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Photo: David Wolff - Patrick/Redferns Drake’s new album Scorpion is out and so are all of his secrets. Everything you’ve wanted to know about Drake’s personal life — including that (no longer) alleged secret baby — is an open book on his latest album. From becoming a dad to not addressing Pusha-T to a potential fling with Bella Hadid, here’s everything Drake reveals on Scorpion. Yes, Drake has a secret child. Pusha-T tells no lies! On his searing Drake exposé, “The Story of Adidon,” Push declared that Drake had been hiding a child. On Scorpion, Drake confirms the claim, with a correction: “I wasn’t hiding my kid from the world, I was hiding the world from my kid,” he raps on “Emotionless.” He continues, “From empty souls who just wake up and looked to debate. Until you starin’ at your seed, you can never relate.” He also refutes Push’s claim that he’s a deadbeat dad, saying elsewhere on “8 Out of 10”: “The only deadbeats is whatever beats I been rappin’ to / Never a matter of could I or should I / Kiss my son on his forehead and kiss your ass good-bye / As luck would have it I’m settled into my role as the good guy.” So why all the secrecy? Well, to hear Drake tell it, he just wanted some privacy. “Breakin’ news in my life, I don’t run to the blogs / The only ones I wanna tell are the ones I can call,” he raps. “They always ask, ‘Why let the story run if it’s false?’ / You know a wise man once said nothin’ at all / I’m exhausted and drained I can’t even pretend.” But as we later learn on album closer “March 14,” in what is essentially a song spoken to his son, he mostly kept things hushed because the relationship with the mother of his child, allegedly former adult-film star Sophie Brussaux (whom Drake does not mention by name anywhere on this album, nor the name of his child), is strained. Throughout the song, he alludes to a custody battle (as he did on previous single “I’m Upset”), revealing that he only met the woman twice, his son was born on October 11, but he has only seen the child once since his birth. He claims he and the woman are “co-parenting” the child together. He also admits that some close friends knew of the child’s existence, but that even his father hasn’t met him yet. These are the most telling admissions from “March 14”: Yesterday morning was crazy / I had to come to terms with the fact that it’s not a maybe / That shit is in stone, sealed and signed / She not my lover like Billie Jean but the kid is mine / Sandi [his mother] used to tell me all it takes is one time, and all it took was one time / Shit, we only met two times, two times / And both times were nothing like the new times / Now it’s rough times / I’m out here on front lines just trying to make sure that I see him sometimes / It’s breaking my spirit. Single father, I hate when I hear it / I used to challenge my parents on every album / Now I’m embarrassed to tell them I ended up as a co-parent / Always promised the family unit / I wanted it to be different because I’ve been through it / But this is the harsh truth now. This the first positive DNA we ever celebrated / I can’t forget the looks on they faces / Got the news in Miami that we all now got ones that we raisin’ / Tell Jello bring some, uh, Rosé and Baccarat out for our cheers to the next generation / But this champagne toast is short-lived / I got an empty crib in my empty crib / I only met you one time, introduced you to Saint Nick / I think he must’ve brought you like twenty gifts. October baby for irony sake, of course / I got this 11 tatted for somebody, now it’s yours / And believe me, I can’t wait to get a hunnid more / Sorry I’m vintage, tryna cover ground / They said that in two weeks you’re supposed to come in town / Hopefully by the time you hear this me and your mother will have come around instead of always cutting each other down. Watch: We Baked A Drake Cake Why he hasn’t responded to Pusha-T: The story goes that Drake never retaliated against Pusha-T again because both Kanye West and Drake’s mentor, J. Prince, told both rappers to stand down. Prince, especially, has said that Drake’s response, apparently already recorded, would’ve been too “overwhelming” and damaging to Kanye’s family. On album opener “Survival,” Drake doubles down on why he’s kept mum, saying he didn’t want this rap beef to turn deadly: “I’ve seen this movie a hundred times, I know where it’s headed / Realize someone gotta die when no one will dead it / Niggas gambling with their life for some content / That’s the type of lottery that could get your top picked.” But, of course, he’s not above throwing subliminals at all his enemies. On “Is There More,” he brags, “I mean you know I love a challenge, but challenged by who?” He also diminishes the blow inflicted by Push, rapping on “Peak”: “What you thought of me never had me missing a beat / That’s just a view from a cheap seat / They don’t want problems with me / Talk used to be cheap, nowadays it’s free / People are only as tough as they phones allow them to be.” He might be an independent artist now. It’s never quite been clear when Drake’s record deal with Cash Money, and its Young Money affiliate, is up. But according to Drake, that time is now. He implies on “Is There More” that Scorpion has fulfilled his contract: “Soon as this album drops, I’m outta the deal.” And adds on “Survival, “I’m pretty sure we got a label, I’m still independent,” referring to his own OVO imprint. Interestingly, Lil Wayne also just became free from Cash Money. Uh, so maybe he really did have a thing with Bella Hadid. There were rumors at the end of 2017 that Drake may have broken bro code with the Weeknd and had a thing with Bella Hadid that ended with him ghosting her. None of this was ever confirmed, of course, but Drake is his own personal TMZ. On “Sandra’s Rose,” he raps “My house is full of supermodels just like Mohammed Hadid,” referring to her father. Then on, “Finesse,” the hints get even less subtle. First, he says “I want my baby to have your eyes, I’m going against my own advice / Should I do New York? I can’t decide / Fashion week is more your thing than mine.” Bella Hadid is a model who has walked NYFW several times and, well, yeah, her eyes are very pretty. But just in case wasn’t clear whom he’s talking about here, there’s this: “You stay on my mind / You and your sister too hot to handle.” That sister being Gigi Hadid. Well played, Drake. Diddy definitely punched Drake. In 2014, Diddy punched Drake at Art Basel. This actually happened and we’ve always known it to be true — the reports say it was over the “0 to 100” beat — and Drake’s not afraid to admit it either. On “Survival” he references his beefs with both Meek Mill and Diddy: “I’ve had real Philly niggas try to write my ending / I’ve had scuffles with Bad Boys that wasn’t pretending.” He still has words for Kanye. Drake and Pusha-T’s feud may be over, but whatever ill will Drake still harbors for Kanye, it isn’t settled. Sure, Drake recently attended the Wyoming sessions and contributed writing to Kanye’s song “Yikes,” but that doesn’t mean everything’s peachy. In fact, he mocks Kanye for the whole stunt on “8 Out of 10,” saying “All sevens, no sixes” — a reference to most of the Wyoming albums’ seven-song track lists — “Rest easy get some shut eye / Hold on, hold on / But I miss making ‘em pay.” In other words, he’ll entertain your little mountain excursion if only for a check. Drake also responds to Kanye’s shot at him on “No Mistakes,” in which he said, “Too close to snipe you, truth told, I like you / Too bold to type you, too rich to fight you / Calm down, you light skin!” Drake says on “8 Out of 10”: “Too rich for who? Y’all just got rich again / Who grips the mic and likes to kill they friends?” (That second is also a reference to Kanye’s murderous thoughts expressed on his Ye opener.) And on “Nonstop,” “Yeah I’m light skinned but I’m still a dark nigga.” He considers himself on par with Adele. We already knew Drake thinks being No. 1 is all that matters, but Drake really drives the point home. On “Blue Tint,” he brags that he’s essentially untouchable, diss tracks be damned, because he’s so successful on the charts. “Every title doing numbers like I’m Miss Adele,” he raps on “Sandra’s Rose,” then “Double my price again / Top the charts, back in they hearts / Nigga he strikes again, woah” on “Blue Tint.” (Fact check: Drake hasn’t actually ever done Adele album numbers — remember, she broke the all-time first-week record with 25 — but that’s not to say he still couldn’t.) Jay-Z and Drake are cool again. Jay-Z is featured on “Talk Up,” meaning he’s let Drake back in his good graces. (They’ve had their tiffs through the years, and Drake famously left Jay and Kanye’s verses off a song on Views.) In his verse, Jay-Z makes it clear that his was recorded as recently as last week, as he references XXXTentacion’s murder and once again skewers Trump as he did on Everything Is Love: “I got your president tweeting / I won’t even meet with him / Y’all killed X and let Zimmerman live / Streets is done.”

– "She’s not my lover like Billie Jean but the kid is mine/ Sandi used to tell me all it takes is one time, and all it took was one time/ S---, we only met two times, two times," Drake raps in a new album, Scorpion, which dropped late Thursday. "Sandi" is his mom, Sandi Graham, "she" is apparently French former adult-film star Sophie Brussaux, and "the kid" is apparently the son they share, reports People. The Canadian rapper says DNA confirmed the child, born October 11, is his, and raps that, "I wasn’t hiding my kid from the world/I was hiding the world from my kid." Further, "I used to challenge my parents on every album/ Now I’m embarrassed to tell them I ended up as a co-parent/ Always promised the family unit/ I wanted it to be different because I’ve been through it." Vulture has more reveals from the new album.

A report from the Connecticut State Attorney describes Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter Adam Lanza as having "significant mental health issues" that affected his ability to interact with others. He had been prescribed both therapy and medication, but no health professionals saw any violence tendencies. NBC's Rehema Ellis reports. Newtown shooter Adam Lanza had no clear motive, but was obsessed with Columbine and planned the rampage that took the lives of 20 children and six school staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary, "including the taking of his own life," according to a long-awaited report on last December's shooting released Monday. "Many people have asked why the shooter did what he did on December 14, 2012," said the 48-page report, which was published on the state's Division of Criminal Justice website. "Or in the vernacular of the criminal justice system, 'Did he have a motive to do what he did?' This investigation, with the substantial information available, does not establish a conclusive motive." The report also said that there was "no clear indication" why Lanza chose Sandy Hook for the shooting, other than that it was close to his home. The report said it is "unknown" what contribution his mental health issues made to his attack, though they interfered with his ability "to live a normal life," and that Lanza had a strained relationship with his mother Nancy, telling a witness he would not feel bad if something happened to her. Lanza shot and killed Nancy before he drove to the school. The report described Lanza as obsessed with mass shootings. "He had a familiarity with and access to firearms and ammunition and an obsession with mass murders," said the report, "in particular the April 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. Investigators however, have not discovered any evidence that the shooter voiced or gave any indication to others that he intended to commit such a crime himself." Investigators said Lanza had posted on an "internet blog" that "focused on mass shootings and in particular the Columbine shootings." The report's appendix noted that a computer hard drive included a computer game called "School Shooting," in which the player controls a character who enters a school and shoots students. Lanza had also downloaded videos about Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, surveillance footage of a Cleveland school shooting, video of a mall shooting and two videos of suicide by gunshot. He was also apparently a big fan of “Dance Dance Revolution,” a video game in which the player stands on a platform and moves his feet in sync with instructions on a video screen, the report notes. A commercial version of the game — along with several other games, including “Call of Duty” and “Grand Theft Auto” — is located in the basement of a local theater Lanza frequented between April and December of last year, according to the report. A home version of the game was “seen and photographed in the shooter’s home,” according to the report, adding that investigators discovered several videos of Lanza playing the game “on digital media taken from the home.” He also had “game screen shots” on his computer, the report said. Lanza fired 154 rounds in the school, and had 147 more rounds he could have fired, according to the report. Lanza killed the students and the staffers with an assault rifle and shot himself with a Glock handgun. Police, according to the report, arrived at the school "within minutes of the first shots being fired. They went into the school to save those inside with the knowledge that someone might be waiting to take their lives." Read the report here. Shannon Hicks / Newtown Bee via EPA file Police officers evacuate children from the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012 following a school shooting there. According to the report, Lanza refused to take suggested medication and didn't engage in recommended behavior therapy. Investigators found no medication in his system "that would affect his behavior." Lanza's mother Nancy "took care of all the shooter's needs," said the report. "The mother indicated that she did not work because of her son’s condition. She worried about what would happen to the shooter if anything happened to her.” His mother consistently described him as having Asperger's Syndrome, and said he was unable to make eye contact, was sensitive to light and didn't like to be touched. She said there were marked changes in his behavior around the seventh grade, when he became more withdrawn. According to the report, however, a witness said Lanza "did not have an emotional connection" with Nancy. "A person who knew the shooter in 2011 and 2012 said the shooter described his relationship with his mother as strained," said the report, "because the shooter said her behavior was not rational." In November 2012, just a month before the shooting, Nancy was concerned about Adam because "he hadn't gone anywhere in three months," said the report, "and would only communicate with her by email, though they were living in the same house." Nancy Lanza, however, never expressed fear for herself or anyone else at the hands of her son. Nancy Lanza wanted to buy the shooter a new pistol for Christmas, according to the report, and "had prepared a check for that purpose to give the shooter." The long-awaited summary of the second-deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history omitted much information from the investigative file, including transcripts of 911 calls, some witness statements from children and most crime scene photos. The appendix to the report, however, includes photos of the bullet-riddled entrance to the school, photos of the Bushmaster and Glock guns he used in the assault, and photos of the magazines left at the scene. The release of the report, initially expected over the summer, was pushed back several times amid growing pressure from authorities -- including Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy -- to release more information. Throughout the investigation, State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky III has resisted efforts by the news media and some public officials to release more information related to the shooting. In March, he ordered police to stop discussing details of the investigation at conferences after the New York Daily News reported that state police Col. Danny Stebbins told audience members at a law enforcement conference in New Orleans that Lanza had created a spreadsheet of mass killings going back 30 years. He and the town of Newtown also went to court to try and prevent the release of 911 calls from the school or transcripts of them, arguing that making them public could jeopardize the investigation. The state's Freedom of Information Commission ruled in September that the recordings should be provided to the news media, but a prosecutor obtained a stay while he appeals that order. At a hearing in New Britain, Conn. on Monday morning, a judge said he would listen to the recordings and issue a ruling on whether they can be made public. Handout / Reuters Adam Lanza, in an undated file photo. The summary also represents only a small portion of the investigation by both state and federal authorities. It does not include the entire state police evidence file, which runs thousands of pages, according to Paul Vance, spokesman for the Connecticut State Police. The full report is expected to be released once Sedensky declares the investigation closed, though no date has been announced. And some evidence from the state's investigation may never be made available to the public. A Connecticut law passed earlier this year in response to the shooting prohibits the release of photographs, film, video and other visual images showing a homicide victim if they can "reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy of the victim or the victim's surviving family members." Before its release, Sedensky’s office and local authorities did everything they could to brace townspeople for the coming onslaught of attention. Slideshow: Newtown school massacre Jessica Hill / AP A nation mourns after the second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history at Sandy Hook Elementary, which left 20 children and six staff members dead. Launch slideshow Sedensky allowed victims' relatives to review the report at briefings over the previous two weeks. And the interim superintendent of schools in Newtown advised parents to think about limiting their children's exposure to media reports on Monday and to reach out to mental health professionals if family members need help coping with the contents of the report or the approaching anniversary. "We all understand that for the children who were directly affected by this tragedy the release of the report and the upcoming anniversary can carry a very personal meaning," read the Nov. 19 letter from Dr. John Reed. NBCConnecticut, the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. More from NBC News Investigations: Follow NBC News Investigations on Twitter and Facebook

– Adam Lanza apparently planned the Sandy Hook massacre by himself and left no evidence of why he killed 27 people at a Connecticut elementary school last year, according to a report released today. "Why did the shooter murder twenty-seven people, including twenty children?" wrote Danbury State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky in the report, which closed an 11-month police investigation. "Unfortunately, that question may never be answered conclusively." The report does say Lanza planned all his actions, including his suicide, and even wore ear buds during the assault, the Hartford Courant reports. Also from the report: A blow-by-blow of Lanza's carnage. The 20-year-old fired 154 shots, mostly in the classroom of substitute teacher Lauren Rousseau, where Lanza murdered her and 14 of her 15 students. He killed six more in the classroom of Victoria Soto, where student Jesse Lewis told kids to run when Lanza's gun jammed. Six safely got past Lanza, but Lewis was killed. The Courant is posting interesting points from the report, including the fact that Lanza didn't like holidays and birthdays, communicated with Nancy only by email for 3 months before the shooting, and had expressed an interest in serial murders and mass killings. Lanza was very interested in the Columbine shootings and posted a blog about them, NBC News reports. His mother Nancy stayed home to take care of him, saying he had Asperger's Syndrome, but Lanza refused to take medication or behavioral therapy. He also felt no connection to Nancy and wouldn't care if anything happened to her, according to a witness (Lanza killed her with a gunshot to the forehead). Lanza left his bed made at home and sealed his windows with duct tape. He had carefully taken apart his hard drive and scratched a "W" on the disks before trying to destroy them with a dumbbell. He changed the seven magazines he had on him so often that in some cases he fired off only half of a magazine's 30 rounds before removing it; the Courant notes investigators see this as a sign he approached the school shooting like a video game, as typical gaming practice is to enter a new room with a full magazine.

By Scott Roberts, HealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, Jan. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- A new electrical stimulation device designed to control obesity by targeting the nerve pathways between the brain and stomach that regulate hunger and fullness has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The Maestro Rechargeable System, the first FDA-approved obesity device since 2007, is approved to treat patients aged 18 and older who have not been able to lose weight with a weight loss program, and who have a body mass index of 35 to 45 with at least one other obesity-related condition, such as type 2 diabetes. The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. “Medical devices can help physicians and patients to develop comprehensive obesity treatment plans.” Adverse Events Serious adverse events for EnteroMedics’ system included nausea, pain at the neuroregulator site, vomiting and surgical complications. Close EnteroMedics’ system uses electrodes implanted in the abdomen to send electrical pulses... Read More Close Open Source: EnteroMedics Inc. via Bloomberg EnteroMedics’ system uses electrodes implanted in the abdomen to send electrical pulses to nerves, the FDA said. EnteroMedics Inc.'s weight-loss device uses implantable electrodes to trick the brain... Read More EnteroMedics Inc.'s weight-loss device uses implantable electrodes to trick the brain into thinking the stomach is full. About half (52.5 percent) of the patients in the experimental group lost at least 20 percent of their excess weight, and 38.3 percent of patients in the experimental group lost at least 25 percent of their excess weight. More common but less serious side effects included heartburn, problems swallowing, belching, mild nausea and chest pain. The device, made by EnteroMedics Inc. of St. Paul, Minn., is the first of its kind to treat obesity by targeting nerves that link the stomach and the brain.

– If taking a pill that tricks your body into feeling full isn't appealing, how about some quick zaps instead? The FDA has approved a device that uses electrodes implanted in the abdomen to fool the brain, reports Bloomberg. The electrodes stimulate the hunger-controlling vagus nerve, which in turn tells the brain that the stomach is full, explains HealthDay News. The Maestro Rechargeable System will be available only to obese adults who have one other related condition, such as Type 2 diabetes, says an FDA release. The Wall Street Journal likens it to a "pacemaker for the stomach" and quotes a gastrointestinal surgeon who predicts the cost will be between $30,000 and $40,000, on par with gastric bypass surgery. The device's maker, EnteroMedics of Minnesota, must keep track of at least 100 patients for five years after surgery for a follow-up study. (Click to read why people tend to weigh less on Fridays.)

Paralyzed Bride Opens Up for the First Time About Friend Who Caused Tragic Accident: 'I Had to End the Friendship' Courtesy Rachelle Chapman Martha Manning Courtesy Rachelle Chapman Courtesy Rachelle Chapman Courtesy Rachelle Chapman It's been a big year for Rachelle Chapman The woman known as the "paralyzed bride" celebrated her daughter's first birthday , started driving again for the first time since her 2010 accident and officially cut ties with the friend who pushed her in the pool, paralyzing her from the chest down almost six years ago.Chapman, who lives in Knightdale, North Carolina, became known as the "paralyzed bride" after a freak accident at her bachelorette party left her paralyzed from the chest down. One of her four best friends playfully pushed her in the pool, causing the life-changing injury.Now, for the first time, the 30-year-old is talking publicly about that friend. She has remained fiercely protective of the woman since the accident, even turning down an interview with Oprah when the talk show queen's bookers said they would only have her on if she came on with that friend.Chapman has never named her childhood friend publicly – and still won't – but for the first time, she is telling PEOPLE exclusively about the broken friendship she says she fought hard to maintain. "In the beginning, she was there for me and I was there for her. She was distraught and depressed about what happened. But as the years passed, she didn't make the effort, it was just going through the motions and every time we spoke, I just felt like I was remembering the accident and going into the pool and I had negative feelings. I didn't feel that way in the beginning, but that's what's been happening over the last three years. "She says her friend came with a few other girls when Kaylee, who turned one this week, was first born, but that's the last time they were together. She and husband Chris, 33, welcomed Kaylee via surrogate last April. "I had to actually cut ties with her and end the friendship," she says. "I had to tell her that we couldn't be friends because she just wasn't there for me anymore. "Chapman says she was honest after the accident when she was vocal about how the two remained close. But she says when that changed, she realized she needed to be honest once more. "One of the things that happens when you have this kind of injury is that you lose people, and I felt like I wasn't being truthful anymore because I did lose some relationships. It's sad and it's complicated, but she wasn't there for me when I needed her. "Chapman talks about her lost friendship in a documentary she and husband Chris shot for TLC about their journey to become parents. The network finished shooting in February and tells PEOPLE the as-yet-untitled show will air, they just don't know when.Chapman says she wanted to do the show to let people see the challenges and the joys of becoming a mom, despite being paralyzed. "It's so cool, she uses the back of my chair to pull herself up and she has figured out how to come to me when I go to take her out of her crib," she says of her daughter, Kaylee. "She turns on her belly and scoots her way on to my lap. She is the only one who looks at me in the chair and it's normal to her because that's all she knows. "And this past weekend – as friends and family celebrated Kaylee's first birthday – she walked to her dad. "Chris opened his arms and she came to him. Everyone cheered and clapped for her! "Chapman is also excited by her newfound independence. A few weeks ago she started driving again for the first time since she was paralyzed. "It was a huge mountain to climb and once I did it, it really wasn't that bad at all. It's a workout because I have to get in and out of the chair, but it's nice to know I can go wherever I want, whenever I want. "It is a big turning point she says, one that has her excited for the future. "It's nice to finally have some independence and to know that I'll be able to do more for Kaylee as she gets older. She laughs all the time and makes me so happy and I just want to be able to do for her."

– Rachelle Chapman, the now-30-year-old paralyzed in 2010 when one of her best friends pushed her in the pool at her bachelorette party, is talking to People and Today in advance of a TLC documentary about her story—a documentary that reveals, among other things, that Chapman is no longer friends with the woman who caused her accident. Though Chapman long defended her friend, refusing to name her publicly (she still hasn't), she says they ultimately drifted apart. Chapman tells People her friend was "distraught and depressed" after the accident, and the two supported each other. "The first year I made sure that she was OK, even more than me," Chapman tells Today. But as time went on, things shifted for both of them. "She didn't make the effort ... and every time we spoke, I just felt like I was remembering the accident ... and I had negative feelings. I didn't feel that way in the beginning, but that's what's been happening over the last three years." Chapman says she ultimately "had to tell her that we couldn't be friends." Still, Chapman says she doesn't blame the woman—"we've all pushed somebody in a pool." The last time Chapman saw the friend was when Chapman's daughter, who celebrated her first birthday this week, was born via surrogate. As for caring for a 1-year-old, while her husband handles bottle-washing (Chapman lost the use of her fingers), "I have found a way to manipulate my hands to do a lot of things." Her mother lives with the family on weekdays to help; Chapman's husband works as a middle-school teacher. (This 5-year-old was paralyzed after doing a backbend.)

The latest example is brought to you by the lawsuit New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed Monday evening against Bear Stearns (via JPMorgan Chase & Co., which purchased Bear during the crisis) alleging it knowingly stuffed mortgage-backed securities full of subprime garbage and then foisted them on unsuspecting investors. The AG's complaint says it has a bunch of emails showing how Bear Stearns employees and executives, even, were well aware of how ugly the loans they were stuffing into mortgage bonds were: For example, according to a June 2006 internal Bear Stearns email, almost 60% of AHM loans that were purchased through the conduit were 30 or more days delinquent. After learning this information, Defendants went on to issue over 30 subprime and Alt-A securitizations that included AHM loans.” … even if the lapses were expedient to ignore … “Indeed, far from making an effort to improve their due diligence review—and thereby improve the scrutiny of the loans they were purchasing—Defendants, as early as February 2005, began to reduce the amount of due diligence conducted ‘in order to make us more competitive on bids with larger sub-prime sellers.’ As one senior executive acknowledged in testimony, the ‘reduction in due diligence could be a response to a request from a seller. '” … ok, we can’t resist, one more … internal communications reflect Defendants’ awareness of the bad quality of loans that were being included in other securitizations. In connection with the Bear Stearns Second Lien Trust 2007-1 (“BSSLT 2007-1”) securitization, for example, one Bear Stearns executive asked whether the securitization was a “going out of business sale” and expressed a desire to “close this dog.” In another internal email, the SACO 2006-8 securitization was referred to as a “SACK OF SHIT” and a “shit breather.” Somewhere, former Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget is shaking his fist in rage: His email about touting a "piece of shit" tech stock in the dot-com bubble has now been upstaged.

– Today's newly filed lawsuit accuses Bear Stearns—now owned by JPMorgan Chase—of knowingly pushing rotten mortgage securities onto investors before the financial meltdown. And how might federal prosecutors go about proving it? It won't hurt that they've got Bear Stearns emails referring to one deal as a "sack of shit" and a "shit breather," reports the Huffington Post. Another shows an exec anxious to "close this dog," and yet another shows that Bear Stearns knew most of the loans it was buying and reselling were more than 30 days' delinquent. "Every now and then, a lawsuit or legislative report emerges to remind us just how out-of-control the US mortgage business was in the years leading up to the financial crisis," writes Patrick Clark at the Observer. And as the Wall Street Journal points out, if this case proves successful, it could be the first of many that seek to hold big banks accountable—brought by private investors as well as the government.

Obama Says Guantanamo Prison Doesn't Help U.S. Security, 'It Undermines It' Enlarge this image toggle caption Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images U.S. operation of the Guantanamo Bay military detention center in Cuba is "contrary to our values" and is seen as "a stain on our broader record" of upholding the highest rules of law, President Obama said Tuesday as he announced plans to close the facility. (Jason Aldag,Julie Vitkovskaya/The Washington Post) President Obama urged lawmakers on Tuesday to help him close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, making his case for a White House plan to shutter a detention facility he said symbolizes excesses that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Toward the end of his remarks, the president said, "I don't want to pass this problem on to the next president, whoever it is. There are 46 detainees whom U.S. officials consider too dangerous to release because of the potential threat they might pose, along with 10 others who are either charged or convicted by military commissions. The seven facilities reviewed by a Pentagon assessment team last year were: the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks and Midwest Joint Regional Corrections Facility at Leavenworth, Kansas; the Consolidated Naval Brig, Charleston, South Carolina; the Federal Correctional Complex, which includes the medium, maximum and supermax facilities in Florence, Colorado; and the Colorado State Penitentiary II in Canon City, Colorado, also known as the Centennial Correctional Facility. The mayor of Leavenworth, Kan., home to a maximum security Army prison, told Welna she is "absolutely against" the idea of Guantanamo detainees moving there.

– The White House responded to Congress' request for a blueprint for the closure of Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday—though NPR reports that President Obama's proposed plan is "not expected to go very far." It would see 35 of Guantanamo's 91 inmates transferred to other countries by this summer, while the remaining detainees would be moved to one or several of 13 possible military and federal prisons in the United States, per the Washington Post and the AP. At least some of the sites under consideration are in South Carolina, Kansas, and Colorado. The move would require up to $475 million in construction costs, though officials say closing Guantanamo will save $180 million per year. Annual operating costs for the US facilities would range from $265 million to $305 million. Since a law exists barring Guantanamo detainees from US soil, Congress would need to alter it to approve the plan. Critics say it would put Americans' safety at risk and the mayor of Leavenworth, Kan.—home to the maximum security Army prison under consideration for Guantanamo detainees—previously told NPR that she's "absolutely against" Guantanamo prisoners moving there. Many locals in Canon City, Colo., home to the Centennial Correctional Facility also under consideration, feel similarly. In a live address on Tuesday, however, Obama argued that "Guantanamo Bay does not advance our national security. It undermines it." He also called the prison center a propaganda tool for terrorist groups like the Islamic State.

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - South Korean and Japanese jets joined exercises with two supersonic U.S. B-1B bombers above and near the Korean peninsula on Thursday, two days after North Korea sharply raised tension by firing a missile over Japan. The drills, involving four U.S. stealth F-35B jets as well as South Korean and Japanese fighter jets, came at the end of annual U.S.-South Korea military exercises focused mainly on computer simulations. “North Korea’s actions are a threat to our allies, partners and homeland, and their destabilizing actions will be met accordingly,” said General Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, Pacific Air Forces Commander, who made an unscheduled visit to Japan. “This complex mission clearly demonstrates our solidarity with our allies and underscores the broadening cooperation to defend against this common regional threat.” North Korea has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and has recently threatened to land missiles near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam. On Monday, North Korea, which sees the exercises as preparations for invasion, raised the stakes in its stand-off with the United States and its allies by firing an intermediate-range missile over Japan. On Thursday, its official news agency, KCNA, denounced the military drills in traditionally robust fashion, calling them “the rash act of those taken aback” by the missile test, which it described as “the first military operation in the Pacific.” President Donald Trump, who has warned that the U.S. military is “locked and loaded” in case of North Korean provocation, reacted angrily to the latest missile test, declaring on Twitter that “talking is not the answer” to resolving the crisis over North Korea’s weapons programs. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was quick on Wednesday to stress that a diplomatic solution remained possible, but on Thursday he told reporters he agreed with Trump that Washington “should not be talking right now to a nation that is firing missiles over the top of Japan, an ally.” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders reiterated at a regular briefing on Thursday that all options - diplomatic, economic and military - remained on the table. Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera spoke to Mattis by telephone and agreed to keep putting pressure on North Korea in a “visible” form, Japan’s defense ministry said. Japanese Prime Shinzo Abe said he and visiting British Prime Minister Theresa May agreed to urge China, North Korea’s lone major ally, to do more to rein in North Korea. May and Abe also discussed the possibility of adopting a new U.N. Security Council resolution on North Korea, a British government source said. SANCTION OPTIONS The 15-member U.N. Security Council on Tuesday condemned the firing of the missile over Japan as “outrageous” and demanded that North Korea halt its weapons programs. But the U.S.-drafted statement did not threaten new sanctions. Two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers fly from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, for a mission, with an escort of a pair of Japan Self-Defense Forces F-15 fighter jets and U.S. Marines' F-35B fighter jets in the vicinity of Kyushu, Japan, in this photo released by Air Staff Office of the Defense Ministry of Japan August 31, 2017. Air Staff Office of the Defense Ministry of Japan/HANDOUT via REUTERS Japan has been urging Washington to propose new Security Council sanctions, which diplomats said could target North Korean laborers working abroad, oil supplies and textile exports. However, diplomats expect resistance from Russia and fellow veto-wielding power China, particularly given that new measures were only announced on Aug. 5 after North Korea tested its first two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July. A U.S. ban on travel by Americans to North Korea comes into effect on Friday, a step announced after the death of a U.S. student shortly after his release from a 15-year prison sentence in the country, where three other Americans are still detained. China repeated a call on Thursday for restraint by all parties. Defence ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang told a monthly briefing China would never allow war or chaos on the Korean peninsula, its doorstep, and military means were not an option. “China strongly demands all sides to exercise restraint and remain calm and not do anything to worsen tensions,” Ren said, adding that Chinese forces were maintaining a normal state of alert along the North Korean border. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the situation on the peninsula was serious. “The current tense situation on the peninsula isn’t a screenplay or a video game,” she told reporters. “It’s real, and is an immense and serious issue that directly involves the safety of people from both the north and south of the peninsula, as well as peace and stability of the entire region.” Slideshow (12 Images) For an interactive on North Korea's missile capabilities, click: here For a graphic on North Korean missile trajectories, ranges, click: here For a graphic on Kim's new act of defiance, click: here

– The UN blasted North Korea's missile launch over Japan as "outrageous" while Pyongyang promised the latest provocation was only a "first step," Reuters reports. The UN Security Council called on North Korea to stop its aggressions, saying it was of "vital importance" the rogue nation take immediate steps to wind down rising tensions. North Korea is "deliberately undermining regional peace and stability," said Security Council President Abdellatif Aboulatta of Egypt, per CNN. But the 15-member panel declined to slap the regime with new sanctions, at least for now, despite a joint call to do so by South Korea and Japan. North Korea's state-run news agency on Wednesday warned the intermediate-range missile launch was a "first step" to further operations and a "meaningful prelude to containing Guam." The threat level remained high in the US territory, which North Korea threatened earlier this month, drawing President Trump's counter-threat of "fire and fury." Kim Jong Un was reportedly "very satisfied" with Tuesday's launch, the first conducted from the capital. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the launch "the most serious and grave threat ever" against his nation. Meanwhile, North Korean reports of the 1,680-mile missile flight over northern Japan lacked the typical bluster, per Reuters. The Hwasong-12 missile flew a shorter distance and at a lower trajectory than earlier launches before plunging into the sea. One South Korean expert says it was lacking in military significance but "was all about North Korea being stubborn." But, he adds, "North Korea is hinting that there is room for negotiation if the US and South Korea end the joint military exercises." (A North Korea nuclear strike may not be suicide after all.)

(Reuters) - A man was found shot dead at the Florida home of singer and actress Olivia Newton-John, police said on Monday. Newton-John was not at the home in Jupiter Inlet Colony, a town near West Palm Beach, Florida, said Sergeant Scott Pascarella, a spokesman for the Jupiter Police Department. Pascarella said the deceased man was a 42-year-old contractor who was working at the house owned by Newton-John and her husband, John Easterling. Police are investigating the circumstances of his death, Pascarella said. Newton-John starred in the 1978 movie “Grease” with John Travolta. Her hits include the 1981 song “Physical,” a song from the album of the same name.

– A 42-year-old man found shot dead at Olivia Newton-John's Florida home yesterday was a contractor working at the house, police say. Newton-John, who owns the home with husband John Easterling, was not at the Jupiter Inlet Colony house at the time, Reuters reports. The death appears to be a suicide, but police are still investigating, according to the Palm Beach Post. Gossip sites have reported recently that Newton-John was selling the 7,429-square-foot house, possibly to Rosie O’Donnell.

Kris Jenner—Kardashian matriarch and momager extraordinaire—celebrated her 60th birthday over the weekend and leave it up to this clan to celebrate in an over-the-top fashion. In a video posted to Jenner’s YouTube channel Saturday, the entire family and a bevy of famous friends paid musical tribute to Kris. The song is “I Love L.A.” by Randy Newman but the lyrics—referencing Nobu, Givenchy, and the Beverly Hills Hotel—are pure Kardashian. The video starts with something Kris herself whipped up back in 1985 to pay tribute to her friends. The original video includes her tiny daughters Khloe, Kim, and Kourtney along with, jarringly, O.J. Simpson. Fast forward to 2015 and the Jenner/Kardashian lifestyle has changed somewhat dramatically. Gone are references to “bible study” and “The Cheesecake Factory” that pepper the original song. Instead we have Khloe, Kim, Kourtney, Kendall, and Kylie climbing aboard exercise equipment just like their mother did back in the 80s and bringing in a supporting cast of famous faces including Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, and Kanye West to (literally) sing Kris’s praises. The video ends with the biggest change of all to Kris’s life: Caitlyn Jenner. Rumors that the exes have worked through their differences appear to be true and the former Olympian athlete showed off her enviable legs by taping her section of the video from a bubble bath. The video was only one small part of a lavish Gatsby-themed bash the Jenner/Kardashian kids threw for their mom on Friday. Loading View on Instagram Kanye crooned a version of Happy Birthday to his mother-in-law as she contemplated a gorgeous art deco cake. Loading View on Instagram The girls were all dressed to the nines. Loading View on Instagram And the joint was jumping with celebrity guests including the likes of Chrissy Teigen and John Legend. Loading View on Instagram By all appearance, the Kardashians and Jenners know how to party. But you already knew that, didn’t you?

– Kris Jenner turned 60 over the weekend, and her family's tribute to her must be seen to be believed. Vanity Fair provides the backstory: When she turned 30, Kris (who was then "Kristen Kardashian") made a music video dedicated to her friends. Set to the tune of Randy Newman's "I Love LA," Kris' "I Love My Friends" featured all the things she and her friends loved ... including "bible study," "church on Sundays," and "Cheesecake Factory." Thirty years later, her five daughters filmed an updated version, "She Loves Her Friends," and needless to say, the list of things Kris and her pals enjoy has gotten noticeably ritzier. (Although there is still a shot of Costco included.) Watch the video, or check out Kris' Gatsby-themed birthday soiree.

(CNN) Authorities arrested a Michigan man last week after he allegedly called CNN several times, threatening to kill employees at the network's Atlanta, Georgia, headquarters, according to a federal affidavit. Brandon Griesemer made 22 calls to CNN on January 9 and January 10 and four calls, which were recorded, contained threats, according to the affidavit, which was unsealed Friday. Griesemer, whose age was not given, also made disparaging statements about Jewish people, African-Americans and the network in several calls, the affidavit said. You gotta get prepared for this one, buddy.” Court records indicate Griesemer was arrested on a charge of interstate communications with intent to extort, threaten or injure. Griesemer, a part-time grocery worker, was arrested, with bail set at $10,000. A family member at Griesemer's home in Novi, Michigan, declined to comment late Monday. "We take any threats to CNN employees or workplaces, around the world, extremely seriously. This one is no exception. We have been in touch with local and federal law enforcement throughout, and have taken all necessary measures to ensure the safety of our people.” Public records indicate Griesemer was born in 1998. On September 19, a man -- later identified as Griesemer -- called an employee at an Islamic center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and made derogatory comments about the mosque and Muslims, an FBI agent said in the affidavit. In a phone call with police, Griesemer “stated that he had called the mosque on September 19, and that he was angry at the time of the call.” More from Morning Mix: Neil Diamond says he has Parkinson’s disease, will retire from touring (iStock photo) On Jan. 9, an operator in Atlanta manning the public contact number for CNN received a phone call. The call was made to a publicly listed phone number at the Atlanta headquarters from the same cell phone number used to call the Islamic center in Ann Arbor on September 19, the affidavit said. According to the arrest affidavit, an investigator working for CNN originally traced the threatening calls back to Griesemer. Hopefully, this can be settled.” The threats were made public less than a week after President Trump unveiled his “Fake News Awards.” The term, trumpeted by the president in his frequent clashes with the press, has become a popular rallying cry among Trump’s base. I'm coming to gun you all down," said the caller, who cursed and used an expletive directed at African-Americans, the affidavit said. "I am on my way right now to gun the f****** CNN cast down .... “I am coming to kill you.” Thirty minutes later, the caller again reached the CNN public switchboard. The number allegedly used in the threats traced back to Brandon Griesemer’s father and an affiliated wireless number. The investigator called the second phone number and asked to speak to Griesemer's father. On Monday night, a man who identified himself as Griesemer’s father told The Washington Post that “this whole thing has been a mistake. At one point, the investigator called the number and spoke with someone who identified himself as “Brandon.” The investigator recorded the conversation, then compared the audio with the recordings of the threatening CNN calls. “The voices sounded like the same individual,” the affidavit states. I have a gun and I am coming to Georgia right now to go to the CNN headquarters to f‑‑‑ing gun every single last one of you. Federal court documents filed in Michigan say 19-year-old Brandon Griesemer of Novi, Michigan, began calling CNN on Jan. 9.

– A Michigan man has been arrested after authorities say he threatened to travel to Atlanta and kill people at CNN headquarters. Federal court documents filed in Michigan say 19-year-old Brandon Griesemer of Novi began calling CNN on Jan. 9, per the AP. He allegedly told a CNN operator in one call, "Fake news. I'm coming to gun you all down." In a second call, he reportedly said: "I am on my way right now to gun the f---ing CNN cast down. ... I am coming to kill you." He allegedly made racist and anti-Semitic comments, too. Altogether, there were 22 calls from two phones over two days. "We take any threats to CNN employees or workplaces, around the world, extremely seriously," CNN said in a statement. "We have been in touch with local and federal law enforcement throughout, and have taken all necessary measures to ensure the safety of our people." The phone numbers were traced to Griesemer's family. In court documents, an FBI agent says Griesemer had made a threatening call to a local mosque in Ann Arbor in September. Cops traced that call, and a couple of days after the incident Griesemer admitted he'd made the call, in which he was said to have made derogatory remarks about the mosque and Muslims, because he "was angry at the time." In the CNN case, an FBI affidavit says Griesemer made interstate threats by phone, in violation of federal law. A man who said he's Griesemer's father tells the Washington Post that "this whole thing has been a mistake" and that Griesemer doesn't even own guns, adding: "He didn’t know what he was saying, the seriousness of it." Griesemer, a part-time grocery worker, could face a fine or up to five years in prison if convicted. His bail has been set at $10,000.

HSV-1 normally causes mouth ulcers rather than genital infection, but it is becoming an increasing cause of genital infection too, mainly in rich countries. Assuming 50% of incident infections among 15-49-year-olds are genital, an estimated 140 million (range: 67–212 million) people had prevalent genital HSV-1 infection, most of which occurred in the Americas, Europe and Western Pacific. "The global burden of HSV-1 infection is huge," the WHO research team writes. Future control efforts, including development of HSV vaccines, should consider the epidemiology of HSV-1 in addition to HSV-2, and especially the relative contribution of HSV-1 to genital infection. More than 3.7 billion people under the age of 50 suffer from the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), usually after catching it in childhood, according to a the WHO study. GENEVA Two-thirds of the world's population under 50 have the highly infectious herpes virus that causes cold sores around the mouth, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, in its first estimate of global prevalence of the disease. Little is known about any link between HSV-1 and HIV/AIDS, although it can lead to other serious complications such as encephalitis. HSV-2 is traditionally called genital herpes, and it's the kind most people think of as causing sexually transmitted infections. In the Americas, WHO estimates that 49 percent of women, or 178 million women, have HSV-1 and 39 percent of men, or 142 million, do. HSV-2 can increase the risk of catching and spreading HIV, the disease that causes AIDS. The World Health Organization (WHO) has generated estimates of the global burden of HSV-2 twice: for 2003[16] and for 2012[17]. "An estimated 140 million people aged 15-49 years were calculated to have prevalent genital HSV-1 infection globally in 2012," they wrote. The number of HSV-1 infections was highest for Africa, South-East Asia and Western Pacific, which had the largest population sizes. Recent changes in the pattern of HSV-1 infection, i.e., decreasing rates of oral HSV-1 infection in childhood and increasing sexual transmission of HSV-1, mean that there may be cohort effects in prevalence data whereby older individuals have experienced higher historic rates of childhood infection and lower rates of sexual transmission. In a recent Phase III trial, an HSV vaccine based on glycoprotein D2 failed to prevent HSV-2 infection and disease, but, encouragingly, did show significant efficacy against HSV-1-related infection and disease[41]. "We really need to accelerate the development of vaccines against herpes simplex virus, and if a vaccine designed to prevent HSV-2 infection also prevented HSV-1, it would have far reaching benefits," said Sami Gottlieb, a WHO medical officer. Genital HSV-1 acquisition is lowest in regions such as Africa with the highest HIV rates, but understanding how HSV-1 affects HIV spread is critical given how common this infection is globally.

– In its first ever global assessment of the prevalence of the herpes virus that causes cold sores, the World Health Organization reports in the journal PLoS ONE that two in three humans under the age of 50 are infected with the incurable virus. That's an estimated 3.7 billion people. The WHO had previously done the same assessment for herpes simplex virus type 2, aka genital herpes, and found that 417 million people ages 17-49 have it. HSV-1, by contrast, is transmitted by oral-oral contact (often via childhood kisses, notes NBC News) and causes cold sores. "However, HSV-1 is an increasing cause of genital infection," they write, with the prevalence of genital HSV-1 being highest in the Americas. Reuters explains why: "Improved hygiene in rich countries" is reducing the number of infections that occur during childhood, and pushing more into young adulthood, where HSV-1 is transferred via oral sex (so not oral-oral but oral-genital). "We really need to accelerate the development of vaccines against herpes simplex virus," one WHO medical officer says. There are currently multiple phase-1 and phase-2 trials, with Genocea Biosciences halting its work on a pneumonia vaccine to focus on genital herpes. As for HSV-1, the WHO estimates that the Americas have the lowest infection rates: 49% of women and 39% of men. That number jumps to nearly 60% in Asia and a whopping 87% in Africa, reports NBC News. (This newborn almost died when a hospital visitor with HSV-1 kissed her.)

Story highlights Eight new cases have been recorded in the last week, a Pentagon official told CNN One of the military service members is a pregnant female Washington (CNN) CNN has learned there are now 41 members of the military who have been diagnosed with the Zika virus since testing began earlier this year. Eight new cases have been recorded in the last week, a Pentagon official told CNN. One of the military service members is a pregnant female. Under Pentagon health policies, female service members are permitted to move out of countries where Zika exists. In addition, a senior State Department official told CNN there have been two confirmed Zika cases among US diplomats serving overseas. The diplomats were serving in countries where Zika has already been contracted. The military tracks the number of cases reported among the ranks each week. Earlier Wednesday, the number stood at 33, but a new update has now been provided. Read More

– At least 33 US service members have gotten Zika while serving overseas, the Pentagon says. Six family members of service members have also gotten the virus while outside the continental US, Military.com reports. One of the active-duty service members to contract the virus is pregnant, though details about her health and that of her unborn child were unavailable. The Pentagon didn't specify the countries involved or say how many of the infected troops were still sick or back in the US, notes CNN. (Zika is being transmitted by local mosquitoes in Florida.)

National Exit Poll Reveals Major Voter Discontent PHOTOS: The Unusual Places Where Americans Vote Updated Results From Around the Country WINNERS J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Mitch McConnell Not only was Mitch McConnell able to hold onto his job as Senator from Kentucky, but now he gets a promotion as well after Republicans were able to tilt the balance of power in the Senate. Chris Christie The tough-talking New Jersey governor wasn't listed on any ballots this year but, because of his role as the head of the Republican Governor's Association, he increased his national presence and has the results to prove it. His low approval ratings and attempts by candidates to distance themselves meant that the president tried to steer clear of the campaign trail for much of the lead up to the election, but he still ended up being the biggest loser on Tuesday night. And, given the developments in other parts of the country, McConnell looks very likely to take over as Senate majority leader when the 114th Congress convenes in January. Former president Bill Clinton talks with Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., during a campaign rally on Nov. 2 in Texarkana, Ark. Loser: Perennial Losers Martha Coakley in Massachusetts, Charlie Crist in Florida, Scott Brown in whichever state he’s currently in … all lost once in high-profile statewide races, and then came back this cycle to lose again. On Tuesday, for the fifth consecutive cycle, Texas Republicans swept statewide offices, including the race for governor, where Republican attorney general Greg Abbott cruised past Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis.

– Last night's victory for Mitch McConnell was a big one: He was expected to face a neck-and-neck race, but instead he was called the winner just after the polls closed, Chris Cillizza writes in the Washington Post. Starting next year, he's the Senate majority leader. Among the night's other key winners and losers: The National Republican Senatorial Committee finally had a great night after years of trouble against Democrats. They managed to knock out Sens. Mark Pryor, Kay Hagan, and Mark Udall, while keeping a struggling Pat Roberts in the Senate. As chair of the Republican Governors Association, another 2016 contender, Chris Christie, fought hard for important victories in Florida, Wisconsin, Maryland, and Illinois, USA Today reports. On a more conceptual level, the Huffington Post saw it as a big night for "bullies." New York Rep. Michael Grimm beat out Domenic Recchia, even amid tax fraud charges and after a threat—caught on TV—to break a reporter "in half." His win helped Republicans gain what ABC News notes is an even larger majority in the House. As for losers last night, President Obama was a big one: He earlier said that his "policies are on the ballot." The results, then, were a "near total repudiation" of those policies, USA Today notes. What's more, chances for a Democratic presidential victory in 2016 look weaker, the Huffington Post adds: The past three presidents have been elected under Congresses run by their parties. Wendy Davis lost badly in the Texas gubernatorial race. She wasn't expected to win, Cillizza notes, but she was also an icon for those who hoped to see Texas eventually go blue. Instead, Republicans swept last night's races for Texas state offices, Mother Jones reports. Harry Reid is out as Senate majority leader, and he could struggle even to keep his seat during the next election, USA Today reports. (The incoming majority leader, however, did get photobombed at the polls.)

A stunt driver died on the Canadian set of "Deadpool 2" after attempting to do a stunt on a motorcycle, according to a tweet today from the Vancouver Police Department. No other details about the accident were immediately available, including the identity of the driver. “We are deeply saddened by the accident that occurred on the set of 'Deadpool 2' this morning," a spokesman for distributor 20th Century Fox told ABC News in a statement. "Our hearts and prayers are with the family, friends and colleagues of our crew member during this difficult time.” Added star Ryan Reynolds: "We're heartbroken, shocked and devastated... but recognize nothing can come close to the grief and inexplicable pain her family and loved ones must feel in this moment. My heart pours out to them -- along with each and every person she touched in this world." "Deadpool" star Ryan Reynolds confirmed in late-June that "Deadpool 2," which co-stars Josh Brolin, had begun production. Reynolds last week thanked the police department and people of Vancouver "for putting up with road closures and traffic delays" as a result of filming. "Deadpool 2" is slated for a 2018 release.

– A stuntperson has been killed on the set of Deadpool 2, a spokesperson for distributor 20th Century Fox confirms to ABC News. Details, including the identity of the stunt driver involved in the Vancouver accident, were not immediately available, but sources tell TMZ the Monday morning accident involved a female motorcycle rider who went airborne somehow while filming a scene for the movie. The sources say she never applied the brakes, and her bike ultimately crashed through the glass of a studio inside Shaw Tower. (A stuntman recently died on the set of The Walking Dead).

TOKYO Japan said on Friday it was still trying to secure the release of two Japanese hostages held by Islamic State militants after a deadline to pay ransom for their release passed and there was no immediate word on their fate. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government considered whether planned legislative changes would give it the legal basis for a military strike on the Islamic State militants and concluded it did not, according to a briefing document reviewed by Reuters. The capture of two Japanese citizens in Syria represents an "unacceptable act of terror," the document said. But it concluded the situation would not meet the legal conditions for the dispatch of Japanese forces, whose activities abroad are constrained by the pacifist, post-war constitution, even under planned changes to the current interpretation of the charter. In an online video released on Tuesday, a black-clad figure holding a knife stood between journalist Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa, threatening to kill them if Tokyo did not pay Islamic State $200 million within 72 hours. Abe has said saving the men's lives is paramount but that Japan will not bow to terrorism. Japanese officials have declined to say if they would pay any ransom, a move that would put Tokyo at odds with close ally the United States. "Despite the fact that the situation is severe, we are continuing to seek cooperation from all countries, tribal leaders and religious representatives who might have contacts with an aim to secure the early release of the two Japanese," chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters. Goto's mother pleaded for his release just hours before the deadline passed. "My son Kenji is not an enemy of the people of the Islamic faith. I can only pray as a mother for his release," Junko Ishido told a packed news conference, choking back tears. "If I could offer my life I would plead that my son be released, it would be a small sacrifice on my part. "He only went to rescue his friend. He has always looked out for weaker people, he was always helping weaker children than him," she added. Abe has ordered his government to make every effort to secure their safe release, setting off a flurry of activity among Japanese diplomats.However, sources familiar with the matter said Japanese diplomats had told the families of the two captives prior to the video's release that no ransom would be paid. The captor in the video, which resembles those showing previous Islamic State captives, said the ransom demand matched the $200 million in aid that Abe pledged to help countries fighting Islamist militants. Japan in 1977 paid $6 million to Japanese Red Army hijackers in Dhaka, with then-Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda saying "the lives of hostages outweighs the earth". The government hardened its official stance after the 1996 hostage taking at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Peru, when it refused to pay ransom. HUMANITARIAN AID Abe made the pledge during a multi-nation visit to the Middle East earlier this month. Islamic State militants have seized large areas of Iraq and Syria, and beheaded several Western captives. Japan has stressed that its donation is for humanitarian aid, such as helping refugees, and insisted that it will not bow to terrorist threats. In an address at Friday prayers at Tokyo's most prominent mosque, the Tokyo Camii and Turkish Culture Center, the imam, Muhammad Rashid Alas, called for the "immediate release of the two Japanese hostages," quoting from the Quran on the need to show mercy. The center had earlier posted a statement saying Islamic State's actions are "totally against Islam and have a serious impact on Muslim communities all over the world and put Muslims in a precarious position". Abe's handling of the hostage crisis - he must appear firm but not callous - will be a big test for the 60-year-old, but he appears to have few options. Few Japanese are likely to blame Abe if the two captives are killed, but there could be questions raised over why he singled out countries battling Islamic State for the aid when it was known the group was holding two Japanese nationals. "Just when they held hostages and considered what they should do about them, Mr. Abe offered something that would, in their (IS's) logic, raise the hurdle (for resolving the situation)," said Motohiro Ono, an opposition Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker who is a Middle East expert. Yukawa, aged around 42 and who dreamed of becoming a military contractor, was captured in August outside the Syrian city of Aleppo. Goto, 47, a war correspondent with experience in Middle East hot spots, went to Syria in late October to try to help Yukawa. (Writing by Linda Sieg and William Mallard; Additional reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo, Teppei Kasai, Tim Kelly, Elaine Lies and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

– A new post on a forum popular with ISIS militants claims the two Japanese captives are running out of time. The "countdown has begun" for the group to kill Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa unless Japan pays $200 million in ransom, according to the post, published today. Japan says it's analyzing the message as it attempts to contact the men's captors through local tribes, though ISIS' original 72-hour deadline has expired, the AP reports. "The situation remains severe, but we are doing everything we can to win the release of the two Japanese hostages," government spokesman Yoshihide Suga says. Meanwhile, Goto's mother, Junko Ishido, is pleading with the government to save her son, who "only went to rescue his friend," Reuters reports. Documents show Japan considered a military strike on ISIS militants but found that one would be outside its legal realm. A Japanese journalist who tried to free Yukawa in September and an expert on Islamic law said yesterday they have an ISIS contact and were willing to negotiate with the group, the AP reports; it isn't clear if Japan was agreeable. Finding the captors would be no easy task: Experts reviewing the hostage video—which seems to show Goto and Yukawa in jumpsuits in the desert—suspect it was actually shot in a studio, the AP notes. Shadows converge, indicating two light sources rather than one bright sun, while noiseless "wind" (perhaps from a fan) doesn't appear to kick up dust. NHK reports ISIS will give a statement on the two captives "soon."

The structure where the children were living is on a mostly empty dirt road, two blocks off Highway 62, in the large span of open desert between Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms. A deputy was patrolling the rural area in the 7000 block of Sun Fair Road in Joshua Tree, saw a travel-trailer on a property that appeared to be abandoned and the rectangular plywood box, and checked it out, according to a San Bernardino County sheriff’s news release. The three children, ages 11, 13 and 14, reportedly lived in the large rectangular box — which was approximately 20 feet long by 4 feet high by 10 feet wide — for about four years. They didn’t have adequate food and were living in an unsuitable, unsafe environment due to the property conditions, the news release stated. SIGN UP FOR FACEBOOK NEWS ALERTS: Message us here to get started The property has no electricity or running water, and deputies saw several holes, mounds of trash, human feces, and between 30 and 40 cats, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said in a news release Thursday. (Photo: San Bernadino County Sheriff's Department) Children and Family Services responded to the property and took custody of the children. The parents of the children, Kirk and Panico, were arrested on suspicion of willful cruelty to a child and booked into the Morongo Basin Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail each. The house is about eight miles from the front gate of Joshua Tree National Park and two miles east of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Station.

– At first glance, authorities saw what they thought was an abandoned trailer and a large plywood box amid a sea of trash in Joshua Tree, Calif. On second glance, they realized this was the shelter of three children, ages 11, 13, and 14, and their parents. Mona Kirk, 51, and Daniel Panico, 73, were charged with willful cruelty to a child Wednesday after authorities came upon the remote property without running water, electricity, plumbing, or heating, reports the Los Angeles Times. According to officials, the family had been staying at the desert property for four years, with Kirk and the children living in the box—about 20 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 4 feet high—and Panico living in the trailer or a vehicle, reports the San Bernardino Sun. Panico reportedly owned the property and planned to build his dream home there, a neighbor tells the Desert Sun. But the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department called it "an unsuitable and unsafe environment" for the children, who didn't have an adequate amount of food. Authorities say the area, roamed by 30 to 40 cats, featured several feces-filled holes apparently used as toilets, and a rep for the sheriff's department says the kids weathered nights as cold as 20 or 30 degrees. Kirk and Panico are now in jail with bail set at $100,000 each. Their children, who weren't enrolled in public school, are in the custody of Children and Family Services and are in "good spirits," per officials.

“We’re creating an optimised microclimate that can double the shelf life [of the fruit],” said James Rogers, CEO of Apeel Sciences. The tasteless coating, developed by Santa Barbara company Apeel Sciences, controls the two main factors that cause fresh produce to go bad: the rate at which water escapes the surface of fruit and vegetables and the rate at which oxygen enters. “It’s a visceral reaction when you’ve spent a few dollars on something that ends up in the garbage.” From this week, the Apeel-treated avocados – grown by California-based Del Rey Avocado – will be available in Costco and Harp Foods stores across the midwest, before rolling out across the United States. Avocados that stay ripe for twice as long as usual thanks to an edible barrier made from plant materials will be sold in the US for the first time this week. “We slow down the rate at which the clock is ticking.” Apeel’s coating is made from naturally occurring lipids extracted from discarded fruit or vegetable waste, including tomatoes, grapes, wasted seeds. Ours will stay ripe for 4-6 days.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Apeel avocados. The coating can also extend the life of produce in developing countries where refrigeration is not widely available across the supply chain, which explains why the company launched in 2012 with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Although Apeel is starting with avocados, the coating’s formulation can be modified to create optimal conditions for other items including strawberries, mangoes, apples, bananas, kumquats and asparagus.

– Avocados are the frequent subject of teasing over their ever-so-brief period of ripeness—but one California company is looking to change that. Avocados treated by Apeel Sciences will be sold in the US for the first time this week, and thanks to a tasteless and edible coating, those avocados will stay fresh twice as long as a typical avocado. "The average avocado might be ripe for 2-3 days. Ours will stay ripe for 4-6 days," says the company's CEO, per the Guardian. The edible barrier, made from plant materials, creates a "microclimate," controlling the rate at which water leaves the avocado's surface and oxygen enters—the two main things that make produce go bad. Apeel's CEO says it started with avocados because "everyone has an experience of cutting into an avocado and discovering it’s past its prime. It’s a visceral reaction when you’ve spent a few dollars on something that ends up in the garbage." But many other types of produce can be treated with the coating, and Apeel hopes to ultimately help reduce the 400 pounds of food per person estimated to be thrown away in the US per year. Apeel-treated avocados are first rolling out in Costco and Harp Foods stores in the midwest, but will eventually be available across the US. They will cost the same as any other conventionally grown avocado. Business Insider has side-by-side comparison photos of an untreated versus a treated avocado 30 days after harvest.

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– If you're looking for Ruby Rose, you'll have to try her Bat Phone. The Orange Is the New Black star made headlines last week when it was announced she'd play Batwoman for the CW, the first openly gay superhero in a TV series leading role. But while Rose was "thrilled and honored," she wasn't as thrilled the online backlash—and she's left Twitter because of it, Deadline reports. "Where on earth did 'Ruby is not a lesbian therefore she can't be batwoman' come from—has to be the funniest most ridiculous thing I've ever read," she tweeted in one of her final posts. "I came out at 12?" Vulture notes some of the backlash came under the #RecastBatwoman hashtag, spurring Rose to call for women and minorities, including the LGBT community, to be "a little kinder and more supportive of each other." In the meantime, she wrote, "I am looking forward to getting more than 4 hours of sleep and to break from Twitter to focus all my energy on my next 2 projects. If you need me, I'll be on my Bat Phone." Rose's Instagram and Facebook accounts were still up and running as of Monday morning, though it appears comments have been disabled on Instagram.

Researchers have been studying the day and night cycle in plants for a long time: Linnaeus observed that flowers in a dark cellar continued to open and close, and Darwin recorded the overnight movement of plant leaves and stalks and called it “sleep”. However, for obvious reasons, carrying out controlled experiments or even quantitative observations on fully grown trees is much more difficult, therefore both the background and the effects of sleep motions in trees are less well-understood. After the range precision measurements, points were manually delineated into a new individual point cloud of the studied tree for each measurement as described in Section Finnish Point Cloud Time Series. Trees droop their branches at night “Our results show that the whole tree droops during night which can be seen as position change in leaves and branches”, says Eetu Puttonen (Finnish Geospatial Research Institute), “The changes are not too large, only up to 10 cm for trees with a height of about 5 meters, but they were systematic and well within the accuracy of our instruments.” To rule out effects of weather and location, the experiment was done twice with two different trees. “No one has observed this effect before at the scale of whole trees, and I was surprised by the extent of the changes.” Advertisement Zlinszky and his colleagues scanned trees in Austria and Finland with laser beams between sunset and sunrise. Both measurements were performed in the middle of September close to the solar equinox to guarantee approximately similar lengths of night at both sites (http://www.timeanddate.com, accessed on 25th February 2015). After the movement maximum was reached, all branches returned rapidly toward their sunset values around sunrise (about 07:00 h in the graph). Changes in water transport and in the concentration of various metabolites result in changes in osmotic flow and thus, through changes in the shape of individual plant cells, eventual movement at the scale of individual plants or plant parts. The research team plans to use these findings to conduct future studies on the difference between trees’ water use at night and during the day, and whether their sleep patterns play a role. “This will give us a better understanding of the trees’ daily tree water use and their influence on the local or regional climate.” This study was published in an open access article in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science: Puttonen, E., Briese, C., Mandlburger, G., Wieser, M., Pfennigbauer, M., Zlinszky, A., Pfeifer N. (2016). Discussion The Study in Context with Previous Research In this study we quantified a diurnal cycle of branch motion in mature birch (Betula pendula) trees growing under natural conditions, and therefore demonstrated the potential of TLS point clouds to monitor diurnal branch movements in birch trees.

– Well this gives the phrase "sleeping like a log" a whole new meaning. New research shows trees might sleep like any other living organism, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Scientists used lasers to make models of silver birch trees in Finland and Australia and discovered the trees' branches "droop" up to 10 centimeters at night, according to New Scientist. They published their findings earlier this year in Frontiers in Plant Science. Studies on flowers and other small plants undergoing changes between night and day go back centuries, according to a press release. But it was never clear if large plants like trees did the same thing. “No one has observed this effect before at the scale of whole trees, and I was surprised by the extent of the changes,” one of the researchers tells New Scientist. Researchers used laser technology that allowed them to monitor the trees' movements without using lights, which would have produced a photosynthetic response in the plants. They found the trees' branches were at their lowest point a few hours before sunrise. So far, it's unclear if the trees were moving due to their own internal clock or because of reactions to photosynthesis during the day. The drooping could be attributed to the loss of water pressure inside plant cells at night or because it takes energy to hold branches up to the sun during the day. Researchers plan to next study the water use of trees during the day and at night to get a better idea of what's going on. (If you're a woman, trees could extend your life.)

Simone Biles set the internet on fire during Monday's Dancing With the Stars when she clapped back at the judges, who criticized both of her routines for not having enough emotion. When asked by host Tom Bergeron why the positive comments didn't elicit a smile from the 20-year-old Olympian, Biles replied "Smiling doesn’t win you gold medals." "I feel like everyone has their own opinion, clearly, and I feel it's just how you take it," Biles said, adding that, in spite of the judges saying that they can't get a feel for who she really is during her performances, she's doing her best to convey real emotion. "I feel like I am trying, I am being honest, but if they don't see that, I don't know what more I can do," she said, explaining as she had tears in her eyes. "I almost ran to the bathroom at one point, but I pulled it together." �?🙌 — Alyshia Bagley (@thebaglelady) May 9, 2017 Can't stop laughing. "Smiles don't get you gold medals and I agree with her as an athlete and I side with her. Totally understand how @Simone_Biles meant that. #DWTS — Adina Porter (@AdinaPorter) May 9, 2017 The host asked @Simone_Biles about her absent smile and she said "Smiling doesn't win you gold medals" and I INSTANTLY GOT UP AND CHEERED pic.twitter.com/iB0cPDqHeP — Inkwell J (@iAmInkwellJ) May 9, 2017 They criticized @Simone_Biles for smiling too much then ask her why she doesn't smile? — Tom Bergeron (@Tom_Bergeron) May 9, 2017 UPDATE: Biles responded to Bergeron’s tweet on Wednesday. There's hard work and sweat and tears and, most of the time, everything but smiling."

– Many women don't like being told to smile, and might appreciate Simone Biles' response in the face of such an expectation. When the judges started offering their critiques of the gymnast's performance Monday night on Dancing With the Stars, host Tom Bergeron interjected to note, "I was waiting for you to smile at some of the compliments—you didn't." At that point Biles did smile, but she did so while replying, "Smiling doesn't win you gold medals." Mashable calls the response "perfect," while USA Today notes that the phrase should be put on a T-shirt. Twitter users loved it, too, and the backlash to Bergeron's comment ultimately elicited a response from him: "Loved @Simone_Biles crisp response to my clumsy question. Curious how she felt about judges comments, I unwittingly added to the smile pile," he wrote, adding that he should have simply asked for her reaction to the judges' comments. As AOL explains, Biles has been a fan favorite this season, but has struggled to connect with the judges. She has DWTS pro Val Chmerkovskiy in her corner; he told ETOnline of her comment, "She kept it real, you know, and sometimes the truth hurts. Smiles don't get you gold medals and I agree with her as an athlete and I side with her."

A Sauk Village nail salon allegedly burned a man so badly during a pedicure his leg was later amputated and his injuries caused or contributed to his death, according to court records. According to a wrongful death lawsuit filed in Cook County court Thursday by the man’s wife, Darryl Carr went to AZ Happy Nails for a pedicure in November 2013. His feet were soaked in a hot water and chemical solution, followed by a hot wax solution, the lawsuit states. The suit alleges AZ Happy Nails was careless or negligent in using contaminated or unsafe chemical and wax solutions, soaking Carr’s foot in the solutions too long, using excessive heat on Carr’s left foot and failing to test whether Carr might suffer an allergic reaction or ask whether he had any medical conditions. They also failed to warn Carr about the risk of harm and failed to properly train and supervise its employees, the suit claims. "As the proximate result … (Carr) suffered injuries of a personal and pecuniary nature, including serious burns to his left foot and leg, which subsequently became infected, resulting in the amputation of his left foot and leg, and other medical complications that ultimately caused or contributed to his death on June 4, 2015," the lawsuit states. The lawsuit also names A-Z Nail Spa, Inc., Wen Hua Cong and Xiao Xian Wang. During a call to AZ Happy Nails, a person answering the phone said the salon’s owners or manager were not available to comment Friday evening. Carr’s wife is seeking more than $50,000 in damages, according to the complaint.

– A widow in suburban Chicago blames a nail salon for killing her husband in a pedicure-gone-wrong. A lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court alleges that Darryl Carr suffered a grisly infection that led to the amputation of his left leg and, ultimately, his death, reports the Chicago Tribune. Carr's family says the AZ Happy Nails salon in Sauk Village soaked his feet in a chemical solution and then in a hot wax solution, but it alleges that the solutions were contaminated and that his left foot was left soaking for too long, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Carr suffered "serious burns" to his leg, which then became infected, says the lawsuit. It faults the salon for lax safety and training procedures, and for failing to test Carr for possible allergic reactions or warn him of any risks. He visited the salon in November 2013 and died this month, leaving his wife and two kids, ages 10 and 13. His widow is seeking at least $50,000 in damages from the salon, which hasn't responded publicly. (In New York, authorities are cracking down on the exploitation of nail salon workers.)

But I don’t regret what I said. Crystal O'Connor said the amount of money was overwhelming. ‘I didn’t want to leave my apartment. But it has been difficult.’ Her father, who has owned the business for around nine years, said: ‘I am overwhelmed and not just because of the money, but the positive feedback that we have met with. It seems like all we hear about is the bad ones and when something like this happens, it seems like the bad ones are the first to come out and get after you. "To us this whole thing isn't about gay marriage. I don’t hold anything against them. People just don’t want you to have those rights any more. ‘They support our right to be able to have that belief and I compare this case like that of conscientiousobjectors. The restaurant was closed, and its operators said they'd gone into hiding after their... (Associated Press) WALKERTON, Ind. O'Connor said he hasn't received the money yet, but said he plans to give some to charity and use some money to make improvements to the restaurant.

– Memories Pizza is open and ready to serve once again, assuming you're not a gay couple looking for a wedding caterer. The Indiana pizzeria gained either fame or infamy, depending on your views, after the owner backed the state's controversial religious freedom law and said he would happily serve gay customers but would not cater a gay wedding. Kevin O'Connor was hit with threats and closed the eatery for eight days, but it reopened yesterday to what the AP terms "a full house of friends, regulars, and people wanting to show their support"—and, at least as of last night, no protests. As for the brouhaha, it didn't change O'Connor's mind; he still says gay customers are welcome but gay weddings are off the table. "I'd do the same thing again. It's my belief. It's our belief. It's what we grew up on," he says. "I'm just sorry it comes to this because neither one of us [his daughter echoed his original comments] dislike any of those people. I don't hold any grudges." In addition to the threats and criticism, the pizzeria will also receive $842,387 donated by about 29,000 people in a now-finished crowdfunding campaign. O'Connor says he'll use some of the money to improve the restaurant, but will also donate to charity ... and to Barronelle Stutzman, a Washington state florist who was fined when she refused to provide flowers for a gay wedding, O'Connor tells the Daily Mail.

Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, speaks at a news conference on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011, in Chicago, after former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to... (Associated Press) Rod Blagojevich starts his Thursday facing a bleak countdown _ 71 days before the twice-elected Illinois governor must say goodbye to his family and begin serving a 14-year sentence for corruption. During those days, he will scramble to get his financial affairs in order and spend a final birthday and Christmas at home with his wife, Patti, and their two young daughters before heading off to prison to serve the sentence handed down Wednesday. The next time Blagojevich gets to spend Christmas or his birthday with his children _ 15-year-old Amy and 8-year-old Annie _ they will likely be young adults. Blagojevich, whose 55th birthday is Saturday, won't be eligible for early release for about 12 years, when he will be around 67 years old. "I've had a lot of clients who've had to start making preparations the day after they were sentenced," said Gal Pissetzky, a federal defense attorney based in Chicago. "But not a single one of them has been able to prepare for saying goodbye to their children." Judge James Zagel sentenced Blagojevich on Wednesday on 18 counts of corruption, including his June convictions on charges that he tried to sell or trade an appointment to President Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat for campaign cash or a top job. The impeached governor must report to prison on Feb. 16. The Blagojeviches, who say his legal troubles also devastated them financially, put their home up for sale after he was convicted in June, and he would likely want to find a buyer before he heads off to prison. They initially listed it for $1.07 million but reportedly lowered the price recently by several thousand dollars. To make sure his wife can make those and other financial transactions on her own, Blagojevich will also want to make sure he signs necessary papers to give her power of attorney, Pissetzky said. There's also the issue of an appeal, something Blagojevich and his attorneys can finally focus on now that the judge has pronounced the sentence. Federal authorities must still make a final decision about where Blagojevich will serve his time. Wherever it is, Blagojevich will be largely cut off from the outside world. He will have to share a cell with other inmates and work a menial job, possibly scrubbing toilets or mopping floors, at just 12 cents an hour. On Wednesday, the Rod Blagojevich who once challenged a prosecutor to face him like a man, the glad-handing politician who took to celebrity TV shows to profess his innocence, was nowhere to be found. Frowning and pulling nervously at his tie, the disgraced former governor did his best to display humility in hopes of convincing Judge Zagel to hand him a lesser sentence. He licked his lips nervously as he stepped up to address the judge _ mouthing the words, "I love you," to his wife. Leaning into a hefty oak podium, gripping its sides, the normally fast-talking Blagojevich spoke slowly, sometimes pausing to search for the right word. "My life is ruined," he told Zagel. Accentuating each word, he added, "I have nobody to blame but myself. I am just so incredibly sorry." The two-term Democrat offered more than half a dozen apologies, including to his former constituents across Illinois. But he stopped, seemingly to gather his composure, when he said he also owed an apology to his family. "I have ruined their innocence," he said quietly. It was not enough for Zagel, who proceeded to give Blagojevich close to the 15 to 20 years prosecutors had sought. "When it is the governor who goes bad," Zagel said, "the fabric of Illinois is torn and disfigured and not easily repaired." Blagojevich slumped forward in his chair, momentarily frozen as the judge pronounced the sentence. Moments later, his wife, Patti, fell into his arms; when he pulled back from their embrace, he brushed tears from her cheek. It took two trials for prosecutors to snare Blagojevich. His first ended deadlocked with jurors agreeing on just one of 24 counts _ that Blagojevich lied to the FBI. Jurors at his retrial convicted him on 17 of 20 counts, including bribery and attempted extortion. Blagojevich responded to his Dec. 9, 2008, arrest with defiance, proclaiming his innocence with a media blitz. He pursued the spotlight after he was removed from office, appearing in reality TV shows such as "Celebrity Apprentice." But Blagojevich clearly dreaded the idea of prison time. Asked in an interview before his retrial about whether he dwelled on that prospect, he answered: "No. I don't let myself go there." ___ Associated Press writer Deanna Bellandi contributed to this report. ___ Michael Tarm can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/mtarm. Don Babwin can be reached at http://twitter.com/dbabwin

– Gone was the defiant Rod Blagojevich who protested his innocence, promised a comeback, and called himself "frankly … stunned" at his guilty verdict: The Blago on display yesterday at his sentencing was apologetic and emotional, but he was sentenced to 14 years for corruption nonetheless. Now he has just 71 days of freedom before going away for at least 12 years, the earliest point at which he will be eligible for early release. The disgraced ex-governor, who turns 55 Saturday, will get one last birthday and Christmas with wife Patti and daughters Amy, 15, and Annie, 8, before reporting to prison Feb. 16 to share a cell and work a menial job for 12 cents per hour. "I've had a lot of clients who've had to start making preparations the day after they were sentenced," a federal defense attorney tells the AP. "But not a single one of them has been able to prepare for saying goodbye to their children." In addition to that, Blagojevich probably hopes to see his house sold and get his financial affairs in order, giving his wife power of attorney so that she can complete financial transactions without him. He's not likely to ever receive his $65,000-per-year state pension, the Chicago Tribune notes, although he will probably still get a federal pension, since his misdeeds took place during his governorship and not during the six years he served as a congressman.

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.

– Charles Manson is back behind bars, a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson confirmed to the Los Angeles Times on Friday. "He is at the prison," Terry Thornton says. "I don't know how much plainer it can be." Manson, currently serving a life sentence, was transported from Corcoran State Prison to a hospital in Bakersfield on Tuesday for a serious medical issue. Officials aren't giving out details, but the New York Daily News reports the 82-year-old Manson had gastrointestinal bleeding but was too weak for surgery. His current condition is unclear. Hospital visits are likely the only time Manson will get beyond prison walls; he's already been denied parole 12 times.

At least 18 Florida lawmakers plan to live on a minimum wage this week to draw attention to efforts to increase the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour. Starting Monday, the lawmakers will live for five days on $17 per day. That figure represents what a minimum wage worker has after the costs of taxes, childcare and housing are deducted from an $8.05-an-hour paycheck. The lawmakers — mostly Democrats — will also go grocery shopping with a minimum wage worker at the start of the week. State Sen. Dwight Bullard and state Rep. Victor Torres are pushing legislation to increase Florida's current minimum wage from $8.05 to $15 an hour.

– At least 18 Florida lawmakers say they'll take the "Minimum Wage Challenge" this week to show the need for a minimum wage hike to $15 an hour. From Monday to Friday, each of the lawmakers, who are mostly Democrats, will live on just $17 a day—the remains of an $8.05-an-hour paycheck after the costs of taxes, childcare, and housing, reports the AP. They'll also go grocery shopping with a minimum wage worker to see how they cope. State Sen. Dwight Bullard, who has filed bill SB6 to raise Florida's current minimum wage to $15 an hour, says he'll be among those taking part. "I'd like my colleagues to see that supporting this bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour is the right thing to do for Florida's working families who struggle every day just to make ends meet," he says, per Fox 35. State Rep. Victor Torres has also filed similar legislation.

I was in the hospital, I just had a baby, so my husband thought it would be fun for my other kids if they could sell some things at the garage sale," said Racquel Cloutier, 31, of Laguna Niguel, Calif., who owns the ring. Racquel Cloutier hid her $22,000 wedding ring under a cushion in a wooden watch box for safe keeping before she went into the hospital to deliver her fifth child. He thought the box was empty, but a California husband accidentally sold his wife's $23,000 diamond wedding ring for $10 at a garage sale on June 1. There’s a small chance whoever bought the box doesn’t know the ring is in there.” Eric Cloutier is a former professional hockey player. The Tweet referred to the lady who reportedly bought the ring as “shady.” Cloutier’s wife, Racquel, was in the hospital at the time of the sale.

– Husbands, there's a lesson for you in Eric Cloutier's very big mistake: Never sell anything at a garage sale without first checking with your wife. The California man offloaded a watch box he thought was empty at a June 1 community garage sale for $10. Little did he know his wife had hidden her $23,000 diamond wedding ring beneath the box's cushion ... before she went to deliver their fifth baby at the hospital, which is where she was during the garage sale. "Every year our community holds a garage sale. I was in the hospital, I just had a baby, so my husband thought it would be fun for my other kids if they could sell some things at the garage sale," Racquel Cloutier explains to ABC News. She discovered the box, and the ring, were missing after she got back home last week; the couple is publicizing their story in the hope that the bargain shopper will return the ring. KTLA notes they are offering an unspecified reward. An added ouch: The blonde woman who bought the box couldn't decide at first whether she even wanted it. And a quirky side note: Per Card Player, Eric Cloutier is a former professional hockey player/accomplished poker player.

Now, enabled by social media, there’s a lot of conversation before the game about what’s coming up, and we want to be the most talked-about brand in that conversation.” The willingness of consumers to watch ads on social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube — and to discuss and share them with friends and family — is rewriting the Super Bowl playbook for Madison Avenue.

– It used to be that people actually had to wait for the game to watch the Super Bowl ads, but as the New York Times points out today, those days are long gone for Madison Avenue. Most companies roll out the spots, or versions of them, on YouTube and social media to generate early buzz. Some talkers, for better or worse, this year: Coke: The company has an ad about a race in the desert (viewers can vote on who wins) complete with an Arab and stubborn camel. It's "racist, portraying Arabs as backward and foolish camel jockeys, and they have no chance to win in the world," says the president of the Muslim Institute for Interfaith Studies. It and other groups are demanding that Coke pull or alter it before Sunday, notes the Hollywood Reporter. See it here. Volkswagen: It, too, is being accused of racism for a spot that features a white office worker talking in a Jamaican accent throughout, reports Reuters. See it here. Mercedes-Benz: Its ad featuring Kate Upton washing a car, or at least supervising, already has gotten more than 5 million views on YouTube, reports the AP. See it here. Today.com has more of this year's buzzy ads here.

Music Shortcuts Need some pain relief? Try a dose of Robbie Williams or Elton John Music can soothe away your pain, says a new survey, with Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water narrowly beating Robbie and Elton to the top of the pain-relieving pops Elton John … better for pain than ibuprofen? Photograph: Jean-Sebastien Evrard/AFP/Getty Images As soppy Guardian types who like to blub at music know, music can mend a broken heart or comfort us through the darkest torments of the mind. It can also, according to a survey by Lloyds Pharmacy, help if someone stamps on your toe. Apparently, 40% of people who suffered from persistent pain reported that music helped to relieve symptoms – with Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, Robbie Williams's Angels and Elton John's Candle in the Wind among the songs they found most soothing. This slightly contradicts my own survey, which found that 100% of all respondents (sample size: one) thought Candle in the Wind induced chronic pain, but there you go. Young people got the most help from music (66%) and although we should be cautious about trusting the kind of freak who reaches for Robbie Williams in a time of crisis, this does at least explain why pop music is the favoured genre of pain-alleviating music (classical, then rock/indie follow close behind). So what is it about the pop songs that seems to relieve pain? A "soothing", laidback vibe seems to be important in view of the songs listed as potential rivals to ibuprofen: the Commodores' Easy and Fleetwood Mac's instrumental Albatross were both on the list, whereas the back catalogues of Dying Fetus and Goatwhore were conspicous by their absence. Reading this on mobile? Click here to view the video I originally assumed that lyrical themes about healing and overcoming difficulty would be important provided they didn't mention pain or hurt itself – after all, it would be hard to take your mind off that gammy knee with the chorus to REM's Everybody Hurts blaring away in the background. However, this doesn't seem to be the case: Bridge Over Troubled Water mentions "pain is all around", and Angels refers to pain walking "down a one-way street". Easy goes further, opening with the line: "Know it sounds funny but I just can't stand the pain." Really, distraction seems to be the central concept. Any pastime could make a difference, but it makes sense that music – where you channel your thoughts and emotions into the experience – would be especially helpful. Andrew Mawhinney of Lloyds Pharmacy says it is now trialling the use of music at some of its pharmacies. So next time you say you need something for a sore back and the pharmacist starts cranking out Robbie Williams, you'll know who to blame.

– Walk into select Lloyds Pharmacy locations in the UK complaining of a headache, and you may be more likely to walk out with a Simon & Garfunkel CD than a bottle of painkillers. The pharmacy chain commissioned a study that found 41% of all people suffering persistent pain (and 66% of people aged 16-24) felt better after listening to music, reports the Telegraph. Now the store is "trialing the use of music within our pain service in some of our pharmacies," says a company pharmacist. "There are lots of different ways of managing pain, not only with medicines but also with lifestyle changes such as moderate exercise and relaxation," he says. The study of 1,500 people found pop music was the most effective pain reliever, followed by classical, then rock or indie music. The songs with the highest pain-relieving powers reported were "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel, "Angels" by Robbie Williams, "Albatross" by Fleetwood Mac, "Candle in the Wind" by Elton John, and "Easy" by The Commodores. This may be an eyebrow-raiser for some people—like the Guardian's music editor, who jokes: "This slightly contradicts my own survey, which found that 100% of all respondents (sample size: one) thought 'Candle in the Wind' induced chronic pain, but there you go."

Three baby otters — Han, Luke and Leia — have made their public debut at the Kansas City Zoo. ‘Star Wars’ actor Mark Hamill said “thanks” for reuniting the trio.

– Two people were shot and injured after an accidental discharge at a high school graduation ceremony in southern Kansas, the AP reports. The Wichita Eagle reports that the Butler County Sheriff's Office says the shooting happened around 2pm Sunday at the Augusta High School ceremony. Per KWCH, a man's concealed gun accidentally went off, wounding his foot, and he drove himself to the hospital. A woman also suffered a serious leg injury, either because the bullet ricocheted or because she was hit by shrapnel, and she was transported to a nearby hospital via ambulance.

An Orange County Superior Court jury on Aug. 21 had swiftly found Stanwood Elkus of Lake Elsinore guilty of first-degree murder for making an appointment with Ronald Gilbert using a fake name and shooting the physician 10 times when he walked into the exam room. × 79-Year-Old Retired Barber Sentenced to Life in Prison for Murder of Newport Beach Urologist A 79-year-old retired barber was sentenced Friday to life in prison, plus 10 years, without the possibility of parole for fatally shooting a urologist inside the doctor’s Newport Beach office in 2013. Elkus had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but the jury last month found that he was mentally sound when he plotted to kill the doctor, used a fake name to schedule a medial appointment and then gunned him down in an exam room. At the sentencing, several close friends and family members described in court how they have been affected by the devastating loss. Halfway through family members' statements, Elkus, who has hearing loss, removed the headphones that helped him hear the proceedings.

– A retired barber who murdered a urologist inside his Southern California office in 2013 over a 21-year-old grudge was sentenced Friday to life in prison plus 10 years without the possibility of parole, the Los Angeles Times reports. In 1992, Ronald Gilbert—then a medical resident at the veterans hospital in Long Beach—worked with other doctors to diagnose Stanwood Elkus, who was dealing with frequent urination, with a narrowing of the urethra. Two other doctors at the VA ultimately performed a simple urethra-widening surgery without Gilbert; Elkus firmly believed the surgery was botched and damaged his prostate, the Orange County Register reports, causing incontinence, erectile dysfunction, and diminished sex drive, all of which led his longtime girlfriend to leave him. A DA on the case told jurors that Elkus held a grudge against Gilbert over the incident. More than two decades later, Elkus—who had often seethed about his medical issues in the ensuing years "to anyone who would listen," per the Register—used a fake name to make an appointment with Gilbert on Jan. 28, 2013, at his Newport Beach office, where he entered the exam room and shot him 10 times, killing him. The now-79-year-old pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but jurors found that he was sane and convicted him last month of first-degree murder. Per KTLA, jurors also affirmed a special-circumstance allegation of lying in wait. That, along with a sentencing enhancement allegation of personal use of a gun, added 10 years to his sentence. "The world was robbed of a model citizen … our children were robbed of an amazing father," said Elizabeth Gilbert, Ronald Gilbert's wife, at the sentencing hearing, recalling her husband's death just days before his 53rd birthday.

Male fruit flies that have been rejected by females drink significantly more alcohol than those that have mated freely, scientists say. Inan article in Science, researchers suggest that alcohol stimulates the flies' brains as a "reward" in a similar way to sexual conquest. The work points to a brain chemical called neuropeptide F, which seems to be regulated by the flies' behaviour. Human brains have a similar chemical, which may react in a similar way. The connection between alcohol and this chemical, which in humans is known as neuropeptide Y, has already been noted instudies involving hard-drinking mice. The new work explores the link between such reward-seeking and the study of social interactions, said the lead author of the report Galit Shohat-Ophir, now of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Virginia, US. "It is thought that reward systems evolved to reinforce behaviours that are important for the survival of both individuals and species, like food consumption and mating," Dr Shohat-Ophir told BBC News. "Drugs of abuse kind of hijack the same neural pathways used by natural rewards, so we wanted to use alcohol - which is an extreme example of a compound that can affect the reward system - to get into the mechanism of what makes social interaction rewarding for animals." 'Control system' Working in thelaboratory of Ulrike Heberleinat the University of California, San Francisco, Dr Shohat-Ophir and colleagues subjected a number of flies to a wide variety of fates. In one set of experiments, male flies were put in a box with five virgin females, which were receptive to the males' advances. In another, males were locked up with females that had already mated and which thus roundly rejected the males' attempts at sex. Offered either their normal food slurry or a version charged with 15% alcohol, the mated males avoided the alcohol, whereas the sexually deprived males went on a comparative bender. The team then went on a hunt for a chemical that could tie the two parts of this story together, hitting on neuropeptide F (NPF). Image caption In mammals, the "rewarding" brain chemical is called neuropeptide Y They found that the heavy-drinking rejected males had a lowered level of the chemical, and sated, mated males had an elevated level. "What we think is that these NPF levels are some kind of 'molecular signature' to the experience," Dr Shohat-Ophir explained. To show that the NPF is actually responsible for the change rather than just associated with it, the researchers actively manipulated just how much NPF was in the flies' brains. Those with depressed levels acted like the rejected males, and those with elevated levels behaved like the mated males. "What this leads us to think is that the fly brain - and presumably also other animals' and human brains - have some kind of a system to control their level of internal reward, that once the internal reward level is down-regulated it will be followed by behaviour that will restore it back," Dr Shohat-Ophir said. It is tempting, given that humans share a similar brain chemical, to imagine that NPF drives human behaviour as well. However,in an accompanying article in Science, Troy Zars of the University of Missouri wrote that "anthropomorphising the results from flies is difficult to suppress, but the relevance to human behaviour is obviously not yet established". Nevertheless, he suggested that the work linked "a rewarding social interaction with a lasting change in behaviour". "Identifying the NPF system as critical in this linkage offers exciting prospects for determining the molecular and genetic mechanisms of reward and could potentially influence our understanding of the mechanisms of drugs of abuse."

– Entomology as country song: Researchers say male fruit flies denied sex drown their sorrows in alcohol, reports the BBC. Or more precisely, boy flies who get some action turn up their noses at food dosed with alcohol, while boys who get rejected are far more likely to indulge. Researchers think it's because the booze triggers a "reward" chemical in the brain to compensate for the "reward" they would have gotten through sex. Yes, humans have a similar chemical. How did they find this out? The scientists put some male fruit flies in a box with females who might only be called Rush Limbaugh's favorite descriptor. Things happened. Others went in boxes with females who had already mated and had no interest in doing so again. Then they gave each set of males a choice of normal food or spiked food, and the more-frustrated flies kept the bar open all night. The study appears in Science.

That operation, Kinlaw Farms, is not the target of the lawsuit; Kinlaw is ultimately beholden to Smithfield Foods, theh company for which they raise hogs. A federal jury on Thursday awarded more than $50 million in damages to neighbors of an industrial hog operation found responsible for intense smells, noise and other disturbances so bad people couldn't enjoy their rural homes. “We are now preparing for the next, which is scheduled for the end of May.” This case, presenting with the plaintiffs and the specific farm, was chosen by suing attorneys. In the statement, Smithfield vowed to appeal the decision.

– The 10 North Carolina plaintiffs who say a pork farm near their homes is endangering their health by, among other things, spraying hog urine and feces onto nearby fields, have won a big victory. A federal jury has awarded each plaintiff $5 million in punitive damages and $75,000 in compensatory damages, Modern Farmer reports. The more than $50 million in awards is to be paid by Smithfield Foods—the company for which the North Carolina hog operation, Kinlaw Farms, raises the animals. In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs complained of large pits holding hog feces that, in addition to causing horrible smells, attracted buzzards and insects. They say the sprayed feces sometimes even ends up in their homes, the Daily Press reports. Smithfield says it will appeal. The case, the ham giant says in a statement, is "an outrageous attack on animal agriculture" and that this and dozens of similar lawsuits—involving more than 500 neighbors in total—"are a serious threat to a major industry, to North Carolina's entire economy, and to the jobs and livelihoods of tens of thousands of North Carolinians." Modern Farmer points out that even if Smithfield loses its appeal, lawmakers with ties to the hog industry successfully put a limit on the amount of money plaintiffs can receive in this type of lawsuit, so the plaintiffs may ultimately only be able to collect $250,000 in punitive damages. The Wall Street Journal says it's unclear whether the new state law will apply in this case.

In a release Friday by the U.S.-backed Syrian Opposition Coalition, Syrian rebels fighting against the Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front, as well as government forces, said they were in desperate straits in the northwestern area near the Turkish border and pleaded for supplies from the West that have been withheld from them but are flooding into Iraq. (Reuters) Extremist fighters have killed more than 80 men and detained hundreds of women in a Yazidi village, Yazidis and Kurdish officials said Saturday, offering a reminder that the ancient minority sect is still at risk despite President Obama’s conclusion that the threat had passed for those stranded on Mount Sinjar. Senior Kurdish official Hoshiyar Zebari, a former Iraqi foreign minister, told Reuters that the militants "arrived in vehicles and they started their killing" Friday afternoon. Yazidi activists and Kurdish officials said at least 80 men were killed and hundreds of women taken away after the fighters entered the village shortly after 1 pm on Friday. Kocho is south of the town of Sinjar, from which the exodus took place, and many residents were unable to join the flight because they were cut off by the Islamic State advance, according to Yazidi refugees in northern Iraq. Islamic State fighters besieged the village for several days and gave its Yazidi residents a deadline to convert to Islam, Yazidi lawmaker Mahma Khalil said Saturday. The accounts could not be independently confirmed nor the conflicting numbers reconciled, but fears had been growing for the welfare of Yazidis in the village since the Islamic State siege began on Aug. 7.

– The Yazidis who managed to escape to the mountains seem to be protected from Islamic State militants, but those who stayed in their villages clearly are not. Reports from the village of Kocho in northern Iraq say that extremists executed about 80 Yazidi men yesterday and took away about 300 women and children. "They arrived in vehicles and they started their killing," a Kurdish official tells Reuters. "We believe it's because of their creed: convert or be killed." A resident of a nearby village said the militants had spent the better part of a week trying unsuccessfully to convince the Yazidis in Kocho to convert to their brand of Islam. “The villagers had received local assurances that they were safe,” Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s former foreign minister, tells the Washington Post. “Maybe they killed them in revenge for the setbacks they have suffered from the airstrikes.” The accounts have not been confirmed, though NPR notes that Iraqi officials reported an even larger massacre last week. Elsewhere, the AP reports airstrikes near the giant Mosul Dam in an apparent attempt to wrest control of it back from the militants. It wasn't clear whether US or Iraqi planes were involved.

CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH IN THE HOSPITAL Health of Former President, First Lady Improves | 0:39 Former President George H.W. Bush is set to be moved from intensive care unit after doctors report health improvements. His wife, former first lady Barbara Bush, has been discharged from the same Texas hospital. (Jan. 23) AP 1 of 7 CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH IN THE HOSPITAL Former Pres. Bush, wife improving at hospital | 1:09 A spokesman for the Bush family says the 41st president George H.W. Bush, and his wife, Barbara Bush, are 'on an upswing' as they're being treated for illnesses at Houston Methodist Hospital. (Jan. 19) AP 2 of 7 CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH IN THE HOSPITAL Bush spokesman talks hospitalization | 1:34 Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, remain hospitalized in Houston, where he was in intensive care for pneumonia, and she was being watched after complaining of fatigue and coughing. (Jan. 19) AP 3 of 7 CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH IN THE HOSPITAL Obama: 'Prayers' and 'love' to George H.W. and Barbara Bush | 0:40 During his final press conference, President Obama expressed well wishes for both George H.W. and Barbara Bush who were hospitalized on the same day. USA TODAY NETWORK 4 of 7 CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH IN THE HOSPITAL George H.W. Bush in ICU, Barbara Bush also hospitalized | 0:37 Former President George H.W. Bush and wife Barbara Bush have been hospitalized due to separate health issues. USA TODAY 5 of 7 CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH IN THE HOSPITAL Former President George H.W. Bush hospitalized | 1:06 The former president's spokesman says the 92-year-old is in stable condition. USA TODAY NETWORK 6 of 7 CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. Bush showed how to graciously concede the presidency | 1:22 Bush 41 may be the classiest presidential loser in history. Video provided by Newsy Newslook 7 of 7 Last VideoNext Video Health of Former President, First Lady Improves Former Pres. Bush, wife improving at hospital Bush spokesman talks hospitalization Obama: 'Prayers' and 'love' to George H.W. and Barbara Bush George H.W. Bush in ICU, Barbara Bush also hospitalized Former President George H.W. Bush hospitalized George H.W. Bush showed how to graciously concede the presidency Former president George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara Bush, left, speak March 29, 2015, before a college basketball regional final game between Gonzaga and Duke, in the NCAA basketball tournament in Houston. (Photo: David J. Phillip, AP) HOUSTON — Former first lady Barbara Bush, cleared a day ago to leave the hospital where she has been a patient since midweek this past week, was discharged Monday, her doctors said in a morning press conference. Since Jan. 14, her husband, former president George H.W. Bush, has been in intensive care with bacterial pneumonia at Houston Methodist Hospital, and she was hospitalized Wednesday with fatigue and coughing that later was diagnosed as viral bronchitis. He is expected to remain in the hospital but move from the ICU sometime Monday. "He is sitting up and watching TV and anxiously awaiting his favorite oyster stew for lunch. He’s on minimal oxygen, joking and laughing with the nurses and doctors," said Dr. Amy Mynderse, a hospitalist at Houston Methodist. A hospitalist works in internal medicine but exclusively at a medical center, working with a person's primary care physician. Both of the Bushes are in their 90s: The former president is 92, and his wife is 91. Because the former president has bounced back so well, his doctors expect that he could leave the hospital as early as Friday, said Dr. Clint Doerr, his pulmonologist or lung specialist. But more likely will be a discharge over the weekend or next week. Both Bushes are eager to return home in time for the Super Bowl, the doctors said. The New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons play Feb. 5 in Houston, and the family's spokesman, Jim McGrath, said Sunday that the couple want to attend the game. “They kind of get after each other if one of them is being a noncompliant patient. They take care of each other.” Dr. Amy Mynderse, Houston Methodist Hospital They watched the inauguration together with their son Neil and his wife on a TV in the former president's room but refrained from political commentary, the doctors said. Back in September, the elder Bush told Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy and a former Maryland lieutenant governor, that he couldn't back the GOP nominee, Donald Trump, and instead would vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton in November. He and Barbara Bush have not commented on their votes. "She's back to her normal self," Mynderse said of Barbara Bush. Barbara Bush's doctors allowed the former first lady to spend much of her time by her husband's side though she did have her own room outside of intensive care, the doctors said. The Bushes have been married for 72 years, the longest of any presidential couple in U.S. history. "She's been sitting at his bedside getting most of her medications" as they watched TV, Mynderse said. And each has been encouraging the other through the sometimes tedious but necessary treatments. "They kind of get after each other if one of them is being a noncompliant patient," the hospitalist said. "They take care of each other." Although the former president is 92 and has a form of Parkinson's disease that keeps him from walking, both doctors stressed that he is a strong man for his age. "Any time you hear about a 92-year-old with a breathing situation that requires intubation, that's a serious situation," Mynderse said. "He's also a very strong person. He's not your average 92-year-old." Intubation is more serious than receiving supplemental oxygen via a tube in the nose. The former president continues to receive some supplemental oxygen now, and a device that's clipped onto many hospital patients' fingers allows doctors to monitor the dissolved oxygen in a person's blood easily. During an intubation, a breathing tube is inserted into the windpipe, generally through the mouth, to open up the airway and allow a ventilator to be hooked up. George H.W. Bush, vice president under Ronald Reagan and president for one term from 1989 to 1993, was put on a ventilator because of his breathing difficulties and at one point had a procedure to clear his bronchial tubes, the doctors said. He also has been receiving intravenous antibiotics. "It doesn't take much from a respiratory standpoint to get into trouble," Doerr said. His Parkinson's did not play a role in his catching pneumonia. The elder president Bush was hospitalized in July 2015 after he broke a bone in his neck during a fall at his Kennebunkport, Maine, summer home. He also was hospitalized around Christmas 2014 in Houston for shortness of breath, and in 2012 he was hospitalized in Houston for two months including Christmas because of bronchitis and a persistent cough. As the former president responded to treatment this time, the help that the ventilator was providing was decreased, Doerr said. Before the tube was removed from his throat, the machine was at its lowest setting, essentially natural breathing with the option of additional assistance if necessary. "We did not see a rebound in difficulty breathing ... or a reaccumulation of things in his airways," the pulmonologist said. Both doctors were struck by the humility of the couple who not only have occupied the White House but also are parents to former president George W. Bush and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. "They're truly very humble people," Mynderse said. "He just doesn't feel like he is, he doesn't understand how loved he is — her, too." Follow KHOU-TV on Twitter: @KHOU Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2jQLcFC

– A double dose of good news for the elders of the Bush family: Barbara Bush, 91, is out of the hospital, and husband George HW, 92, is about to leave ICU, reports the AP. The former president was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital on Jan. 14 because of breathing trouble, and he was subsequently treated for pneumonia and moved into ICU. His wife entered the same hospital Wednesday with bronchitis. She's now "back to her normal self," says one of the doctors treating the couple, and her husband is "not your average 92-year-old." He could be discharged this week, per KHOU-TV.

River Martinez, 10, breaks camp at the Upper Pines Campground in Yosemite National Park, Calif., on Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Martinez's family, visiting from Los Angeles, had to cut their stay short... (Associated Press) River Martinez, 10, breaks camp at the Upper Pines Campground in Yosemite National Park, Calif., on Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Martinez's family, visiting from Los Angeles, had to cut their stay short as portions of Yosemite close today to allow crews to battle the Ferguson fire burning nearby. (AP Photo/Noah... (Associated Press) IDYLLWILD, Calif. (AP) — A fast-moving wildfire — believed to have been sparked by arson — tore through trees, burned five homes and forced evacuation orders for an entire forest town as California sweltered under a heat wave and battled ferocious fires at both ends of the state. The so-called Cranston Fire, which erupted Wednesday in the San Jacinto Mountains east of Los Angeles, turned into a wall of flame that torched timber and tinder-dry brush. In a matter of hours it grew to 7 1/2 square miles (19 square kilometers). It was threatening an estimated 600 homes, authorities said. The fire was the largest of at least five that police believe were purposely set Wednesday by a man whose car was reportedly spotted at the starting point of the blaze in Riverside County, officials said. Brandon N. McGlover, 32, of Temecula was booked on suspicion of five counts of arson, state fire officials said. It wasn't clear whether he had an attorney. Authorities ordered residents to leave Idyllwild and several neighboring communities, home to about 12,000 people. William Blodgett of Idyllwild said he couldn't get home because of the fire and had to wait along with others at a gas station in nearby Mountain Center — until the fire hopped a highway and began to move in his direction. "We were all peeling out of there as fast as we could," he told KNBC-TV. "It was apocalyptic." Horses and other animals were taken to shelters as were several hundred children who were evacuated from summer camps. About 200 were at a local high school serving as a shelter, KCAL-TV reported. The fire in the San Bernardino National Forest sent up a cloud 50,000 feet high that was so enormous it created its own weather in the form of lightning, the National Weather Service reported. Throughout the day, helicopters and planes dumped water and fire retardant that turned swathes of land and homes pink. Fire engines also were stationed to protect homes. The fire is one of several across California amid a heat wave that has seen days of triple-digit temperatures. To the north, in the San Francisco Bay Area, at least one home burned in a fast-moving blaze in Clayton, where houses are spread out around windy roads. Yosemite Valley, the scenic heart of the national park, was closed at noon Wednesday during the height of tourist season as smoke cast a pall on the region from a fire in the Sierra Nevada. The closure was heartbreaking for travelers, many of whom mapped out their trips months in advance to hike and climb amid the spectacular views of cascading waterfalls and sheer rock faces. "We had one guest who planned a weeklong trip," said Tom Lambert, who owns a vacation rental property near Yosemite Valley. "It was a father-daughter trip, for her high school graduation ... Now it's done. It's sad." Another guest had to delay plans to climb Half Dome. Officials emphasized that Yosemite wasn't in imminent danger from the fire. Authorities decided on the shutdown to allow crews to perform protective measures such as burning away brush along roadways without having to deal with traffic in the park that welcomes 4 million visitors annually. Yosemite Valley will be closed until at least Sunday, along with a winding, mountainous, 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of California's State Route 41 that leads into the area, Gediman said. At least 1,000 campground and hotel bookings were canceled — to say nothing of the impact on day visitors, park workers and small businesses along the highway, Gediman said. The last time the 7.5-mile-long (12-kilometer-long) valley was closed because of fire was 1990, he said. Over nearly two weeks, flames have churned through 60 square miles (155 square kilometers) of timber in steep terrain of the Sierra Nevada just west of the park. The fire was just 25 percent contained. More than 3,300 firefighters are working the fire, aided by 16 helicopters. One firefighter was killed July 14, and six others have been injured. In the state's far north, a 7-square-mile (18-square-kilometer) wildfire has forced the evacuation of French Gulch, a small Shasta County community that dates to the Gold Rush. ___ Noah Berger reported from Yosemite; Chris Weber from Los Angeles. AP reporters Robert Jablon, Michael Balsamo and John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed. ___ Follow Weber at https://twitter.com/WeberCM

– A fast-moving wildfire—believed to have been sparked by arson—tore through trees, burned five homes, and forced evacuation orders for an entire forest town as California sweltered under a heat wave and battled ferocious fires at both ends of the state. The so-called Cranston Fire, which erupted Wednesday in the San Jacinto Mountains east of Los Angeles, turned into a wall of flame that torched timber and tinder-dry brush. In a matter of hours it grew to 7.5 square miles, threatening an estimated 600 homes and forcing the evacuation of Idyllwild, authorities say. The fire was the largest of at least five that police believe were purposely set Wednesday by a man whose car was reportedly spotted at the starting point of the blaze, the AP reports. Brandon N. McGlover, 32, of Temecula was booked on suspicion of five counts of arson, state fire officials say. Authorities ordered residents to leave Idyllwild and several neighboring communities, home to about 12,000 people. William Blodgett of Idyllwild says he couldn't get home because of the fire and had to wait along with others at a gas station—until the fire hopped a highway and began to move in his direction. "We were all peeling out of there as fast as we could," he tells KNBC. "It was apocalyptic."

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 22, 2017 @lrozen there were a few, but as @KellyannePolls told me on NYT podcast, she declined that job — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 22, 2017 And then more recently Sunday night, New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman reported a similar sentiment from a “longtime Trump adviser”: Trump sent Spicer out to give statement yesterday, a longtime Trump adviser says, but afterwards Trump said "he was terrible." “I’d be careful about using the word ‘lie.’ ‘Lie’ implies much more than just saying something that’s false.

– Dan Rather has been in the news business for longer than most of Donald Trump's aides have been alive and he says the weekend's goings-on were like nothing he has seen before. In a Facebook post, the former CBS anchor slams adviser Kellyanne Conway for the "Orwellian" use of the phrase "alternative facts," press chief Sean Spicer for "bullying and lying" in his first White House appearance, and Trump himself for boasting about the size of inaugural crowds "before the stars of the fallen CIA agents," the Hill reports. "These are not normal times," Rather writes, calling for reporters to ask congressional Republicans about what they plan to do about "lying from the White House." "Facts and the truth are not partisan," he writes. "They are the bedrock of our democracy." In other coverage: Twitchy reports that sources have told reporters at New York magazine and the New York Times that Saturday's press conference may have been a "trap" for Spicer. The sources say Spicer was RNC chief Reince Preibus' choice, not Trump's, and the president described the press secretary's performance Saturday as "terrible." The New York Times reports that many others in the media reacted with alarm to a standoff developing with the Trump administration this quickly. In Sunday's coverage, many outlets described Spicer and Trump's statements as "lies" or "falsehoods," the Times notes. In a single press conference, Spicer managed to kill off the traditional way of reporting on a president, writes Margaret Sullivan at the Washington Post. But "journalists shouldn’t rise to the bait and decide to treat Trump as an enemy," she writes. They should remember that their mission is to hold public officials accountable and "dig in, paying far more attention to actions than to sensational tweets or briefing-room lies—while still being willing to call out falsehoods clearly when they happen." At Politico, Jack Shafer says there is no need for the "extraordinary measures" Rather is calling for if journalists just do their jobs and report the facts. He says journalists should view Trump "as a politician whose behavior is different only in degree, not in kind," noting that the Obama administration was no stranger to media manipulation. David Graham at the Atlantic looks at what he calls the Trump administration's devotion to a "particular variety of pointless falsehood." The Trump administration appears to be going "double-or-nothing" on the campaign gamble that it could get away with easily disprovable mistruths, he writes.

Flooding in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu has killed more than 40 people in the past 48 hours, authorities said Thursday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Chennai, the country’s fourth-largest city, which has borne the brunt of the deluge. Taking stock, on the ground…PM taking overview of flood relief operations at INS Rajali, Arakkonam. pic.twitter.com/XY1qm3fwfE — PMO India (@PMOIndia) December 3, 2015 Hundreds of soldiers and sailors from India’s armed forces have been deployed to assist in relief efforts after weeks of heavy rains that have left more than 250 people dead since the start of November. Chennai’s international airport, closed on Wednesday because the runway was under seven feet of water, will remain shut until at least midday on Sunday, according to the state-run Airports Authority of India. The city is one of India’s auto-manufacturing hubs and home to scores of international car makers and suppliers. Ford Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. were among automakers forced to shut operations because of the heavy rains. Hyundai’s two factories in the city, which have a combined production capacity of close to 700,000 cars, had stopped operations late Tuesday and wouldn’t resume until Friday, said a company spokeswoman. India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh told lawmakers on Thursday that the government had released 9.4 billion rupees ($141 million) for flood relief and restoration. On his arrival in Chennai Thursday evening, Mr. Modi announced an additional 10 billion rupees for relief operations. “The Government of India stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of Tamil Nadu in this hour of need,” he said. In November, Mr. Modi said the torrential rains in Chennai were a result of climate change. “We are feeling climate change’s fast-growing impact now,” he said. Others blamed rampant construction, including building in areas close to the city’s rivers, for the flooding. “Development in the city has not taken into account that many parts are low-lying,” said Anil Kumar Gupta, head of policy planning at India’s National Institute of Disaster Management. Construction “has been done in a way that narrows and blocks drains,” said Mr. Gupta who co-authored a 2011 research paper titled “Urban floods in Bangalore and Chennai: risk management challenges and and lessons for sustainable urban ecology.” The India Meteorological Department has forecast heavy rain for Tamil Nadu until Friday. Incessant downpours have caused the Adyar River, which flows through Chennai, to swell to dangerous levels and overflow its banks. Formerly known as Madras, Chennai is low-lying and most areas of the city are only just above sea level, making drainage difficult even when rainfall levels are normal. According to the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, inadequate sewerage infrastructure causes river beds to silt up, creating blockages that prevent floodwaters from draining into the sea. Television footage on Thursday showed residents in the city wading through muddy waters and complaining about the sluggish pace of relief operations. Chennai’s main railway station suspended services on Thursday. Tamil Nadu’s chief minister, J. Jayalalithaa, was quoted as saying in November that “losses are unavoidable when there’s very heavy rain.” “Swift rescue and relief alone are indicators of a good government,” the website of the news channel NDTV quoted Ms. Jayalalithaa as saying during the first spell of downpours during the monsoon. The rains have left more than 30 aircraft stranded at the airport, the Airports Authority of India said in a statement. Almost 300 passengers had been sent by bus to the neighboring city of Bangalore to catch flights from there, but hundreds more remained stranded at the airport, the AAI said. Anurag Gupta, a senior official in the National Disaster Management Authority, said efforts are underway to ferry stranded passengers in helicopters to a naval air station in Arakonnam, about 60 miles away. They are to be flown from there to other cities. The inundated airport, lack of mobility owing to poor roads and a breakdown of telecommunication links has severely hampered rescue operations, Mr. Gupta said. The National Disaster Response Force has deployed more than 1,000 personnel and 130 boats to Chennai. So far, they have evacuated more than 2,000 people. Meanwhile, on Twitter, social-media users were organizing help through hashtags #ChennaiRainsHelp and #ChennaiRains, with users offering food, medicines and tweeting details of shelters where those affected could take refuge. Here’s a list of specific hashtags you can use during #ChennaiRains pic.twitter.com/NxIpYgFbAj — Twitter India (@TwitterIndia) December 2, 2015 Some volunteers on the ground managed to tweet information about the kind of aid available in different parts of the city. Facebook Inc. initiated its “safety check” feature, which allows people in disaster zones to mark themselves as safe on the social-media site so friends and family can know their whereabouts. Photos below show the impact of the floods in the city in the past 24 hours. People stood on a rail bridge under construction as they watched the rising levels of the Adyar river in Chennai, Dec. 2. Associated Press People travel on a boat through a flooded road in Chennai, Dec. 2. Reuters People waded through a water-logged street in Chennai, Dec. 2. Zuma Press This photo released by India’s Press Information Bureau showed the submerged Chennai airport, Dec. 2. Reuters A temple is submerged in flood waters in Chennai, Dec. 2. European Pressphoto Agency People travelled on a boat as they move to safer places through a flooded road in Chennai, Dec. 2. Reuters –Santanu Choudhury contributed to this post. For breaking news, features and analysis from India, follow WSJ India on Facebook.

– India's fourth largest city—along with its approximately 9 million residents—is pretty much completely underwater after a record amount of rainfall in the past month, Bloomberg reports. According to the Wall Street Journal, the runway at Chennai's international airport was under 7 feet of water Thursday, leaving 30 planes and hundreds of passengers stranded. Multiple businesses—including Ford and Hyundai factories—and the city's main railway station have shut down. Meanwhile, Bloomberg adds that water is neck-deep in many neighborhoods, telephone networks are down, roads have been washed away, and many are without power. More than 250 people in Chennai and the surrounding state of Tamil Nadu have been killed in flooding since the start of November, and more than 2,000 people have been evacuated, according to the Journal. Chennai received nearly 48 inches of rain in November, more than three times the normal amount for November, Bloomberg reports. And with most of the city barely above sea level to start with, even minor flooding can be a big problem, according to the Journal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi blamed the fatal flooding on climate change, while others looked toward heavy construction along the city's rivers. The Indian government has allocated $141 million for flood relief. But Bloomberg reports losses to businesses could reach $2.2 billion, with the tourism, automobile, and information technology industries being especially hit hard. One Indian business association calls the situation "total chaos." Rains were expected to continue at least through Friday, the Journal reports.

Sometimes as a photojournalist, I find myself in uncomfortable situations. Such was the case as I photographed Joshua Mitchell at the Reynolds High School graduation ceremony Thursday night. Mitchell's brother, Emilio Hoffman, was killed Tuesday morning in a shooting at the school by fellow student Jared Padgett. To honor his brother at the ceremony, Mitchell wore Emilio's Reynolds Raiders soccer jersey over his graduation gown. I was one of a few photographers who had floor access during the ceremony. Before Mitchell walked the graduation line, I evaluated where I might position myself to best shoot his photo. I noticed that students weren't reacting to the crowd when they received their diplomas, but rather when they walked down a ramp toward assistant principal John Dixon. Based on this I opted for the left side of the ramp, but at the diploma exchange I found my view blocked so I quickly moved to the other side as Mitchell made his last handshake. It was then that Mitchell turned his back to the crowd, revealing Emilio's number 29, and raised his arms, a diploma and plaque in one hand and his other hand made into a fist. The discomfort came for me when he turned back and I could see the emotional intensity in his face. There I was, standing, in front of all the students and the friends and families in the audience, feeling a bit like an intruder in the moment. I quickly downloaded my camera cards into my laptop and sent the arms up photo first, feeling like it was THE moment and then followed with several pictures from the ramp walk and Mitchell's hug with Dixon. I woke up early this morning, wondering if I had violated Mitchell's moment. Only he can answer that. The photo of Mitchell turning back has been very popular on social media, with more than 900 retweets and thousands of Facebook likes. What do you think about the photo? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

– Graduating seniors at Reynolds High School in Oregon collected their diplomas this week just two days after a fatal shooting at their school. And one of those seniors happens to be the older brother of 14-year-old victim Emilio Hoffman. In tribute, Joshua Mitchell wore his little brother's soccer jersey over his formal cap and gown—and he turned his back to the audience to raise his arms and flash them the No. 29 on stage, reports the Oregonian. His classmates stood and cheered, and the photographer who captured the emotional, unplanned scene writes about it here.

(By Gavin Lesnick) [View Full-Size] Photo by Pulaski County sheriff's office Arron Lewis Photo by Gavin Lesnick Pulaski County sheriff's deputies work Argos Concrete Co., 12117 Arkansas 5 in Cabot, where Realtor Beverly Carter's body was found buried behind the building Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014. (By Gavin Lesnick) [View Full-Size] Realtor's body found in shallow grave; Lewis charged with murder Authorities early Tuesday found the body of missing Realtor Beverly Carter in a shallow grave outside Cabot. - Photo by Ron Blome / NBC News Authorities overnight found the body of missing real estate agent Beverly Carter buried in a shallow grave on property in Cabot, and the man arrested in her kidnapping has entered a preliminary innocent plea to a capital murder charge. We do not believe at this point he was involved in the commission of this crime.” Pulaski County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Johnson said Lewis appeared Tuesday morning in Pulaski County District Court and entered preliminary innocent pleas to charges of capital murder and kidnapping. Early Tuesday morning, investigators found the body of Beverly Carter, 49, at Argos Concrete Company in a rural area about 25 miles northeast of Little Rock and more than 20 miles away from Scott, where she had an appointment to show a house Thursday but hadn't been seen since. [FULL VIDEO] Lewis did say he was sorry, Minden said, and he admitted to investigators that he abducted Carter, evidence that "strongly ties him to the case." Shortly after being taken to the jail, investigators got a "major break in the case" that led them to the concrete business in far northern Pulaski County. Lewis previously worked for the concrete company, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Tuesday. Lewis, 33, was being held on $1 million bail in the Pulaski County jail. Lewis spoke briefly to reporters Tuesday morning as he was taken from the jail to the sheriff's office, where he was interviewed again after spending more than 12 hours with investigators Monday. Lewis told reporters Tuesday as he was being taken from the jail to the sheriff's office that he didn't kill Carter, and described her as "a woman that worked alone — a rich broker." Arron Lewis, the suspect, denied killing Beverly Carter, and mentioned a co-defendant during the brief comments to reporters Tuesday while being led by police in handcuffs. Officials discuss Beverly Carter case at news conference Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay and Prosecutor Larry Jegley were among those answering questions Tuesday afternoon at a news conference on the Beverly Carter case. "I just want to express my condolences to the Carter family and her friends who have worked so hard to find her and these investigators who were committed to finding her," Holladay told reporters Tuesday morning.

– A little more light is perhaps being shed on the death of real estate agent Beverly Carter: A suspect in the murder, Arron Lewis, told reporters that Carter was targeted because "she was a woman that worked alone—a rich broker," Fox News reports. But he's not saying he was to blame. He referred to a co-defendant, Fox News notes; meanwhile, the AP reports that Lewis has pleaded not guilty to preliminary kidnapping and capital murder charges—though he reportedly admitted the kidnapping to authorities. Carter's body was found this morning at a concrete company property more than 20 miles from where she went missing; Lewis once worked for the company, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.

Sam Smith, from Muswell Hill, changed his name by deed poll to reflect his love of the food after a night in the pub. Well, this man in the U.K. apparently once ate a bacon double cheeseburger so delicious that he decided to honor it by literally changing his own name to Bacon Double Cheeseburger. “It was largely the most ridiculous thing we could think of. My mum was furious but my dad thinks it’s hilarious. That’s something we’re discussing a lot.

– We get that if your name is Simon Smith, you might long for more exotic nomenclature. But this British bloke admits his recent name change was "the culmination of probably too many drinks in the pub," per the Evening Standard. Smith, now officially known as Mr. Bacon Double Cheeseburger, says he and his pals were chatting about switching up names when his Burger King-inspired moniker was suggested. "It was largely the most ridiculous thing we could think of," says the 33-year-old, whom Time calls a "hero." "My friends were quite supportive of anything that makes me look silly, as good friends are." He filled out the required application, and when the final papers arrived for him to sign, he was—"perhaps unfortunately," the Standard notes—drinking with the same group of friends. They prodded him to seal the deal, for which he now says he has "no regrets." Reaction to his new name has been mixed: He says his mom was "furious," his dad thought it was "hilarious," and his fiancee—well, she'll probably make him change it back before the wedding, per the Standard. He travels a lot for work to the Far East, where he says they don't realize "Bacon" isn't a valid first name, but he concedes people he meets in Europe think it's "pretty weird." And he does keep his original name on his résumé, preferring to "drop that bombshell [only] after the contracts have been signed." He's still prickly about his erstwhile appellation: Cheeseburger took the Standard to task for reporting he was previously known as Sam Smith, tweeting, "You got my name wrong, it was SIMON SMITH. FFS. Sam Smith would be a ridiculous name." Whatever his former name, the man now known as Cheeseburger is reaping at least one perk: Burger joints are offering him free bacon double cheeseburgers if he provides proof of the name change, the BBC reports.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers says an article in The New York Times on Benghazi doesn’t square with intelligence assessments about last year’s attacks on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city. Issa on defense over Benghazi statements Rep. Darrell Issa, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on Sunday defended his past statements on Benghazi in response to a New York Times story that said it had “turned up no evidence that Al Qaeda or other international terrorist groups had any role in the assault.” “There is a group that was involved that claims an affiliation with Al Qaeda,” the California Republican said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” insisting that he was accurate in his past assertion that Al Qaeda was involved in the attacks. “Younger people are signing up less frequently than hoped.” Dean, a physician who formerly chaired the Democratic National Committee, also defended Obamacare and knocked its critics, accusing them of “hyperbole” and saying they “look incredibly partisan.” “I think the first year is going to be more successful than most people think,” he said.

– Congressmembers took turns today swinging at yesterday's New York Times report that al-Qaeda wasn't involved in the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, with Darrell Issa defending his past statements implicating the terror group. "There is a group that was involved that claims an affiliation with al-Qaeda," he said, per Politico. Of the Times' conclusion that the attack was "fueled in large part by anger at an American-made video denigrating Islam," Issa countered, saying, "We have seen no evidence that the video was widely seen in Benghazi. People from this administration … have said under oath there was no evidence of any reaction to a video." Democrat Adam Schiff of California stood by Qaeda's involvement, but said the Times report "adds some valuable insights," reports Politico. "It is a complex picture." Said Michigan Republican Mike Rogers, "I find the timing odd. I don’t want to speculate on why (the NYT) might do it." Elsewhere on your Sunday dial, as per Politico: Ted Cruz on his 'whirlwind' first year: "This is a city where it’s all politics all the time. And I’m trying to do my best not to pay attention to the politics, to focus on fixing the problems. I know it’s hard to believe, because no one in this town does that. This is a time for people to step up and do the right thing. And that’s what I’m trying to do." Howard Dean on ObamaCare: "There are going to be problems. The data does show that less healthy people are signing up. Younger people are signing up less frequently than hoped." Critics, however, are guilty of "hyperbole" and "look incredibly partisan," and "the first year is going to be more successful than most people think." GOP commentator Ana Navarro on GOP incumbents vs. the Tea Party: "I think you're going to see them win their primaries because they're taking it seriously, they're campaigning hard, they're raising the money and they're doing what they have to do. They're not about to get Richard Lugared." Joe Lieberman says he would still vote for ObamaCare: "The rollout of ObamaCare has been bad," as was the status quo. "The best thing that could happen now is for both parties to sit down and figure out how to fix the current system."

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday denounced the rape of a woman by five men at a Brooklyn playground, pledging police would work to swiftly apprehend the suspects in “this vicious crime.” Police said on Saturday the men took turns raping the 18-year-old woman at the playground operated by the New York City Parks Department in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn just after 9 p.m. on Thursday. One of the men, who was armed, pointed a gun at them and ordered her father to leave. The authorities said the father left the woman with the group of men, who then each raped her at gunpoint. The men fled the scene when her father returned a short time later with two uniformed police officers, the police said. Police released surveillance video taken in a nearby bodega that they said showed the five suspects before the attack. The video shows a group of young black men in hooded sweatshirts and light jackets laughing and smiling. The police have asked for the public’s assistance in identifying and locating the men. The woman was taken to Kings County Hospital Center, where she was treated and released, the police said.

– A group of five men raped a teenager one-at-a-time in a Brooklyn playground on Thursday night after ordering her father to flee at gunpoint, police say. The 18-year-old survivor, unnamed in media reports, was with her dad in Osborn Playground at about 11:15pm when the suspects allegedly came up, the New York Daily News reports. One of the men is said to have drawn a gun in the Brownsville facility and given the father a simple order: "Get the f--- out of here." The father then fled to call 911, and when he came back with two cops, the suspects ran in all directions. The survivor received treatment at Kings County Hospital, but the suspects all escaped. Now police are seeking help by releasing video of five black, male suspects in a nearby bodega before the assault, Reuters reports. They're wearing light jackets, hoodies, and can be seen smiling and laughing, the New York Times notes. Now nearby residents are taking a second look at Osborn Playground, which includes climbing equipment and is normally used by middle-school kids during the day. "I have to keep an eye out," says a 52-year-old who adds that her 16-year-old daughter is no longer allowed in the playground. "To me, I thought this was safe."

The report, written by Environmental Protection Agency scientists, includes findings that are more open-ended than those in a draft version last year, when the agency said fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, isn’t having “widespread, systematic impacts on drinking water.” ... WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that hydraulic fracturing, the oil and gas extraction technique also known as fracking, has contaminated drinking water in some circumstances, according to the final version of a comprehensive study first issued in 2015. WASHINGTON—Fracking can affect drinking water supplies in certain circumstances, the Obama administration said in a long-awaited report issued Tuesday, leaving open the possibility of more widespread impacts that it says can’t be determined with current data. “There are instances where fracking has impacted drinking water resources,” said Thomas Burke, a deputy assistant administrator and science adviser with the EPA, in a phone call with reporters Tuesday morning. “This study took five years to complete, and in that time EPA found nothing to suggest that fracking is a serious risk to groundwater,” wrote Katie Brown, a spokeswoman for the group, in a response to the EPA report. The report, the largest and most comprehensive of its kind to date on the effects of fracking on water supply, comes as President-elect Donald J. Trump has vowed to expand fracking and roll back existing regulations on the process.

– Weeks before it gets an exceptionally fracking-friendly new chief, the Environmental Protection Agency has done a U-turn on the threat the process may pose to drinking water. The final version of a long-awaited report has removed a sentence that says fracking is not having a "widespread, systemic impact" on America's water, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The report now leaves open the possibility that fracking could be having a major impact. "While the number of identified cases of drinking water contamination is small, the scientific evidence is insufficient to support estimates of the frequency of contamination," EPA spokesman Thomas Burke tells the Wall Street Journal. "Scientists involved with finalizing the assessment specifically identified this uncertainty in the report." The report had been in the works since 2010 and industry groups slammed the EPA for reversing course just before President Obama leaves office. Environmental groups, however, praised the agency for delivering a conclusion they said was based on science instead of political considerations. "This report acknowledges what far too many communities across this country know to be true—fracking is a threat to our clean drinking water," Madeleine Foote of the League of Conservation voters tells the New York Times. "Given EPA administrator nominee Scott Pruitt's record of fighting fracking regulations, it will be important during the confirmation process for senators to ask him if he will follow the recommendations of the agency's scientists, or continue to rely on industry spin." (The EPA shut down 17 wells after a strong quake in Oklahoma earlier this year.)

ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) — A gunman opened fire inside a classroom at a rural Oregon community college Thursday, killing at least nine people before dying in a shootout with police, authorities said. Photos: Shooting at Oregon community college Community members attend a candlelight vigil at Stewart Park for those killed during a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, on Thursday, October 1. Umpqua college shooter, who was born in England according to media reports, had a varied online presence that indicated support for the IRA The Umpqua shooter has been named as Chris Harper Mercer, a 26-year-old who lived with his mother at an apartment only a few miles from the college. I will not give him the credit he probably sought prior to this horrific and cowardly act," he said. Shortly thereafter, officials confirmed the shooter had been "neutralized," but not before he killed nine people and wounded seven others. The school has a single unarmed security guard. The gunman then entered the Snyder Hall classroom and told people to get on the floor, she told the Roseburg News-Review newspaper. Tactical teams/bomb technicians have cleared all campus buildings; officers working to clear hundreds of campus-parked vehicles #UCCShooting — Douglas Co Sheriff (@DouglasCoSO) October 2, 2015 Huddled together Cassandra Welding is a student at the Roseburg campus and was in class when the shooting started.

– The man who opened fire at a community college in Oregon Thursday has been identified, but the local sheriff refuses to say his name. Multiple law enforcement sources have identified the shooter as Chris Harper Mercer, a 26-year-old who lived in Winchester, Ore., a few miles away from Umpqua Community College, the BBC reports. Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin, however, says he will never utter the man's name, the Oregonian reports. "I will not name the shooter," the sheriff told reporters at a Thursday night briefing in Roseburg. "I will not give him credit for this horrific act of cowardice." The sheriff says the shooter is among the nine dead, and although he exchanged fire with deputies, it's not yet clear whether he was killed by police gunfire or took his own life. In other developments: The father of a wounded student tells CNN that the gunman targeted Christians. He says his daughter has told him that after the shooter entered the classroom, students dropped to the ground and he told them to stand up if they were Christian. "They would stand up and he said, 'Good, because you're a Christian, you're going to see God in just about one second,'" the father says. "And then he shot and killed them." Mercer lists "organized religion" as one of his dislikes in a dating site profile where he describes his views as "conservative, republican," reports the Daily Beast. His online presence also includes a Myspace page where he shows support for the IRA, and a blog in which he talks about Roanoke gunman Vester Flanagan. "A man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone," he writes. "His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems the more people you kill, the more you're in the limelight." Mercer has also been linked to an account on a torrent upload site with the username "Lithium Love," the Guardian reports. His final upload, around three days ago, was a documentary on the Sandy Hook school shooting. A California man who was married to the suspect's aunt tells the Daily Beast that Mercer is biracial, with a black mother and a white father who was "out of the picture" before he was born. He says the mother is from a "very upper middle class" household in Torrance, Calif. The apartment complex where Mercer lived has been surrounded by police tape, the AP reports. A neighbor says Mercer would "sit by himself in the dark in the balcony with this little light." She says he lived with his mother, who was "crying her eyes out" Thursday afternoon. (A visibly angry President Obama called for stronger gun laws in the 15th statement on a mass shooting of his presidency.)

Communications and Information Systems Able Seaman Andrew Bailey (L), Communications and Information Systems Seaman Georgina Brooks (C) and Gunner Richard Brown aboard the Australian Navy ship HMAS Perth look towards the HMAS Success during manoeuvres as they continue to... Gunner Richard Brown (L) of Transit Security Element looks through binoculars as he stands on lookout with other crew members aboard the Australian Navy ship HMAS Perth as they continue to search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in this picture released by the... SYDNEY/PERTH, Australia A new acoustic signal was detected in the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 on Thursday, further boosting confidence that officials are zeroing in on the missing plane after weeks of searching. The signal, which could be from the plane's black box recorders, brings to five the number of "pings" detected in recent days within the search area in the Indian Ocean. The first four signals were detected by a U.S. Navy "Towed Pinger Locator" (TPL) aboard Australia's Ocean Shield vessel, while the latest was reported by an aircraft picking up transmissions from a listening device buoy laid near the ship on Wednesday. "Whilst conducting an acoustic search this afternoon a RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft has detected a possible signal in the vicinity of the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield," Angus Houston, head of the Australian agency co-ordinating the search, said in a statement. The data would require further analysis overnight but it showed the potential of being from a "man-made source", he said. The mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared more than a month ago, has sparked the most expensive search and rescue operation in aviation history, but concrete information has proven frustratingly illusive. The black boxes record cockpit data and may provide answers about what happened to the plane, which was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew when it vanished on March 8 and flew thousands of kilometres off its Kuala Lumpur-to-Beijing route. But the batteries in the black boxes have already reached the end of their 30-day expected life, making efforts to swiftly locate them on the murky ocean floor all the more critical. "We are still a long way to go, but things are more positive than they were some time ago," Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Board, which is involved in the search mission, told Reuters. NARROWING THE SEARCH AREA Up to 10 military aircraft, four civil aircraft and 13 ships are involved in the search effort that has proven fruitless in identifying any physical evidence of wreckage from the flight. Efforts are now focused on two areas - a larger one for aircraft and ships about 2,240 km (1,392 miles) northwest of Perth and a smaller area about 600 km (373 miles) closer to that west Australian city. The smaller zone is around where the Ocean Shield picked up the acoustic signals and where dozens of acoustic sonobuoys were dropped on Wednesday. Each of the sonobuoys is equipped with a listening device called a hydrophone, which is dangled about 1,000 ft below the surface and is capable of transmitting data to search aircraft via radio signals. "That does provide a lot of sensors in the vicinity of the Ocean Shield without having a ship there to produce the background noise," said Australian Navy Commodore Peter Leavy, operational head of the Australian search. But experts say the process of teasing out the signals from the cacophony of background noise in the sea is a slow and exhausting process. Operators must separate a ping lasting just 9.3 milliseconds - a tenth of the blink of a human eye - and repeated every 1.08 seconds from natural ocean sounds, as well as disturbances from search vessels. An autonomous underwater vehicle named Bluefin-21 is also onboard the Ocean Shield, and it could be deployed to look for wreckage on the sea floor once the final search area has been positively identified. As with so many things in this unprecedented search effort, experts say that will not be easy. "Working near the bottom of the ocean is very challenging because this is uncharted territory; nobody has been down there before," Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer at the University of New South Wales, told Reuters. (Editing by Lincoln Feast and Robert Birsel)

– An aircraft searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane picked up the fifth "ping" detected in recent days, bolstering hopes that searchers are indeed closing in on the plane's location, Reuters reports. The latest signal appears to be from a "man-made source," says the head of the Australian agency coordinating the search, meaning it could be from the airplane's black box recorders; it will be further analyzed overnight. It was picked up thanks to one of the dozens of "sonobuoys" dropped yesterday; they listen underwater and transmit data to aircraft. More reason to hope the plane will be found soon: CNN reports that the signals picked up over the weekend have been analyzed, and authorities say they likely did come from electronic equipment, not marine life, and they seem to be consistent with signals from a flight data recorder. Meanwhile, Malaysian sources have given CNN more details about the search and the plane's final moments. They say: Police played the recording of the final words spoken from the cockpit to air traffic controllers for five Malaysia Airlines pilots who knew the pilot and co-pilot of Flight 370, and those pilots confirmed it was in fact the captain speaking. "There were no third-party voices," one official source says. Sources add that there was no apparent stress, nor anything else unusual, in his voice. The plane vanished from military radar for about 120 nautical miles after crossing back over the Malaysian Peninsula, meaning it likely went as low as 4,000 feet.

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– On one of the last days of his presidency, President Obama sent out the most popular tweet ever tweeted from the @POTUS account, the AP reports. "Thank you for everything," Obama tweeted following Tuesday's farewell address. "My last ask is the same as my first. I'm asking you to believe—not in my ability to create change, but in yours." The tweet had more than 550,000 retweets by Wednesday afternoon, topping the account's previous most popular tweet about gay marriage becoming legal. The @FLOTUS account also sent out a tweet following Obama's farewell address, per ABC News. "So proud of @POTUS and all that we've accomplished together," Michelle Obama tweeted. "An incredible journey filled with remarkable people. I love you Barack."

New anti-rape female condom, Rape-axe, debuts at South Africa's World Cup Guercia/Getty South African inventor Sonette Ehlers explains how her new anti-rape female condom works, at her house in Klaemond in South Africa. She is distributing 30,000 of the device at the World Cup. A South African doctor has developed a new female condom that she hopes will combat rape in the most painful way possible. Dr. Sonnet Ehlers has invented Rape-axe, a female device with jagged hooks that latch onto a man's penis during penetration. The doctor is distributing 30,000 of these condoms in South Africa during this year's World Cup. "It hurts," Ehlers told CNN. "He cannot pee and walk when it's on. If he tries to remove it, it will clasp even tighter." South Africa has one of the highest rape rates in the world, according to Human Rights Watch. It is also believed that 16 percent of the population is living with HIV. Rape-axe is inserted like a tampon and when embedded to a man the device can only be removed by a doctor. Some have accused Ehler of creating nothing more than a new-age chastity belt. "It not only presents the victim with a false sense of security, but psychological trauma," said Victoria Kajja, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Uganda. But Ehlers said that she had taken the proper research and development steps before launching the product. "I consulted engineers, gynecologists and psychologists to help in the design and make sure it was safe," she said. Ehlers also pointed out how women take extreme measures such as placing razor blades in their nether regions to prevent rape in South Africa. "I believe something's got to be done," she said. "This will make some men rethink before they assault a woman."

– Rapists will soon be in for a nasty surprise from a medieval-looking female condom designed to deliver on-the-spot punishment. The "Rape-axe" device sports jagged hooks that latch onto a man's penis during penetration. South African doctor Sonnet Ehlers, the inventor of the mini-torture chamber, is distributing 30,000 of the condoms during the World Cup. "It hurts," Ehlers said. "He cannot pee and walk when it's on. If he tries to remove it, it will clasp even tighter." South Africa has one of the highest rape rates in the world, and some 16% of the population has HIV, reports the New York Daily News. Rape-axe is inserted like a tampon. Once embedded in a man's penis, it can only be removed safely by a doctor. "It's time to fight back," Ehlers announces on her web site.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered 755 US diplomats to leave the country in retaliation for Congress’ approving new sanctions for Moscow’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. “We waited for quite some time that maybe something will change for the better, had such hope that the situation will somehow change, but, judging by everything, if it changes, it will not be soon,” Putin said in an interview on Russian television, according to Interfax news agency. ​Putin made good on a threat he issued on Friday when he said he would ​expel 455 US diplomatic staff in Russia and seize two American properties after the Senate and the House voted overwhelmingly for new sanctions against Moscow. The diplomats have to leave Russia by Sept. 1. He said the ouster of the US diplomatic personnel will put the two former Cold War foes on equal footing. “The personnel of the U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia will be cut by 755 people and will now equal the number of the Russian diplomatic personnel in the United States, 455 people on each side,” Putin said. The Russian president left open the possibility that he could take additional measures against the US. “I am against it as of today,” he said. ​Earlier Sunday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, appearing on ABC’s “This Week” said retaliation is “long, long overdue” after the Senate “voted so overwhelmingly on a completely weird and unacceptable piece of legislation​. I​t was the last drop.” Asked how Russia would strike back, Rybakov said the Kremlin has a long list of options. “We have a very rich toolbox at our disposal. It would be ridiculous on my part to start speculating on what may or may not happen​,” he said, adding “I can assure you that different options are on the table and consideration is being given to all sorts of things.” Russia has denied it meddled in the election despite the US intelligence community concluding otherwise. The Senate approved the bill by a 98-2 vote last week. The House previously approved the measure by a 419-3 margin. ​It awaits President Trump’s signature, and the White House said he “intends” to sign it.​ Russia has denied meddling in the election despite the US intelligence community concluding otherwise. A number of congressional panels – as well as the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller – are investigating Russian involvement and whether Trump associated colluded. Moscow is also still fuming over former President Obama’s decision in December to oust 35 diplomats and seize two Russian diplomatic compounds in Maryland and Long Island because of the Kremlin’s involvement in the election. Still, Rybakov said he hopes that the US and Russia can find common ground on other issues. “I believe there are several areas where the U.S. and Russia can and should work together cooperatively. Nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, countering terrorism, illicit immigration, trafficking in people, climate change, you name it,” ​he said.

– Russian President Vladimir Putin says the US embassy in Moscow will have to cut staff by 755 under new Russian sanctions, reports the AP. The move comes swiftly after the sanctions were overwhelmingly approved by Congress and the White House announced that President Trump intends to sign the legislation. The measure, which will limit Trump's ability to suspend sanctions, targets Russia for interfering in the 2016 US election and for military aggression in Ukraine and Syria. According to the New York Post, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said moving forward with such sanctions would cause retaliation. “We have a very rich toolbox at our disposal. It would be ridiculous on my part to start speculating on what may or may not happen?,” he said early Sunday on ABC’s This Week. “I can assure you that different options are on the table and consideration is being given to all sorts of things.” An official from the US Embassy in Moscow told the Post that there are currently around 1,100 diplomatic and support staff serving in Russia.

Appointed to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, Justice Antonin Scalia was the pugilistic and charismatic face of the court’s conservative wing. (Monica Akhtar,Natalie Jennings/The Washington Post) “The Court’s next bit of interpretive jiggery-pokery involves other parts of the Act that purportedly presuppose the availability of tax credits on both federal and state Exchanges.” June 2015, Obergefell v. Hodges (The decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide): “When the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868, every State limited marriage to one man and one woman, and no one doubted the constitutionality of doing so.

– The death of Antonin Scalia has many wondering whether President Obama will be able to fill his Supreme Court seat. But there's lots more coverage pouring in about the late justice: So what happens if a case ends in a 4-4 tie before a new judge is in place? The lower court ruling stands, and the case ends up being kind of a waste of time for the Supremes, reports the New York Times. Votes cast by Scalia in cases that have been argued but not publicly decided are now void, and SCOTUSBlog says his death will have the biggest effect on a major union dispute. A conservative majority is now unlikely in the case. The Washington Post rounds up 10 of Scalia's most memorable lines. USA Today takes a look at five of his most notable dissents. Dahlia Lithwick at Slate explains why Scalia's "staggeringly original mind" will leave such an important legacy. The liberal site ThinkProgress lays out why the consequences of Scalia's death are "breathtaking." The Wall Street Journal is collecting reaction from the legal world.

The witness who was with Kim and Huang stated that both individuals had taken LSD earlier in the evening, and at some point Huang began to act very strange, becoming aggressive, removing his clothing, and he began to destroy the apartment. Police blotter for Hunterdon, Somerset and parts of Union counties. File photo webart, police, crime, cops, drugs (Photo: Getty Images ) Story Highlights Kim and another witness identified Kevin Huang, 22-year-old city man and Rutgers University student, as the suspect who stabbed Kim inside the Sicard Street residence. The witness who was with Kim and Huang stated that both individuals had taken LSD earlier in the evening As officers secured Huang's apartment and took him into custody, they observed large quantities of drugs and paraphernalia about the apartment. NEW BRUNSWICK - City patrol officers found Andrew Kim, 23-year-old Rutgers University student, outside a Sicard Street home bleeding profusely from the neck on Saturday morning at about 1:20 a.m. Kim and another witness identified Kevin Huang, 22-year-old city man and Rutgers University student, as the suspect who stabbed Kim inside the Sicard Street residence. Officers quickly located Kevin Huang on the second floor of the Sicard Street home, naked and pacing back and forth. Huang was taken into custody while Kim was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital where he was treated for his injuries. The witness left the apartment to find help, and when returning, found Kim fleeing the apartment, bleeding from the neck. As officers secured Huang's apartment and took him into custody, they observed large quantities of drugs and paraphernalia about the apartment. A subsequent search warrant uncovered approximately 15 pounds of marijuana, approximately 500 bars of Xanax, a significant amount of cocaine, other unidentified pills and crystals, packaging materials consistent with drug distribution and a significant amount of cash. Huang is charged with Attempted Murder, Possession of a Weapon for an Unlawful Purpose, Unlawful Possession of a Weapon, and a series of narcotic-related offenses including possession, distribution and distribution in a school zone. This investigation continues as detectives investigate the events which led up to the assault and the scope of the narcotic activity. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Drew Weiss at 732-745-5217. Read or Share this story: http://mycj.co/1bEXM3j

– Talk about a bad trip: Police say two Rutgers University students dropped acid last night, and one got so aggressive that he stabbed the other in the throat, My Central Jersey reports. According to a witness, Andrew Kim, 23, and Kevin Huang, 22, took LSD inside a residence yesterday evening in New Brunswick, New Jersey. When Huang began acting weird, taking off his clothes and wrecking the apartment, the eyewitness fled—and says he returned to find Kim running out of the apartment with a bloody neck wound. Police arrived at roughly 1:20am this morning, found Kim bleeding badly outside, and Huang inside the residence, pacing around without a stitch on. Kim was taken to hospital, where police say he's in serious condition and should survive the attack, the Star-Ledger reports. Huang, of course, was arrested, and faces a slew of charges including attempted murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and several drug-related charges. The latter probably stem from a search warrant police obtained for his apartment, which allegedly contained about 500 bars of Xanax, 15 pounds of marijuana, a large amount of cocaine, crystals, pills, a wad of cash, and packaging that seemed intended for drug distribution.

Getty Nothing funny about 'The Interview' Just when did assassination become a subject for American humor? This is a nation that still mourns Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy and Martin Luther King — all assassinated. It is living through a period of renewed racial violence in which young black men have been killed by police and two New York City officers were assassinated in the past week. Story Continued Below But on Christmas Day no less, the big new movie release — “The Interview” — is a lampoon built around a plot to assassinate Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea. Kim is a real live person, mind you, portrayed as actually being the assassination subject in the movie. Nothing like “The Day of the Jackal,” the famous 1973 thriller that portrayed a failed assassination attempt against French President Charles de Gaulle — after de Gaulle had already died peacefully three years before. Nothing like the 1940 films of Charlie Chaplin or the Three Stooges mocking Adolf Hitler prior to the United States entering World War II. This is a distinction not lost on North Korea. The Pyongyang government is alleged by the U.S. to have mounted an unprecedented cyberattack that exposed hundreds of corporate documents within Sony Pictures, the maker of the movie. Unlike the real Korean War, no one is killed in this counteroffensive. Instead, the big revelations are: North Korea is more Internet-savvy than many thought and Hollywood more back-stabbing and even racist. President Barack Obama says Kim should lighten up and remember that the actors Seth Rogen and James Franco in “The Interview” pose no real danger. Respected critics cast the movie as one more about two aging American adolescent characters — the same Rogen and Franco — trapped in their own world just as the Korean dictator, played by Randall Park, is trapped in his. The pathos is really all about us Americans then, not Kim Jong Un after all? What a relief. Those who do the killing are never the same again. Suppose North Korea made a comedy about white racists plotting to assassinate Obama? They jump the fence and break into the White House only to find Obama drinking bourbon and listening to country music — whiter than they ever imagined. But they still kill him before the movie ends. Would America find that funny? No, killing makes a difference. All the more so in this period of madness where the U.S. faces enemies who slaughter children in Pakistan and then teach 8-year-olds in Syria how to behead their enemies. All the more so because this is North Korea, whose brutal record on human rights is so terrifying that even the United Nations is beginning to take notice. If America is to be a moral force, doesn’t it have to look inside itself as to what killing really is? Has it become so disconnected that it doesn’t understand how the rest of world might see our own penchant for violence? Killing is not a video game. Those killed are dead for a long time. Just look at modern history. It used to be that there was a military draft in which American boys were regularly sent off to fight and kill for their country. World War II in the 1940s was followed by Korea in the 1950s and then Vietnam in the 1960s. By that point many young draftees in Vietnam, who had uncles or fathers in the earlier wars, felt this was almost part of growing up, becoming a man. This reporter lived through this period as an infantry medic in Vietnam in 1969. I had agreed to be drafted as a conscientious objector and carried no weapon. But there were no right answers in that war. I couldn’t escape being part of the fighting and killing any more than the rest of my platoon, boys like me whom I deeply loved. It’s a shadow on your soul that you carry forever. And one that came home again for many combat veterans in the debate in Congress over outlawing torture after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took the lead in opposing torture as someone who had been a prisoner of war himself. For all their past tensions with McCain, veterans like Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) helped drive the bill through the House and Senate. A big part of this was an unstated code: You can ask me to kill for my country, but don’t ask me to be part of torture. In the years after Vietnam, the U.S. ended the draft and moved to a more professional, volunteer military. This worked well enough in the first Gulf War, the 1991 Desert Storm operation that was over in a matter of months. But the strain showed in prolonged engagements like Iraq and Afghanistan. The casualty rate never approached the losses in Vietnam. But the everyday American became more and more isolated from the killing, even as Army and Marine infantry were forced into repeated tours — something most draftees were spared during Vietnam. As if to punctuate this point, Clint Eastwood’s new film, “American Sniper,” about the late Navy SEAL veteran Chris Kyle, was released this past week almost alongside “The Interview.” Kyle, who served four tours in Iraq and was credited with 160 confirmed kills, was killed himself in February 2013, allegedly by a Marine veteran who is to go on trial this winter. Makes you wonder how Kyle would react to a Christmas Day comedy about assassination. Would Kyle think it was funny?

– In four days, The Interview pulled in $15 million, Sony Pictures says in a press release. That's in the period through Saturday, during which, Sony says, the film was rented or bought two million times online, deadline.com reports. But its success so far isn't something to be proud of, writes David Rogers at Politico. It's all about "a real live person" being assassinated, and that's not funny. "When did assassination become a subject for American humor?" Rogers wonders. "This is a nation that still mourns Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy, and Martin Luther King." "If America is to be a moral force, doesn’t it have to look inside itself as to what killing really is?" he asks, questioning how we'd react if, for instance, "North Korea made a comedy about white racists plotting to assassinate Obama." As for the president's own comments on the movie: Obama may make light of the Seth Rogen effort, but killing, Rogers writes, is "a shadow on your soul that you carry forever." He compares the silly film to another recent movie, Clint Eastwood's American Sniper, which tells the story of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. Kyle was killed last year: Would he find The Interview funny? Rogers asks. Click for the full piece, or read another stance from a critic who calls the film "an insult to satire."

The engineer of the Amtrak train, Michael Kempf, 54, of Savannah, Georgia, and the conductor, Michael Cella, 36, of Orange Park, Florida, were killed, Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher said. Tim Dominick / The State via AP Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, said that the Amtrak train was diverted from the main track, where it was supposed to have been, onto a side track where the CSX freight train was. A freight train passing through went barreling down the side track and slammed into the parked train, killing nine people, most of them millworkers choked by chorine gas that leaked from a damaged tanker car. The worst rail tragedy in recent South Carolina history took place in 2005 when a freight engineer parked a train on a side track near a textile mill in Graniteville and forgot to flip the switch back to the main track. The CSX freight train was empty, stationary and on a loading track when the collision occurred, McMaster said. The NTSB sent an investigative team, and Amtrak and CSX said in statements that they were fully cooperating with the safety board. It did not address the cause of the crash but said CSX maintains all the tracks and signal systems where the accident happened and controls access to the sidings and yards. Anderson added that the Amtrak train was supposed to be on the main line "just east of the collision." CSX did not immediately return an email and telephone call. The statement added that the company “hosts more passenger trains on its network than any other major railroad in the United States, and passenger rail remains one of the safest ways to travel.” The collision was yet another crash highlighting Positive Train Control, a system that among other things is designed to prevent trains from speeding. "A fully operational Positive Train Control system could've avoided this accident — that’s what it's designed to do," Sumwalt said Sunday afternoon. (Lexington County Sheriff's Department via AP) (Associated Press) CAYCE, S.C. (AP) — An Amtrak passenger train slammed into a freight train parked on a side track in South Carolina in the early morning darkness Sunday, killing two Amtrak crew members and injuring more than 110 people, authorities said. Hospital officials said later Sunday that six patients had been admitted. At least three patients were hospitalized in critical or serious condition, with nearly all the rest treated for minor injuries such as cuts, bruises and whiplash, authorities said. "We basically woke up to the train crash," she told NBC News. "The staff members came by and made sure people were OK before we left the car. "There were a few people with noticeably bad injuries, but most people didn't seem super injured," Kinney added.

– The cause of Sunday morning's deadly train crash in South Carolina appears to be the most basic one imaginable: The Amtrak train that plowed into a parked freight train was on the wrong track, say state officials. Now the big question is how that happened. Two people are dead—the conductor and engineer aboard the Amtrak train—and more than 110 people injured, per the latest count from the AP. At least three of the injured were in serious or critical condition, and almost everyone else had relatively minor cuts or bruises. The Amtrak Silver Star from New York to Miami had been traveling about 50mph when it crashed into the empty CSX train, well within the 59mph speed limit for that stretch of tracks in Cayce, South Carolina, reports the State. The best guess at this point is that a switch in the wrong position sent the Amtrak train onto the wrong path. “Part of the preliminary indications are that it would have to be a switching issue,’’ says a state transportation official. "It was no derailment caused by a flaw in the track. The Amtrak was on the wrong track.’’ He adds that CSX owns the track and would be the one responsible for maintaining the switches. Amtrak emphasized that point in its own statement, which also said it was "saddened" at the death of its two employees. NBC News reports that the Amtrak train received verbal permission to use the set of tracks because the CSX signals were offline for maintenance. The crash might have been avoided if the tracks had a safety system known as the Positive Train Control system, which sends warnings to trains ahead of a possible collision. PTC is being phased in around the country, but it's not up and running yet on these tracks.

Law enforcement officers gather near where a body was found north of Laredo, Tex. (Danny Zaragoza/Laredo Morning Times/AP) The woman in the white pickup was feeling increasingly uneasy about the driver, whom she knew only as “David.” Two fellow sex workers in Laredo, Tex., had been recently killed, and one was her friend Melissa. The man and the woman had already been at his house, where she had discussed Melissa. He had reacted strangely, she later told authorities, and the situation had grown so tense that she vomited in the front yard before they left for a gas station. The woman’s mind lingered on Melissa. She wanted to keep talking about her. He produced a gun in response and grabbed hold of her shirt. She managed to jump out of the truck and into the night, her shirt torn from her body. He fled, and she found a state trooper fueling up nearby. She told the trooper where the man lived. That information led officers to Juan David Ortiz, a supervisory Border Patrol agent. He had been hiding in a hotel parking lot after fleeing from officers and was arrested at 2:30 a.m., according to an affidavit provided to The Washington Post by county prosecutors. Ortiz, 35, confessed to the two September murders, according to the document. But he had other confessions to make. He had killed two more women early Saturday morning in the five hours between the assault on the escaped woman and his capture. Juan David Ortiz is accused in the killing of at least four sex workers in Laredo, Tex., where he is a supervisor with Border Patrol. (Webb County Sheriff’s Office/AP) “We consider this man to be a serial killer who was preying on one victim after another,” Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar said. Webb County-Zapata County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz said he believed Ortiz acted alone in the murders while off duty. He is a 10-year veteran of the agency and worked in intelligence, authorities said. He is being held on $2.5 million bond. Ortiz was charged with four counts of murder, aggravated assault and unlawful restraint, Alaniz told The Post on Sunday. All the women involved were sex workers, including the woman who escaped, the district attorney said, and there are signs that at least some of them were not chosen at random. “Evidence points to him having knowledge and contacts within the [sex worker] community,” Alaniz said, including Melissa Ramirez, the first woman Ortiz said he killed. But Ortiz does not appear to have known the last two victims, he said. Alaniz is also overseeing another case involving a Border Patrol agent in Laredo, a man accused of killing his lover and their 1-year-old son. The victims in the Ortiz case were killed or left for dead in rural parts of Webb County, which borders the Rio Grande. Laredo is about 150 miles southwest of San Antonio. The first two were U.S. citizens, but Alaniz said authorities have not released details on the last two. The Post is withholding the name of the woman who escaped. The Texas Rangers and the Webb County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the murders, authorities said. In a statement, Customs and Border Protection said it was cooperating with investigators. “While it is CBP policy to not comment on the details of an ongoing investigation, criminal action by our employees is not, and will not be tolerated,” said Andrew Meehan, a spokesman for the agency. “Our sincerest condolences go out to the victims’ family and friends.” [Shark attacks and kills a man who was boogie-boarding at a Cape Cod beach] The National Border Patrol Council did not return a request for comment about hiring and screening standards for agents. The arrest record recounts the brutal symmetry of the execution-style killings, along with the alarm that spread within the seemingly tightknit community of sex workers after the first two slayings. Ortiz told investigators that he picked up Ramirez on Sept. 3. They drove about 30 miles from town, and she got out of his vehicle to urinate off a country road cutting through dense shrub land. Then he shot her in the head multiple times, the affidavit says. She was later found dead. Ramirez was a mother of two young children, the Laredo Morning Times reported. “I hurt a lot. All I want is justice. I want that guy to die in jail for taking the life of my daughter,” her mother, Maria Cristina Benavides, told the paper. Ten days later, investigators said, Ortiz drove Claudine Ann Luera outside the city a few miles from where he said he killed Ramirez. He told investigators that she accused him of being the last person to see Ramirez alive. Ortiz said that she got out and that he shot her in the head, the document says. Luera was found alive and died of her wounds at a hospital. The next two killings occurred in the hours after the woman escaped early Saturday, authorities said. Ortiz told investigators that he picked up an unknown woman whom the document identifies only as “Jane Doe.” He told her to exit the vehicle along Highway 35 outside Laredo, then shot her multiple times in the head, according to the document. He then went back to the city. While in Laredo, he picked up another person — whom Alaniz described as a transgender woman — and took her five miles from the site of the earlier killing. Ortiz said he shot her once in the back of the head and told investigators where they could find the body. They discovered it behind gravel pits, near a single shell casing, the document says. Alaniz lauded the woman who escaped and said perhaps Ortiz would have killed more people had she not demonstrated such bravery. He declined to discuss any potential motives, citing the investigation. Purported Facebook messages by Juan David Ortiz. (Webb County-Zapata County District Attorney's Office) At some point after the woman escaped, prosecutors say, Ortiz left cryptic messages on Facebook for his family, according to images provided to The Post. “To my wife and kids, I love u,” one reads. The other: “Doc Ortiz checks out. Farewell.” Ortiz served as a Navy corpsman, Alaniz said. They commonly go by “Doc” in the service. Ortiz was defiant and uncooperative under questioning, at least at the start. Detectives asked him to do “the right thing,” Alaniz said. Ortiz asked for the handcuffs to come off, and the circumstances behind the murders began to trickle out, the district attorney said. One woman shot in the face. Another shot from his vehicle. There were no tears. “This guy is cold,” Alaniz said. Read more: In horrifying detail, women accuse U.S. customs officers of invasive body searches U.S. is denying passports to Americans along the border, throwing their citizenship into question The Border Patrol tries to win over Hispanic communities — by singing love songs in Spanish California professor, writer of confidential Brett Kavanaugh letter, speaks out about her allegation of sexual assault

– Police say a woman who escaped from an accused serial killer in Laredo, Texas, likely saved lives. Authorities were still piecing together the details of the case of veteran Border Patrol agent Juan David Ortiz, who allegedly killed four people and attempted to kidnap a fifth before his arrest over the weekend. The woman who escaped, a sex worker, told police that Ortiz, 35, picked her up on the street and took her to his home, reports the Corpus Christi Caller Times. She said he began acting "weird" when she kept talking about the recent murder of two other sex workers, one of them a friend. They left his home, and the woman, by now afraid for her life, made a break for it at a gas station, according to the police affidavit. Ortiz allegedly pulled a gun on her in his pickup truck, and she leaped out of the vehicle as he tried to grab her shirt. She then ran to a trooper at the gas station. Police arrested Ortiz hours later, at 2:30am, in a hotel parking lot, but they say he had killed two more women, also sex workers, in the interim, reports the Washington Post. One of the latter victims was transgender. Ortiz reportedly told investigators that he shot his first victim by the side of the road on Sept. 3 after a sexual encounter and the second after she accused him of being the last person to see the first victim alive. "This guy is cold," says Webb County-Zapata County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz. Ortiz is a 10-year veteran of the US Customs and Border Protection, and authorities say he committed the murders while off duty. He is being held on $2.5 million bond. "It's not a big city like San Antonio, Houston, where you see that a lot," says one Laredo resident of the killing spree.

Sponsored Links Weeks after Egypt's vibrant, youth-led revolution, disturbing details are emerging about the treatment of some young female protesters briefly detained by Egyptian soldiers. Some of the women say they were strip-searched, photographed naked, beaten and forced to undergo "virginity tests" on threat of prostitution charges.At least 18 women were captured and held in military detention after army officers violently cleared Cairo's Tahrir Square on March 9, nearly a month after pro-democracy protesters ousted President Hosni Mubarak from power. After their release days later, several of them complained to Amnesty International about their treatment. The human rights group issued a public report on the allegations Wednesday, calling on the Egyptian government to investigate such claims of torture.One of the women is Salwa Hosseini, 20, who said she was arrested and taken to a military prison where she and other women were forced to take off all their clothes. They were searched by a female prison guard, she said, but male soldiers were able to look inside through two open doors and a window -- and snap photos of the degraded prisoners. In a different room, she said, a man in a white lab coat subjected them to "virginity tests" and threatened that those who didn't "pass" would be charged with prostitution.For one of the girls who claimed to be a virgin, the test purportedly declared otherwise -- and she was then tortured with beatings and electric shocks."Forcing women to have 'virginity tests' is utterly unacceptable," Amnesty International said. "Its purpose is to degrade women because they are women. All members of the medical profession must refuse to take part in such so-called 'tests.'"Amnesty continued: "Women and girls must be able to express their views on the future of Egypt and protest against the government without being detained, tortured or subjected to profoundly degrading and discriminatory treatment."Some of the alleged beatings outlined by Amnesty International even took place inside an annex of the famed Egyptian Museum, where thousands of the country's most precious antiquities are housed. An Egyptian journalist detained along with some of the victims, Rasha Azeb, said she heard the screams of women being tortured and given electric shocks inside the museum. The building was also looted during violent clashes between protesters and Egyptian security forces in February.On Monday, 16 Arab and Egyptian rights groups sent a letter to Egypt's Health Ministry urging an investigation into the alleged conduct by Egyptian doctors, soldiers and officers. The letter, excerpted by the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National , accused them of "violating the sanctity of the human self and human body."One of the signatories, Aida Saif el Dawla, who co-founded the El Nadim Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence , laughed off the idea that the Egyptian government might actually do something about the abuse. "Of course not," she told the newspaper. "But there is always somebody who knows somebody on the military council, and from that we hear them say they don't have any idea of what was happening in the military prison."El Dawla's group said it too gathered testimony similar to the complaints published by Amnesty International.In Egypt, many women face diminished chances of getting married if their "honor" is not intact. Surgical procedures to "restore" a woman's virginity are common in Egypt and across the Muslim world, as are products that claim to help women fake their virginity and make it seem as if they are having sexual intercourse for the first time.Serious crime is relatively scant in Cairo, a city of 20 million that has a fraction of the number of rapes and violent attacks of other big world capitals. But sexual harassment has long been a problem in Egypt, where poverty and sexual repression amid conservative Muslim norms have been blamed for misconduct by mostly young, uneducated Egyptian men.Many foreign tourists and workers also complain of harassment, but attacks rarely reach the severity of that suffered by CBS News correspondent Lara Logan , whose network said she was brutally sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square in February.The women interviewed by Amnesty International appeared before a military court on March 11 and were released two days later. Hosseini was convicted of disorderly conduct, destroying private and public property, obstructing traffic and carrying unspecified weapons. Several were given suspended, one-year prison sentences.Civilians are often tried before military tribunals in Egypt, where defendants are denied adequate access to a lawyer and also the right to appeal. Pro-democracy protesters who managed to push Mubarak from power Feb. 11 have also called for an end to such trials -- a move Amnesty International has supported.

– A group of female protesters detained by Egyptian soldiers say they were beaten, stripped, given electric shocks, and humiliated with so-called "virginity tests" while male soldiers were allowed to watch and take photos, reports AOL News. The women complained to Amnesty International, which found the allegations credible and demanded that the new government investigate. (Amnesty's report is here.) The 18 women were arrested in Tahrir Square not during the protests to oust Hosni Mubarak, but in a rally weeks after he left office. They were told they'd be charged with prostitution if they failed the virginity tests. “Forcing women to have 'virginity tests' is utterly unacceptable," Amnesty says. "Its purpose is to degrade women because they are women." For more, click here.

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.

– 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.)

This article is over 3 months old Officials say ‘training error’ to blame for email featuring cat in pyjamas holding a plate of choc-chip biscuits The US embassy in Canberra has apologised for a “training error” after distributing a fake meeting invitation, complete with a photo of a pyjama-wearing cat. The email, titled “meeting”, featured a photo of a tabby cat wearing a blue Cookie Monster outfit and holding a plate of choc-chip biscuits, beneath the title “cat pyjama-jam”. In the clear case of misdirected correspondence last week, the email also contained a section of Latin and recipients were given the option to hit an RSVP tab. It is unknown how widely the email, sent by the US Department of State, was distributed. US Mission to Australia public affairs counsellor Gavin Sundwall kept his apology lighthearted. “Sorry to disappoint those of you who were hoping to attend this ‘cat pyjama-jam’ party, but such an event falls well outside our area of expertise,” he wrote in a follow-up email two days after the original. “It was a training error made by one of our new staff testing out our email newsletter platform.” Sundwall said “strong new management controls” would be added to prevent a repeat of the mistake.

– The US hasn't had an ambassador to Australia in place for two years, the longest stretch since WWII—which may explain why things are getting low-key chaotic Down Under at the American embassy. The BBC reports that an apology has been issued after a "training error" resulted in a rather odd email, subject line "meeting," blasted out to an unknown number of people. Included in the now-viral message from the US State Department: a picture of a cat in a Cookie Monster-style outfit, grasping a plate of cookies, and an invitation to attend an upcoming "cat pyjama-jam." (See the image here.) The message also included words in Latin and an RSVP button for the "jam." "It was a training error made by one of our new staff testing out our email newsletter platform," State Dept. rep Gavin Sundwall tells the Aussie AP, acknowledging many will be disappointed by the rescinding of the invite, but that "such an event falls well outside our area of expertise." Sundwall promises "strong new management controls" are being looked at to make sure Cookie Monster Cat and other non-governmental mascots don't go viral via email again, per the Guardian. Mashable adds that the photo was likely taken by Jennifer Stewart of Melbourne; her photos of onesie-clad cats post to the Instagram account @my_furry_babies. (Read about another email goof, this one in Utah.)

Nicky Hayden won the 2006 Moto GP championship in Valencia Former MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden has died aged 35, five days after being involved in a crash while cycling. "The medical team has verified the death of the patient Nicholas Patrick Hayden, who has been undergoing care since last Wednesday May 17 in the intensive care unit of the Bufalini Hospital in Cesena following a very serious polytrauma which occurred the same day," the hospital statement said. A hospital statement issued on Thursday said Hayden had suffered "a serious polytrauma", which is a medical term to describe the condition of a person who has multiple traumatic injuries. Hayden, who was nicknamed the Kentucky Kid, had competed for Red Bull Honda in the World Superbike Championship in Italy on 14 May. His family were such a huge part of who he was.

– The motorcycle racing world is mourning the loss of former world champion Nicky Hayden, who died Monday after sustaining severe injuries during a training collision. Hayden, 35, was struck by a vehicle while bicycling along the Rimini coastline in Italy Wednesday, reports the BBC. Over five days, he was treated in an intensive care unit for multiple traumatic injuries, including cerebral damage. According to ESPN, the 30-year-old driver of the Peugeot that struck Hayden was brought in for questioning and passed a breathalyzer test. "We would like everyone to remember Nicky at his happiest—riding a motorcycle," says brother Tommy Hayden, who is also a professional racer. Hayden was in Italy riding for the Red Bull Honda team at the World Superbike Championship in nearby Imola, where he came in 13th days before the accident occurred. He is best known for winning the coveted 2006 MotoGP world champion title, for which he bested legendary Italian racer Valentino Rossi. Athletes and friends took to Twitter to remember Hayden for his professionalism and friendly demeanor, including British racer Danny Kent, who shared a sweet personal message from Hayden congratulating him on his own world championship in 2015. The city of Owensboro in Kentucky, where Hayden was born, commemorated Hayden—known as the “Kentucky Kid"—by flying its flags at half-staff.

Play Video 0:46 The moment Trump baby blimp lifts off - video Trump’s verbal attack on Khan came after the London mayor refused to block a plan to fly a giant inflatable “Trump baby” near parliament to coincide with the president’s visit to the UK. As a politician I should not be the arbiter of what is good or bad taste.” Khan said there would be far-right and pro-Trump demonstrations taking place on Saturday. Sadiq Khan has hit back at “preposterous” claims by Donald Trump after the US president criticised the London mayor for doing a “a bad job” on terrorism and crime in the capital. I think he has done a very bad job on terrorism. The US ambassador himself commented that one thing [the] USA and the UK have in common is freedom of speech, and the idea of restricting that and [the] right to assemble because someone is offended by something is [a] slippery slope,” he said. And, responding to Mr Trump's criticism of his response to terrorism, Mr Khan said it was "interesting" that he "is not criticising the mayors of other cities" which have also experienced terror attacks.

– London has seen countless strange sights over the centuries—but a blimp depicting President Trump as an angry orange baby rising outside the Houses of Parliament is a new one. The blimp—part of protests against Trump's visit that are planned in dozens of British cities—went up Friday morning, held with lead lines by 16 people calling themselves "babysitters," the AP reports. Tens of thousands of people are expected to march in London against Trump amid the UK's biggest police mobilization since riots in 2011. But the president will be elsewhere: His plans for the day include meetings with Prime Minister Theresa May at Chequers, her country retreat, and tea with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. Trump's meeting with May is likely to be an awkward one: In an interview published late Thursday, he accused of her wrecking Brexit and praised leadership rival Boris Johnson. Tom Newton Dunn, the journalist who interviewed him, says Trump is "really quite stung by the criticism he's been getting," the BBC reports. "He knew all about the baby blimp. I think it hurt him," Newton Dunn says. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has hit back against claims Trump made in the interview, the Guardian reports. Khan slammed Trump's "preposterous" claims blaming immigration for crime. The mayor, accused by Trump of doing a "bad job," said he had authorized the blimp because he didn't want to restrict freedom of speech.

More than 300 mourners gathered in Manhattan’s Riverside Park last night to memorialize two “beautiful and sweet” Upper West Side children slain on Oct. 25, allegedly by their nanny. The candlelight procession included Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and the youngsters’ aunts, Katie and Sarah Krim, who represented the devastated family. “They played with my kids in this park,” said a family friend, Talia Etra. “They were both so beautiful and sweet. There’s not a mom who isn’t devastated by this.” “We will always miss Leo and Lulu and think of them everyday,” Sarah Krim said. “Thank you for sharing in our heartache.” Leo, 2, and Lulu, 6, were stabbed to death by their longtime nanny Yoselyn Ortega, 50, according to police. She has been charged with their murders.

– The New York City nanny charged with killing two children in her care was fed up with being bossed around, she reportedly told detectives from her hospital bed. "She had resentment towards the parents," because "they were always telling her what to do," says a police official. Earlier reports said Yoselyn Ortega was frustrated with extra housework. She also told detectives that the children's mother, Marina, "knows what happened," the official says, adding that Ortega seemed "spacy." Ortega has not admitted to the killings, but did acknowledge being in the bathroom where they allegedly occurred, the New York Times reports. A memorial for the children last night drew some 300 to Riverside Park in Manhattan, the New York Post adds. Manhattan's borough president and two of the children's aunts took part in a candlelight procession. "We will always miss Leo and Lulu and think of them every day," said an aunt. "Thank you for sharing in our heartache." Added a family friend: "There’s not a mom who isn’t devastated by this."

Two species of the microscopic organisms, called hemimastigotes, were found in dirt collected on a whim during a hike in Nova Scotia by Dalhousie University graduate student Yana Eglit. Canadian researchers have discovered a new kind of organism that's so different from other living things that it doesn't fit into the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, or any other kingdom used to classify known organisms. (Yana Eglit/Nature) Like animals, plants, fungi and amoebas — but unlike bacteria — hemimastigotes have complex cells that have mini-organs called organelles including a nucleus that holds chromosomes of DNA, making them part of the "domain" of organisms called eukaryotes rather than bacteria or archaea. (Michelle Léger) New species Eglit wanted to see if she could find more of the creatures in the dish, and, as she was looking, she spotted another kind of hemimastigote. A second completely new species was then discovered – the scientists named it Hemimastix kukwesjijk, after the Kukwes ogre in the folklore of the local Mi'kmaq people. The first hemimastigote was identified in the 19th century, but before now scientists haven't been able to do a detailed genetic analysis on these microbes. Based on the genetic analysis they've done so far, the Dalhousie team has determined that hemimastigotes are unique and different enough from other organisms to form their own "supra-kingdom" — a grouping so big that animals and fungi, which have their own kingdoms, are considered similar enough to be part of the same supra-kingdom. In fact, he estimates you'd have to go back a billion years — about 500 million years before the first animals arose — before you could find a common ancestor of hemimastigotes and any other known living things. "They represent a major branch… that we didn't know we were missing," said Dalhousie biology professor Alastair Simpson, Eglit's supervisor and co-author of the new study. "There's nothing we know that's closely related to them." (Submitted by Yana Eglit) The hemimastigotes analyzed by the Dalhousie team were found by Eglit during a spring hike with some other students along the Bluff Wilderness Trail outside Halifax a couple of years ago. When studying the microbes under a microscope, Eglit noticed that the flagella (or tiny hairs) on the organisms appeared to be moving in a random rather than a coordinated fashion – that's unusual, and one of the signs of a rare hemimastigote. The researchers were even able to feed and breed captive Hemimastix kukwesjijk microbes, which means we won't have to rely on fortunate woodland hikes to have more opportunities to study them.

– Scoop up some dirt, and what do you get—a whole new branch on the tree of life. We can thank Canadian grad student Yana Eglit, who took a dirt sample while hiking and found two microscopic species that have long proved impossible to classify, the CBC reports. "They represent a major branch ... that we didn't know we were missing," says Alastair Simpson, a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax. "There's nothing we know that's closely related to them." In analyzing her sample, Eglit spotted two kinds of minuscule organism called hemimastigotes—one of which had never been seen before. Scientists already know of roughly 10 hemimastigote species but haven't been able to classify them. And no hemimastigote had ever undergone genetic analysis before. So Dalhousie researchers sequenced their genes using a new technique that gathers useful data from just a few cells, per Science Alert. The upshot: These organisms are as unlike other living things as fungi and animals are from one another. Technically they're eukaryotes (possessing complex cells, like human beings) and protists (not within the fungi, plant, and animal kingdoms), but don't fit patterns in the Eukaryota domain—so the Dalhousie team assigned them their own "supra-kingdom." They also named the newly discovered hemimastigote Hemimastix kukwesjijk after an ogre from indigenous Canadian lore. After all, the tiny being has hairs and ruthlessly grabs its prey. The local Mi'kmaq people "have an ogre-like creature [named Kukwes] who is also hairy and terrifying and eats other creatures," says Eglit. (Meanwhile, science has solved how to make a great pizza at home.)

(CNN) The suspect in Friday's knife attack at Amsterdam's central railway station had a "terrorist motive" and is believed to have acted alone, police in the Netherlands said Saturday. Police said the suspect is a 19-year-old Afghan man who lives in Germany. Police would only identify him as Jawed S. Two US citizens were stabbed, US and Dutch authorities said Saturday. The victims were seriously injured but are not in critical condition, the Amsterdam mayor's office said. Police shot the suspect after the stabbings. A police spokesman told CNN the teenage suspect remains in a hospital, where he will be questioned later Saturday with the help of a translator. Police in Amsterdam said they are in "intensive contact" with their German counterparts on the case. German authorities did a search of the suspect's house, where they found and seized data storage items that will be analyzed, police said. Read More

– Two people who were stabbed in Amsterdam's main railway station Friday have been identified as US tourists. The pair, who have not been named, suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries, reports CNN. "We are aware that both victims were US citizens visiting the Netherlands and have been in touch with them or their families," said the US ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra. Police have identified the suspect as a 19-year-old Afghan man and continue to investigate a motive. "All scenarios are taken into consideration, including a terrorist motive," says a police statement, per the BBC. Officers shot and wounded the suspect inside the railway station. He has not been named, but authorities say he is an Afghan citizen who lives in Germany, and Dutch police were working with German authorities to track down his background. Authorities say they don't think he deliberately singled out his victims but struck randomly.

Donald Trump on Thursday repeated a claim that he's seen a video showing a plane delivering $400 million in cash from the United States to Iran, even after his own campaign acknowledged such an assertion is incorrect. The Washington Post asked Trump's staff to explain what Trump was talking about and emailed a link to a Fox News clip that showed the January footage from Geneva, asking if that was the video the nominee saw. At a campaign rally in Florida a day earlier, Trump for the first time said he had seen a video shot by Iran, “taking that money off that airplane.” But campaign officials later told CBS News that the video in question was actually footage of the released American hostages landing at Geneva, which had been aired on Fox News. At a rally in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Wednesday afternoon, Trump announced that the months-old video had been recorded by the Iranian government and released to embarrass the United States. "Again, what the Obama administration wants to do is get off of the point. The Republican nominee had claimed at rallies twice this week that such a video existed, saying in Maine on Thursday that it was provided by Iranians "to embarrass our president because we have a president who's incompetent." WASHINGTON — President Obama on Thursday flatly denied that a $400 million pallet of cash delivered to the Iranian government in January, on the same day that four American citizens who had been detained by Iran were released, was a ransom payment, calling the latest uproar over the landmark nuclear pact with Tehran “the manufacturing of outrage.” Mr. Obama said the payment was part of a decades-old dispute with Iran that had been litigated before an international tribunal, adding that his administration publicly disclosed the agreement in January. The administration has denied any ransom was paid, noting that it publicly disclosed the $400-million payment in January and that it was widely reported at the time. It's not a question what the administration says it is or what Iran says it is, it's the reality that the money paid was -- got -- helped get the hostages released as part of the overall nuclear deal.

– As the White House continued to deflect accusations from conservatives that a $400 million payment to Iran was ransom for four American detainees released earlier this year, Donald Trump twice this week claimed he had seen video of a "top secret" transaction in which the huge supposed payout was unloaded from a US airplane in Iran, per the Washington Post. At a rally Wednesday in Daytona Beach, Fla., Trump claimed the "military tape" purportedly showing "money pouring off a plane" had been released by Iran to "embarrass" the US. He again voiced the claim about the video during a Thursday rally in Portland, Maine, adding that Iran hoped to personally embarrass an "incompetent" President Obama with the video, the Los Angeles Times and CNN report. His remarks caused a temporary hubbub, as some speculated that perhaps he had seen a classified video during security briefings afforded to presidential nominees. But what Trump had actually seen soon came to light: "b-roll footage," his spokeswoman emailed the Post, that had been playing behind news reports. It showed not a money swap but an AP clip of three US prisoners released by Iran and arriving in Geneva on Jan. 17. That led Trump to point out his own error on Twitter on Friday morning (though CNN notes he did so "without actually saying he was wrong"): "The plane I saw on television was the hostage plane in Geneva, Switzerland, not the plane carrying $400 million in cash going to Iran!" he tweeted.

A huge wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alta., destroyed an entire neighbourhood and burned homes and businesses in several others Tuesday, and continues to rage out of control. CBC Radio presents live coverage As CBC Edmonton is the only radio station currently on the air in Fort McMurray, we will continue with live fire coverage throughout the night. You can find CBC Edmonton at 93.9 FM and 740 AM By late afternoon, the entire city of 60,000 had been ordered evacuated. Residents by the thousands fled the fire and for hours caused gridlock on Highway 63, even overwhelming oilsands work camps, where beds and meals were offered. Police were patrolling the highway with cans of gas, after fuel supplies ran out in Fort McMurray, Wandering River and Grasslands. Fire chief Darby Allen said the entire neighbourhood of Beacon Hill "appears to have been lost" and the fire burned many homes in other parts of the city. No buildings were lost in the city's downtown area, Allen said. Despite the devastation, there were no reports of deaths or serious injuries. As of 10:30 p.m. MT, officials reported the neighbourhoods of Abasand, Wood Buffalo, Dickensfield, and Waterways saw only some damage. No estimates were available on the number of homes and businesses that were destroyed. Witnesses reported the Flying-J gas station exploded, while the Super 8 Motel and a Denny's restaurant were gutted. Officials said about 17,000 residents escaped the city to the north, while another 35,000 drove south, at least half that number headed for Edmonton, 430 kilometres away. 'We've had a devastating day,' Chief Darby Allen told CBC's Briar Stewart. 'It's been the worst day of my career' 1:13 Gas stations were emptied of fuel along the way leaving many motorists stranded on the highway. Fire officials said they expect Wednesday could be just as bad, with the wind expected to pick up and the hot, dry weather to continue. Allen called Tuesday "a devastating day," and said fire crews were simply overwhelmed by the speed and power of the wildfire. "Everybody has given everything today to do the very best they could," Allen said. "I can categorically state that everything that was absolutely possible to protect the community was done." Taken in the afternoon on Tuesday, the fire threatens the city of Fort McMurray. 1:21 Conditions changed quickly Conditions on the ground changed quickly as the day progressed. Allen said firefighters were "a little worried" earlier in the day, but with the 30 C heat and dry conditions, once the wind came up the fire became an inferno. "It's been the worst day of my career," Allen said earlier. "It's a nasty, ugly fire and it hasn't shown any forgiveness." By 6:30 p.m., the entire city was under a mandatory evacuation order, making it the largest wildfire evacuation in the province's history, far surpassing the Slave Lake fire that made international headlines five years ago. Previous Next Fort McMurray's only hospital, the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre, was evacuated as flames approached from the Waterways neighbourhood. The province closed Highway 63 and Highway 881 to Fort McMurray to all non-essential travel. "All Albertans are watching this," said Premier Rachel Notley. "All Albertans are with the people of Fort McMurray." Notley said she hopes to get up to the city on Wednesday depending on the status of the fire. CBC has confirmed that senior military officials are preparing for a request to come from Notley on Wednesday for help to fight the wildfires. The Department of National Defence may offer airlift and other transportation support for firefighting as well as logistical help. Alberta's opposition Leader Brian Jean, a Fort McMurray MLA, was trying to get back to the city. He believes his Fort McMurray home may have fallen to the flames. 'It's probably all blown away now' The fire had barely hit the Centennial Trailer Park before John Davidson and his girlfriend, Joanne Bates, had lost everything. "It was the second one to go," said Davidson. "It's probably all blown away now." Behind him, the flames consumed what was left of the trailer park where his former home sat. Follow our live blog for up-to-the-minute news updates on the Fort McMurray wildfires: Can't see the live blog? Click here. Davidson and Bates had lived there for more than a year and kept their vehicles and two snowmobiles there. "Everything I worked for the last two years, it's all gone," said Davidson. While the two commend the RCMP and the fire department, they are upset that they weren't able to get into the trailer park to get their belongings. "It's a disaster," said Bates. "I think it's not fair. They didn't even let us take our things, so we lost everything." Many evacuation facilities full Finding a bed for the Fort McMurray evacuees became a problem as the evening progressed. The evacuees who fled north from the town seeking shelter at oilsands camps arrived at facilities already full. "Realistically, we are seeing camps fill up. The camps closer to town have been filled," said Robin Smith, spokesman for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday night. "People are pushing on toward Syncrude." A pic of what trying to leave Fort McMurray looks like right now <a href="https://t.co/ESE7bzPkx1">pic.twitter.com/ESE7bzPkx1</a> —@ccccrystal__ The municipality is working with Syncrude to co-ordinate for the arrival of evacuees, Smith said. The camp is about an hour-long drive from town, he said. "We are asking them to take as many as they can." Shell Canada said it will open its Albian Village, about 85 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, to all resident evacuees. The Fort McKay First Nation, about 50 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, also opened camps to evacuees. Fire fight to be worse tomorrow The news won't get any better any time soon, Bruce Mayer with Alberta Forestry said in a mid-afternoon news conference. "This fire today with the temperature, the relative humidity … the fuel is very explosive out there right now," he said. Mayer said the province has nine air tankers, a dozen helicopters, and more than 100 firefighters, with more on the way. Firefighters are expecting a cold front to move into the area by mid-afternoon Wednesday, with winds gusting up to 50 km/h. "So tomorrow is expected to be a more intense burning day than today is," Mayer said.

– The entire population of the Canadian oil sands city of Fort McMurray, Alberta, has been ordered to evacuate from a wildfire that officials say destroyed whole neighborhoods. More than 80,000 residents were ordered to flee as flames continued to make their way into the city Tuesday, the AP reports. Highway 63 is the only road out of the city and flames jumped the road, panicking residents. Emergency officials say whole neighborhoods have been destroyed, but they don't have an estimate of the number of homes affected. There have been no reports of serious injuries. The wildfire, whipped by unpredictable winds on a day of high temperatures, worsened dramatically in a short time and many residents had little notice to flee. "It was absolutely horrifying when we were sitting there in traffic," a woman who drove to an evacuation center with her son and cat says. "You look up and then you watch all the trees candle-topping ... and you're thinking, 'Oh my God. We got out just in time.'" Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says it's the biggest evacuation in the history of the province and said officials are doing all they can to ensure everyone's safety. Oil sands work camps north of the city are being pressed into service to house evacuees. "We've had a devastating day" and the city has been "overrun by wildfire," fire Chief Darby Allen tells the CBC. "It's been the worst day of my career. It's a nasty, ugly fire and it hasn't shown any forgiveness."

El Caminito del Rey is opening next Saturday, on March 28th, after it went through refurbishment process funded by the County Council of Málaga that gave €5.5m for the boardwalks and its surroundings. County Council President Elías Bendodo have announced today that tomorrow, on February 24th, tickets will be available for booking. They are free, but compulsory to obtain at www.caminitodelrey.info. This web page is available in Spanish, English, French and German. You can choose date and hour of the visit, as well as, the access route, which can be from Ardales or Álora. Each user can obtain maximum 5 passes that will be valid for two months. Visits will be free while the county Council manages the trail, which will probably last for six months, and definitely not more than a year, Mr Bendodo assured. Together with the Mayors of Álora and Ardales, José Sánchez and Juan Calderón, the County Council President explained the regulations which are to be followed during the visit and the booking. The County Council agreed with Antonio Pascual, president of the electric power company Fundación Sevillana Endesa who was also present, on ornamental lightening with led lights of this natural beauty spot. Mr Bendodo said: ‘We have finally finished the project that had seemed impossible to carry out for more than twenty years. It has already become real thanks to the County Council sponsorship and the collaboration of other involved institutions’. The web page is going to be available for booking from tomorrow, 24th February, at 12 o’clock on. Active Tourism There is 6 kilometres distance between two control cabins at the end of each boardwalk in Álora and Ardales. It we take into account the distance between El Chorro Train Station and the King’s Chair, this distance is 8.5 kilometres. Mr Bendodo recommended visitors to come by train. As for the public space and safety regulations, visitors will receive a helmet at the entrance to the path. This hiking route is part of active tourism and certain physical effort is required as it takes few hours to get to the aim. The County Council president emphasized: ‘El Caminito del Rey is not dangerous at all, but it is necessary to be careful due to the characteristics of the spot.’ Adults and children under supervision, older than eight, can access the spot. They must come half an hour before the booked entrance time to the selected access point (Ardales or Álora). It is forbidden to carry children, big bags or backpacks; to light a fire, or to use umbrellas when it rains because the boardwalks are narrow and there is to occupy as less space as possible. As for the timetable, there are timetables for two different seasons. In winter time, from November 1st to March 31st, El Caminito del Rey Path opens from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., while, in summer time, from April 1st to October 31st, it is opened until 5 p.m. It closes on Mondays, on December 24th, 25th and 31st, and January 1st, as well as on days with winds of more than 35 km/h. Apart from individual tickets, from next week on, group visits with no more than 50 people can be planned thanks to the operators specialized in active tourism that co-operate with the County Council. Maximum 600 people a day The path will be able to hold 600 people a day. Fifty people will be able to access the path every half an hour. There will never be more than 400 people on the boardwalks at the same time. All these conditions are written in a Regulation Document that has been approved at a plenary meeting and will be controlled by a Monitoring Committee, which has two members from the County Council, two from Ardales and two from Álora. The Mayor of Ardales highlighted the importance of ‘generosity’ of all the involved institutions when it was about creating this project, and he thanked to the County Council for ‘its effort, dedication and efficiency.’ Mr Calderón believes that the path ‘will stimulate the area’s development, above all, in the case of Álora and Ardales, and the whole province will have benefits out of it.’ The mayor of Álora stressed that all the institutions involved in the project: ‘have done well. They have refurbished a spectacular area, so that companies can create employment inside the area.’ Mr Sánchez added that all of them ‘will help small and medium-sized enterprises to increase their profit’, and he informed in advance that his municipality will invest €300,000 for refurbishing El Chorro Train Station. Decoration with Lightening On the other hand, the Málaga County Council and the company Endesa are going to collaborate in the ornamental lightening of El Caminito del Rey Path. Mr Bendodo praised this agreement, and he pointed out that it ‘will make stronger this initiative which is meant to restore one part of the history of the province’, and it will stimulate economic activity in the Guadalhorce Valley area, and especially in the Towns of Ardales and Álora. Antonio Pascual reminded everybody that the company Fundación Sevillana Endesa is ‘closely connected to El Caminito del Rey’, considering that its property had once been owned by Hydroelectric Power Station, built at the beginning of the 20th century, which joined power stations, waterfalls of Gaitanejo and el Chorro Dam. These Málaga factories were obtained by Endesa Group, which was formerly Sevillana de Electricidad. Advanced techniques and materials are going to be used for ornamental illumination of the path and the tunnel in Ardales. Likewise, Fundación Sevillana Endesa company will place two bronze walls at each entrance point of the path where its refurbishment will be explained.

– The stunning cliffside walkway in Spain once known as one of the world's most dangerous is a lot safer now, authorities say—but still no place for the fainthearted. The recently reopened Caminito del Rey trail includes 2 miles of thin boardwalks that hang 300 feet over the Guadalhorce River gorge, reports the New York Daily News. The famous pathway was officially closed in 2000 after four people fell to their deaths, but authorities launched a major renovation project after daredevils continued to traverse the path, even though parts of it were completely gone and they had to get over big gaps, reports National Geographic, which lists it among the world's most thrilling trails. The trail's website says that after the $6 million renovation project, visitors "aren't risking their lives," but the boardwalks and hanging footbridge, "as well as steep walls, make many visitors feel inevitably dizzy," ABC News reports. It will be free to walk the renovated trail, which started out as a path for hydroelectric workers in 1921, the Daily News reports, but hiker numbers will be limited to 600 per day—and they'll be required to don helmets. (For those with a longer hike in mind, officials are making progress on the 1,000-mile Mountains-to-Sea Trail in North Carolina.)

Play Facebook Twitter Embed Police: Fugitive killed veteran cop in Florida 0:23 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog A veteran police officer was shot and killed — and even run over — early Sunday in Florida by a wanted man who felt like a "caged rat" and didn't want to go back to prison, officials said. Tarpon Springs Officer Charles "Charlie K" Kondek, a father of five children and a former New York City police officer, was killed after responding to a noise complaint at about 2 a.m. ET in Pinellas County, some 30 miles from Tampa, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told a press conference. Officer Charles “Charlie” Kondek, 45, was shot around 2 a.m. near Glen’s Eureka Apartments by Marco Antonio Parilla Jr., 23, who was released from prison in March, said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri. When Parilla, who was wanted on a probation violation, saw Kondek, he allegedly fired seven rounds at the officer from a .40-caliber gun — striking Kondek in the neck just above his bullet-resistant vest. An autopsy revealed he died from the gunshot, Gualtieri said. Parilla was arrested on one count of first-degree murder. The sheriff said Parilla told investigators that when he saw the officer he "felt like a caged rat" and didn't want to return to prison. Kondek had more than 17 years with the Tarpon Springs force and five with the NYPD, said Police Chief Bob Kochen. "He served most of his career on the midnight shift, away from his family, allowing citizens to sleep peacefully in their bed because he faced the danger for them." Parilla was wanted for violating his probation on two counts of possession of amphetamines. Parilla, who was wanted for a probation violation, had been knocking on doors in the apartment complex at 199 Grand Blvd., looking for a person who he believed got him into recent trouble with law enforcement, Gualtieri said. Kondek, a 17-year veteran of the local police department and originally from New York, was shot and killed... (Associated Press) A forensic science investigator with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office investigates the scene where 45-year-old Tarpon Springs police officer Charles Kondek was shot and killed, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2014,... (Associated Press) Flowers are placed on a police car near the scene of the shooting of Officer Charles Kondek in Tarpon Springs, Fla. on Sunday, Dec. 21, 2014. A police cruiser wrapped in a black ribbon and covered with flowers served as a memorial parked in front of the Tarpon Springs Police Department on Sunday evening.

– A Florida man who allegedly told investigators he killed an officer because he felt like a "caged rat" and didn't want to go back to jail now has little hope of ever leaving prison alive. Authorities say Marco Antonio Parilla Jr., 23, who was wanted on a probation violation, was searching an apartment complex in Tarpon Springs early yesterday morning for the person who reported the violation when Officer Charles Kondek arrived to investigate a noise complaint, NBC reports. Parilla allegedly fired seven shots at the officer, hitting him once above his bulletproof vest, and then ran him over as he fled the scene. He was arrested after crashing his car and now faces first-degree murder charges. Officials in Florida say Parilla got out of prison in March after serving more than two years for various offenses, including drug charges, the AP reports. "His reason for shooting the officer was he 'felt like a caged rat,'" the local sheriff says. "Well, he's going back to prison and he can be a caged rat in prison because that's where he belongs." Kondek, 45, was married with six children and had served five years with the NYPD before joining the Tarpon Springs force 17 years ago. He spent most of his career on the midnight shift, where people he dealt with describe him as pleasant and fair-minded. "I don't always get along with cops, but nobody deserves to die like that," a homeless man who stopped in front of a flower-covered squad car that served as a memorial told the Tampa Tribune.

Photograph courtesy Universal Pictures/Tippett Studio. David Haglund David Haglund is the literary editor of NewYorker.com. Now MacFarlane’s branched out from his insular Sunday-night-on-Fox empire and made a movie, Ted, starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis (who does one of the main voices on Family Guy). It also stars MacFarlane himself—or rather his voice, which he lends to the movie’s title character, a teddy bear brought to life when a young boy makes a wish. That young boy is the Wahlberg character, John Bennett, who grew up just outside Boston in the 1980s. John makes his wish at Christmas, that “special time of year,” a comically old-fashioned narrator tells us, when little boys and girls all around New England “beat up the Jewish kids.” That punchline is the first indication (apart from the opening credits) that this is indeed a Seth MacFarlane comedy. It’s not the last: Ted, we soon learn, is one of the pint-sized balls of pure id that populate his work. Ted was briefly famous when the world learned of his existence—we even see him on Carson, where, Ted says, Ed McMahon kept muttering anti-Semitic remarks, thinking that he was Alf (and that Alf was Jewish). But he has long since faded into obscurity, living in the Back Bay with his best friend John, who works at a car rental place, where all he’s got to do, in the words of his boss, “is not fuck up.” Advertisement He does, of course: John has a penchant for ditching work so he can do bong hits with Ted and watch the 1980 live-action film version of Flash Gordon. These man-child habits have begun to tax the patience of his girlfriend Lori, played by Kunis, who works at a PR firm with several similarly attractive and well-dressed young women and a sleazy male supervisor played by Joel McHale. Thus are the familiar rom-com parameters established: John is an immature dude with a heart of gold who must outgrow his loutish friend—who happens to be plush—and hold onto his gorgeous and super put-together girlfriend, keeping her from the clutches of a more successful but obviously evil rival. Get Slate in your inbox. In many ways, Ted hews to this tired outline. John kicks Ted out, and, after an incident at a party, decides they can’t be friends at all. Kunis, meanwhile, who helped carry Forgetting Sarah Marshall and was charismatic and sexy in Black Swan, is wasted here, getting no real story of her own: Lori wants a ring and she’s settled on John. Her resolution is at least made slightly more plausible by John’s incarnation in the form of Mark Wahlberg; dim-witted and unambitious he may be, but the man can certainly fill out a car-rental employee uniform. And Wahlberg is charming, as always, in what is arguably his first straightforwardly comic leading role (not counting The Happening). He also does a perfectly natural Boston accent, an essential skill given how heavily MacFarlane, a Connecticut native, relies on local color. * Ted even has a big scene at the Hatch Shell—with an odd, extended cameo by Norah Jones—and, like Ben Affleck’s The Town, a climactic showdown at Fenway Park. A rom-com with a climactic showdown at Fenway Park? Why yes. MacFarlane is not terribly interested in emotional epiphanies. Instead, he gives us a second villain: a disturbed, mustachioed man (Giovanni Ribisi) who has been obsessed with Ted since childhood, and who, late in the film, kidnaps the bear and gives him to his equally troubled son to play with. We shift into action-comedy mode, and any question of the bear being abandoned is dropped completely. There are some laughs along the way, but this problem with story is typical of MacFarlane. (Many of Family Guy’s jokes are dropped into random cutaways from the main action.) Also typical: the sour mean-spiritedness at the heart of so much of his humor. The Jewish jokes cited above work because they’re really jokes about anti-Semitism. But when an Asian man bursts through the wall at a party brandishing a duck and a meat cleaver and says things like “This is my home long time” and “I try to make duck dinner,” it’s not a joke about racism. It’s just racism. (Earlier, Ted had noted that his new neighbors were an “Asian family, but they don’t have a gong or nothing, so it’s not that bad.”) Similarly, a bunch of gay-panic jokes throughout the film—the Ribisi villain is unsurprisingly played as effeminate—undermine the fun of an obviously homoerotic fantasy John has about Sam Jones’ Flash Gordon. (And no, MacFarlane doesn’t get a pass just because he’s an outspoken advocate for equal marriage rights.) There’s a cruel edge to so much of MacFarlane’s comedy—the quintessential MacFarlane joke may be a punch in the face. Of which we get many in Ted: The movie’s version of the meet-cute comes when John accidentally decks Lori on a dance floor, and the show-stopping set piece is a knock-down drag-out between John and Ted in a hotel room. The latter scene bears more than a passing resemblance to the naked fight from Borat—but where the Sacha Baron-Cohen bit was done with almost unimaginable comic gusto, the MacFarlane equivalent relies on really good CGI. It is funny to watch a teddy bear wail on Mark Wahlberg. But afterward, I mostly felt beat up.

– Seth MacFarlane's first feature film is, well, pretty much what you'd expect from the Family Guy guy: a lot of bathroom humor and not a lot of story. So is it worth seeing? That depends on your tastes: "Tolerant amusement is pretty much the best this harmless little picture is able to manage, even though it strives for obnoxious hilarity," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. MacFarlane "has no particular visual knack, little interest in storytelling, and nothing better to do with his naughty bear besides stuff him into a soft, sentimental comedy that seems almost proud of its lack of wit or conviction." The Globe and Mail is more forgiving: "As unabashedly idiotic movie comedies go, Ted goes fairly well," the paper notes. "It’s rude, crude, lewd, and often funny. In other words, it’s a lot like MacFarlane’s animated show transferred to the big screen in a live-action story." At Newsday, Rafer Guzman sees "a very real heart" to the film. "This may sound silly, but the two humans and one bear make a pretty convincing dramatic triangle." Heart? David Haglund firmly disagrees. "There’s a cruel edge to so much of MacFarlane’s comedy—the quintessential MacFarlane joke may be a punch in the face," he writes in Slate.

(CNN) Volunteers and law enforcement combed the side of a highway on Thursday looking for evidence in the disappearance of a missing Wisconsin teenager whose parents were found dead in their home this week. Jayme Closs (Photo: Barron County Sheriff's Department) BARRON - A 100-person search party and some 800 tips still have not led Barron County authorities to Jayme Closs, a 13-year-old girl missing since her parents were found shot to death in their home early Monday. Hours earlier, Fitzgerald asked for 100 volunteers to help in the routine search for evidence that could be related to the case as the search for Jayme Closs entered its fourth day. Thursday's search took place about 3 miles from the family's home, according to CNN affiliate WCCO Since authorities received a cryptic 911 call and discovered the bodies of Jayme's parents in their home near the town of Barron early Monday, investigators have received more than 800 tips and have not confirmed any credible sightings of the girl. Motive in parents' death is unclear Deputies are also trying to solve the killings of Jayme's parents, James Closs, 56, and Denise Closs, 46, in the small city of Barron. Barron residents James Closs, 56, and Denise Closs, 46, were found dead about 1 a.m. Monday after police responded to a cellphone call to 911 from inside the home.

– Plenty of people answered the call when Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald asked for 100 able-bodied volunteers to search for "missing and endangered" teen Jayme Closs on Thursday—but the search along a 14-mile stretch of Highway 8 near Barron, Wis., didn't find anything that could provide a breakthrough. The sheriff's office said in a Facebook post that "nothing of evidentiary value" was found, though they have received more than 800 tips, CNN reports. Closs, 13, has been the focus of an intensive search since early Monday, when her parents were found shot to death in their home minutes after a cryptic 911 call was placed. The town of Barron, which has fewer than 3,500 people, has been deeply shaken by the murders and the disappearance, reports the Wausau Daily Herald. Police have said they don't know whether it was a random attack or a targeted one. "We don’t know anything and that’s hard," says Barron resident Cyndi Bragg. She says the community is "stuck in limbo" while the search continues—and she has told her own children to be extremely cautious. Fitzgerald has said he has a "100% expectation that she's alive," though there have been no credible sightings confirmed since her disappearance. The sheriff's office says Jaymee is 5 feet tall and 100 pounds, with strawberry-blond hair and green eyes. (The sheriff believes Jaymee was home when her parents were killed.)

DETROIT A Satanic organization unveiled a controversial bronze Baphomet sculpture in Detroit just before midnight on Saturday, after trying in vain to have it installed near a 10 Commandments monument in Oklahoma. The group’s website defines Satan as “a symbol of man’s inherent nature, representative of the eternal rebel, enlightened inquiry and personal freedom rather than a supernatural deity or being.” The Temple originally applied for the statue to be installed in 2012 near a Ten Commandments monument on the Oklahoma State Capitol grounds. Jex Blackmore, director of the Satanic Temple Detroit chapter, said temple members planned to transport the sculpture to Arkansas, where earlier this year the governor signed a bill authorizing a 10 Commandments monument on the State Capitol's grounds.

– A good day for the devil's disciples? The statue that Satanists wanted to erect outside Oklahoma's Capitol building has found a more welcoming, but apparently temporary, home in Detroit. The 9-foot, 2,000-pound statue of winged, goat-headed idol Baphomet was unveiled just before midnight on Saturday at a private ceremony in a Detroit industrial building, where some of the crowd of hundreds shouted "Hail Satan," reports Reuters. The Satanic Temple had sought to erect the statue in Oklahoma to protest the presence of a Ten Commandments monument and give the state a chance to show it espouses "the basic freedoms spelled out in the Constitution." Detroit has more Satanists than most American cities, according to the Christian Science Monitor, though the director of the local chapter of the Satanic Temple says there's a lot of confusion about what Satanism is, and the group's website defines Satan not as a supernatural being but as "a symbol of man's inherent nature, representative of the eternal rebel." Hundreds of people attended a Catholic mass to protest the statue's presence in the city. It's expected to stay in Detroit while the Satanic Temple tries to get it erected in Arkansas, where another Ten Commandments monument is planned at the statehouse, the AP reports. (Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has rejected a state Supreme Court ruling ordering the removal of the monument.)

Step forward Beau Jessup - a 16-year-old schoolgirl who has earned more than £48,000 offering advice to Chinese families on how to choose rather more suitable English names. Beau Jessup, a 16-year-old A-level student from Gloucestershire, came up with the idea during a trip to China during which she was asked to help choose a name by friends expecting a child. Beau, a pupil at Cheltenham Ladies College, hit on the idea during a family visit to China, when she was asked by friends during a meal out to suggest an English name for their newborn baby. In addition to traditional Chinese names, it is seen as important for Chinese children to be given English names to use for emails, and for future study or business with Britain. Most popular UK baby names of 2015 After choosing their child’s gender, the site invites parents to select five traits to best describe their aspirations for their child and then suggests a shortlist of three names. Each suggestion is printed on a certificate with its meaning and an example of a famous person with that name. Unfortunately that has led to mixed results, with some Chinese children now blessed with names such as Cinderella, Gandalf and even Rolex.

– A 16-year-old British girl came up with an odd, but apparently very good, idea: Start a website designed to help Chinese parents choose an English name for their babies. Her specialname.cn asks parents to pay a small fee, input their baby's gender, and choose five personality traits, out of a dozen options, they hope their child will have. Teen entrepreneur Beau Jessup has assigned those personality traits to English names, and three are chosen, shared with the family, and printed on a certificate along with their meanings and a famous person who shares the name. Jessup has offered up more than 200,000 names and has made nearly $64,000 from the venture so far, the BBC reports. The website also offers a photo gallery where parents can add pictures of their babies, the Independent reports. She came up with the idea while on a family vacation in China, when she learned that Chinese parents make sure to give their babies English names in case they later study or work in the UK or the US, the Telegraph reports. Jessup was asked to pick an English name for the newborn baby of a family friend while on the trip, and after hearing some "embarrassing" English names that had been given to other Chinese babies, she stepped in and later came up with her website idea. "Being exposed to luxury items and things like Harry Potter, Disney films, and Lord of the Rings means [Chinese parents] use those for reference," she explains. "I once heard of someone called Gandalf and another called Cinderella." Jessup, who is studying Mandarin, is saving the money she earns for college tuition. (Here's why a 61-year-old just became China's second-oldest mom.)

Any student should be proud of a 4.2 GPA —incl. @ DavidHogg111. On reflection, in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland. For the record, I believe my show was the first to feature David...(1/2) — Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) March 29, 2018 ... immediately after that horrific shooting and even noted how "poised" he was given the tragedy. At least nine advertisers have pulled support from the show since Ingraham mocked Parkland, Fla., school shooting survivor David Hogg for being rejected by colleges. “The decision of an adult to personally criticize a high school student who has lost his classmates in an unspeakable tragedy is not consistent with our values,” the company said.

– Laura Ingraham offered an apology to Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg Thursday—after multiple major advertisers heeded his call to pull their ads from her Fox News show. Hogg, who has become a prominent gun-control advocate since the mass shooting, called for the boycott after Ingraham taunted him for "whining" about being rejected from colleges, the New York Times reports. "On reflection, in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland," Ingraham tweeted Thursday, inviting the 17-year-old to appear on her show. At least nine advertisers have announced their intention to boycott Ingraham's show, including TripAdvisor, Nestle, Hulu, Wayfair, Nutrish, and Stitch Fix, reports the Hill. "In our view, these statements focused on a high school student cross the line of decency," TripAdvisor said. Hogg rejected Ingraham's apology, noting that it was only issued after advertisers started pulling out. "I will only accept your apology only if you denounce the way your network has treated my friends and I in this fight," he tweeted. "It's time to love thy neighbor, not mudsling at children." The Washington Post notes that the episode shows the Parkland survivors have power "not just in organizing rallies but in spurring corporate America to act."

The superstar with multiple Oscar nominations has everything: a brilliant career, a partner he wants to marry and, in "Moneyball," a seeming disaster he turned into a masterpiece. Still, Hollywood's producer-actor confesses to earlier bouts of depression and a relentless need to question just about everything (himself included): "This idea of perpetual happiness is crazy and overrated." Try to set up an interview with Brad Pitt, and you instantly plunge into his almost Dada-esque world. A restaurant rendez­vous would devolve into a scrum of gawkers and gapers; his suggestion that we meet at this reporter's office creates such a stir among jaded journalists, it is rapidly nixed; and Pitt's house in the Hollywood Hills is apparently out of bounds, reserved for his partner, Angelina Jolie, and their six kids -- and those inquiring minds eager to know about a decapitated head found nearby only days before. PHOTOS: Brad Pitt's THR Cover Shoot: The Outtakes So it is, like participants in the witness protection program, that we find ourselves ensconced in a 14th-floor suite at Hollywood's W Hotel this Jan. 20 -- chosen because Pitt's Cadillac Escalade can make a quick in-and-out to avoid the paparazzi thirsting to behold him. Pitt doesn't blame them. Media reports surfaced hours earlier that police had interviewed his bodyguard about human limbs scattered near the Hollywood sign. Still, he can't help being bemused. "I was watching CNN, and they said, 'Brad Pitt's home!' and, 'Brad Pitt's bodyguard!' " he laughs in disbelief. "I'm like: 'Why? " The report is nonsense, of course: His security chief happened to pass a policeman who asked if Pitt's surveillance cameras had recorded anything strange, which led to CNN's proclamation: "Police interview Brad Pitt's bodyguard, search Hollywood Hills for more body parts." PHOTOS: Brad Pitt's Most Memorable Movies Such is the life of a megawatt star, though Pitt has learned to handle it. Rarely ruffled and polite to a fault, he shrugs it all off, leaning casually against a window and revealing a previously unnoticed tattoo on the inside of his forearm. It's an outline of Otzi the Iceman, found frozen in the Alps in 1991, some 5,300 years after his death. Next to him, a series of numerals specify the height of the General Sherman Tree, a giant sequoia in Central California. Beside that, there's an inscription in French: absurdité de l'existence -- the absurdity of life. Pitt knows something about this. He's a man, after all, who can make $10 million to $15 million a film and has starred in such pictures as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Fight Club and Legends of the Fall -- work vastly enhanced by his growing stature as a producer, which flowered in 2011 with Palme d'Or winner The Tree of Life and the near-masterpiece Moneyball, a movie he saved from the clutches of death. PHOTOS: The Hollywood Reporter Cover Stories But he's also Pitt the Celebrity, not once but twice half of the most famous couple alive -- first through his marriage to Jennifer Aniston, then through his relationship with Jolie. Despite a quarter-century as an actor, this Pitt has overshadowed the actor-producer and perhaps factors into his never having won an Oscar, which might change this year thanks to his multiple nominations -- two for acting in and producing Moneyball and probably a third as a producer of Tree of Life (the Academy has yet to determine which producers qualify). "It's a great honor," he says later. "And Tree of Life! I'm doubly excited because we felt we were all but forgotten." (On Jan. 27, the Academy did not give producing credit to Pitt on The Tree of Life for the film's best picture nomination.) This is the glory, but fame and its consequences have left him conflicted, he acknowledges -- though conflict runs through Pitt like a river, to adopt the title of one of his acclaimed films. STORY: Pitt as Producer: When the Oscar Nominated Actor Goes Off Camera "I've always been at war with myself, for right or wrong," he admits. "I don't know how to explain it more. There's that constant argument going on in your head about this or that. It's universal. Some people are better at dealing with it, and they sleep with no pain -- not pain, arguments. I've grown quite comfortable with being at war." His words are symptomatic of the thoughtfulness Pitt brings to everything he embraces. He's a man far deeper than most people know -- more intelligent, curious and intellectually restless. PHOTOS: 2012 Academy Awards: The Nominees He talks about the books he's reading, Charles Bracelen Flood's Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the Civil War and A.J. Baime's Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans. He discusses the architects he has worked with to develop low-income housing in New Orleans; the marvel of Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove; his struggle to learn French (which he speaks "comme ci, comme ça"); and his love for Egon Schiele, an Austrian artist deemed "decadent" by the Nazis, whose style came to mind when he first saw that image of Otzi. Even when we broach the subject of Jodi Kantor's new book The Obamas, which describes Pitt as "awkward" in a meeting with the president ("I probably was -- you don't want to impose on a busy man," he says), he's more interested in Obama than himself, particularly whether the commander in chief has stopped smoking, as Pitt would dearly like to do. While backing Obama, he nonetheless was glued to the Republican debate Jan. 19. "I'm an Obama supporter, no question," he says. "But it doesn't mean there's nothing to learn from the other side." All his life, Pitt has learned from the other side. That's what led him to make a leap of non-faith when he rejected his Southern Baptist upbringing. "I grew up very religious, and I don't have a great relationship with religion," he reflects. "I oscillate between agnosticism and atheism." He oscillates, too, on the subject of whether he'll get married, and it's clear Pitt has shifted from his promise that this won't happen until gay marriage is legalized. "We'd actually like to," he says of his seven-year partner, Jolie, "and it seems to mean more and more to our kids. We made this declaration some time ago that we weren't going to do it till everyone can. But I don't think we'll be able to hold out. It means so much to my kids, and they ask a lot. And it means something to me, too, to make that kind of commitment." Has he asked Jolie to marry him? "I'm not going to go any further," says Pitt. "But to be in love with someone and be raising a family with someone and want to make that commitment and not be able to is ludicrous, just ludicrous." It's an unexpected confession for a man generally rather private. Indeed, throughout our conversation I'm surprised by his willingness to discuss almost anything -- from religion to relationships to Republicans -- always in a manner that seems temperate and respectful, possibly shadowed by the awareness of how far he's moved away from the thinking of his youth. "If you look at where Brad came from and charted the transformations he has realized, you'd recognize this is a person who's staged multiple revolutions in his life and career," says Moneyball director Bennett Miller. "There's a revolutionary spirit there." Pitt resists that notion at first. Then the next day he calls to say he has lain awake late into the night, mulling Miller's words. "There were many revolutions," he agrees. [pagebreak] ♦♦♦♦♦ The idea of making a movie about math, as Pitt jokingly describes Moneyball, is one of them. PHOTOS: Behind the Scenes of 'Moneyball' With Brad Pitt The project began its long journey five years ago, when Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal showed Pitt Michael Lewis' 2003 nonfiction book about baseball team GM Billy Beane and the statistics wunderkind who helped him transform the Oakland Athletics. At the time, writer Stan Chervin and director David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada) were developing it with a decidedly comedic touch. Pitt looked at the screenplay, and at Beane himself, and wanted to go in a different direction: "I read the book, and this idea of second chances and how we sometimes let ourselves be rated too much by others -- we put so much emphasis on a paycheck or what a magazine says -- made me think, 'Oh my God, there's something much bigger here.' " He offered to leave the film with Frankel, but the director graciously departed, allowing Pitt to develop the story as he saw fit. Not a baseball fan (though he says he loves sports, especially football and soccer), it was the nuances of Beane's character that intrigued him. And so, working with producers Michael De Luca and Rachael Horovitz, he brought on Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List) to script and asked his friend Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Eleven) to direct. Pitt comes alive recollecting the enthusiasm he felt at getting them all on board, literally rubbing his hands with glee, but after Soderbergh reworked Zaillian's screenplay, Sony had second thoughts. "We were supposed to leave on a Sunday to start shooting, and Steven handed it in on a Wednesday or Thursday, and the studio was not feeling good," says Pitt. "It's not that they didn't like the idea; they did not like the price" -- about $60 million. PHOTOS: 'Moneyball' Premiere in Oakland What happened next has been amply recounted: how Pascal pulled the plug; how she gave Soderbergh and Pitt several days to shop the project; how everybody passed. "Nobody wanted to buy disgraced goods," he adds. "It was dead." But Pitt refused to let it die, calling Pascal and urging her to stick with the movie. "There would be no Moneyball without him," says producer Scott Rudin. "He saved it single-handedly, and he deserves the credit for its existing at all." Pitt now approached Miller, the relatively untested director who had made only one feature, 2005's Capote (along with the 1998 documentary The Cruise), and who flew from New York to meet him, sitting with the star in a modernist house on his compound, surrounded by tools and models and outlines for his architectural ventures. VIDEO: Q&A with 'Moneyball' actors Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill Pitt was cautious, given that Miller had made nothing since Capote. "It's usually a warning sign when a director doesn't work for many years," he explains, "but it's because he's so choosy. The fact he had such an investment in the material -- which was apparent in our first meeting -- was a big green light for me." Now he had to persuade the studio. "There was a lot of disagreement about where this should go," he admits. With Aaron Sorkin brought in to rewrite while Zaillian moved on to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and with Rudin added as overseer, Pitt and Miller reworked every element during the following nine months. "We talked a lot about documentarians and 1970s films and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest -- and how the character in that movie is the same beast at the end. That was relevant, because some people involved wanted to have a big epiphany and change, which wasn't true to life." The filmmakers resisted attempts to reduce Beane's journey to the "arc" of a conventional Hollywood script. "I had some sleepless nights," says Pitt. "It was not without its pressure." His determination to buck tradition continued even when he began preparing to shoot the film, having long conversations with Beane and hanging out to talk ball with the players. It carried into the shoot, when Pitt backed Miller's decision to use long shots rather than close-ups, letting them play without quick-cutting, an "elegance" Pitt admires. None of this was accidental; none of it would have been possible without Pitt's willingness to challenge authority. "I do have a kind of knee-jerk reaction to go the other way than I'm supposed to," he notes slyly. The result is a best picture nomination, along with the one for Tree of Life, which Pitt also made through Plan B Entertainment, the companyhe runs with Dede Gardner. Together, they showPitt the producer and Pitt the star workingspectacularly in tandem, with a boldness and depth nobody could have imagined when he started acting some 25 years ago. Says one friend, "He's fully matured into a man." [pagebreak] ♦♦♦♦♦ Born in Oklahoma, Pitt grew up in Springfield, Mo., the son of a trucking company worker and an educator, with two younger siblings. "This was Huckleberry Finn country, Mason-Dixon Line, where televangelism was born," he recalls. It gave him a certain mistrust of "government and any power that may be above us and could oppress us; but that mistrust transcends into anything not like us -- that's the flip side, the not so nice side" he's proud to have overcome. Pitt's father, William, rose from the bottom of his company to the very top. "My dad came from nothing, an outhouse in the middle of winter, walking to school, and was really determined to give us what he didn't have." As for his mother, Jane, "She's very, very loving -- very open, genuine, and it's hilarious because she always gets painted in the tabloids as a she-devil. There's not an ounce of malice in her. She wants everyone to be happy." Pitt says he has aspects of both: "I can be naive like my mom sometimes, but I'm like my father. Every film I do, there's some connection to my dad, though my father's got a toughness. He's probably tougher than I am." Growing up, despite his fondness for them, he started to question his parents' religion and the environment he had known. "I always knew I was leaving," he says. "I didn't know where I was going, but I knew there was so much more to see and learn. I was always looking out and beyond -- and movies were a big part of that for me. Film shows you other [paths]." He remembers going to the local drive-in with his family, sitting on the hood of the car on "really humid, hot summer nights," eating homemade popcorn because they couldn't afford the concessions, then sneaking into 1977's Saturday Night Fever and "howling" when he saw the family gathered around the table. Pitt also describes being overwhelmed by 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. "This idea of loss, when they get killed at the end and they're gone, just shattered me" -- an awareness of death that lingers and influenced his choice of tattoo. But film was not a career option, so he majored in journalism at the University of Missouri. Then, right before graduation, "it just struck me: I was done." Two weeks before earning his degree, with $325 he'd made from working on his father's loading dock, he drove to California in a beat-up car and stayed in the Burbank home of a family friend. He didn't even tell his parents he was planning to act; he said he was going to investigate Pasadena's Art Center College of Design. He remained in the Burbank apartment for a month. "It was me and a Thai maid who couldn't speak English," he says. "I stopped immediately and went to McDonald's, had a meal, got the trades, and by the end of the week I was doing extra work and pretty excited about it." Soon, he was acting, with a four-episode stint on Dallas. But Pitt truly galvanized the public in his role as the abs-gifted grifter who seduces Geena Davis in 1991's Thelma & Louise. With that simple sequence, every agent and executive knew a major star was born. The course he took, however, was never predictable. Rather than follow the safe route of appearing in evident blockbusters, he opted for a wide range of projects, largely driven by their helmers. "Look at those directors he's worked with -- Terrence Malick, Soderbergh, Robert Redford, David Fincher, Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers. They all know just how good he really is," says Pascal. "People think of him as an actor, and he's so much more." While Pitt's star ascended with 1992's A River Runs Through It, 1994's Legends of the Fall and 1995's Seven, his personal life declined, even following his 2000 marriage to Aniston. "I got really sick of myself at the end of the 1990s: I was hiding out from the celebrity thing; I was smoking way too much dope; I was sitting on the couch and just turning into a doughnut; and I really got irritated with myself," he says. "I got to: 'What's the point? I know better than this.' " Pitt wrestled with dark thoughts: "I used to deal with depression, but I don't now, not this decade -- maybe last decade. But that's also figuring out who you are. I see it as a great education, as one of the seasons or a semester: 'This semester I was majoring in depression.' I was doing the same thing every night and numbing myself to sleep -- the same routine: Couldn't wait to get home and hide out. But that feeling of unease was growing and one night I just said, 'This is a waste.' " His comfort level already had been shaken during a prolonged trip to Yugoslavia for the filming of 1988's The Dark Side of the Sun, before "ethnic cleansing" (the subject of Jolie's In the Land of Blood and Honey). Even then, "They were talking about it and you could see the hatred. It was like the Hatfields and McCoys -- as soon as they heard a name, it put them on the other side of the fence, and that left an indelible mark on me." So did a trip to Casablanca, Morocco, in the mid-to-late 1990s, "where I saw poverty to an extreme I had never witnessed before, and we talked about inequality and health care, and I saw just what I felt was so unnecessary, that people should have to survive in these circumstances -- and the children were inflicted with a lot of deformities, and things that could have been avoided had become their sentence. It stuck with me." Almost overnight, he decided something had to give. "I just quit. I stopped grass then -- I mean, pretty much -- and decided to get off the couch." Not one readily to discuss such intimate things -- "probably one of my faults is that I don't go to this wealth of knowledgeable people I have around me; I don't do that enough, and it's part of the Southern thing of not wanting to show weakness" -- he nonetheless reached beyond his inner circle. "I sought out Bono and sat down with him a few times and got involved in some of the stuff he was doing. But it all started before that. It started with private acts," which he doesn't define. Inevitably this led him to Jolie, with whom he starred in 2005's Mr. & Mrs. Smith. While the tabloids gloat about her effect on Pitt, the two were drawn to each other by corresponding concerns. "That may have been one of the things that brought us together," Pitt reasons. "Certainly, I've met very few people more dedicated than she is. She is always studying issues, daily. She has such compassion for the people she works with." He found the same compassion growing within himself, especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which hit him hard as he'd grown to love New Orleans, where he'd spent three months filming 1994's Interview with the Vampire. "The first thing that rang wrong to me was when it was being called an act of God," he says with an unusual flare of rage. "And it wasn't an act of God. It was an act of human failure and marginalizing people and the areas that contain these people." Despite being told, "Don't go near it" -- particularly the devastated Ninth Ward -- Pitt felt "there was a responsibility to make it right, which was not being answered wholly, so I decided to make that a focal point and help families return home -- and in the process we started discovering the inadequacies in low-income housing, that it actually keeps a family trapped at a low-income level. There are a lot of shoddy appliances that drive up utility bills to hundreds and hundreds of dollars, and that can make or break a family." Through his Make It Right Foundation, created in 2007, Pitt began building environmentally friendly homes at a competitive price. He organized 21 architectural firms to construct 150 single-family houses and duplexes in New Orleans and gave millions in donations. He marvels at the result, having seen poor families living healthy lives with manageable bills. "It's remarkable," he says, "and now we want to take what we've learned and expand to other parts of the U.S. and abroad." Pitt is currently developing projects in Newark, N.J., and a tuberculosis clinic in Ethiopia -- and that's just a fraction of what he and Jolie do. The Jolie-Pitt Foundation has given millions to charities including SOS Children's Villages, Community Foundation of the Ozarks and Naankuse Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia, among others. The Chronicle of Philanthropy estimates Jolie and Pitt donated more than$8.5 million in 2006 alone. As one executive familiar with their nonprofit work notes, "You have no idea how much money they give away. It's millions and millions and most people never even hear about it." [pagebreak] ♦♦♦♦♦ What they hear about instead is the Jolie-Pitt brood, and Pitt is at his most passionate when speaking of his kids. Having children, he says, has been "the most grounding thing." "We haven't closed the book on it. There's a really nice balance in the house right now, but if we see the need and get that lightning bolt that says, 'We can help this person; we could do something here,' then absolutely." It was while carrying Vivienne -- one of his children, many adopted, whose ages range from 3 to 10 -- that Pitt fell and hurt his knee, causing him to walk with the cane his friend George Clooney spoofed during the Golden Globes. It wasn't a skiing accident, contrary to reports. "I think George went down the line, making things up," Pitt laughs. "I was just walking in our backyard, on a hill, carrying my daughter, and I slipped -- and it was those parental instincts: me or her. And she's fine." The cane is nowhere to be seen today, and he jokes about how his children kept stealing it until he gave them canes of their own. He still wears a leg brace, its outline visible under his gray pants, and can talk in great detail about how "I just tweaked this MCL [medial collateral ligament] -- I got a whole tutorial. I know all about the knee." He'll wear the brace another month before commencing physical therapy. As for the children, they're home-schooled because "we travel a lot. We were with a program that we could plug in internationally. But it wasn't the same standard everywhere, and we wanted to be able to tailor something to our kids; they're such individuals." It's partly because of them that he's learning French, and also because of that need he has to keep reaching for more. "I'm frustrated going to other countries and not being able to converse with everyone, and we're trying to spend some time in Europe and use that as a hub," he says. "I want my kids to have the gift of other languages; it wasn't an emphasis where I grew up. But those synapses close down -- they're fused shut and I'm trying like mad to open them again." [pagebreak] ♦♦♦♦♦ These interests and passions can pull him in a million directions, and he admits to occasional indecisiveness, an area where he points out Jolie's influence. "She's very quick, she's very decisive -- and that's had a great effect on me. It's her decisiveness that I have so much respect for." Jolie's unseen presence makes itself felt throughout our conversation, and his love for her is unmistakable. But the notion that she's somehow reshaped this highly thoughtful man is a myth -- at least, any more than he's reshaped her. Like her, he wants to do work that survives; like her, he is committed to the world at large. Unlike her, he claims to have no gift for the gab. "My great frustration is, I can't explain what I'm trying to explain!" he sighs, throwing up his hands. "I've got the vocabulary of a public school education and the grammar of an eighth-grader." It's not true, not the tiniest bit, but just one aspect of a man constantly questioning himself, only "satisfied in not being satisfied." In his life and in his work, he is forever stretching boundaries -- as he will in his upcoming films World War Z and Twelve Years a Slave. The former, based on the Max Brooks book about a global zombie war -- and the first of a planned franchise -- drew him because "I thought it was an interesting experiment. I thought, 'Can we take this genre movie and use it as a Trojan horse for social-political problems?' " The latter, to be filmed by Shame helmer Steve McQueen, tells the story of "a free black man in the north who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. I'm only doing a small cameo, but it stars Michael Fassbender and Chiwetel Ejiofor and there've been very few movies about slavery, certainly that had the impact of Roots." Having such an impact is at the heart of everything he does, and it's much more important to him than conventional happiness. "This idea of perpetual happiness is crazy and overrated, because those dark moments fuel you for the next bright moments; each one helps you appreciate the other," he says. "We are all searching for meaning in our lives, love and betterment for ourselves and those around us." PITT'S FAVORITE FILMS: Pitt can cite shot by shot from Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, but it's the films of the 1970s that most influenced his Moneyball.

– Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie seem to spend most of their time telling magazines that no, they're still not married, but in a new interview in the Hollywood Reporter, Pitt sings a slightly different tune. "We’d actually like to" get married, Pitt admits, "and it seems to mean more and more to our kids. We made this declaration some time ago that we weren’t going to do it 'til everyone can. But I don’t think we’ll be able to hold out. It means so much to my kids, and they ask a lot. And it means something to me, too, to make that kind of commitment." He also, of course, addresses the topic of having more children. "We haven’t closed the book on it," he says. "There’s a really nice balance in the house right now, but if we see the need and get that lightning bolt that says, 'We can help this person; we could do something here,' then absolutely." (Recent tabloid reports claim Jolie is pregnant again.) And, as he already did so controversially last year, Pitt once again slammed his life in the 1990s. "I got really sick of myself," he says. "I was hiding out from the celebrity thing; I was smoking way too much dope; I was sitting on the couch and just turning into a doughnut; and I really got irritated with myself." Read the full interview here.

After more than four decades on the airwaves in Atlanta, Neal Boortz this morning announced that he is ending his syndicated talk show on January 21, 2013, replaced by former presidential candidate Herman Cain. He emailed back, and said ‘I’m not an investigative reporter.’ This was Fox News! “We’re going to call this Neal’s happy ending,” he added later with a glint in his eye. “I’m here to support Mr. Cain in whatever he does,” says Temple. He is now heard locally on 95.5FM and AM750 News/Talk WSB from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays. “Neal is my brother from another mother,” Cain said on air. Cain is known to many as the high point of weirdness in the 2012 GOP presidential primary season. “Herman Cain is becoming the man of the moment, as far as the Tea Party’s concerned,” says Phillips. The libertarian-leaning host has more than 6 million weekly listeners, according to WSB, and is known as the "the high priest of the church of the painful truth." The most impactful was 2005’s “The Fair Tax Book,” which advocates dropping the federal income tax in favor of a national sales tax. And yet here he is, still beloved by the movement that briefly made him a legit threat to Mitt Romney. Here’s Mark Block, Cain’s chief of staff, still Internet-famous for the campaign video that featured him free-associating about Cain’s “campaign like no other” and smoking a cigarette in front of a brick wall. Its flagship show, confusingly enough will be called Cain TV.

– Herman Cain may not be a professional has-been after all. The former pizza entrepreneur, talk show host, and GOP presidential candidate is returning to the airwaves on Atlanta's News-Talk WSB radio, the Los Angeles Times reports. The man with the "9-9-9" tax plan will take over from libertarian-leaning Neal Boortz, who has hosted his own show for 20 years. Cain will grab the reins full-time after inauguration day, January 21, 2013. “I promise the torch Boortz is handing off to me will blaze as bright, as bold, and as loud as ever,” said Cain, calling himself "The Dean of the University of Common Sense." Cain appeared on air with Boortz to toast his announcement with champagne, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. “For all practical purposes, I am done with politics," Cain said. "Essentially, I wanted to continue to express my views and help educate what’s going on in this country.” (If you happen to miss Cain's gospel singing, click here.)

Conan O'Brien during the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 11, 2016. (Charles Krupa/AP) U.S. District Court Judge Janis Sammartino recently refused to toss out an unusual lawsuit accusing late-night host Conan O’Brien and his writing staff of stealing jokes from a professional joke writer’s blog and Twitter feed, claiming some were entitled to “thin copyright protection.” Robert “Alex” Kaseberg, a writer who has penned more than 1,000 jokes for Jay Leno, accused O’Brien of telling five of his jokes in his monologue on “Conan.” Kaseberg said he wrote and posted the jokes online between Dec. 2, 2014, and June 9, 2015. Kaseberg wrote on his blog he was convinced O’Brien’s team was stealing his material after the third time he heard the comedian tell a joke he had recently posted. Intellectual property lawsuits involving comedy are exceedingly rare; it's been "decades and decades" since the last one, says Sprigman, co-author of a 2008 paper, There's No Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy, that explored how comedians protect their jokes against thieves by enforcing their own comedy-community norms, and not through intellectual property law. "Comics rarely sue one another, and to some degree this case illustrates why," says New York University law professor Christopher Sprigman , a leading expert in intellectual property law involving comedy. "The judge (in the O'Brien case) ruled the case could go forward but the ruling makes it difficult" for the plaintiff to prevail. Even so, Kaseberg’s lawyer, Jayson Lorenzo, called the ruling “a victory for comedy writers, especially lesser known writers,” in a statement to the New York Times. The three jokes in question, according to court documents: The Tom Brady joke Kaseberg: “Tom Brady said he wants to give his MVP truck to the man who won the game for the Patriots. It’s a pickle no matter what." And one will have to change from a Cul-De-Sac to a Cul-De-Sackless.” O’Brien: “Some cities that have streets named after Bruce Jenner are trying to change the streets’ names to Caitlyn Jenner. If you live on Bruce Jenner Cul-de-sac it will now be Cul-de-no-sack.” The Washington Monument joke Kaseberg: “The Washington Monument is ten inches shorter than previously thought. Of course, the monument is blaming the shrinkage on the cold weather.” “The only consolation I can take from this horrifying violation is I wrote three jokes that were good enough to be on the monologue on ‘Conan.’ And they all got good laughs,” Kaseberg wrote on his blog in 2015. “Since I cannot watch the show again — it is too painful — and I have lost respect for one of my comedy idols, that consolation will have to be enough.” O’Brien also appeared to be emotionally affected by the situation. “Accusing a comedian of stealing a joke is the worst thing you can accuse them of, in my opinion, short of murder,” O’Brien said during a deposition in the case, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “I think it’s absolutely terrible.” The trial is on pace to take place in August, CBS reported.

– Conan O'Brien might soon find himself in court over allegations that are nightmarish for any comedian: He's accused of stealing jokes. As USA Today reports, a judge has allowed a federal civil suit to go forward in which Robert "Alex" Kaseberg accuses O'Brien and his writers of stealing jokes he posted online in 2014 and 2015. It's possible, perhaps even likely, the case will be settled before it goes to trial, given how tricky intellectual property cases can be. "Accusing a comedian of stealing a joke is the worst thing you can accuse them of, in my opinion, short of murder," said O'Brien himself in a deposition. Kaseberg makes his case in a blog post here. The judge said three jokes in particular are in question. Here they are, via the Washington Post: Kaseberg: "Tom Brady said he wants to give his MVP truck to the man who won the game for the Patriots. So enjoy that truck, Pete Carroll." O’Brien: "Tom Brady said he wants to give the truck that he was given as Super Bowl MVP … to the guy who won the Super Bowl for the Patriots. Which is very nice. I think that’s nice. I do. Yes. So Brady’s giving his truck to Seahawks coach Pete Carroll." Kaseberg: "Three towns, two in Texas, one in Tennessee, have streets named after Bruce Jenner and now they have to consider changing them to Caitlyn. And one will have to change from a Cul-De-Sac to a Cul-De-Sackless." O’Brien: "Some cities that have streets named after Bruce Jenner are trying to change the streets’ names to Caitlyn Jenner. If you live on Bruce Jenner Cul-de-sac it will now be Cul-de-no-sack." Kaseberg: "The Washington Monument is ten inches shorter than previously thought. You know the winter has been cold when a monument suffers from shrinkage." O’Brien: "Yesterday surveyors announced that the Washington Monument is ten inches shorter than what’s been previously recorded. Yeah. Of course, the monument is blaming the shrinkage on the cold weather."

Robin Thicke Blurred Sonogram Lines April's Pregnant with a Girl!!! Robin Thicke's Girlfriend April Love Geary Pregnant with Girl Exclusive Details Robin Thicke is about to be a father again, with a girlfriend who is barely able to legally drink. 22-year-old April Love Geary is 3 months pregnant with a girl ... the baby is due March 1. 40-year-old Robin has been dating April for 3 years ... shortly after his wife, Paula Patton, filed for divorce. Robin and Paula are still not divorced, and they have had an on-and-off custody war over their 7-year-old son, Julian. By the way, we're told Robin and April told Julian this week and he's "super excited for a little sister." March 1 would have been Alan Thicke's 70th birthday.

– Robin Thicke is expecting his second child, his first baby with girlfriend April Geary. Geary announced the pregnancy with an ultrasound photo on Instagram, noting that the little one is due March 1—the birth date of Thicke's late father, Alan. Thicke, 40, has a 7-year-old son with ex-wife Paula Patton. The singer started dating Geary, 22, soon after his 2014 split with Patton, People reports. According to TMZ, their baby is a girl.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Two U.S. soldiers were killed Saturday when an Afghan army solider opened fire on them in eastern Afghanistan, an Afghan official said. Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor in Nangarhar province, said that two other U.S. soldiers are wounded in the attack, which took place in the Achin district. He said the Afghan soldier was killed after the attack. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that a Taliban loyalist had infiltrated the Afghan army "just to attack foreign forces." A statement from the U.S. military said merely that the military was "aware of an incident in eastern Afghanistan." White House spokesman Raj Shah told reporters traveling with the President Donald Trump in New Jersey that Trump was "following the emerging situation in Afghanistan." Such insider attacks have happened before in Afghanistan. In March, another Afghan soldier was killed after he opened fire on foreign forces at a base in Helmand province, wounding three U.S. soldiers.

– Three US soldiers were killed Saturday when an Afghan army solider opened fire on them in eastern Afghanistan, US officials tell CNN. One other US soldier was wounded in the attack, which took place in the Achin district. An Afghan official said the Afghan soldier was killed after the attack. The AP reports the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that a Taliban loyalist had infiltrated the Afghan army "just to attack foreign forces." A statement from the US military said merely that the military was "aware of an incident in eastern Afghanistan." White House spokesperson Raj Shah told reporters traveling with President Trump in New Jersey that Trump was "following the emerging situation in Afghanistan." Such insider attacks have happened before in Afghanistan. In March, another Afghan soldier was killed after he opened fire on foreign forces at a base in Helmand province, wounding three US soldiers.

Officials in New London, Connecticut, turned off the water at the city's new waterfront fountain over the weekend, because people have been using it as a toilet. The fountain was activated last month and features a sculpture of a whale's tail with water spilling over it, which visitors are encouraged to run through. City Councilor Michael Buscetto III tells The Day of New London that since the fountain opened, police have responded to calls of people urinating, defecating and showering in the fountain water. He said some people who have cut themselves have also used the fountain to rinse off blood. City Manager Denise Rose says police are developing a plan to better keep an eye on the area.

– The people of New London, Connecticut, have been letting city officials know exactly what they think of their very, very expensive whale tail fountain … and it’s not pretty. The city was forced to shut off water flowing out of the public fountain—an 8,000-pound bronze sculpture built as part of an $11 million project—after receiving calls that people had been urinating, defecating, and showering in it; some people reportedly used the water to rinse off blood after cutting themselves, reports the Day of New London. "It's an $11 million bathroom," complains one New London resident. "I'm concerned with the sanitary aspect of the water," says the city councilor, who notes that the offenders are regulars. "Let's call them frequent fliers,'' he says. The city manager says police are developing a plan to better keep an eye on the area, reports the AP. The fountain features a sculpture of a whale's tail with water spilling over it, which visitors were actually encouraged to run through. Click here to see the fountain for yourself.

Jenny Sanford wants us to know she's doing fine after divorcing her cheating hubby, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, and that she might trust a man enough to fall in love again."I just have to make sure I pick someone who maybe loves me back," she tells Dr. Phil, the TV therapist, in a show airing Thursday.Actually, the former first lady has already found a new beau, and went very public with him in Washington on May 1. Meanwhile, her ex spent the May 8 weekend in the Florida Keys with his "Argentine Soulmate" mistress , reports the Associated Press. It was that affair, including Mark Sanford's secret tryst with Maria Belen Chapur in Buenos Aires last summer, his subsequent declarations of love and refusal to give her up, that wrecked the Sanfords' 20-year marriage.Jenny Sanford became something of a heroine when the affair became public, and she chose not to appear with him at his too-much-information news conference. She moved out of the governor's mansion with their four sons and worked to save the marriage. "I did the best I could in the marriage and he didn't really pull his part," she told Dr. Phil.And might she be able to trust another man in the future? asked the shrink. "I can't predict anything, but I think you have to choose to be open to it again. I've chosen to move on, and I've chosen to be happy about it. I loved, and I gave fully in that marriage. There's no reason in the world why I can't do it again. I just have to make sure I pick someone who maybe loves me back."Perhaps she's already found him, because it's clear she's dipped her toes into the bay of bliss with Georgia businessman Clay Boardman, whom she met at a speech she gave in Charleston two months ago. They were much in evidence at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner and at the exclusive Bloomberg/Vanity Fair after-party at the French ambassador's home."We're happy to be here, and we're happy to be together," Sanford, in a slinky blue frock with a plunging neckline, told The Washington Post, which reported in detail on their body language: "His arms were around her waist as they talked with another couple. And then they were holding hands. And then his arm was draped the length of her back, his hand gently grazing her behind... If you assumed this sudden relationship was a rebound/revenge charade -- well, half of the professional thespians in that room would not be capable of such a good acting job. We're totally buying it."Sanford, who achieved a measure of fame, fortune and revenge writing and promoting "Staying True," her post-separation memoir, appears on Dr. Phil with another betrayed wife, Cindy Shackelford. In March, Shackelford won a $9 million alienation of affection judgment against her husband's lover in North Carolina, after 33 years of marriage and two children.When Dr. Phil asked Sanford if she still loved her ex, she said, "I love the Mark Sanford I knew, the one I fell in love with when we married. Can I ever be married to him again? Absolutely not." But she concedes he's a much better father to their sons, now 17, 16, 14 and 11. "He sees the children more now than he ever, ever has."And what about his relationship to Chapur, the Argentine mistress?"Frankly, I make a point of not asking. I have no idea," said Sanford, who may have taped the Dr. Phil show before the recent reunion with his lover. "I've not heard that he's with her. And like I said, he's with the boys almost every weekend.""Almost" may be the operative word here. The Associated Press is reporting that the governor revealed during a press conference on an unrelated matter that he spent last weekend with Maria Belen Chapur, leading to speculation that their private time in the Florida Keys may be evidence of rekindled romance now that he's single.Both Shackelford and Sanford tell Dr. Phil they would have preferred the truth from their philandering husbands."I would have respected him more if he had just said, 'I don't love you any more, and I want a divorce,'" said Shackelford, who earlier in the show joked, "I would much rather he buy a red Corvette or something."Added Sanford: "Listening to the press conference, and the stuff he said, I think he might have been respected more if he had come home and said, 'Well, I fell in love with a lady over here,' but he never said that."

– Jenny Sanford is open to dating again. “I just have to make sure I pick someone who maybe loves me back,” she told Dr. Phil in an interview airing today, reports Politics Daily. “I've chosen to move on, and I've chosen to be happy about it.” But gossip has it that she's already found someone. She's been spotted at least twice now canoodling with new boyfriend Clay Boardman, a businessman, Fitsnews.com reports. The two made quite a show in particular at the White House Correspondents Dinner, where one observer said they “needed a room.” As for the ex-hubby, Jenny told Phil that Mark was now a better father than he'd been pre-divorce, and that she had “no idea” if he was still seeing Maria Belen Chapur. Hint: He is. He's admitted that he'd spent last weekend with Chapur in the Florida Keys.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Doctors in Aleppo are calling on the US president to come to the aid of civilians The last doctors in the rebel-held east of the Syrian city of Aleppo have urged US President Barack Obama to come to the aid of the 250,000 civilians there. “We do not need tears or sympathy or even prayers: we desperately need a zone free from bombing over eastern Aleppo to stop the attacks, and international action to ensure Aleppo is never besieged again,” the doctors wrote. "We do not need tears" -- Last doctors in Aleppo write letter to Obama pleading for help https://t.co/95zYed2B5N https://t.co/OeUM2XavX8 "We have seen no effort on behalf of the United States to lift the siege or even use its influence to push the parties to protect civilians," said the letter. The eastern part of the city has been held by rebel groups since 2012 with the recent government siege, backed by Russian air power, cutting off many supply routes. What pains us most, as doctors, is choosing who will live and who will die Aleppo doctors "What pains us most, as doctors, is choosing who will live and who will die," said the letter, which was first released with the signatures of 29 doctors, and later revised to 15. "Young children are sometimes brought into our emergency rooms so badly injured that we have to prioritize those with better chances, or simply don't have the equipment to help them." It has been claimed that one medical facility is being attacked every 17 hours, and doctors are being forced to make appalling decisions to let children die due to a shortage of blood, medical supplies and more complex scanners. Gasping for air, their lives ended before they had really begun.” They warn Obama that “unless a permanent lifeline to Aleppo is opened, it will be only a matter of time until we are again surrounded by regime troops, hunger takes hold and hospitals’ supplies run completely dry. "Death has seemed increasingly inescapable." Moreover, attacks on civilian infrastructure had left more than two million people without electricity or access to the public water network for several days, it added. "Because without us even more of our friends and neighbors will die.

– The last 15 doctors in war-ravaged Aleppo in eastern Syria are calling on President Obama to help bring an end to the bombardment of hospitals there, the BBC reports. If no action is taken, the doctors warned, there won’t be any medical facilities left within a month. "We do not need tears or sympathy or even prayers: we desperately need a zone free from bombing over eastern Aleppo to stop the attacks, and international action to ensure Aleppo is never besieged again," the doctors write. A medical facility in the rebel-held enclave is attacked every 17 hours, forcing the diminishing number of doctors to make horrifying choices such as which children will be provided with life-saving resources, they write, per the Guardian. The plea for help came as the Russians said they would suspend their air campaign over Aleppo for three hours each day to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered. The UN, however, said a 48-hour halt is needed, along with safe access to a two-lane road. Fighting in Aleppo has intensified recently as rebels have cut off the government’s main route to the west. "We have seen no effort on behalf of the United States to lift the siege or even use its influence to push the parties to protect civilians," say the doctors, whose full letter is at CNN. A US official tells the network that the White House is working with the UN and Russia on a way to allow in humanitarian aid.

FILE - In this Dec. 4, 2012, file photo, software company founder John McAfee listens to a question during an interview at a local restaurant in Guatemala City. McAfee said Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012, a live-stream... (Associated Press) A lawyer for John McAfee said Tuesday that a judge has ordered the software company founder released from a Guatemalan detention center where he has been fighting being returned to Belize. Attorney Telesforo Guerra said the judge notified him verbally of the ruling, but added that it might take a day for formal written notification to win McAfee's release, possibly as soon as Wednesday. Judge Judith Secaida did not immediately return phone calls seeking to confirm the ruling. Guerra said Secaida ruled that McAfee's detention was illegal, ordered him released, and gave him 10 days to put his immigration situation in order. It was not immediately clear if McAfee could get some kind of temporary or transit visa to allow him to leave Guatemala. McAfee has said he wants to return to the United States with his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend. Guerra said that would be his client's best option. "For me, it's best that McAfee go to the United States, that's definitely the country where he will be safest," Guerra said. "In Guatemala, he runs the risk that anything could happen to him." McAfee was detained last week for immigration violations after he sneaked into Guatemala from neighboring Belize. He had been on the lam for weeks before that, saying he donned disguises to avoid Belizean police who want to question him in the fatal shooting in November of another U.S. expatriate, Gregory Viant Faull. The victim lived a couple of houses down from McAfee's compound on Ambergris Caye, an island off Belize's Caribbean coast. McAfee acknowledges that his dogs were bothersome and that Faull had complained about them, but denies killing Faull. McAfee has said corrupt Belizean authorities are persecuting him, something officials in Belize deny. McAfee says he fears for his safety in Belize because he has sensitive information about official corruption and refused to donate to local politicians. In a live-stream Internet broadcast Sunday from the Guatemalan detention center where he was put under the government order that he be returned to Belize, the 67-year-old McAfee said he wants to return to the United States and "settle down to whatever normal life" he can. "I simply would like to live comfortably day by day, fish, swim, enjoy my declining years," he said. McAfee is an acknowledged practical joker who has dabbled in yoga, ultra-light aircraft and the production of herbal medications. He has led an eccentric life since he sold his stake in the software company named after him in the early 1990s and moved to Belize about three years ago to lower his taxes. He told The New York Times in 2009 that he had lost all but $4 million of his $100 million fortune in the U.S. financial crisis. However, a story on the Gizmodo website quoted him as describing that claim as "not very accurate at all." Faull's family has said through a representative that McAfee's skillful courting of the media, including blog posts, email messages clandestine interviews, has obscured the point that McAfee should submit to police questioning.

– Looks like there may not be a trial in McAfee's future: A judge has ordered John McAfee freed from a Guatemalan detention center, a lawyer for the colorful antivirus tycoon says. The lawyer says that the judge has declared McAfee's detention illegal and given him 10 days to resolve his immigration issues, the AP reports. McAfee has been fighting deportation to Belize, where he is wanted for questioning over the murder of a neighbor. McAfee has said he wants to return to the US with his Belizean girlfriend and "settle down to whatever normal life" he can and his lawyer says that would be his best option. "For me, it's best that McAfee go to the United States, that's definitely the country where he will be safest," the lawyer says. "In Guatemala, he runs the risk that anything could happen to him." A spokesman for police in Belize, however, says he hopes the "good working relationship" his country has with the US will help them close the murder case even if McAfee makes it back to America, the Los Angeles Times reports. Click here for more on the McAfee saga.

Abstract Recent research has begun to distinguish two aspects of subjective well-being. Emotional well-being refers to the emotional quality of an individual's everyday experience—the frequency and intensity of experiences of joy, stress, sadness, anger, and affection that make one's life pleasant or unpleasant. Life evaluation refers to the thoughts that people have about their life when they think about it. We raise the question of whether money buys happiness, separately for these two aspects of well-being. We report an analysis of more than 450,000 responses to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, a daily survey of 1,000 US residents conducted by the Gallup Organization. We find that emotional well-being (measured by questions about emotional experiences yesterday) and life evaluation (measured by Cantril's Self-Anchoring Scale) have different correlates. Income and education are more closely related to life evaluation, but health, care giving, loneliness, and smoking are relatively stronger predictors of daily emotions. When plotted against log income, life evaluation rises steadily. Emotional well-being also rises with log income, but there is no further progress beyond an annual income of ~$75,000. Low income exacerbates the emotional pain associated with such misfortunes as divorce, ill health, and being alone. We conclude that high income buys life satisfaction but not happiness, and that low income is associated both with low life evaluation and low emotional well-being. The question of whether “money buys happiness” comes up frequently in discussions of subjective well-being in both scholarly debates and casual conversation. The topic has been addressed in a vast and inconclusive research literature (for a selection of recent reviews, see refs. 1–4). No single article can settle this complex question definitively, but data recently collected by the Gallup Organization in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (GHWBI) provide a rich source of observations, as well as an unusually detailed measurement of well-being. We analyze the responses of more than 450,000 US residents surveyed in 2008 and 2009 to several questions about their subjective well-being. The results suggest a rather complex answer to our opening question. A discussion of subjective well-being must recognize a distinction between two concepts that are often confounded (5–8). Emotional well-being (sometimes called hedonic well-being or experienced happiness) refers to the emotional quality of an individual's everyday experience—the frequency and intensity of experiences of joy, fascination, anxiety, sadness, anger, and affection that make one's life pleasant or unpleasant. Life evaluation refers to a person's thoughts about his or her life. Surveys of subjective well-being have traditionally emphasized life evaluation. The most commonly asked question in these surveys is the life satisfaction question: “How satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?” The GHWBI survey is unusual in its attempt to distinguish and capture both aspects of subjective well-being. Emotional well-being is assessed by questions about the presence of various emotions in the experience of yesterday (e.g., enjoyment, happiness, anger, sadness, stress, worry). Life evaluation is measured using Cantril's Self-Anchoring Scale, which has the respondent rate his or her current life on a ladder scale in which 0 is “the worst possible life for you” and 10 is “the best possible life for you.” We find that emotional well-being and life evaluation have different correlates in the circumstances of people's lives. In particular, we observe striking differences in the relationship of these aspects of well-being to income. (For related observations in the Gallup World Poll, see ref. 9.) Confusion abounds in discussions of our question. For an example, consider the statement that “a lasting marriage…is estimated to be worth $100,000 a year” (10). This correct statement of a research finding is likely to be misunderstood, because many readers will interpret it by imagining the pleasure of a change of this magnitude in their income. The pleasure of a raise is likely to be transient, however, due to a phenomenon known as adaptation. Because of adaptation, the difference in well-being between two random individuals whose income differs by $100,000 is far less impressive than the joy and misery that these individuals would immediately experience were they to trade places. Because the observed effects of long-established income differences are much smaller than intuitively expected, they are sometimes described as inconsequential, but this too is misleading. When entered in multiple regression model to predict well-being along with other aspects of life circumstances (marital status, age, education), the effects of household income are almost invariably both statistically significant and quantitatively important. We report that household income matters for both emotional well-being and life evaluation, and that there are circumstances under which it matters for the latter when it does not matter for the former. Some of the confusion regarding the effects of income on well-being can be traced to incorrect analysis. Psychologists and sociologists often plot measures of subjective well-being against income in dollars, but a strong argument can be made for the logarithm of income as the preferred scale. The logarithmic transformation represents a basic fact of perception known as Weber's Law, which applies generally to quantitative dimensions of perception and judgment (e.g., the intensity of sounds and lights). The rule is that the effective stimulus for the detection and evaluation of changes or differences in such dimensions is the percentage change, not its absolute amount. In the context of income, a $100 raise does not have the same significance for a financial services executive as for an individual earning the minimum wage, but a doubling of their respective incomes might have a similar impact on both. The logarithmic transformation reveals an important regularity of judgment that risks being masked when a dollar scale is used. Plots of subjective well-being against income in dollars invariably yield a strongly concave function. Although concavity is entailed by the psychophysics of quantitative dimensions, it often has been cited as evidence that people derive little or no psychological benefit from income beyond some threshold. Although this conclusion has been widely accepted in discussions of the relationship between life evaluation and gross domestic product (GDP) across nations (11–14), it is false, at least for this aspect of subjective well-being. In accordance with Weber's Law, average national life evaluation is linear when appropriately plotted against log GDP (15); a doubling of income provides similar increments of life evaluation for countries rich and poor. As this example illustrates, the statement that “money does not buy happiness” may be inferred from a careless reading of a plot of life evaluation against raw income—an error avoided by using the logarithm of income. In the present study, we confirm the contribution of higher income to improving individuals’ life evaluation, even among those who are already well off. However, we also find that the effects of income on the emotional dimension of well-being satiate fully at an annual income of ~$75,000, a result that is, of course, independent of whether dollars or log dollars are used as a measure of income. The aims of our analysis of the GHWBI were to examine possible differences between the correlates of emotional well-being and of life evaluation, focusing in particular on the relationship between these measures and household income. Results Some observations were deleted to eliminate likely errors in the reports of income. The GHWBI asks individuals to report their monthly family income in 11 categories. The three lowest categories—0, <$60, and $60–$499—cannot be treated as serious estimates of household income. We deleted these three categories (a total of 14,425 observations out of 709,183), as well as those respondents for whom income is missing (172,677 observations). We then regressed log income on indicators for the congressional district in which the respondent lived, educational categories, sex, age, age squared, race categories, marital status categories, and height. Thus, we predict the log of each individual's income by the mean of log incomes in his or her congressional district, modified by personal characteristics. This regression explains 37% of the variance, with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.67852. To eliminate outliers and implausible income reports, we dropped observations in which the absolute value of the difference between log income and its prediction exceeded 2.5 times the RMSE. This trimming lost 14,510 observations out of 450,417, or 3.22%. In all, we lost 28.4% of the original sample. In comparison, the US Census Bureau imputed income for 27.5% of households in the 2008 wave of the American Community Survey (ACS). As a check that our exclusions do not systematically bias income estimates compared with Census Bureau procedures, we compared the mean of the logarithm of income in each congressional district from the GHWBI with the logarithm of median income from the ACS. If income is approximately lognormal, then these should be close. The correlation was 0.961, with the GHWBI estimates about 6% lower, possibly attributable to the fact that the GHWBI data cover both 2008 and 2009. We defined positive affect by the average of three dichotomous items (reports of happiness, enjoyment, and frequent smiling and laughter) and what we refer to as “blue affect”—the average of worry and sadness. Reports of stress (also dichotomous) were analyzed separately (as was anger, for which the results were similar but not shown) and life evaluation was measured using the Cantril ladder. The correlations between the emotional well-being measures and the ladder values had the expected sign but were modest in size (all <0.31). Positive affect, blue affect, and stress also were weakly correlated (positive and blue affect correlated –0.38, and –0.28, and 0.52 with stress.) The results shown here are similar when the constituents of positive and blue affect are analyzed separately. As in other studies of well-being, we found that most people were quite happy and satisfied with their lives. About 85% of respondents experienced much positive affect (the average of smiling, enjoyment, and happiness) each day. Blue affect (sadness and worry) was reported by 24%, and stress was reported by 39%. The average of the Cantril ladder score was 6.76. Compared with about 150 other countries for which we have corresponding data from the Gallup World Poll, these results indicate that the US population ranks high on the ladder (ninth after the Scandinavian countries, Canada, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and New Zealand), and also does well in terms of happiness (fifth), smiling (33rd), and enjoyment (10th), but much less well on worry (89th from best), sadness (69th from best), and anger (75th). Americans report very high levels of stress (fifth among 151 countries). Table 1 presents regressions of the four well-being measures on a set of demographic variables, which provide context for interpreting these measures. All of the predictors are dichotomous. The first row of the table shows the regression coefficient for an indicator of high income, defined as reporting a monthly income of at least $4,000, which corresponds to the top 58% of the population. These coefficients cannot be compared across the row, because the outcomes have different scales. The entries in other rows are ratios normalized by the coefficient on the high-income indicator, thus representing the estimated effect relative to the effect of increasing income by approximately 4-fold. The sign of each ratio is positive if its regression coefficient has the same sign as the coefficient for income (positive for positive affect, negative for blue affect, etc.). A coefficient >1 indicates an effect larger than that of the income dichotomy. Because higher incomes are always associated with better outcomes, positive ratios indicate that the predictor is associated with better outcomes, and negative ratios indicate the opposite. Table 1. Life evaluation, emotional well-being, income, and the income-normalized effects of other correlates With few exceptions, the various predictors have the same sign for all four well-being measures, but their relative sizes vary considerably. As might be expected, weekends are associated with improved affect, especially with reduced stress. Physical illness, headaches, spending a day alone, and caring for an adult all have relatively larger adverse effects on emotional well-being than on life evaluation. Headaches and being alone, like emotional well-being, are measured for yesterday, which may enhance their importance in the regressions. At the other extreme, being a college graduate is associated with high life evaluation but has only a small association with positive and blue affect and a (perhaps) counterintuitive relation with stress; all other factors being equal, college graduates report more stress than nongraduates. The Gallup World Poll found high levels of stress in high-GDP countries (16). Religion has a substantial influence on improving positive affect and reducing reports of stress, but no effect on reducing sadness or worry. Females report slightly higher positive affect and life evaluation, but also more blue affect and much more stress. The presence of children at home is associated with significant increases in stress, sadness, and worry (6). As reported recently, older people enjoy greater emotional well-being, most notably a pronounced reduction in the experience of stress and anger (17). Smoking is an impressively strong predictor of low well-being—especially its emotional dimensions—even when income and education are controlled for. A propensity to smoke is in part genetically determined (18) and is a known indicator of a tense personality (19, 20). Fig. 1 and Table 2 characterize the relationship between the dimensions of subjective well-being and household income. 1 presents averages over eight income groups for the three aspects of emotional well-being and for the Cantril ladder measure of life evaluation. Here blue affect and stress are converted to their complements, not blue and stress-free, so that higher values in the figure always refer to better psychological outcomes. Income is converted to an annual basis and plotted on a log scale. (The midpoints of each income range, used only in the figure, are imputed assuming that the underlying distribution of income is lognormal; the figure shows vertical lines for the top three interval limits.) Stress is the average of a yes/no response to the question: “Did you experience a lot of stress yesterday?” Thus, Fig. 1 shows the percentage of the population in each income group who did not report experiencing this emotion on the previous day. Not blue is 1 minus the average of the percentage reporting sadness and worry. The right-hand axis shows the average score on the ladder, with values ranging from 0 to 11. Table 2. Tests for income satiation of life evaluation and emotional well-being Fig. 1. Positive affect, blue affect, stress, and life evaluation in relation to household income. Positive affect is the average of the fractions of the population reporting happiness, smiling, and enjoyment. “Not blue” is 1 minus the average of the fractions of the population reporting worry and sadness. “Stress free” is the fraction of the population who did not report stress for the previous day. These three hedonic measures are marked on the left-hand scale. The ladder is the average reported number on a scale of 0–10, marked on the right-hand scale. 1 shows that for all measures of experienced well-being, individuals in the lower- income groups do worse on average than those above them, but that those in the top two groups do not differ. For the two top categories to be equal, the entire range of the second category must lie above the satiation point. This observation implies that emotional well-being satiates somewhere in the third category of income from the top. We infer that beyond about $75,000/y, there is no improvement whatever in any of the three measures of emotional well-being. In contrast, the figure shows a fairly steady rise in life evaluation with log income over the entire range; the effects of income on individuals’ life evaluations show no satiation, at least to an amount well over $120,000. Table 2 reports a formal test of satiation for the four measures, showing how the second-to-top income group (annual income $90,000–$120,000) differs from the group immediately below it ($60,000–$90,000) and from the group immediately above it (> $120,000). Positive affect, blue affect, and Cantril ladder score are all significantly improved in the first comparison with the exception of stress, which appears to satiate at a lower income level, roughly $60,000. In comparisons of the top two categories, only the ladder score shows a significant improvement with higher income. The small t values are remarkable in these very large samples. We conclude that lack of money brings both emotional misery and low life evaluation; similar results were found for anger. Beyond ~$75,000 in the contemporary United States, however, higher income is neither the road to experienced happiness nor the road to the relief of unhappiness or stress, although higher income continues to improve individuals’ life evaluations. Below $75,000, many factors become gradually worse, at least on average. For example, the emotional pain associated with ill health depends on income; for those reporting a monthly income of at least $3,000 (about two-thirds of households), the fractions reporting blue affect with and without headaches are 38% and 19%, respectively, a difference of 19 percentage points. The corresponding values for those with a monthly income of <$1,000 (about 10% of households) are 70% and 38%, a difference of 32%. Table 3 shows that the pain of some of life's misfortunes, including asthma, divorce, and being alone, is significantly exacerbated by poverty; even the benefits of the weekend are less for the poor. Similar results apply to stress and positive affect. Table 3. Poverty exacerbates the effect of adverse circumstances: Average percentage of people reporting a lot of sadness and worry yesterday, by income group and condition Discussion The data for positive and blue affect provide an unexpectedly sharp answer to our original question. More money does not necessarily buy more happiness, but less money is associated with emotional pain. Perhaps $75,000 is a threshold beyond which further increases in income no longer improve individuals’ ability to do what matters most to their emotional well-being, such as spending time with people they like, avoiding pain and disease, and enjoying leisure. According to the ACS, mean (median) US household income was $71,500 ($52,000) in 2008, and about a third of households were above the $75,000 threshold. It also is likely that when income rises beyond this value, the increased ability to purchase positive experiences is balanced, on average, by some negative effects. A recent psychological study using priming methods provided suggestive evidence of a possible association between high income and a reduced ability to savor small pleasures (21). When interpreting our findings, it is essential to distinguish changes from differences. Our data speak only to differences; they do not imply that people will not be happy with a raise from $100,000 to $150,000, or that they will be indifferent to an equivalent drop in income. Changes of income in the high range certainly have emotional consequences. What the data suggest is that above a certain level of stable income, individuals’ emotional well-being is constrained by other factors in their temperament and life circumstances. We observe a qualitative difference between our measures of emotional well-being and of life evaluation—the former satiates with high income, whereas the latter does not. This observation underscores the importance of the distinction between the judgments individuals make when they think about their life and the feelings that they experience as they live it. As might be expected, the former is sensitive to socioeconomic status, whereas the latter is sensitive to circumstances that evoke positive and negative emotions, such as spending time with others and caring for a sick relative. Several authors have commented on a related difference between two questions that are often used in surveys of subjective well-being: “How satisfied are you with your life?” and “How happy are you these days?” (8, 22, 23). The common conclusion is that income is more strongly related to satisfaction than to happiness, but the difference that we found in the present study is unusually sharp. We speculate that the Cantril ladder of life is a purer measure of life evaluation than the life satisfaction question, which has an emotional aspect, and that the reports of the emotions of yesterday provide a purer measure of emotional well-being than the standard happiness question. If both aspects of subjective well-being are considered important, then the separation of the measures is an advantage. The relevance of subjective well-being as a guide to policy is a contentious issue, on which we do not take a position. If measures of well-being are to be used to assess human welfare and to guide policy, the present findings raise the question of whether life evaluation or emotional well-being is better suited to these aims. The Cantril ladder is a serious contender for the best tool for measuring the degree to which individuals view themselves as achieving their goals, both material and other. But emotional well-being also is clearly important for individuals and for policy, and here there are choices as well. Not everyone will agree that enhancing the happiness experienced by those who are already quite happy is a legitimate policy objective. The policy goal of reducing suffering is likely to raise fewer objections, and measures of emotional pain may be useful for that purpose. This topic merits serious debate. Materials and Methods The survey involved a telephone interview using a dual-frame random-digit dial methodology that included cell phone numbers from all 50 US states. Interviews were conducted between 9:00 AM and 10:00 PM (local time), with most done in the evening. Up to five callbacks were made in the case of no answer. Spanish language interviews were conducted when appropriate. Approximately 1,000 interviews were completed daily from January 2 through December 30, 2009. The questionnaire covered many topics of interest to the Gallup Organization and Healthways Corporation, including basic demographic information, participants’ opinions about the current economic climate and their personal financial situation, information about past diseases, and other topics. Life evaluation was assessed using Cantril's Self-Anchoring Scale (the ladder), worded as follows: “Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you, and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time?” (15). Questions about emotional well-being had yes/no response options and were worded as follows: “Did you experience the following feelings during a lot of the day yesterday? How about _____?” Each of several emotions (e.g., enjoyment, stress) was reported separately. The positive affect score was the average of the reports of enjoyment and happiness and of a dichotomous question about the frequency of smiling: “Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?” The blue affect score was the average of worry and sadness. To broaden coverage and representativeness, cell phones were part of the sampling design. Relative to land lines, the response rate for cell phones was typically lower. Of all calls that resulted in contacts with an eligible candidate, 31% of the candidates agreed to be interviewed; of these, 90% completed the entire interview. Despite the sampling limitations, available evidence suggests that the estimates of population parameters were not compromised; for example, the survey predicted recent election results within an acceptable margin of error. Acknowledgments We thank Carol Graham, Richard Nisbett, Norbert Schwarz, and Arthur Stone for their comments. Special thanks to James Harter, one of the authors of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, for his contribution to the research and for his comments on this report. We thank the Gallup Organization and Healthways Corporation for access to the survey results. This work was supported by the Gallup Organization and by National Institute on Aging Grant AG024928-06. Footnotes 1 To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kahneman{at}princeton.edu . To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: . Author contributions: D.K. and A.D. designed research; performed research; analyzed data; and wrote the paper. The authors declare no conflict of interest. Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

– To live comfortably in America's richest city, you'll need $124,561 a year. That's according to a CheatSheet analysis, which defines the wealthiest cities as those with the highest percentage of people making more than $150,000 per year, the Washington Post reports. The analysis also reveals how much you need to make to live comfortably in those cities. The findings are based in part on a 2010 study that says daily "emotional well-being" doesn't climb with income once a household makes at least $75,000; CheatSheet tweaked that figure based on the idea that Phoenix is a fairly "average" city when it comes to income and cost of living. Here are the cities ranked by richness, plus the salaries needed for comfort (which don't necessarily follow the same order): San Francisco: $124,561 San Jose: $115,515 Washington, DC: $108,092 Seattle: $93,634 San Diego: $101,984. Boston: $106,082 Click for the full list.

A U.S. official says the 2018 Veterans... (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department says the Veterans Day military parade ordered up by President Donald Trump won't happen in 2018. Col. “We originally targeted November 10, 2018 for this event but have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019.” Manning provided no reason for the apparent postponement, which came amid a spate of news reports that the event, which is expected to include aircraft, vehicles, period uniforms and symbols of U.S. power, could cost up to $92 million, far more than originally estimated. The announcement came several hours after The Associated Press reported that the parade would cost about $92 million, according to U.S. officials citing preliminary estimates more than three times the price first suggested by the White House. Some social media users questioned the purpose of the parade at all, and said instead the money should be used to directly help veterans. The parade's cost has become a politically charged issue, particularly after the Pentagon canceled a major military exercise planned for August with South Korea, in the wake of Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The affected exercise would have cost about $14 million, far less than the parade’s current expected cost. The Pentagon said the military would march from the White House to the Capitol, and the parade would feature a "heavy air component at the end". It also said there would be "wheeled vehicles only, no tanks — consideration must be given to minimize damage to local infrastructure." The city's governing District of Columbia Council was critical of the plan when announced, voicing its displeasure on Twitter. Earlier this year, the White House budget director told Congress that the cost to taxpayers could be $10 million to $30 million. Those estimates were likely based on the cost of previous military parades, such as the one in the nation's capital in 1991 celebrating the end of the first Gulf War, and factored in some additional increase for inflation. The American Legion, a veterans organization, said earlier Thursday that while it appreciated that Trump wanted to show support for U.S. troops, other priorities should win out. Trump decided he wanted a military parade in Washington after he attended France's Bastille Day celebration in the center of Paris last year.

– Cost estimates of up to $80 million over initial predictions appear to have rained on President Trump's parade. Pentagon spokesman Col. Rob Manning says Trump's plan for a military parade in Washington, DC, this fall have been postponed until next year at the earliest, the BBC reports. "The Department of Defense and White House have been planning a parade to honor America’s military veterans and commemorate the centennial of World War I," Manning said Thursday, per the Washington Post. "We originally targeted November 10, 2018, for this event but have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019." Manning gave no reason for the postponement of the parade, which Trump called for after being impressed by Bastille Day celebrations in France last year. The parade would have been the first of its kind in the US since a Gulf War victory parade in 1991. Critics, however, said it would have been reminiscent of authoritarian regimes and even some veterans' groups spoke out against it, the AP reports. American Legion National Commander Denise Rohan said they appreciate Trump's desire to show support for the troops, but until "we can celebrate victory in the War on Terrorism and bring our military home, we think the parade money would be better spent fully funding the Department of Veteran Affairs and giving our troops and their families the best care possible."

Glory Johnson Brittney Griner Is a Liar ... She Blindsided Me Glory Johnson -- Brittney Griner Is a Liar ... She Blindsided Me EXCLUSIVE Glory Johnson says she was "blindsided" by Brittney Griner's decision to file for an annulment today -- telling TMZ Sports she's "extremely hurt" by Brittney's actions. There's not anything with male or female in domestic violence laws," he says. "For example, in cases related to intimate partner violence involving same-sex couples, local officers still continue to arrest both parties." IT'S OVER -- WNBA superstar Brittney Griner has officially filed papers seeking to annul her 28 day marriage to her pregnant new wife Glory Johnson ... TMZ Sports has learned. On April 22, Griner and Johnson were arrested in Goodyear, Ariz., after police were called to a residence for a domestic dispute. It’s not correct … Brittney pled guilty … Brittney understands why I pled not guilty, and I understand why she pled guilty … she was even willing to speak to whoever she needed to, to get the point across.” WNBA Johnson, who is 6'4" said police officers told her she was being arrested along with the 6'8" Griner (despite the fact that neither wanted to press charges) due to official policy.

– This looks messy: WNBA players Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson seem headed for a breakup just 28 days into their budding marriage, People reports. The move comes right after Johnson announced her pregnancy, and six weeks after the 24-year-olds were arrested and got league suspensions for getting in a fight at home. "Last Wednesday, Glory and I agreed to either legally separate, get divorced, or annul our marriage," Griner says in a statement; she filed papers to annul their marriage on Friday, TMZ reports. Hours later, Johnson posted an Internet meme about "unperfect people refusing to give up on each other," but deleted it soon after and said Griner's move blindsided her. Johnson revealed her pregnancy Thursday in an Instagram photo of a bun going into a cake shaped like an oven, but Griner says the pair agreed to call it quits Wednesday. She also claims to know very little about the pregnancy. On Friday, Johnson posted on Instagram, "One day until I'm reunited with my wife @brittneygriner. . . This is about to be one CRAZY SUMMER!!!" All of this follows a Sports Illustrated interview with Johnson published Tuesday, in which she claims Griner targeted her in their Goodyear, Arizona, domestic dispute. Medical records say Johnson was hit twice "on the back of her head by a hard carrying case," giving Johnson spinal trauma and a concussion, while Griner escaped with minor injuries. Adding to the mix, Griner now says Johnson threatened her into getting married in the first place, but doesn't dish on details, notes TMZ.

Last Week Tonight is getting the last laugh in its (perhaps one-sided) feud with Mike Pence. On Sunday, John Oliver announced that staff writer _Jill Twiss and illustrator E.G. Keller had penned a picture book that purposefully apes the Pence family’s own children’s book about their bunny, Marlon Bundo. In a twist of expert trolling, Oliver just revealed that his team’s book not only beat the Pence family book on the charts, but has also sold 180,000 copies already—just days after its publication was announced. What’s more, the book isn’t even available in bookstores yet—only Amazon. Oliver joked about those amazing results in a Tuesday night interview with Seth Meyers. The Last Week book (titled Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Presents a Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo) is a direct send-up of the Pence family’s own book, titled Marlon Bundo’s Day in the Life of the Vice President. While the Pence book is about Bundo following Vice President Mike Pence around for a day, the Oliver book is about Bundo falling in love with a boy bunny and getting married—a direct response to Pence’s anti-L.G.B.T.Q. reputation. In addition, all proceeds of the Last Week Tonight book go to non-profit organizations the Trevor Project and AIDs United. While Oliver and his team probably hoped that their creation would beat the Pence book in sales, they couldn’t have predicted the book shooting all the way up the Amazon charts, beating out heavy titles like James Comey’s not-yet published A Higher Loyalty. “At that point, it’s getting ridiculous,” Oliver told Meyers with a laugh. “It sold 180,000 copies so far, which is definitely more than we were prepared for.” “You made the terrible mistake of giving the money away,” Meyers replied. “I’m sure HBO will find it absolutely hilarious they’re getting no money out of this,” Oliver agreed. Though the first printing has already sold out, Oliver assured viewers that more are being printed, and that the book will soon be physically available in bookstores as well. In the interview, Meyers also informed Oliver that fans of the book have found yet another way to troll Pence and anyone else who might not be fond of the book: via Amazon reviews. Fans are apparently pre-emptively leaving one-star reviews, in an attempt to head off haters who are purposefully looking for negative remarks about the book. “I don’t actually dislike this book at all,” one review reads, “I just wanted the upset homophobes to read my comment as they scour the one-star section for appeasement.” “One star because I fear the writing is above President Trump’s reading level,” another review reads. “Apart from that, I’m glad I bought it, and I hope it becomes a best-seller.” The fates heard that fan’s request loud and clear. Get Vanity Fair’s HWD Newsletter Sign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood. E-mail Address Subscribe

– One book about Marlon Bundo is the top-seller on Amazon, and it's not the one written by the family that actually owns the pet bunny. NBC News reports A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, John Oliver's parody of children's book Marlon Bundo's Day in the Life of a Vice President, has risen to No. 1 on Amazon. It sold over 180,000 copies after being announced on Last Week Tonight on Sunday, according to Variety. The latter book—which was written and illustrated by Vice President Mike Pence's daughter and wife—was only at No. 11. Oliver released his book, in which the Pence family pet falls in love with a male rabbit, to draw attention to Pence's anti-LGBTQ beliefs and raise money for LGBTQ causes. There doesn't seem to be any hard feelings with the Pence family, as the Hill reports daughter Charlotte was one of the thousands who bought a copy of Oliver's book.

‘Researchers and engineers are studying bed rest as an experimental analog for space flight because extended exposure to a head-down tilt position can duplicate many of the effects of a low-gravity environment.’ Two test subjects participate in the bed rest research project (Picture: Nasa) Successful candidates will stay in a tilted bed 24 hours a day as part of the 70-day project, where they can play computer games, surf the internet or watch TV. The couch potatoes will get paid around £3,000 a month as part of the US space agency’s research into the effects of microgravity on the human body. Share this article with Google Plus Guitar hero: Nasa volunteers will spend 70 days in bed (Picture: NASA) Does staying in bed sound like your dream job?

– Best job ever? NASA wants test subjects to spend 15 weeks in bed and get paid about $5,000 a month for doing it, the Metro reports. Sounds like a dream job (literally), until you realize that you'd be prohibited from sitting or standing up, the Houston Chronicle notes. In the meantime, you'll be a subject for seven different research projects. And even though you'll be lying down, you'll still have to be active, doing exercises in bed in the Galveston center. You can't be exposed to much sunlight, either; you'll get a vitamin instead. Subjects "experience the same physical changes that astronauts go through on long missions," says a researcher. The project investigates "the musculoskeletal and psychological effects of long-term confinement to a reduced gravity environment," NASA says, per Gizmodo UK. Subjects are encouraged to work on something in the meantime, whether it's a personal project or Internet-based work. At the end, there's a two-week rehab session. (In other NASA-themed news, this NASA photo has been making waves.)

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– Thursday's Brexit vote is over and done, and John Oliver, who last week tried to give America (and his fellow Brits) an education on why Brexit would be a "huge destabilizing decision," took to Last Week Tonight on Sunday to discuss Britain's defection—and his reaction was neither patient nor SFW, the Week reports. Oliver first blasted the United Kingdom's name ("after this week's events, [the name] is beginning to sound a bit sarcastic"), then took to task some prominent "Leave" pioneers' remarks that June 23 should now be known as Britain's "independence day." "The sequel to the movie they're quoting actually opened this week and features the wholesale destruction of London, which is beginning to feel pretty f---ing appropriate right now," Oliver noted. He added that the resignation of PM David Cameron "should make me happy, but … it's like catching an ice cream cone out of the air because a child was hit by a car." But it was British citizens who hadn't done their homework and were experiencing "Regrexit" that he reserved the most ire for—and who should serve as an example for the US. "You might think, well, that is not going to happen to us in America—we're not going to listen to some ridiculously haired buffoon peddling lies and nativism in the hopes of riding a protest vote into power," he said. "Well, let Britain tell you, it can happen, and when it does, there are no f---ing do-overs." (Other strong Brexit reactions here.)

CLOSE Bru Burger general manager Kayla Morrison explains why the Cunningham Group restaurant switched from plastic to environment-friendly paper straws. Jenna Watson, jenna.watson@indystar.com Buy Photo Some Bru Burger customers choose to drink their water without straws, seen during lunchtime at the restaurant on Massachusetts Avenue in Indianapolis, Thursday, June 21, 2018. The restaurant recently switched to paper straws, but only gives them to customers who request one. Bru Burger is the first Cunningham Group location to use paper straws but they hope to make the change at all of their restaurants soon. (Photo: Jenna Watson/IndyStar)Buy Photo As cities across the country and companies across the globe move away from plastic straws, Indiana-based Aardvark Straws — a leading paper straw manufacturer and sole U.S. producer — has struggled to keep up. That said, a new acquisition finalized and announced this morning will help the Fort Wayne company meet the unprecedented demand. Hoffmaster Group, Inc., a leading U.S. manufacturer of premium disposable tableware, acquired Aardvark Straws, owned by Precision Products Group, Inc., Monday morning. Though based in Wisconsin, Hoffmaster will keep manufacturing operations for Aardvark at its Northeast Indiana facility along with its employees. It is unclear at this time the monetary amount for which Aardvark was acquired. "In the coming months, we will aggressively ramp up Aardvark's manufacturing capacity to meet the rapidly accelerating demand for paper straws..." President of Hoffmaster's foodservice division Andy Romjue said in a release. "We are committed to being a reliable supply source for paper drinking straws in the foodservice market." Within the last year, cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Fort Myers, Fla, Malibu, Calif. and Vancouver have banned the use of plastic straws as others — such as New York — are moving in that direction. Many notable brands, including Starbucks, American Airlines and Disney, have also announced that they will eliminate plastic straws from their establishments in the coming years. Aardvark came onto the scene in 2007 as the anti-plastic movement began to emerge. In the 10 years since reintroduction, the company has seen year-over-year growth, according to David Rhodes, the company's global business director. This last year's growth, however, is beyond anything the company could have expected: 5,000 percent. Although no specifics could be provided, a spokeswoman for Aardvark told IndyStar that the company is talking to and potentially working with all major players and brands that are moving away from plastic straws and looking for alternatives. Buy Photo Bur Burger recently made the switch to paper straws, which are more environmentally friendly than traditional plastic straws, seen here on the restaurant's bar, on Massachusetts Avenue in Indianapolis, Thursday, June 21, 2018. Bru Burger is the first Cunningham Group location to use the straws but they hope to make the change at all of their restaurants soon. (Photo: Jenna Watson/IndyStar) This acquisition, according to Hoffmaster, will provide Aardvark with the necessary resources to fulfill orders and meet that demand. There currently is a several month lead time for orders depending on their size. Hoffmaster has a 6- to 9-month plan for expansion and ramping up Aardvark's production, according to Sammi Coppedge with Dittoe Public Relations, representing the paper straw company. That said, Hoffmaster will keep the product as it is — as the straw's unique formula is what sets it apart from competitors and a large part of what caught Hoffmaster's eye. Aardvark's paper straws do not disintegrate or get soggy when in drinks and are naturally degradable, compostable and FDA compliant. Recent reports have suggested that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean, by volume, by 2050, making plastic pollution one of the most daunting environmental challenges of our time. In the US alone, we use 500 million plastic straws. (Photo: Stephen_Beard_Indy_Star) "[Hoffmaster's] knowledge of the foodservice market paired with their resources will aid the company in providing billions of quality paper straws to restaurants and businesses looking to implement necessary changes to protect our environment," said Dave Hooe, CEO and president of Precision Products Group. "We're proud of how far Aardvark has come and look forward to continued success with Hoffmaster." Call IndyStar reporter Sarah Bowman at 317-444-6129. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook: @IndyStarSarah. Connect with IndyStar’s environmental reporters, join The Scrub on Facebook. IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Read or Share this story: https://indy.st/2OO3V1n

– The sole US producer of paper straws has been bought up in the latest sign that plastic straws are becoming a thing of the past. In a deal announced Monday, disposable tableware manufacturer Hoffmaster Group will acquire Indiana-based Aardvark Straws, whose degradable and compostable paper straws have been in high demand and short supply, reports the Indianapolis Star. Indeed, the company founded in 2007 saw 5,000% year-over-year growth last year with straws it claims don't get soggy the way cheap imports do, per Fortune. Hoffmaster plans to "aggressively ramp up Aardvark's manufacturing capacity to meet the rapidly accelerating demand for paper straws." Financial terms remain under wraps.

In this video grab taken Thursday July 14, 2016, a policeman chase people out of the cordoned-off area after a truck drove on to the sidewalk and plowed through a crowd of revelers who’d gathered to watch... (Associated Press) NICE, France (AP) — A truck loaded with weapons and hand grenades drove onto a sidewalk for more than a mile, plowing through Bastille Day revelers who'd gathered to watch fireworks in the French resort city of Nice late Thursday. NICE, France (Reuters) - French authorities were trying to determine on Friday whether a Tunisian who killed at least 84 people by plowing a truck into Bastille Day crowds had acted alone or with accomplices, but said the attack bore the hallmarks of Islamist militants. Molina said her teenage son witnessed the carnage. Hide Caption 10 of 25 Photos: Bastille Day terror: Harrowing images of truck attack in Nice A man lies near a covered body at the scene of the attack on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. The Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation for "murder, attempted murder in an organized group linked to a terrorist enterprise." Many of those on the ground were in shorts and other summer clothing. The driver first shot a gun into the crowd before driving two kilometers along the Promenade des Anglais, the main street in Nice, mowing down people who had gathered to watch fireworks, regional President Christian Estrosi told CNN affiliate BFM-TV. It was not immediately clear who would have been behind an attack, but France has recently seen a spate of dramatic assaults from by jihadist groups, including the Islamic State group which straddles Iraq and Syria. “Yes, it is a terrorist act and we shall see what links there are with terrorist organizations.” Yet despite numerous French officials from President Francois Hollande down describing it as a terrorist attack, by nightfall on Friday officials still had not disclosed any direct evidence linking Bouhlel with extremists. In televised remarks he later said the United States would stand with France and keep up the fight against Islamic State: “We will not be deterred. Writing online, Nice Matin journalist Damien Allemand who was at the waterside said the fireworks display had finished and the crowd had got up to leave when they heard a noise and cries. "A fraction of a second later, an enormous white truck came along at a crazy speed, turning the wheel to mow down the maximum number of people," he said. Well, my partner took my hand immediately and we started running with everybody and honestly in my head I had no idea what was going on and the music was so loud and I didn't really see a truck, but just people running and screaming and crying and people carrying their children, and it was just very frightening." I got extremely frightened and ran away from the promenade," she said. • Paul Delane, an American, described the chaos.

– Authorities say at least 77 people are dead and dozens more injured after a truck plowed into a Bastille Day celebration Thursday in Nice, France. Reuters reports the crowd was leaving holiday festivities at the Promenade des Anglais seaside walk when the truck hit it. The truck drove for more than a mile through the crowd, according to CNN. A witness tells the Guardian the truck was going between 25mph and 30mph. “I was walking for nearly a mile, and there were dead bodies all over the place,” a journalist at the scene says. “We saw people hit and bits of debris flying around,” another reporter says. “It was absolute chaos." The Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation for "murder, attempted murder in an organized group linked to a terrorist enterprise," reports AP. There are reports the driver of the truck, who was believed to be the only person inside, fired on the crowd. The driver was shot and killed by police, and authorities say they found weapons, including guns and grenades, inside the truck. Authorities are asking people to stay inside their homes. CBS News reports French anti-terror police are now investigating the attack. President Obama condemned what "appears to be a horrific terrorist attack," adding, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and other loved ones of those killed."

“Beauty and the Beast” is the fantastic journey of Belle, a bright, beautiful and independent young woman who is taken prisoner by a beast in his castle. Get your tickets now at BeOurGuest.com -- Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” is a live-action re-telling of the studio’s animated classic which refashions the classic characters from the tale as old as time for a contemporary audience, staying true to the original music while updating the score with several new songs. Despite her fears, she befriends the castle’s enchanted staff and learns to look beyond the Beast’s hideous exterior and realize the kind heart and soul of the true Prince within. In their snowball fight, he actually goes through with lobbing a gigantic one at her, knocking her to the ground. A pompous narcissist, he’s seemingly clueless about why his oh-so-warm helper, Le Fou (Josh Gad), wants to go from being Gaston’s faithful sidekick to his best friend forever and ever. And as the Beast, Dan Stevens is a virtual invisible man, remaining hidden beneath a part wolf, part water buffalo false face. I’m not suggesting they should have had more screen time to develop their characters.

– Disney's original Beauty and the Beast was the first animated film nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. In other words, its live-action remake starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens has a tough act to follow. According to critics, it's good—but doesn't quite measure up to the original. The general reaction: "If you thought it was a bad idea to mess with a classic, Beauty and the Beast will persuade you that a tale as old as time is worth retelling," writes Calvin Wilson at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. While it's "not quite as good as its predecessor," it's still "a vastly entertaining film that combines old-school charm with technological wizardry," he adds, giving props to both Watson and Stevens. Colin Covert agrees this retelling is "less magical" than the 1991 original, "an underperforming example of more being considerably less," he writes at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. But he also finds much to enjoy, from "the subplot of egotistical Gaston" to the impressive detail in the computer imagery. In short, "it is a visually sumptuous, highly watchable extravaganza." Sara Stewart actually thinks this new version is better than the original, partly because the Beast is "more engaging." But the film as a whole "has something for everyone," she writes at the New York Post. "If you want your old favorite dressed in sumptuous new clothes, that's what you'll get. Those who always desired a little more depth from Beauty and the Beast will be happy, too." One who was not happy: Joe Morgenstern. He argues the film "betrays the essence of what made the 1991 animated feature a beloved classic" through "a succession of disjunctures, missed moments and dubious deviations from the earlier script." It feels "crazily cluttered" and Watson's Belle is bland to boot, he writes at the Wall Street Journal. He does, however, praise the "huge jolts of visual energy." The film features Disney's first "exclusively gay moment," even if the reference is subtle.

– Are you a glass-half-full or a glass-half-empty type? Because that will have a lot to do with how you read the American Community Survey, a compilation of 2011 Census data and unofficial figures from the first quarter of 2012 giving us a glimpse at the US economy. With that much data you're bound to find both positive and negative signs. For instance: Half empty: Poverty increased for the fourth consecutive year, NPR observes. Half full: But it rose at a slower rate than it has in any of the previous three reports. "There's at least a hint that we've hit bottom in this post-recession malaise," one demographer says, because "we're going down at a slower pace." Half empty: The national median income fell 1.3%, and it fell a lot more than that in states that saw big hits in home values, the Wall Street Journal reports. Half full: "These are also the states that boomed the most, so we're talking about a higher peak to fall from," one economist says. Half empty: Homeownership is down for a fifth straight year to 64.6%, the AP reports. Half full: But Americans are on the move again, with about 12% moving, up from a record low of 11.6%, which is generally a positive sign. Even better: More young adults are moving out of their parents' homes. Half full: More good news for young adults: Many are benefiting from ObamaCare's provision allowing them to stay on their parents' health insurance. That provision alone sent the number of insured up 3.5%. Half empty: This one has nothing to do with the Census, but with two half-fulls in a row we thought you might be getting cocky. A new European Union survey that gauges business activity came in drastically lower than expected, pointing to a possible deepening of the economic recession there, the AP reports.

The man convicted of murdering the British student Meredith Kercher in Italy has said she was trying to tell him something in the moments before she died and that he is "101 per cent convinced" Amanda Knox was there. Rudy Guede - who is currently serving 16 years in jail for the murder of the British student - said he had attempted to write on the walls with her blood to "understand" what she was saying. He claims he left the room to go to the bathroom where he heard a scream and saw a man - who he described as "foreign" - in the house. Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaelle Sollecito (not pictured) were finally acquitted in March 2015 Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito were initially also convicted of Mr Kercher’s murder in 2009 before being acquitted two years later. Judges in a Florence court gathered to decide whether US Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito are guilty of the 2007 murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, 2014 8/14 Kercher's sister, Stephanie Kercher and brother Lyle Kercher Kercher's sister, Stephanie Kercher (L) and brother Lyle Kercher speak during a press conference in Florence, 2014 9/14 Appeals Court Judge Alessandro Nencini reads out the verdict Appeals Court Judge Alessandro Nencini (C) reads out the verdict for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Florence, 2014 10/14 Layers of Raffaele Sollecito Luca Maori, Giulia Bongiorno and Amanda Knox's lawyer Carlo Della Vedova (L-R) Layers of Raffaele Sollecito Luca Maori, Giulia Bongiorno and Amanda Knox's lawyer Carlo Della Vedova attend the final verdict of the Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito retrial at the Courthouse of Florence of Nuovo Palazzo di Giustizia in Florence, 2014 11/14 Amanda Knox on NBC News' 'Today' show Amanda Knox speaks to Matt Lauer (L) as she appears on NBC News' 'Today' show in New York, 2013 12/14 Amanda Knox at a news conference at Sea-Tac International Airport Amanda Knox cries and gestures to friends while her mother Edda Mellas sits next to her during a news conference at Sea-Tac International Airport, Washington after Knox landed there on a flight from Italy, 2011 13/14 Amanda Knox leaves the court Amanda Knox breaking in tears as she leaves the court after the announce of the verdict of her appeal trial in the Meredith Kercher' murder at Perugia's court, 2011 14/14 Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito stand outside the rented house where 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher was found dead in Perugia, 2007 He said: "When I was found in the house of the crime I fled because I was afraid. One of the few places where Guede’s DNA and fingerprints were not present in the murder room was on the outside of the door, which was absent of any usable forensic evidence except the fingerprints of Sollecito, who said he tried in vain to open the door. The morning after the murder, Knox and Sollecito were alone in the house and say Kercher’s door was locked from the inside and had to be broken down. Earlier on Meredith complained about her stealing money, so I didn’t worry too much, and remained in the bathroom.” The interviewer asked Guede to confirm that he believed Knox was in the apartment. Then, feeling the effects of a spicy kebab he had eaten earlier, he had excused himself to one of the bathrooms in the apartment, where he spent “around 10 or 11 minutes” and listened to two and a half songs, before a scream “louder than the music from my headphones” startled him. Guede also said that when he ran out of the house, he left Kercher’s bedroom door open, which, of course, is not how it was found. “I am 101 percent certain Amanda Knox was there,” he said, before describing how the unnamed man warned Knox that they had “been discovered” and ran out of the building, but not before saying, “black man found, guilty found.” Guede said he knew Knox from flirting with her at the bar where she worked, and he described in detail how they found a connection when he told her he also had a friend from Seattle.

– Rudy Guede, the man currently serving a 16-year sentence for the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher in Italy, gave his first television interview on Thursday, NBC News reports. In the interview with an Italian news program, he asserts he's "101%" sure Amanda Knox was in the apartment when Kercher was murdered and says that Kercher tried to give him a message in her final moments of life, according to the Independent. The Daily Beast reports Guede says he was making out with Kercher at her apartment when he went into the bathroom for "10 or 11 minutes" because of a spicy kebab he had eaten earlier. While in the bathroom, he says he heard Knox, Kercher's roommate, enter the apartment and start arguing with Kercher, according to NBC. Then he heard a scream. Guede says he left the bathroom to see Knox and a man he didn't identify fleeing the apartment, NBC reports. According to the Independent, Guede says the bedroom had been "staged" to look like a burglary, and Kercher was bleeding heavily from a stab wound in her neck. He says he grabbed some towels to stop the bleeding. "She was trying to tell me something," he says. "I wrote in blood on the wall to understand." Guede was convicted after his DNA was found on Kercher's body and his footprints in her blood, NBC reports. According to the Independent, police believe Kercher was killed by Guede, Knox, and Knox's boyfriend Rafaelle Sollecito during a "sex game." Knox and Sollecito were exonerated in March after being tried four times, NBC reports. According to the Daily Beast, Guede will likely be eligible for parole in 2018.

Read more about Hurricane Harvey: Where Harvey is hitting hardest, 80 percent lack flood insurance Houston is experiencing its third ‘500-year’ flood in 3 years. For everybody, it was another head-shaking 24 hours: • The storm made its second landfall early Wednesday morning in Louisiana, just west of the town of Cameron, the National Hurricane Center announced at 4 a.m. As Harvey moves northeast through the state scarred by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, forecasters expect it to gradually weaken and become a tropical depression by Wednesday night. HOUSTON — Five days after the pummeling began — a time when big storms have usually blown through, the sun has come out, and evacuees have returned home — Tropical Storm Harvey refused to go away, battering southeast Texas even more on Tuesday, spreading the destruction into Louisiana and shattering records for rainfall and flooding. In an apparent response to scattered reports of looting, a curfew was put into effect from midnight to 5 a.m., with police saying violators would be questioned, searched and arrested. pic.twitter.com/jQ0A9BGnPK — Vice President Pence (@VP) August 31, 2017 Harris County Flood Control District meteorologist Jeff Lidner told reporters this morning that the lowest homes near the Addicks and Barker reservoirs have 3 to 6 feet of water. Harvey, which first came ashore last Friday in Texas as a category 4 hurricane, dumped more than 51 inches of rain on some parts of the state, according to preliminary reports from the National Weather Service. The US Coast Guard is searching for two civilian rescuers who were swept away after their boat capsized Tuesday night, the Harris County Sheriff's Office tweeted Wednesday. Hide Caption 6 of 74 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas A cat tries to find dry ground around a flooded apartment complex on August 30 in Houston. The Energy Department said that all six oil refineries in the Corpus Christi area, seven oil refineries in the Houston and Galveston area, and one refinery in the Beaumont/Port Arthur area were shut down or in the process of shutting down. Hide Caption 5 of 74 Photos: Hurricane Harvey slams Texas Tammy Dominguez, left, and her husband, Christopher Dominguez, sleep on cots at the George R. Brown Convention Center, where nearly 10,000 people are taking shelter in Houston, on August 30. First responders have rescued about 500 people so far, and there are currently 269 people in shelters in southwest Louisiana, 200 of whom were rescued, Edwards said.

– Harvey has made landfall again, this time as a tropical storm near the Louisiana-Texas border on the day after the 12th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. ABC News reports the storm came ashore just west of Cameron, La., around 5am ET, with CNN noting that winds of roughly 40mph and a storm surge of 2 to 4 feet are expected. NOAA's public advisory now predicts another 3 to 6 inches of rain in southwestern Louisiana, the eastern Texas border area, and western Kentucky through Friday, with some areas getting as many as 10 inches. But as one National Hurricane Center meteorologist puts it, it's not the end, but the "end of the beginning": Per NOAA, "While the threat of heavy rains has ended in the Houston/Galveston area, catastrophic and life-threatening flooding will continue in and around Houston eastward into southwest Louisiana for the rest of the week." More: The AP describes things as "dire" in Port Arthur, Texas, near the Louisiana border, on Wednesday morning, as rising floodwaters inundated homes. Port Arthur Mayor Derrick Freeman said on his Facebook page that the "city is underwater right now but we are coming!" The AP also suggests some potential relief, at least from the rain, for Houston, with expected rainfall for Wednesday at less than an inch. People reports on one of Harvey's victims: a 41-year-old mother from Beaumont, Texas, who police say "absolutely" saved the life of her 3-year-old daughter; the child was found floating in a canal with her mother after the two became stuck while driving. "The baby also had a backpack that was helping her float on her back and she was holding on to her mom," says an officer. Add this to Harvey's toll: two ExxonMobil refineries, which sustained storm-related damage that facilitated the release of pollutants. The Washington Post has the details on the damage at the Baytown oil refinery, America's second-biggest, and the Beaumont petrochemical refinery. NPR explains that the cleanup bill for Harvey could be as much as $100 billion, and while Congress will likely approve the funding needed, "it probably won't be easy." It explains why, and the waves in which the funding would be issued. The New York Times reports that a 12am to 5am curfew is now in place in Houston, and came partly in response to reports of "small-scale looting." The Times puts the death toll at no less than 30. A longtime Houston cop is among the dead.

Story highlights Man approaches Portland, Oregon, mayor with a Pepsi at a City Council meeting Move comes as Pepsi yanks controversial ad featuring Kendall Jenner as protester (CNN) Turns out Pepsi isn't a panacea for everything. (Photo: YouTube, KGW) PORTLAND, Ore. – In a very topical gesture, a man attending Wednesday’s Portland City Council meeting approached the commissioners and handed Mayor Ted Wheeler a Pepsi. The man identified himself as Carlos Enrique (spelling unclear), and said he was a former journalist for the Boston Herald (the Herald says he's not, according to OPB, which isn't much of a surprise). "I'm very surprised how there's so many people who show up to city council and just kind of like get angry at you and yell at you and stuff like that," he said. Some commissioners voiced concerns about safety. "It made me kind of wonder how could someone just endure people coming and berating you every week.... What I realized is that the language of resistance has not been properly translated to you. So this is for you.” That’s when Enrique stood up, walked up to the commissioners, reached into his pocket, and handed Wheeler a can of Pepsi. The man was quickly approached by security and ushered out of the meeting. “Not a smart move. I do appreciate it, but don’t do that again,” Wheeler said, chuckling. "If this were the Boston City Council that would have ended differently." There's no way you don't get what Enrique was up to at this point, but just in case, here's yesterday's infamous Pepsi ad, featuring Kendall Jenner spontaneously joining a cheesy fake protest and handing an officer a soda.

– A man has proved just how ridiculous it is to think that a can of soda can defuse a tense situation, as Pepsi's ridiculed ad would suggest. At a city council meeting in Portland, Ore., on Wednesday, a man identifying himself as Carlos Enrique addressed Mayor Ted Wheeler, who is also the city's police commissioner and has instituted new safety measures in response to angry protesters appearing at recent meetings, per KGW. Enrique told Wheeler he was amazed he could "endure people coming and berating you every week," per the Portland Mercury. "What I realized is that the language of resistance has not been properly translated to you. So this is for you," Enrique said, before walking up to Wheeler with a hand in his jacket. Rather than crack a smile like the officer in Pepsi's yanked ad, Wheeler appeared alarmed as Enrique reached inside and pulled out a can of Pepsi. After setting the Pepsi in front of Wheeler, Enrique pulled out a second soda for himself, though he didn't have time to take a sip before security officers approached him. "Whoa whoa whoa, not a good move," Wheeler said. Once it was clear that no one's safety was at risk, Wheeler did have a good laugh at the joke. But he also warned others in attendance not to approach the dais "for your own safety," the Mercury reports. "If this were the Boston City Council that would have ended differently," he added. "Turns out Pepsi isn't a panacea for everything," quips CNN.

When I try to find answers online it usually just says, "there has been very little research on CU since it is such a rare condition." The 28-year-old Clearwater transplant suffers from Cholinergic Urticaria, a rare hypersensitive skin condition that causes her to break out in hives all over her body because she is allergic to her own sweat and tears. If she sweats, cries or simply takes a hot shower. "It's torture living like this, it's torture," Reid said in an interview with ABC's Tampa Bay affiliate WFTS. Im not suicidal, but just how much is a person supposed to take living like this everyday? Three years ago, in March 2013, I was working at a gymnastics gym for my fourth year in a row, and I was also a dance teacher. On a website to draw attention to her case, Reid said she has gained significant amount of weight and had to quit her job because the sweat would cause her to break out in massive hives for hours or days. She told WFTS she doesn't leave the house during the day over fear she could sweat and break out into hives. "I went from being a gymnast and a dancer, to not being able to walk through the grocery store, during the day, without receiving hurtful stares," Reid said on her website. I have not worked in three years because it is physically impossible for me. Fearful of her mental condition and emotional state, Reid reached out to ABC Action News for help. And having my passions just stripped from me out of the blue one day, along with my whole life as I knew it, I cannot describe to you the depths of depression that exist when your life is just, taken from you. And you may think, 'oh big deal' but you dont realize how much your body sweats until you become allergic to it. I would say it's one step shy of being allergic to breathing or blinking!" Reid said without a job she has had difficulty paying for doctors appointments and has become depressed about her inability to return to her old life. I'm at my three year mark, and I'm at my breaking point both mentally and physically.

– A 28-year-old Florida woman says her life has been destroyed by horrible allergies. But it's not pollen, cats, or peanuts she's allergic to; it's her own sweat and tears. "You don't realize how much your body sweats until you become allergic to it," Julie Reid writes on her blog. "I would say it's one step shy of being allergic to breathing or blinking." Reid, a gymnastics and dance instructor, was diagnosed with a rare condition called cholinergic urticaria three years ago, ABC News reports. People with the condition, which comes on for seemingly no reason, have overly sensitive skin that reacts to sweat, tears, and even hot showers. According to WFTS, the painfully itchy hives Reid breaks out in can last for days on end; her blog features graphic pictures. Since developing cholinergic urticaria, Reid has lost her job and gained more than 100 pounds. She says she can't go the store without getting horrible looks due to her hives. "I used to be so beautiful; now I look like a monster," she tells WFTS. "I just stay in bed and cry and cry." Reid says the Florida heat makes going out during the day impossible anyway. She says she's depressed and barely bothers to get out of bed anymore. "It's torture living like this," she says. The condition is known to disappear as spontaneously as it comes, though there is no timeline. Doctors can provide antihistamines, but without a job or health insurance, Reid has a hard time paying for appointments. She's hoping her plight will bring more attention—and hopefully a cure—to cholinergic urticaria. (Some people are allergic to vibrations, and scientists now think they know why.)

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– Ever done something you wished you could take back? Like accidentally sent an email to 33,000 Thomson Reuters employees? That's what some guy named Vince apparently did yesterday, flooding inboxes and setting off a "reply all" chain that some say slowed down Reuters email and provided the Internet with Twitter gold, the Wall Street Journal reports. Some tweets using the #ReutersReplyAllGate hashtag expressed frustration at the hundreds of reply-all emails asking people to stop replying to all, while others used the chaos to grab their 15 minutes of fame (being listed in the "to" field) and laugh at the inherent inanity of it all. "Should I just start live tweeting every single reply?" one recipient wondered, while another called for extraordinary assistance, imploring, "Any Super Hero currently in the U.S. Your help is needed to stop this email chain." But as the debacle continues to generate fresh reply-all emails this morning, what's happened to poor Vince? One Reuters worker remains concerned, tweeting, "Where is Vince? Hope he's ok! #ReutersReplyAllGate #prayforvince." (Gmail users need not make Vince's mistake.)

Judge Brad McCall sentenced Tipton... (Associated Press) DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A former lottery computer programmer who admitted to rigging computers to enable him to pick winning numbers and cheat four states out of $2.2 million in several lottery games over six years was sentenced to up to 25 years in prison in Iowa on Tuesday. Eddie Tipton, former security director of the Multistate Lottery Association, received the maximum sentence from an Iowa judge, who mentioned Tipton's "greed" in his sentencing. "I certainly regret" what happened, Tipton said in Polk County District Court before his sentencing, where some of his former coworkers sat in the courtroom. "It’s difficult even saying that with all the people I know behind me that I hurt, and I regret it. He admitted to rigging computer codes to produce winning numbers -- netting Tipton and his accomplices millions of dollars. Tipton has agreed to pay about $2.2 million in restitution, including $1.1 million to the Colorado lottery, $644,000 to the Oklahoma lottery, $391,000 to the Wisconsin lottery and $30,000 to the Kansas lottery. Related: Powerball jackpot hits $700 million When Judge Brad McCall asked him on Tuesday how he intended to repay the money, Tipton said, "Initially, I really don't know." Wochit His attorney, Dean Stowers, argued his Iowa sentence should be suspended because Eddie Tipton still stands to be sentenced in Wisconsin under an agreement in which he will spend three or four years in prison. "I regret my actions and I'm sorry for the people I hurt," said Eddie Tipton, 54, the former information technology manager for the Multi-State Lottery Association, a central Iowa organization that provides number-picking computers for lotteries in 33 states the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tipton said he gave the numbers to his brother, Tommy Tipton, and longtime friend Robert Rhodes and others to play and often split the winnings with them. The games Eddie Tipton fixed included Colorado Lotto in November 2005, Megabucks in Wisconsin in December 2007, 2by2 in Kansas and Hot Lotto in Iowa in December 2010, and Hot Lotto in Oklahoma in November 2011. Blame the money, critics say After years of investigation, Eddie Tipton was arrested in 2015 and ultimately pleaded guilty in June to three felony charges related to the crimes. He will be allowed to serve the Iowa sentence concurrently with a sentence of up to five-and-a-half years in Wisconsin, where he pleaded guilty to theft by fraud and computer crime. Under Iowa law, Tipton is likely to serve far less than 25 years — probably between three and five years, said Iowa Assistant Attorney General Rob Sand, who prosecuted the case. "Hopefully you're going to get rid of that greed and gain a little common sense during your prison stay," McCall said. Tipton's brother Tommy Tipton, a former judge in Texas, is currently serving a 75-day sentence in Texas for a misdemeanor theft charge and deferred judgment on a felony charge of conspiracy to commit theft. Rhodes, of Sugar Land, Texas, pleaded guilty to a computer crime and will be sentenced Friday.

– An ex-lottery computer programmer who rigged the system in several states to enable himself to win $2.2 million in jackpots is going to prison. An Iowa judge sentenced Eddie Tipton, 54, to up to 25 years in prison on Tuesday, though the Des Moines Register reports he could be paroled in as few as three due to Iowa law. "I certainly regret" what happened, Tipton told Judge Brad McCall, who cited Tipton's "greed" in handing down the maximum sentence. As part of the deal, Tipton agreed to pay $2.2 million in restitution to state lotteries in Colorado, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Kansas; he was also accused of fixing games in Iowa, where he tried and failed to cash in a $16.5 million Hot Lotto ticket in 2010. When the judge asked him how he intended to pay the money back, Tipton said, per CNN, "Initially, I really don't know." As the information technology manager of the Multi-State Lottery Association, Tipton had access to computers that picked winning numbers in lotteries such as Powerball and Mega Millions in more than 30 states and US territories. He pleaded guilty in June to writing computer code that produced winning numbers on certain days; he then fed those numbers to accomplices, including his brother, who bought lottery tickets. The team then split the winnings. Tipton "had the keys to the kingdom," the Iowa lottery CEO tells the AP, noting that "checks and balances" have been added to secure the drawings. (This man traveled 1,000 miles to claim winnings in a lottery scam.)

Darrow Montgomery Recent comments by an up-and-coming District pol have some observers asking: What was he thinking? Last Friday morning, as light snow fell on D.C., Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White posted a video on his personal Facebook page in which he promoted a conspiracy theory that accuses a prominent Jewish family of manipulating the climate. White, 33, was driving on a District highway while recording the video. “Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man," he said. "Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation. And D.C. keep talking about, ‘We a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.” The very affluent family has long been the target of conspiracies. It is unclear what White, currently the youngest representative on the 13-member D.C. Council, meant by "climate control," or where he picked up this narrative. But as the Washington Post, which was the first to report the video, points out, fringe Internet users have falsely linked the Rothschilds to weather changes. Established by another dynastic family, the Rockefeller Foundation runs an initiative called 100 Resilient Cities to help cities adapt to major challenges. Conspiracies have also centered around the Rockefellers. White has reportedly mused aloud about supposed connections between the Rothschilds and climate change before. At a February working breakfast between the D.C. Council and Mayor Muriel Bowser, he asked the Bowser administration about links between the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, the World Bank, and D.C.'s recently created Office of Resilience, according to a District official who was present. Following the Post story and fierce criticism on Twitter, White removed the video from his Facebook page on Sunday evening and issued a written apology on social media. He texted a version of it to City Paper: In response to my social media post on Friday, as I leader I work hard everyday to combat racism and prejudices of all kinds. I want to apologize to the Jewish Community and anyone I have offended. The Jewish community have been allies with me in my journey to help people. I did not intend to be Anti-Semitic, and I see I should not have said that after learning from my colleagues. I have spoke to leaders and my friends at Jews United for Justice and they are helping me to understand the history of comments made against Jews and I am committed to figuring out ways to continue to be allies with them and others. He did not answer specific questions about what he meant by his comments in the video and where he had heard about the Rothschilds controlling the climate. "I have to be the example," he added on Twitter. A former state education board member, White represents the District's poorest ward—once the base of Marion Barry, his mentor. He was elected in 2016 after losing a 2015 special election to fill Barry's seat. He has distinguished himself as a loyal Ward 8 advocate. Jews United for Justice, a progressive advocacy group based in D.C., wrote in a tweet that it spoke with White "about how his comments played into the long history of antisemitism." "We look forward to working with him toward deeper understanding of antisemitism and toward our collective liberation," JUFJ wrote. Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau said in a statement that she also spoke with White, who'd reached out to her. "He reiterated, 'that's not who I am, and that's not what I'm about,'" Nadeau said in a post on her official Facebook page. "I believe he is being truthful when he says he didn't realize what his statement implied." She chairs the human services committee, on which White sits. "That said," Nadeau continued, "as a Jewish leader I know how scary these times are, with anti-semitism and white supremacy on the rise across our country, stoked by the hateful words and actions of our own President. It's all the more important that our leaders across the country focus on eradicating hate and bigotry in all forms, and not make them worse, purposefully or unwittingly." The Anti-Defamation League found that Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States rose 57 percent from 2016 to 2017—to about 2,000. In D.C., reported hate crimes increased from 2015 to 2016, to more than 100, with a significant jump in those motivated by religious bias. On Tuesday, At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman, who is also Jewish, said she discussed White's comments with him. Calling his remarks "disturbing," she said in a statement that she told White she was concerned both that "he had been exposed to anti-Semitic beliefs akin to what had been used in Nazi Germany either through materials he had read or people he trusts" and that "he subscribed to a conspiracy theory." "We both agreed that hate speech of any kind has no place at the D.C. Council or in our city," Silverman said. "I believe that Trayon is remorseful about what he said, and I believe he is taking steps to understand why these comments were so offensive—not only to Jewish residents but to all who want an inclusive, welcoming city." White has 5,000 friends on Facebook, the maximum number that the social network allows per account. This post has been updated with comment from Silverman.

– A DC council member is apologizing after he pushed a conspiracy theory that a wealthy Jewish family controlled the weather. In a story first reported by the Washington Post, Trayon White posted a video to Facebook Friday with the following narration: "Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man. Y'all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation. And DC keep talking about, 'We a resilient city.' And that's a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful." The criticism began quickly, and White eventually offered a mea culpa: "I work hard everyday to combat racism and prejudices of all kinds," said the African-American lawmaker, before apologizing "to the Jewish community" and adding, "I did not intend to be anti-Semitic." The Washington City Paper describes the 33-year-old as an "up-and-coming District pol" but says observers were wondering, "What was he thinking?" White declined to comment on the source of his original comments, but the Post notes that the Rothschilds "are a famous European business dynasty" and the subject of numerous conspiracy theories in the nether regions of the internet. The "resilient city" remark apparently refers to an initiative by another prominent family, the Rockefellers, about which similar conspiracy theories abound. Fellow council member Brianne Nadeau, who's Jewish, took note of White's apology and sounded forgiving about the mess: "It is my sincere hope that my colleague has learned from this experience."

Vanessa Hudgens delivered a stand-out performance during Fox's amazing production of Grease: Live! on Sunday, hours after revealing the news that her father had died. The 27-year-old High School Musical alum brought the house down with her stunning, sassy performance as Betty Rizzo, which she dedicated to her late father, who died Saturday after a long battle with cancer. WATCH: Vanessa Hudgens' Father Greg Dies of Cancer Hudgens, who was part of a star-studded cast that included Julianne Hough, Aaron Tveit, Carly Rae Jepsen, Carlos PenaVega and Keke Palmer, showed off her acting chops yet again by perfectly embodying the spirit of the beloved character. FOX Additionally, her powerful and captivating performance of "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" set the bar for solo numbers in the entire production. Even in the face of personal tragedy, Hudgens' smile, her laugh and her delivery never faltered for even a moment, and she added some extra spark to the already dazzling display. WATCH: Find Out Everything That Is Going Into Making 'Grease: Live' In the final moments of the broadcast, the show honored her father in the credits with a special chyron reading, "In loving memory of Greg Hudgens." FOX Even in the hours leading up to her father's passing, Hudgens was the epitome of a performance professional. ETonline was in the live studio audience during Saturday's Grease: Live! dress rehearsal, and you would never know that Hudgens was dealing with a personal tragedy. In between takes, the former Disney darling stayed in character as the sharp-tongued Rizzo, and she was all smiles even when the cameras weren't rolling. WATCH: Celebs Tweet Condolences to Vanessa Hudgens Following Father's Death Hudgens revealed the news of her dad's death on Twitter hours before the show was set to kick off. "I am so sad to say that last night my daddy, Greg passed away from stage 4 cancer," she wrote, which was retweeted by her 20-year-old sister, Stella Hudgens. "Thank you to everyone who kept him in your prayers." I am so sad to say that last night my daddy, Greg passed away from stage 4 cancer. — Vanessa Hudgens (@VanessaHudgens) January 31, 2016 For more on Hudgen's late father, who had been battling cancer for months, watch the video below.

– It's one thing to carve your initials into a tree trunk. It's another thing entirely to carve your names into the protected red rocks of Sedona, Arizona, which is what Vanessa Hudgens and her boyfriend, Austin Butler, appear to have done over Valentine's Day weekend. Hudgens, who was posting quite a few photos of the couple's Sedona trip over the weekend, tweeted one photo of a rock with "Austin + Vanessa" inside a heart carved into it, the Arizona Republic reports. The tweet has since been deleted. It's illegal to damage the iconic rocks, with a maximum punishment of six months in jail and/or a $5,000 fine. A Coconino National Forest spokesperson says the incident is being investigated. (Hudgens recently performed in Grease Live the day after her dad died.)

PAJU, South Korea North Korea suspended its sole remaining major project with the South on Monday, after weeks of threats against the United States and South Korea, as Russian President Vladimir Putin said any nuclear conflict could make Chernobyl look like a fairy tale. Earlier on Monday, the South's Defence Ministry denied suggestions that a nuclear arms test was imminent in North Korea, saying reported movements around the reclusive country's atomic site were routine, contradicting earlier government comments. South Korea has said the North prepared two tunnels for a nuclear test, but used only one Feb. 12. Either a nuclear test or a missile test would escalate tensions that have been rising for weeks on the Korean Peninsula, and would likely invite a new round of U.N. Security Council sanctions over North Korea's nuclear and rocket activity. After Ryoo's initial comment, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged North Korea on Monday not to carry out a new nuclear test, saying it would be a "provocative" act amid soaring tensions. "Making any threat relating to nuclear weapons is not a game." North Korean authorities told embassies in Pyongyang they could not guarantee their safety from Wednesday - after saying conflict was inevitable amid the joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises due to last until the end of the month. Kim Jang-soo, director of national security for President Park Geun-hyeof South Korea, said during a meeting of security-related officials on Sunday that the North “may launch a provocation, such as missile launch,” around Wednesday. The South Korean government’s new warning came three days after its defense minister said that the North had moved a missile with a “considerable range” to its east coast, although it is not capable of reaching the mainland United States. The missile that was moved is widely believed to be the Musudan, which the South Korean military and analysts say has the range to hit South Korea and Japan and perhaps American bases in Guam as well. “The Chinese government has already requested that North Korea abide by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and other international laws and practices and thoroughly ensure the safety of Chinese Embassy and consular personnel resident in North Korea.” The North gave similar warnings to some of the 123 South Korean factories in the joint industrial park in the North Korean city of Kaesong, said Mr. Kim, the South’s national security director. Thirteen factories have stopped operations due to lack of raw materials, according to the South's Unification Ministry. A senior North Korean official, quoted by the official KCNA news agency, said after a visit to Kaesong that authorities would withdraw North Korean workers and then decide on whether it would continue to operate. "It will temporarily suspend the operations in the zone and examine the issue of whether it will allow its (continued) existence or close it," KCNA quoted Kim Yang Gon, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, as saying. And no one should be allowed to throw the region, or even the whole world, into chaos for selfish gains," Xi said Sunday at the Boao Forum for Asia, a China-sponsored talk shop for the global elite. Pyongyang has been further angered by weeks of joint military exercises by South Korean and U.S. forces and threatened both countries with nuclear attack. North Korea successfully shot a satellite into space in December and conducted its third nuclear test in February.

– Tensions on the Korean peninsula eased marginally today after South Korean officials backed off earlier reports that Pyongyang was getting ready for another missile test. A top official told reporters that he had misspoken when he said there was an "indication" that another test was imminent, and had been "startled" to learn that his remarks had been widely reported, the AP reports. Defense officials in Seoul say there has been activity around the North's nuclear test site, but nothing out of the ordinary. A new nuclear test from the North would have raised tensions even higher after weeks of threats from Pyongyang, and Beijing appears to be becoming increasingly fed up with its neighbor's antics, Reuters reports. Leaders in China have said they will not tolerate any "chaos" or "trouble-making" over the border and Beijing wants to see a nuclear-free peace prevail, with all parties taking part in talks. Sens. Charles Schumer and John McCain sharply criticized China yesterday for not doing more to rein in its troublesome ally, the New York Times reports. "It’s about time they stepped up to the plate and put a little pressure on this North Korean regime," Schumer told Face the Nation.

A Bronx man is running for mayor of New York City 17 years after he hijacked a plane at JFK Airport with a handgun and a knife and ordered the pilots to fly to Antarctica. Aaron Commey is the Libertarian candidate for mayor and will be on the ballot in all five boroughs on Nov. 7. But on July 27, 2000, he was 22 years old and suffering from delusional disorder and paranoid schizophrenia when he walked onto a Boeing 757 bound for Las Vegas and rushed into the cockpit while brandishing a handgun. Commey told the pilots to clear out the plane’s 150 passengers and crew members, according to reports from the time. He then remained in the plane for five hours while law enforcement and the pilots tried to negotiate. Commey asked, at different times, to be flown to Argentina or Antarctica. He later explained that he had planned to parachute into Antarctica to destroy the “Cabal,” a secret organization that wanted to “take over the world through mass destruction.” In the end, the plane never took off and nobody was injured, while Commey was arrested and charged with five crimes, including attempt to commit aircraft piracy. RELATED: Who's who in the 2017 NYC mayoral race? In an interview with City & State this week, Commey admitted he didn’t have a typical candidate biography. “It’s definitely a valid question … ‘Well, how can we trust you, when you’re this guy who tried to hijack a plane?’” he said. “I am not the same person that I was. I was definitely severely mentally ill. And in addition to recovering from my mental illness without medication, I am a completely different person in terms of how I approach situations and I’m committed to nonviolence.” In September 2003, Commey was found not guilty on all counts by reason of insanity. But he would remain incarcerated in federal prison until his release in 2015. According to a legal filing, he was assigned to a medical center run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons for treatment. In 2004 he was transferred to Federal Medical Center, Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts, where former Rep. Anthony Weiner is scheduled to report next month to serve a 21-month sentence. “I spent about 15 years in prison, was never convicted,” Commey said. “And it shaped me into the person I am today.” Commey said that government officials and judges refused to let him go for years, despite having doctors say he had fully recovered. “Experiencing my own personal injustice, seeing injustice happen to other guys,” he said, “that’s one of the things that had driven me to wanting to get involved to try to change the system.” It also turned him into a Libertarian. “It showed me a side of government a lot of people think of in the abstract, but feeling it up close and personal made it all that more real to me,” he said. “And there was really only one party I saw that was tackling that aspect of government.” Commey is an extreme long shot in the mayor’s race. He has not been active on the campaign trail, and has raised almost no money, putting up about $2,300 of his own funds while getting just $495 from donors. He has not been included in any major polls. In 2013, Libertarian candidate Michael Sanchez got just 446 votes in the mayoral election, or 0.16 percent of the total. Commey’s website, which includes both scenes of New York and videos of the Philadelphia skyline, does not go into detail about his past, but mentions “experience overcoming his own trials and tribulations with the justice system and mental health issues.” The candidate’s unusual history has not been widely reported, but Commey had openly spoken about the hijacking attempt, his mental illness and incarceration in an interview with The Black Business School and Libertarian sources like Think Liberty TV and Lions of Liberty. But as a mayoral candidate, the one-time air pirate thought his past would get more attention. “I was shocked, because I expected this to be the first thing out the gate and like nobody said anything,” he said. “I’m like, wow, OK. I’ll tell the story when the opportunity arises, but I really thought people were going to have much more of a reaction to it.”

– A New York City mayoral candidate says he's "shocked" that so little attention has been paid to his arrest for trying to hijack an airliner at gunpoint 17 years ago. In July 2000, Aaron Commey (it's pronounced KOH-may) boarded a National Airlines plane in New York and ordered the pilots to fly to Argentina or Antarctica, per the AP. It never took off and nobody was injured. He was acquitted by reason of insanity in 2003 and was released from a prison medical facility in 2015. The Libertarian candidate tells the news magazine City & State New York that it's reasonable for voters to wonder if he's suited for office and that he's surprised the issue has gotten so little attention. "I was shocked, because I expected this to be the first thing out the gate and like nobody said anything." Commey, who was 22 at the time and suffering from delusional disorder and paranoid schizophrenia, says he has fully recovered and is "committed to nonviolence." Commey says he has experienced and witnessed injustice and wants to change the system.

Photo An offer to take BlackBerry private does not end the uncertainty surrounding the ailing smartphone maker. BlackBerry said on Monday that it had signed a letter of intent from a group led by Fairfax Financial Holdings, a Canadian insurance and investment company, to pay shareholders $9 a share in cash, pending a variety of conditions, taking the company private. Related Links Document: BlackBerry press release The $4.7 billion offer from Fairfax, which already owns about 10 percent of BlackBerry, is a powerful symbol of the phone maker’s decline. In June 2008 — a time when BlackBerrys defined smartphones — the company had a stock market value of $83 billion. Any deal is far from done. Fairfax did not identify the other investors in its consortium, which is seeking financing. And while the offer could flush out potential rival suitors, it is unclear who might be tempted to come forward, given the company’s uncertain prospects. Investors gave a muted endorsement on Monday, with BlackBerry shares rising 1 percent, to $8.82, but failing to reach the $9 bid price. The offer came after the company announced on Friday that it expected to report a quarterly loss of nearly $1 billion, stemming largely from the failure of the BlackBerry 10 line of phones that were supposed to revive the company. BlackBerry also outlined plans to lay off about 40 percent of its already reduced work force, or around 4,500 people. Photo Sensing the opportunity to halt the fall in company’s stock prompted by that announcement, and the potential to kick off an auction, BlackBerry’s board seized on the offer, quickly signing a letter of intent. The particulars of the deal’s announcement came together in a matter of hours Monday morning. V. Prem Watsa, Fairfax’s chairman and chief executive, told shareholders in March that the company paid an average price of $17 for its BlackBerry shares, giving him an obvious interest in at least stalling the slide in BlackBerry’s shares. Yet not only are there questions about the offer, several analysts say it is not clear how the Fairfax group could stem BlackBerry’s rapid decline or stabilize the company. “Last week was essentially an announcement that they are leaving the handset business,” said Jan Dawson, a telecommunications analyst with Ovum. “But pick any market they’re trying to go into and there are strong, entrenched competitors.” Given the high risk involved in investing in BlackBerry, one of the most pressing questions surrounding the deal is the identity of anyone prepared to invest in the company alongside Fairfax. One possible clue came from the fact that Byron D. Trott, the banker used by Warren E. Buffett, was advising Fairfax. Mr. Trott and his firm, BDT & Company, often work with wealthy private investors. Mike Lazaridis, the co-founder of BlackBerry who stepped down as co-chief executive in 2012, has been interested in making an offer with private equity investors, people familiar with the situation said. That led to speculation on Monday that he might join the Fairfax group. Through a spokesman, Mr. Lazaridis declined to comment. Neither Fairfax nor Mr. Watsa responded to requests for comment. Just as unclear is how a buyout would be financed. Fairfax did not say how much cash it was prepared to put toward the deal, or how much debt it might expect BlackBerry to take on in a buyout. BlackBerry is largely debt-free and had about $2.6 billion in cash at the end of the last quarter, leaving just a couple of billion dollars needed to conceivably strike an acquisition. But any bank that provides financing could be taking a risk. The company consumed about $500 million of its cash during the last quarter, while the coming layoffs and sluggish sales raise the possibility that even more than that may vanish in the current quarter. By signing the letter of intent, BlackBerry effectively opened the door to other bidders. It now has six weeks to shop itself around as Fairfax conducts due diligence, or scrutinizes its books. If BlackBerry accepts another deal or walks away from Fairfax’s offer before a definitive agreement is signed, it will owe Fairfax about $157 million. If it walks away after a formal deal is signed, it will owe Fairfax about $262 million. Neither does the agreement appear to bind Fairfax to its $9 a share bid; after due diligence, Fairfax may decide to lower its offer. The offer establishes a timeline and a price floor for other potential bidders. But with the company in free fall, there is little certainty of another bid emerging in the coming weeks. Brian Colello, an analyst with Morningstar, said that other buyers, if there are any, were unlikely to be interested in BlackBerry’s phone business. “There is no value for the BlackBerry 10 ecosystem,” he said. “The value of this company is cash and patents.” Analysts’ estimates put the value of the patents at about $2 billion. But not only has the market for patents cooled, BlackBerry does not directly control many of its most important patents, which it owns in common with other technology companies like Apple and Microsoft. Still, BlackBerry continues to have a strong booster in Mr. Watsa. He resigned from BlackBerry’s board in August to avoid any conflicts of interest after the company announced that it was engaged in a strategic review that might include a sale. Mr. Watsa’s involvement in a buyout would ensure Canadian control of the company, which is based in Waterloo, Ontario, removing a major hurdle for a deal. While a number of Chinese companies, particularly ones with little market presence in the West, might bid for BlackBerry, the Canadian government would most likely block any such takeover on national security grounds. Historically, Mr. Watsa has favored buying distressed companies and then guiding turnarounds. While the strategy has generally been successful, the company’s recent history includes some prominent failures. CanWest Global Communications, once a large Canadian television broadcaster and newspaper publisher, and AbitibiBowater, a paper maker, both collapsed and ultimately were delisted. Fairfax also began buying heavily in Torstar, the parent company of The Toronto Star and the romance book publisher Harlequin, in 2007. Since then, Torstar’s share price has steadily declined. Fairfax uses hedging and large cash holdings to protect its investors from failed investments. Even without quitting the handset business, BlackBerry’s management has said it plans to expand the company’s software business. BlackBerry has ambitious plans for its relatively new software that allows corporations to control and manage employees’ mobile devices, including iPhones and Android-based phones. It has also made efforts to turn the BlackBerry Messenger instant-messaging service into a social media service. But in those areas, as in the phone business, BlackBerry has come up against large, well-financed competitors like Microsoft and Facebook. If BlackBerry does go private, it would be the second large technology company with outdated products to go that route this year. Dell, the personal computer maker, was bought out by its founder, Michael S. Dell, and Silver Lake Partners this month for $24.9 billion. Yet Dell is a veritable tech powerhouse compared to BlackBerry, whose North American market share has slid to 3.4 percent from 51 percent in just four years. In Dell’s case, revenues are down and demand for its products has weakened because of the growth of tablets, but Dell remains a major provider of commodity PCs and servers, and owns business and government software assets that may provide it with a more certain path forward.

– If you're a BlackBerry shareholder, Rolfe Winkler at the Wall Street Journal thinks you should sell while the selling's good. Fairfax Financial Holdings struck a deal yesterday with BlackBerry that, Winkler writes, is a little like a guy saying "he will buy your falling-down house for millions of dollars, but not until he gets it inspected. And, by the way, he might not have the cash to buy it." All yesterday's "letter of intent" said was that Fairfax would buy BlackBerry after looking at its books. What's more, even if BlackBerry used all of its $2.6 billion in cash to finance the sale, Fairfax will have to find another $1.6 billion, and lenders might be leery given BlackBerry's shaky prospects. Analysts tell the New York Times that they're skeptical Fairfax could turn BlackBerry around, and unsure other, competing bidders will emerge. "There is no value for the BlackBerry 10 ecosystems," one analyst said. "The value of this company is cash and patents." Employees are even more gloomy following the company's announcement that it would lay off 40% of them. "It's not low morale. It's no morale," one employee tells the Journal. "It's like working at a hospice center. It's not a matter of if, but when."