajt. "PETA would have found him a home and made him an ambassador to other animals for his courage."
Jay Fulmer, a board member and former president of the Maryland Cattlemen's Association, said steers are generally docile but, like any animal, can panic in unfamiliar and stressful surroundings.
"It's unfortunate for the animal, and it's unfortunate for whoever the owner was, but I think they had to do what they had to do," Fulmer said.
Friday's steer escape was hardly the first in Baltimore.
In 2002, a steer escaped from the Ruppersberger plant, leading to a SWAT team response. That animal roamed around until he ran into a dead-end alley, where officers fired tranquilizer darts before putting him down with a shotgun.
Eastern District officers spent hours in 1977 corralling 16 head of cattle that escaped from the Charles J. Schmidt & Co. packing house on Harford Road. Reports at the time said the officers yelled "Yippee kay-aye!" and "Ride 'em cowboy!" Officers rounded up all the cattle except one, which was shot with a shotgun, with the consent of the vice president of the packing company.
In 1969, police enlisted West Baltimore youth to round up 12 head of cattle that escaped from the Hi Grade Beef and Provision Company slaughterhouse. "A posse of policemen and a troop of teenagers rode out after the wayward shorthorns," an account at the time said.
And in 1896, a steer was "on his way toward the stockyards for the purpose of providing beef-steaks and roasts … when it occurred to him that he would have a little Christmas fun before visiting the butcher." Police "vainly attempted to lasso him" before "assassinating him with an axe," The Sun reported.
Baltimore Sun reporter Justin George contributed to this article.
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– A big steer escaped from a slaughterhouse in Baltimore this morning, but his final taste of freedom didn't last too long, reports the Baltimore Sun. Police shot and killed the 780-pound animal after getting calls from city dwellers surprised to see it trotting around their streets, reports the AP. Police say they had to shoot the steer after it became "increasingly aggressive," according to a post on the department's Facebook page. But the move isn't sitting well with all. "I don't know whether the [animal] needed to be shot but I do know you shouldn't be firing out of a moving police car with pedestrians standing there," one witness tells the Sun. The department says it will investigate the incident. The animal was nothing if not determined: It had to leap a fence to escape the slaughterhouse, and police say it "vaulted" over the hood of one of their cars when it first got cornered. (This animal escape had a happier ending.)
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By George Mathis
Atlanta Journal Constitution
It costs more to train and equip new police officers than it does to pay them.
That’s why veteran police officers are a valuable commodity.
>> Read more trending stories
But in Florida, a 4-year deputy being honored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving for making more than 100 DUI arrests was too intoxicated to pick up his award.
Pinellas County deputy Michael Szeliga arrived at a statewide police training event "ready to party," according to WFLA.
Szeliga, who allegedly packed a bottle of liquor for the 2-day training event in Fort Lauderdale, was described as “staggeringly drunk” by a witness at the Friday night banquet where he was slated to receive the MADD award.
A 274-page report on the deputy’s behavior indicates he and two other officers went to the hotel pool, where they drank alcohol instead of attending DUI training. Szeliga drank and played cornhole until he saw his fellow deputies leaving training. Then he returned to his room to get ready for the awards ceremony.
According to the report, he was so intoxicated the police chief from Gulfport, Florida, suggested Szeliga not go to the event. The deputy then made “disrespectful comments” toward the police chief, who reported the behavior to Szeliga’s boss.
Another officer reported seeing the deputy wearing “nothing but boxer shorts” in the hallway of the hotel, according to WFLA.
Szeliga said the training was not necessary because he was being transferred out of the DUI unit. He now works as a detective in the sheriff’s crimes against children unit.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri credited Szeliga with being a good deputy but also expressed his disapproval of the MADD affair. “It was wrong, and again, one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard of,” Gualtieri said.
The deputy was suspended for one day and wrote an apology to the Gulfport police chief. ||||| Related Coverage Pinellas deputy apologizes for drinking, disrespectful behavior at MADD conference
PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Records just obtained by 8 On Your Side reveal a Pinellas County deputy who was disciplined last month for drunken misbehavior at a Mothers Against Drunk Driving conference in Fort Lauderdale showed up at that July statewide training event prepared to party.
“The plot thickens,” said former MADD director and anti-DUI attorney Tom Carey after hearing new details. “It seems to be a lot worse than originally presented.”
Michael Szeliga packed a bottle of Jameson Irish whiskey, as part of his luggage, in his sheriff’s patrol car before driving to the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Hotel in Fort Lauderdale with two other deputies. They were there for two days of DUI law enforcement training.
Szeliga was also supposed to receive a MADD award for making more than 100 DUI arrests. But alcohol got in the way.
According to a 274-page Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office internal affairs investigation, Szeliga ran into trouble when one witness said he arrived staggeringly drunk at the Friday night banquet. That’s where Szeliga was supposed to receive his MADD award in front of about 200 other invited guests.
Gulfport Police Chief Robert Vincent encountered Szeliga outside of the banquet and suggested it wasn’t appropriate for Szeliga to attend the affair due to his intoxication. That lead to “disrespectful” comments Szeliga directed toward Vincent, which prompted Vincent to seek out one of Szeliga’s supervisors and tell him Szeliga was “wasted.”
Szeliga’s supervisor, according to investigative records, smelled alcohol on Szeliga’s breath and ordered him to return to his room and forego the banquet, along with his award.
It turns out, according to the records we’ve just obtained, that Szeliga’s alcohol-infused shenanigans started much earlier in the day.
Szeliga signed in and attended a morning session of the DUI enforcement training but left with two other deputies following the first break. He decided the training was no longer “relevant” to him since he was transferring out of the DUI unit into a detective position. MADD required attendance at all training that weekend in exchange for picking up all the expenses of the conference.
Szeliga told investigators he returned to his hotel room, poured himself a few Coke and whiskey cocktails and headed down to the pool area with the other two deputies who skipped the training. Szeliga said one of the other deputies had also brought a bottle of Crown Royal for the weekend.
Szeliga and the other deputies were on duty when they decided to skip the training and head to the pool. Some deputies went swimming. Szeliga told investigators he played the “cornhole” bean bag game with a fellow deputy while consuming his Jameson cocktails. The game ended when Szeliga saw other deputies leaving the training class at the end of the day. That’s when Szeliga told investigators he headed back to his room.
As evening approached, Szeliga and his Pinellas deputy roommate were dressing for the awards banquet when a fire alarm sounded in their wing of the hotel. That’s when, according to the records, a Pasco County sergeant who runs the DUI squad in that county reported seeing Szeliga in the hotel hallway wearing “nothing but boxer shorts.” The sergeant said, “He was pretty drunk when I saw him,” according to Szeliga’s supervisor.
The Pasco sergeant told investigators Szeliga’s eyes were glassy and his speech was slurred. Szeliga and his deputy roommate later told investigators he was not standing in the hallway in his boxer shorts and insisted he only stuck his head out of the door due to the fire alarm. Szeliga also denied being as drunk as some of the witnesses claimed and insisted he only consumed two or three drinks that he poured for himself from the Jameson bottle in his room.
Szeliga did attend a full day of training on Saturday before driving back to Pinellas County to face the music with his commanders.
Last month, Szeliga received one day of paid suspension for violating the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office “Standard of Conduct” because of his drunken behavior while on duty and his disrespectful remarks directed at the Gulfport chief. He also had to write a letter of apology to Vincent.
Szeliga now works as a detective in the sheriff’s crimes against children unit. He declined to comment when news of his MADD escapade first broke last month and couldn’t be reached Wednesday regarding the new details.
Back in October, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri credited Szeliga with being a good deputy but also expressed his disapproval of the MADD affair. “It was wrong, and again, one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard of,” Gualtieri said. “When I first heard about it, that was (what) my reaction was. ‘Come on, you’ve got to be kidding me. Really?’” |||||
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– A Florida sheriff's deputy—who's now a full-fledged detective—apparently got so drunk at a Mothers Against Drunk Driving conference that he couldn't receive an award for making 100 DUI arrests, WFTV reports. According to lengthy report, Pinellas County deputy Michael Szeliga arrived at a Fort Lauderdale MADD training event in July and got pretty tanked on Jameson Irish whiskey cocktails. He skipped training, hung out at the Hyatt Regency's pool, and played a "cornhole" beanbag game with other deputies, WFLA reports. "The plot thickens" from there, says a former MADD director and anti-DUI lawyer. "It seems to be a lot worse than originally presented." Indeed, a sergeant claimed he saw Szeliga in the hotel hallways looking "pretty drunk" and wearing "nothing but boxer shorts" during a fire alarm, and Szeliga allegedly mouthed off to a police chief who told him not to enter the awards banquet while intoxicated. According to the 274-page internal affairs report, Szeliga’s supervisor soon got him to skip the banquet altogether. Szeliga disputes some details of the account, but was suspended with pay for a day. He's now a detective for a unit investigating crimes against children. "It was wrong," says Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, who also called Szeliga a good deputy. "When I first heard about it, that was (what) my reaction was. 'Come on, you’ve got to be kidding me. Really?'"
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Approximately 252,710 new cases of invasive breast cancer and 63,410 cases of in situ breast carcinoma are expected to be diagnosed among US women in 2017 (Table 1 ). In addition, 40,610 women are expected to die from this disease in 2017. Eighty‐one percent of breast cancers are diagnosed among women ages 50 years and older, and 89% of breast cancer deaths occur in this age group. The median age at diagnosis for women with breast cancer is 62 years; the median age at diagnosis is younger for black women (59 years) than for white women (63 years). The median age at breast cancer death is 68 years overall (70 years for white women and 62 years for black women). 13
A woman living in the United States has a 12.4%, or a 1 in 8, lifetime risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer (Table 2 ). Lifetime risk reflects an average woman's risk over an entire lifetime, taking into account the possibility that she may die from another cause before she would have been diagnosed with breast cancer, and does not apply only to women who live to a very old age. Age‐specific probabilities for developing cancer over a 10‐year period are also provided in Table 2 . For example, the risk for a 50‐year‐old, cancer‐free woman being diagnosed with breast cancer over the next 10 years is 2.3%. Equivalently, 1 in 43 cancer‐free women who are 50 years old will be diagnosed with breast cancer by the age of 60 years.
Cause‐specific survival (ie, the probability of not dying of breast cancer within a specified number of years after diagnosis) is used instead of relative survival to describe survival in racial and ethnic minorities, because reliable estimates of life expectancy are not available for some racial/ethnic groups. For each known stage of disease, 5‐year breast cancer survival is highest for API women and lowest for NHB women (Fig. 4 ). Racial/ethnic differences in survival in part reflect the variation in the distribution of breast cancer subtypes (Fig. 3 ).
Racial and ethnic variations in breast cancer stage at diagnosis and 5‐year cause specific survival are shown in Figure 4 . NHW and API women have the highest proportions of localized breast cancers (range, 65%‐67%) and the lowest proportions of regional (range, 27%‐30%) stage disease. In contrast, NHB and Hispanic women have lower proportions of localized breast cancers (range, 57%‐59%) and higher proportions of regional (35%) stage disease. Distant‐stage disease represented 9% of diagnoses among NHB women, compared with 5% to 6% of diagnoses in other racial/ethnic groups.
Figure 3 shows racial/ethnic variation in incidence rates by breast cancer subtype. Gene expression profiling techniques have allowed researchers to identify at least 5 different molecular subtypes (luminal A, luminal B, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 [HER2] overexpression, basal, and normal‐like tumors), which are biologically variable in presentation, response to treatment, and outcomes and may be associated with distinct etiology. 14 , 15 These molecular subtypes are approximated using routinely evaluated immunohistochemical markers, including the presence or absence of HRs (ER or PR); (HR‐positive/HR‐negative) and expression of the HER2 (HER2‐positive/HER2 negative) protein. 16 The HR‐positive/HER2 negative (luminal A) breast cancers are the most common subtype in each racial/ethnic group; however, rates range from 53 cases per 100,000 in Hispanics to 82 cases per 100,000 in NHW. Lower overall breast cancer incidence rates in AI/AN, Hispanic, and API women are primarily driven by lower rates of the HR‐positive/HER2‐negative subtype. In contrast, incidence rates for triple‐negative breast cancers (HR‐negative/HER2‐negative), most of which are the basal subtype, are twice as high in NHB women (24 per 100,000) compared with NHW women (12 per 100,000), which is the racial/ethnic group with the second highest rate. Importantly, studies suggest that the distribution of breast cancer subtypes may also vary within the broad racial/ethnic groups described here. For example, although overall rates of HR‐negative/HER2‐positive breast cancers in API women are similar to the rates in other groups, an analysis of California women by Asian ethnic subgroup reported that Korean, Filipina, Chinese, and Southeast Asian women had a higher risk of HR‐negative/HER2‐positive breast cancers compared with NHW women, whereas Japanese and American Indian women had lower risk for this subtype. 17 Racial and ethnic differences in breast cancer subtypes may reflect variation in the prevalence of breast cancer risk factors, particularly reproductive factors, which are most strongly associated with HR‐positive breast cancers 15 , 18 but also appear to reflect ancestry‐related genetic variations. 19 - 21
Female breast cancer incidence and mortality rates vary substantially by race/ethnicity in the United States (Fig. 1 ). Non‐Hispanic white (NHW) and non‐Hispanic black (NHB) women have higher breast cancer incidence and death rates than women of other race/ethnicities; API women have the lowest incidence and death rates. Although the overall breast cancer incidence rate during 2010 through 2014 was slightly (2%) lower in NHB women (125.5 per 100,000) than in NHW women (128.7 per 100,000), the breast cancer death rate during 2011 through 2015 was 42% higher in NHB women (29.5 per 100,000) than in NHW women (20.8 per 100,000). Racial differences in breast cancer incidence rates vary by age (Fig. 2 ). Compared with NHW women, NHB women have higher breast cancer incidence rates before age 40 years but lower rates at ages 65 to 84 years. NHB women are more likely to die from breast cancer at every age.
Temporal Trends
Incidence Much of the historic increase in breast cancer incidence rates reflect changes in reproductive patterns, such as delayed childbearing and having fewer children, which are recognized risk factors for breast cancer.22, 23 Incidence rates of in situ and invasive breast cancer rose rapidly during the 1980s and 1990s (Fig. 5), largely because of increased use of mammography screening in the United States. The widespread uptake of mammography screening inflated the incidence rate, because cancers were being diagnosed 1 to 3 years earlier than they would have been in the absence of screening, and screening also may have led to the detection of indolent cases. Invasive breast cancer rates stabilized between 1987 and 1994, followed by a slower increase during the late 1990s. The continued increase particularly among older women may reflect rising rates of obesity and the use of menopausal hormones, both of which increase the risk of postmenopausal breast cancer, as well as further increases in the prevalence of mammography screening.24 Around the year 2000, incidence rates began to decline among women ages 50 years and older; and, between 2002 and 2003, breast cancer rates decreased nearly 7%, likely because of the decreased use of menopausal hormones after publication of the Women's Health Initiative randomized trial results linking the use of estrogen plus progesterone menopausal hormone therapy to breast cancer and heart disease.25-27 The decline occurred primarily in white women and in those who had HR‐positive disease.26, 28 The drop in incidence may also reflect in part the small declines in mammography screening since 2000. The percentage of women aged 40 years and older who reported having a mammogram within the past 2 years increased from 29% in 1987 to 70% in 2000 and dropped to 64% in 2015.29 Figure 5 Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Trends in Female Breast Cancer Incidence Rates by Age: United States, 1975 to 2014. Rates are per 100,000 females and are age adjusted to the 2000 US standard population. Invasive incidence rates were adjusted for reporting delay. Source: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program. Trends in breast cancer incidence rates by race/ethnicity are shown in Figure 6. During 2005 through 2014 (the most recent 10 years of data available), overall breast cancer incidence rates increased among API (1.7% per year), NHB (0.4% per year), and Hispanic (0.3% per year) women but were stable among NHW and AI/AN women. Incidence rates for AI/AN women are less stable than for other racial and ethnic groups, because high‐quality data for this group are only available from limited geographic areas. We further examined breast cancer incidence trends by HR status for the 5 major US racial/ethnic groups during 2004 through 2014 (Fig. 7). In all racial/ethnic groups, incidence rates increased for HR‐positive (ER‐positive or PR‐positive) breast cancers and decreased for HR‐negative tumors. Figure 6 Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Trends in Female Breast Cancer Incidence Rates by Race/Ethnicity, United States. Rates are per 100,000 females, age adjusted to the 2000 US standard population, and adjusted for reporting delay. Rates for Hispanics and Asians/Pacific Islanders (APIs) are 3‐year moving averages. Data are not shown for American Indians/Alaska Natives because the rates were unstable, reflecting small case numbers. For Hispanics, incidence data do not include cases from the Alaska Native Registry. Source: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program. Figure 7 Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Trends in Female Breast Cancer Incidence Rates by Hormone Receptor Status and Race/Ethnicity: United States, 2004 to 2014. Rates are per 100,000 females, age adjusted to the 2000 US standard population, and adjusted for reporting delay. Average annual percent change (AAPC) during 2004 to 2014 shown in parentheses. *Indicates AAPC is signficantly different from zero, P < 0.05. AI/AN, American Indian/Alaska Native; API, Asian/Pacific Islander; HR, hormone receptor (estrogen and progesterone receptors); NHB, non‐Hispanic black; NHW, non‐Hispanic white. Source: North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, 2017.
Mortality Overall breast cancer death rates increased by 0.4% per year from 1975 to 1989 but since have decreased rapidly, for a total decline of 39% through 2015. As a result of this decline, 322,600 breast cancer deaths have been averted in US women through 2015. The decrease occurred in both younger and older women but has slowed among women younger than 50 years since 2007. Declines in breast cancer mortality rates have been attributed to both improvements in treatment (eg, adjuvant chemotherapy and hormonal therapy in the 1980s and targeted therapies in the 1990s) and early detection by mammography.30, 31 Not all women have benefited equally from these improvements, as evidenced by variation in mortality trends by race/ethnicity (Fig. 8). A striking divergence in long‐term breast cancer mortality trends between black and white women emerged in the early 1980s and continued to widen over the last several decades, but recent data suggest that the racial disparity may be stabilizing. The mortality gap that developed more than 30 years ago may reflect the unmasking of differences in tumor phenotype distribution between blacks and whites. Outcome improvements resulting from endocrine therapy with tamoxifen (which was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1977) were being realized during that timeframe but to a lesser degree among black women because of their lower rates of HR‐positive disease. In 2011, the disparity peaked with death rates 44% higher in NHBs than in NHWs (mortality rate ratio [MRR], 1.44; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.40‐1.48). The racial disparity has been relatively constant over the past several years; in 2015, breast cancer death rates were 39% higher in black women than in white women (MRR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.35‐1.43). In addition, the most recent data indicate that breast cancer mortality rates have decreased in all major racial/ethnic groups in the United States. From 2006 through 2015, breast cancer death rates declined annually by 2.6% in AI/ANs, 1.8% in NHWs, 1.5% in NHBs, 1.4% in Hispanics, and 0.9% in APIs. Notably, the decline among AI/AN women began in 2005, more than a decade later than other racial and ethnic groups. Figure 8 Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Trends in Female Breast Cancer Mortality Rates by Race/Ethnicity, United States. Rates are per 100,000 females and are age adjusted to the 2000 US standard population. Data are not shown for American Indians/Alaska Natives because of unstable rates, reflecting small numbers of deaths. API, Asian/Pacific Islander. Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017.
Survival More than 3.5 million US women with a history of breast cancer were alive on January 1, 2016.32 Figure 9 present trends in 5‐year relative survival for breast cancer by race and stage at diagnosis from 1975 through 1977 to 2007 through 2013. There were significant survival gains for each stage of disease among both black women and white women. The largest improvement in survival was for those with regional‐stage disease, which increased from 68% to 89% for white women and from 55% to 81% for black women. Survival gains for distant‐stage disease were larger for white women (19% to 37%) than for black women (16% to 26%). Improvements in breast cancer stage‐specific survival reflect treatment advances as well as decreases in tumor size within each stage of disease.33, 34 Figure 9 Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Trends in 5‐Year Breast Cancer Relative Survival (%) by Race and Stage at Diagnosis (1975‐1977 to 2007‐2013). Source: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program. |||||
A radiologist compares an image from earlier mammogram technology to a 3-D digital mammogram in Wichita Falls, Tex. (Torin Halsey/Times Record News/AP)
Breast cancer death rates declined almost 40 percent between 1989 and 2015, averting 322,600 deaths, the American Cancer Society reported Tuesday.
Breast cancer death rates increased by 0.4 percent per year from 1975 to 1989, according to the study. After that, mortality rates decreased rapidly, for a 39 percent drop overall through 2015. The report, the latest to document a long-term reduction in breast-cancer mortality, attributed the declines to both improvements in treatments and to early detection by mammography.
Deanna Attai, a breast cancer surgeon at the University of California at Los Angeles who was not involved in the study, said the advances in treatment included much better chemotherapy regimens — developed in the 1980s and refined ever since — that are administered post-surgery to reduce the risk of recurrence. Other improvements have included tamoxifen, an anti-estrogen agent that was approved in the late 1970s; Herceptin, a drug used to treat tumors with a higher-than-normal level of a protein called HER2 and drugs called aromatase inhibitors.
More recently, more sophisticated targeted treatments are being used to treat cancer that has spread beyond the breast.
(American Cancer Society)
Even with the gains, however, the toll of the disease remains high. Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in U.S. women and the second-leading cause of cancer death after lung cancer. About 252,000 new cases of breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year, and more than 40,600 women are expected to die of the disease. A woman in the United States has a 12.4 percent, or 1 in 8, lifetime risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer.
Between 2006 and 2015, the study found, death rates decreased for all racial and ethnic groups tracked — non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, Asian/Pacific Islanders, Hispanics and American Indians/Alaska Natives. But there were substantial variations in mortality the different groups.
In 2015, the death rate for black women diagnosed with breast cancer was 39 percent higher than that for white women. While high, that's actually an improvement; the number was 44 percent higher in 2011. The black-white disparity emerged beginning in the 1980s, underscoring that black women have not shared in the screening and treatment advances that have benefited white women. One reason, the report noted, is that black women didn't benefit as much from the development of tamoxifen because they are less likely to have the kind of breast cancer, called estrogen-receptor positive, that is treated with the drug.
In seven states, the report found, the mortality rates for white women and black women in 2015 were the same. But the cancer group was cautious about interpreting those statistics, saying that in some of those states there might be too few cases to draw conclusions. However, researchers said they were confident the improvements in reducing or eliminating the racial disparity were real in at least three states: Connecticut, Delaware and Massachusetts.
“This means that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” said Carol DeSantis, director of breast and gynecological cancer surveillance research for the cancer society and the lead author of the study. “Some states are showing that they can close the gap.”
Still, the remaining black-white disparity “is not acceptable,” said Lee Schwartzberg, a medical oncologist at West Cancer Center in Germantown, Tenn. He said the gap reflects complicated social, economic and biological factors that are not yet fully understood, including insurance and employment status. In addition, black women are twice as likely as white women to develop so-called triple negative breast cancer, which can be harder to treat, the report noted.
“We have patients who get diagnosed with cancer and have difficulty making their appointments, like radiation every day for four or five weeks” because they can't take off from work, Schwartzberg said.
The “excess death rate” — the difference between the death rates of black and white women — ranged from 20 percent in Nevada to 66 percent in Louisiana, the study found.
Eighty-one percent of breast cancers are diagnosed among women ages 50 years and older, the study found, and 89 percent of breast-cancer deaths occur in that age group. The median age at diagnosis for women overall is 62.
The findings were published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians and its companion consumer publication Breast Cancer Facts & Figures. The reports are published every two years and cover the latest trends in breast cancer rates, deaths, survival and screening, by race and ethnicity.
Read more:
Julia Louis-Dreyfus diagnosed with breast cancer
Is pregnancy safe after breast cancer? Here's what the latest data shows.
Women with advanced breast cancer are surviving longer, study says
Many high-risk patients with breast cancer aren't getting genetic testing. Here's why. |||||
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– Some good news to share this week: Deaths from breast cancer have plummeted over a 26-year period. A report released Tuesday by the American Cancer Society shows a 39% decline in breast cancer-related deaths between 1989 and 2015, reports the Washington Post. The report notes 322,600 deaths were prevented in that period thanks to better treatment—doctors describe improvements in chemotherapy, as well as the introduction of new drugs like tamoxifen and Herceptin—and early detection through mammograms. But this doesn't mean we're in the clear. Far from it: One in eight American women is still expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime. In 2017, 252,710 are expected to receive that diagnosis; of those, 40,610 will die, the report suggests. Black women—who had a 39% higher risk of death from breast cancer than white women in 2015—are especially at risk. Black women have a lower rate of the type of breast cancer that is treated with tamoxifen and "a higher rate of triple-negative cancer," lead author Carol DeSantis says, per a release. But a medical oncologist tells the Post that there are also social and economic factors in play that explain why black women in Louisiana, for instance, had a 66% higher rate of death from breast cancer compared to white women. In this way, the disparity "is not acceptable," he says. DeSantis notes in the release that "increasing access to health care to low-income populations can further progress the elimination of breast cancer disparities."
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MADISON — A Madison landowner who allowed the local snowmobile club to maintain a trail across part of his property has closed the trail after one of his pregnant cows was shot and killed last week.
“They shot her between the eyes,” landowner Clayton Tibbetts said Thursday from his River Road farm. “It had to have been at close range. We raise beef. We’re just farmers. Got draft horses, cows, do a little logging — agricultural people.”
The shooting and the trail closure were met with shock and dismay from the Abnaki Sno Riders, the local snowmobile club, which maintained the trail for members and for the public to enjoy, club secretary LeeAnne Newton said.
“The fact that someone used the snowmobile trail to access Mr. Tibbetts’ property and then proceed to deliberately kill his pregnant cow is very disturbing,” Newton said. “We have been discussing having a spaghetti supper to raise money toward the loss of his cows.”
Newton said the club is small and relies on fundraisers to keep equipment maintained and the trails groomed.
“We work really hard to keep our landowners happy and have to get permission every year for access to the property,” she said. “We hold an annual landowners supper to thank them for the use of their property. Some help us maintain the trails on their property and others let us do what we need to keep the trails in good condition.”
The Abnaki Sno Riders club announced on its Facebook page that the section of trail it calls Club Trail 27 would be closed for the remainder of the season. It runs from the intersection of ITS 87 on River Road from Conjockty Road to what it calls the Bunny Trail, off Adams Road.
Game wardens have been notified, as has the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office. Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call either agency.
“We are deeply saddened and outraged by the horrible act,” the Facebook post reads. “You are notified that if you go on this trail, you will be trespassing.”
Club President Penny Hay said the shooting happened late on Feb. 15 or early the next morning.
“We’re upset with the whole situation as far as someone utilizing the snowmobile trails to commit this horrendous crime, to take out an innocent animal who wasn’t doing any harm,” Hay said.
Game warden Chad Robertson, who is investigating the report, said by phone that the warden service is continuing to follow up on leads in the case. Anyone with information about it is asked to call Maine State Police headquarters in Augusta at 624-7076.
Meanwhile, about 100 miles to the south, Scarborough police are investigating the shooting death of a pregnant goat at Smiling Hill Farm, a local family-owned dairy farm, which also has welcomed the public onto its property for years. That goat was last seen alive about two days after the Madison incident.
In Madison, Tibbetts, 39, said the snowmobile trail is 25 to 30 feet from the field where the cow was found. He said he has never had a problem before and still does not know who shot the animal or if it even was someone on a snowmobile. Tibbetts said a taxidermist who he gave the animal to told him the cow had not died giving birth, as Tibbetts initially had thought, but had been shot.
The cow was due to give birth in May. Tibbetts said he didn’t dare to try to salvage the meat.
He said the cow was an Angus, raised for beef to feed his family. Financially, the loss exceeds $2,000, not including the lost calf and the price to feed the cow, which the children called Fluffy.
“I shut the trail off because I’d like to find out who did it. I just want people to know that I know that somebody shot the cow,” he said. “We haven’t found out if it was a snowmobiler yet, but it came from that direction. I couldn’t believe it myself. It was shocking.”
He said the lead from the bullet was turned over to the game warden for possible evidence.
He said the cow was a few years old and had given them a couple of calves over the years.
“This would have been her third baby,” he said.
The shooting happened not far from the farmhouse where Tibbetts and his fiancée, Christine Stevens, live with their combined seven children. Tibbetts said they didn’t hear the gunshot.
“I think that’s what happens in a godless society,” Stevens said. “That’s what happens when you don’t have any moral compass. It’s heartbreaking that the cow suffered. She really did. To think that the cow lay there dying with her young inside of her is heartbreaking, because we handled her every day for three years.”
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
[email protected]
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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This iframe contains the logic required to handle Ajax powered Gravity Forms. ||||| Siobhan Bolinger/Smiling Hill Farm via AP | BDN Siobhan Bolinger/Smiling Hill Farm via AP | BDN
By Callie Ferguson , BDN Staff • February 23, 2018 11:18 am
Updated: February 23, 2018 12:20 pm
The shooting deaths of two pregnant animals on different farms are odd, but not related, authorities say.
Cpl. John Macdonald of the Maine Warden Service said he couldn’t recall the last time an animal was found dead of an apparently intentional gunshot wound — let alone two in the same week.
The animals were reported dead three days apart, on different farms about 100 miles away from each other.
The Warden Service is not investigating links between a bullet found lodged in the head of an expectant cow on a Madison farm, and the shooting of a pregnant goat in Scarborough, MacDonald said.
[Popular Maine farm says someone shot pregnant goat]
“Just the method of how these things took place — they’re not the same,” Macdonald said, declining to explain further because the shootings are under investigation.
Farmer Clayton Tibbetts reported his slain cow to the Warden Service on Sunday, when a local taxidermist discovered a bullet in her head while removing her hide, Tibbetts said. He found the cow dead two days earlier, but believed it was due to natural causes because her wound wasn’t clearly visible, he said.
“She said, ‘I know what really killed your cow,’” recalled the 39-year-old cattle farmer, when the taxidermist reported finding “lead” in the cow’s skull. “She said, ‘yeah, your cow got shot right between the eyes.’”
Tibbetts found the cow’s 1,500-pound body in the pasture near a snowmobile trail that passes through the farmland, prompting the local snowmobile club to shut down the passage while authorities investigate. It was killed overnight, he said.
Also on Sunday, wardens and local police were called to Smiling Hill Farm in Scarborough to investigate the “bizarre” death of Ava, a 5-year-old goat that was due in the spring, according to farm manager Warren Knight.
“But we are hard-pressed to explain this situation. It’s outside of hunting season. This is just really bizarre,” Knight said.
A farm employee found her snow-covered body outside of a covered pen, far from the road in an area that is not accessible to the public, he said.
“This was a purposeful act,” he said, carried out overnight during the height of a snowstorm.
The Warden Service, which is investigating the killings along with other law enforcement agencies, said they don’t have leads in either case and are asking the public to come forward with any information.
Follow the Bangor Daily News on Facebook for the latest Maine news. |||||
Summary:
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– Fluffy the cow was supposed to give birth to a calf in May, Central Maine reports. Instead Clayton Tibbetts found her dead in a field on his Maine farm last week. "They shot her between the eyes," he says. "It had to have been at close range." Fluffy's body was found less than 30 feet from a snowmobile trail that runs through Tibbetts' property. He closed the trail to the public in response to the shooting. "I shut the trail off because I’d like to find out who did it,” he says. “We haven’t found out if it was a snowmobiler yet, but it came from that direction." The trail is maintained by the Abnaki Sno Riders club. “We’re upset with the whole situation as far as someone utilizing the snowmobile trails to commit this horrendous crime, to take out an innocent animal who wasn’t doing any harm,” club president Penny Hay says. Tibbetts, who raises beef, puts the financial loss from Fluffy's death at $2,000, not including the loss of her calf. Abnaki Sno Riders secretary LeeAnne Newton, who calls the shooting "disturbing," says the club has "been discussing having a spaghetti supper to raise money toward the loss of his cows.” She says the club works "really hard to keep our landowners happy." The club has warned that anyone found using the trail for the rest of the season will be guilty of trespassing. An investigation into the shooting is continuing, but authorities say it isn't related to the mysterious fatal shooting of a pregnant goat on a farm 100 miles to the south, the Bangor Daily News reports. The goat, Ava, was found dead three days after Fluffy. Authorities say it's unusual to find one farm animal dead from an intentional gunshot, let alone two.
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Summarize this article:
A dismal showing in New Hampshire is a blow for the governor who had hoped to ride a wave of momentum after a strong performance in Saturday’s GOP debate held in Manchester. Christie’s breakout moment arrived when he went after Rubio, accusing the senator of rigidly sticking to script. The critique went viral, with “MarcoBot” videos popping up across the Internet. Christie pointed to the confrontation as a pivotal moment. “Saturday night changed everything,” he gushed to Today after the debate. And CNN reported roughly two-thirds of GOP primary voters were influenced by recent debates. But while Christie may have taken Rubio down a peg, it seems he didn’t do much to improve his own standing with voters.
It wasn’t for a lack of trying. Christie seemingly exhausted every tactic to win the state. He worked hard to appease voters, spending countless hours answering their questions in town halls, playing the retail-politics game long seen as a key to victory in New Hampshire. He talked up the amount of time he has spent in the state. And he even used intimidation to get his way, warning voters that if they reward a candidate like Donald Trump who has spent comparatively less time glad-handing, New Hampshire risks sending a message that candidates don’t have to spend much time on the ground in the state to win. In a dramatic plea, Christie even got down on one knee, as if he were going to propose, to convince a New Hampshire voter to side with him.
Christie swallowed his pride, and congratulated Trump on Tuesday, though he made clear that he doesn’t believe the real-estate mogul has sewn up the GOP nomination. “The race will continue down the road in South Carolina, and other states as we move forward, but for New Hampshire, they have chosen their candidate tonight, and he deserves congratulations for that,” he said.
The governor has already suffered defeat this primary season. A week earlier, at the Iowa caucuses, Christie performed poorly. He captured only a slightly higher percentage of the GOP vote than Rick Santorum, who dropped out of the race a few days later, and Jim Gilmore, who didn’t make the cut for Saturday’s Republican debate and took to Twitter to talk about puppies instead. But that was more or less to be expected in a state where social conservatives hold so much sway. In New Hampshire, Christie’s campaign thought they had a better chance.
There, Christie tried to appeal to voters as a serious candidate, one with the experience and grit to handle the job of commander-in-chief. He also positioned himself as more moderate than some of his Republican rivals.
Still, even as Christie talked himself up, traces of doubt crept in. “We want to do very well, but I don’t think anything is do or die tonight after the performance we had on Saturday night,” he said during his segment on Today in anticipation of the primary. In the end, a breakout debate performance and time spent on the ground weren’t enough to secure a victory. ||||| Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., reacts to the cheering crowd at his primary night rally Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/J. David Ake) (Associated Press)
Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., reacts to the cheering crowd at his primary night rally Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/J. David Ake) (Associated Press)
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The Latest developments from the 2016 presidential campaign, with the focus Tuesday on the New Hampshire primary (all times local):
10:35 p.m.
Republican Chris Christie says he's heading home to New Jersey to "take a deep breath" and take stock of his struggling presidential bid.
The New Jersey governor had banked on a strong finish in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, but he's on track to end up far off the pace despite holding more than 70 town halls events over the past few months.
It's a tough blow for a candidate whose campaign had trouble from the start about raising money and building support in a crowded field dominated by another brash East Coaster: businessman Donald Trump.
Christie tells supporters that he'll wait to see the final New Hampshire results before making a decision about the way ahead.
But he says he can do that best from home, and not a hotel room in South Carolina — the site of the next Republican contest.
___
10:21 p.m.
Donald Trump is basking in his victory in Tuesday's Republican presidential primary in New Hampshire and says that America under his leadership will "start winning again."
Trump is telling supporters that he'll be the "greatest jobs president God ever created."
He's promising that if he's commander in chief, he'll "knock the hell" out of the Islamic State group and negotiate what he says would be better trade deals.
A Trump presidency, he says, would mean "nobody is going to mess with us."
___
10 p.m.
She's back in the pack among Republicans in New Hampshire, but the fight isn't going out of Carly Fiorina.
The Republican presidential candidate tells supporters at a country club in Manchester that "I'm not going to sit down and be quiet, and neither are you."
She's taken the stage with her husband, Frank, by her side. And what's playing in the background? "I Won't Back Down," by rocker Tom Petty.
___
9:55 p.m.
Jeb Bush's campaign doesn't think much of rival John Kasich's second-place showing in New Hampshire's Republican presidential primary.
Kasich finished behind Donald Trump. Bush — a former Florida governor — is in a close race with two senators — Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida — for third.
Bush spokesman Tim Miller says Kasich "ran a one-state campaign" in New Hampshire and doesn't have "a viable path" to the nomination.
The next Republican contest is in South Carolina later in February, and Miller says the Bush campaign feels "very confident about our position" in the state.
As for Kasich, Miller contends that the former congressman "doesn't have a constituency past New Hampshire."
___
9:45 p.m.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich has finished second in New Hampshire's Republican presidential primary.
There's a tight race for third among Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. It's still too close to call right now.
Kasich emerged from the pack of candidates to finish behind billionaire businessman Donald Trump on Tuesday night.
Kasich's campaign manager says he expects an increased flow of contributions to the candidate's campaign after the strong showing.
___
9:35 p.m.
He's won in New Hampshire and now Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders plans to meet with Rev. Al Sharpton over breakfast in New York City on Wednesday.
That's according to two people who were briefed on the meeting. They are telling The Associated Press that the get-together is set for the famed Sylvia's Restaurant in Harlem.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not yet been publicly released.
Sharpton isn't immediately responding to a request for comment.
— Associated Press writer Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this report.
____
9:29 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is congratulating Bernie Sanders on his New Hampshire win on Tuesday night.
But for the former secretary of state, it's time to get back to the issues: campaign finance reform, equal pay for women, the lead-tainted drinking water in Flint, Michigan.
Clinton also wants younger voters to support her campaign as the race goes on.
She says she knows she has "some work to do particularly with young people."
___
9:15 p.m.
The fight goes on for Hillary Clinton.
Even after losing to Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Clinton is promising to take her fight for the nomination to the rest of the country.
And if she feels spurned by New Hampshire voters, she's not showing it to supporters in Hooksett, New Hampshire.
She tells them: "I still love New Hampshire, and I always will."
___
9:05 p.m.
Exit polls are helping shed some light on the various strands of support among voters in New Hampshire's Republican presidential primary.
Donald Trump is backed by voters looking for an outsider and those who made up their minds a while ago.
John Kasich does best with voters looking for a candidate with political experience — along with moderates, better educated voters and those who made their vote decision in the past few days.
Ted Cruz is supported by many voters who are very conservative and evangelical Christians.
Marco Rubio does best among voters for whom experience and electability is important.
Voters who value experience are also inclined to support Jeb Bush.
___
8:50 p.m.
Thanks to his New Hampshire win, Donald Trump will take the lead in the race for delegates for the Republican National Convention.
It won't be much of a lead.
There are only 23 delegates at stake in New Hampshire's Republican primary, and they are awarded proportionally, based on the statewide vote.
Trump will win at least nine. The final tally depends on how many candidates get more than 10 percent of the vote, the threshold needed to qualify for delegates.
Trump started night trailing Ted Cruz by one delegate.
___
8:45 p.m.
How did Bernie Sanders do it in New Hampshire?
According to exit polls, he won the Democratic presidential primary Tuesday by getting a majority of votes from both men and women, independents and voters under 45.
Rival Hillary Clinton is backed a majority of voters aged 65 and older and those with incomes over $200,000.
Independents make up nearly 4 in 10 voters in the primary, and Sanders is winning nearly three-quarters of their votes.
___
8:34 p.m.
Gratitude for the Granite State — that's the word from Bernie Sanders.
After his New Hampshire victory, the Vermont senator has thanked his supporters with this tweet: "When we stand together, we win. Thank you, New Hampshire!"
___
8:25 p.m.
A big victory for Donald Trump in New Hampshire, a big victory celebration for the billionaire businessman.
When word came just at 8 p.m. that Trump was declared the winner, his supporters at campaign headquarters in Manchester shouted his name and they waved foam fingers emblazoned with the phrase, "You're Hired."
___
8:13 p.m.
Bernie Sanders' victory in New Hampshire means he's assured of a majority of the state's pledged delegates.
With 24 at stake, Sanders stands to gain at least 13. Hillary Clinton will receive at least seven.
Clinton remains ahead in the overall delegate count due to support from superdelegates — the party officials who can support the candidate of their choice.
Including superdelegates nationwide, Clinton has amassed at least 392 delegates and Sanders at least 42.
The magic number to clinch the nomination is 2,382.
___
8:03 p.m.
The New Hampshire primary winners are Donald Trump on the Republican side and Bernie Sanders in the Democratic race. Each took the top spot after second-place finishes in the Iowa caucuses.
Trump's first victory of the 2016 White House race means he's no longer a political rookie but the front-runner for his party's presidential nomination.
And the win for Sanders completes his rise from presidential long shot to legitimate challenger for the Democratic nomination against Hillary Clinton.
___
7:50 p.m.
New Hampshire's secretary of state says voter turnout in Tuesday's presidential primary is likely to be slightly higher than in 2008.
Bill Gardner predicted several days ago that roughly 282,000 Republican ballots cast would be and 268,000 Democratic ballots cast.
He says his visits to various polling places Tuesday lead him to believe his predictions are on par.
__
7:40 p.m.
The clock is ticking in New Hampshire: The final polls are set to close at 8 p.m. in the first-in-the-nation primary contest of the 2016 presidential election.
New Hampshire has 1.33 million residents. More than 870,000 are registered to vote.
Polls started opening at 7 a.m., except for a few communities that begin voting just after midnight.
___
7:25 p.m.
Call them the late deciders.
Nearly half of the voters in Tuesday's Republican primary in New Hampshire are saying they made up their mind in the last week. On the Democratic side? More than half say they decided before that.
The findings are among some of the early results of the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and the television networks.
___
7:15 p.m.
What's at stake on the delegate front in the New Hampshire primary?
For Democrats, 24 delegates are up for grabs. On the GOP side, it's 23.
The GOP count after the Iowa caucuses: eight for Ted Cruz, and seven each for Donald Trump and Marco Rubio. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination.
Hillary Clinton holds a big delegate lead, mainly due to on endorsements from superdelegates. Those are the party officials who can support the candidate of their choice.
Clinton has 385 delegates and Bernie Sanders has 29.
It takes 2,382 delegates to win the Democratic nomination.
___
7:05 p.m.
Move it along, Mr. Trump. And the entourage with you, too.
That's the message from the moderator at a New Hampshire polling site — the Webster Elementary School in Manchester.
Jim Townsend's in a huff over the commotion caused by Trump's visit — and the reporters, Secret Service members and Trump supporters blocking voters trying to get in and out of the polling place.
Here's how Townsend puts it: "Please, no one can get through to vote thanks to Mr. Trump. Let's move it along."
___
6:55 p.m.
It's not clear yet whether New Hampshire's Democratic presidential primary will break for Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. But there's no doubt about where their next showdown will come — it's the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 20.
And now Nevada Democrats say the candidates will participate in a town-hall event on Las Vegas two days before those caucuses.
The state party chairwoman, Roberta Lange, says MSNBC and the Spanish-language television network Telemundo have agreed to host the event.
___
6:35 p.m.
An outside group that's helping Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio is spending more than $1.5 million on digital and media advertisements in South Carolina and Nevada — the next states on the 2016 election calendar.
The new expenditures are by Conservative Solutions PAC, a super political action committee that faces no contribution limits.
All but about $200,000 is for South Carolina. That's according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Conservative Solutions is the second-most-active super PAC in the presidential race so far. Only Right to Rise, which is boosting Republican Jeb Bush, has spent more on television and radio.
___
5:59 p.m.
Republican voters in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary are much more negative about their politicians than Democrats are about theirs.
That detail comes from early results of the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and television networks.
Half of Republicans say they feel betrayed by politicians from the GOP. Fewer than 2 in 10 Democrats say they feel betrayed by Democratic politicians.
___
5:58 p.m.
Early results from exit polling in New Hampshire are showing that voters are deeply unhappy with the way the federal government is working.
Half of Democratic voters say they're dissatisfied, with 1 in 10 saying they're angry. The sentiment is even higher among Republican primary voters: 9 in 10 voters say they're either dissatisfied or angry.
The exit polling is being conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and television networks. ||||| NASHUA, N.H. – After I checked into my room Tuesday afternoon at the sprawling Radisson hotel, where Chris Christie had his election-night headquarters, I noticed a guy in a dark suit pacing the hallway.
It turned out the guy was from the State Police. Chris Christie had the room next to mine.
My first thought was, "I hope the neighbors don't keep me up late as they celebrate."
As the results from the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary came in, that didn't look very likely.
But the early results said there'd be parties in the rooms of Jeb Bush and John Kasich.
Those two were locked in a battle among what I have dubbed "the Gang of Four," the candidates who are competing for the role of establishment favorite to take on the big winner last night, Donald Trump.
The other two members of the gang are, of course, Christie and the guy he's been targeting for the past month or so, Sen. Marco Rubio from Florida.
Both were lagging well behind Bush and Kasich as the results rolled in.
Christie was in danger of finishing out of the top five and therefore being kicked off the debate stage for the next primary, which is less than two weeks in South Carolina.
That would likely spell the end of the Christie candidacy. But he had his moments.
In the Saturday debate, Christie lured Rubio into an exchange in which he repeated the same bit of canned rhetoric four times. The resultant videos likely finished off Rubio's candidacy.
If Christie was trying to do a favor for Bush and Kasich, he certainly succeeded.
Rubio was on a roll after his third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. A win here would have made him the consensus favorite.
Christie stopped him in his tracks, probably for good.
But the big question going into Tuesday was whether Christie would go up as Rubio went down.
When I ran into state Senate minority leader Tom Kean at the festivities, he said he'd seen a lot of positive response as he spent Election Day on the governor's campaign bus.
"People understood the message very, very well," Kean said. "He was connecting with the people, whether it was in the diners or the voting places."
The problem was that lots of other candidates were connecting as well.
Trump was the biggest beneficiary. But the other big winner could be Bush.
Earlier in this campaign, when he was under a withering attack from Trump, Bush had been reduced to the low single digits in the national polls.
Last night, Kasich was the clear winner in the establishment lane, but Bush was close behind.
That's evidence of a real comeback, said Ocean County lawyer Larry Bathgate, who is on Bush's national finance committee.
"Many of us have believed that when people get closer to the time when they're pulling the lever in the voting booth, they're going to take it more seriously and decide who they want as president," Bathgate said when I phoned him last night. "Bush has the experience."
Not only that, he's got the money. Bathgate said Kasich doesn't yet have the funding to mount a national campaign. And the Ohio governor is not particularly well-suited to pick up votes in the next primary, which is in South Carolina.
That's Ted Cruz territory. Cruz isn't competing in the establishment lane. He's running against Trump for what looks like a sizable anti-establishment vote.
At the moment, he's 1-for-2. He beat Trump in Iowa but only got one-third the votes Trump did in New Hampshire.
But he lines up well against the Donald in South Carolina, a good chunk of which is in the original Bible Belt.
As for Christie, it's looking like he will go down in history, but not for his sterling finish in New Hampshire. He'll be remembered for having finished off Rubio. It was a nice piece of work and he should be proud of it.
The result is that we now have two races for the Republican nomination for president, Trump vs. Cruz and Kasich vs. Bush.
As for Christie, he performed his role in this drama and he performed it well.
But as for any celebration next door this evening, all I can say is I don't think I'll be losing any sleep over it.
UPDATE: Christie just finished what was a pretty classy concession speech -- though he did not yet fully concede.
When Christie got to the floor, he gave what was effectively a concession speech for not just the primary but the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
His schedule had called for the governor to go straight to South Carolina, but he announced instead he and the family were headed back to Jersey to await the final New Hampshire results.
"There's no reason to sit in a hotel room in South Carolina for that, he said. "We'll go home. We haven't been home for two weeks."
He added, "We need a change of clothes" to inject a bit of levity into the situation.
Those results are not likely to change. With 76 percent in, Christie was stuck below the 8 percent barrier.
But Christie went out gracefully. When someone from the audience shouted out an attack on Donald Trump, Christie corrected her and congratulated Trump.
"Winning isn't easy," he said.
You can say that again. |||||
Summary:
|
– Chris Christie says he's heading home to New Jersey to "take a deep breath" and take stock of his struggling presidential bid. The New Jersey governor had banked on a strong finish in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, but he's on track to end up in 6th place. Christie tells supporters that he'll wait to see the final New Hampshire results before making a decision about the way ahead. But he says he can do that best from home, and not a hotel room in South Carolina—the site of the next Republican contest. At the Atlantic, Clare Foran writes that Christie hadn't just "pinned his hopes on a strong showing" in the state, he worked for it. "Christie seemingly exhausted every tactic ... He worked hard to appease voters, spending countless hours answering their questions in town halls, playing the retail-politics game long seen as a key to victory in New Hampshire." Indeed, the AP reports he held more than 70 town halls events over the past few months. At the Star Ledger, Paul Mulshine sounds the death knell, writing, "It's looking like [Christie] will go down in history, but not for his sterling finish in New Hampshire. He'll be remembered for having finished off Rubio. It was a nice piece of work and he should be proud of it."
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News article:
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. ||||| Clippers owner Donald Sterling, right, and V. Stiviano watch the Clippers play the Lakers in a 2010 preseason game. What possible steps could the NBA take if it chooses to punish Sterling for racist comments he allegedly made? (Danny Moloshok / Associated Press / )
Gabe Feldman, director of the Sports Law Program at Tulane University, said potential discipline for Clippers owner Donald Sterling in the wake of racist remarks Sterling purportedly made would be limited to a suspension and a fine of up to $1 million.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is expected to announce a decision on Sterling's punishment Tuesday morning in New York, hours before the Clippers play the Golden State Warriors in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series at Staples Center.
Though provisions exist in NBA bylaws allowing owners to expel one of their members, Feldman said, they are limited to a financial inability to run a team, gambling on a team or game fixing.
Full coverage: The Donald Sterling controversy
The National Basketball Players Assn. has already asked the NBA to keep Sterling away from remaining playoff games this season, which would amount to a de facto suspension for the remainder of the postseason. A formal suspension also seems likely, though there is no precedent to establish its length.
“This is uncharted territory with a new commissioner with a very complicated issue where we have private statements that became public,” Feldman said. “This is not a question about whether the comments are acceptable. I think we all agree they are unacceptable and abhorrent, but the issue becomes stickier because they were not made publicly. That does not excuse the comments, but it does raise the issue of whether owners have empowered the commissioner to punish an owner for comments made in private.”
Sports law expert Michael McCann, the founding director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, said the most effective way for the NBA to extract Sterling from ownership might be to impose a one- or two-year suspension while working with him to sell the team.
More severe punishment such as a lifetime suspension, McCann said, would be likely to trigger a burdensome lawsuit from the notoriously litigious owner.
“I think there’s a distinction between what Adam Silver could do as a maximum penalty versus what is the maximum penalty that would lead to the optimal outcome,” McCann said.
McCann said it was unlikely the league would try to extricate Sterling under a provision of its constitution that allows for termination of franchise ownership when an owner “fails to fulfill” a “contractual obligation” in “such a way as to affect the [NBA] or its members adversely.
“He would absolutely sue over that,” McCann said of Sterling. “That is vague enough.”
The NBA would have a better case for ridding itself of Sterling, McCann said, if sponsors severed ties with the Clippers and the league, hurting the league’s finances.
Feldman said the best recourse for owners to oust Sterling may be to exert pressure on him to sell the team, which could be done in part by continuing to speak out against his alleged remarks through social and traditional media.
“It’s certainly possible with pressure from players, the players association and sponsors that that may be enough incentive for Donald Sterling to sell to the right buyer,” Feldman said.
Feldman said there is no clause in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement that would allow Clippers players to void their contracts and leave the team based on statements made by an owner.
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Floyd Mayweather Jr. prevails in close fight with Marcos Maidana ||||| NBA commissioner Adam Silver has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday in New York City, at which point he may announce his punishment for Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, who purportedly made racist remarks about African Americans during a private conversation revealed by TMZ. Silver, who replaced longtime NBA chief David Stern in February, promised on Saturday to move "extraordinarily quickly" on the Sterling manner. "There are broad powers in place under the NBA's constitution and bylaws that include a range of sanctions, and all of those will be considered depending on the findings of our investigation," Silver said.
Turns out that in his first major decision as NBA commissioner — President Barack Obama even referenced Silver by name during his comments on the matter from Malaysia, so no pressure — Silver will indeed have pretty broad leeway to dole out what, in his view, is just punishment. The first, and probably least effective, option is a straight fine. NBA owners have been subject to fines before: Mark Cuban, for example, got slapped with a $500,000 penalty in 2002 for criticizing referees. Stern fined Sterling $6 million back in 1984, after Sterling moved the Clippers from San Diego to Los Angeles without the league's approval.
Silver doesn't need the other owners to approve a fine. But Sterling is worth $1.9 billion, according to Forbes . Even some recording-breaking fine — say, in the range of $10 million or so — will be a pittance for Sterling, who has a documented history of loutish behavior.
Silver can also suspend Sterling, again, without a formal vote from the owners. Player suspensions are fairly straightforward: you can't practice or play. But can an owner, who has paid millions for the asset, be kept out of his office by a third party, in this case, the commissioner? Yes. In 2000, for example, Stern suspended Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor from October 2000 through August 2001 because of a secret deal the team concocted with forward Joe Smith that circumvented the league's salary-cap rules. During that time, Taylor could not go to games, negotiate deals or talk to reporters (ironically enough, Taylor is now interim chairman of the NBA's board of governors).
Essentially, the owner still holds on to the asset, but can't be involved in day-to-day operations. In baseball, then commissioner Fay Vincent banned George Steinbrenner for life in 1990 for paying a gambler to dig up dirt on outfielder Dave Winfield. Vincent later allowed Steinbrenner to return for the 1993 season.
Slapping an indefinite suspension on Sterling would probably be Silver's best tactic to force Sterling to sell the Clippers. Not that Sterling doesn't already clear economic incentive to unload the team. He purchased the franchise for $12 million back in 1981. According to Forbes , the Clips are now worth $575 million, but even that figure is probably conservative: the small-market Milwaukee Bucks, sans stars like Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, just sold for $550 million. In the open market, the Clippers would surely fetch much more. As SI.com's Michael McCann reports :
The NBA's constitution, which is confidential, reportedly contains language permitting owners to authorize the league to sell a team without an owner's consent. The language, SI.com is told, only covers very limited circumstances and these circumstances concern league finances — namely, when an owner can't pay his bills. There is reportedly no language authorizing the NBA to sell a team because of an owner's hurtful remarks or embarrassing behavior. Even if conditional language could be construed to authorize a forced sale of the Clippers, NBA owners would likely be reluctant to do so given the precedent it would set.
Sterling could appeal any kind of punishment and drag this mess out even further. The fact that the recording between Sterling and his ex-girlfriend could be illegal — in California, both parties to a conversation must consent a conversation being taped — may empower Sterling to put up a fight. The NBA's best hope is that an angel investor — hey, like this guy ! — swoops in and makes Sterling an offer too good to refuse, and that Sterling comes to a common-sense conclusion: his days as an NBA owner appear numbered. ||||| Eighty-five days.
That's the extent of the grace period before Adam Silver -- the NBA's rookie commissioner, who started Feb. 1 -- was plunged into his first crisis.
The scope and furor of the scandal brought on by the racist comments made allegedly by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling is such that Silver is already facing what's being described as a defining moment for both his own tenure and the league.
What happens next?
Once an investigation into the authenticity of the tapes implicating Sterling is completed, Silver says he'll use his "broad powers" to assess a "range of sanctions" against Sterling. After conversations with high-level league sources possessing knowledge of the issues Silver is considering, ESPN.com offers the following Q&A;, examining where things stand as the Clippers return to Los Angeles for Tuesday's Game 5 of their first-round playoff series with the Golden State Warriors.
Q: What are Silver's specific and immediate options for sanctioning Sterling?
A: The NBA is not going to try to snatch Sterling's team away from him before Game 5. Not that quickly.
The league might never have the gumption to try that step, thanks to the various legal hurdles that stand in the way of the course that seething Clippers players and coaches are hoping for.
A lengthy suspension for Sterling is believed to be the ceiling on Silver's authority in the short term, and only when the NBA's official investigation is complete. That includes the complicated process of confirming that the male voice on the recordings obtained and distributed by TMZ is indeed Sterling's.
The NBA's bylaws are not made public, but sources with knowledge of the secret constitution say Silver does possess the equivalent of a "best interests of the game" clause he can invoke to suspend owners for detrimental conduct even though they theoretically employ him. Two NBA owners held in much higher regard than Sterling -- Minnesota's Glen Taylor (under-the-table contract with former No. 1 overall pick Joe Smith) and the Los Angeles Lakers' Jerry Buss (charged with driving under the influence) -- were suspended when David Stern was in charge.
Most insiders, as the weekend unfolded, thus expected Silver to pursue an indefinite suspension of Sterling from league activity that would also include a substantial fine of up to $1 million, with the corresponding hope that the pressure on and outrage toward Sterling that's piling up daily as a result of this scandal will ultimately convince him that selling the team is the only sensible recourse.
Of course, since there's no telling how long it might take the famously stubborn Sterling to reach that point, Silver has little alternative but to focus on the league's initial aim of removing the 80-year-old from the day-to-day operations of the Clippers. It's also believed any suspension would include Sterling's removal from the NBA's Board of Governors, ensuring that he has no say in league matters during such a ban.
Yet a suspension of any length is bound to be blasted as insufficient in numerous corners, given the widespread, rising anger at Sterling's alleged comments, with the Clippers' locker room serving as the epicenter of the fury.
Another primary goal, as conveyed Sunday by National Basketball Players Association adviser (and Sacramento mayor) Kevin Johnson at a halftime news conference in Oakland during Game 4, is taking the strongest possible action as quickly as possible in hopes of shifting the media's focus back toward the ongoing playoffs.
Q: Sterling has had ample time since the story first broke to come out and tell the world that it's not his voice on the tape. Isn't that all the confirmation the NBA needs?
A: No. Far from it.
Silver made it clear in his Saturday night remarks to the media in Memphis that Sterling, like anyone in the NBA family, must receive the full benefits of "due process" before Silver can issue any ruling.
Step 1 on that front, both in fairness to Sterling and to insulate the league against future lawsuits, is determining whether the tapes are authentic recordings of Sterling or if they were doctored in a way to change the context of the racist statements made. Step 2 would be to interview Sterling to ask him to explain himself.
It's believed that the NBA would also like to interview the woman heard in the recordings, identified as V. Stiviano. The woman's attorney, Mac Nehoray, did not directly respond to an inquiry from ESPN about whether his client was cooperating with the NBA.
But Nehoray said in a statement on Sunday that the audio tapes released Friday night by TMZ are "in fact legitimate" and come from a 15-minute segment of an approximately one-hour audio recording of Sterling and Stiviano. He asserts that Stiviano did not release the tape to any news media.
Nehoray also said Sunday that, because of the recent civil litigation brought by Sterling's wife, Rochelle Sterling, against his client, she would have no further comments on the matter. In addition to liability in the civil case, Stiviano also could be subject to legal action for recording Sterling without his knowledge, which is illegal in the state of California, although it is not yet known who made the recordings or how these unknowns will affect the NBA's investigation. (Some legal experts maintain that because of California law, basing any punishment on the recordings could prove problematic if Sterling retaliates with legal action.)
How the NBA goes about determining the authenticity of the tapes, as well as the context in which they were made, could likewise prove difficult without the cooperation of Stiviano, or an admission from Sterling, because the original recordings are in TMZ's hands. A statement from Clippers president Andy Roeser released Saturday implied that Sterling might have been set up to make such comments, or that the tapes might have been doctored. The statement did not directly dispute that it was Sterling's voice on the recordings, except to say that "what is reflected on that recording is not consistent with, nor does it reflect his views, beliefs or feelings."
Yet one league insider insisted to ESPN.com that Sterling is indeed "on his way out if the tape is legit," despite all of the tricky variables to consider.
"Maybe he will be managed out over time, but it could be abrupt," the source said. "The alleged statements are indefensible from the standpoint of the commissioner, players, owners and many fans. Sterling may seek to negotiate, but he has little or no leverage because he will become a pariah.
"Some people are arguing that his statements were private and that he was set up by his girlfriend. This may be true, but it misses the point that the NBA can't and won't associate with a known racist."
That would be the same NBA, of course, that has always championed its own diversity, and in February welcomed back Brooklyn's Jason Collins, the first active openly gay player in the history of North America's four major team sports.
Not up for argument is the fact the league office regards the investigation as absolutely key, because any punishment Silver delivers could later become an element of a legal or civil case involving the league. It could also wind up as part of the civil case alleging that Stiviano embezzled more than $1.8 million.
Q: If Sterling is suspended, who runs the Clippers?
A: The Clippers' plan in the event of Sterling's death, according to sources with knowledge of the situation, has been for Sterling's wife, Rochelle, to take over as majority owner.
Rochelle -- or Shelly, as she's more commonly known -- is a regular at Clippers games and well-known and liked among other owners. She even accompanied her husband to the April 17 Board of Governors meeting in New York, according to sources.
Donald Sterling's son-in-law, Eric Miller, meanwhile, has been working in the team's front offices for the past few years and, as ESPN.com reported early last season, is being groomed to be the franchise's day-to-day voice on ownership matters. An accountant by trade, Miller currently holds the title of Clippers director of basketball administration, and he works closely with team vice president of basketball operations Gary Sacks.
The problem with all of the above is that coach Doc Rivers and his players, sources close to the situation say, want and expect more drastic change than that. Such is the anger within the Clippers' locker room, according to sources, that the response to Sterling maintaining ownership for any length of time -- even from a distance -- is sure to be negative, to put it charitably.
Will players start asking out of the team? Would Rivers, who's finishing up his maiden season as the Clippers' coach and team president at an annual salary of $7 million, consent to come back next season under those conditions?
"Don't know yet," Rivers told reporters Sunday. "I'm just going to leave it at that."
Rochelle Sterling sat courtside at the Clippers-Warriors game Sunday in Oakland, Calif., and declined to be interviewed on camera. She told ESPN/ABC sideline reporter Lisa Salters that she does not believe in or condone the comments heard on the recordings, but it must be noted that Rochelle Sterling was also named in the housing discrimination lawsuit that Donald Sterling ultimately settled with the Department of Justice for nearly $3 million in 2009.
Q. Why do we keep hearing that the NBA can't force Sterling to sell the team like it did with Cleveland's Ted Stepien in the 1980s?
A: This is a different time. Franchise values have skyrocketed to levels they didn't dare dream of in Stepien's time.
And the Clippers, like it or not, are Sterling's private property, prompting numerous sources to say this week that mandating a sale would be virtually impossible.
Sterling's status as Clippers owner is similar to that of a franchisee in that he has the right to use NBA logos and be a part of the league. But it's considered highly unlikely Silver and his fellow owners would be willing to attempt to revoke his rights as a franchise owner because of the legal ramifications of such a bold decision.
There are other owners and league officials, sources stressed to ESPN.com throughout the weekend, who have wanted Sterling out of the league for years in the wake of all of the off-court allegations he's faced during the past decade. But Sterling's famously litigious history suggests that they could bank on a costly lawsuit in reply. One example: A theoretical antitrust suit from Sterling against the NBA could conceivably allege that he is being forced to sell the Clippers at less-than-market value, because prospective buyers know Sterling has no choice but to sell, with the commissioner and Sterling's ownership rivals trying to push him out.
The league insider who earlier asserted that Sterling will eventually be managed out of the NBA, Marge Schott-style, if the tapes are authenticated, said: "But there's less than 1 in a 100 million odds they attempt to make him sell."
Sources say that the only two known violations that would allow the NBA to force an owner to sell his team are gambling-related offenses or the sort of deep financial problems witnessed in New Orleans with George Shinn.
In Schott's case, she was repeatedly fined and suspended for making racist comments against both African-Americans and Jews. But she stepped down as majority owner of the Cincinnati Reds only when the Reds' limited owners were poised to vote her out.
Angelenos will recall former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, who was effectively managed out of control of the team by Major League Baseball. MLB commissioner Bud Selig, however, would appear to have a much more favorable path than Silver has now.
McCourt consistently threatened baseball with legal action if it attempted to force him out, but he was ultimately forced to sell when he became insolvent and no longer had the means to operate the team. The NBA assumed operating control of the New Orleans Hornets under similar circumstances in December 2010, when Shinn could no longer meet payroll, but the Clippers are a booming franchise that would quite possibly command in excess of $1 billion on the open market if Sterling -- whose lifelong mantra is that he never sells anything -- put the team up for bidding.
McCourt ultimately argued that he would have been able to operate the Dodgers if MLB had not blocked a lucrative television-rights deal with Fox. The threat of legal action against MLB led to an unprecedented private sale of the team through the financial services firm Blackstone Advisory Partners in which McCourt -- not the league or McCourt's fellow owners -- had final approval over what turned out to be a record sale of $2.15 billion to a group led by Magic Johnson.
Yet the only apparent play available to the NBA would seem to be suspending Sterling and then trying to wear him down to the point he gives in and agrees to sell the Clippers for a massive windfall. Sterling purchased the franchise in 1981 for a reported $12.5 million, but this is a league in which the small-market Milwaukee Bucks, in desperate need of a new, modern arena, were just sold for $550 million.
Q: What do Sterling's fellow owners really think about this mess?
A: They're under fire, too. The league's owners are facing the same questions, along with the retired Stern, posed by Johnson on behalf of the union Sunday: Why wasn't Sterling punished for any of his previous transgressions?
Stern's well-chronicled and longstanding commitment to social justice makes it difficult to believe he didn't want to do more. The working assumption in league circles has been that Sterling repeatedly dodged serious discipline because sordid accusations, court wrangles with former coaches and employees over money, and other assorted out-of-court settlements don't equate to convictions, and because Sterling didn't otherwise overtly break any league rules.
But now Sterling's peers want action. A handful of them, in the wake of what suddenly ranks as Sterling's most public scandal, have already taken the unusual step of publicly expressing their dismay with the league's senior owner, from old-guard veterans such as San Antonio's Peter Holt and Miami's Micky Arison to relative newcomers such as Sacramento's Vivek Ranadive.
"If @TMZ recording is true," Ranadive tweeted Saturday night, "we must have zero tolerance. Fully support commish Silver @NBA."
Then Ranadive added Sunday: "I was shocked. Those are shameful, reprehensible words. And if they are authenticated then I believe we should have zero tolerance, and I have full faith that the commissioner will do the right thing."
Charlotte's Michael Jordan on Sunday issued the lengthiest statement from any rival owner to date, which caused quite a stir given his historical reluctance to speak out on such issues when he was winning six championships as the league's on-court king.
"I look at this from two different perspectives -- as a current owner and former player," Jordan wrote. "As an owner, I'm obviously disgusted that a fellow team owner could hold such sickening and offensive views. I'm confident that Adam Silver will make a full investigation and take appropriate action quickly. As a former player, I'm completely outraged. There is no room in the NBA -- or anywhere else -- for the kind of racism and hatred that Mr. Sterling allegedly expressed. I am appalled that this type of ignorance still exists within our country and at the highest levels of our sport. In a league where the majority of players are African-American, we cannot and must not tolerate discrimination at any level."
Behind the scenes, sources say, there is even louder dismay from Sterling's peers, especially from the new-school owners who are paying such increasingly high prices for franchises -- and are worrying how much damage this is doing to the league's brand.
The owners are also aware of how upset and indignant players throughout the league are. Any show of support for Sterling by an owner or the league, any shred of leniency, will be noticed by every player in the league, not just the fuming Clippers.
"I'm sure the NBA will come down hard on [Sterling]," one source close to the situation said. "It wouldn't surprise me if we never see him again [at an NBA game]." ||||| Donald Sterling NBA Lawyer Authenticates Audio
Donald Sterling Recording Is REAL -- NBA Lawyer Authenticates Racist Audio
EXCLUSIVE
Two NBA lawyers left the law firm representingMonday ... and sources familiar with the situation tell TMZ Sports ... the lawyers are now convinced -- the racist audio ofis REAL.NBA lawyerand another NBA lawyer went to the law office ofMonday afternoon. Stiviano was also there for the purpose of authenticating the audio We're told there was NO doubt by anyone the recording is the real deal. The NBA lawyers heard the 15 minutes that have been made public, but not the remaining 45. And we're told ... based on conversations along with analysis ... they're satisfied about authenticity.
Neither Stiviano nor Anders had comments for our photog as they left the building.TMZ Sports has also learned ... people who have heard the entire recording say there is "NO DOUBT" Donald Sterling KNEW he was being recorded.Anders will report back to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?
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– Not even Donald Sterling's own daughter or son-in-law is on his side. Both have made statements to TMZ: Joanna Sterling Miller calls her father's alleged racist comments "cruel and insensitive," and her husband Eric Miller—who also happens to work for Sterling's LA Clippers as director of basketball administration—says, "I find the statements and representations made by the Clippers' team owner to be deplorable and disgusting. There is no room in sports or society in general, for racism." He goes on to say that if he ends up getting fired for speaking out, that will be "a small price to pay." Sterling's wife also recently told ESPN she does not "condone" the remarks, the New York Times reports, and the Los Angeles Times notes that more than a dozen sponsors have also ditched the team. Miller also says he's sure NBA Commissioner Adam Silver "will deal with this matter swiftly and severely," and Silver's decision on punishment for Sterling is expected today, the LA Times reports. But one sports law expert says that punishment could be limited to a suspension and a fine, though that fine could hit $1 million. NBA owners can be expelled, but generally only if they gamble on a team, fix a game, or can no longer afford to run their team. Another sports law expert suggests the NBA could suspend Sterling for as long as two years while pressuring him to sell the Clippers. The New York Times agrees that type of pressure, particularly from the "new guard" of NBA owners, could work. One owner has suggested Silver make all of the Clippers players free agents. (As it stands now, Clippers players would not be allowed to void their contracts in order to exit the team.) A host of other "what happens now?" stories from sources including NPR, ESPN, and Time agree that Sterling is likely facing suspension, not expulsion. But first the tape of Sterling's alleged rant must be verified, and according to TMZ's sources, NBA lawyers are convinced the audio is legitimate.
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Tasered as He Tried to Save His Stepson
BOWLING GREEN, Mo. (CN) - Missouri police Tasered a man repeatedly as he tried to enter a burning building to save his stepson, who died in the fire, the man and his wife claim in court.
Ryan and Catherine Miller sued the City of Louisiana and landlord Louis Houston on March 12 in Pike County Circuit Court.
The couple's 3-year-old son, Riley Rieser, died in the Oct. 31, 2013 fire.
The Millers were able to escape from the home and Ryan Miller tried to go back in to save Riley.
"Officers Jeffrey Salois and William Harrison prevented Ryan Miller from entering the home to save his stepson Riley Rieser by forcibly moving and by repeatedly Tasing Ryan Miller, including once in the police cruiser as Riley Rieser was being removed from the home," the lawsuit states.
The Millers say that Ryan never presented a threat to the officers or other emergency personnel, that Salois and Harrison never announced they were police officers and never placed Ryan Miller under arrest.
"I was hysterical, yes, because I wanted to save my son," Ryan Miller told the Louisiana Press Journal days after the fire.
Riley was pronounced dead at a hospital. Ryan Miller told the Press Journal that he was placed in the holding cell while Riley was taken to the hospital.
"He was my best friend," Ryan Miller said told the Press Journal. "He was everybody's best friend. If you would have met him, you would have loved him. He was the joy of my life."
Ryan Miller says in the complaint that he was not charged with any crime. He claims that the repeated Tasing constitutes an unreasonable seizure and that officers "used more force than was reasonably necessary under the circumstances."
The fire was caused by faulty wiring, according to the complaint.
The Millers claim that defendant Houston ignored repeated warnings from Louisiana housing officials and did not have an occupancy permit to lease the property because it had not been inspected for over two years.
Due to Houston's negligence, the plaintiffs "were forced to expend monies for funeral and burial expenses" and "suffered burns, bruising, Tasing injuries" and other expenses," the Millers say.
They claim that Louisiana "failed to enforce its ordinances regarding obtaining occupancy permits for residences, and had knowledge that the home was occupied despite no occupancy permit being issued."
Attorney Keith Henson, representing Louisiana, told Courthouse News that the city had no comment.
The Millers seek damages from Louisiana for excessive force, negligent infliction of emotional distress, wrongful death and false imprisonment.
They seek punitive damages from Houston for wrongful death, intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
They are represented by Cole Combs of St. Charles, Mo.
Louisiana, pop. 3,355, is a Mississippi River town 25 miles south of Hannibal. It is 88.5 percent Caucasian, has a median income of $27,559 (well below the Missouri average of $45,321) and has lost 13.2 percent of its population since 2000, according to city-data.com. ||||| Barefoot and dressed in his pajamas, Ryan Miller was ready to dive into the flames engulfing his home to save his 3-year-old stepson, but police in Louisiana, Mo. had other ideas.
Miller and his wife, Cathy, awoke in the early-morning hours of Nov. 1 to a house filled with smoke. They were forced out through a back door, but their son, Riley, was still sleeping in his bedroom inside.
Miller ran around the house and tried to enter through the front door, while Cathy placed a 9-1-1 call.
Police responded to the scene within minutes, but instead of trying to help the couple save their child, one of the officers shot Miller with a stun gun.
But the blast from the Taser failed to subdue the distraught dad, who kept trying to enter the burning building.
So the cop hit him two more times with the stun gun. When Miller dropped to the ground, he was promptly handcuffed and put into the back of a patrol car, according to KHQA-TV.
“He tried to get back in the house to get the baby. They took my son to jail because he tried to save his son,” the child’s grandmother, Lori Miller, told the TV station.
The heat from the flames was reportedly so punishing, the police were forced to standby until firefighters arrived. State Fire Marshal Investigator Scott Stoneberger said a firefighter in full gear attempted to enter the home but the flames were too hot.
Ryan Miller’s sister-in-law doesn’t think the police handled the situation correctly.
“It’s just heartless. How could they be so heartless? And while they all just stood around and waited for the fire department, what kind of police officer wouldn’t try and save a 3-year-old burning in a house?” said Emily Miller.
Firefighters later discovered the body of Riley Miller near the doorway to a bedroom.
“We’ve been going through pictures and he’s just smiling in every picture. He was just a happy go-lucky kid,” said the boy’s aunt.
The child’s parents were taken to Memorial Medical Center’s burn unit in Springfield, Ill. Ryan Miller suffered burns to his chest, and Cathy Miller burned the cornea in one of her eyes. Both were released from the hospital the same day.
The house was destroyed.
The fire marshal said an official cause of the fire has yet to be determined, although it does not appear to be suspicious. The investigation is expected to take several weeks.
For those interested in helping the family, monetary donations may be sent to the Mercantile Bank in Louisiana, c/o Ryan Miller or the Riley Miller fund. |||||
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– As his Missouri home burned, Ryan Miller tried desperately to go back inside and rescue his 3-year-old stepson, Riley Rieser. But police Tasered Miller repeatedly, preventing him from returning inside, and Riley died, according to a lawsuit Ryan and Catherine Miller have now filed over the 2013 incident. Police officers in Louisiana, Mo., "prevented Ryan Miller from entering the home to save his stepson ... by forcibly moving and by repeatedly Tasing Ryan Miller, including once in the police cruiser as Riley Rieser was being removed from the home," the suit reads, according to Courthouse News. The suit also claims the officers did not announce themselves as police, and that Miller did not present a threat—nor was he ever arrested, though he was placed in a holding cell as his stepson was taken to the hospital. "I was hysterical, yes, because I wanted to save my son," Miller admitted in 2013 to the Louisiana Press-Journal. "He was the joy of my life." The Millers are suing the City of Louisiana for excessive force, wrongful death, false imprisonment, and negligent infliction of emotional distress; they are also suing their landlord for wrongful death, among other things—the fire was caused by faulty wiring, the suit claims, and the landlord is accused of ignoring multiple warnings from state housing officials. He is also accused of not having an occupancy permit to lease the home, since it had not been inspected for more than two years. "It's just heartless. How could they be so heartless?" Riley's aunt told WND of the police in 2013. Added Miller's mom, "They took my son to jail because he tried to save his son." (A Christmas fire killed a grandma and her three visiting grandkids.)
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The Santa Clara County Coroner's Office on Saturday identified a 23-year-old Mountain View woman whose body was found floating in the San Francisco Bay earlier this week. Marriane Favro reports.
The Santa Clara County Coroner's Office on Saturday identified a 23-year-old Mountain View woman whose body was found floating in the San Francisco Bay earlier this week.
The woman was identified as Chu Chu Ma of Mountain View according to the coroner's office. She was discovered off the Bay trail on the Sunnyvale-Moffett Field border on Thursday afternoon. A passing bicyclist came across her body and reported it to the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety.
A woman with the same name has a LinkedIn profile indicating that she is a software engineer at Google, a former intern at Yahoo and Telogis, and an alumna of the University of Texas at Austin.
A Google spokesperson released a statement saying, "Chu Chu was an excellent software engineer in our developer product team. We are devastated to learn of her passing and our deepest condolences are with her family and friends."
Coroner Identifies 23-Year-Old Woman Found Dead in Bay in Sunnyvale
The Santa Clara County Coroner's Office on Saturday identified a 23-year-old Mountain View woman whose body was found floating in the San Francisco bay earlier this week. (Published Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017)
A coworker of Chu Chu Ma said she constantly "glowed with cheer" and "always made others smile."
NBC Bay Area's SkyRanger captured footage of several police cars, officers and divers at the scene. A woman's naked body was floating face down in the water.
Ma's body was recovered by a dive team from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office. It's unknown what circumstances led to the woman's death, the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety said on Twitter.
The medical examiner will investigate alongside the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety. ||||| - A woman whose body was found in the water along the San Francisco Bay Trail in Sunnyvale Dec. 7 has been identified as Chuchu Ma, 23, of Mountain View, the coroner's office said.
The woman's body was found that morning by a passing bicyclist on the trail, according to Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety Officer Shawn Ahearn. The Santa Clara County Coroner confirmed the cause of death is drowning and the time of death is 10:45 a.m. Dec. 7, 2017.
Investigators said the bicyclist made the grim discovery after 10 a.m. He called 911 reporting a dead body floating face down in a drainage canal in Baylands waterway, near the Bay Trail in Sunnyvale.
"It's very sad. This is a beautiful trail. I take it five days a week. Lots of people take it every day and some people take it to work. It's just very sad to learn that happened, whatever it is," said bicyclist Dan Coyle, who was riding in the area of the scene.
Santa Clara County Sheriff's dive-team officers assisted in removing the body from the water. Investigators said the woman was half naked, but it's unclear if she was dumped into the bay here, or if her body floated from a different location.
"The medical examiner and us and our detective units are actively working the investigation to see what there were. We don't know the circumstances of why the body was in the water," saidCaptain Ahearn.
The Bay Trail area is part of a 500-mile loop around San Francisco Bay. It's popular with Sunnyvale residents, area workers, and tourists, who consistently give it ratings of "excellent" or "very good," because of the scenic beauty. Recreationists said they enjoy running or biking from as far away as downtown San Jose.
Following the incident, investigators declared there was no threat to the general public. Bicyclists said they weren't planning to change their routine because of the investigation.
"I don't feel unsafe here, and I probably am not going to start feeling unsafe here," said bicyclist Joe Bond. ||||| Sunnyvale Police investigating the death of Google engineer 23yo Chuchu Ma. Her body was found in the water near the Bay Trail. PD waiting for autopsy results #ABC7now pic.twitter.com/AZUBZ8w7Gf — Janine De la Vega (@JanineDLV) December 11, 2017
A woman whose body was found in the water along the San Francisco Bay Trail in Sunnyvale on Thursday has been identified as a Google employee, the tech company confirmed today.Chuchu Ma, 23, of Mountain View, was found dead in the water near the trail last week, according to the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety."Chuchu was an excellent software engineer in our developer product team," Google officials said in a statement. "We are devastated to learn of her passing, and our deepest condolences are with her family and friends."Ma's body was found Thursday morning by a passing bicyclist on the trail, according to Department of Public Safety Capt. Shawn Ahearn.No additional information about the case was immediately available. |||||Summary:
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– A 23-year-old Google engineer was found dead in the San Francisco Bay last week—and police are trying to determine whether foul play was involved. The naked body of Chuchu Ma, who joined Google early last year, was found in water near the San Francisco Bay Trail in Sunnyvale, Calif. on Thursday, NBC Bay Area reports. She was identified as Ma, a resident of nearby Mountain View, over the weekend. "We don't know if anyone witnessed it or not or what occurred so when we do an investigation like this we look at all possibilities," Captain Shawn Ahearn of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety tells ABC 7. It's not clear how Ma's body ended up in the water near the popular jogging and cycling trail, and authorities say the results of toxicology tests will take weeks. Police say they aren't sure whether the body drifted there from elsewhere in the bay, KTVU reports. Ma's boyfriend filed a missing persons report with police in Mountain View the same day the body was found. "Chu Chu was an excellent software engineer in our developer product team," Google said in a statement. "We are devastated to learn of her passing and our deepest condolences are with her family and friends."
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– Megan Fox managed to keep it a secret for almost three weeks, but she revealed today that she gave birth to a baby boy on Sept. 27, Us reports. Noah Shannon Green "is healthy, happy, and perfect," Fox wrote on Facebook. He's the first child for Fox, 26, but husband Brian Austin Green, 39, has another son from a previous relationship. A source told Us in the past that Fox "is amazing with Kassius," who is 10.
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We have been very lucky to have had a peaceful few weeks at home, but I would like to release this myself before others do. I gave birth to our son Noah Shannon Green on September 27th. He is healthy, happy, and perfect.
We are humbled to have the opportunity to call ourselves the parents of this beautiful soul and I am forever grateful to God for allowing me to know this kind of boundless, immaculate love.
Thanks to those of you who wish to send your positive energy and well wishes. May God bless you and your families abundantly. ||||| Megan Fox is a mom!
The actress and her husband, Brian Austin Green, welcomed their first child together, a boy named Noah Shannon, on September 27, Us Weekly confirms. Fox broke the news herself via Facebook.
"We have been very lucky to have had a peaceful few weeks at home," the actress wrote. "He is healthy, happy and perfect."
The Jonah Hex star added, "We are humbled to have the opportunity to call ourselves the parents of this beautiful soul and I am forever grateful to God for allowing me to know this kind of boundless, immaculate love. Thanks to those of you who wish to send your positive energy and well wishes. May God bless you and your families abundantly."
PHOTOS: Megan Fox's life as married woman
Fox, 26, and Green, 39, began dating in 2004 after meeting on the set of Hope & Faith. After a two-year engagement, the couple split briefly split in 2009, but became engaged again in June 2010. The stars tied the knot on June 24, 2010 in a private Hawaiian ceremony.
PHOTOS: Megan Fox's red carpet evolution
Green has one son, Kassius, 10, from a previous relationship with actress Vanessa Marcil. When asked in March if she saw herself having children of her own, Fox gushed to Us, "Yes, I've always loved kids!"
"I want at least two, probably three [kids]," the Friends With Kids star told Cosmopolitan magazine in April. "I've always been maternal." (Fox's pregnancy was confirmed two months later.)
PHOTOS: Sexy celeb dads
And Green would agree. An insider told Us, "Brian knows that Megan is mom material. She is amazing with Kassius."
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! |||||
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Please retweet. I am offering my male genitals (full penis, testes, scrotum) as a meal for 100,000 yen…. I will prepare and cook as the buyer requests, at his chosen location.
On Sunday, April 13, 2012, Tokyo illustrator Mao Sugiyama (who goes by the nickname “HC”), publicly seasoned ond braised his own genitals on a portable gas cartridge burner, and then served them to five eager diners who each paid about $250 for the meal (a sixth was a no-show). The genitals had been returned to the asexual Sugiyama, frozen and double-bagged in plastic, following elective genital removal surgery (“gender nullification”) on his 22nd birthday on March 31.
After initially considering eating them himself, Sugiyama offered the meal on Twitter in mid-April to the first person willing to pay 100,000 yen (about $1,250). But after the notoriety that his tweet caused, he organized a public banquet, dubbed “Ham Cybele — Century Banquet,” at the “Asagaya Loft A” event space in the Suginami Ward of Tokyo. Century in Japanese is a homophone for the Japanese word for genitals; “Ham Cybele” refers to the Anatolian mother goddess, prefixed with an appropriate word for tough meat to create a phrase whose initials match Sugiyama’s artist name of HC.
The banquet
The day before the event Sugiyama tweeted, “I’m starting to thaw them out,” and posted a photo. On the day of the event a crowd of about 70 mostly twenty-somethings gathered, five to a table, to listen to a piano recital and panel discussion before the dinner.
Although only five servings of the genitals were available, the other diners were served alternate beef- and crocodile-based dishes, with additional items available for purchase, including rice, cream cheese and crackers, strawberry parfaits, waffles with blueberry sauce, grape juice, and milk. The cooking was done by Sugiyama himself, dressed as a chef, under the supervision of a licensed food preparation specialist.
The diners
The five genital eaters comprised a 32-year-old male manga artist (there for “research”), a 30-year-old white-collar couple (who were “curious”), an attractive 22-year-old woman (who wondered how it would feel), and 29-year-old event planner Shigenobu M. [last name redacted], who tweeted before the event, “It’s a once in a lifetime chance, so I decided on the spur of the moment to do it.” Shigenobu M. posted a detailed blog post on April 14 after the banquet, including about 20 photographs (the source of the photos in the original version of this article). He boasted on Twitter that he was getting twice the traffic he’d gotten when his blog was once profiled on prime-time Japanese television. But on May 19 he suddenly deleted the post and replaced it with a new post explaining that the removal was due to privacy considerations. (Sugiyama himself had linked to and seemed to endorse the blog post.)
Diners were required to sign a waiver releasing Sugiyama and the event organizers from any liability from the consumption of the genitals. Sugiyama stated that before his operation he had been tested to be free of any venerial diseases (although during the panel discussion he admitted that he had gone on a one-month sex binge with anonymous internet partners just to make sure that he wouldn’t regret the operation.) He stated that he had not yet started receiving female hormone therapy at the time of the operation. He also added that the pre-severed penis could attain an erect length of 16.1 cm (about 6.3 inches).
The entrée
Close-up photos of the braised genitals showed a sliced penis shaft with clearly visible corpora cavernous and uretha, a sliced testical with the look and texture of sea urchin sushi, and scrotal skin with about 3 mm of pubic hair growth. Rounding out the presentation the chef garnished the genitals with button mushrooms and Italian parsley.
Sugiyama told the tense but giggly crowd during the pre-dinner interview that he would be contributing his genital recipes to the Japanese recipe website CookPad. After CalorieLab’s coverage of the event was picked up by a wire service and went viral a photo from Sugiyama’s Twitter stream of two large, meaty balls together on a plate were misidentified by some websites as his testicles. They were actually beef steak cubes that Sugiyama used to develop his recipe his recipe before the real event. And on June 6 Sugiyama tweeted that a Reuters photojournalist bought him some variety meat at the market in order to stage a recreation of his pre-event cooking rehearsals, although we have not seen any such photos materialize.
Sugiyama had also intended to include his nipples on the menu, but his attempt to burn them off with sodium hydroxide did not result in anything usable. (His nipple areas and some spots surrounding them where the lye spilled have now healed into smooth scar tissue. He told the dubious dermatologist and plastic surgeon that he consulted that he had a “work accident.” He footnoted this section of the transcript of his Ham Cybele talk with an assurance that he properly pays into the national health insurance program, which covers 70 percent of medical expenses, but we’re pretty sure it doesn’t cover nipple removal accidents any more than it covers gender nullification surgery.)
Delicious?
What was the verdict by the eaters? According to the deleted blog post by Shigenobu M., the hard, rubbery penis root almost bent his fork, and he spit it out after a few chews. The only taste was of the red wine that it had been pre-stewed in. The scrotum was surprisingly even harder and more rubbery than the penis, but tasteless. (Shigenobu M. didn’t mention the pubic hair.) The testicles were hard on the outside, soft and glutinous in the middle, with a fishy or gamey taste. One of Shigenobu M.’s friends in attendance asked for a piece of the penis and ate it, but after the event became distraught and expressed regret that he had lost his common sense in the heat of the moment.
A commenter to our original article with culinary expertise recommended that tough organ meats be soaked in milk, then cooked sous vide at 50 degrees Celsius for 8 hours in a vacuum; they’ll become spoon-soft, he said. And Managing Culinary Director of Serious Eats J. Kenji Lopez-Alt in an e-mail to CalorieLab wrote, “The first thought that entered my mind when I read your article was the chef didn’t cook it right. What a waste of a perfectly good penis! Penis is pretty tough and needs to be slow cooked, either sous-vide or in a braise. Testicles need to be cleaned, washed, membrame removed, then very gently cooked so they retain their soft, creamy texture. Check out some of Chichi Wang’s ‘Nasty Bits’ columns on Serious Eats. She cooks both testicles and penis.”
Japanese media coverage and legal ramifications
Shortly after the event broke on the Japanese Twittersphere a spokesman for the Suginami police told CalorieLab that they had received inquiries and complaints from concerned citizens, but that they would not be getting involved because they considered it a case of cannibalism, which is not in itself illegal in Japan (nor is it in the United States, but it is outlawed in the U.K.). The spokesman nevertheless said, “We’re going to talk to the people at Asagaya Loft A and ask them what is going on and why they hosted such an event.”
On June 1, two weeks after CalorieLab’s report, the Japanese media finally discovered the story. Japanese tabloid website Zakzak reported that, at the behest of the Suginami police the Suginami health department conducted an on-site inspection of Asagaya Loft A. Although the venue is primarily used for live music, it also has a license for food service. The proprietor explained to the health inspectors that the venue was rented for the purpose of putting on a show, that the event was private and closed to the general public, and that none of the venue’s food preparation equipment, utensils or kitchen facilities were used. The health department issued a warning to the venue’s proprietor not to allow food service activities to be done outside the kitchen area in the future. In addition, the health department said it was considering drafting administrative guidance on the issue. Zakzak also spoke to former public prosecutor Masaru Wakasa, who said that the event might also have violated obscenity laws if the genitals, despite their severed state, were still clearly recognizable as genitals to the attendees.
The same day as the Zakzak report Japanese wire service Kyodo News moved a short article about the event quoting a Suginami Ward official that they do not permit this sort of thing and are looking into it in consultation with the police. The next day the number 2 newspaper in Japan, the Asahi Shinbun, published a short item quoting Suginami Mayor Tanaka as calling the event “deplorable.” The same day the tabloidy Sankei Sports afternoon sports newspaper said that L’Affair Sugiyama’s “grotesqueness recalls the Sada Abe incident,” the inspiration for Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses, and several other print, web, and television outlets began speculating that the mothballed criminal investigation might be reopened. On this day Sugiyama was interviewed by the police about the incident; he had not retained an attorney at that point. On Twitter Sugiyama began to come across as extremely stressed out.
On June 5 Zakzak reported on an e-mail it received from Sugiyama attempting to explain things. Sugiyama wrote of two years of planning for the event, conceived of as an artistic statement. Sugiyama wrote that as an artist he had no need of genitals to reach his life goals. Sugiyama said he received an appearance fee of 100,000 yen ($1,250). Sugiyama said that he tried his recipes on several sets of cow and pig genitals that he obtained (which may revive the suspicion that this was a hoax for some people), and that he did “image training” to train himself to eat genitals by eating dozens of bananas ?with a knife and fork (apparently he sampled his own cooking at the event). Sugiyama told Zakzak that one of the benefits of his operation is that he no longer has to worry about getting drunk and inadvertently getting arrested for indecent exposure, which may have been a joke. (Sugiyama denied that he gave any domestic Japanese media “interviews,” but this e-mail rang true and was largely confirmed by the “official report” manifest that Sugiyama later published.)
On June 6 J-Cast News ran a long, mostly accurate, non-tabloidy take on the event, including a run-down on the widespread, embarrassing-to-Japan overseas coverage (although they credited the initial breaking of the story to the Huffington Post, rather than to CalorieLab).
Meanwhile Mayor Ryo Tanaka of Suginami Ward, the Tokyo city in which Asagaya Loft A is located, was getting more and more irate about the situation, pressuring the police and other authorities to do something. What the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department finally came up with was charging Sugiyama, and three others involved in the event, with indecent exposure, on the theory that he exposed his genitals, albeit separated from his body and braised in red wine. Sugiyama tweeted about the new approach by police:
A new detective was put in charge of investigating Ham Cybele. He’s not pursuing the the facts related to the concerns of the health and food safety authorities, who had contacted the police after citizens made inquiries after reading reports in gossipy tabloids. Rather, he’s turned his attention to investigating me on suspicion of exhibiting obscene materials, and to that end he’s pressuring me to cooperate in preparing a document of confession to the violation of obscenity laws. If he sees his job as expanding the police department’s power and looking at this case simply as the stripped-down facts, ignoring the context, and all he wants is for me to sign a bare-bones confession of the facts for the use of prosecutors without any explanation of the circumstances, then it looks like I’ll have to retain an attorney in order to protect not only myself, but to put forward the the whole truth of the situation, since the police are acting no differently than the contemptible mass media.
Unable to extract a confession, police forwarded the results of their investigation to prosecutors on September 18. A charge of indecent exposure could have landed Sugiyama and the others in jail for up to two years, with substantial fines to boot. The months dragged on, the incident fell out of the news, and Mayor Tanaka calmed down and moved on to other issues. Japanese prosecutors have a very high conviction rate, and they keep it that way by not pursuing iffy cases. Everyone “exposed” to the “indecency” was attending a private function and knew what to expect. The matter was quietly dropped in Februay, 2013, and Mao Sugiyama was finally able to relax.
Gender nullification
One of the confusing aspects of this case to many observers was the concept of gender nullification. Most people are familiar with transgender women and transgender men, and perhaps even congenital intersex cases, where both male and female or ambiguous genitalia are present. But where does Mao Sugiyama fall in this spectrum? He self-identifies as asexual (we have chosen to use the pronoun “he” throughout this article), or “X gender,” with no sexual feelings, attraction, or urges. As an asexual and an artist, Sugiyama felt he had not use for genitals.
What does an X gender person do in Japan to get rid of his genitals? There are five university hospitals in Japan that perform sex reassignment surgery. They follow a protocol that requires that surgeons work in tandem with psychologists and an ethics panel. The would-be male-to-female patient often has to live for a year full-time in the role of the desired sex before receiving hormone therapy and then for another couple of years before receiving surgery, just to make sure the patient can cope with the reality of his choice. Asexual nullification surgery falls outside these established guidelines. Most Japanese seeking a quick and inexpensive, no-questions-asked operation travel to Thailand, but some patients are uneasy about using a non-Japanese surgeon, and there have been stories of antibiotic resistant bacteria outbreaks. These patients have the option of going to one of a few private clinics in Japan. The first such clinic in Japan was operated by the late Dr. Koji Wada, whose first patient was Japanese entertainer Ai Haruna.
Mao Sugiyama has not publicly revealed where his surgery took place, but an investigation by CalorieLab based on scraps of information from Sugiyama’s Twitter feed around the time of the operation led us to a clinic in a small city on the scenic Sea of Japan coast of western Honshu where a sole practitioner cosmetic surgeon, Dr. S., had been performing various sex reassignment surgeries for a year or two after studying the procedures used at a nearby university hospital gender clinic as well as by Thai surgeon Dr. Sanguan Kunaporn and the late Dr. Wada. Unlike the university hospitals, Dr. S. was willing and eager to perform MTX (male-to-X) surgeries. When CalorieLab contacted Mao Sugiyama with Dr. S’s name, his reply implicitly confirmed our guess.
On his blog Dr. S. recounts a trip to the Philippines in 1999 while working on staff at a plastic surgery clinic in Yokohama. “I actually met a 14-year-old boy who I felt was intersex, neither male nor female.” Speaking to the locals he heard that in some parts of the Philippines students are classified from elementary school into three sexes, male, female, and the “third sex.”
At his own clinic he met with men who lived outwardly as men, but had feminine mannerisms and ways of speaking. They were not gay, nor did they want to become women. “They do not internally recognize themselves as men … but rather they live as X, cross gender, neither man nor woman … We would call this a third sex.”
After first blogging about X gender patients in January, 2011, Dr. S. received many inquiries about non-traditional sex reassignment surgery, and the number of such patients began to outstrip his traditional male-to-female sex reassignment patients. Rather than having a simple desire to be turned into a simulacrum of an anatomical woman, such patients have unusual requests that most gender clinics are reluctant to accommodate.
“I recognized anew the importance of made-to-order medical treatment in sex reassignment surgery, such as not creating a vagina or leaving the penis intact while also creating a vagina, rather than uniformly changing all genitals from one sex to the other just because that’s the way it’s usually been done in gender identity disorder cases.”
Dr. S. was internet savvy and made it easy for potential patients. On his website were consent forms (regular and parental, for minors), as well as a detailed, transparent, a la carte price list:
Castration: ¥300,000 (add ¥100,000 for scrotum removal)
Scrotum removal (a la carte): ¥200,000
Castration, scrotum removal, simple penis amputation at the base: ¥710,000
Penis amputation: ¥510,000
Package deal of castration, scrotum removal, deep penile root removal, pudental cleft creation, and female-style urethra rerouting: ¥960,000
The works (Castration, deep penile root removal, creation of female external genitalia and clitoris, and female-style urethra rerouting): ¥1,300,000
Vagina (a la carte): Price ranges from ¥400,000 to ¥1,000,000, depending on how aggressive the surgery is, and jumps to ¥1,500,000 if a portion of the large intestine must be used
Labia major, labia minora, and clitoris: These usually are not done alone, so a la carte prices are not established; consult for details
Breast implants: Currently 30 percent off, ranging from ¥350,000 to ¥480,000, with additional breast-related services also available
Female hormones: Various prices
Artificial testicle implant: ¥180,000 per testicle
Dr. S. accepted cash, debit card, and several types of credit card, as well as partnering with a third-party medical loan company that would finance operations for anyone, including teens, students, and non-working housewives.
A little over a year after his MTX business began to take off, at the end of March, 2012, Dr. S. operated on a patient who would bring him lasting notoriety, 22-year-old Mao Sugiyama. Mao’s parents may have had an inkling of what was to come: Mao is a name given to both girls and boys in Japan.
The talented young illustrator from Tokyo, who dressed in an androgynous manner, peppered his Twitter stream with literary and artistic allusions, and professed to be asexual, came to Dr. S. to be made “tsuru-tsuru” down there, smooth and shiny. This itself was not new to the surgeon. Dr. S. had blogged about “men who want to become intersex because although they do not want to be women they loathe maleness,” and “who feel a sense of incongruity about the things hanging in their crotch.”
On Mao Sugiyama’s 22nd birthday, Dr. S. and his staff fulfilled Sugiyama’s wishes, and a few days later Sugiyama was returning home with a package of frozen medical waste in his luggage. He tweeted that the procedure cost him about ¥1 million (about $12,500).
Pictures, please, and journalistic lessons
CalorieLab’s initial report on Ham Cybele included many photographs, mostly from Shigenobu M.’s blog post. By the time that other media and bloggers discovered the story, three weeks had passed since Shigenobu M. had taken down his post and photographs, but we had grabbed them just before that happened. We decided to remove the photos for various reasons: They made the story much more lurid and graphic than our normal readership expects; we didn’t own the copyrights and the owner, Shigenobu M. obviously didn’t want the photos out there; and finally, one more thing: The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department asked us very politely (“It would be really appreciated … Thank you for your kind cooperation.”) to delete the article because it was “against the public order and morals in Japan.” The laws for obscenity, defamation, and privacy differ in Japan, and with this added to the other factors mentioned, we decided we were more comfortable in deleting the post for a while, later updating and restoring it without photos and with anonymized names, other than that of Mao Sugiyama, who had no problems with the article and linked to it with praise from his website. (Sugiyama has since changed his name to the equally sexually indeterminant Yuma Hamasaqi and collaborated under that name with Chinese artist Lu Yang on her Uterus Man project.) If you want photographs we ask you to make use of Google Images, because during the time that we had the photos online several websites around the world downloaded them and posted them, which in turn have been posted by yet others.
It wasn’t just the photos that others acquired from us. Two weeks after we published the original version of this article, the Tokyo office of Agence France-Presse ran a story that repeated points from our article, many of which could only have been sourced from us because the original material had disappeared, without crediting us. You may recall Agence France-Presse as the outfit that used photos from freelance journalist Daniel Morel without his permission and sued him when he complained (a court later awarded Morel $1.2 million). Megan McArdle in an article on plagiarism described a “much lamented” but journalistically “legal” practice in which a smaller publication’s work is recreated by a larger publication, without credit: “[T]here is your story: same sources, same facts, different byline. One of its reporters has gone through your article and pulled the research reports it took you weeks to find, called all the sources you had to painstakingly develop, and fished pretty much the exact same quotes that you got through strategic questioning, then written it up as an ‘original story’ for their much larger readership, without ever mentioning your name.” That’s kind of what happened to us.
The originial tweet
[Please Retweet] I am offering my male genitals (full penis, testes, scrotum) as a meal for 100,000 yen [$1,250]. I’m Japanese. The organs were surgically removed at age 22. I was tested to be free of venereal diseases. The organs were of normal function. I was not receiving female hormone treatment. The length at full erection was 16.1 cm [6.3 inches]. First interested buyer will get them, or I will also consider selling to a group. Will prepare and cook as the buyer requests, at his chosen location. If you have questions, please contact me by DM or e-mail. ||||| Japanese man cooks, serves own genitals
TOKYO — A Japanese artist cooked his own genitals and served them to five paying diners in Tokyo to cover the medical costs, in a bizarre act to raise awareness about sexual minorities.
Mao Sugiyama had his penis and testicles surgically removed in March and kept them frozen for two months before dishing them out -- seasoned and braised -- to customers at an event hall on May 13, according to postings on his Twitter account and local police.
Diners paid 20,000 yen ($250) for the plate with a portion of genitals. Pictures published on a website appeared to show the meal came complete with mushrooms and a parsley garnish.
The painter, who is reportedly 22, said on Twitter the organ had been removed by a physician and certified to be free of infections.
The meal was prepared under the supervision of a certified cook and diners were required to sign a waiver indemnifying Sugiyama and event organisers.
In May 18 tweets, the artist said steps were taken so the act met all relevant laws, including a ban on organ sales, processing of medical waste and even food sanitation requirements.
"I receive questions from some women and men... asking 'Will there be a next time? Please host it again.' But there is only one set of male organ," he tweeted on May 16.
"Unfortunately, I have no plan for the next time."
Sugiyama, who considers himself "asexual", that is without gender, initially thought about eating the genitals himself, but decided to solicit paying customers to help pay his hospital bills for the surgery.
In an email to AFP, he confirmed the event had taken place and said it was organised to raise awareness about "sexual minorities, x-gender, asexual people". He said he was readying to publish an official account of the day.
Police in Tokyo said they knew of the episode, but added that it had not broken the law as cannibalism was not illegal in Japan.
"We are aware of the case. There was nothing (criminal) to it. It does not violate any detailed rules. There is nothing to take action about," an officer at Suginami police station told AFP.
Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More » |||||
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– A Japanese artist recently cooked and served up his own genitals for diners at $250 a plate—to raise awareness about sexual minorities and pay for his hospital bills, the AFP reports. Mao Sugiyama, who calls himself asexual, had his private parts removed this spring and kept them frozen until the May 13 culinary event. Participants apparently weren't disappointed: Some even asked the 22-year-old when he'll be doing it again. "But there is only one set of male organ," Sugiyama tweeted. "Unfortunately, I have no plan for the next time." Photos of the meal are available at Calorie Lab, but view them at your own risk; at least Sugiyama served his privates up with mushrooms and a parsley garnish. Tokyo police say they knew all about it, but took no action because cannibalism remains legal in Japan. "It does not violate any detailed rules," an officer said. "There is nothing to take action about."
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Summarize this article:
Lynne Schultz, right, mother of Scout Schultz, looks on as her husband, Bill Schultz, speaks at a news conference in Atlanta, Ga., Monday, Sept. 18, 2017. Scout was a 21-year-old Georgia Tech student... (Associated Press)
ATLANTA (AP) — Three people were arrested Monday night during a protest after a vigil for a Georgia Tech student who was fatally shot by campus police, a university spokesman said.
Police shot and killed Scout Schultz late Saturday night after the 21-year-old student called 911 to report an armed and possibly intoxicated suspicious person, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said.
Georgia Tech sent out alerts urging students to shelter indoors Monday night and lock doors and windows because of violent protests. Video posted on social media showed a police vehicle burning in the street and officers pinning people to the ground as onlookers shouted at them.
After a peaceful vigil, about 50 protesters marched to the campus police department, university spokesman Lance Wallace said. A police vehicle was damaged and two officers suffered minor injuries, with one taken to a hospital for treatment.
Police restored order relatively quickly, and three people were arrested and charged with inciting a riot and battery of an officer, Wallace said.
In a statement released through attorney Chris Stewart, Schultz's family urged protesters to remain peaceful.
"(W)e ask that those who wish to protest Scout's death do so peacefully. Answering violence with violence is not the answer," the statement said. "Our goal is to work diligently to make positive change at Georgia Tech in an effort to ensure a safer campus for all students."
The GBI has said an officer responding to a 911 call about 11:17 p.m. Saturday shot Schultz as the student advanced on officers with a knife and refused commands to put down the knife. Stewart said Monday that the GBI confirmed to him that Schultz was holding a multipurpose tool and that the knife blade was not out.
Schultz was the one who called 911, GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said in an emailed statement Monday.
"In the call, Shultz describes the person as a white male, with long blonde hair, white T-shirt and blue jeans who is possibly intoxicated, holding a knife and possibly armed with a gun on his hip," Miles said, adding that three suicide notes were found in Schultz's dorm room.
Investigators recovered a multi-purpose tool at the scene but didn't find any guns, Miles said.
Flanked by Schultz's parents Monday morning, Stewart said the officer who shot Schultz overreacted. Schultz was having a breakdown and was suicidal but if the officer had used non-lethal force rather than shooting, Schultz could have received treatment and gotten better, Stewart said.
"The mentally ill are looking for a way out when they're having a full breakdown, and there's no way you should be able to use a police officer to take your life when that person isn't threatened," Stewart said.
Georgia Tech police don't carry stun guns, but are equipped with pepper spray, a spokesman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Stewart says he plans to sue over the shooting.
Authorities have not identified the officer who shot Schultz. Georgia Tech on Monday refused to release personnel or disciplinary reports involving the officers, saying such information is exempt from Georgia's open records law.
Schultz was president of Pride Alliance at Georgia Tech. The fourth-year computer engineering student used the name Scout, rather than the given name Scott, and preferred the pronouns "they" and "them" rather than "he" or "him."
"I'm bisexual, nonbinary and intersex," Schultz wrote in a Pride Alliance profile.
William Schultz told reporters Monday that his child had a 3.9 GPA and was on track to graduate early in December.
Lynne Schultz told the Journal-Constitution over the weekend that her oldest child had struggled with depression and attempted suicide two years ago using a belt as a noose.
After that, Scout Schultz went through counseling, William Schultz said. Scout Schultz spent this past summer at home and there were no obvious problems when school resumed last month, the elder Schultz said.
The GBI, through its Crisis Intervention Team, has trained about 10,000 local, state and federal law enforcement officers since it began in 2004, the Atlanta newspaper reported. Some agencies require that training while others don't.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the officers who responded Saturday had undergone such training.
Stewart, the family's lawyer, said the university has failed in not providing its officers with stun guns. He also said university police officers "should have the highest training in dealing with people having mental or emotional breakdowns and issues."
Referring to a video of the incident, Stewart says the main officer was doing a "phenomenal job" handling the situation — retreating, trying to deescalate and putting a barrier between himself and Schultz — and that other officers also appeared to be providing appropriate backup. But one officer behaved inappropriately by firing on Schultz when there was no immediate danger to any of the officers, Stewart said.
William Schultz said the encounter shouldn't have ended in his child's death.
If given a chance to talk to the officer, he told reporters, he just has one question: "Why did you have to shoot? That's the question. I mean, that's the only question that matters right now. Why did you kill my son?"
___
Associated Press writer Jeff Martin contributed to this report. ||||| Story highlights Protests break out on campus after a peaceful vigil for slain student ends
A police car is burned, arrests are made
(CNN) Violence erupted late Monday on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta after a vigil for a student shot and killed by police.
Attendees at the vigil for Scout Schultz said that gathering ended quietly after less than half an hour, and about 20 minutes later a separate gathering developed with chanting, marching and, ultimately, confrontations at the campus police headquarters.
A campus police car burned after its windshield was smashed, and videos taken by people at the scene showed police handcuffing individuals who had been forced to the ground.
Georgia Tech said in a statement late Monday that about 50 people had marched to the police station. Three arrests were made and two officers received minor injuries. Those arrested were charged with inciting a riot and battery of an officer, Tech said, although it did not say whether the three were students.
The later demonstration began with a "core group" of about a dozen people chanting "This is not OK" and unfurling a banner that read "Protect LGBTQ," according to Xincheng Shen, a doctoral student at Tech who attended the earlier vigil.
Read More ||||| Anger over the police shooting of a Pride Alliance leader at Georgia Tech turned violent Monday night, as protesters set a campus police car ablaze following a candlelight vigil.
Two police officers received minor injuries, Tech spokesman Lance Wallace said. One was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, treated and released, he said.
Three people were arrested and were identified by Tech authorities as Vincent Castillenti, Jacob Wilson, and Cassandra Monden. It was not immediately clear if they were students at the university.
(Fulton County jail)
Wilson was charged with two felony counts of aggravated assault against a police officer, and three misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass. Arrest warrants said Wilson hit an officer in the head with a can of spray paint, causing a concussion, and struck another in the face. Warrants also said Wilson spray painted three different sites near the protest with anti-cop sentiments.
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Monden — who was identified as Andrew Xavier Monden by the Fulton County Sheriff’s office — was charged with a felony count of interference with government property, and inciting to rioting, which is a misdemeanor. Arrest warrants said Monden attempted to kick in a front windshield of a police car.
On Saturday, Sept. 16, a caller, later identified as Scout Schultz contacted 911 to report a suspicious person on campus. Soon afterward, Schultz was shot dead by a Georgia Tech campus police officer. The following 911 call was released to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation through an open records request.
Castillenti, 31, was charged with felonies including aggravated assault on an officer, along with willful obstruction of an officer by use of threats or violence. Arrest warrants said Castillenti hit an officer in the head with a hammer while the officer was arresting another protester, and sprayed a different officer with pepper spray when the officer was attempting to arrest him.
The three are expected in court for first appearance hearings Wednesday morning.
The parents of Scout Schultz — who had appeared earlier in the day with their attorney to question the deadly shooting — released a statement Monday night calling for calm.
“We ask that those who wish to protest Scout's death do so peacefully. Answering violence with violence is not the answer. Our goal is to work diligently to make positive change at Georgia Tech in an effort to ensure a safer campus for all students,” they said.
“This is how we will truly honor Scout's life and legacy.”
A vehicle burns after a vigil for a Georgia Tech student who was shot dead by campus police turns violent on Sept. 18, 2017.
Students planned to set up tables across campus from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday “for ... campus members to write letters and on posters to show support for Scout's family and friends (as tonights vigil was interrupted) as well as GTPD,” according to a Facebook post.
Early Tuesday, a Georgia Tech worker pressure washed the spot where a police car burned during a night of violent protests on the campus. JOHN SPINK / [email protected] (0)
The evening began with a peaceful vigil to remember Scout Schultz, a 21-year-old engineering student from Lilburn. Schultz was gunned down by campus police late Saturday night. The GBI is investigating.
But about 50 students left the vigil and began to march toward the Tech police headquarters at Hemphill Avenue and Ferst Drive.
At 9:28 p.m., Georgia Tech tweeted that students should “shelter in place” due to “violent protests on campus.” Officers from the Atlanta Police and nearby Georgia State University were called in to to assist Georgia Tech police.
GTENS ALERT: Stay inside due to violent protests on campus. Avoid Hemphill Avenue. Stay inside until told otherwise. — Georgia Tech (@GeorgiaTech) September 19, 2017
Chad Miller, a Tech alumnus taking part in the march, said he thought tear gas had been deployed. Miller told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he was right behind the police car when it erupted into flames.
“All I heard was metal hitting metal,” Miller said. “I’m guessing it was fireworks, there were some pretty powerful ones.”
“I was marching with them until they got in front of the police station and then all hell broke loose.”
Miller said he saw one man who may have been a police officer throwing up and coughing.
Friends embrace on Monday, September 18, 2017, during a vigil in memory of Scout Schultz, a student and leader in the LGBTQIA community at Georgia Tech. The vigil was held at the Kessler Campanile at Georgia Tech in Atlanta after Scout Schultz was killed during an encounter with campus police. Pride Alliance and Progressive Student Alliance hosted the vigil. ((Rebecca Breyer) for The AtlantaJournal-Constitution) (Rebecca Breyer)
Schultz was shot and killed after a confrontation with Georgia Tech campus police late Saturday night. Police have said Schultz had a knife and refused commands to stop.
But Chris Stewart, a lawyer for the family, said Schultz was carrying a small utility tool and the blade wasn’t out.
Schultz’s parents have questioned why police didn’t use non-lethal force.
The GBI said Monday Schultz had left behind three suicide notes and called 911.
“Why did you have to shoot?” Scout’s father, Bill Schultz asked at a news conference Monday. “That’s the only question that matters right now.”
Schultz was the head of the Georgia Pride Alliance, which had helped organize Monday night’s vigil. The group advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual individuals. |||||
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– A police car was set ablaze and two officers were injured at Georgia Tech Monday night after a vigil for a student shot dead by police was followed by violence. Police say three people were arrested and charged with inciting a riot and battery of an officer, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. After the vigil for Scout Schultz, leader of the school's Pride Alliance, dozens of protesters marched to campus police headquarters, chanting "Justice now" and "This is not OK," CNN reports. Police say Schultz—who identified as non-binary and preferred the pronoun "they"—was shot after refusing to drop a knife. The student's parents say they don't understand why lethal force had to be used. In a statement released through attorney Chris Stewart, Schultz's parents asked that "those who wish to protest Scout's death do so peacefully," the AP reports. "Answering violence with violence is not the answer," they said. Schultz was shot Saturday night after police received a call about somebody with a knife and possibly a gun. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Monday that it was Schultz who made the 911 call. The GBI said three suicide notes were found in the 21-year-old's dorm room. Stewart says that Schultz was suicidal and having a "full breakdown," but that the blade on the utility tool Schultz was holding was not extended and the officer who fired overreacted by shooting somebody who was not a threat.
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US Park Ranger Paul Fugate went for a hike and vanished without a trace on January 13, 1980. He was wearing his NPS uniform with the official NPS Arrowhead patch and a gold-colored NPS ranger badge. Open source/NPS.
June 19, 2018
Contact: Libby Schaaf, 520-824-3560 x9307
Contact: Tip Line, 888-653-0009
Contact: Patrick O'Driscoll, 303-969-2839
Almost 40 years after Chiricahua National Monument Ranger Paul Fugate went for a hike and vanished without a trace, the National Park Service (NPS) has raised its reward fund in the case to $60,000. Decades after initial leads in Fugate’s disappearance grew cold, new information has prompted NPS investigators and Cochise County (AZ) Sheriff Mark Dannels to renew their request for the public’s help in solving the 38-year-old mystery.
On January 13, 1980, Paul Braxton Fugate, then age 41, was working in the monument’s visitor center in southeastern Arizona. At about 2 p.m. that day, he left the building to hike a park trail and was never seen again. Ranger Fugate was wearing his “green and gray” Park Service uniform, including the official NPS Arrowhead patch on his upper shirtsleeve and a gold-colored ranger badge pinned over his heart.
Although search teams combed the surrounding area extensively multiple times, they found no sign of the missing ranger. Investigators suspected foul play early on, and a formal missing-person case remains open. During the first few years after Fugate’s disappearance, the reward fund grew to $20,000. With this renewed focus, the NPS is now offering up to $60,000 for information leading to Fugate’s whereabouts and/or the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for his disappearance.
If you have information that can help, please contact the NPS Investigative Services Branch (ISB) in any of the following ways. Your identity will remain confidential: ||||| Early this year, however, Howard Chapman, who was then the director of the Park Service's Western Region, reviewed the case and decided that Mr. Fugate had voluntarily ''abandoned his position.'' Mr. Fugate was dismissed, and his wife was asked to return the $6,900 paid her, plus 11 percent interest. Later, the demand for repayment was changed to a lien on Mr. Fugate's retirement fund.
Moreover, Mrs. Fugate was told that no appeal was possible because a termination hearing must be requested within 20 days and the dismissal had been made retroactive to early 1980.
Debra Hillary, an attorney from Tucson, is helping Mrs. Fugate contest these rulings. The Urban Law Institute at Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C., plans to seek an injunction against the service's changing Mr. Fugate's status from ''missing person.'' Not the Sort to Disappear
''We think there's been a pretty serious breach of due process,'' said Mark Panitsch, a third-year student at Antioch. ''He wasn't the sort who would up and disappear.''
On another occasion, in late 1970, Mr. Fugate had been dismissed by for, among other things, wearing long hair and a handlebar moustache. After a dispute with the service, Mr. Fugate was reinstated in 1976 and his back pay and benefits were restored.
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He spent the intervening time studying botany at the University of Arizona in Tucson. A friend he met there, Steve McLaughlin, now heads Friends of Paul Fugate, a group that is trying to raise money for legal fees and a private investigator.
''I've never heard another naturalist do as good a job as Paul,'' Mr. McLaughlin said. ''He could explain complex ecological concepts to a campfire audience that college professors would stumble over with their students.'' Plea for Calling in the F.B.I.
Mr. McLaughlin, who is 32, and others in the group are upset that the Government did not look for Mr. Fugate outside the national monument grounds. They think that the Federal Bureau of Investigation should be brought into the case. In this connection, Craig Emaanuel, an investigator for the Chochise sheriff's office, has said, ''I believe there is a 50 percent chance that a homicide has occurred.''
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Mr. McLaughlin, Mrs. Fugate and others believe that Mr. Fugate, while hiking alone that afternoon, stumbled on a drug deal. They think his uniform and badge alarmed the participants, who abducted him.
The area in and around the monument, about 60 miles from Mexico, is commonly used for such deals, law enforcement officers acknowledge. The acting director of the Park Service's Western Region, Jack Davis, simply notes the lack of any evidence of foul play. The acquaintance's sighting of Mr. Fugate in the pickup truck, he said, ''would have to be questioned because of the speed,'' since the vehicles passed each other at 50 miles per hour, ''and the fleeting nature of the glimpse.''
John Clynick of the F.B.I. office in Phoenix said yesterday, ''We have looked into the circumstances of the case and we do not find reason to believe we have jurisdiction.''
Mrs. Fugate said, ''The Government would investigate if a Navajo woman's dress was missing. I think Paul Fugate is worth more than a Navajo woman's dress, and I don't think the Federal Government is concerned about what happened to him.''
Members of the group known as Friends of Paul Fugate is continuing to raise funds by selling ''Where Is Paul Fugate?'' bumper stickers and holding yard sales. But at their meetings they always speak of Mr. Fugate in the past tense. |||||
Summary:
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– There's been no sign of Paul Fugate since the Chiricahua National Monument ranger disappeared nearly 40 years ago. But there apparently has been "new information" in the case, which has led the National Park Service to triple the reward for information leading to his whereabouts to $60,000. As an NPS release explains, the 41-year-old Fugate was working a Jan. 13, 1980, shift at the southeastern Arizona monument's visitor center when he set out on one of the trails. He was never seen again. In a 1981 article on the missing man, the New York Times reported the 17-square-mile monument area was thoroughly searched, but that search didn't extend beyond those grounds. The Douglas Dispatch in 2010 reported that no items were missing from Fugate's home to suggest he actively disappeared. The Times reported that friends and family (he left behind a wife) suspected he came across a drug deal in progress—drug deals had been known to occur at the monument, which sits roughly 60 miles from the Mexican border—and that the uniform and badge he was wearing caused those he encountered to panic and abduct him. "I believe there is a 50% chance that a homicide has occurred," an investigator with the Cochise sheriff's office said at the time. The only lead was an acquaintance's report of seeing Fugate sandwiched between two men in a pickup, though that stemmed from a quick glimpse that occurred as the vehicles passed each other at 50mph. Those with info can call or text 888-653-0009. (This man was on a quest to perfect Ulysses, then vanished.)
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ROCKFORD - Kylie Wicker is just a regular nine year old girl, who says she enjoys the simple things in life like outdoor activities. “I can finally ride my bike!”
Although sometimes doing those things is very difficult. Kylie was born without fingers on her left hand, and although she keeps a smile on her face there are times that she breaks down. “She has always been pretty positive about it, but lately when she was breaking down, it was kind of hard.” said Jeromy Wicker, Kylies Father.
That is all about to change, thanks to students at Boylan High School. Staff received an email from Kylie's dad last month, asking the school to help in the process of making an affordable prosthetic hand through the schools 3-D printer. “He had seen online that you could make a 3D printout of the fingers on a plastic printer, and he knew we had one” said Bud May, the teacher of the Engineering Graphics class at Boylan High School.
The prosthetic hand works through the movement in Kylie’s wrist, and the flexible cords that are inside of the device make her fingers stand outwards and when Kylie bends her wrist forward, the length gets longer, and the cables force the hand to grasp and close.
In just a few days, Kylie can wear the prosthetic device, and she said she could not be more thrilled. “It’s coming really fast, because I’m going to get it on Friday, and it’s really exciting.”
Normally, a prosthetic hand could cost thousands of dollars, Kylie’s mother said that doctors and medical professionals say the price for devices like this is steep “$The price is usually around $20,000 up to $50,000, and then you have to take in the fact that she is only nine years old, and the way she grows, she will grow out of them” said Sharon Wicker, Kylies mom.
Although many have to pay big bucks for a device like Kylie’s, you will not believe how much the 3D printed hand at Boylan costs. “The total cost of this hand will be barely $5.00, there is maybe $1.00 worth of plastic, and it costs a couple of bucks for the fasteners.” Said May
Although the cost is cheap, the impact is priceless. “There is a lot of things that have gone through my mind that she can do now, that she can accomplish a lot easier with her new hand.” Said Kylie’s mother, Sharon Wicker
||||| Students from an Illinois high school engineering class are using a 3-D printer to make a prosthetic hand for a 9-year-old girl born without fingers on her left hand.
Kylie Wicker, a third-grader at Whitman Post Elementary School in Rockton, will be presented with the prosthetic hand on Friday at Boylan High School, where students are hard at work making the device, the Rockford Register Star reported.
Bud May, instructor of the engineering graphics class, told MyFoxPhilly.com that Kylie's father approached the school after reading stories on the Internet about 3-D printing technology helping children born with underdeveloped fingers
“He had seen online that you could make a 3-D printout of the fingers on a plastic printer, and he knew we had one," May told the station. "The flexible cords make the fingers stand out when you bend the wrist forward the length gets longer and the cables force the hand to grasp."
A regular prosthetic hand could cost up to $50,000. Kylie's family is reportedly waiting to get her a device with built-in sensors once she is fully grown.
"I can finally ride my bike," Kylie told the station.
Kylie’s mom, Sharon Wicker, told the Rockford Register Star that her daughter will now be able to do things most young girls take for granted, such as dressing her American Girl dolls and quickly grabbing something to eat or drink.
"It’s the little stuff that we take for granted that we don’t even notice that she can’t do right now that she’ll be able to do,” Wicker said. “Even when she’s eating, if she’s taking a bite of something, she can’t just grab her drink and take a drink real quick. She has to set it all down."
The production cost for Kylie’s prosthetic hand is about $5, according to the report.
"It’s amazing. This is all out there on the public domain," May told the newspaper. "You just scale the entire set up or down to fit the hand."
Click here for more from MyFoxPhilly.com.
Click here for more from the Rockford Register Star. ||||| The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of excitement for 10 Boylan Catholic High School students and a 9-year-old Roscoe girl, brought together by the girl's need for a low-cost prosthetic hand and the students' willingness to help.
Kylie Wicker, a third grader at Whitman Post Elementary School, was born without fingers on her left hand. The bubbling ball of energy with long brown hair and a dimpled smile was used to other kids staring and asking questions. This year was different, said her dad, Jeromy Wicker.
"You could tell. ... It was starting to bother her," Wicker said.
Insurance would only cover the cost of one prosthetic in her lifetime, Wicker said, so the family was going to wait until Kylie was done growing to get her a full-blown prosthesis with built-in sensors that can read muscle commands. Those can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The plan was to wait until Kylie was older to get a prosthesis, but that plan changed when Jeromy Wicker went to the Internet earlier this year.
He wondered what other kids were doing while they waited to be "big enough" for a hand or an arm or a leg. What he found blew him away.
The Internet was filled with stories from around the world about a new invention - a prosthetic hand made using a 3-D printer and instructions the creators posted online for free, for anyone to use.
Wicker started looking for a 3-D printer in the area and someone who might be willing to take on the challenge. His search led him to Boylan where 10 enthusiastic engineering graphics students jumped at the chance to make a difference in the little girl's life.
The students and their instructor, Bud May, met the Wickers last week. May took some measurements of Kylie's hand and wrist, and the class started using a 3-D printer that was donated to the school last year to make the 20 to 30 pieces that they will assemble to make the plastic hand.
They plan to present the finished product to Kylie and her parents Friday at the school.
As for Kylie, she's most excited about the simple things that her new prosthetic will let her do.
“Catching a ball, doing the monkey bars,” she said.
Kylie smiled and nodded her head to a number of other tasks that her parents mentioned from dressing her American Girl dolls to having better control when she's riding her bike.
"It's the little stuff that we take for granted that we don't even notice that she can't do right now that she'll be able to do," said Kylie's mom, Sharon Wicker. "Even when she's eating, if she's taking a bite of something, she can't just grab her drink and take a drink real quick. She has to set it all down."
The production cost for Kylie's prosthetic is only about $5, May said. It consists of about 30 parts -- the molded plastic pieces that act as fingers, cables, elastic, metal pins and a wrist form. |||||
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– A 9-year-old born without fingers on one hand is getting a gift from Illinois high school students: a new hand, Fox News reports. The students are 3D-printing the prosthetic device, which works through wrist movement, mystateline.com notes. Typically, prosthetics can run up to $50,000, says Kylie Wicker's mom. "The total cost of this hand will be barely $5, there is maybe $1 worth of plastic, and it costs a couple of bucks for the fasteners," says the engineering teacher in charge of the 10-student project in Rockton. Now Kylie's looking forward to "catching a ball, doing the monkey bars," she tells the Rockford Register Star.
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As more and more companies develop smartwatches, we're starting to see which will stick around and which will fall behind. Pebble is hoping that it could become one of the former companies—but it's cutting costs to stay afloat. In an interview with Tech Insider, Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky revealed the company would lay off 40 employees, or about 25 percent of its entire workforce.
Migicovsky was slightly cryptic when explaining the reason for the layoffs, but he did say that Pebble would be carefully considering how to spend its money over the next year. "We've definitely been careful this year as we plan our products," Migicovsky told Tech Insider. "We got this money, but money [among VCs in Silicon Valley] is pretty tight these days."
According to the interview, Pebble has raised $26 million over the past eight months, which is in addition to its original $20 million raised back in February of 2015 when it launched its Pebble Time Kickstarter campaign. Migicovsky claims Pebble will focus its wearable device efforts on the health and fitness market going forward, and it will also start selling smartwatches in India via Amazon next month.
Since the beginning, Pebble's success has always been heavily based on its community of followers and developers. The Kickstarter for the original Pebble pulled in over $10 million, and since then the company has created upgraded, all-metal designs of its first smartwatch, redesigned its interface, and even designed a round version meant to appeal to the more fashion-conscious shopper. But now it appears even a strong community cannot prevent the shakiness of the wearable industry from affecting Pebble. The market for smartwatches and smartwatch hybrids continues to get crowded: Fitbit's Blaze debuted recently, and we saw the company's stock fall shortly after, and Apple lowered the price of its Watch to $299 this week. Pebble hasn't disclosed any sales figures recently; it's too early to know sales of Fitbit's Blaze; and aside from analyst projections, Apple Watch sales numbers are still shrouded in mystery.
Despite that uncertainty, experts do predict that in the wearables category, smartwatches will be the device in highest demand over the next few years. Pebble plans to be around to see that reality. "We want to be careful," Migicovsky told Tech Insider. "Pebble is in this for the long haul. We have a vision where wearables will take us in five to 10 years, and this is setting us up for success." ||||| Pebble, the buzzy startup credited for being one of the first companies to launch a modern smartwatch, is laying off 40 employees this week, CEO Eric Migicovsky told Tech Insider in an interview. That's about 25% of its total staff.
Migicovsky also said the company has raised $26 million over the last eight months on top of its $20 million Kickstarter campaign that started in February 2015. He wouldn't disclose the investors, but did say Pebble has raised a mix of debt and venture capital from private investors.
Migicovsky blamed a chilly fundraising environment in Silicon Valley for the layoffs.
"We've definitely been careful this year as we plan our products," Migicovsky said. "We got this money, but money [among VCs in Silicon Valley] is pretty tight these days."
Moving forward, Migicovsky said he wants Pebble to focus on the health and fitness aspects of the company's wearables, which he says most users are interested in. The company will also start selling its products in India next month through a partnership with Amazon.
The Pebble layoffs come at a shaky time for the wearable technology market. FitBit, the leader in the wearable category, has seen its stock fall dramatically in recent months. Apple dropped the price of the Apple Watch by $50 to $299 on Monday, a sign that it's not selling as well as hoped.
"We want to be careful," Migicovsky said. "Pebble is in this for the long haul. We have a vision where wearables will take us in five to 10 years, and this is setting us up for success."
Migicovsky wouldn't disclose sales figures for Pebble. The last time the company announced sales was in February 2015 when it said it had sold 1 million smartwatches since 2013.
By contrast, estimates for Apple Watch sales are all over the place — Apple has never disclosed sales figures — but even the most conservative analysts think Apple sold about 10 million units in 2015. (The Apple Watch isn't even a year old yet.)
Pebble targets the lower end of the smartwatch market. Its watches start at $100 and go up to $250.
Smartwatches were once considered to be the "next big thing" in consumer technology, but so far no one has created a must-have gadget in the category. They're nice to own, but still not as capable or essential as a smartphone. ||||| Pebble, the company that helped usher in the smartwatch era, is tightening spending through a round of layoffs.
On Wednesday, Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky told Tech Insider that 40 employees, equating to roughly 25% of his company’s workforce, would be let go this week.
According to Migicovsky, the layoffs are required due to “a chilly fundraising environment” in Silicon Valley.
Pebble originally saw success with its first smartwatch on Kickstarter, where the company’s campaign raised over $10 million in 2012.
Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.
The firm later raised another $20 million via its second Kickstarter campaign for its current crop of Pebble Time smartwatches.
In addition to its Kickstarter success, Migicovsky told Tech Insider that Pebble raised another $26 million over the last eight months.
By letting employees go when raising money is getting tougher, the company can focus on its future. Migicovsky says his company has a vision for “where wearables will take us” over the next five to 10 years.
Earlier this month, Pebble dropped the price of its Pebble Time and Time Round smartwatches by $50. The price drop rounds out Pebble’s product offering, which ranges from $100 to $250, depending on the model.
Read more: Why Pebble’s Smartwatch Price Drop Is a Smart Move
In December, the company added fitness tracking capabilities to its Pebble Time lineup of watches. Through a health app, the watch gained the ability to count steps and track sleep.
According to Migicovsky, Pebble’s focus going forward will continue to be development of health and fitness features as well as an expansion to India through a partnership with Amazon. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?
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– Is the smartwatch's time already over? Tech Insider reports Pebble—one of the first companies to release a smartwatch—is laying off 40 employees, about 25% of its total staff. Pebble raised $26 million this year, in addition to the $30 million it has raised on Kickstarter since its founding, according to Fortune. Regardless, CEO Eric Migicovsky says fundraising has been difficult in Silicon Valley, necessitating the layoffs. "Money is pretty tight these days," he tells Tech Insider. Despite the layoffs, Migicovsky says Pebble "is in this for the long haul." "We have a vision where wearables will take us in five to 10 years," he says. In the near future, that includes focusing on health and fitness functions popular with consumers. The problems at Pebble are just another sign of dark clouds looming for the wearable technology industry, Tech Insider reports. FitBit, the industry leader in wearable tech, recently had its stock fall "dramatically." Apple reduced the price of its Apple Watch by $50 this week, signs that sales aren't going well. Pebble also dropped the price of its watches this month. Despite these warning signs, more and more companies are getting into the smartwatch game, according to Ars Technica. And experts believe smartwatches will still be the most-purchased piece of wearable technology for at least the next few years.
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Story highlights Matthews later turned away from the entertainment industry and embraced Christian faith
As an evangelist, she said she was miserable in her entertainment roles
(CNN) Denise Matthews, who as Vanity fronted the group Vanity 6 but was best known for her collaboration with Prince, has died at a hospital in Fremont, California.
Her death was confirmed by Gisela Hernandez, spokeswoman for Washington Hospital Health Care System. Hernandez did not say when Matthews died or under what circumstances.
She was 57 years old, according to her biography on the Internet Movie Database.
Matthews was born in Canada and began her career as a model. She took on film roles, playing mostly sultry characters beginning in 1980, including in the movies "52 Pick-Up" and "Action Jackson."
And in 1982 she headlined the group Vanity 6, which had a close association with Prince. The band published only one album, allmusic.com said in a biography on the band. ||||| Matthews' history with Prince began in the early 1980s when he was looking for backup singers. Her biggest hit, "Nasty Girl," was produced by Prince and released in 1982. Matthews disbanded Vanity 6 in 1984 and soon signed a deal with Motown. She released two solo records, "Wild Animal" and "Skin on Skin." |||||
Summary:
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– Prince protege Denise Matthews, better known to '80s music fans as Vanity, has died from kidney failure at a hospital in California, the Los Angeles Times reports. She was 57. The Canadian-born lead singer of the group Vanity 6 had several big hits in the early '80s, including 1982's Prince-produced "Nasty Gal," and released two solo records after the group split up in 1984, reports Variety, which notes that she also had numerous roles in '80s action movies, including The Last Dragon, 52 Pick-Up, and Action Jackson. Variety notes that in 1994,, Matthews almost died from liver failure caused by her addiction to crack cocaine. She claimed Jesus appeared to her and offered her a second chance at life—if she got out of the entertainment business. She received a kidney transplant in 1997 and became a born-again Christian evangelist, telling her story in her autobiography Blame It on Vanity. CNN reports that she is being mourned by celebrities including fellow Prince protege Sheila E, who tweeted: "SADDEN my FRIEND IN CHRIST gone 2day. Vanity, Denise Matthews. MISS YOU DEARLY. U ARE IN HIS ARMS NOW, NO Pain."
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Photo courtesy of the National Archives.
By DCist Contributor Juana Summers
America has had a long, complicated history with alcohol, and a new exhibit at the National Archives seeks to capture that ebb and flow. "Spirited Republic: Alcohol in American History" examines the production, consumption, and regulation of alcohol throughout U.S. history. Using National Archives documents and artifacts, the collection explores the wide variety of views Americans have held about alcohol.
"The big idea behind the show is that America has had a love-hate relationship with alcohol," Bruce Brustard, senior curator for the National Archives, recently told DCist. "Those two forces have sometimes been at war, and sometimes been at kind of an uneasy peace."
Immediately upon entering the exhibit, guests are greeted with what Brustard described on a recent tour as a "tower of jugs." Visitors are immediately propelled back to 1830 where it is estimated that people of legal drinking age drank 7.1 gallons of alcohol per person. That's more than two times today's average consumption.
Each section of the exhibit is cleverly named. One, "Good Creature of God" embodies the attitude that alcohol is "simply a part of American life and is integrated very easily," Brustard explained.
The walls are packed with artifacts that speak to the rise and fall of drinking and the shifting culture. One wall includes a collection of beer and liquor labels from the years immediately following prohibition. There are more familiar names like Rolling Rock, Southern Comfort, and Bacardi alongside more obscure ones like North Pole Beer, Picnic Beer, and Night Cap Whiskey.
The exhibit features information on Daisy Simpson, one of the few women who worked as a federal agent during Prohibition. Her nickname was “the lady hooch hunter,” and she was famous for her ability to work undercover to unearth the illegal production and sales of alcohol in San Francisco.
Another section includes a more novel artifact: a prescription for whiskey. During prohibition, doctors were authorized by the Treasury Department to prescribe medicinal alcohol for patient’s ailments. It was one of a few legal exceptions to prohibition.
"Spirited Republic" also touches on some of the societal costs associated with alcohol, including abuse and alcoholism. The collection includes an early “drunkometer,” the grandfather to the modern breathalyzer; a first-edition of “Alcoholics Anonymous,” the text at the center of the well-known 12-step program and a letter to former First Lady Betty Ford from musician Johnny Cash who struggled with addiction.
The exhibit's final section is devoted to the modern American presidency and drink. It includes the glasses former President Gerald Ford and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev used to toast after the 1975 signing of the Helsinki Accords. The section also includes former President Franklin D. Roosevelt's cocktail shaker.
"Spirited Republic" is on display at the Lawrence F. O'Brien Gallery of the National Archives Museum (700 Pennsylvania Ave. NW). Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily, except Thanksgiving and Christmas. The collection will be on display until Jan. 10, 2016. ||||| You must be 21 years of age to enter this site.
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We're sorry. We take seriously our responsibility to limit website access to adults of legal drinking age. For more information, please visit centurycouncil.org ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A new exhibit looks at the highs and lows of drinking in America.
A new exhibit looks at the history of drinking in America.
The Puritans get a bad rap in America - especially when it comes to alcohol. They are generally blamed for putting the dampeners on any form of fun, and many people assume that it was the nation's puritanical roots coming to the surface when Prohibition was introduced in 1917.
But while they weren't exactly party animals, a new exhibition at the US National Archives reveals that the Puritans actually approved of drink.
"One of the things we understand now is that the initial ship that came over from England to Massachusetts Bay actually carried more beer than water," says Bruce Bustard, senior curator of Spirited Republic: Alcohol in American History.
Image caption Betty Ford spoke openly about her struggles with alcoholism
In fact Increase Mather, a prominent Puritan minister of the period, delivered a sermon in which he described alcohol as being "a good creature of God" - although the drunkard was "of the devil."
Early Americans even took a healthful dram for breakfast, whiskey was a typical lunchtime tipple, ale accompanied supper and the day ended with a nightcap. Continuous imbibing clearly built up a tolerance as most Americans in 1790 consumed an average 5.8 gallons of pure alcohol a year.
"We think of that as an astounding amount - you would think people would be staggering around drunk, but most people were able to handle their alcohol because it was integrated into daily life." says Bustard.
Image caption FDR's cocktail shaker
This was also a period when most people were working in the fields which presumably didn't require much focus. And living in a tight knit community meant people could keep an eye on each other and intervene if somebody was thought to be overdoing it. Even so, modern Americans look quite abstemious by comparison, consuming only two gallons of pure alcohol per year.
In 1830, consumption peaked at 7.1 gallons a year and drinking became a moral issue.
"This was a time of great reform fervour," says Bustard. "Think of the women's rights movement and anti-slavery movement. Another very popular and powerful movement was the temperance and ultimately Prohibition movement."
Alcoholism - also known as dipsomania - was starting to have a serious impact on communities. Women and children might be in physical danger if the man of the house began drinking. If he became ill or lost his job through drink, there was no social safety net to support or protect his family.
In 1862 the US Navy abolished the traditional half-pint daily rum ration for sailors, and by the late 19th Century support for Prohibition, banning the manufacture and sale of alcohol was overwhelming. On 16 January 1919, the 18th Amendment, which set Prohibition into law, became part of the Constitution.
Many famous figures emerged from the era - the Chicago gangster boss Al Capone being the most notorious. But the National Archives exhibition reveals details of some lesser-known heroes who fought on the side of the law.
Isidor "Izzy" Einstein was an immigrant from Austria-Hungary who had no experience in law enforcement. Nevertheless, he made his name arresting almost 5,000 people accused of bootlegging, and enjoyed a 95% conviction rate.
Image copyright US National Archives and Records Administration Image caption Avenger pilot Roland Gift relaxes in the USS Monterey after a night landing
Drinking Data
The Founding Fathers liked a drink - Samuel Adams was a partner in his father's malt house and Thomas Jefferson was famed for importing European wines.
By the late 19th Century, dipsomania, or alcoholism, was being treated as a disease.
The first arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol was in 1897.
In 1955 the first breathalyser was patented.
Americans drink an average of 2.3 gallons of pure alcohol a year compared to 7.1 gallons in 1830.
He and his partner Moe Smith often worked in disguise but also tipped off reporters in order to get favourable news coverage. That publicity and their lack of professional experience eventually led to both being dismissed.
But prohibition did not ban alcohol consumption and many Americans found legal and not so legal ways to carry on drinking. The speakeasy was born, organised crime moved in and alcohol became big business. The cost of enforcing prohibition itself became prohibitive.
Image copyright US National Archives and Records Administration
By the 1930s it was widely believed that making alcohol legal again would provide much needed jobs and taxes during the Great Depression. And on 16 February 1933, the 21st Amendment ended Prohibition.
"America now has a mishmash of local, state and federal controls of alcohol and part of that is a legacy of Prohibition," says Bustard. "The Prohibition movement was still quite strong after Prohibition ended and it led to a lot of local prohibition on alcohol and state level probation."
The American presidency has done a lot to rehabilitate alcohol and make it respectable again. Betty, the wife of Gerald Ford may have given her name to an alcoholic treatment centre, but Presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama can all be seen on film drinking socially and making official toasts with international dignitaries.
Image caption Prohibition propaganda
And another exhibition highlight is the silver cocktail set once owned by President Franklin D Roosevelt.
"He had a tradition of having a small cocktail party with his most immediate staff and there were only two rules; FDR would make the drinks - and apparently he made very strong cocktails - and the other rule was that there would be no business discussed. It was a time for him and his staff to relax at the end of the day, so for him this cocktail set had a very positive association," says Bustard.
"But I also like to think about what his wife Eleanor might have thought about it because both her father and her brother were alcoholics. While she wasn't a teetotaller, she didn't use much alcohol at all. So I think she would have had a very different view of this very same object." ||||| The three accused witches were brought before the magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne and questioned, even as their accusers appeared in the courtroom in a grand display of spasms, contortions, screaming and writhing. Though Good and Osborn denied their guilt, Tituba confessed. Likely seeking to save herself from certain conviction by acting as an informer, she claimed there were other witches acting alongside her in service of the devil against the Puritans. As hysteria spread through the community and beyond into the rest of Massachusetts, a number of others were accused, including Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse–both regarded as upstanding members of church and community–and the four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good.
Like Tituba, several accused “witches” confessed and named still others, and the trials soon began to overwhelm the local justice system. In May 1692, the newly appointed governor of Massachusetts, William Phips, ordered the establishment of a special Court of Oyer (to hear) and Terminer (to decide) on witchcraft cases for Suffolk, Essex and Middlesex counties. Presided over by judges including Hathorne, Samuel Sewall and William Stoughton, the court handed down its first conviction, against Bridget Bishop, on June 2; she was hanged eight days later on what would become known as Gallows Hill in Salem Town. Five more people were hanged that July; five in August and eight more in September. In addition, seven other accused witches died in jail, while the elderly Giles Corey (Martha’s husband) was pressed to death by stones after he refused to enter a plea at his arraignment ||||| For the 1953 Ellery Queen novel, see The Scarlet Letters
The Scarlet Letter: A Romance, an 1850 novel, is a work of historical fiction written by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne.[1] It is considered his "masterwork".[2] Set in 17th-century Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony, during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. As she struggles to raise her rambunctious daughter, Pearl, on her own, the father of her child is revealed and is shown to be experiencing severe guilt. Through the scorn and judgment of the citizens and Roger Chillingworth (Hester's husband), the two decide to remain together. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.
Plot [ edit ]
The Scarlet Letter by In this painting,by Hugues Merle , Hester Prynne and Pearl are in the foreground and Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth are in the background (painting by Hugues Merle , 1861).
In June 1638, in Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, a crowd gathers to witness the punishment of Hester Prynne, a young woman who has given birth to a baby of unknown parentage. She is required to wear a scarlet "A" on her dress when she is in front of the townspeople to shame her. The letter "A" stands for adulteress, although this is never said explicitly in the novel. Her sentence required her to stand on the scaffold for three hours, exposed to public humiliation, and to wear the scarlet "A" for the rest of her life. As Hester approaches the scaffold, many of the women in the crowd are angered by her beauty and quiet dignity. When demanded and cajoled to name the father of her child, Hester refuses.
As Hester looks out over the crowd, she notices a small, misshapen man and recognizes him as her long-lost husband, who has been presumed lost at sea. When the husband sees Hester's shame, he asks a man in the crowd about her and is told the story of his wife's adultery. He angrily exclaims that the child's father, the partner in the adulterous act, should also be punished and vows to find the man. He chooses a new name, Roger Chillingworth, to aid him in his plan.
The Reverend John Wilson and the minister of Hester's church, Arthur Dimmesdale, question the woman, but she refuses to name her lover. After she returns to her prison cell, the jailer brings in Roger Chillingworth, a physician, to calm Hester and her child with his roots and herbs. He and Hester have an open conversation regarding their marriage and the fact that they were both in the wrong. Her lover, however, is another matter and he demands to know who it is; Hester refuses to divulge such information. He accepts this, stating that he will find out anyway, and forces her to hide that he is her husband. If she ever reveals him, he warns her, he will destroy the child's father. Hester agrees to Chillingworth's terms although she suspects she will regret it.
Following her release from prison, Hester settles in a cottage at the edge of town and earns a meager living with her needlework, which is of extraordinary quality. She lives a quiet, somber life with her daughter, Pearl, and performs acts of charity for the poor. She is troubled by her daughter's unusual fascination with Hester's scarlet "A". The shunning of Hester also extends to Pearl, who has no playmates or friends except her mother. As she grows older, Pearl becomes capricious and unruly. Her conduct starts rumors, and, not surprisingly, the church members suggest Pearl be taken away from Hester.
Hester, hearing rumors that she may lose Pearl, goes to speak to Governor Bellingham. With him are ministers Wilson and Dimmesdale. Hester appeals to Dimmesdale in desperation, and the minister persuades the governor to let Pearl remain in Hester's care.
Because Dimmesdale's health has begun to fail, the townspeople are happy to have Chillingworth, a newly arrived physician, take up lodgings with their beloved minister. Being in such close contact with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth begins to suspect that the minister's illness is the result of some unconfessed guilt. He applies psychological pressure to the minister because he suspects Dimmesdale is Pearl's father. One evening, pulling the sleeping Dimmesdale's vestment aside, Chillingworth sees a symbol that represents his shame on the minister's pale chest.
Tormented by his guilty conscience, Dimmesdale goes to the square where Hester was punished years earlier. Climbing the scaffold, he admits his guilt but cannot find the courage to do so publicly. Hester, shocked by Dimmesdale's deterioration, decides to obtain a release from her vow of silence to her husband.
Several days later, Hester meets Dimmesdale in the forest and tells him of her husband and his desire for revenge. She convinces Dimmesdale to leave Boston in secret on a ship to Europe where they can start life anew. Renewed by this plan, the minister seems to gain new energy. On Election Day, Dimmesdale gives what is called one of his most inspired sermons. But as the procession leaves the church, Dimmesdale climbs upon the scaffold and confesses his sin, dying in Hester's arms. Later, most witnesses swear that they saw a stigma in the form of a scarlet "A" upon his chest, although some deny this statement. Chillingworth, losing his will for revenge, dies shortly thereafter and leaves Pearl a substantial inheritance.
After several years, Hester returns to her cottage and resumes wearing the scarlet letter. When she dies, she is buried near the grave of Dimmesdale, and they share a simple slate tombstone engraved with an escutcheon described as: "On a field, sable, the letter A, gules" ("On a field, black, the letter A, red").
Major theme [ edit ]
The major theme of The Scarlet Letter is shaming and social stigmatizing, both Hester's public humiliation and Dimmesdale's private shame and fear of exposure. Notably, their liaison is never spoken of, so the circumstances that lead to Hester's pregnancy, and how their affair was kept secret never become part of the plot.
Elmer Kennedy-Andrews remarks that Hawthorne in "The Custom-house" sets the context for his story and "tells us about 'romance', which is his preferred generic term to describe The Scarlet Letter, as his subtitle for the book – 'A Romance' – would indicate." In this introduction, Hawthorne describes a space between materialism and "dreaminess" that he calls "a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairy-land, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbues itself with nature of the other". This combination of "dreaminess" and realism gave the author space to explore major themes.
Other themes [ edit ]
The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge – specifically, in knowledge of what it means to be immoral. For Hester, the Scarlet Letter is a physical manifestation of her sin and reminder of her painful solitude. She contemplates casting it off to obtain her freedom from an oppressive society and a checkered past as well as the absence of God. Because the society excludes her, she considers the possibility that many of the traditions held up by the Puritan culture are untrue and are not designed to bring her happiness.
As for Dimmesdale, the "cheating minister", his sin gives him "sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his chest vibrate[s] in unison with theirs." His eloquent and powerful sermons derive from this sense of empathy.[4] The narrative of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is quite in keeping with the oldest and most fully authorized principles in Christian thought.[citation needed] His "Fall" is a descent from apparent grace to his own damnation; he appears to begin in purity but he ends in corruption. The subtlety is that the minister's belief is his own cheating, convincing himself at every stage of his spiritual pilgrimage that he is saved.[5]
The rose bush's beauty forms a striking contrast to all that surrounds it; as later the beautifully embroidered scarlet "A" will be held out in part as an invitation to find "some sweet moral blossom" in the ensuing, tragic tale and in part as an image that "the deep heart of nature" (perhaps God) may look more kindly on the errant Hester and her child than her Puritan neighbors do. Throughout the work, the nature images contrast with the stark darkness of the Puritans and their systems.[6]
Chillingworth's misshapen body reflects (or symbolizes) the anger in his soul, which builds as the novel progresses, similar to the way Dimmesdale's illness reveals his inner turmoil. The outward man reflects the condition of the heart; an observation thought inspired by the deterioration of Edgar Allan Poe, whom Hawthorne "much admired".[6]
Another theme is the extreme legalism of the Puritans and how Hester chooses not to conform to their rules and beliefs. Hester was rejected by the villagers even though she spent her life doing what she could to help the sick and the poor. Because of the social shunning, she spent her life mostly in solitude, and would not go to church.
As a result, she retreats into her own mind and her own thinking. Her thoughts begin to stretch and go beyond what would be considered by the Puritans as safe or even Christian. She still sees her sin, but begins to look on it differently than the villagers ever have. She begins to believe that a person's earthly sins do not necessarily condemn them. She even goes so far as to tell Dimmesdale that their sin has been paid for by their daily penance and that their sin will not keep them from getting to heaven, however, the Puritans believed that such a sin surely condemns.[dubious – discuss][citation needed]
But Hester had been alienated from the Puritan society, both in her physical life and spiritual life. When Dimmesdale dies, she knows she has to move on because she can no longer conform to the Puritans' strictness. Her thinking is free from religious bounds and she has established her own different moral standards and beliefs.[4]
Publication history [ edit ]
Hester Prynne at the stocks , an engraved illustration from an 1878 edition
It was long thought that Hawthorne originally planned The Scarlet Letter to be a shorter novelette, part of a collection named Old Time Legends, and that his publisher, James Thomas Fields, convinced him to expand the work to a full-length novel.[7] This is not true: Fields persuaded Hawthorne to publish The Scarlet Letter alone (along with the earlier-completed "Custom House" essay) but he had nothing to do with the length of the story.[8] Hawthorne's wife Sophia later challenged Fields' claims a little inexactly: "he has made the absurd boast that he was the sole cause of the Scarlet Letter being published!" She noted that her husband's friend Edwin Percy Whipple, a critic, approached Fields to consider its publication.[9] The manuscript was written at the Peter Edgerley House in Salem, Massachusetts, still standing as a private residence at 14 Mall Street. It was the last Salem home where the Hawthorne family lived.[10]
The Scarlet Letter was first published in the spring of 1850 by Ticknor & Fields, beginning Hawthorne's most lucrative period.[11] When he delivered the final pages to Fields in February 1850, Hawthorne said that "some portions of the book are powerfully written" but doubted it would be popular.[12] In fact, the book was an instant best-seller, though, over fourteen years, it brought its author only $1,500.[11] Its initial publication brought wide protest from natives of Salem, who did not approve of how Hawthorne had depicted them in his introduction "The Custom-House". A 2,500-copy second edition included a preface by Hawthorne dated March 30, 1850, that stated he had decided to reprint his Introduction "without the change of a word... The only remarkable features of the sketch are its frank and genuine good-humor ... As to enmity, or ill-feeling of any kind, personal or political, he utterly disclaims such motives".[13]
The Scarlet Letter was also one of the first mass-produced books in America. In the mid-nineteenth century, bookbinders of home-grown literature typically hand-made their books and sold them in small quantities. The first mechanized printing of The Scarlet Letter, 2,500 volumes, sold out within ten days,[11] and was widely read and discussed to an extent not much experienced in the young country up until that time. Copies of the first edition are often sought by collectors as rare books, and may fetch up to around $18,000 USD.
Critical response [ edit ]
On its publication, critic Evert Augustus Duyckinck, a friend of Hawthorne's, said he preferred the author's Washington Irving-like tales. Another friend, critic Edwin Percy Whipple, objected to the novel's "morbid intensity" with dense psychological details, writing that the book "is therefore apt to become, like Hawthorne, too painfully anatomical in his exhibition of them".[14] English writer Mary Anne Evans writing as "George Eliot", called The Scarlet Letter, along with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 book-length poem The Song of Hiawatha, the "two most indigenous and masterly productions in American literature".[15] Most literary critics praised the book but religious leaders took issue with the novel's subject matter.[16] Orestes Brownson complained that Hawthorne did not understand Christianity, confession, and remorse.[17] A review in The Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register concluded the author "perpetrates bad morals."[18]
On the other hand, 20th-century writer D. H. Lawrence said that there could not be a more perfect work of the American imagination than The Scarlet Letter.[19] Henry James once said of the novel, "It is beautiful, admirable, extraordinary; it has in the highest degree that merit which I have spoken of as the mark of Hawthorne's best things—an indefinable purity and lightness of conception...One can often return to it; it supports familiarity and has the inexhaustible charm and mystery of great works of art."[19][20]
Allusions [ edit ]
The following are historical and Biblical references that appear in The Scarlet Letter.
Symbols [ edit ]
The following are symbols that are embedded in The Scarlet Letter:
The Scarlet Letter A: In the beginning of the novel Hester's letter A is a representation of her sin and adultery. However, as time progresses, the meaning of the letter changed. It now represented, to some, able. It states “The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her—so much power to do, and power to sympathize—that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength” (129). [23]
In the beginning of the novel Hester's letter A is a representation of her sin and adultery. However, as time progresses, the meaning of the letter changed. It now represented, to some, able. It states “The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her—so much power to do, and power to sympathize—that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength” (129). Meteor: The meteor shaped as an A serves as another symbol in the book. To Reverend Dimmesdale the meteor is a sign from God who is revealing his sin to everyone and causes him to be ridden with guilt. However, others perceived the letter to be a symbol for angel. [23]
The meteor shaped as an A serves as another symbol in the book. To Reverend Dimmesdale the meteor is a sign from God who is revealing his sin to everyone and causes him to be ridden with guilt. However, others perceived the letter to be a symbol for angel. Dimmesdale's name: Dimmesdale's name itself also holds symbolism. His name contains the root word "dim" which evokes the feeling of faint, weak, and gloom. This represents the constant state Dimmesdale finds himself in. His life has dimmed itself ever since his sin, causing his light of life to fade and dim. [23]
Dimmesdale's name itself also holds symbolism. His name contains the root word "dim" which evokes the feeling of faint, weak, and gloom. This represents the constant state Dimmesdale finds himself in. His life has dimmed itself ever since his sin, causing his light of life to fade and dim. Pearl : Pearl symbolizes the embodiment of her parent’s sin and passion. She is a constant reminder of the sin her mother can't escape from. It is mentioned she "was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed in life” (84). [23]
: Pearl symbolizes the embodiment of her parent’s sin and passion. She is a constant reminder of the sin her mother can't escape from. It is mentioned she "was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed in life” (84). Rosebush: The rosebush is mentioned twice within the course of the story. At the beginning, it is first viewed as natures way of offering beauty to those who leave and enter the prison as well with a glimmer of hope to those who inhabit it. The rosebush is perceived as a symbol of brightness in a story filled with human sorrow. [23]
The rosebush is mentioned twice within the course of the story. At the beginning, it is first viewed as natures way of offering beauty to those who leave and enter the prison as well with a glimmer of hope to those who inhabit it. The rosebush is perceived as a symbol of brightness in a story filled with human sorrow. The Scaffold: The scaffold is mentioned three times throughout the novel. It can be viewed as separating the book into the beginning, middle, and end. It symbolizes shame, revelation of sin, and guilt for it is where Hester received her scarlet letter as punishment and where Dimmesdale experience his revelation through the meteor. [23]
Adaptations and influence [ edit ]
The Scarlet Letter has inspired numerous film, television, and stage adaptations, and plot elements have influenced several novels, musical works, and screen productions.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ] |||||
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– The Puritans who were among those who first colonized America weren't exactly known as a bunch of wild and crazy guys (crazy, maybe; wild, no), but they weren't exactly Puritanical about their booze, either. Our former colonial overlords over at the BBC take a look at America's complicated past with the sauce, vis a vis a new exhibit at the National Archives, and find that we were actually a much boozier bunch back in the day. "The initial ship that came over from England to Massachusetts Bay actually carried more beer than water," says the senior curator of Spirited Republic: Alcohol in American History. The Founding Fathers were no exception: Samuel Adams, who has a beer named for him, was partner in his dad's malt house, and Thomas Jefferson was really into his European wines. Americans in the late 1700s boozed from breakfast til bedtime, with what the BBC calls a "healthful dram for breakfast," a bit of whiskey with lunch, ale with dinner, and a nightcap to end the day. It was an era when many were doing fieldwork and not rocket science, thus a near-constant low-level buzz wasn't considered particularly damaging. But being Americans, we took things too far, going from an annual average consumption of 5.8 gallons of pure alcohol per person in 1790 to 7.1 gallons in 1830 (consider that modern Americans tipple 2.3 gallons a year), which eventually triggered Prohibition. The exhibit also features a section on alcohol and the presidency, notes DCist, from FDR's penchant for taking a break from running the nation with a decidedly strong cocktail to Betty Ford's struggles with alcoholism. (See also: We will not be deterred from drinking by a silly hangover.)
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– "A drunk driver speeding down a two-lane highway at 85+ mph in the wrong lane around a blind corner destroyed my family," writes Zach Kincaid. If you want to know what that destruction looks like, Kincaid makes it plain to see. The father of four posted a series of photos on Facebook from the Sept. 26 funeral of wife Krystil Kincaid and his unborn daughter, who was at 36 weeks gestation and was to be named Avalynn Onix, reports the Sacramento Bee. They were killed in Hemet, Calif., in September when 28-year-old pro boxer Marcos Forestal, who was allegedly drunk, crashed his BMW head-on into Krystil Kincaid's minivan. KTLA reports Zach Kincaid was on the phone with his wife as the crash happened and heard her scream. "I put those pictures up so everyone can see the nightmare that I'm living," he tells the Daily Mail. The photos show Zach Kincaid and his children cradling the lifeless baby, reports People. Subsequent ones show Zach lowering the lid on his 29-year-old wife's casket; the child is in her arms. In the accompanying caption, he rails against state law, which will see Forestal get a maximum sentence of 10 years if convicted. "The state of California doesn't think there was intent, but I know driving recklessly in that manner, he didn't intend anything good.... my daughter's due date was October 9th, a 36 week old fully developed baby isnt [sic] considered a person in the state of California. How do I explain to my children this injustice." A Change.org petition seeking to change those laws has garnered 106,000 signatures, and a GoFundMe campaign in support of the family has raised $53,000. (This aspiring model's fatal crash has taken a sinister turn.)
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The husband of Krystil Kincaid, the pregnant mother of four who died after a suspected drunk driver crashed into her Chrysler minivan in California in September, has shared a series of heartbreaking photographs from his wife and unborn baby’s funeral.
“A drunk driver speeding down a two-lane highway at 85+ mph in the wrong lane around a blind corner destroyed my family,” Zach Kincaid wrote on Facebook.
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The devastating images show, Zach and his four children saying their final goodbyes to Krystil, 29, who can be seen lying in a casket with her unborn baby girl resting on her chest.
Zach also took the deceased child from the casket and allowed his children, three of whom he shared with Krystil, to hold the sister that they never got to meet. The couple had planned to name the baby Avalynn.
“The max sentence for killing my wife and daughter is 10 years max. The state of California doesn’t think there was intent, but I know driving recklessly in that manner, he didn’t intend anything good… my daughter’s due date was October 9th, a 36 week old fully developed baby isn’t considered a person in the state of California,” Zach continued.
PEOPLE has opted not to include the photos in this post. Zach has posted the images on his Facebook.
Krystil Kincaid Krystil Kincaid/Facebook
“How do I explain to my children this injustice. My children and I have never felt so disposable… Look at the devastation left behind that is my family and tell me it isn’t time for change… imagine if this was your family… Who will fight with me for change? Who will spread this life wild fire? Who will write their representatives and demand change?? We cannot as a society look the other way any longer,” Zach wrote concluding with, “Driving drunk is intent.”
The heartbroken husband also shared a photograph of himself saying goodbye to his wife one last time. The harrowing image was shared on a GoFundMe site set up to help Krystil’s family financially.
Professional boxer Marcos Forestal, 28, was allegedly intoxicated when his BMW plowed head-on into expectant mom Krystil in Hemet on Sept. 9 around 8.30 p.m., the Helmet Police Department said in a statement.
Arriving on scene shortly after the crash, police found Kincaid’s car “partially on fire” with the 8 months pregnant woman trapped, police said. Emergency responders were able to extinguish the blaze and Krystil was airlifted to a nearby hospital.
Her unborn baby died and Kincaid was put on life support, however, doctors pronounced her dead the following day.
Officers found Forestal, who is the World Boxing Federation International Super Bantamweight champion, walking near his vehicle on the scene, authorities said.
Marcos Forestal Hemet Police Department
“Forestal displayed symptoms of alcohol intoxication and was arrested,” the Helmet Police Department continued.
The boxer live streamed the aftermath of the crash on Facebook Live. The since-deleted video was recorded by some social media users and shared online and by the El Nuevo Herald.
Zach, who was married to Kincaid for 12 years, told KTLA he heard his wife scream before the impact as they were speaking on the over the phone just moments before.
RELATED: Thousands Gather at Vigil to Mourn Limousine Crash Victims: The Pain Is ‘Unbearable and Unending’
Zach told KTLA that his children — his daughter, 14, from a previous relationship and the couple’s three children, their 11-year-old daughter and two sons, aged 8 and 4 — arrived at the hospital thinking the baby had arrived early.
Forestal plead not guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated on Sept. 12, according to The Press-Enterprise. He expected back in court in November, according to The Los Angeles Times.
It is not clear if he has legal representation at this time. ||||| 29-year-old, Kristil Kincaid, of San Jacinto. Krystil leaves behind a husband and three children, including an 11-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 8 and 4. Krystil was 8-months pregnant, her unborn child and her have both passed away after a suspected DUI-related head-on collision in Hemet. When officers arrived they found the Chrysler was “partially on fire,” but officers were able to quickly extinguish the flames. Despite extinguishing the fire, officials could not immediately pull the victim from her vehicle, due to the extensive amount of damage her mini-van sustained, which had pinned both the victim’s legs under the dash of her Chrysler. Firefighters used the “Jaws of Life” to extricate the trapped woman from her vehicle and she was air-lifted to an area trauma center, where both she and her unborn child later died. ||||| It was around midnight, just after his wife and unborn daughter's funerals, that Zach Kincaid noticed something in the photos.
There was one of his sons, trying to get closer as he watched his father shut the casket. Knowing it would be the last time he would see his mother and sister forever.
This was not just Kincaid's reality. This was his nightmare after a drunk driver crashed into his wife Krystil Kincaid's car, killing her and their eight-month-old daughter.
And it was a nightmare that Kincaid decided to share with the world, posting the photos on Facebook - hoping he could save another family from his pain.
'I put those pictures up so everyone can see the nightmare that I'm living and my kids are living every day for the rest of our lives,' he told DailyMail TV in an exclusive interview.
Zach Kincaid has opened up about why he decided to share the heartbreaking photos from his wife and unborn daughter's funeral after they were killed by a drunk driver in September
'I put those pictures up so everyone can see the nightmare that I'm living and my kids are living every day for the rest of our lives,' Kincaid told Daily Mail TV in an exclusive interview
'I'm using it as a tool to protect everyone else. That's what this is about. It's not about me getting vengeance. This is about doing what's right.'
'This is about making sure that my wife didn't die for nothing. That my daughter didn't die for nothing. This is my way to honor them. This is my way to save others.'
Kincaid's world was completely torn apart when Marcos Forestal, 28, struck Krystil's minivan in Hemet, California at 8.30pm on September 9.
He was going 85 mph, speeding down the wrong lane.
Kincaid, 34, had been on the phone with Krystil, who was getting off of work early. She was planning to go on maternity leave in just four days.
'We were talking, and then I just heard her scream,' he recalled. 'That scream only probably lasted about two seconds, but it replays in my mind very, very slowly.'
Kincaid lost his wife of 12 years and unborn daughter (pictured) following the horrific crash
His wife Krystil, who was eight months pregnant, was hit head on by Marcos Forestal, who was charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated
'There was a quiver of almost like despair or impending doom - and then I heard the loudest crash. It sounded like the car was tumbling after that, but it didn't.'
'And then there was just silence. I didn't hear her whimper. The silence was terrifying. The silence lasted for awhile.'
Kincaid could then hear people rushing to the car, trying to open the door. They told her Krystil was still breathing, that her legs were pinned, that a fire was coming for her.
'I'm screaming from the floor, "She's pregnant, she's pregnant, is the baby okay?' Kincaid, who was out of town for work at the time, recalled.
'I was stuck 450 miles away from her on the other side of the phone.'
Then he could hear the fire department arrive, cranking up a machine to get her out of the wrecked car. A police officer told him Krystil and baby both still had a pulse.
'At that moment I was like, okay, there's hope,' he said.
But Kincaid couldn't get a flight home that night. And, a couple hours later, a doctor called to tell him that his daughter - who they had planned to name Avalynn Onix - was dead.
'She was crying with me on the phone, telling me how perfect she was and how she had no damage and how she was fully developed,' he said.
Kincaid said he decided to post the photos on Facebook after watching his son's heartbreak
Kincaid said he hopes the photos will help people see the devastation that drunk driving can cause. 'It's a harsh reality and people need to look at it,' he said
'Full head of hair and chubby cheeks and chubby thighs. How she is beautiful and perfect. And then they told me I had only four hours to get there and hold her before the coroner took her.'
Kincaid begged them to break the rules, but they couldn't. They could't even open the blankets to let him see her on Facebook Live.
'I didn't even see what my daughter looked like until September 26 - during the funeral,' he said. 'That was the first time I saw her or held her.'
The next day he got on a plane, only to find out that Krystil had failed her first neurological test. Then she failed the second. The only thing left that was working was her heart.
Kincaid had to tell the couple's three children and his stepdaughter - who lives in Minnesota - that their mother was gone.
'They came to the hospital thinking they had a little sister,' he said of the couple's three children. 'They didn't even see this coming. It was really hard.'
'They not only lost their little sister, they lost their mom.'
Just after having that devastating conversation, Kincaid received a link on Facebook from Krystil's brother. Forestal had livestreamed the crash that killed her.
Right after having to tell his children that their mother was dead, Kincaid found out that Forestal had livestreamed the crash (pictured)
'I had an accident. Guys, look at what happened to me,' Forestal - a boxing champion - can be heard saying in the video, which later shows a cop approaching him
'I had an accident. Guys, look at what happened to me,' Forestal - a boxing champion - can be heard saying in the video. 'Man, a car crossed in front of me. Look at my car guys.'
Kindcaid couldn't believe what was playing on his screen.
'I was watching him try and put the blame on my wife and not take responsibility,' he said. 'And in the background I saw my wife's car on fire.'
'I just couldn't believe it. He didn't even have enough humanity to go over there and try to open the door. Hold her head up, so she could breathe. Try to put out the fire.'
'I saw somebody that was 100 percent narcissistic. I saw somebody that only cared about himself. How broken do you have to be to not have enough humanity to help somebody that needs help? At that moment, I kind of went numb.'
But Kincaid was even more enraged when he found out that Forestal was only charged with one count of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
If convicted, he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Kincaid was even more enraged when he found out that Forestal was only charged with one count of gross vehicular manslaughter. He faces a maximum of 10 years for Krystil's death
Kincaid said that there isn't a day goes by that he and his children don't think about Krystil
'My daughter is 36 weeks and she's not even be considered as a human. So one count - they say that it's because of lack of intent. And I find that real funny, that word intent.'
'This guy's driving like a maniac In the wrong lane and hit my wife on the other side of it head on. He didn't try to break. He didn't try to swerve. He just hit her.'
'He wasn't just drunk he was driving extremely reckless. To say there was no intent - I know this. His intent wasn't good.'
'I just have this gut feeling that he's just going to be out drinking and partying, feeling sorry for himself in no time. And that's just not acceptable. It's disgusting.'
Kincaid said he felt '100 percent betrayed' by society when he found out.
'They're basically sending a message to my kids and me that my wife is just disposable. And that my daughter is just a clump of cells,' he added.
'To me that's not a world I want to live in. I don't think any of us should be comfortable living in that kind of a world.'
That's why Kincaid has since begun a Change.org petition, hoping he can help enact harsher punishments for driving drunk
'These people get off with a slap on the wrist and probation,' he said. 'We need to make it so that people don't want to risk getting in the car drunk'
That's why Kincaid has since begun a Change.org petition, hoping he can help enact harsher punishments for driving drunk.
'There needs to be a deterrent,' he said. 'These people get off with a slap on the wrist and probation. We need to make it so that people don't want to risk getting in the car drunk.'
And that's why Kincaid posted those heartbreaking photos on Facebook, his way of 'not letting anybody look the other way anymore'.
'It's a harsh reality and people need to look at it, because drunk driving destroys more than just people that are killed in the crash,' he said.
'I want to strike a nerve. I don't want to be able to look the other way anymore. Look at my nightmare that I live every day.'
There's not a day that goes by that Kincaid doesn't think of Krystil. Doesn't think about picking up the phone and talking to her, or wondering when she'll come down the stairs.
'Taking it on by myself isn't what scares me,' he said. 'It's all the graduations and birthdays and Christmases she's missing. Not getting to see her smile with me.'
'Everything reminds me of her. Now I feel like there's a void inside. It's like a part of me is dead.' ||||| In a series of tragic photos posted to Facebook, Zach Kincaid closes a casket lid on his 29-year-old wife, Krystil, and unborn baby Avalynn Onix.
Krystil and her baby died following a Sept. 9 collision in Hemet, California, with pro boxer Marcos Forestal-Coutin, 28, who faces drunken driving charges, McClatchy previously reported.
Kincaid, who says Forestal-Coutin faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for the deaths, has launched a campaign to toughen drunken driving laws in California.
“How do I explain to my children this injustice?” Zach Kincaid wrote in his Facebook post following the Sept. 26 funeral. “My children and I have never felt so disposable... Look at the devastation left behind that is my family and tell me it isn’t time for change.”
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His post, including photos of him cradling the body of his unborn baby, has been shared 255,000 times and sparked 45,000 comments.
Kincaid argues that lower penalties for drunken-driving deaths because an intent to kill can’t be proven are wrong..
“Driving drunk is intent,” Kincaid wrote on Facebook. A Change.org petition created in favor of changing California’s drunken driving laws has collected nearly 83,000 signatures.
Kincaid was on the phone with his wife when a speeding BMW veered into her lane and struck her minivan head-on the evening of Sept. 9, reported McClatchy.
“The scream I heard out of her mouth before she made contact — it’s haunting me,” he said. “I heard the collision, I heard everything. I heard silence, I heard the civilians try to pull her out, I heard that there was a fire.”
Firefighters doused the blaze and extricated Krystil Kincaid from the wreck, but she later died at the hospital along with her baby, which was due in just a few weeks.
A YouTube video shot by Forestal-Coutin after the crash, which has since been taken down, incensed Krystil Kincaid’s family, reported KTLA.
According to a translated version of a story by El Nuevo Herald, Forestal-Coutin said a vehicle “appeared” in front of him before the accident, and pointed out the damage done to his own car in the video.
“Look what happened to my car,” the story quoted him as saying in the video.
Forestal-Coutin is the reigning World Boxing Federation champion in the super-bantamweight division, according to the federation.
A GoFundMe account created to help the Kincaid family, of San Jacinto, California, with expenses has raised $52,000 of its original $50,000 goal. A second account has raised nearly $6,000. ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video
A San Jacinto family is mourning a 29-year-old mother of three, who died along with her unborn child after colliding head-on with a suspected DUI driver over the weekend.
Krystil Kincaid was driving her Chrysler minivan north on Warren Road around 8:30 p.m. Sunday when a BMW heading southbound veered into her lane and struck her between Devonshire and Esplanade avenues in Hemet, according to Hemet police.
The blue BMW had been driving at a high rate of speed, investigators said.
Officials who responded to 911 reports of the crash found the silver van was partially on fire. After firefighters put out the flames, first responders had to extricate Kincaid — who was eight months pregnant — from her vehicle, police said.
Both Kincaid's legs had become pinned underneath her dashboard due to the extensive damage her car sustained, according to a GoFundMe page created to raise funds for her memorial costs.
Her husband of 12 years, Zach Kincaid, told KTLA she had him on speakerphone as the crash occurred.
He said he could hear her scream before impact, then the sound of metal and firefighters using the jaws of life as they tried to pull her from the wreckage. It's a memory that will haunt him, he said.
Krystil was flown by helicopter to a nearby trauma center, and officials had originally said she was expected to survive.
But according to Zach, she and her unborn child were legally dead as of Tuesday. Krystil remained on a breathing device only so that her organs could be harvested for donation, he said.
She leaves behind an 11-year-old daughter, two sons ages 8 and 4 and a 14-year-old stepchild.
Zach wrote on his Facebook page that sharing the traumatic news with his children was "the hardest thing i have ever done."
"I told my 2 daughters and my 2 sons that a drunk driver killed their mom," he wrote. "The pain and anger I feel within my soul is immeasurable, my heart is broken. Until we meet again Raven…"
In an interview with KTLA, he said the children had gone to the hospital expecting to welcome a new family member.
“They thought they had a baby sister here," Zach said. "They got the worst news of their life. They were told that they don’t have a mom, or a baby sister, anymore.”
Police said they found the BMW driver, identified as 28-year-old Burbank resident Marcos Forestal, walking near his wrecked car.
Forestal, a native of Cuba, is the reigning World Boxing Federation International Super Bantamweight champion.
According to El Nuevo Herald, a Spanish-language newspaper in southeast Florida, Forestal livestreamed the aftermath of the crash as first responders were arriving.
"Guys a car appeared and I had an accident," the man identified as Forestal is heard saying as he videos the mangled remains of his BMW. "Look at what happened to me, gentlemen. A car came out in front of me and look and what happened to my car."
Forestal showed signs of alcohol intoxication and was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated and causing a collision that resulted in major injuries, officials said.
But after Kincaid and her fetus died, the arrest charge was upgraded to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, inmate records indicate.
The suspect was also treated for minor injuries at a local hospital before being taken to the Riverside County Jail.
Forestal was being held on $75,000 bail, according to inmate records.
The boxer's manager, Christina Carrillo at JAB Management, said in a statement emailed to KTLA: "I would like to extend my deepest condolences to those that have lost their loved ones in this horrible tragedy. At this time, we are cooperating fully with the ongoing investigation."
As of Tuesday night, Kincaid's GoFundMe campaign had raised more than $18,000 of its $20,000 goal.
Please enable Javascript to watch this video ||||| Notice
You must log in to continue. ||||| On September 9, 2018 a man chose to drink and drive. In this choice he ended up speeding into an 8-month-pregnant woman who lost her life and her daughter's life in this accident. Since Avalynn was killed prior to being born she is not considered a victim of this accident. So now the drunk driver, whose name I am choosing not to mention because he does not deserve to be known, will only face 10 years MAXIMUM for killing Krystil and her daughter Avalynn.
A 29-year-old woman will miss the rest of her life and the lives of her 2 sons, her daughter, and step daughter, and Avalynn will miss any opportunity at life. Ten years would not be enough to bring justice to this family when the man walked away from this crash uninjured, he posted video on Facebook live after the accident where he blamed Krystil, and never once did he go to check on her or see if he could help her.
Why should the system not have a reasonable opportunity to charge this man with a sentence that would bring this family some justice since they no longer have their wife, mother, daughter, and friend?
Words from Krystil’s husband and Avalynn’s father:
"A drunk driver speeding down a two lane highway at 85+mph in the wrong lane around a blind corner destroyed my family. The max sentence for killing my wife and daughter is 10 years. The state of California doesn't think there was intent, but I know driving recklessly in that manner, he didn't intend anything good.... my daughter's due date was October 9th, a 36-week-old fully developed baby isn't considered a person in the state of California. How do I explain to my children this injustice. My children and I have never felt so disposable... Look at the devastation left behind that is my family and tell me it isn't time for change....imagine if this was your family... Who will fight with me for change? Who will spread this like wild fire? Who will write their representatives and demand change?? We cannot as a society look the other way any longer.
Driving drunk is intent." |||||
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FILE - This Aug. 27, 2009 file family photo provided by Carl Probyn shows his stepdaughter, Jaycee Lee Dugard, who went missing in 1991. The California couple charged with kidnapping and raping Jaycee... (Associated Press)
FILE - This Aug. 27, 2009 file family photo provided by Carl Probyn shows his stepdaughter, Jaycee Lee Dugard, who went missing in 1991. The California couple charged with kidnapping and raping Jaycee... (Associated Press)
A convicted sex offender pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of kidnapping and raping a Northern California girl when she was 11 and holding her captive for nearly two decades.
The plea came as a surprise after an attorney said Phillip Garrido had made a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty. It would have sent him to prison for the rest of his life.
But Phillip Garrido's attorney, Susan Gellman, contended the grand jury was improperly selected and did not act appropriately during its proceedings. Gellman did not elaborate in court.
"There are issues about the process itself before the grand jury," said Judge Doug Phimister.
Garrido, who fathered the two children of victim Jaycee Dugard, made the plea to an amended indictment that added allegations of kidnapping of a person under 14, kidnapping for sexual purposes and other claims.
His wife, Nancy Garrido, also pleaded not guilty to the charges. The next hearing was set for May 5, and the trial for Aug. 1.
Both defendants were in court for the 10-minute hearing, wearing orange jail uniforms. They didn't speak, and neither showed much emotion during the hearing.
Dugard was snatched off her family's South Lake Tahoe street in June 1991 while walking to a school bus stop.
Authorities said she and her children were kept in a hidden backyard compound of tents and sheds, never attending school or receiving medical attention.
They finally resurfaced in August 2009 when Phillip Garrido took them to a meeting with his parole officer.
Garrido and his wife gave full confessions to authorities and expressed interest in plea bargains that would spare Dugard and her daughters _ now 13 and 16 _ from having to testify, said attorney Stephen Tapson, who represents Nancy Garrido.
Tapson, however, said he advised Nancy Garrido against pleading guilty unless prosecutors offer a deal that holds the possibility _ however remote _ that she would one day be freed from prison. He told reporters in the week before the hearing Thursday morning that Phillip Garrido was expected to plead guilty.
Phillip and Nancy Garrido were both charged with 18 counts of kidnapping, rape, false imprisonment, child pornography and committing lewd acts on a child.
If convicted on all counts, the maximum sentence for Nancy Garrido would be 181 years, while Phillip Garrido could get 431 years, according to El Dorado County Deputy District Attorney James Clinchard.
Dugard gave birth to her daughters when she was 14 and 17, and Nancy Garrido delivered the children, according to court documents. The girls knew Phillip Garrido was their father but grew up thinking Dugard was their older sister.
The mother and daughters rarely interacted with the outside world. Phillip Garrido ran a printing business, and Dugard assisted him in producing business cards, brochures and flyers, occasionally interacting with clients through email.
A few neighbors and customers would later report having seen the girls but not thinking much of it, even though they knew Garrido was a sex offender.
The FBI, police and volunteers searched in vain for the pretty blonde girl who was last seen wearing a pink wind breaker and pink stretch pants.
But they never came close to finding her, even though Dugard's stepfather gave an accurate description of the couple's car and of Nancy Garrido, and despite the fact that Phillip Garrido was being monitored by state parole agents because of his rape conviction.
Dugard's reappearance 18 years, four months and 16 days later came about almost as a fluke.
In the days before his arrest, Phillip Garrido had become more determined to tell people about the religious group he founded called God's Desire and a box he had built that he believed allowed him to speak with God.
During that time, he delivered a handwritten screed titled "Origin of Schizophrenia Revealed" to the FBI's San Francisco office.
But it was a visit to the University of California, Berkeley, that same day that caused his ragged family to unravel. He showed up at campus with his daughters and Dugard in tow, seeking a permit for a religious event.
Campus police officers became suspicious, and after running a background check realized he had been convicted of kidnapping and raping a woman in Nevada in 1977.
The Berkeley officers contacted Garrido's parole officer, who was surprised to hear that he had young daughters and ordered him to come in for a meeting.
Garrido complied and, for reasons still unknown, brought his wife, the girls and Dugard.
Dugard tried to conceal Dugard's identity, initially telling authorities she was hiding from an abusive husband in Minnesota and giving her name as Alyssa.
Wary investigators separated her from Phillip Garrido, who had described Dugard and the two girls as his nieces, and under further questioning he admitted kidnapping Dugard, who separately disclosed her identity, authorities said.
She was reunited with her mother the next day and has remained in Northern California with her and her daughters. She requested privacy and has not attended any of the court hearings. She is writing her memoirs, which are scheduled to be published in September.
The Associated Press as a matter of policy avoids identifying victims of sexual abuse by name in its news reports
However, Dugard's disappearance had been known and reported for nearly two decades, making impossible any effort to shield her identity when she resurfaced.
Dugard's case revealed problems with California's system for monitoring convicted sex offenders after it was determined parole agents had missed numerous clues and chances to find her.
She received a $20 million settlement under which the state acknowledged repeated mistakes were made by parole agents responsible for monitoring Phillip Garrido. California has since increased oversight of sex offenders. |||||
Accused kidnapper and rapist Phillip Garrido pleaded not guilty Thursday to snatching an 11-year-old schoolgirl from her South Lake Tahoe-area street, holding her captive for nearly two decades and fathering her two daughters.
Garrido and his wife, Nancy, face 29 charges of kidnapping and sexual assault in the 1991 abduction of Jaycee Lee Dugard, now 30. Nancy Garrido has also pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Earlier this week, Stephen Tapson, Nancy Garrido's defense attorney, said Phillip Garrido was expected to plead guilty.
"He's confessed to it, so he's pleading guilty and he doesn't want to put Jaycee through the trial," Tapson said in an interview Monday. In addition, Tapson said, Garrido was hoping to gain a measure of mercy for his wife.
El Dorado County Dist. Atty. Vern Pierson has declined to comment on the case, which has attracted international attention since Dugard and her daughters surfaced in the East Bay town of Antioch nearly two years ago. They had been held captive in a warren of backyard sheds.
RELATED:
Phillip Garrido ruled competent to stand trial in Jaycee Lee Dugard
Garridos confess to police in Jaycee Dugard kidnapping and rape case
No compassion for wife of Jaycee Lee Dugard’s kidnapper, prosecutor says
-- Maria L. La Ganga in Placerville
Photo: Phillip Garrido in court during his arraignment in Placerville, Calif., in August 2009. Credit: Reuters |||||
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– The man accused of kidnapping 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard, holding her captive for 18 years, and fathering her two children has made a surprise move by pleading not guilty in court today, reports the Los Angeles Times. Phillip Garrido had been expected to plead guilty to spare Dugard a trial and to try to win a more lenient sentence for his wife, Nancy. Instead, a trial is scheduled to begin on Aug. 1, notes the AP. Nancy also pleaded not guilty. Click for previous stories on the Dugard case.
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A group of hackers affiliated with ISIS have reportedly posted a “kill list” together with the names and personal details of 36 policemen in Minnesota. The list, published by the “Caliphate Cyber Army” on Telegram includes full names, home addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of all the men. The targets allegedly live in cities geographically distributed throughout Minnesota, with the highest concentration in and around the Twin Cities.
The individual cards were shared on Telegram and discovered by Vocativ’s deep web analysts. This isn’t the first time a cyber group affiliated with the Islamic State has hacked personal details of American law enforcement and security officials. Last year, a similar attack by hackers penetrated the Twitter account of the United States Central Command.
In November, a group called “Islamic State Cyber Army” posted names and addresses of people who have worked with American security agencies, although Vocativ found at least some of those details were previously posted online.
One of the “cards” published by ISIS hackers
ISIS has in the past released names and details of American servicemen at the end of execution videos it has broadcast, urging its followers to target the troops wherever they are able to.
Last week the Caliphate Cyber Army posted a threat on its Telegram channel, warning that their next attacks would be financial in nature.
“It will include banks, money transfer services, stocks and so on. Beware of us, economical war has just started,” the message said. It’s unclear how effective the cyber hackers are. Last month Vocativ found they had falsely boasted about hacking Google. Another group calling itself “the sons of the Caliphate army” has also threatened Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey in retaliation for efforts to suspend ISIS-affiliated social media accounts.
According to a report by the Congress from last November, one in four of Americans who has attempted to join ISIS is from Minnesota, CBS news reported. The Cedar Riverside community in Minneapolis has the largest Somali population in the country. An alarming number of young Somali men from this neighborhood have left to join extremist groups. Since 2007, two dozen have joined al-Shabaab in Somalia. ||||| 36 Minnesota police officers on 'kill list' released by ISIS hackers News ISIS hackers release 'kill list' with names of Minnesota police officers A group of hackers affiliated with ISIS have released a “kill list” that contains the names and personal information of more than three dozen Minnesota law enforcement officials, a spokesperson for the FBI confirmed Tuesday to Fox 9.
- A group of hackers affiliated with ISIS have released a “kill list” that contains the names and personal information of more than three dozen Minnesota law enforcement officials, a spokesperson for the FBI confirmed Tuesday to Fox 9.
The list was published by the "Caliphate Cyber Army" and reportedly includes the full names, home addresses, email addresses and phone numbers of the officers, according to the news website Vocativ. The FBI said they are taking the list very seriously.
"Clearly, in law enforcement we don’t want this information out there at all possible. As far as whether it’s chilling, it is something that is not wanted," FBI spokesman Kyle Loven said.
According to the FBI, the supposed law enforcement targets are spread out all across Minnesota and the Dakotas. St. Paul Police Department confirmed four of their officers are on the list and they are taking necessary precautions to protect them.
Minneapolis Police Department along with Bloomington and Brooklyn Park said their officers names were not included on the list. ||||| An alleged ISIL "kill list" containing the personal information of dozens of Minnesota law enforcement officers is the focus of an investigation by state and federal agencies.
The list, purportedly created by a group of hackers affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, includes the names, addresses and telephone numbers of officers from across Minnesota. Authorities acknowledge that they are still gauging the seriousness of the threat posed by the group, which calls itself the Caliphate Cyber Army.
The personal information of at least 36 law enforcement officers — apparently including a Sauk Rapids police officer, five St. Paul police officers and a St. Louis County sheriff's deputy — along with instructions to kill were recently posted on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, according to news reports and screenshots of the list obtained by the Star Tribune. The screenshots depict what appears to be an ISIL logo superimposed over a photo of masked fighters. Along with the personal information, the message says "Wanted to be killed."
"It is on our radar and we have been working with the various agencies which have been both named and unnamed," FBI spokesman Kyle Loven said of the list. "We're proceeding forward with this matter and treating it as a serious threat."
Loven said that agents from the FBI's Minneapolis field office began working this week with several local agencies to track down the hackers.
The FBI is "trying to make certain that law enforcement officers have the appropriate information" regarding the activities of the group, Loven said. The group has posted similar threats against security and law enforcement officials.
The state Department of Public Safety said Tuesday that it was conducting its own investigations into the online posts, but referred further questions to the FBI. The list's existence was first reported on Monday by the website Vocativ. According to the Vocativ report, the full list was recently posted on Telegram, which the extremist group frequently uses for propaganda and crowdfunding money for arms.
St. Paul police officials say that five of the officers identified have ties to the department — four are on active duty and one is retired. The department is working closely with the FBI to assess the threat from the group.
"We're doing everything that we can to ensure the safety of the officers," said department spokesman Steve Linders, adding that it's unclear whether any of them have been reassigned since the list was released.
Seamus Hughes, deputy director of George Washington University's Program on Extremism, said the group, a "known commodity online," has used similar "doxing tactics" to publish the home addresses of U.S. military personnel "with the implied and explicit calls for violence against them." Hughes said the group also recently targeted New Jersey Transit police. The group of self-identifying ISIL supporters hasn't been publicly linked to any known failed or foiled extremist plots. Little else is known about the group's members, he said.
Loven wouldn't comment on how many names appeared on the list and which law enforcement agencies were included. The Vocativ report suggested that most of the named officers were from the Twin Cities area.
While some local authorities said that they were aggressively investigating the online postings given the seriousness of the threat, they cautioned against reading too much into the list, which some saw as propaganda intended to sow fear and confusion. Several officials pointed to other recent jihadi-linked threats against local targets, including one earlier this year when the extremist group Al-Shabab called for attacks on the Mall of America and other western malls, which never materialized.
Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder said the department was aware of the list but declined to comment further since none of its officers appeared to have been targeted. The Hennepin County Sheriff's office declined to comment.
Twitter: StribJany ||||| ISIS affiliate reportedly posts 'kill list' naming Minnesota cops
Updated: 3:30 p.m. | Posted: 2:52 p.m.
A hacker group affiliated with the terrorist group ISIS has reportedly posted the personal information of several Minnesota police officers online.
The so-called "Caliphate Cyber Army" posted the details of 36 officers on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, according to Vocative, a digital news start-up which labeled it a "kill list."
Minneapolis FBI spokesperson Kyle Loven said they are aware of the news report and are working with local law enforcement to make sure police departments are informed about the list.
"We are taking this very seriously as we do all threats against law enforcement personnel," Loven said.
The FBI is also trying to determine who's responsible for posting the personal information and what the motivation was, he said.
The information posted on Telegram includes full names, home addresses, email addresses and phone numbers of all the policemen, Vocative reported Monday.
Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder said no Minneapolis police officer was mentioned in the list.
Four St. Paul Police Department officers and one retired officer appeared on the list, and all were made aware of the threat, said department spokesperson Steve Linders.
Linders said his department was notified about the list over the weekend by federal authorities.
"The entire department is definitely taking it seriously," he said. |||||
Write a summary.
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– An ISIS-affiliated group of hackers released a "kill list" that includes the names, addresses, and phone numbers of at least three dozen Minnesota police officers, KMSP reports. The list was found on the encrypted messaging app Telegram by web analysts at Vocativ on Monday. It was created by a group called the Caliphate Cyber Army and includes the message "wanted to be killed" along with information about the officers, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The FBI is taking the list "very seriously" and is working with local agencies to track down the hackers. "Clearly, in law enforcement we don’t want this information out there at all," an FBI spokesperson tells KMSP. "We're doing everything that we can to ensure the safety of the officers," a St. Paul Police Department spokesperson tells the Star Tribune. Five of the officers named on the kill list are from that department, though one is retired. All five have been notified, Minnesota Public Radio reports. Hackers supportive of ISIS have issued similar threats against military personnel, New Jersey Transit police, Mark Zuckerberg, and others. It's unclear why this list specifically targets law enforcement in Minnesota, though 25% of US citizens who've tried to join ISIS are reportedly from the state.
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Here is a news article: 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. ||||| (Courtesy Michael Pelletz)
To some, “Pretty Woman” (1990) was just another Cinderella story — even if it put an unrealistic gloss on the sex trade and helped launch the career of Julia Roberts. But for Michael Pelletz, founder of a “female-only Uber” called Chariot for Women, the Richard Gere vehicle was nothing short of an inspiration.
“I saw that something in this movie,” he told The Washington Post in a telephone interview. “I was made to take care of women, to love them, respect them. … I was meant to do this.”
The Massachusetts-based company’s mission — as its website explains, “Driven by women. Exclusively for women” — seems simple. While Uber, which just saw one of its drivers allegedly kill six people in Michigan and agreed to pay almost $40 million after lawsuits questioned background checks for its drivers, continues to draw criticism about safety, Pelletz is launching a competitor to keep women safe but raises significant legal questions about equal access. The service could be challenged in court because it hires only women — and also could be challenged because it serves only them and children under age 13. TNW labeled it “a female-only Uber that could get shut down before it takes off.”
“This company sounds great,” Joseph L. Sulman, an employment-law specialist, told the Boston Globe last month. “Whether it’s legal or not is a different question.”
Pelletz said he got the idea for Chariot while … driving for Uber. The 41-year-old once drove for the ride-hailing service for 17 hours per day, according to Chariot’s website, after his father, who ran the family business manufacturing plumbing and heating products, was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
“I actually loved driving for Uber,” Pelletz said. “I love to talk. I love meeting people. When I first signed up, I thought that was what it was going to be all about.”
Pelletz, 41, drove for Uber for nine months. Although he said he had “wonderful passengers” and “great experiences,” there was one big takeaway.
“It shocked me all the stories of women just getting hit on all the time,” he said.
Uber is no stranger to sexual-assault allegations. Last month, for example, BuzzFeed reported the company said it saw “fewer than” 170 claims of sexual assault reported through its customer-service database between December 2012 and August 2015 — but BuzzFeed questioned whether that number was accurate. In February, The Washington Post’s Peter Holley reported that Uber drivers without criminal histories have committed crimes before; they have been involved in a racially motivated choking incident and an anti-gay assault, been arrested for drunken driving at the Super Bowl, and been charged with rape, for example. Meanwhile, just 19 percent of Uber drivers in the United States are women.
[What the Michigan shooting spree reveals about Uber’s background checks]
“This economic opportunity has excluded women — not purposefully, but women have self-selected out of it,” Nick Allen, a co-founder of the now-defunct Sidecar who left to start a ride service for children, told Forbes last year. “And the number one reason they do that is the perception of safety or lack thereof.”
Chariot’s business plan, according to its website, took only “10 minutes” for Pelletz to dream up: “driven by women, for women and children passengers only,” an “untapped market that Uber and Lyft neglected.”
“How many times did he pick up college girls at 2 or 3 a.m.?” Chariot’s website says. “How many times did he watch as they spilled out of Boston clubs and into the wrong rideshare car? Michael has two daughters, and the thought of them doing this was like a knife to the chest. Just one bad apple behind the wheel, and those women would not be safe at all. 3 a.m. in Boston is a candy store for predators. Michael’s fatherly instinct kicked in.”
Michael Pelletz and Kelly Pelletz of Chariot. (Courtesy Michael Pelletz)
How does Chariot work? Chariot’s female drivers will pick up women and children under 13. Drivers, who will be fingerprinted and go through background checks in a partnership with local law enforcement, will earn at least $25 per hour — what the company calls “the best compensation structure in the business.” Drivers will have to answer a security question at the beginning of each work day for Chariot to confirm their identity. The app will provide passengers and drivers with a “safe word” — the ride won’t begin until the driver confirms the word with the passenger. There is no surge pricing. Transgender women can also drive and ride. And 2 percent of every fare will go to “woman-based” charities.
But ahead of Chariot’s launch in Boston on April 19, Pelletz and his wife, Kelly, the company’s president, face an uncomfortable legal question: Does Chariot discriminate?
“There’s nothing wrong with advertising particularly to a female customer base,” Dahlia C. Rudavsky, a partner in the Boston firm of Messing, Rudavsky & Weliky, which specializes in labor law, told the Boston Globe. “But if a company goes further and refuses to pick up a man, I think they’d potentially run into legal trouble.”
Pelletz wasn’t concerned about such questions.
“I have an amazing lawyer and law team, and they would have never come onboard if they thought anything I was doing was illegal,” Pelletz said. “If and when we ever do face a legal challenge, we will be very prepared. All we are doing is protecting women drivers.”
That attorney, meanwhile, defended Chariot in the Massachusetts press.
“Courts have long held that hiring on the basis of sex is permissible where sex is a bona fide occupational qualification in the context of serving privacy interests,” Chase Liu, general counsel for Chariot for Women, told the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. “At stake here is more than just privacy — safety and security are also at issue. As such, we are confident that our hiring of women drivers constitutes a bona fide occupational qualification, where doing so is necessary to uphold the privacy, safety and security of our drivers and riders.”
Pelletz also emailed what he called a legal statement to The Post.
“Our mission is to provide women with equal access to safety and freedom of travel, at any hour of the day, from any location to any destination, when taking part in ride-sharing,” the statement read. “We believe that giving women and their loved ones peace of mind is not only a public policy imperative but serves an essential social interest. Our service is intended to protect these fundamental liberties, and we look forward to ending the inequality of security that currently afflicts drivers and riders on the basis of gender.”
Whether Chariot will succeed or join Uber also-rans such as Sidecar is unclear. More than 1,000 women have signed up to drive for Chariot, according to USA Today. But can a Boston company facing fundamental questions about its legality and already thinking about a name change catch up with Uber, which has claimed it provides 1 million rides per day around the world?
Yet Pelletz remained confident.
“I love my children and my wife and I defiintely can relate to women,” he said.
This post has been updated to show the current percentage of Uber drivers who are women. ||||| Chariot for Women’s founder, Michael Pelletz, and president, Kelly Pelletz. (Photo: Carly Gillis)
BOSTON — While Uber and Lyft's safety policies face scrutiny here, the founder of a new ride-sharing service says his company fills an overlooked gap in the industry: a focus on women’s safety.
Chariot for Women, based in Massachusetts, is an Uber-like service that hires only female drivers. The intent is to give female passengers peace of mind by ensuring another woman is always behind the wheel.
Founder Michael Pelletz, who was an Uber driver for eight months, came up with the idea for this company after he picked up a male passenger who seemed like he was on the edge of a drug overdose.
“One thought kept coming up in his head: ‘What if I was a woman?' ” the company’s website says. “Just one bad apple behind the wheel and those women would not be safe at all. 3 a.m. in Boston is a candy store for predators.”
Besides female drivers, Chariot for Women, which is set to launch around the country April 19, will pick up only female passengers or boys under the age of 13. If a woman orders the service and is with a male above the age of 13, Pelletz said, the male would be denied a ride.
Of the 20,000 Uber drivers in Massachusetts, 7,000 are female, said Carlie Waibel, a spokeswoman for Uber. Across the U.S., 29% of drivers who joined in fall 2015 were women. About 60% of Lyft passengers are women, and 30% of drivers are female —the highest percentage in the ride-sharing industry, said Alexandra LaManna, a Lyft spokeswoman.
More than 1,000 women have already signed up for Chariot for Women. Pelletz said his company has the most “stringent background checks in the industry” and will fingerprint every driver.
Following a series of incidents involving drivers and passengers, Boston has turned a stern eye to ride-sharing services. A big point of contention has been Uber and Lyft's reluctance to fingerprint its drivers. A bill currently pending in the Massachusetts Legislature is looking to regulate both Uber and Lyft by intensifying company background check policies and placing limits on surge pricing.
Although Chariot for Women's background check policies are seemingly more strict than other ride-sharing services, Joseph Sulman, an employment law specialist based outside of Boston, told The Boston Globe that refusing to hire men as drivers could be a potential legal problem.
According to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, the state's anti-discrimination laws prohibit discriminating against a potential employee on the basis of sex — except in situations where sex is a“bona fide occupational qualification,” which is a qualification employers are allowed to consider when hiring.
“The law is really tough on that,” Sulman told the Globe. “For gender, it’s not enough to say, ‘We really just want to have a female here because our customers prefer that to feel safer.’”
Pelletz said that according to his lawyers, his company is running a legal business model that fulfills a market need.
"We believe that giving women and their loved ones peace of mind is not only a public policy imperative but serves an essential social interest," he said, reading a company statement. "Our service is intended to protect these fundamental liberties, and we look forward to ending the inequality of security that currently afflicts drivers and riders on the basis of gender."
Cori Harris, 20, a sophomore at Boston University, matches the demographic Pelletz said could benefit from using his service — a young, college-age woman, who is likely to request a ride alone or with other girlfriends late at night.
Harris said she frequently uses ride-sharing services, and only once felt unsafe when her male Uber driver suddenly became loud and aggressive. While this experience hasn't deterred her from using Uber, she said it has made her more wary of the potential risks.
"Uber is definitely safer than walking home, but if there was another service that was as convenient as Uber and offered the same service and I knew I would have a woman driver, I would definitely consider it," she said. "Why not take that extra step to be safe — especially as a woman in college?"
Follow USA Today reporter Trisha Thadani on Twitter: @TrishaThadani
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1SJPveO ||||| A collection of government web content. Terms of use information for Government of Alberta material is available at http://alberta.ca/home/includes/copyright.cfm and Government of Canada material is available at http://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/ccl/aboutCrownCopyright.html ||||| Uber driver Michael Pelletz is launching a new ridesharing service with a twist: All the drivers and passengers will be women. Chariot for Women will be active in the Boston area on April 19. But does the world need another ridesharing service? Especially one so specific? It turns out maybe it does.
“The premise is the same as all the other ridesharing services,” Pelletz said in a phone interview. “There’s a driver app and a client app, except that what makes us unique is our safety feature that other apps forgot to do.” The service’s patent-pending technology gives the driver and the client a code in the app after a ride request has been made. When the car arrives, the driver and passenger make sure their codes match before the passenger gets in the car. Chariot for Women donates 2 percent of every fare to charity, and the company does not use surge charging.
In addition to only having women as drivers, Pelletz uses Safer Places, which has a reputation for performing the most stringent background checks. Chariot for Women also requires that all drivers pass Massachusetts’ Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) check, the same deep background check used in daycare centers and schools. Chariot for Women pays for the CORI check and will add fingerprinting for its drivers as soon as it’s possible.
The service will also pick up kids of any gender under age 13, as well as anyone of any age who identifies as a woman. “If they’re trans and identify as a woman, they can drive and ride with us, no problem at all,” Pelletz said.
There are likely legal difficulties ahead for a service that states outright that it will not serve men. That doesn’t worry Pelletz. “We look forward to legal challenges. We want to show there’s inequality in safety in our industry. We hope to go to the U.S. Supreme Court to say that if there’s safety involved, there’s nothing wrong with providing a service for women.”
That safety issue is making headlines lately, especially for Uber. BuzzFeed obtained screenshots in March showing thousands of complaints against the company seeming to involve rape and sexual assault. In December 2014, an Uber driver in India was arrested on suspicion of raping a passenger. And just today, Uber agreed to pay $25 million for overstating the thoroughness of its background checks.
“We’re doing this because there is such inequality when it comes to security that afflicts driver and rider due to gender,” Pelletz reiterated. “Women are across the world the ones being harassed and assaulted by male drivers. In my eight months as an Uber driver, I didn’t hear any negative feedback from men.”
There’s also the question of whether this is empowering women or patronizing them. So I put the question to social media and, to my surprise, got a unanimous response: yes, if there were a women-only ridesharing service, every woman who answered my question would use it. Women in my unscientific poll mentioned feeling anxious when they get in a car with a strange man, not trusting the vetting process used by current services and the “creep factor.” The enthusiasm for an all-female service ranged from “I would be all over it” to “HELL YES” [caps hers]. And one woman pretty much summed up the issue with her response: “Honestly, yes, probably. I do sigh in relief when I get into a car with a woman.”
“Our goal is that in five years, we want this issue to not even be an issue anymore,” said Pelletz. “We hope other rideshare companies follow in our footsteps to make it safer. Right now, that safety is not happening.” |||||
A summary of this is?
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– Starting April 19 in Boston, women will be able to hail a ride that may make them feel safer, the Next Web reports. In response to reported sexual assaults during Uber, Lyft, and taxi rides, Michael Pelletz launched Chariot for Women, providing ride-sharing just for women (as well as kids of any gender under 13 and transgender women) and employing only women drivers. The service also has a tight private background check for drivers, as well as a state check used by schools and daycares, per TechCrunch, and the app issues a "safe word" to only the driver and customer, per the Boston Globe. So far more than 1,000 women have signed up, USA Today reports. Pelletz tells the Washington Post he was partly inspired by the movie Pretty Woman, noting, "I was made to take care of women, to love them, respect them. … I was meant to do this." Pelletz says he came up with the idea to cater to "the untapped market that Uber and Lyft neglected" after a frightening experience of his own with an "incoherent" male passenger while he was an Uber driver. But there are legal issues that could put the brakes on the service: specifically, gender-discrimination lawsuits. "There's nothing wrong with advertising particularly to a female customer base," a Boston lawyer tells the Globe. "But if a company goes further and refuses to pick up a man, I think they'd potentially run into legal trouble." An employment law expert says refusing to hire male drivers could get even stickier. But Pelletz tells TechCrunch he's ready to go all the way to the Supreme Court if need be "to say that if there's safety involved, there's nothing wrong with providing a service for women." The service also says it will donate 2% of each fare to charity. (An Uber passenger led cops on a chase while his driver was napping.)
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Officials have identified the woman found trapped in an overturned Hummer in near Adelanto as Ridgecrest resident Barbara McPheron.
McPheron, 69, was rescued after an hourlong operation to extricate her from the vehicle after it apparently rolled down a hill on Torosa Road Saturday, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department. She had been missing for five days from her home in Ridgecrest.
McPheron is currently being treated at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and is in serious condition but expected to recover from her injuries.
It appears she had been trapped in the vehicle nearly a week.
McPheron was reported missing under suspicious circumstances on Oct. 23 around 12:50 p.m. after she used the OnStar in her Hummer H3 to call 911, according to a press release from the Ridgecrest Police Department.
The agency said it received a 911 call transferred from the Kern County Sheriff’s Department regarding McPheron stating “ditch on Highway 395, Stater Bros. and Kashmir Street.”
The areas indicated were searched but McPherson was not found, police said.
Sheriff’s deputies also conducted an air search on Highway 395 and the China Lake Police Department searched from Highway 178 to Trona.
She was rescued around 6 p.m. Saturday after the San Bernardino County Fire Department received a call about an overturned vehicle.
34.582770 -117.409215 ||||| Barbara McPheron is seen in a photo released by the Ridgecrest Police Department.
Fire crews rescued a woman who had been missing for almost a week when she was found Saturday evening trapped inside of an overturned SUV in Adelanto.Authorities had been searching for Barbara McPheron, 69, since she used the OnStar feature on her red 2007 Hummer to contact 911 on Oct. 23, according to the Ridgecrest Police Department in Kern County.Crews with the San Bernardino County Fire Department headed out to reports of a traffic crash near Torosa Road, west of Highway 395, around 6:11 p.m. Saturday. When crews arrived, they found the Hummer rolled over.Using rescue struts and a rope system, they were able to stabilize the vehicle. McPheron was extracted within an hour. Authorities said during the rescue operation, it was discovered that she had been reported missing days earlier.A medical helicopter transported the woman to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center. Her condition was reported as serious but not life-threatening. |||||
Summary:
– A woman who'd been reported missing five days earlier was found alive Saturday, trapped inside a Hummer that had crashed in the Mojave Desert. San Bernadino County Fire reports on Facebook that search and rescue teams had to use off-road vehicles to reach the SUV, which had rolled down a slope in a desert area. They stabilized the Hummer to prevent it from rolling further and were able to free the woman, who was flown to a medical center with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The woman is being identified as 69-year-old Barbara McPheron, reports KTLA. The circumstances under which she disappeared remain unclear. ABC 7 reports that the Ridgecrest Police Department in Kern County, roughly 80 miles north, say that McPheron was reported missing on Oct. 23, when she used the OnStar feature on her red 2007 Hummer to reach 911. A search at the time failed to turn up McPheron. (A rescuer ended up suing a woman he helped pull from a burning Hummer.)
Text:
WESTFIELD -Township police have extensively investigated the threatening letters sent to a couple after they purchased a home last June, Mayor Andrew Skibitsky said Tuesday night.
Speaking at a township council meeting and making the first comments on the case by a municipal official, Skibitsky almost pleaded for anybody with information about the mysterious correspondence to call police.
"Our police have conducted an exhaustive investigation into the threatening letters. Our police went the extra measure and left no stone unturned," Skibitsky said.
However, he said no charges have been filed in the case "pending the introduction of new evidence."
Westfield police have not responded to repeated calls seeking information about the letters.
Earlier this month, the homeowners filed suit, claiming the letters, coming from somebody identifying himself as "The Watcher," prevented them from moving into the house. The couple claims that the prior owners knew of the letter writer and withheld the information to complete the sale. The couple paid $1.3 million for the house.
Skibitsky last night stressed that the couple, who have three children, received the letters nearly a year ago. Skibitsky said the case involved what would be a disorderly persons offense.
The couple closed on the house on June 2, 2014, and three days later received a letter in which the writer stated he had been watching the house for two decades, and his grandfather and father had each watched it. He claimed to know the previous owners and had asked them to "bring him young blood."
According to lawsuit, the couple received at least two more letters, the last one in July 2014. They claim the prior owners received a letter from "The Watcher" less than two weeks before the closing on the house.
The mysterious letters, which as a result of the lawsuit are now gaining wide attention in news reports around the country, are currently under investigation by both police and Union County Prosecutor's Office, but no information is being released about that investigation.
"The Union County Prosecutor's Office is aware of this matter and is continuing to work closely with the Westfield Police Department on what is an ongoing investigation," said Mark Spivey, spokesman for the prosecutor's ofice.
He said no details of the letters or the investigation could be released.
Skibitsky also declined to comment on the police investigation or the lawsuit.
The names of the current and prior owners, and the address of the house are being withheld for safety.
In the lawsuit the couple said they thought they were buying their "dream" house and that they spent thousands on improvements. The couple said they are trying to sell house but details about the letters have scared off potential buyers.
The prosecutor's office advises anybody receiving disturbing letters to quickly call police. ||||| A New Jersey couple who thought they were buying their dream home are suing its previous owners, claiming the house has a longtime stalker who writes terrorizing letters and signs them "The Watcher."
A Union County lawsuit contends the original owners of the six-bedroom, $1.3 million home in upscale Westfield deliberately withheld information about the anonymous, threatening missives.
"Currently, plaintiffs are in the process of selling the home as they are unable to live in the home without extreme anxiety and fear for their children's safety and well-being," says the suit that was filed earlier this month, according to Courthouse News Service.
The names of the plaintiffs and the defendants, as well as the home's address, were not divulged by the site to protect the privacy of those involved.
"Plaintiffs are having trouble selling the home as interested parties, once notified of the letters, no longer view the property as a safe home," the suit claims.
The letters began arriving on June 5, 2014, three days after closing, the couple contends. They show The Watcher's "mentally disturbed fixation and claim to possession and/or ownership of the home," the suit says.
The letters claim the home had been in The Watcher's family for decades.
"Why are you here? I will find out," one of the letters said.
"I am pleased to know your names now and the name of the young blood you have brought to me," another read. "Who has the bedrooms facing the street? I'll know as soon as you move in … It will help me to know who is in which bedroom, then I can plan better."
A New Jersey couple says they were not told about a house stalker when they bought a Westfield home for $1.3 million. (iStock)
The new owners claim the sellers received a letter from The Watcher more than a week before closing on the sale. That correspondence "noted there would be a new family moving into the home."
The sellers were "so desperate to sell the million-dollar home (they) knowingly and willfully failed to disclose … this disturbing letter," the suit says.
The new owners are seeking damages for breach of contract and fraud. They are asking for their money back, plus interest.
ON A MOBILE DEVICE? WATCH THE VIDEO HERE. |||||
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– A New Jersey couple says the $1.3 million dream home they bought in Westfield a year ago came with six bedrooms, a sprawling lawn for their three kids, and a creepy stalker, who the owners say began sending threatening letters three days after they took possession. The letters, signed by "the Watcher," claim the home "has been the subject of my family for decades," and "I have been put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming," reports CBS News. Eerier still, the individual, who claims to have watched the house for two decades, asks, "Have they found out what's in the walls yet?" and says, "I am pleased to know your names now, and the name of the young blood you have brought to me." The individual also inquires about who is sleeping in which bedrooms so "I can plan better." The family says they never moved in as a result of the letters, the last of which arrived in July, reports NJ.com. They're suing the previous owners for their money back, plus interest, claiming they concealed the stalker from them, reports the New York Daily News. The lawsuit claims the previous owners received a letter from "the Watcher" that "noted there would be a new family moving into the home" more than a week before the closing date but "knowingly and willfully failed to disclose" it. The lawsuit adds the "plaintiffs are having trouble selling the home as interested parties, once notified of the letters, no longer view the property as a safe home." Westfield's mayor says police have "conducted an exhaustive investigation…and left no stone unturned," but no charges have been laid. (One California woman decided to "prank" the family who bought her dream home out from under her; criminal charges ensued.)
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Here Are The 2017 MacArthur 'Genius' Grant Winners
Enlarge this image toggle caption John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
It's not often you'll find these 24 names in the same place. They are historians and musicians, computer scientists and social activists, writers and architects. But whatever it may read on their business cards (if they've even got business cards), they now all have a single title in common: 2017 MacArthur Fellow.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced the winners of this year's fellowship — often better known as the "genius" grant — and the list includes a characteristically wide array of disciplines: There's painter Njideka Akunyili Crosby, for instance, and mathematician Emmanuel Candès and immunologist Gabriel Victora, among many others.
(Note: The foundation is among NPR's financial supporters.)
Each of the recipients has been selected for having "shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction" — and each will receive a $625,000 award from the foundation "as an investment in their potential," paid out over five years with no strings attached.
Jason De León, an anthropologist who studies and preserves the objects left behind by people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, tells NPR's Kelly McEvers he's got an idea of how he's planning to use that money: "Pay off my student loans," the 40-year-old scholar laughs.
"But you know, really, we see this grant as a way to facilitate the work that we're doing even more and to push it in new directions," De León continues. "It's really exciting to think about all these projects that me and many of my collaborators have been workshopping for years now. We're going to have resources to do these things."
You can find the full list of winners below — paired with the foundation's description of their work and, where possible, links to NPR's previous coverage to get to know them better.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby, 34, painter living in Los Angeles:
"Visualizing the complexities of globalization and transnational identity in works that layer paint, photographic imagery, prints, and collage elements."
Sunil Amrith, 38, historian living in Cambridge, Mass.:
"Illustrating the role of centuries of transnational migration in the present-day social and cultural dynamics of South and Southeast Asia."
Greg Asbed, 54, human rights strategist living in Immokalee, Fla.:
"Transforming conditions for low-wage workers with a visionary model of worker-driven social responsibility."
Annie Baker, 36, playwright living in New York City:
"Mining the minutiae of how we speak, act, and relate to one another and the absurdity and tragedy that result from the limitations of language."
Performing Arts 'The Flick' Tells The Story Of The Movies, Off The Screen 'The Flick' Tells The Story Of The Movies, Off The Screen Listen · 8:01 8:01
Regina Barzilay, 46, computer scientist living in Cambridge, Mass.:
"Developing machine learning methods that enable computers to process and analyze vast amounts of human language data."
Dawoud Bey, 63, photographer and educator living in Chicago:
"Using an expansive approach to photography that creates new spaces of engagement within cultural institutions, making them more meaningful to and representative of the communities in which they are situated."
Emmanuel Candès, 47, mathematician and statistician living in Stanford, Calif.:
"Exploring the limits of signal recovery and matrix completion from incomplete data sets with implications for high-impact applications in multiple fields."
Jason De León, 40, anthropologist living in Ann Arbor, Mich.:
"Combining ethnographic, forensic, and archaeological evidence to bring to light the human consequences of immigration policy at the U.S.–Mexico border."
U.S. 'Living, Breathing Archaeology' In The Arizona Desert 'Living, Breathing Archaeology' In The Arizona Desert Listen · 6:31 6:31 U.S. Understanding Migrants Through The Things They Carried Understanding Migrants Through The Things They Carried Listen · 8:03 8:03
Rhiannon Giddens, 40, singer, instrumentalist and songwriter living in Greensboro, N.C.:
"Reclaiming African American contributions to folk and country music and bringing to light new connections between music from the past and the present."
Nikole Hannah-Jones, 41, journalist living in New York City:
"Chronicling the persistence of racial segregation in American society, particularly in education, and reshaping national conversations around education reform."
Cristina Jiménez Moreta, 33, social justice organizer living in Washington, D.C.:
"Changing public perceptions of immigrant youth and playing a critical role in shaping the debate around immigration policy."
Taylor Mac, 44, theater artist living in New York City:
"Engaging audiences as active participants in works that dramatize the power of theater as a space for building community."
Rami Nashashibi, 45, community leader living in Chicago:
"Confronting the challenges of poverty and disinvestment in urban communities through a Muslim-led civic engagement effort that bridges race, class, and religion."
Viet Thanh Nguyen, 46, fiction writer and cultural critic living in Los Angeles:
"Challenging popular depictions of the Vietnam War and exploring the myriad ways that war lives on for those it has displaced."
Kate Orff, 45, landscape architect living in New York City:
"Designing adaptive and resilient urban habitats and encouraging residents to be active stewards of the ecological systems underlying our built environment."
Trevor Paglen, 43, artist and geographer living in Berlin:
"Documenting the hidden operations of covert government projects and examining the ways that human rights are threatened in an era of mass surveillance."
Visiting A CIA 'Black Site' Visiting A CIA 'Black Site' Listen
Betsy Levy Paluck, 39, psychologist living in Princeton, N.J.:
"Unraveling how social networks and norms influence our interactions with one another and identifying interventions that can change destructive behavior."
Derek Peterson, 46, historian living in Ann Arbor, Mich.:
"Reshaping our understanding of African colonialism and nationalism in studies that foreground East African intellectual production."
Damon Rich, 42, designer and urban planner living in Newark, N.J.:
"Creating vivid and witty strategies to design and build places that are more democratic and accountable to their residents."
Stefan Savage, 48, computer scientist living in La Jolla, Calif.:
"Identifying and addressing the technological, economic, and social vulnerabilities underlying internet security challenges and cybercrime."
Technology Study May Shed Light On How To Stop Spam Study May Shed Light On How To Stop Spam Listen · 4:03 4:03
Yuval Sharon, 37, opera director and producer living in Los Angeles:
"Expanding how opera is performed and experienced through immersive, multisensory, and mobile productions that are infusing a new vitality into the genre."
Tyshawn Sorey, 37, composer and musician living in Middletown, Conn.:
"Assimilating and transforming ideas from a broad spectrum of musical idioms and defying distinctions between genres, composition, and improvisation in a singular expression of contemporary music."
Gabriel Victora, 40, immunologist living in New York City:
"Investigating acquired, or adaptive, immunity and the mechanisms by which organisms' antibody-based responses to infection are fine-tuned."
Jesmyn Ward, 40, fiction writer living in DeLisle, Miss.:
"Exploring the enduring bonds of community and familial love among poor African Americans of the rural South against a landscape of circumscribed possibilities and lost potential." ||||| In this Sept. 21, 2017 photo provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Cristina Jimenez Moreta poses in New York City. Moreta, co-founder and executive director of United We Dream,... (Associated Press)
In this Sept. 21, 2017 photo provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Cristina Jimenez Moreta poses in New York City. Moreta, co-founder and executive director of United We Dream, a national network of groups led by immigrant youth was named Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017, as one of... (Associated Press)
CHICAGO (AP) — A director who has taken opera from the concert hall to the streets of Los Angeles and an organizer who helped put a human face on the plight of young undocumented immigrants are among this year's MacArthur fellows and recipients of the so-called "genius" grants.
The Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on Wednesday announced the 24 fellows, who each receive $625,000 over five years to spend any way they choose. The recipients work in a variety of fields, from computer science to theater, immunology and photography.
The foundation has awarded the fellowships annually since 1981 to people who show "exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future." Previous winners have included "Hamilton" playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, and author-journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates. There is no application process. Instead, an anonymous pool of nominators brings potential fellows to the foundation's attention. Those selected learn they've been chosen shortly before the awards are announced.
For opera director and producer Yuval Sharon the news that he had been selected was "an enormous shock and honor." When the foundation called, he assumed they were seeking a referral for someone else who'd been nominated.
"I'm totally amazed," said Sharon, 37, the founder and artistic director of The Industry, a Los Angeles-based production company that produces operas in nontraditional spaces and formats. A 2015 production transported audience members and performers to various locations in Los Angeles via limousines, with singers and musicians performing along the way and at each stop.
His next work, an adaptation of the radio program "War of the Worlds" will utilize decommissioned World War II sirens to broadcast the performance occurring inside the theater onto the streets. The sounds of performers stationed outdoors — and likely the traffic and other street noise — will then be transmitted back into the concert hall.
Sharon said he comes across many people who don't think opera is for them, but he hopes hearing about these kinds of "audacious experiments" will peak their interest.
Another fellow, Cristina Jiménez Moreta, is co-founder and executive director of United We Dream, a national network of groups led by immigrant youth.
Moreta, 33, and her parents came to the U.S. illegally from Ecuador when she was a child. At 19, she revealed her undocumented status publicly. It was a move that put her and her family at risk of deportation, but also placed her at the forefront of a movement to change the way immigrants are perceived.
She was instrumental in pressing for the 2012 adoption of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the now-endangered executive order that allowed thousands of undocumented young people to live without fear of deportation.
Moreta said the fellowship is recognition of the resilience shown by her parents and other immigrants who "had the courage to stand up and say 'we are here, this is our home and we are fighting.'"
The first people she told were her parents, who were fearful when she started organizing but now join her in marches and to pass petitions.
"They're very proud," she said.
Also selected was Deyoud Bey, a photographer and educator from Chicago whose portraits often feature people from marginalized communities. For "The Birmingham Project," he commemorated the 1963 bombing at a church in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed six children, with a series of portraits of Birmingham residents who were the age of each of the children killed and the age they would be if they had lived.
Others announced Wednesday were writer and cultural critic Viet Thanh Nguyen — whose novel, "The Sympathizer," about a communist double agent, won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for fiction — and Derek Peterson, a historian of East Africa and professor at the University of Michigan.
___
Online: www.macfound.org
___
This story has been corrected to show 24 recipients of MacArthur grants, not 23. |||||
Summary:
|
– A director who has taken opera from the concert hall to the streets of Los Angeles and an organizer who helped put a human face on the plight of young undocumented immigrants are among this year's MacArthur fellows and recipients of the so-called "genius" grants. The Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on Wednesday announced the 24 fellows, people who show "exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future." They each receive $625,000 over five years to spend any way they choose. The recipients work in a variety of fields, from computer science to theater, immunology, and photography (see the full list here). The AP reports previous winners have included Hamilton playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, and author-journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates. There is no application process. Instead, an anonymous pool of nominators brings potential fellows to the foundation's attention. For opera director and producer Yuval Sharon the news that he had been selected was "an enormous shock and honor." When the foundation called, the 37-year-old assumed they were seeking a referral for someone else who'd been nominated. His next work, an adaptation of the radio program "War of the Worlds" will utilize decommissioned World War II sirens to broadcast the performance occurring inside the theater onto the streets. The sounds of performers stationed outdoors—and likely the traffic and other street noise—will then be transmitted back into the concert hall. As for what anthropologist Jason De León will do with the money, he quips to NPR, "Pay off my student loans."
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It is ridiculous that I’m even having to write about this, but I am.In the past 72 hours, I have gotten lots of emails from lots of people who should know better asking me if I’ve heard about Barack Obama sending American troops to Africa to go after the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The people hearing the name assume it is a Christian group fighting radical Islamists in the Sudan or some such.It is no such thing.We can debate whether sending military advisers — the numbers range from a few dozen to a hundred — to Uganda to help track down and capture LRA members, but let us not claim the LRA is something it is not.A new movie will be out soon called Machine Gun Preacher documenting an American missionary’s struggles against the LRA.The group claims to be an emissary from God capable of channeling the Holy Spirit. The group has notoriously gone through Uganda capturing children and turning them into soldiers and, when not successful, murdering them. The group engages in sex trafficking, slavery, murder, mutilation, and the list goes on and on.LRA members have been hunted by George W. Bush and now by Barack Obama. They are an evil group and while we can debate the policy implications of the President sending troops off to Africa, we should not make victims or political points off the group the President will hopefully eradicate.
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter ||||| Apparently sensing an opportunity to tarnish President Obama’s standing with listeners who were unaware of the suffering caused by the African rebels who call themselves the Lord’s Resistance Army, Rush Limbaugh responded to the president’s deployment of 100 military advisers to combat the group in central Africa on Friday in a segment of his radio show headlined, “Obama Invades Uganda, Targets Christians.”
Mr. Limbaugh began his discussion of the group — described by my colleagues Thom Shanker and Rick Gladstone as “a notorious renegade group that has terrorized villagers in at least four countries with marauding bands that kill, rape, maim and kidnap with impunity” — by explaining that the “Lord” referred to in their name is not someone named Lord, but “God.” He said:
Now, up until today, most Americans have never heard of the combat Lord’s Resistance Army. And here we are at war with them. Have you ever heard of Lord’s Resistance Army, Dawn? How about you, Brian? Snerdley, have you? You never heard of Lord’s Resistance Army? Well, proves my contention, most Americans have never heard of it, and here we are at war with them. Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. It means God.
Overlooking the detailed record of their brutality and bizarre practices, Mr. Limbaugh then added: “They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops, to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them. So that’s a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians in Sudan, Uganda.”
After suggesting that Mr. Obama “supported” violence against Coptic Christians by Muslims in Egypt, Mr. Limbaugh then read aloud what he called the “Lord’s Resistance Army objectives.”
I have them here. “To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people.” Now, again Lord’s Resistance Army is who Obama sent troops to help nations wipe out. The objectives of the Lord’s Resistance Army, what they’re trying to accomplish with their military action in these countries is the following: “To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people; to fight for the immediate restoration of the competitive multiparty democracy in Uganda; to see an end to gross violation of human rights and dignity of Ugandans; to ensure the restoration of peace and security in Uganda, to ensure unity, sovereignty and economic prosperity beneficial to all Ugandans, and to bring to an end the repressive policy of deliberate marginalization of groups of people who may not agree with the L.R.A. ideology.” Those are the objectives of the group that we are fighting.
The conservative host, who has previously demonstrated a fondness for sharing information found on Wikipedia with listeners, even when it is incorrect or misleading, appears to have taken this list of objectives from a defense of the Lord’s Resistance Army delivered by one of its leaders 14 years ago, which is featured in the online encyclopedia’s entry on the group’s ideology.
Mr. Limbaugh did not mention that the speech defending the rebel group was made in 1997 at a peace conference, organized by members of the ethnic group the Lord’s Resistance Army claims to represent, who characterized the conflict in northern Uganda this way: “The L.R.A. has abducted thousands of people, mainly children, tortured and murdered; and looted and destroyed property. The government army has not been able to provide adequate protection to the civilian population.”
According to the transcipt on his Web site, near the end of Friday’s radio segment, Mr. Limbaugh said: “Is that right? The Lord’s Resistance Army is being accused of really bad stuff? Child kidnapping, torture, murder, that kind of stuff? Well, we just found out about this today. We’re gonna do, of course, our due diligence research on it. But nevertheless we got a hundred troops being sent over there to fight these guys — and they claim to be Christians.”
As Reuters reports, Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, initially attracted supporters in northern Uganda’s Acholiland in the late 1980s “with a creed based on a mix of mysticism and apocalyptic Christianity. Over the years the L.R.A. become known for chilling violence including what human rights groups say were the abductions of thousands for use as child soldiers or sex slaves, brutal club and machete attacks on victims.”
Last year, my colleague C.J. Chivers reported, in a post on Mr. Kony’s unorthodox belief system, that the Lord’s Resistance Army leader was initially part of “a failed rebel movement led by Alice Lakwena, who said she was possessed by a troupe of spirits who urged her to war, Mr. Kony has presented himself over the years as the channel through which these lingering voices communicate from the beyond.”
A document obtained by Mr. Chivers from a former senior commander of the rebel group described in detail how Mr. Kony would initiate “possession episodes” and speak to his followers in the voices of spirits named Malia, Who Are You and Chairman Juma Oris.
Kony’s secretary… would make the preparations, and Kony would dress in a white robe. A glass of water, a bible, and a rosary were placed on a table. To start the possession Kony would dip his fingers into a clear glass of water. Multiple spirits would pass through Kony in a single session. On average at least three spirits would talk in a session…. When Kony dipped his finger in glass of water he slumped forward for a few seconds, then sat up. Each spirit had a separate personality. His voice changed to a woman’s tone of voice when possessed by Malia. Some spirits spoke faster than others. Who Are You was rude – quarreling – and he complained a lot. Chairman Juma Oris talked slow and calm with a flat tone like an “important person.”
In response to Mr. Limbaugh’s defense of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Matthew Yglesias, who blogs for the liberal Think Progress site, quoted from a Human Rights Watch report detailing a brutal attack by the group. Mr. Yglesias argued: “I think reasonable people can disagree as to whether or not chasing a relatively small band of depraved mass murderers around Central Africa is a reasonable thing for American military personnel to be doing. But let’s make no mistake — these are depraved mass murderers.”
From the opposite end of the political spectrum, Erick Erickson the editor-in-chief of the conservative Web site RedState.com wrote on Sunday night: “In the past 72 hours, I have gotten lots of e-mails from lots of people who should know better asking me if I’ve heard about Barack Obama sending American troops to Africa to go after the Lord’s Resistance Army. The people hearing the name assume it is a Christian group fighting radical Islamists in the Sudan or some such. It is no such thing.”
Mr. Erickson added: “The group has notoriously gone through Uganda capturing children and turning them into soldiers and, when not successful, murdering them. The group engages in sex trafficking, slavery, murder, mutilation, and the list goes on and on.” |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?
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– Rush Limbaugh has attracted scorn even from his fellow conservatives with a bizarre defense of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. The radio host attacked President Obama for sending troops to track down the militia's leader, slamming the president for "targeting Christians," the New York Times reports. Limbaugh, overlooking the LRA's well-documented history of atrocities against civilians over the last 20 years, read a list of LRA objectives presented by one of its leaders 14 years ago, which he had apparently found on Wikipedia. Later in the broadcast, he promised to do "due diligence research" on the group. The LRA was declared a terrorist organization by George W. Bush in 2001, and the editor of conservative website RedState.com says "lots of people who should know better" have been asking him about the militia. "People hearing the name assume it is a Christian group fighting radical Islamists in the Sudan or some such. It is no such thing," he says. "The group has notoriously gone through Uganda capturing children and turning them into soldiers and, when not successful, murdering them. The group engages in sex trafficking, slavery, murder, mutilation, and the list goes on and on."
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