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She was high on drugs and didn't want the babies, or the responsibility," Roberts said. Huntsman allegedly told investigators that she had killed six of the babies, but she claimed the seventh was stillborn. Huntsman, who was charged in Provo's 4th District Court with six counts of first-degree felony murder, remained in the Utah County Jail on Tuesday in lieu of $6 million cash-only bail. The long-kept, deadly secret began to unravel April 12, when Huntsman's now-estranged husband, 41-year-old Darren West — who had spent eight years in prison for drug crimes before being released into a Salt Lake City halfway house — was at their Pleasant Grove home retrieving some of his belongings. Inside the garage, West found the remains of a baby wrapped in plastic bags and a green towel and stuffed into a white box, sealed with electrical tape. Huntsman remains the only suspect in the investigation, which remains open, Roberts said. On May 16, Judge Darold McDade ordered that Huntsman be made available for a psychological evaluation, but no further details on whether that exam had yet been done, or if so what the results were, had been released as of Tuesday. He also said DNA testing on seven dead babies found stuffed into cardboard boxes at Huntsman's home in April confirmed that all of them — five girls and two boys — were fathered by her husband.

– What could drive a mother to smother six babies as soon as she gave birth to them? Police in Utah say it was pure selfishness, driven by drug addiction. Megan Huntsman was a heavy methamphetamine user when she strangled or suffocated the newborns between 1996 and 2006, a police spokesman tells the AP. He says she wasn't concerned about potential health problems caused to the infants by her drug use—but did care about the cost of feeding her addiction. "It was completely selfish. She was high on drugs and didn't want the babies, or the responsibility," he says. "That was her priority at the time." "She had to make a decision between the drugs and the babies," says the police spokesman, who confirmed that the five girls and two boys found in boxes in her garage were all fathered by her husband, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Investigators believe one of the babies was stillborn, so Huntsman faces six counts of first-degree felony murder. She has been in jail since April with bail set at $6 million. Her long-estranged husband, who spent eight years in federal prison on meth charges, was the one who alerted police after finding one of the dead infants and is not considered a suspect.

Check out the science behind the F2 in NIST's video below. For the first time in 15 years, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, is adding a new official atomic clock, institute officials announced Wednesday -- at 10:02 a.m. PDT precisely. And the new clock, NIST-F2, is three times more accurate than its predecessor. "If we've learned anything in the last 60 years of building atomic clocks, we've learned that every time we build a better clock, somebody comes up with a use for it that you couldn't have foreseen," NIST physicist and F2 lead designer Steven Jefferts said in a statement. As the institute pointed out, everyday technologies like cell phones, GPS satellite receivers, and the electric power grid rely on high-accuracy atomic clocks, which help move innovation into the future. By nearly eliminating small errors caused by background radiation, researchers have have made this clock three times more accurate than the current NIST-F1—the standard since 1999.

– The official US timekeepers are upgrading their systems. Since 1999, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has determined the time based on an atomic clock known as NIST-F1. Now there's a new and improved version of the clock—and it's "the most accurate clock of its kind in the world," the institute says. NIST-F2 boasts three times the accuracy of F1. "If you could run either of these clocks for 100 million years, NIST-F1 would lose one second; NIST-F2 would lose 1/3 of a second," says F2's lead designer. One second is defined worldwide in terms of oscillations of a cesium atom (9,192,631,770 of those oscillations, to be precise). Both clocks determine the time by tossing 10 million such atoms into the air and using lasers to analyze them, the Los Angeles Times explains. What's better about the new clock is that it uses chilled conditions to fight background radiation, thus improving its assessment. Why be so careful? Everything from cell phones to GPS use atomic clock measurements, researchers say, per PC Magazine. "If we've learned anything in the last 60 years of building atomic clocks, we've learned that every time we build a better clock, somebody comes up with a use for it that you couldn't have foreseen," says the designer.

SANFORD, Fla. - Plans by George Zimmerman to sell the gun used to shoot and kill Trayvon Marin appeared to be in limbo early Friday, reports CBS Orlando, Florida affiliate WKMG-TV. The gun was set to be auctioned starting Thursday at 11 a.m. on GunBroker.com, but by 11:18 a.m., the website said the listing for Zimmerman's Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm weapon had been removed. Todd Underwood, a spokesman for the website, told NBC News he spoke with Zimmerman personally by phone and that he contacted his website after GunBroker.com was overwhelmed with traffic and attention. GunBroker.com, which housed the initial listing, said in a statement Thursday afternoon that they “reserve the right to reject listings at our sole discretion, and have done so with the Zimmerman listing.” Zimmerman created the listing and posted it on the website, but did not contact anyone at GunBroker.com before or after it was posted, the statement said, adding that no one at the website has a relationship with Zimmerman. “We want no part in the listing on our website or in any of the publicity it is receiving,” the statement added. In the post, Zimmerman, 32, said the Justice Department had recently returned the gun to him, and he has received offers from people who want to purchase it or put it on display: "However, the offers were to use the gun in a fashion I did not feel comfortable with." Related: Jury Finds George Zimmerman Not Guilty A portion of the auction's proceeds are supposed to "fight BLM (Black Lives Matter) violence against Law Enforcement officers" as well as "ensure the demise of … Hillary Clinton's anti-firearm rhetoric." Zimmerman killed Martin after he saw the unarmed 17-year-old walking through his gated Sanford community on Feb. 26, 2012, and did not recognize him. The killing sparked a national conversation about race and "stand your ground" laws.

– George Zimmerman's attempt to sell the gun he used to kill Trayvon Martin appears to be back on again, though bidders are clearly making a joke of it. Early Friday morning, the leading bid in the online auction at UnitedGunGroup came from "Weedlord Bonerhitler" at a bit more than $65 million (the listing now reads "deleted member"). An earlier lead bidder called himself "Racist McShootface," reports USA Today. On Thursday, Zimmerman first planned to sell the gun at GunBroker.com, but the website backed out. He then turned to UnitedGunGroup, but the site posted an online statement Thursday night saying, it, too, would reject the listing. However, it later deleted the post, and Zimmerman's auction remains active. The site is expected to issue a clarification Friday morning about its status, reports CBS News. The two people perhaps most stunned by the attempted sale are Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, the parents of Trayvon. "It's just shocking, it's shocking to me and it's shocking to everybody—and Trayvon to them is their child," their attorney tells NBC News. "To everybody else, it may be a cause or a hashtag, but this is their son. So somebody's actually talking about profiting from the loss of their child and it's just very hurtful to them." The gun is a 9mm Kel-Tec PF-9 pistol, and Zimmerman set the opening bid for his "American Firearm Icon" at $5,000.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common, complex, treatment resistant, and deadliest type of brain cancer, accounting for 45% of all brain cancers, with nearly 11,000 men, women, and children diagnosed each year.

– Her friends and family felt something was wrong: The Spanish woman went from simply believing in God to believing she was seeing and talking with the Virgin Mary. And that's not all. The 60-year-old abruptly shifted from being happy and positive to sad and withdrawn, reports Live Science. Suspecting depression, they had her see doctors, and an MRI revealed glioblastoma multiforme, the aggressive type of brain cancer that Brittany Maynard suffered from. The National Brain Tumor Society doesn't mince words, calling it "the most common, complex, treatment resistant, and deadliest type of brain cancer, accounting for 45% of all brain cancers." With tumors so big they couldn't be surgically removed, the woman was treated with anti-psychotic drugs sometimes given to glioblastoma patients and chemo and radiation over five weeks; her religious visions ultimately ceased. The doctors write in the journal Neurocase that because she previously believed in God, hers "was not a case of religious conversion." And as there was no "trigger or reason [for the hyper-religiosity] except for the disease ... it can be considered a clearly pathological experience." The researchers suggest that this is not the first such case, writing that "in some cases, religiosity can appear as a pathological correlate in patients with brain lesions"; but they present no data as to how often this might occur. The patient died eight months after being diagnosed with cancer. (This man credits Facebook for helping spot his brain tumor.)

– Chris Brown has had his fair share of travel troubles. In July, he was stranded in the Philippines for three days over a contract dispute. Before that, he was barred from entering both Canada and the UK. Now, Australia may follow the lead of its Commonwealth partners and refuse to allow the singer entry because of his 2009 domestic violence conviction, reports the BBC. The federal government says it's reviewing Brown's visa application after the singer announced a December tour in the country and Australian Minister for Women Michaelia Cash says they aren't "afraid to say no." After all, Australia in February barred boxer Floyd Mayweather, who served time in jail for an assault on a former partner in 2012, reports the Guardian. "People need to understand, if you are going to commit domestic violence and you want to travel around the world, there are going to be countries that say to you, 'You cannot come in because you are not of the character that we expect in Australia,'" says Cash, who spoke just as new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced a $100 million national domestic violence prevention program. She adds her "strong recommendation" is to block Brown, though immigration minister Peter Dutton will have the final decision. An online petition asking Dutton to "refuse Chris Brown a visa to visit Australia" because "he is in breach of the Australian visa character test" has over 12,500 signatures. Meanwhile, Brown concert posters have been defaced with "I beat women" stickers, reports 9 News.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced his “separation” from the United States on Thursday, declaring he had realigned with China as the two agreed to resolve their South China Sea dispute through talks. Hours after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, Mr. Duterte announced his “separation” from the U.S., taking Manila’s shift away from its treaty ally to new rhetorical heights and in the process muzzling what had been Southeast Asia’s strongest voice against China’s escalating push to assert its maritime...

– Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is done with us. "I announce my separation from the United States," he declared Thursday on a visit to Beijing, adding that he will instead seek a military and economic alliance with China, Reuters reports. "I've realigned myself in your ideological flow," he told his audience, adding that he hopes to add another major player to the mix. "I will also go to Russia to talk to Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world—China, Philippines and Russia," he said. "America has lost." The White House downplayed the move, with a spokesman saying the US remained a strong economic partner of the Philippines. Duterte has bristled at US condemnation of his bloody war on drugs, personally insulted President Obama, and threatened to leave the "stupid" UN. While he's been throwing barbs at the US, Duterte has apparently been sending flowers to Beijing. He was greeted by a full marching band upon his arrival in Beijing (Obama didn't even get a staircase), and his finance minister plans to ink $13.5 billion worth of economic deals while on the current visit to China. The deal is an especially important diplomatic victory for China, the Wall Street Journal reports, because it signals the Philippines is ready to come to the negotiating table and resolve what has been a major territory dispute over Chinese military bases in the South China Sea.

Related: 13 Bald Eagles Found Dead at Maryland Farm Wildlife groups have banded together with the government to offer a reward for information leading to anyone who contributed to the birds' deaths. "There's not too many scenarios" that could explain what happened to the eagles, said Bill Stewart, the president of the Delmarva Ornithological Society and a director of conservation and community at the American Birding Association. But then a few hours later and a mile away, a startling scene unfolded: Eight bald eagles — distressed and disoriented — were discovered on the ground, barely moving on a fallow farm field. 21, 2016. the Delaware Fish & Wildlife Natural Resources Police Edgell said he's not sure what took down the eagles on his land in Maryland. DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife Natural Resources Police The cluster of deaths comes just a month after 13 bald eagles died about 35 miles away on the Eastern Shore of Maryland — the largest single die-off of bald eagles in the state in three decades. "Our investigation is now focused on human causes," Catherine Hibbard, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said last week that those bald eagles "did not die from natural causes," and offered a $25,000 reward to anyone who can lead authorities to the person or people responsible for their deaths. They were taken to Tri-State Bird Rescue in Newark, where Lisa Smith, the director, said three of them were still alive Monday. Lab tests of both the sick and the dead birds, McDerby said, are expected to be completed within a few days. Nationwide, the birds went from fewer than 500 breeding pairs in the Lower 48 in 1963 to over 11,000 pairs in 2007, when they were taken off the endangered species list, federal figures show. "There’s a lot of rat poisoning used on farms, and eagles are well-known to eat carrion. A single bald eagle found dead in southern Delaware last Saturday didn't raise red flags for state wildlife officials. "I had never seen that many at one time, especially on my property." Wildlife officials say other eagles flew from the Piney Neck area Sunday before they could be captured and have their health evaluated.

– Is somebody deliberately poisoning bald eagles in the mid-Atlantic states? Experts are still trying to find out what happened last month in Maryland, where 13 of the birds were found dead last month, and in Delaware, where five more were found dead last weekend. Mike Parr, vice president of the American Bird Conservancy, tells NBC News that he's "completely baffled" by the deaths. "I can't see any possible explanation of any sort why anyone would deliberately do something like that. It's outrageous," he says. The group is offering a $30,000 reward for information leading to anybody who contributed to the eagle deaths. Federal authorities say "human causes" were behind the Maryland deaths, while test results are still pending in the Delaware deaths. Another three birds found alive but sickened in the latter state were taken to Tri-State Bird Rescue in Newark, which deals with dozens of sick bald eagles every year, the News Journal reports. Bill Stewart, the president of the Delmarva Ornithological Society, says deliberate or accidental poisoning could explain what happened to the eagles. The public has been urged to report any apparently sick eagles they might see. (In happier bald eagle news, a livecam in Washington, DC, captured a baby emerging from its shell.)

Press Release For Immediate Release: Thursday, April 2, 2015 Contact: Media Relations (404) 639-3286 International travelers are bringing a multidrug-resistant intestinal illness to the United States and spreading it to others who have not traveled, according to a report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Shigella sonnei bacteria resistant to the antibiotic ciprofloxacin sickened 243 people in 32 states and Puerto Rico between May 2014 and February 2015. Cipro-resistant shigellosis is a growing problem globally, especially in Asia. “The increase in drug-resistant Shigella makes it even more critical to prevent shigellosis from spreading,” said Anna Bowen, M.D., M.P.H., a medical officer in CDC’s Waterborne Diseases Prevention Branch and lead author of the study. Since last May, the imported superbug has sickened at least 243 people, with large recent outbreaks in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and California. On Thursday, April 2, 2015, the CDC said a drug-resistant strain of a stomach bug made its... (Associated Press) Many cases were traced to people who had recently traveled to the Dominican Republic, India or other countries. Shigella causes an estimated 500,000 cases of diarrhea in the United States every year. It spreads easily and rapidly from person to person and through contaminated food and recreational water. The bacteria infect your intestines and trigger crampy rectal pain, bloody or mucus-laced diarrhea and vomiting. Doctors and patients should consider carefully whether an infection requires antibiotics at all. Take bismuth subsalicylate to prevent travelers’ diarrhea and treat it with over-the-counter drugs like bismuth subsalicylate or loperamide. Try to reserve antibiotics for severe cases of travelers’ diarrhea. ___ Online: CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr

– Travelers from overseas have brought back an unwelcome present for us all: a particularly rough stomach bug that is now spreading across the US. Bonus: This strain of Shigella is resistant to the go-to antibiotic in such cases, ciprofloxacin, or Cipro. A CDC report says the agency has tracked 243 cases in 32 states between May of last year and February of this year. Massachusetts, California, and Pennsylvania have seen the worst of it, and 20% of patients had to be hospitalized. The CDC thinks the illness was brought back to the US from travelers to India, the Dominican Republic, Morocco, and elsewhere, reports NPR. But the disease is so contagious that it's quickly spreading beyond those initial contacts. "If rates of resistance become this high, in more places, we'll have very few options left for treating shigella with antibiotics by mouth," says lead researcher Anna Bowen. IV antibiotics would follow. Shigella causes diarrhea, cramps, and vomiting and spreads easily through contaminated food and water, including pools and ponds, reports the AP. In most cases, it goes away on its own after about a week. In its report, the CDC advises those traveling abroad to be extra vigilant about washing their hands, watching what they eat, and using over-the-counter treatments such as Pepto-Bismol before grabbing Cipro.

The American Medical Association issued a warning in June that high-intensity LED streetlights — such as those in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Houston and elsewhere — emit unseen blue light that can disturb sleep rhythms and possibly increase the risk of serious health conditions, including cancer and cardiovascular disease. Similar concerns have been raised over the past few years, but the AMA report adds credence to the issue and is likely to prompt cities and states to reevaluate the intensity of LED lights they install. Roadway Lighting A report by the Department of Energy revealed that almost 13 percent of roadway lighting in the country works on LED, and many communities that have not made the switch yet will do so in the future. LEDs are up to 50 percent more energy-efficient than the yellow-orange high-pressure sodium lights they typically replace. Unlike typical sodium lights, LEDs spread illumination evenly and last for 15 up to 20 years instead of just two to five years. (U.S. Department of Energy) Some cities say the health concerns are not convincing enough to override the benefits of the first-generation bright LED lights that they installed in the past three to eight years. New York is one of them, although it has responded to resident complaints by replacing the high-intensity, white LED bulbs with a lower- intensity bulb that the AMA considers safe. Scott Thomsen, a spokesman for Seattle City Lights, which is responsible for the city’s exterior illumination, dismissed the health concerns about bright-white LED lights, noting that they emit less of the problematic blue wavelengths than most computers and televisions. Effect on sleep cycles In its warning, the AMA cited the melatonin issue, noting that studies have linked bright LEDs to reduced sleep time, poor sleep quality and impaired daytime functioning. According to the AMA, evidence suggests that exposure to very bright LED lights at night might increase the risk for diabetes, heart disease, obesity and cancer. And it cautioned that intense LEDs have been associated with “discomfort and disability glare,” which might impair nighttime vision for drivers.

– Many US cities have been making the move from sodium street lights to LEDs—the bulbs are not only up to 50% more energy efficient than their predecessors, but they last for as many as 20 years and distribute light more evenly. Unfortunately, numerous studies suggest that the levels of blue light in the high-intensity LED bulbs could have health ramifications, including sleep problems and even increased risk for cancer and heart disease. The evidence is apparently strong enough to prompt the American Medical Association to issue a warning in June that LED street lights can impair and even damage nighttime vision, reports Tech Times. Problem is, almost 13% of roadway lighting now uses LEDs, with many places planning a switch, reports the Washington Post. Seattle has been downright dismissive of any health concerns, while New York has gone so far as to switch to lower-intensity LED bulbs the AMA considers safe when residents complain. Lake Worth, Fla., meanwhile, has plans to replace its sodium street lights with more than 4,000 LED lights that have less of the potentially harmful blue light and more of an amber hue, while Gloucester, Mass., has consulted its own residents and decided to play it safe and go with less blue in their LEDs, which they'll finish installing next month. But not everybody's convinced the danger is real: "Nobody says don’t watch television or use your computer after 9pm because of blue lights," grouses one Phoenix official to the Post. (This major company is making the switch to LEDs.)

The study examined the backgrounds of the 40 finalists in the 2016 Intel Talent Search, the country’s most prestigious math and science competition for high school seniors, also known as the “Junior Nobel Prize.” The annual event, which takes place in Washington D.C., is organized by the Society for Science & the Public and was renamed the Regeneron Science Talent Search in 2017. As the Times of India pointed out, Das, a Jersey girl whose parents were born in Kolkata, was one of five Indian Americans among the competition's top ten finishers. Children from those countries are more likely to major in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields than those whose native language is linguistically close to English, such as German. "The more difficult it is for the child to learn English, the more likely they will invest in math/logic and physical skills over communications skills," said co-author Marcos Rangel, an assistant professor of public policy and economics at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy. The study, published online in the journal Demography on March 20, provides insight into why "some U.S. immigrants find it more attractive to invest in brawn rather than in brain, in mathematics rather than in poetry, in science rather than in history," write Rangel and co-author Marigee Bacolod, associate professor of economics at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, looked at U.S. Census data for young adults who arrived in the United States before age 18. "Late arrivals from English-distant countries develop a comparative advantage in math/logic, socio-emotional and physical skills relative to communication skills which ultimately generates the occupational segregation we are used to seeing in the labor market," Rangel said. After age 10, learning a second language is more difficult, and a child's particular linguistic background matters more. Second, whether their native language was linguistically close to English — say, German — or less similar — say, Vietnamese. But for those who are older when they immigrate, the picture is different. To be clear, Rangel doesn't discount the notion that cultural values may also influence immigrants' career choices, or those of their children for that matter. "It is really a story about what skills people who immigrated as children develop given the costs and benefits associated with the learning processes."

– It's formally called the Regeneron Student Talent Search, but it's more casually known as the "Junior Nobel"—and the high schooler who wins the elite science prize walks with $250,000. A study on last year's finalists turned up something interesting, reports Teen Vogue: 83% of the 40 were children of immigrants. And as NPR reports, new research may suggest a possible contributing factor. Reporting in the journal Demography, the two researchers looked at US census data and found that immigrants tend to choose jobs requiring physical strength, suggesting obstacles to accessing to higher levels of education. But among immigrants with a college degree, the landscape is very different. Those who went to college, came to the States as older children, and hailed from a country more linguistically different than the US (think Vietnam vs. Germany) were much more likely to pursue a science, tech, engineering, or math (STEM) field. This is especially true for kids arriving after age 10. The researchers hypothesize in a press release that such immigrants may prefer working on a subject like math, a universal language. "The more difficult it is for the child to learn English [and it becomes trickier after 10], the more likely they will invest in math/logic and physical skills over communications skills," says co-author Marcos Rangel. It's not a full explanation, but they hope to highlight that there may be many nuances influencing why we pursue the fields we do. (Here's what migrant children are fleeing.)

Lisset Rendon, 23, was bitten in her left shoulder before she could struggle out of the crocodile's jaws, after she and Alejandro Jimenez, 26, jumped into a canal, Jorge Pino, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “They started swimming and apparently at some point they came face-to-face with a nine-foot crocodile,” Pino said. After Rendon was attacked, Jimenez was bitten in the hands and torso as he scrambled toward safety at a nearby dock early Sunday morning, Pino said. The canal where Rendon and Jimenez went swimming is a known crocodile habitat, and wildlife officials spent the day warning residents about the dangers of wading into unfamiliar waters.

– Alejandro Jimenez, 26, and Lisset Rendon, 23, went for a swim at 2:30am Sunday in a Florida canal during a house party ... and exited the water with the honor of being the first people in the US bitten by an American crocodile. Residents of the South Miami neighborhood where the incident took place say they've actually named the three large crocodiles that live behind their homes—Pancho, Snaggletooth, and Streetwalker—and wildlife officials assume one of those three is to blame, the Guardian reports. Jimenez is still in the hospital recovering from bites on his torso and hands; Rendon is home recovering from a shoulder bite. One wildlife official says the couple struggled with the 9-foot crocodile and eventually made their way to shore, where other partygoers who heard the noise pulled them out of the water. Officials aren't calling it an attack, though, because "crocodiles are most active at dawn and dusk, they’re looking for food, and this one would have interpreted what was in the water as food," he said. "It’s common sense never to swim where you know there are crocodiles and alligators." Crocodiles typically avoid contact with humans, Reuters notes. Trappers are looking for the crocs and will move them to a rehab facility, WSVN reports. (In Australia last week, a crocodile known as "Michael Jackson" killed a fisherman.)

Macron warned that "economic nationalism leads to war. Trump had campaigned for president on a promise to crack down on trading partners that he said exploited poorly negotiated trade agreements to run up big trade surpluses with the U.S. Earlier today, this message was conveyed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada: The United States will agree to a fair deal, or there will be no deal at all.” There were still a number of differences between the United States and Canada as they reached the final stages of negotiation, but both sides seemed dug in on the idea of whether or not the whole agreement should expire after five years. Trump has said the new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are necessary to protect U.S. national security, but they have been widely criticized by foreign leaders, U.S. business groups and even some labor groups as being ill designed and potentially damaging to the U.S. economy. Trudeau said Thursday that he felt the United States, Mexico and Canada were on the verge of a renegotiated NAFTA that he described as a “win, win, win” before the talks stalled after the Pence phone call. The tariffs had been delayed against Mexico and Canada while U.S. officials tried to finalize NAFTA talks, but it became clear in recent days that an agreement was out of reach.

– Justin Trudeau says he was ready to fly to Washington to make a deal on NAFTA—until Mike Pence made a demand that he had no choice but to reject. The Canadian prime minister says the vice president told him there would have to be a "sunset clause" guaranteeing that the deal would expire in five years, the Washington Post reports. Trudeau says this would create far too much uncertainty for businesses. He says the visit was called off after he made it clear to Pence that no Canadian leader would sign a deal containing a sunset clause. Trump said in a statement Thursday that the US "has been taken advantage of for many decades on trade" and the message was conveyed to Trudeau that Washington will "agree to a fair deal, or there will be no deal at all." "FAIR TRADE!" he tweeted. Trudeau denounced new US tariffs on Canadian, Mexican, and EU imports as "totally unacceptable" and said Ottawa will slap tariffs on $12.8 billion worth of US goods, the AP reports. Trump previously framed our dependence on imported metals as a national security threat, and Trudeau addressed that: "Canada is a secure supplier of aluminum and steel to the US defense industry, putting aluminum in American planes and steel in American tanks. That Canada could be considered a national security threat to the United States is inconceivable." Mexico also vowed to penalize US imports, and French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday he had spoken to Trump and told him the tariffs were an illegal "mistake" that would draw a "firm" response.

It detected 101 out of the 106 pregnancies affected with one of the three disorders, with only four false-positives, yielding a 95 per cent detection rate (compared with 81 per cent using the existing conventional test alone), and a 0.02 per cent false-positive rate (100-fold reduction in false positives from 2.42 per cent for the combined test). Reflex screening is also safer than conventional screening as it avoids nearly all invasive diagnostic tests in unaffected pregnancies and miscarriages related to these procedures. Chitty et al.3 described a similar two-step screening protocol but, instead of performing a reflex DNA test on a previously collected plasma sample, women with a combined test risk ≥1 in 1,000 were recalled for counseling with the offer of a DNA screening test or, if the risk was ≥1 in 150, the choice of a DNA screening test or an invasive diagnostic test. With the reflex DNA screening approach, all pregnancies have a screening result and in this implementation project only 3 pregnancies out of 2,480 reflexed to a DNA test (0.12%) had an integrated test after a DNA test failure using the second aliquot of the extra blood collection. Not only are more affected pregnancies identified, but many fewer women will be made acutely anxious by being notified that they have a positive screening result, and among those women with a positive DNA screening result, almost all will have an affected pregnancy. Reflex DNA screening can potentially achieve cost savings because of the reduction in the number of invasive diagnostic tests needed and the reduced need for patient counseling associated with the two-step approach. As the cost of reflex DNA screening declines, the combined test cutoff can be lowered, resulting in an increase in the proportion of women having a reflex DNA test and hence an increase in the detection rate. The test combines an ultrasound scan and a blood test, and if it shows that a woman is at an increased risk of having an affected pregnancy, she is offered a diagnostic test, an amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling (CVS); these are invasive tests that involve inserting a needle through the mother's abdomen into her womb to collect samples of fluid surrounding the foetus or tissue from the placenta. There is a trade-off between small incremental increases in detection for increasing proportions of women required to provide an extra blood sample. The reflex DNA policy makes prenatal screening for trisomies 21, 18, and 13 safer than other policies because of the reduced false-positive rate. The benefits of reflex DNA screening arise mainly from the substantially lower false-positive rate compared with other methods of screening, the avoidance of recall-induced anxiety associated with non-reflex contingent screening, and a detection rate similar to universal DNA testing.

– Doctors have discovered a more accurate way to prenatally test for chromosome disorders like Down syndrome, and it's less stressful for the mother to boot. Normally, if an ultrasound and blood test show a woman's risk of an affected pregnancy is high, doctors can perform additional tests to identify possible Down syndrome, Edwards syndrome, or Patau syndrome using a needle that collects fluid or tissue from a woman's womb. These procedures—either an amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling—aren't fun, nor are the weeks of worry that can precede them. But researcher Nicholas Wald says new "reflex DNA screening" led to a 100-fold reduction in false positives at five UK maternity wards and prevented "nearly all invasive diagnostic tests in unaffected pregnancies," per a release. In this method, described in Genetics in Medicine, doctors take a blood sample from a woman around 11 weeks of pregnancy and split it into two. If the first sample shows a woman's risk for an affected pregnancy is 1 in 800 or higher, doctors use the second sample to search for DNA from the placenta that would indicate a disorder, reports the Guardian. Over a 16-month study period involving 23,000 women, the test detected 95% of affected pregnancies, compared to 81% with the previous method. The rate of false positives, meanwhile, fell to 0.02% from 2.4%. In the end, only one of 26 women who underwent the diagnostic test had an unaffected pregnancy, adds Wald, who notes "the extra costs of the DNA tests are offset against savings from fewer amniocenteses and associated counseling."

– NBA Commissioner Adam Silver dropped the hammer on LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling today, announcing that the league was banning Sterling for life from "any association with the Clippers organization or the NBA." Sterling will not be allowed to attend any NBA games or practices, be involved in Clippers personnel decisions, or attend board of governors meetings. He'll also be fined $2.5 million, which Silver said was the maximum allowed under the NBA constitution. In addition, Silver said he'll move to force the sale of the Clippers. Silver said the NBA had investigated the incident and interviewed Sterling, and concluded that Sterling was the man on infamous taped conversations, "and that the hateful opinions voiced by that man are those of Mr. Sterling." He said he would encourage the other owners to force Sterling to sell the team, which can be done with a three-quarters vote. "This has been a painful moment for all members of the NBA family," he said, adding that he felt "personal outrage" over the comments. In addition: Asked if an owner should be pushed out for comments made in private, Silver replied, "Whether or not these remarks were initially shared in private, they are now public, and they represent his views." Silver said he hadn't formally polled the owners, but that he'd spoken to several and "I have their full support." He said he was confident they would agree to oust Sterling. Asked if the league was seeking more African-American ownership, Silver said the league was diverse, but "I'd always like to see it become more diverse." Asked about Magic Johnson specifically, he said Johnson knows that "he is always welcome as an owner in this league ... and a close friend of the NBA family." Johnson tweeted out his approval of Silver's move. "In Commissioner Adam Silver we have a great leader leading our league," he said, adding, "The people who I'm happiest for are Coach Doc Rivers, the Clippers players, and fans." Silver had singled out Rivers and Chris Paul to thank them for their leadership.

Image copyright Hugh Sher Image caption Shalom Ouanounou was intubated after an asthma attack A Canadian judge has allowed an Orthodox Jewish family to keep their son on life support after he was declared brain dead by doctors. “He would be declared dead in a manner contrary to his religious values and would be deprived of accommodation of his most fundamental constitutional and human rights when he is most dependent on them.” Ouanounou, 25, had an asthma attack at home on Sept. 27 and was taken by ambulance to Humber River Hospital, where he was placed on a respirator, the document says. His family wants the certificate revoked, arguing that their religion does not accept death until the heart stops beating. The injunction — issued Wednesday — stipulates that Ouanounou is to remain on life support until the religious freedom case is decided. Parents at odds over whether baby should stay on life support The patient’s father, Maxime Ouanounou, argued on his son’s behalf, saying, “Shalom’s belief is that discontinuing life support in these circumstances is murder and therefore contrary to his fundamental belief in the sanctity of human life,” a court affidavit shows, The BBC reported. “Anything less than continuing Shalom’s life support is a failure to accommodate his lifelong, firmly held religious beliefs.” Shalom Ouanounou: Canada judge keeps patient on life support https://t.co/sTU2CDa1h5 pic.twitter.com/PW3AEDPiaN — Bret Carbone (@BretCarbone) November 2, 2017 Hundreds of Orthodox Jewish supporters rallied at the courthouse Wednesday to support the Ouanounou family. Hugh Scher, one of the lawyers representing the patient's case, told the BBC that Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects people from discrimination of religion and that this should extend to end-of-life care. California mom given one week to keep toddler on life support “The definition of death in Canada must reflect the accommodation of religious difference,” he told The BBC. “This is not unique or out-of-this world proposition.” New York, Illinois, New Jersey and California laws provide exemptions for people that subscribe to religions that reject the concept of brain death. But many medical experts say that such provisions are not scientifically sound and would ultimately do more harm than good.

– A man will remain on life support in Canada for the time being, despite the fact that his death certificate has already been issued. Toronto's Shalom Ouanounou, 25, was declared brain dead three days after suffering an asthma attack on Sept. 27, reports the Canadian Press. But while Canadian guidelines define death as the irreversible end of brain function and breathing ability, Ouanounou's Orthodox Jewish family is fighting to keep Ouanounou on life support based on their religion's assertion that death occurs only when the heart stops beating. Though the case has yet to be decided, a judge granted a temporary injunction Wednesday to keep Ouanounou on a ventilator and feeding tube at Humber River Hospital. The family's lawyer says the move came just in time. "They were going to pull the plug tomorrow," Hugh Scher told the Canadian Press on Wednesday. Had that happened, Ouanounou would've suffered "the ultimate irreparable harm," his father wrote in a court affidavit. The BBC quotes it as explaining that "Shalom's belief is that discontinuing life support in these circumstances is murder and therefore contrary to his fundamental belief in the sanctity of human life." "Both the family and the community are committed to having this question addressed," Scher says, while acknowledging Ouanounou could meet his religion's definition of death before that happens. He adds "the definition of death in Canada must reflect the accommodation of religious difference," per the New York Daily News. Hospital officials haven't commented. (Read the latest development in the somewhat similar case of Jahi McMath.)

– An unidentified flying object of sorts was found in pieces two miles outside Roswell, New Mexico—after some teens swiped it from a local museum. According to the Roswell Police Department, three teens swiped the decoration from the UFO Museum & Research Center on March 19. It had just been repaired following damage caused by a snow storm. Police released surveillance video, and a 17-year-old was arrested in connection with the theft on Saturday, UPI reports. Police are looking for the other two teens seen in the video. Government agents still don't know why the teens stole the UFO or why they destroyed it—at least that's what they want us to think.

World urges Egypt to show restraint, protect civilians The European Union's top diplomat, Catherine Ashton, urged "security forces to exercise utmost restraint and ... the interim government to end the state of emergency as soon as possible, to allow the resumption of normal life." VIOLENCE SPREADS A U.S. official told Reuters that Washington was considering cancelling the biennial "Bright Star" joint military exercise with Egypt, due this year, after the latest violence, in what would be a direct snub to the Egyptian armed forces. Pressing Egypt's government "to respect basic human rights," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that Wednesday's "deplorable" events "run counter to Egyptian aspirations for peace, inclusion and genuine democracy." The Head of Sky News John Ryley described Mick as the very best of cameramen, a brilliant journalist and an inspiring mentor to many at Sky. "We found that matters had reached a point that no self-respecting state could accept," he said in a televised address.

– It's been a bloody, chaotic day in Egypt: Security forces raided two pro-Mohamed Morsi protest camps in Cairo, and reports of casualties are rising quickly. The country's health ministry now says 149 are dead and about 1,400 injured in Cairo and elsewhere, reports AP. The Muslim Brotherhood says the figures are even higher. Nobel prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei resigned from his post as vice president in protest of the violent crackdown, reports Reuters. The government put into place a one-month state of emergency and ordered the army to help police enforce it, reports the BBC. The White House condemned both the violence and the emergency declaration, adds the Hill. "We will continue to hold the interim government accountable for the promise they have made to speed the transition to a civilian democratic government," said a spokesman. Trains to Cairo have been halted, and the Muslim Brotherhood says the move is to prevent outside aid from arriving. Protesters had held the two camps for some six weeks now, and they were braced for an eventual raid following the end of Ramadan last week, reports CNN. Among those reported killed is the 17-year-old daughter of Mohamed al-Beltagy, a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood. Sky News is confirming that cameraman Mick Deane was also among those killed, and a Reuters reporter saw at least 20 protesters shot in the legs.

The call that led Georgia Tech campus police to respond to a man reportedly wielding a knife was made by the student who was later shot and killed by officers, police investigators said Monday night. Channel 2 Action News was at the scene when the knife Schultz was suspected of holding was still on the ground. The statement did not say whether the knife was displayed but said no firearms were recovered. An attorney for Schultz’s family said in a statement Monday night the knife remained in its holder and Scout’s arms were at the student’s side. The parents of Schultz said their child, who identified as neither male nor female, had suffered from anxiety and depression, and had spent time in counseling after attempting suicide by hanging two years ago. Police across the country shoot and kill an average of three people each day, a rate virtually unchanged in recent years despite calls from police leaders and the public for reform. At least 102 of those cases, including the shooting of Schultz, occurred in 2017. Related: Georgia Tech student dies after shooting on campus Photos: Scene at fatal shooting of Georgia Tech student Video of the incident showed Scout, 21, shouting “Shoot me!” to the four officers on the scene. According to the GBI, the Georgia Tech Police Department responded to a 911 call about a person with a knife and gun in the area of Eighth Street on the campus at about 11 p.m. Saturday. A spokesman for Georgia Tech told CNN that campus police do not carry stun guns. “Come on, man, let’s drop the knife,” an officer with his gun drawn says in the graphic video. “Shoot me!” The officer keeps backing up, moving behind a parking barricade and imploring again: “Nobody wants to hurt you, man.” At least four officers had surrounded Schultz, according to WSB-TV. “Why didn’t they use some nonlethal force, like pepper spray or Tasers?” Lynne Schultz told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday. While the state’s investigative bureau referred to Schultz as a male — “Scott Schultz” — the student and the student’s family used the pronoun “them,” and on the Pride Alliance website Schultz used the description “bisexual, nonbinary and intersex.” “When I’m not running Pride or doing classwork I mostly play D&D and try to be politically active,” Schultz wrote. “I tend to think that if there was a cause it might have been anger at the police over all the shootings and all the long litany of police shootings.” In a statement, Pride Alliance called its late president the “driving force” behind the LGBT group for the past two years. “They pushed us to do more events and a larger variety events, and we would not be the organization we are known as without their constant hard work and dedication,” the statement reads. “We love you Scout and we will continue to push for change.” Scout, a fourth-year student at Georgia Tech, was born in Rockville, Md., and spent time in Iowa, Missouri and Florida before moving to the Atlanta area six years ago. “I think (Scout) was having a mental breakdown and didn’t know what to do,” said Stewart, who wondered why nonlethal force wasn’t used. Lynne Schultz said that they have received an outpouring of support from members of the community and that more than 30 friends showed up to the hospital in the middle of the night when Scout was shot. “They always worried he was going to fail a test but got all A’s and only two B’s at Tech.” “(Scout) had a lot of empathy for people, active in a lot of causes. Schultz was not cooperative and would not comply with officers' commands to drop the knife, the GBI said.

– The president of Georgia Tech's Pride Alliance group was shot dead on campus Saturday night after suffering what a lawyer says appears to have been a mental breakdown. Police say Scout Schultz, who identified as non-binary instead of male or female, was shot after they responded to a 911 call about a person armed with a knife and gun outside a dormitory, WSB reports. Schultz doesn't appear to have had a gun, but police say the student was shot after refusing orders to drop a knife. Graphic video of the incident shows the 21-year-old walking toward officers and shouting "Shoot me!" around a minute before being shot by one of four nearby officers, reports the Washington Post. Video shows that Schultz's hands were down when the student approached officers, and photos from the scene show a utility tool that apparently included a blade, though it wasn't extended. A lawyer for Schultz's family accuses officers of overreacting. It appears Schultz "was having a mental breakdown and didn't know what to do," the lawyer says. "The area was secured. There was no one around at risk." Schultz's mother tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that her eldest child, who was born Scott, suffered from depression and attempted suicide two years ago. "Why didn't they use some nonlethal force, like pepper spray or Tasers?" she wonders.

Writing for new 'Nicolas Cage and 'The Human Centipede'' vertical James Franco, the real voice of our generation, has taken time out from his busy schedule of Art and Teaching and also Learning to begin a Huffington Post diary. It's about time! So what important issue of our times is Mr. Franco tackling? President Obama's stance on gay rights? The construction of Marina Abramovic's performance space over on the Hudson? Or even scarier…a new book collection. Those are all great guesses, but James Franco is actually here to talk to us today about a matter close to his heart: Haunted tours in New Orleans that he took with his Nana. (Which is the name of his Japanese hairdresser, not his grandmother.) Instead, I wrote about New Orleans and ghost tours because I think there is something interesting about the way we are repelled by violence, on one hand, and attracted to it for its entertainment value, on the other. To set the scene: About four years ago, I was asked to give the commencement speech at U.C.L.A. My room was said to house the spirit of a nun who had leapt from the window.

– Internet Fight Alert: James Franco is in a bit of a tiff with a New York Observer writer over his series of columns on the Huffington Post. Writer Drew Grant took issue with the fact that Franco addressed New Orleans ghost tours in his column, rather than something more substantive like politics. Franco responded in yesterday’s column, where he first slammed the Observer for being “a newspaper owned by Donald Trump's son-in-law that is perhaps best known for publishing a sex column in the mid-1990s.” He goes on to explain that he didn’t discuss politics—specifically President Obama’s stance on gay marriage—because there’s “enough talk about that already,” and “plus, who wants to hear an actor’s take on it anyway?” He chose his topic because it seemed interesting, he concludes, and the real question is why “the great journalists at the New York Observer” are, “instead of covering pressing world issues, … covering my writing, which they claim to consider petty.” Click for his full column, which somehow segues into the topic of commencement speeches.

The US air drop over the the Pacific island is due to commence in the spring, and is aimed at addressing the problems caused by non-native brown tree snakes. Having hitched a ride to the island some 60 years ago on military ships, the colony of reptiles have been deemed responsible for killing off native bird species, biting human inhabitants and knocking out electricity by slithering onto power lines. Meanwhile, in Hawaii – some 3,000 miles away – environmentalists fear a similar invasion from the snakes, possibly through unwitting transportation in aircraft that have spent time on Guam. "We are taking this to a new phase," said Daniel Vice, assistant state director of U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services in Hawaii, Guam, and the Pacific Islands. "There really is no other place in the world with a snake problem like Guam," he added. Brown tree snakes are generally a few feet (1 meter) long but can grow to be more than 10 feet (3 meters) in length. Most of Guam's native birds were defenseless against the nocturnal, tree-based predators, and within a few decades of the reptile's arrival, nearly all of them were wiped out. The snakes can also climb power poles and wires, causing blackouts, or slither into homes and bite people, including babies; they use venom on their prey but it is not lethal to humans. The infestation and the toll it has taken on native wildlife have tarnished Guam's image as a tourism haven, though the snakes are rarely seen outside their jungle habitat. The solution, government scientists believe, is to take advantage of the creature's two big weaknesses – its unfussiness when it comes to food and its susceptibility to a common painkiller, acetaminophen. Unlike most snakes, brown tree snakes are happy to eat prey they didn't kill themselves, and they are highly vulnerable to acetaminophen, which is harmless to humans. The upcoming mice drop is targeted to hit snakes near Guam's sprawling Andersen Air Force Base, which is surrounded by heavy foliage and if compromised would offer the snakes a potential ticket off the island. Using helicopters, the dead neonatal mice will be dropped by hand, one by one. Experts say the impact on other species will be minimal, particularly since the snakes have themselves wiped out the birds that might have been most at risk. That "snakes on a plane" scenario has officials in Hawaii on edge. A 2010 study conducted by the National Wildlife Research Center found brown tree snakes would cause between $593 million and $2.14 billion in economic damage each year if they became established in Hawaii like they are on Guam. Power outages would cause the most damage, followed by a projected decline in tourism. Though the snakes are native to Australia and Papua New Guinea, Guam is much closer to Hawaii and its snake population is much more dense, meaning it is the primary threat for snake stowaways. To date, only a few brown tree snakes have ever been found in Hawaii, and none over the past 17 years.

– The US has a plan to deal with Guam's overwhelming snake population, and it's not sitting well with animal rights activists: In April or May, dead mice stuffed with acetaminophen will be parachuted into Guam. As the AP explains, the plan is built around the brown tree snakes' two main weaknesses: They'll chow down on prey they didn't kill themselves and are highly vulnerable to the painkiller (it's the active ingredient in Tylenol). And by attaching the mice to parachutes, which will be dropped by hand one at a time, researchers say they'll lodge in trees, away from other animals. The mice drop has been attempted before, but a Department of Agriculture official says that now, "We are taking this to a new phase. There really is no other place in the world with a snake problem like Guam." That's because the snakes, which invaded the island during World War II via military ships in the South Pacific, have killed off most of the island's native bird species, are dinging tourism, and could do serious financial harm should they make their way to Hawaii. But PETA is not happy, the Guardian reports. The plan is a cruel one, it says, because death by renal and liver failure "could take days or even weeks."

They questioned whether Obama shared their core values, and they sought reassurance — at a hastily arranged evening meeting at the White House that lasted nearly two hours — that the final legislative package would be the balanced approach that the president had promised. With only a few top advisers involved, the news that they were nearing an accord broke only after administration officials told Democratic Congressional leaders on Wednesday night about the outlines of the Obama-Boehner discussion, following talks earlier in the day between the president, Mr. Boehner and Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. That plan is opposed by conservatives such a House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who say it could increase taxes by as much as $2 trillion. Hours before the Congressional Democrats met with Mr. Obama, they had expressed alarm publicly to reporters that the emerging proposal seemed too reliant on deep spending cuts compared to new revenue. Just as Senate Democrats were sitting down Thursday to a scheduled meeting with White House budget director Jacob J. Lew, rumors of a new debt-limit deal between President Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) flashed across their BlackBerrys. When Lew left, Mikulski turned to her colleagues and said, “I haven’t seen a meeting like this in my 35 years in Congress.” Outside the room, Lew said he was “not aware of a deal.” For the first time in weeks of debt negotiations that have focused on rifts within the Republican Party, Thursday brought forward long-simmering tensions between Obama and his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (N.J.) noted “a little separation” between Obama and his former Senate caucus. I hope the president agrees with that, and I’m confident he will.” But the president and Mr. Boehner were moving ahead with their plan, aides said, trying to agree on matters like how much new revenue would be raised, how much would go to deficit reduction, how much to lower tax rates and, perhaps most critical, how to enforce the requirement for new tax revenue through painful consequences for both parties should they be unable to overhaul the tax code in 2012. Did she think the White House was working off the same page as her? "There is no progress to report," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters just 12 days before the Aug. 2 deadline set by the Treasury Department to raise the debt limit or face a first-ever government default on its loans — and, economists and Obama have warned, economic catastrophe. Many Republicans oppose abandoning the party’s no-compromise stand against any new taxes, while many Democrats fear a “grand bargain” will undercut their party’s ability in the 2012 campaigns to use Republicans’ support of deep cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security against them. Congressional Democrats already are suggesting the potential Obama-Boehner deal is more tilted toward Republican priorities than a bipartisan plan suggested this week by the so-called Gang of Six senators, three Republicans and three Democrats. Boehner expressed some confidence that Republicans and the White House can eventually make a deal. “The trick on this has always been the tax issue,” one Republican said. Among Senate Democrats, there is still bitterness about the deal Vice President Biden negotiated in secret in December with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that extended all of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts, including those for the wealthy. Meanwhile, Reid moved up plans for the Senate to dispense with a House-passed "Cut, Cap and Balance" bill that would increase the nation's debt limit by $2.4 trillion as long as the increase is met by immediate spending cuts and a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. Mr. Reid and Mr. McConnell summoned the Gang of Six — rather, the Gang of Eight with the addition of Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, a Democrat, and Senator Mike Johanns, Republican of Nebraska — to a meeting on Thursday. “At the end of the day, we have a responsibility to act,” Mr. Boehner told reporters.

– Sam and Diane. Ross and Rachel. And now the latest "will-they-or-won't-they?" couple seems to be President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner. After speculation renewed yesterday that they were working on a deal, the New York Times maintains a deal is close, while the USA Today says both sides are far apart, with Boehner telling Rush Limbaugh yesterday that "there is no deal. No deal publicly. No deal privately. There is absolutely no deal." Meanwhile, Congressional Democrats appear to be digging in, too, growing increasingly miffed that the president could blow a winning hand, according to the Washington Post. “There has to be a balance. There has to be some revenue and cuts. My caucus agrees with that. I hope that the president sticks with that," said Harry Reid. “It would concern me greatly if these folks—the tea party group—have been able to convince the president to go along with a deal that basically gives them everything they want but yet still takes away from those who are our most vulnerable,” said Maryland Rep. Elijah E. Cummings.

Newt Gingrich’s reportedly cash-strapped campaign, which had long-planned to run a robust Iowa effort, did not bid on a spot. In 2007, Romney spent heavily to win the straw poll only to come up short in the caucuses to the Republican who finished second in the straw poll, former Arkansas Gov. “He realizes Iowa is extremely important to the presidential cycle and that Iowans have a very special position to the presidential process.” In addition to McCotter and Paul, the four others buying today include: former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain; former Minnesota Gov.Tim Pawlenty; Rick Santorum and Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann.. Minnesota Sen. Michele Bachmann.

– Newt Gingrich has opted not to pony up the $15,000 necessary to be a main competitor in August's Ames Straw Poll in Iowa, reports the Des Moines Register. The poll doubles as a GOP fundraiser, and candidates can essentially rent space for their supporters. Gingrich's tottering campaign is reportedly strapped for cash, and his rep did not bid at yesterday's auction. The top bidder was Ron Paul, who paid $31,000 for prime real estate. The big surprise was the No. 2 bid, which went to conservative Congressman Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan for $18,000. McCotter has not formally announced he is joining the GOP field and tried to make his auction bid anonymously, but his representative was outed. The other four who paid to participate: Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, and Tim Pawlenty. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman skipped for strategic reasons, notes CNN; they're focusing on New Hampshire.

The technology to give everyone the opportunity to simulate the towers on their phones didn’t exist 10 years ago, nor did crowd-funding, which August has used to raise more than his initial goal of $25,000. The project, called 110 Stories, is the work of Brian August, a lifelong New York resident, who has been mulling over the concept for a decade. A new Kickstarter project will re-create that image with a free app for iPhone users. Once properly oriented, augmented reality kicks in and renders their silhouette -- in a pencil-like outline during the day and in shimmering light at night. The user can then tweak the picture and submit a personal story to www.110stories.com, which will display each photo submission as a pin on a New York City map. Users can scroll over a pin to read the corresponding story.

– A smartphone app currently in the works will offer a view of the New York City skyline as it once was. The app will tell you how to aim your phone toward Ground Zero; it then superimposes an image of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center as they looked before the 9/11 attacks, FastCoDesign reports. Once you have your image, the app will allow you to share your thoughts with others via a personal story. The program, which will be free on iPhone, is the work of lifelong New Yorker Brian August. “It occurred to me that there are going to be a whole generation of people growing up and people who never visited New York who will have no conception whatsoever of how big the towers were, how beautiful they were, and how iconic they were, and how many different vantage points there were where you could see them,” he says. Using the Kickstarter crowd-funding site, he’s raised more than $25,000 to work on the project, called 110 Stories. He aims to release the program in time for the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

A movement from a Beethoven composition for a string quartet which was discarded by the composer and replaced by a new version has been reconstructed by a musical expert in Manchester. The piece got its first ever public performance in more than 200 years, possibly ever, at Manchester University. The lost piece of music was part of the String Quartet in G, Opus 18 Number 2, and Professor of Music at the university, Barry Cooper, painstakingly reconstructed the movement based on surviving detailed sketches for every one of its 74 bars. The original slow movement of Beethoven's Quartet in G, Op 18 no 2, was written in 1799 when the composer was 28 years old, for his Bohemian patron, Prince Lobkowicz. It was only his second string quartet and, when he had completed a group of six such works – the Op 18 quartets – he went back to the two first and revised them substantially in 1800, discarding the whole of the second movement of the quartet in G. The original slow movement exists in the form of fragmentary sketches – often with only music for the higher instruments written out in full, and not in sequential order. There is also a quite different middle section, in C minor – "stormy, angry, with shimmering tremolandos and rushing scales, very tense and anguished", according to Cooper.

– After Beethoven scrapped a movement from a string quartet, it was lost to the world’s ears for two centuries. No longer: A music professor in Britain has recreated the piece using the composer’s sketches for every measure. The movement of String Quartet in G, Opus 18, No. 2 was performed for the first time in 200 years—perhaps the first time ever—at Manchester University, the Telegraph reports. After Beethoven had written a group of six string quartets, he reworked the first two, the Guardian notes, ditching the second movement of the Quartet in G. Only the sketches for the movement remain; Professor Barry Cooper filled out missing parts and put them in order. He “made the jigsaw fit, and also made it performable,” Cooper says. “What we have now is something like—not exactly like, but pretty similar to—what Beethoven wrote.”

– It's one thing to lose your job as dictator in a popular uprising. But to see all your belongings—from your 40 luxury cars to your miniature golden sphinxes to your wife's treadmill—go to the highest bidder? That's the fate being suffered by former Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, reports AFP. The nation today beings a 30-day auction of all his "ill-gotten" belongings and hopes to bring in about $13 million, reports AP. Ben Ali, now in exile in Saudi Arabia, was the first leader to fall in the 2011 Arab Spring. The Guardian notes that the jubilation that followed his ouster has long since subsided: "Times are hard for many this winter, however. Protests in poorer regions continue to discourage investment, taking unemployment to new highs in some towns and adding weight to arguments that the Islamist-led government lacks economic expertise. A shortage of milk in supermarkets is adding to the sombre public mood ..."

(Photo: Courtesy of Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office) The Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office has a playful message for The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore: Stay away from here. The Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office posted to its Facebook page a fake trespass warning for Cantore Monday evening, playing off the joke that when he shows up in your area, the weather is bound to turn bad soon. <img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com/util/image/w/fullwarning.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com/util/image/w/fullwarning.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com/util/image/w/fullwarning.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > (Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office) "Everyone knows what's in store when Jim Cantore shows up, so we issued a little notice," the post read, listing Cantore's preferred visiting months during the winter. The Sheriff's Office makes it clear the trespassing warning isn't real, adding a line at the bottom of the warning that reads, "This is not a real trespass. "We like Jim, just not under these conditions." The hurricane could pick up speed Tuesday and start affecting the Gulf Coast before making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane Wednesday.

– The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore is usually on the scene when there's a big storm—so, as Florida prepares for Hurricane Michael, one sheriff's office is letting the meteorologist know he's not welcome. The Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office posted a "Trespass Warning" for Cantore on Facebook Monday as a joke, writing, "Everyone know whats in store when Jim Cantore shows up. So we issued a little notice." The fake warning says Cantore is welcome to make "non-business related visits only," preferably during the winter months, and it notes at the bottom: "We like Jim, just not under these conditions." Hurricane Michael is expected to make landfall Wednesday between the Florida Panhandle and the Big Bend, Weather.com reports. It could be a Category 3 storm when it does, notes the Pensacola News Journal.

“It's a long and twisted tale that didn't turn out the way I’d hoped,” she said.

– Two great American crime novelists may have relied on a man unknown to history—a black detective in Los Angeles—to help them get their facts straight, the LA Times reports. Samuel Marlowe, said to be the city's first black gumshoe, worked for celebrities, studios, and speakeasies in the 1930s, trailing the girlfriends of wealthy clients and pulling movie stars out of bars on the "wrong" side of town, according to his descendants and a Hollywood screenwriter. Marlowe also reportedly corresponded with Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, the authors of noir classics like The Long Goodbye and The Maltese Falcon, respectively, with insights into detective-life and Prohibition-era Los Angeles. Only problem: All of Marlowe's correspondence has vanished. The screenwriter, Louise Ransil, says she saw the handwritten letters at Marlowe's old house before a real estate agent apparently had them dumped when selling the property. Now one of Marlowe's great grandsons is digging through an old building where his dad ran a thrift shop, but the letters still haven't turned up. Nor has proof that Marlowe was LA's first black detective: "I am more interested in [his] legacy, and the legacy of African American men who have blazed a trail and gone unrecognized," he says. A propos, there's a new book out (The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case, by Michael Ross) about a case in Reconstruction-era New Orleans that was investigated by John Jourdain—possibly the first black detective to receive national attention, the New York Times reports.

It did agree to rule on whether taking a human gene out of the body for research is a process that can be patented. If granting any cases was going to be easy, the chances are that an order saying so would have come out by early in the afternoon.

– Conservative Christians make the case that the Bible forbids gay marriage, so why have so many middle-of-the-road churchgoers changed their minds to support the idea? Because a familiar pattern on church matters is repeating itself, writes CS Pearce in the Los Angeles Times. It starts when more conservative members cite Bible passages to justify their cause—as they did for the Inquisition, the Crusades, slavery, women's suffrage, and now gay marriage. Over time, however, most Christians reject the literal interpretation for one more in keeping with the Bible's "core values of compassion, justice and peace." Pearce says most scholars agree that only three New Testament passages address homosexuality, though not "as we define it today but rather with temple prostitution and other abuses." And yes, the Old Testament says it merits execution, but the same applies to unruly sons and those who work on Sundays. "It will only be a matter of time before the majority of Christians of all stripes become allies rather than antagonists for justice and equal rights for gay people," writes Pearce. "Then we will come out on the right side of history once again." Read the full column here. (The Supreme Court may decide to take up the issue as early as Monday, reports SCOTUSblog.)

The missile launch was detected by U.S. forces shortly after midnight Sunday and the Scud landed in the desert about 50 miles (80 kilometers) outside Brega, said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. His troops continued to put up resistance in Zawiyah after the attack that dislodged them from the south of the town, including the main road from Tripoli to the western border with Tunisia, on Saturday. While consolidating their hold on most residential parts of Brega, the rebels are also now just 30 miles from Tripoli to the west, having taken part of the town of Zawiyah, and 50 miles to the south, after claiming to have taken the garrison town of Gharyan. "Be prepared, go forth, get your weapons, to liberate Libya inch by inch from the traitors and from NATO." Doctors in the rebel garrison town of Zintan said that they had treated dozens of men injured in the fighting.

– Yet another minister defected. Rebels are just 30 miles from Tripoli. The curtain is falling on Moammar Gadhafi, reports the Telegraph, and the Libyan strongman seems to be prepping for a violent—and "final"—last stand. The paper's proof? Officials tell the Telegraph that a US destroyer detected the firing of a Scud missile on Sunday. It was apparently directed toward rebel territory but landed in the desert, and the rebels say it originated in Sirte—which could be where this final showdown will occur if Tripoli is attacked. "That it didn't hit anything or kill anyone is not the point. It's a weapon of mass destruction that Col. Gadhafi is willing to train on his own people," said one Western official. Though Gadhafi agreed to do away with his Scud B variant missiles 10 years ago, he was believed to still have more than 100 of them, though many were likely destroyed in recent airstrikes. The Telegraph notes that Gadhafi would be able to target the rebel strongholds of Misrata and Zintan with Scuds from Sirte.

Combined with spectators killed at the event and fatalities at other races held on the same route, the island’s knotty 37.7-mile circuit has taken more than 250 lives, TheDrive reported. Motorcycle racer Dan Kneen was killed on Wednesday during qualifying for the Isle of Man TT, an event consisting of several races held on public roads on the independent British island in the Irish Sea. “Maybe we’re a bunch of hard-nosed bastards.” When the races first started last century, the island was selected because of the region’s lack of speed limits, according to the Guardian (the Isle of Man still has no speed limits). As a newcomer at the Manx Grand Prix in 2008, he won an unprecedented three races - the Junior, the Newcomers C and the Ultra Lightweight MGP Races. The 30-year-old Kneen lived on the island and finished third in the Superstock TT class last year. The organisers of the Isle of Man TT said in a statement: “ACU Events Ltd wishes to pass on their deepest sympathy to Dan’s partner Leanne, his family and his many friends in the road racing community and beyond.” He was a popular, hard-working lad who loved his racing and he will be sorely missed by all who knew him.” Tyco BMW (@TycoBMW) TAS Racing are utterly devastated to announce the loss of Dan Kneen this evening. On Wednesday evening, as Kneen was starting his first lap of the course, he crashed near Churchtown, race organizers said. It’s a sad place to be, this paddock, when something goes wrong.” A second racer, Steve Mercer, was struck by a course car on its way to Kneen’s accident site. The BMW rider died at the scene after crashing in the Churchtown section of the 37.7-mile course.

– One of the most difficult high-speed motorcycle races on earth—and one of the most deadly—is underway and has already claimed one life, reports the Washington Post. Each spring, the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy draws about 40,000 spectators to a tiny island perched between Ireland and Great Britain, in the Irish sea. They come to watch racers careen around a 37.7-mile circuit with more than 400 turns, at speeds of up to 200 mph, in an event sometimes called the “Isle of Manslaughter." More than 140 racers have been killed in the 111-year history of the event, according to Fox. The latest casualty is Dan Kneen, 30, who lost control of his BMW on the first lap of the event’s Superbike practice session, reports the Guardian. During the trials, Kneen had posted a speed of 132.258, which was the third highest qualifying time. The course runs through a kaleidoscope of scenery: tiny villages, greenbelts, and the highest mountain on the island. For racers, the danger is part of the appeal. “We all know that we accept the risks,” past TT champion John McGuinness told the Guardian in 2007. “Maybe we’re a bunch of hard-nosed bastards.” Kneen’s father paid tribute to his son on Facebook: “Dan lived for his racing and wild horses wouldn’t have torn him away from it. I was happy for him; he was in his element and loving it,” he wrote. “Best wishes for all the other TT competitors. The TT show will go on." The event, which is actually a series of races, will run through June 8.

Yahle was transferred to Ohio State University, and he returned home to West Carrollton on Aug. 10 with a defibrillator in his chest. Yahle's near-death experience started at 4 a.m. that day, when his wife, Melissa Yahle, woke up and realized his breathing didn't sound right. When 17-year-old Lawrence Yahle learned his father was dead earlier this month at Kettering Medical Center in Ohio, he ran down the hall to see nurses around his father's body. Doctors thought Yahle, a 37-year-old diesel mechanic, would need a heart transplant or be in a vegetative state the rest of his life, but he's home resting and seems fine. “I pointed at him and said, ‘Dad, you’re not going to die today.’ I stood there for a few more seconds.

– It's apparently the week of astounding brought-back-to-life stories. The latest person to return from the dead is Anthony Yahle, whose case is being hailed a miracle by doctors. The Ohio man was rushed to the hospital on Aug. 5 after his wife realized he was breathing oddly in his sleep and found herself unable to wake him. Since his arteries were clear, doctors were optimistic—until his heart stopped beating. They spent 45 minutes trying to revive the 37-year-old before declaring him dead. But his 17-year-old son wasn't about to give up. "I pointed at him and said, 'Dad, you're not going to die today,'" reports WFAA. "Suddenly that trickle of a thing came back," says cardiologist Raja Nazir. He tells ABC News that what he observed wasn't a normal heartbeat, but a small electrical blip not much more often than twice a minute. "I though we'd better make another effort to revive him," he says—and a regular heartbeat was eventually restored. Yahle fully awoke five days later, and though doctors thought he'd need a heart transplant, he appears in fine health. "He doesn't have one broken rib," his wife says. "He's not sore. These are things that just clinically don't happen." Though doctors now point to a possible viral infection, Yahle (who has no memory of the event nor of any sort of "afterlife" moment) tells the Dayton Daily News, "Nobody really has an explanation for it." He adds: "A miracle happened. If it strengthened everyone's faith, I'll take the lumps for it." (Click for the story of an Australian woman who was also brought back from the dead earlier this month.)

The others are: Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, Harlon Block, Michael Strank, and Rene Gagnon. One mystery is over, but another is born: The Marine Corps said Thursday that Navy Corpsman John Bradley was not in the iconic photograph of the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, USA Today reports Thursday, but the man who the Corps identified as having participated in the moment spent his life in relative anonymity. A Marine Corps investigation found Private 1st Class Harold Schultz was among the six men who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945. “Why doesn’t he say anything to anyone,” Charles Neimeyer, a Marine Corps historian who was on the panel that investigated the identities of the flag raisers, told the newspaper. “That’s the mystery.” “I think he took his secret to the grave,” Neimeyer said. Marines believe this man was the one pictured in the iconic Iwo Jima photo: https://t.co/52667z1TUc (Smithsonian) pic.twitter.com/jpdLTl1URQ — USA TODAY (@USATODAY) June 23, 2016 More on Schultz: Schultz, who enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 17, was seriously injured in fighting on the Japanese island and went on to a 30-year career with the U.S. Postal Service in Los Angeles after recovering from his wounds. He was engaged to a woman after the war, but she died of a brain tumor before they could wed, said his stepdaughter, Dezreen MacDowell. Schultz married MacDowell's mother at age 63. Analysts believe Schultz, who received a Purple Heart, knew he was in the iconic image, but chose not to talk about it.

– A long-standing debate behind World War II's iconic Iwo Jima photo appears to have been settled. A Marine Corps investigation used facial recognition technology and other photos taken that day to conclude, with "near certainty," that one of the six men IDed in the famous image taken by photographer Joe Rosenthal was not a Navy corpsman by the name of John Bradley, but Pvt. 1st Class Harold Schultz, a Marine who died in 1995, USA Today reports. As for Bradley, it appears he's not in the photo at all, but Charles Neimeyer, a Marine Corps historian who was on the panel that scrutinized the image, says Bradley may have legitimately thought he was in the photo: There had been two US flag-raisings on Feb. 23, 1945, and Rosenthal's picture captures the second one. Bradley may have been involved with the first; the gear he was wearing that day doesn't sync with what is captured in the photo. Although Schultz, who received a Purple Heart for his war efforts, never publicly acknowledged any possible role, his stepdaughter tells the New York Times that one fleeting dinner conversation about Iwo Jima in the early 1990s led her to believe he was in the photo. "My mom was distracted and not listening and Harold said, 'I was one of the flag raisers,'" Dezreen MacDowell says. "I said, 'My gosh, Harold, you're a hero.' He said, 'No, I was a Marine.'" She said he never brought it up again, being a "self-effacing Midwestern person." Schultz's name will be swapped in for Bradley's in any references to the photo. The other five men in the photo are, per the Atlantic, Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, Harlon Block, Michael Strank, and Rene Gagnon.

As the global epicentre of wildlife trade, Hong Kong plays an important role in the preservation or demise of biodiversity, including species found continents away. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was established to regulate this trade, but inadequate monitoring may facilitate or lead to unsustainable levels of exploitation. Since CITES trade records began in 1975, over 770,000 kg of hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius) teeth have been traded internationally - and 90% of this trade has passed through Hong Kong. Of that imported, over 75% originated in Tanzania or Uganda, but there are notable disparities in declared trade volumes. Since Tanzania joined CITES in 1980, records show that, cumulatively, Hong Kong has received a total of 3,176 kg more hippo teeth than declared exported by Tanzania. Similarly, in the 19 hippo teeth trade transactions between Hong Kong and Uganda since the latter joined CITES in 1991, Hong Kong received less hippo teeth than declared exported by Uganda. In total, over 14,000 kg of hippo teeth is unaccounted for between Uganda and Hong Kong, representing more than 2,700 individual hippos—2% of the global population. "This gross mismatch in trade records challenges the persistence of hippo populations in Africa," said co-author Dr Luke Gibson, also from HKU.

– It isn't only elephants that are suffering from humans' insatiable thirst for ivory. A new study notes hippopotamuses, already predicted by some to disappear within 100 years, may be dying at unexpected rates to fuel the trade of ivory ornaments made from hippo teeth. Since 1975, 1.7 million pounds of hippo teeth have been traded around the world, with 90% of that trade passing through Hong Kong, according to researchers at the University of Hong Kong. Of that 90%, 75% has come from Uganda and Tanzania. Like Hong Kong, both African countries report their legal trade volumes to CITES, an organization that monitors trade in threatened species. What irks researchers, however, is that the reported volumes don't add up. CITES data shows Hong Kong has actually received more hippo teeth from Tanzania since 1980 than Tanzania claims it exported, and less hippo teeth from Uganda since 1991 than Uganda claims it sent, notes the study in the African Journal of Ecology. The result is 30,860 pounds of hippo teeth—the equivalent from 2,700 hippos, or 2% of the animal's global population—overlooked, reports Quartz. "If authorities do not more diligently monitor the international trade in threatened species, those species could be exposed to unmanageable exploitation levels, which could lead to extinction," says study author Alexandra Andersson in a release. "The fate of hippos—and a plethora of other species—could depend on it." (People are also getting ivory from … woolly mammoths.)

The prize is the third largest in lottery history, and the... (Associated Press) California has sold $83 million worth of Powerball tickets since April, when it joined 42 other states that offer the game. "That was on Feb. 12, so we were sitting on $4 million at that time in this jar," he said. Cerezo said he took the tickets to a 7-Eleven in Aurora and scanned them. Associated Press writer Hannah Dreier in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

– Ricardo Cerezo's wife was cleaning the kitchen when she told the Illinois man he'd better get the lottery tickets that had been piling up in a cookie jar for the past month checked—or she was going to throw them away. Good thing, because that prodded Cerezo to take the tickets in, where he found one was worth $4.85 million. Now the family—which had been facing foreclosure—will be able to pay off their home, reports the Chicago Tribune. Most of the tickets he took from the jar to the 7-Eleven weren't winners, but one scored him $3—"I was excited. I get to pay for my Pepsi," he says—and then, "the last one said file a claim," meaning it was worth $600 or more. He went online and discovered all six numbers matched the Feb. 2 drawing. On Feb. 12, Cerezo recalls, he was at a foreclosure hearing: "So we were sitting on $4 million at that time in this jar," he says. Touching side note: Cerezo says he considers the windfall a gift from his youngest daughter Savannah, who bought the cookie jar for him a few months before a series of seizures killed her in August at age 14, NBC Chicago reports. (It's been quite a week for lotto winners: In Virginia, a man won his third six-figure amount. Meanwhile, tomorrow's Powerball now stands at $550 million, the AP reports.)

OKMULGEE, Okla. (AP) — A man shot dead after being told to leave a flooded area had grabbed a trooper and shoved him to the ground, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Monday. At a news conference, the agency showed a police video in which two men — the Fischer brothers — tramp through water toward a pair of police officers. OHP spokesman Capt. Paul Timmons said Nehemiah Fischer, 35, knocked over one trooper before being shot Friday night. Fischer's father, J.R. Fischer, told The Associated Press on Monday that the behavior didn't sound like that of his son, who was an assistant pastor at a Tulsa church who studied the Bible daily. The father described his son as "gentle as a dove with people who needed a hand." "When it came to being a Christian man, he was the real deal," he told The Associated Press Monday in a telephone interview. "He walked the talk." The other brother, Brandon Fischer, 41, was arrested on complaints of assaulting a police officer and public intoxication. Brandon bonded out of jail around 5:20 p.m., flanked by several people trying to shield him from reporters. He did not respond to questions. An attorney who appeared at the bond hearing on behalf of the family declined to comment on the case, saying he had only received the information Monday morning. According to police, the brothers were near a vehicle surrounded by floodwaters in Okmulgee County, about 20 miles south of Tulsa. The troopers told the men to get out of the water, Timmons said. Before the video was shown to the public, J.R. Fischer said it wasn't clear if his sons knew who had told them to get out of the water. "If my son would have known that this was an officer, he would have never assaulted him," he said. But Timmons said the video makes it clear that the troopers identified themselves as the men approached the officers. Only one trooper is visible in the video after the scuffle begins, and his gun is raised. Timmons said both officers fired their weapons, including Trooper Mark Southall, who had been knocked to the ground. The other officer involved was Trooper Michael Taylor. Both were placed on administrative leave, Timmons said. One officer has 8 years' experience and the other has 1 year, though Timmons said he wasn't sure which trooper had been with the force longer. Troopers said they recovered a weapon belonging to Nehemiah Fischer at the scene. J.R. Fischer told the AP that his son had received a .380 handgun for his birthday. Before the video was shown, Emma Foster, who served as the maid of honor at Nehemiah's wedding, described the victim in an interview with AP as a man who "has never been in a physical fight his entire life." __ Associated Press journalists Kelly P. Kissel and Ken Miller contributed to this report from Oklahoma City; AP photographer Sue Ogrocki contributed from Okmulgee. ___ This story corrects that Brandon Fischer was being held on complaints of assaulting a police officer and public intoxication, not formally charged within Oklahoma's court system and that J.R. Fischer talked to the AP via telephone, not near the scene of the shooting.

– An assistant pastor killed during an encounter with Oklahoma troopers Friday night played a key role in his own demise, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. In a short press conference Monday, Capt. Paul Timmons said the shooting victim, Nehemiah Fischer, attacked a trooper and pushed him to the ground. Timmons also presented a 35-second clip of what the Tulsa World reports is 30 minutes of dash-cam footage. The clip shows two OHP troopers shouting at the assistant pastor and his brother, Brandon Fischer. The two had been fishing on their dad's property in rural Okmulgee County when their truck stalled on a flooded road; the troopers showed up at around 9:30pm to find the men apparently standing in rising floodwaters trying to push the truck. "Come on! Get out of that water! Boys, state troopers!" trooper Mark Southall shouts in the video. "Settle down, you understand me? Settle down." The brothers can be seen entering the video; Nehemiah rushes Southall and the two move off-camera; the other trooper is filmed drawing his gun, then the clip ends. Timmons said both officers fired their guns at Nehemiah. The AP reports that the troopers recovered what they said was a weapon belonging to Nehemiah at the scene. The 35-year-old's father says he gave his son a .380 handgun as an April 14 birthday gift, a weapon he says Nehemiah generally carried while fishing and as a defense against snakes. The troopers—Southall has eight years' experience, the other has one—are on administrative leave. Meanwhile, Brandon, 41, appeared in district court Monday via video feed over two complaints: public intoxication and assault and battery on an officer. (Friends continue to say Nehemiah's alleged behavior doesn't make any sense.)

That belief has spawned a nationwide movement to improve the quality of the teaching corps by firing the bad teachers and hiring better ones. A new charter school in New York City called the Equity Project offers starting salaries of $125,000. Be nice," which about sums up the classroom requirements). Yet he has come to the conclusion that simply dangling better pay will not improve student performance on its own. Within the United States, the achievement gap between white students and poor and minority students stubbornly persists—and as the population of disadvantaged students grows, overall scores continue to sag. What really makes a difference, what matters more than the class size or the textbook, the teaching method or the technology, or even the curriculum, is the quality of the teacher. There once was a time when teaching (along with nursing) was one of the few jobs not denied to women and minorities.

– The American education system has been falling behind for a while, and the reason is obvious: Teachers can't be fired. Recent studies have shown that teacher quality is one of the top predictors of a student’s success, write Evan Thomas and Pat Wingert in Newsweek. Yet education unions are so powerful that it’s nearly impossible to dismiss subpar teachers. Two or three years of service is enough to earn lifetime tenure in most states. The number of strong teachers is falling. Women once had few other vocational options; today, greater opportunities for the best and brightest mean most teachers come from the bottom third of college-bound high school students. But change may be coming. Efforts to recruit and train better teachers are on the rise, the New York Times reports. And despite Democrats’ traditional alliance with teachers unions, the Obama administration has been fighting them, arguing, for example, for more charter schools.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Google said the sensors on the smart contact lens are so small they look like bits of glitter Google has said it is testing a "smart contact lens" that can help measure glucose levels in tears. And while that might initially seem like a mad scientist’s side project, it’s actually incredibly cool: The smart contact lens is designed to assist diabetes patients by measuring glucose levels in their tears, using a mini glucose sensor, and transmitting that data to a phone via a tiny wireless chip. The firm said it is also working on integrating tiny LED lights that could light up to indicate that glucose levels have crossed certain thresholds. While clinical research studies have already been completed, Google is still in discussions with the FDA, and the company is also looking for partners to help bring the lens to market. Google is additionally seeking partners who can help leverage the technology to develop apps that would make glucose levels available to both patients and their doctors.

– After an acquisition that brings it deep into people's homes, Google is getting up close and personal with people's bodies. The latest project from the firm's secretive Google X facility is a "smart" contact lens that monitors the glucose levels of diabetics with a tiny wireless chip and sensor, reports PC World. It notes that the move into the rapidly expanding field of wearable medical technology brings Google even further away from its online software roots. "We've always said that we’d seek out projects that seem a bit speculative or strange, and at a time when the International Diabetes Federation is declaring that the world is 'losing the battle' against diabetes, we thought this project was worth a shot," Google said in a blog post. The company says a lot more work needs to be done before the lens can reach consumers, but it is already looking for partners who can help bring it to market, reports the BBC. (In other Google news, a Google Glass legal precedent was set yesterday.)

– President Obama took Hillary Clinton’s foot out of the administration’s mouth yesterday, taking back her comments that likened Mexico to the Colombia of the ‘80s and ‘90s. “Mexico is an ample democracy, with a growing economy,” Obama said in an interview with the Spanish-language La Opinion newspaper, translated by Yahoo, “and because of that you can’t compare what is happening to Mexico with what happened in Colombia 20 years ago.” Yesterday, of course, Clinton made precisely that comparison in a gathering of foreign policy experts. Mexico’s drug traffickers are “morphing into … what we would consider an insurgency,” Clinton said. “It’s looking more and more like Colombia looked 20 years ago.” Those comments offended Mexican politicians, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Many worried the comments presaged a Plan Colombia-style US military intervention.

"I'd like to tell him what I'd tell you: Vote for love of country. “I will lead America to a better place, where confidence in the future is assured, not questioned,” the GOP challenger told an ebullient crowd at the Wisconsin state fairgrounds here. This is the one we have to win,” Romney told the energetic crowd of more than 18,000, the biggest of his campaign. Article Excerpt President Barack Obama holds an edge over Mitt Romney in Florida and Ohio, the two largest battlegrounds in determining who will win the White House on Tuesday, new polls show. After his morning rally on the New Hampshire seacoast, he was making an afternoon appearance in Iowa, and two more in Colorado. Obama is setting off on a whirlwind tour of his own, with plans to stump on Saturday in Iowa, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin and on Sunday in a slew of other states. But Romney still has the tougher path; he must win more of the nine most-contested states to reach 270 electoral votes: Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Hampshire.

– Quick, rattle off as many of the "battleground states" as you can. Points for Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, Wisconsin, Iowa, and New Hampshire. Partial credit for Pennsylvania, where Mitt Romney is still hoping for an upset, reports AP. And now you have a good idea where President Obama and Romney will be spending the final three days of the campaign—expect them to hit three or four states a day and to change schedules on the fly. Other tidbits: Ohio, Florida: A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll has Obama up by 51-45 in Ohio and by a scant 49-47 in Florida. The latter state is especially important to Romney's chances, so he might take heart in knowing that a Tampa Bay Times poll has way better Florida numbers for him: He's up 51-45 in that one. Themes: The Washington Post sums up how the campaign strategies have crystallized, that it's no longer enough to make it about the other guy. "The challenger seeking to unseat an incumbent must make a case for himself. The incumbent seeking to hold on to his office must convince voters not only that the alternative would be worse but also that he has earned the right to another term." No more: If you just can't take any more politics, you can always do this.

On Tuesday, mourners gathered in Pittsburgh to honor the victims of the harrowing attack on the Tree of Life synagogue. Days earlier, as they observed Shabbat, 11 Jews were murdered. Robert Bowers, the alleged suspect, later told a SWAT officer that he wanted all Jews to die. (Bowers has since pleaded not guilty.) The tragedy united thousands of Jews in Pittsburgh, who peacefully protested Donald Trump’s visit to the synagogue earlier this week. It also consumed a far larger constituency, which remained aghast that the alleged killer was motivated by fear fanned by the president of the United States. Michael Cohen, the president’s former lawyer, was among those closely following the story. The son of a Holocaust survivor, Cohen has remained largely silent since the F.B.I. executed search warrants on his home, hotel room, and office this past spring. In August, he pleaded guilty to charges related to campaign-finance violations and tax fraud, and at the advice of counsel, he has not spoken publicly about his case or his relationship with the president ever since. Privately, he has been cooperating with investigators in the Southern District of New York, the special counsel’s office, and New York State. (He faces sentencing in the Southern District next month.) Yet Cohen wanted to express himself in the wake of the tragedy. Shortly after the sun rose on Tuesday, he tweeted, “In honor of those sadly being buried today resulting from #AntiSemitism #PittsburghSynagogueShooting, let’s follow the wisdom and thoughtful words of #RabbiJeffreyMyers ‘it can’t just be to say we need to stop hate. We need to do, we need to act to tone down rhetoric.’” Like many, Cohen has observed the president’s scorched-earth campaign tactics as the midterm elections approach, and as the prospect of a Democratic House majority beckons, with its attendant promise of investigations and inquiries. He has heard Trump’s constant invocation of the migrant caravan moving through Central America; he’s noticed the president threaten to revoke birthright citizenship; he’s noted Trump’s tweet calling Florida’s African-American gubernatorial candidate, Andrew Gillum, a “thief,” without any evidence. He also watched Trump shirk responsibility after it was discovered that Bowers invoked the caravan in posts online ahead of the mass murder in Pittsburgh, and after one of his ardent supporters was charged last week with mailing pipe bombs to notable Democrats and other frequent Trumpian targets. (The suspect plans to plead not guilty.) On Twitter and during rallies, Trump has referred to the media as “the enemy of the people,” blaming the free press for “the anger we see today in our society.” That message rang hollow to those most familiar with the president and his language, including Cohen, who said he has spent the last several months quietly reflecting on his former boss and his own role in the Trump Organization. Amid the president’s recent tirades, Cohen has re-registered as a Democrat and urged people on Twitter to vote in the midterm elections, calling it possibly “the most important vote in our lifetime.” He said that events also activated within him an urge to reveal details from his tenure at the Trump Organization, during which he said the president privately uttered chilling, racist language in one-on-one conversations. On Tuesday, the day of the first funerals in Pittsburgh, he shared some of these memories. Certainly, Cohen is aggrieved, and his credibility has been questioned by the president, his lawyers, and others. His allegations could inflame the very divisions that he’s said he wants to diffuse. Through the president’s public attacks against him, he stayed silent, as his lawyers advised, and he’s taken a risk in sharing these recollections on the record. When I asked him why he was coming forward now with such uncomfortable claims, Cohen was clear: he knew that the president’s private comments were worse than his public rhetoric, and he wanted to offer potential voters what he believed was evidence of Trump’s character in advance of the midterm elections. During our conversation, Cohen recalled a discussion at Trump Tower, following the then-candidate’s return from a campaign rally during the 2016 election cycle. Cohen had watched the rally on TV and noticed that the crowd was largely Caucasian. He offered this observation to his boss. “I told Trump that the rally looked vanilla on television. Trump responded, ‘That’s because black people are too stupid to vote for me.’” (The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment.) This conversation, he noted, was reminiscent of an exchange that the two men had engaged in years earlier, after Nelson Mandela’s death. “[Trump] said to me, ‘Name one country run by a black person that’s not a shithole,’ and then he added, ‘Name one city,’” Cohen recalled, a statement that echoed the president’s alleged comments about African nations earlier this year. (White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied those comments at the time. She added that “no one here is going to pretend like the president is always politically correct—he isn’t.” She subsequently noted that it was “one of the reasons the American people love him.”) Cohen also recounted a conversation he had with Trump in the late 2000s, while they were traveling to Chicago for a Trump International Hotel board meeting. “We were going from the airport to the hotel, and we drove through what looked like a rougher neighborhood. Trump made a comment to me, saying that only the blacks could live like this.” After the first few seasons of The Apprentice, Cohen recalled how he and Trump were discussing the reality show and past season winners. The conversation wended its way back to the show’s first season, which ended in a head-to-head between two contestants, Bill Rancic and Kwame Jackson. “Trump was explaining his back-and-forth about not picking Jackson,” an African-American investment manager who had graduated from Harvard Business School. “He said, ‘There’s no way I can let this black f-g win.’” (Jackson told me that he had heard that the president made such a comment. “My response to President Trump is simple and Wakandan,” he said, referring to the fictional African country where Black Panther hails from. “‘Not today, colonizer!’”) In retrospect, Cohen told me that he wishes he had quit the Trump Organization when he heard these offensive remarks. “I should have been a bigger person, and I should have left,” he said. He didn’t, he said, because he grew numb to the language and, in awe of the job, forgave his boss’s sins. Cohen, in fact, even defended the president publicly against charges of racism. Last year, he explicitly tweeted as much. Cohen explained that he defended the president because he thought the magnitude of the office would eventually force him to be more judicious with his words. “I truly thought the office would change him,” he said. But it hasn’t, Cohen continued. In fact, he said, it has exacerbated his rhetoric. Cohen’s claims would damage most presidents. Trump, however, survived the Access Hollywood tape in the run-up to the presidential election in 2016. His supporters stayed with him after his jarring “both sides” comment regarding the racial violence in Charlottesville, and didn’t bend when Omarosa Manigault Newman accused him of using vile racial language after she left the White House. (Trump referred to her as “that dog” after her book came out.) When Trump portrayed Brett Kavanaugh as a man under siege, his poll numbers went up. Trump seems to perform best with his base when he appears like his back is up against the wall. For Cohen’s part, he said he is hoping that people bear his words in mind as they cast their ballots on Tuesday. He will. More Great Stories from Vanity Fair — Why Fox doesn’t have much of a choice when it comes to Trump — How long can Mark Zuckerberg keep convincing teens that Instagram is cool? — Is the Trump administration ever going to hold Saudi Arabia to account? — Why working at Netflix sounds terrifying — Amazon’s flirtation with ICE appalls its workers Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story.

– After the Pittsburgh synagogue shootings, Michael Cohen tweeted about the need to "tone down rhetoric" and leveled an accusation against President Trump: that his former boss had made racist remarks when they worked together. "I should have been a bigger person, and I should have left," he tells Vanity Fair. The former Trump "fixer"—now a registered Democrat who has pleaded guilty to several charges, including bank fraud and campaign finance violations—made the following accusations: After a 2016 Trump rally, Cohen watched the event on TV and told Trump that his supporters were mostly white. "I told Trump that the rally looked vanilla on television," says Cohen. "Trump responded, 'That's because black people are too stupid to vote for me.'" On that note, Cohen recalled an earlier exchange with Trump after Nelson Mandela died. "[Trump] said to me, 'Name one country run by a black person that's not a shithole,' and then he added, 'Name one city.'" In the late 2000s, the pair were going to Chicago for a board meeting at Trump International Hotel. "We were going from the airport to the hotel, and we drove through what looked like a rougher neighborhood," says Cohen. "Trump made a comment to me, saying that only blacks could live like this." A few years into The Apprentice, Cohen and Trump talked about why certain contestants had won and others lost—and why Bill Rancic had beaten Kwame Jackson (a black investment manager with a Harvard degree) on the show's first season. "Trump was explaining his back-and-forth about not picking Jackson," says Cohen. "He said, 'There's no way I can let this black f---ing win.'" A source in the Trump Organization has responded to Cohen's accusations, telling NBC News: "This is a guy who told the Daily Beast it's not illegal to rape your wife and tweeted threatening comments about members of the media, but now has suddenly found God. The only person to blame for Michael's situation is Michael." Speaking of Cohen's situation, he has started a GoFundMe page.

But the latest research, presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress, in Barcelona found those with low intake of saturated fat raised chances of early death by 13 per cent compared to those eating plenty. Although Bazinet largely agrees with the study's findings, he said the constant onslaught of research focused on specific nutrients like fat or carbohydrates and "blaming one versus the other" may be "missing the mark" in educating the public on how to make healthy food choices.

– Fat, it turns out, is good for you. Or at least it's not as bad as we previously thought, per a sweeping new study that suggests low-fat diets could increase the risk of early death, the Telegraph reports. The surprising findings published in the Lancet suggest that instead of limiting fat intake, we should be counting carbs. Low-fat diets "put populations at increased risk for cardiovascular disease," says Dr. Andrew Mente from Canada's McMaster University. Overturning dietary guidelines the world over, the research of Mente and his team indicates that a higher consumption of fats, even saturated fats like those found in meat and butter, reduces chances of dying earlier. The scientists who tracked 135,000 adults in 18 countries found that those who got more than 60% of their calories from carbohydrates, such as sugary drinks and processed foods like pasta and bread, had a 28% chance of dying early. Those who consumed high levels of fats, even the saturated kind, saw their risk of early death drop by 23%. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the seven-year study found no link between fat consumption alone and heart disease or stroke, CBC News reports. But in a notable limitation, researchers were unable to measure levels of trans fat, often linked to heart disease, in study subjects. Study co-author Dr. Mahshid Dehghan says that when lowering fat consumption, people "by default" eat more carbs. He called for "relaxing current restrictions on fat and emphasizing ... carbohydrate intake." The "sweet spot," Mente adds, per the Telegraph, is maintaining a balanced diet, with about 35% of calories coming from fat. (For a longer life, go Japanese.)

(CNN) "Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda did not mince words in his message to Donald Trump following the President's Saturday morning Twitter attacks on San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. "The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump," the president charged, without substantiation.

– President Trump says his administration has "done a great job with the almost impossible situation in Puerto Rico" after Hurricane Maria struck the island. He's going after what he calls "politically motivated ingrates" and says "people are now starting to recognize the amazing work" by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the military, reports the AP. The tweets coming from a president ensconced in his New Jersey golf club sought to defend Washington's efforts to mobilize and coordinate recovery efforts on a US territory in dire straits almost two weeks after Maria. Trump's critical response was an unusually pointed rebuke from the president in the heat of a disaster—a time when leaders often put aside partisan differences in the name of solidarity. But it was a reminder of Trump's unrelenting penchant for punching back against critics, whatever the circumstances. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz on Friday accused the Trump administration of "killing us with the inefficiency" after the storm. She begged the president, who is set to visit Puerto Rico on Tuesday, to "make sure somebody is in charge that is up to the task of saving lives," and appealed for help "to save us from dying." Another person swinging at the president, per CNN: Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose parents are from Puerto Rico. "You're going straight to hell, @realDonaldTrump," he tweeted. "No long lines for you. Someone will say, 'Right this way, sir.' They'll clear a path." Miranda also came to the defense of Yulin Cruz, tweeting, "She has been working 24/7. You have been GOLFING. You're going straight to hell. Fastest golf cart you ever took."

After four weeks, the stem cells had developed into the precursors of various tissue types, including heart, liver and neurons, and a small fraction of the developing pig was made up of human cells. "This is a first in the development of chimeric animal production and paves the way for significant advances in our understanding of development in the embryo and hints towards future novel biotech applications." [Human embryo experiment shows progress toward 'three-parent' babies] The technique is already the subject of a vigorous debate about the ethics of introducing human material into animals; since 2015, the National Institutes of Health has had a moratorium on funding for certain human-animal chimera research. Some argue that, since stem cells can become any kind of tissue, including parts of the nervous system, chimeras raise the specter of an animal with a human brain or reproductive organs. "One possibility is to let these animals be born, but that is not something we should allow to happen at this point. These cells were then injected into rat embryos that had been genetically modified so that they were unable to grow their own pancreas — “emptying a niche” for the mouse stem cells to fill. The whole pancreases were too big to transplant into tiny mice, so the researchers extracted just the islets — the region of the pancreas that produces hormones like insulin — and planted them in mice that had been induced to have diabetes. Image copyright Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte Image caption The spherical pig embryo is held in place while a tiny needle is used to inject human cells The embryo - now a mix of human and pig - is then implanted into a sow for up to one month. Image copyright Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte Image caption Human cells, coloured green, were found in the four-week-old embryo Commenting on the inefficiency, Prof Belmonte said: "Humans and pigs are separated by a long time in evolution." Image copyright Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte Image caption The embryos were allowed to develop for 28 days Embryos that are less than 0.001% human - and the rest pig - have been made and analysed by scientists. However, in the meantime the Salk researchers argue that making chimeras with more human tissue could be useful for: screening drugs before human trials studying the onset of human diseases understanding the earliest stages of human embryo development. Under the proposed new rule, the taxpayer funds could be used for experiments that introduced human stem cells to early stage embryos of all animals except other primates. "Not everything that science can do we should do, we are not living in a niche in lab, we live with other people - and society needs to decide what can be done.

– Researchers have created part-human-part-pig embryos in what other scientists are calling an "exciting" step toward proving the viability of human-animal chimeras, the BBC reports. The researchers injected human stem cells into pig embryos, then implanted those embryos into adult pigs. After a month or so, the developing pig was part human, and the stem cells were turning into the makings of a heart, liver, and neurons, according to the Washington Post. Researchers published their findings Thursday in Cell. Still, the embryos were less than 0.001% human. And Seeker reports the host pigs were "euthanized and incinerated" after four weeks to prevent the accidental creation of super-smart pigs or something equally horrifying. The goal of the research is to eventually be able to grow human organs inside "large host animals." Approximately 22 people in the US die every day while waiting for an organ transplant. Researchers say this new process could allow organs to be grown on demand, ending organ shortages. But they warn that's far in the future. In the meantime, it could be used to research diseases and test drugs in animals. But there are still moral questions surrounding the creation of animal-human chimeras, with some scientists expressing concern about making animals with human brains or reproductive organs. (A "human chimera" resulted in a dad learning that his unborn twin "fathered" his son.)

Jan Agha, a police officer, says a gun man attacked on the local TV.... (Associated Press) Afghan security personnel take a position near the Shamshad Television after an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017. Wahid Mujro, spokesman for the public health ministry, said 21 people wounded in the attack were taken to hospitals. One attacker blew himself up at the gate of the station's compound while the second reached the second floor of the TV building form where he engaged the security forces. So-called Islamic State later said it was behind the attack.

– A TV station in Kabul was hit by a deadly attack Tuesday but managed to get back on air just moments after Afghan security forces ended the raid. "The attack has ended. According to the commander of the special forces all the staff who were inside the building have been rescued," an injured anchorman told viewers, per the Guardian. Authorities say two grenade-throwing attackers, including a suicide bomber, killed two security guards in the raid on the Shamshad TV building, the BBC reports. Around 20 people were injured. "This is an attack on freedom of media but they cannot silence us," Shamshad TV's news director said while visiting wounded colleagues. "I was in my office when gunmen wearing police uniforms attacked the building," he said. "They killed one of our guards and entered the building and started firing. Most of us were able to flee but some were wounded and some jumped out of the window." The AP reports that the Taliban denied responsibility, while an ISIS-linked news outlet said that group was behind the attack.

Researchers at the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas in Dallas sought to clear up some of the confusion with a study that looked at a relatively large group of marijuana users and evaluated their brains for a slew of different indicators. In this comprehensive study that aimed to characterize brain alterations associated with chronic marijuana use, we measured gray matter (GM) volume via structural MRI across the whole brain by using voxel-based morphology, synchrony among abnormal GM regions during resting state via functional connectivity MRI, and white matter integrity (i.e., structural connectivity) between the abnormal GM regions via diffusion tensor imaging in 48 marijuana users and 62 age- and sex-matched nonusing controls. The results showed that compared with controls, marijuana users had significantly less bilateral orbitofrontal gyri volume, higher functional connectivity in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) network, and higher structural connectivity in tracts that innervate the OFC (forceps minor) as measured by fractional anisotropy (FA). A 2012 study found that subjects with a smaller orbital frontal cortex at age 12 were more likely to start using marijuana by age 16, suggesting that deficits in this crucial region may predispose one to substance-abuse behaviors. According to the authors, the study provides evidence that chronic marijuana use initiates a complex process that allows neurons to adapt and compensate for smaller gray matter volume, but further studies are needed to determine whether these changes revert back to normal with discontinued marijuana use, whether similar effects are present in occasional marijuana users versus chronic users and whether these effects are indeed a direct result of marijuana use or a predisposing factor.

– A new study out of the University of Texas' Center for BrainHealth and the Mind Research Network is showing brain differences in regular pot users—differences that have already been reported in lab mice. The study, published in PNAS, found that 48 "chronic" users who smoked at least four times a week had less gray matter in the orbitofrontal cortex than 62 control subjects who didn't use pot, reports the Los Angeles Times. The orbitofrontal cortex "helps us determine what is good for us and what keeps us sustained," the lead author tells the Washington Post. It's unclear whether these "shrunken brains" are the result of chronic use or contribute to the tendency to use in the first place. Researchers also found that the orbitofrontal cortex is better connected in chronic users, with a faster signal flow throughout the motivation- and decision-making network and even across the white matter connecting the brain's left and right hemispheres. One possible explanation? That increased "connectedness" might be compensating for the not-up-to-snuff gray matter. That finding was more pronounced for users who started smoking pot young, "which may explain why chronic, long-term users 'seem to be doing just fine' despite smaller OFC brain volumes," according to a release. An earlier study from 2012 found that 12-year-olds with smaller orbitofrontal cortices were more likely to start using pot by age 16, indicating a possible predisposition to marijuana use in those with deficits in this part of the brain. (Marijuana use has also been linked to heart problems.)

The retailer has locations near military bases across the country, but uses the local courts near its Virginia headquarters to file lawsuits against service members who fall behind on their loans. • Army Special Angel Aguirre needed a washer and dryer. Money was tight, and neither Aguirre, 21, nor his wife had much credit history as they settled into life at Fort Carson in Colorado in 2010. That’s when he saw an ad for USA Discounters, guaranteeing loan approval for service members. In military newspapers and magazines, on the radio, and on TV, the Virginia-based company’s ads shout, “NO CREDIT? NEED CREDIT? NO PROBLEM!” The store was only a few miles from Fort Carson. “We ended up getting a computer, a TV, a ring, and a washer and dryer,” Aguirre said. “The only thing I really wanted was a washer and dryer.” Aguirre later learned that USA Discounters’ easy lending has a flip side. Should customers fall behind, the company transforms into an efficient collection operation. And this part of its business takes place not where customers bought their appliances, but in two local courthouses just a short drive from the company’s Virginia Beach headquarters. (Photo by Matt McClain/ The Washington Post) From there, USA Discounters files lawsuits against service members based anywhere in the world, no matter how much inconvenience or expense they would incur to attend a Virginia court date. Since 2006, the company has filed more than 13,470 suits and almost always wins, records show. Armed with judgments, creditors can attempt to garnish borrowers’ wages or bank accounts. As of January 2014, 230 service members were involuntarily paying USA Discounters a portion of their pay, Department of Defense data shows. “They’re basically ruthless,” said Army Staff Sergeant David Ray, who was sued in Virginia while based in Germany over purchases he made at a store in Georgia. Timothy Dorsey, vice president of USA Discounters, said the company provides credit to service members who would not otherwise qualify and sues only after other attempts to resolve debts have failed. As for the company’s choice of court, he said it was “for the customer’s benefit.” In Virginia, the company isn’t required to use a lawyer to file suit. USA Discounters’ savings on legal fees are passed on to the customer, he said. “This company is committed to ensuring that the men and women who serve and sacrifice for our country are always treated with the honor and respect they deserve,” Dorsey said. The federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, or SCRA, was designed to give active-duty members of the armed forces every opportunity to defend themselves against lawsuits. But the law has a loophole; it doesn’t address where plaintiffs can sue. That’s allowed USA Discounters to sue out-of-state borrowers in Virginia, where companies can file suit as long as some aspect of the business was transacted in the state. The company routinely argues that it meets that requirement through contract clauses that state any lawsuit will take place in Virginia. Judges have agreed. “This looks like somebody who has really, really researched the best way to get around the entire intent of the SCRA,” said John Odom, a retired Air Force judge advocate and expert on the SCRA. More » Once a judge awards USA Discounters a judgment, the company can begin the process of garnishing the service member's pay. USA Discounters seizes the pay of more active-duty military than any company in the country, according to Department of Defense payroll data obtained by ProPublica. Consumer advocates say the strategy cheats service members who may have valid defenses. It’s “designed to obtain default judgments against consumers without giving them any real opportunity to defend themselves,” said Carolyn Carter of the National Consumer Law Center. To investigate USA Discounters’ practices, ProPublica reviewed 70 of the company’s contracts for service members and non-military borrowers, all of which had been filed in court. A reporter also identified 11 recent court cases against active-duty service members to examine their treatment. The same courts in Norfolk and Virginia Beach are favored by two similar companies headquartered in the area - Freedom Furniture and Electronics and Military Credit Services - that offer high-priced credit to military clientele. Together with USA Discounters, the three companies have filed more than 35,000 suits since 2006. Officials with Freedom and Military Credit Services did not respond to repeated phone calls and e-mails. USA Discounters opened its first store in 1991 in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, where more than 70,000 military personnel are stationed. Many sailors start their careers at the sprawling Naval Station Norfolk, “bringing their pay and their naiveté,” said Dwain Alexander, a senior civilian attorney with the Navy in Norfolk. USA Discounters, which is privately owned, now has 31 locations, including seven free-standing jewelry stores that go by the name Fletcher’s Jewelers. A USA Discounters ad that ran in the May 9, 2014, edition of The 1st Infantry Division Post, a newspaper produced by Fort Riley, Kansas. While the company does not exclusively lend to service members, it has a location just a short drive from each of the country’s 11 largest military bases. The company’s showrooms are packed with bedroom sets, TVs, and tire rims, but that’s not the main draw. “You’re not selling the furniture. You’re not selling the appliances,” said one former sales employee. “You’re selling our financing program.” The former employee, and others quoted in the story, spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared USA Discounters could adversely affect future employment. Younger soldiers such as Aguirre are drawn in by the guaranteed credit - something not offered by cheaper big-box stores. “A lot of the time, this would be the first time they get a paycheck over $1,000,” said a former store manager. The company can confidently extend credit to such customers, former employees said, because the loans are almost always repaid through the military’s allotment system. Part of the service member’s paycheck automatically goes to the company every month. Despite the company’s name, USA Discounters’ items sometimes come at a substantial mark-up. An iPad Mini, for example, last year sold at USA Discounters for $699 when Apple’s retail price was $329. On top of these costs, the loans typically are layered with fees for a warranty and a program that cancels the debt under certain circumstances. The plans are optional, but are included on the vast majority of loans, former employees said. Dorsey, the USA Discounters executive, said the company’s cost of purchasing goods was higher than big-box retailers with greater buying power. As for the add-ons, he said they are clearly disclosed as optional. The company’s typical interest rate is “less than 20 percent,” he said. The final tally on the loans can be staggering for some young service members. In 2009, Army Private Jeramie Mays, then 26, walked into the USA Discounters near Fort Bliss in Texas to buy a laptop before being deployed to Iraq. He chose a model that typically retailed for $650. At USA Discounters, it sold for $1,799. On top of that came $458 in add-ons. After another $561 in interest charges, Mays walked out owing $2,993 in payments over 23 months, according to a copy of his contract. For Aguirre, it was only later, when he and his wife tried to get their finances under control, that he realized just how much he owed. The total loan amount is clearly listed on all USA Discounters’ contracts, but customers often don’t grasp how long they’ll be paying, said a financial counselor who advises soldiers and sailors. The military generally provides credit counseling for young service members. But for some, the allure is too great, particularly when the companies bill themselves as military friendly. “After the horse is out of the barn, there’s not a lot you can do about it,” said Lynn Olavarria, the financial readiness program manager at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Aguirre said he was told by his superiors that his struggles with debt have kept him from being promoted. Late last year, after he had fallen far behind on his loan, he got a notice in the mail. USA Discounters was suing him in a Virginia court, more than 1,500 miles away. When he didn’t show up, the company won a judgment of $8,626. On every active-duty service member’s contract ProPublica examined, just below various disclosures, it says the buyer “is subject to the jurisdiction of the state courts of the COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA.” To receive financing, customers must agree. Such a demand is “abusive” and is not typically found in contracts involving consumers, said Carter of the National Consumer Law Center. The Federal Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits such suits if they are filed by a third party, such as a law firm. Because USA Discounters uses a company employee to file its debt collection suits, the law doesn’t apply. Dorsey said if customers ask to be sued elsewhere, the company will honor their requests, despite the contract. The clause is only included in the contracts of service members, according to ProPublica’s review. Gene Woolard, the chief judge of Virginia Beach General District Court, said under state law, the terms of a contract are binding. If a defendant can’t afford to travel to Virginia to contest a suit, “you can’t do much about that,” he said. And while he’s sympathetic to debtors, Woolard said, “That’s not a legal defense.” Norfolk Chief Judge S. Clark Daugherty declined to respond to questions. Court records show USA Discounters has obtained judgments in 89 percent of the suits it has filed in Norfolk’s and Virginia Beach’s courts since 2006. Dorsey said the high success rate is to be expected - the customers owed money they hadn't paid. "[I]t is not surprising that they do not appear in collections proceedings in court - in any state in which we file," he said. As for the federal law protecting active-duty service members, its requirements are easily met by USA Discounters. If a service member can’t be located, the law requires a 90-day delay. Once that passes, the way is clear to obtain a judgment. For Lenders, Gaps in Federal Law Make Suing Soldiers Easy by Paul Kiel, ProPublica, July 25, 2014 Courts are required to appoint attorneys for service members if they are sued and can’t appear. But the law says little about what those lawyers must do. In Virginia courts, the creditor can suggest the attorney to be appointed. USA Discounters appears to request the same lawyer for all its cases involving service members. In each of the 11 cases ProPublica examined, the court appointed Tariq Louka of Virginia Beach. In response to written questions, Louka said that he represents “in the range of 300-400″ service members each year. His primary duty, he said, is to inform his clients they have a right to request a delay, which he does by mail. “MY ONLY OBLIGATION IS TO REVIEW YOUR RESPONSE AND REQUEST AN ADDITIONAL STAY OR CONTINUANCE IF I FEEL IT IS APPROPRIATE GIVEN YOUR ANSWERS,” his letters say in capital letters. USA Discounters said that it had no business relationship with Louka or his firm. Altogether, those service members have paid more than $1.4 million to the company. Next on the list of most active creditors were the two other local companies, Military Credit Services and Freedom, which together had seized the pay of 92 service members for a total of $289,000 as of January, according to the data. USA Discounters also aggressively pursues funds in service members’ bank accounts. Mays, the Army private who signed the nearly $3,000 contract for a laptop, said he initially stopped payment after the computer broke in Iraq. But other financial pressures, mainly costs associated with the care of his disabled mother, eventually made him decide to file for bankruptcy, he said. Before he could, he was deployed to Germany and Afghanistan. USA Discounters brought suit against him while he was in Germany. After winning a judgment, he said, the company sought to seize both his pay and funds in his credit union account. The action froze his account for several weeks, Mays said. Mays, currently based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, said that for most of last January, he could not withdraw funds. “Trying to take care of two kids and my mother and myself on nothing doesn’t help,” he said. Around the same time, he finally filed for bankruptcy. His debt with USA Discounters was discharged last March, protecting any assets from seizure. Dorsey of USA Discounters declined to respond without written, signed waivers from customers. Reached recently, Mays said he was in training and would not have an opportunity to provide a waiver. Other USA Discounters’ customers either had their waiver rejected as incomplete by the company or could not provide one because of personal circumstances. In Virginia, court judgments on debts can remain in force for decades. Court records show USA Discounters pursues debts for years, regardless of whether a service member has retired, or where he or she might live. While in the Army, Sergeant LaShonda Bickford and her then-husband racked up an enormous debt with the company. After they fell behind, USA Discounters won a judgment in Virginia for $15,747. The 2011 judgment has continued to grow at the contract’s interest rate of 18 percent, as Virginia law allows, and by late 2013, the debt stood at $21,291. Every two weeks, USA Discounters gets about a quarter of her paycheck from a medical transport company, which pays Bickford about $27,000 a year. What’s left barely supports Bickford, now divorced, and her six-year-old son. “It’s a stretch to do everything I need to do every month,” she said. Assuming the garnishment continues, Bickford has at least three more years of stretching ahead of her. “It’s hard, it really is.” This post originally appeared on ProPublica as “Thank You for Your Service: How One Company Sues Soldiers Worldwide” and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

– On the bright side, the Virginia-based retailer USA Discounters offers loans to customers who have no credit. The downside? Those loans may be predatory, and customers who fail to pay will get sued in Virginia courtrooms no matter where they live, Pacific Standard reports. An added wrinkle: Many of the customers are in the US military. "They’re basically ruthless," an Army staff sergeant said after he bought items at a Georgia outlet and was sued in Virginia while serving in Germany. Yet the company still attracts service members by offering them credit counseling in stores near military bases. And "after the horse is out of the barn, there’s not a lot you can do about it," says a finance expert. Take Army Private Jeramie Mays: He bought a $650 laptop for $2,993 (including add-ons and interest over 23 months) at a USA Discounters in Texas, then failed to pay and eventually filed for bankruptcy. His story isn't so unusual, either: USA Discounters has won 89% of its 13,470 Virginia lawsuits since 2006, court records say, and seizes more pay from military service members than any other US company, ProPublica reports. For its part, the company says its practices are clear in the contract, and active-military customers can seek trial outside of Virginia upon request. "This company is committed to ensuring" that service members "are always treated with the honor and respect they deserve," said a USA Discounters executive.

– Aaron Sorkin makes his directorial debut in Molly's Game, derived from Molly Bloom's tell-all book of the same name. It chronicles the real-life events surrounding Bloom's weekly high-stakes poker game frequented by celebrities before it was busted by the FBI. Critics give the film starring Jessica Chastain an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Here's what they're saying: "This is a 'Game' that couldn't be more fun to watch," writes Calvin Wilson at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Sorkin crafts a fast-moving tale of risky business, crammed with the kind of snappy dialogue for which he's famous" in a "stylish and absorbing" debut. "But the film wouldn't work quite as well without Chastain," who "gets deep inside Molly's skin," he writes. It's "an Oscar-worthy performance." "Despite Ms. Chastain's charisma and gift for delivering Mr. Sorkin's fast talk, Molly isn't interesting," writes Manohla Dargis at the New York Times, detecting a "patronizing" air in the way the protagonist receives "so much male defending." "By attempting to portray Molly as any kind of female victim—and by glossing over her culpability—Mr. Sorkin only ends up denying this character her agency," Dargis writes. Michael Phillips, however, thinks Molly's Game is "a good, brash biopic" and "very nearly terrific" through the first hour. Moving between the past and present, it sees Chastain nail the role of Bloom, while Idris Elba is "a godsend" as her attorney with "a lively wit and fire in the eyes," Phillips writes at the Chicago Tribune. He argues the film falters in the second half when "the writing gets blunt and a little less artful." Bob Mondello was impressed throughout. Thanks to a "whip-smart" cast, the "Sorkinian back-and-forth dialogue is exhilarating" and helps make "the finer points of poker—and legal maneuvering—crystal clear," a necessity in such a "dense, complicated movie," he writes at NPR. The visuals, "precisely shot and edited with nearly every trick known to contemporary filmmaking," are just as good, he adds.

The numbers reflect a compromise between Obama's original plan and what many military commanders had recommended. WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama plans to leave around 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan when he finishes his term, people briefed on the plan said Wednesday, an increase from his previous plan that reflects the difficulty for the U.S. in drawing down the conflict. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to disclose the numbers before the president's announcement later Wednesday The numbers reflect a compromise between Obama's original plan and what many military commanders had recommended. Obama had planned to drop troop levels from 9,800 to 5,500 troops by the end of 2016. But Taliban resurgence has forced Washington to rethink its exit strategy. Obama planned to announce the numbers during a statement from the Roosevelt Room. He'll appear with Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Joseph Dunford.

– President Obama is slowing the drawdown of US troops in Afghanistan, leaving 8,400 troops there into next year, he announced Wednesday. Originally he had planned to drop troop levels from 9,800 to 5,500 by the end of 2016. The numbers reflect a compromise between Obama's original plan and what many military commanders had recommended given a Taliban resurgence, reports the AP. Obama says the security situation in Afghanistan remains precarious and that Afghan security forces are not as strong as they need to be. Last month a group of more than a dozen former US ambassadors and former commanders of US forces in Afghanistan wrote to Obama urging that he sustain the current level of troops through the remainder of his term in office, per the AP. "Unless emergency conditions require consideration of a modest increase, we would strongly favor a freeze at the level of roughly 10,000 US troops through January 30," they wrote in a June 1 letter. "This approach would allow your successor to assess for herself or himself and make further adjustments accordingly."

– It looks like the man accused of deliberately ramming his car into a crowd of people in Charlottesville will try to sway jurors with a self-defense strategy. Lawyers for James Fields suggested as much Monday as jury selection got underway in the closely watched murder trial in Virginia, reports C-ville. For one thing, attorney John Hill asked potential jurors their views on whether violence could be justified in cases of self-defense, reports the Daily Progress, which notes that University of North Carolina professor Dwayne Dixon is on the witness list. Dixon is affiliated with the Antifa movement, and he has publicly talked about seeing Fields on the block he was patrolling shortly before the crash. In a speech at Harvard, Dixon said Fields "paused right in front of me, and I waved him off with my rifle," per IndyWeek. Far-right conspiracy theorists have used Dixon's comments to make the case that Fields was fleeing when he drove into the crowd, per the Daily Progress. Prosecutors plans to show jurors video showing that Fields backed up, then accelerated into the counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Also on the witness list: an officer, one who normally worked as a school resource officer, who left her position before the crash because she feared for her personal safety. The trial is expected to last three weeks, though jury selection could take days.

It could ultimately be bad for business, which is what this is all about. The two to keep an eye on (because you know you want to know) are Tyson Thornton, a 5-11 running back from Springfield, Mass., and Daron Bryden from Enfield, Conn. With no trace of irony, it notes that is a 5-2 pro style quarterback. In the widely circulated photo on his Rivals profile, he looks every bit like the kid he is. When he was all of 10, he beat Indianapolis Colts backup quarterback Matt Hasselbeck in accuracy competition on “Kids Do the Darndest Things.” Thornton, according to Rivals, weighs 167 pounds and has “great explosiveness and surprisingly good body control for a kid his size and age.” Bryden has a big arm, is “incredibly composed and very polished.” More importantly, it did not escape Rivals’ notice that he also has a father who is 6-foot-7. Craig Bryden, Daron's father, doesn't view this sudden surge in recruiting interest as a negative. In fact, Daron now works with two quarterback coaches - one in New Jersey and one in Connecticut. Thornton is a 5-foot-11, 167-pound running back with great explosiveness and surprisingly good body control for a kid his size and age. The general reaction was appropriate: Sixth grade? As impressive at those performances were, there were seven athletes that have had their profiles added to the Rivals.com recruiting database. Sixth-grader Daron Bryden Getty Images HAYES: When too young is too much | MORE: SN Top 50 players | Early Top 10 | 5 top QB recruits The two youngsters both participated in NextGen Boston, a camp for sixth, seventh and eighth graders. "This is Daron's dream and he works extremely hard at it, while maintaining good grades and being a great kid and big brother," he said. Rivals hasn't rated Bryden or Tyson Thornton, the other sixth-grader, but it is unquestionably putting both youngsters on a pedestal among their peers. He won't graduate high school—I repeat, high school—until the year 2021.

– College football recruiting site Rivals.com is watching Tyson Thornton and Daron Bryden. Tyson, it said in a recent talent report, has "great explosiveness and surprisingly good body control for a kid his size and age," while Daron (who once beat NFL QB Matt Hasselbeck in an accuracy contest) has "a big arm [and] is incredibly composed and very polished." Sounds good—except the youngsters are sixth-graders and are being "actively" monitored in Rivals' database. The boys participated in a training camp for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders, Sporting News reports, and were "so impressive" they were promoted to play against eighth-graders. "It's tough to know whether tracking 11-year-olds is the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it or whether we'll all be remembering this golden moment when the two are playing in Super Bowl 70," Cindy Boren writes for the Washington Post. AL.com notes some of the reasons there's been pushback, such as dangers to players whose peers suddenly grow much bigger, a kid not being able to live up to expectations when he's branded a wunderkind too early, and the difficulty of predicting how a youngster will evolve as a player. Bryden's dad doesn't have an issue with it, though, telling Bleacher Report "that is exactly why they call them prospects. … Rivals is merely identifying potential future talent. This is Daron's dream and he works extremely hard at it." But Ken Mastrole, a Florida coach who's worked with NFL QBs, tells AL.com that "you have to let the kid be a kid. The Jennifer Capriatis of the world are burnt out by 16 because parents are driving them into the ground." A youth football expert who's observed Daron on the field tells AL.com "he does have some ability," but notes he should be in seventh grade: He was reportedly held back for football.

PRESS RELEASE, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, March 30, 2015 Contact:Lynn Paltrow, (212) 255-9252; Kathrine Jack, Indiana Counsel (317) 477-2300; Sara Ainsworth, NAPW (212) 255-9252 NATIONAL ADVOCATES FOR PREGNANT WOMEN DECRIES PURVI PATEL SENTENCE OF 20+ YEARS First Conviction and Sentence for the Crime of Feticide Because a Woman Sought to Terminate Her Own Pregnancy South Bend, Indiana: Today, a St. Joseph County judge sentenced Purvi Patel to more than 20 years for the crimes of feticide and neglect of a dependent. Purvi Patel faces between six and 20 years in prison but critics say ‘no woman should be arrested for the outcome of her pregnancy’ A 33-year-old woman from Indiana, has been charged with the feticide and fetal murder of her unborn child after she endured a premature delivery and sought hospital treatment. National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) Executive Director Lynn Paltrow expressed deep disappointment at the extreme sentence: "While no woman should face criminal charges for having an abortion or experiencing a pregnancy loss, the cruel length of this sentence confirms that feticide and other measures promoted by anti-abortion organizations are intended to punish not protect women." Because she “didn’t know what else to do,” she put the body in a plastic bag and took it to a dumpster, then showed up at the emergency room of St. Joseph Regional Medical Center. Chief Deputy Prosecutor Mark Roule asked Hurley to sentence Patel to 30 years on the neglect charge and 10 years on the feticide, saying she failed to seek medical help when the baby was born alive. According to Sue Ellen Braunlin, doctor and co-president of the Indiana Religious Coalition for Reproductive Justice, Purvi was most likely 23-24 weeks pregnant, although prosecutors argued Patel was 25 weeks along in the state's opening argument.

– On Monday, 33-year-old Purvi Patel became the first US woman to be "charged, convicted, and sentenced for the crime of feticide for having attempted to end her own pregnancy," according to a press release issued by National Advocates for Pregnant Women. In its report, the Washington Post notes that while the 20-year sentence she is due to serve "brought an end to Patel’s trial ... it may be only the beginning of the public debate about the details of her case." The case began in July 2013, when Patel went to St. Joseph Hospital in Mishawaka, Indiana, bleeding and with a protruding umbilical cord, a doctor testified. Patel later revealed that she had a miscarriage and had left the fetus, which she says was stillborn, in a dumpster. Prosecutors argued the baby was born alive, hence the child neglect charge. The feticide charge (which PRI frames as "normally used against those who harm pregnant women") was based on text messages Patel sent indicating she had taken drugs purchased from China in an attempt to abort her fetus, reports the AP; tests showed no such drugs in her or the fetus, however. She was in February found guilty on both counts, though many have argued the two charges were "legally contradictory." PRI reports that the gestational age of the fetus was fiercely debated at the trial. Her defense argued it was at most 24 weeks old, and would not have survived even with medical intervention; NBC News reports prosecutors argued she was 25 weeks along in their opening statement, and the aforementioned doctor testified that he thought the fetus was as many as 30 weeks. Patel indicated she would appeal. (In Indiana, a man was charged with attempted feticide after police say he spiked a woman's drink with special herbs.)

Texas Department of Criminal Justice PHOTO: Texas death row inmate Lester Leroy Bower is pictured in an undated booking photo from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Bower was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m. CDT after being given a lethal injection at the state's death chamber in Huntsville, a prisons official said. He was convicted of shooting and killing a man while attempting to steal an ultralight plane that the man was trying to sell in 1983, and then fatally shooting three other men when they unexpectedly showed up at the aircraft hangar, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. In an interview with the Guardian last week, Bower said that the nature of the legal system meant it was very difficult for death row prisoners to earn a new trial or lesser punishment without strong evidence of innocence or serious prosecutorial misconduct, even if appeals and investigations raise questions about the fairness of the original trial. Lester Bower became the oldest prisoner executed by Texas in the modern era on Wednesday after the US supreme court rejected the 67-year-old’s last-day appeal. They have afforded me the last quarter of a century," he was quoted as saying in a last statement by prisons officials. The country’s death row population has shrunk considerably since 2000, with more people leaving death row than arriving each year, but not because more people were being executed.

– More than 30 years after Lester Bower was sentenced to die for a quadruple murder, Texas has finally carried out the sentence. The 67-year-old, the oldest prisoner on the state's death row, was executed hours after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal, ABC News reports. Prosecutors said that in 1983, Bower shot contractor Bob Tate to steal an ultralight aircraft, then killed three other men who unexpectedly arrived at the hangar, reports Reuters. But Bower always maintained his innocence, and his execution was stayed six times, most recently in February. "Much has been written about this case, not all of it has been the truth," he said in his final statement. "But the time is over and now it is time to move on." He was pronounced dead at 6:36pm yesterday. When Bower was arrested, he was working as a chemical salesman, had no criminal record, and was married with two daughters. In his appeals, his lawyers argued that there was no hard evidence connecting him to the crime and the killings had actually occurred after a drug deal gone wrong, the Guardian reports. His lawyers also argued that the long time Bower spent on death row constituted cruel and unusual punishment, but state officials countered that his claims were a "meritless attempt to postpone his execution" and the length of time on death row was "purely of his own making" because he had spent so long fighting his conviction in the courts, reports the Washington Post. (In 2010, a 94-year-old death row inmate in Arizona died of old age.)

– A major hacking operation involving a worldwide "army of zombie computers" hit a snag yesterday when the FBI, Europol, and Microsoft teamed up to shut it down. A months-long investigation by Microsoft found the ZeroAccess botnet infecting some 2 million computers with malware that generated bogus clicks on ads, netting criminals $2.7 million a month from online advertisers. Microsoft cut connections between infected machines in the US and European-based servers, while Europol seized servers tied to 18 IP addresses in Latvia, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, the Wall Street Journal reports. "These aren't just kids operating in their parent's basement," explains an advertising technology exec. "What we have here are organized crime groups in foreign countries targeting the ad world." Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit spent months studying ZeroAccess in a Redmond, Washington, lab, learning that the botnet isn't controlled by a dedicated server, but can respond to commands issued by any infected computer. But even after Microsoft's move, which included filing a civil suit against eight "John Doe" defendants, ZeroAccess isn't necessarily dead for good, notes PC World. Investigators didn't expect to stop the botnet completely, and a previous attack by Symantec only disrupted the operation. "If we can't put the bad guys in jail," says a Microsoft investigator, "at least we can take away some of their money."

A recently released video shows the dramatic testimony of a domestic violence victim emotionally pleading with a judge as she is sentenced to jail time for ignoring a subpoena to appear at her alleged abuser's trial. On July 30, when the video was taken, the mother of a 1-year-old child appeared before Judge Jerri Collins in a Seminole County courtroom for a contempt of court hearing. The victim refused to attend court the day of trial, going so far as to tell the State Attorney's Office that she didn't care if she was arrested as a result of her not complying with the court's subpoena. "I'm just, my anxiety, and I'm just..." the woman replied. According to court documents, the victim was holding her child inside a Florida residence April 2 when the child's father allegedly choked her and grabbed a kitchen knife. In a statement, the State Attorney's Office said the man accused in the case had a prior domestic violence battery conviction. "I'm just not in a good place right now," the woman told the judge during the contempt hearing. "You disobeyed a court order, knowing that this was not going to turn out well for the state." The victim's decision to thwart the court process by refusing to cooperate, despite a properly issued subpoena for her to appear in court, triggered the State to pursue an Order to Show Cause against her, and the Court's subsequent sentence," the office said. Jeanne Gold, the CEO of SafeHouse, an organization that offers shelter to abuse victims, said she'd approached Collins after the hearing in July and had told the judge the victim should have been given community service, not jail time. The State Attorney's Office said the alleged abuser had received 16 days in jail for simple battery and was ordered to pay court costs. The victim has since left the alleged abuser and continues to live with her parents. "I've been dealing with depression and just a lot personally since this happened. Channel 9's Karla Ray was told that prosecutors had the option of not calling for a jury case with an uncooperative witness, but prosecutors told Ray that they had an obligation to pursue the case. Perry said many domestic violence victims don't believe the system will help them and said that in situations like the one involving a victim, like the woman sentenced to jail, the judge could use more training. According to the Department of Justice, victims' refusal to cooperate is "the prime reason prosecutors drop or dismiss domestic violence cases."

– A Florida woman reported being choked by the father of her son while she held the 1-year-old on April 2. The man served 16 days for simple battery—but she ended up in jail herself for three days. A now-viral video has surfaced well after it was shot in a Seminole County courtroom; it shows Judge Jerri Collins showing the victim "no pity," as WFTV puts it, for failing to appear in court for her alleged abuser's trial. ABC News references court documents that say the woman was served with a subpoena in June, but was a no-show on July 22; on July 30 she was made to attend a contempt of court hearing. Crying, she apologized for not appearing, said she's been battling depression and anxiety, and said she had earlier asked that the charges against the man be dropped. Collins found her in contempt of court and ordered her to jail. "You disobeyed a court order, knowing that this was not going to turn out well for the state," said Collins. WFTV also quotes Collins as saying, "You think you're going to have anxiety now? You haven't even seen anxiety." The wailing woman begs Collins to change her mind, saying she has to care for her son. She had previously explained that her child's father had been jailed once before, causing him to lose his job and miss child support payments; she had to "sell everything I own" and, homeless, move in with her parents. The State Attorney's Office issued a statement saying the woman had told the office "she didn't care if she was arrested as a result of her not complying with the court's subpoena." The CEO of SafeHouse, which houses abuse victims, is gobsmacked. "There's no—absolutely nothing that I could think of that would be the reason to re-victimize this person by putting her in jail." (In another case, a mother received a longer jail term than the man who raped her son.)

What caused Lisa Robin Kelly to die in her sleep Wednesday is still unknown, following an autopsy on the That 70s Show star. I got her off everything in six weeks.” After marrying Lisa in 2012, Gilliam says she then fell off the wagon again — which was followed by a downward spiral of DUIs, a hospital stay with a blood alcohol level of .387 and domestic violence and assault charges. The actress had voluntarily checked herself into a treatment center after several years of battling substance abuse problems.

– That '70s Show actress Lisa Robin Kelly was pronounced dead by a doctor at her LA rehab facility at 8:07am Thursday, but the county coroner reportedly didn't learn of the death until noon ... when someone from the office read about it on TMZ. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ no one from the rehab facility called the county coroner—and now both the coroner and the LA County Sheriff's Department are suspicious and are investigating Kelly's death. Another cause of their suspicion: The rehab doctor said an embolism caused Kelly's death, but the coroner says there's no way he could have known that without doing an autopsy. Kelly's autopsy was completed over the weekend, but her official cause of death is not yet known. The doctor also told the coroner Kelly was on detox drugs when she died, sources say, but it won't be clear whether they played a role in her death until the toxicology report is in. Meanwhile, Kelly's estranged husband (who earlier blamed Kelly's new boyfriend for the actress' recent troubles) is blabbing away about her death in a National Enquirer article picked up by Radar. He says the 43-year-old had a congenital heart defect, and that back in 2011 she was drinking as much as a half-gallon of vodka per day. "You can't do to the human body what Lisa did, for the length of time that she did, and expect to survive," he says. Click for more.

In contrast, fossil evidence for Denisovans, a sister group of Neandertals recently identified on the basis of DNA sequences, is limited to three specimens, all of which originate from Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains (Siberia, Russia). We report the retrieval of DNA from a deciduous lower second molar (Denisova 2), discovered in a deep stratigraphic layer in Denisova Cave, and show that this tooth comes from a female Denisovan individual. These new findings, combined with previous data, suggest that there may have been low levels of genetic diversity among the Denisovans, comparable to the lower range of modern human genetic diversity seen among small or secluded populations. Genetic analyses of the remains of archaic hominins have yielded insights into their population history and admixture with each other and with modern humans [for example, ( 1 – 12 )]. The crown of the tooth is almost completely worn away, and only a thin rim of enamel is preserved buccally, mesially, and lingually. Next, they analyzed what little surviving DNA they could from about 10 milligrams of tooth powder, confirming that the fossil belonged to a Denisovan girl.

– Scientists are "very excited" to learn more about a baby tooth that only the most sophisticated DNA dating tech can analyze. Some 150,000 years ago, a young girl lost her baby tooth, and it fell into the sediment of a cave in Siberia from which the first three (and thus far only) other fossils identified in 2010 as being Denisovan were found, reports Live Science. Before then, the hominin group that's as genetically distinct from modern humans as Neanderthals was completely unknown. This fourth fossil is the oldest, per the paper in the Science Advances journal, suggesting that the mysterious group lived in Central Asia so long ago that there was likely greater interaction with, and thus more potential to interbreed with, Neanderthals—something we humans appear to have done, too. Five years ago, scientists would have probably had to destroy the tooth to study its genetic fingerprints, but recently Viviane Slon at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany was able to scrape the tooth's surface and drill into its root to collect 10 milligrams of material that contained the DNA her team ultimately studied. "We only have relatively little data from this archaic group, so having any additional individuals is something we're very excited about," she tells the New York Times. The other three fossils, a finger bone and two molars, were also unearthed in the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia. The baby tooth, found in deep sediment as much as 227,000 years old, is one of the oldest human specimens ever found in Central Asia. (Dirt samples from seven caves had a lot to say about the Denisovans.)

— Republican City Councilman Kevin Faulconer won a decisive victory over Democratic Councilman David Alvarez in the San Diego mayor’s race Tuesday, signaling a new chapter for the city after the scandal-plagued tenure of former Mayor Bob Filner. Faulconer had 54.5 percent compared to Alvarez’s 45.5 percent of the vote with all precincts reporting. The results dashed the hopes of Alvarez to become San Diego’s first Latino mayor and its youngest in nearly 120 years. He also allowed himself a not-so-veiled reference to the now-passed era of ex-Mayor Bob Filner, who resigned Aug. 31 after months of a chaotic management style at City Hall followed by multiple accusations of sexual harassment. Faulconer will finish the remaining 33 months on Filner’s term and be up for re-election in 2016. “We know that this city has gone through a lot in the last year, but we knew that as San Diegans that we were better than that and that we were going to come together when we had the opportunity to do that and come together we have,” he said. Faulconer, a former public relations executive before entering politics, promised that he and Alvarez will work together "to move our city forward." An early advantage for Faulconer was anticipated because Republican-leaning voters have historically been consistent and reliable voters in most elections, especially in special ones.

– More than five months after Bob Filner resigned as mayor, San Diego has chosen a new one: Republican Kevin Faulconer, a city councilman. Yesterday's special election saw a clear win for Faulconer, who beat fellow councilman David Alvarez 54.5% to 45.5%, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Faulconer will replace Filner, who resigned in August amid a sexual harassment scandal. "We know that this city has gone through a lot in the last year, but we knew that as San Diegans that we were better than that," Faulconer said last night. "We will get our city back on track on the services that San Diegans expect and that they deserve," said Faulconer. The victory makes him one of California's leading Republicans, the Union-Tribune notes. Had Alvarez won, the Democrat would have become the city's first Latino mayor, as well as its youngest in more than a century. Alvarez was endorsed this weekend by President Obama, KPBS notes. Faulconer will be sworn in March 3, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Abstract Bisphenol A (BPA) is an endocrine disrupting environmental contaminant used in a wide variety of products, and BPA metabolites are found in almost everyone’s urine, suggesting widespread exposure from multiple sources. (2014) Holding Thermal Receipt Paper and Eating Food after Using Hand Sanitizer Results in High Serum Bioactive and Urine Total Levels of Bisphenol A (BPA). BPA molecules are polymerized to make polycarbonate plastic used for food and beverage containers, epoxy resins used to line cans, and dental composites and sealants, but free (unpolymerized) BPA is also used as an additive (plasticizer), such as in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products. The use of hand sanitizers has increased in recent years and is now about a 200 million dollar a year industry just in the USA [14]. Biomonitoring studies on levels of BPA provide physicians and public health officials with reference values so that they can determine whether people have been exposed to higher levels of BPA than are found in the general population. Here's the latest information we have about possible BPA risks.

– Thought you'd cut your risk of BPA exposure by ditching plastic water bottles? You might have to add "stop asking for receipts at the store" to the list. Scientists tested the skin, blood, and urine of people before and after they handled receipts and other thermal papers that use bisphenol A as a print developer—and found that levels of the chemical rose, Forbes reports. Although the CDC won't definitively acknowledge BPA's risks—"More research is needed" is the official hedge on its fact sheet—WebMD points to various studies that have linked BPA to a variety of health issues, including a higher risk of cancer, heart problems, and brain and behavioral issues in babies and young children. Researchers who conducted the new study in PLoS One had participants handle receipt paper, then asked some of them to eat French fries using their hands. BPA levels in the skin spiked to 581 micrograms of BPA within 45 seconds (and 40% of that was absorbed in just two seconds). Urine and blood BPA levels were also strikingly higher 90 minutes after holding the receipts—and numbers here were on par with those from previous studies that were linked to Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, Forbes notes. Levels were even higher for subjects who had used hand sanitizer before handling the receipts; scientists attribute this to sanitizers (and toiletries like sunscreen and lotion) making hands more absorbent. Forbes notes the study was "quite small and more research will be needed," while a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council notes the study's "unrealistic experimental conditions" and that "much of the data presented in this new study has very limited relevance to the potential for human exposure to BPA from handling thermal receipt paper." (Your BPA-free water bottle may still not be safe.)

Ivory Coast is one of the few African countries where same-sex acts are legal and have never been criminalised By Nellie Peyton DAKAR, June 29 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Six gay men in Ivory Coast were abused and forced to flee their homes after they were pictured signing a condolence book for victims of the recent attack on a gay nightclub in Florida, a rights group said on Wednesday. The U.S. embassy in the Ivorian capital of Abidjan hosted an event a fortnight ago to honour the Florida victims and published a photo of the six men on its website with the caption: 'LGBTI community signing the condolence book'. It was taken at the embassy on June 16, the same day Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan and other officials signed the book in honor of the 49 people killed in the Orlando attack. Four of the six men, including the two attacked, said they have fled their homes under pressure from family and friends who had been unaware of their sexual orientation. Another man in the picture was also attacked after the photo was circulated on Facebook and other websites, said the head of an Abidjan-based gay rights group, who asked to remain anonymous. However the U.S. embassy did contact the heads of three Ivory Coast organizations that advocate for the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, according to press officer Elizabeth Ategou. The photo remained on the U.S. embassy's website as of Wednesday. Ivory Coast is one of the few African countries where same-sex acts are legal and have never been criminalised.

– Gay men in Ivory Coast are being attacked by angry mobs and forced from their homes, and they blame the US embassy. The AP reports the US embassy recently published on its website a photo of six men signing a "condolence book" at the embassy in Abidjan for victims of the massacre at Orlando gay club Pulse. The photo's caption identifies the men as members of the "LGBTI community." The men say when the photo was shared around social media, it destroyed their lives. "I don't have a life anymore," one of them tells the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "I can't go out. I don't know who might recognize me.” He says he was confronted by a mob while walking near his home. They beat him and stole his phone and wallet. Two of the six men say they were attacked by mobs yelling anti-gay slurs. Four say they were forced out of their homes by friends and family who didn't know they were gay before the photo was published. All six have left their homes. A press officer for the US embassy, which hasn't removed the photo, says it "deeply regrets that any individuals were attacked based on any kind of orientation they might have." The embassy was given permission to publish the photo by the director of an Ivory Coast gay rights group. He now says he wouldn't have given permission if he was aware the men would be outed in the caption. Homosexuality isn't illegal in Ivory Coast, but violence against the gay community is common despite the country's reputation for relative tolerance of sexual minorities.

Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, the highly anticipated documentary about the relationship between the late Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, debuted on HBO Saturday. Documentarians Fisher Stevens and Alexis Bloom started filming mother/daughter team Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds back in April 2014, and used a year and a half’s worth of footage to weave a loving portrait of Hollywood royalty with the film Bright Lights. But Bright Lights gave insight into just how important it was for Fisher to see her mother happy. Lourd is barely in Bright Lights, but she can be briefly seen accompanying her mother and grandmother to the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2015 and, early in the documentary, helping Reynolds off the stage after a performance. When the film co-starring Meryl Streep as the Fisher character first came out, both Reynolds and Fisher claimed it wasn’t very autobiographical at all. Inside Jokes: According to Fisher and Bloom, Bright Lights was actually Carrie Fisher’s idea. It doesn’t really matter who originally came up with the joke—though one suspects it was probably Carrie. Funny for Eddie: In archival footage from when Carrie was filming Wishful Drinking in 2010, she visits her ailing father, Eddie. Todd was right to call the tale of Debbie and Carrie a “beautiful love story”. It’s something her assistant said she resisted for years but does at least once a month. “They talk to me like I’m Princess Leia, who has had all these difficult experiences to go through,” Fisher jokes before admitting, in a way, she is. When her children ask if she’ll be up for another lifetime achievement award when, surely, the other Hollywood guilds and academies come knocking, Reynolds says gently, and accurately, “I won’t be here then.” Debbie’s Fall: And just as Debbie allows herself to be vulnerable when speaking about Carrie’s mental illness, Fisher only lets her tough, funny mask slip when talking about her mother’s failing health. And the documentary doesn’t shy away from how Fisher’s manic depressive disorder made both her life and the lives of those who care about her much more challenging. So it’s a constant battle — it takes all of us to assure her that she’s loved.” “It’s hard,” she said, through tears. dancing around the Great Wall of China, and a more subdued example of a present-day manic episode from Carrie towards the end of the documentary, the film paints an efficient and non-exploitative portrait of Carrie’s illness.

– HBO's Carrie Fisher-Debbie Reynolds documentary premiered Saturday; People and Vanity Fair list some of the biggest reveals and emotional moments from Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds: Their bond was incredibly close and complicated. Says Fisher at one point in the documentary, "I’m trying to let go. I should be trying to let go of my daughter, and instead, I’m trying to let go of my mom. So everything is backwards." Fisher disappointed her mom in one big way. Reynolds really wanted her to be a singer: "The biggest thing that broke my mother’s heart was to not do a nightclub act," Fisher says in the film. "My mother would say, ‘Do drugs—do whatever you do—but why don’t you sing?’ That was my big rebellion." Mother and daughter struggled with Fisher's mental health challenges. "Manic depressive is a disease," says a teary Reynolds in the film. "Now that wasn’t diagnosed then, so nobody knew what was going on with Carrie. When she was 13, her personality changed. So it’s a constant battle—it takes all of us to assure her that she’s loved. It’s hard. It’s hard. That’s the hardest part." Fisher struggled with Reynolds' failing health. Vanity Fair says Reynolds is most vulnerable in the film while discussing Fisher's mental health, and Fisher is most vulnerable when discussing the physical ailments her aging mother had been struggling with. They both joked prophetically about the future. At multiple points, both Fisher and Reynolds talk about their eventual deaths. VF points to one moment in particular, when Fisher and brother Todd ask her if she'll be up for another lifetime achievement award (much of the film centers around her award from the Screen Actor's Guild) someday in the future. Reynolds' response: "I won't be here then." (Fisher's urn is apparently shaped like a giant Prozac pill.)

the industry Five Options for Releasing Mel Gibson’s The Beaver, and Why None Are Good Mel Gibson’s next movie, The Beaver, was set to be released by Summit Entertainment in the spring or fall of 2011. Or at least that seemed like a fine game plan until the mother of his child, Oksana Grigorieva, accused him of physically abusing her and their baby, and released recordings of phone calls that purportedly show him crazily gasping to fill his lungs in order to more effectively call her three nasty names over and over again. Now, Summit finds itself what’s the technical term they use in Hollywood? Oh yes: superfucked. Execs at the company privately admit that even they don’t know what to do with the Jodie Foster–directed movie, the story of a depressed man who suffers a psychotic break when his family abandons him and becomes best friends with a beaver hand puppet that he imbues with an alternate personality with a British accent. One Summit suit calls the situation “unprecedented.” So what are their options? We’ve laid them out below, and as you’ll see, none of them are good. OPTION 1: Send The Beaver Directly to DVD. Why it could work: The Beaver might never earn back from theaters what it would cost to market the movie in the first place, so why not go to DVD, where you don’t have the huge publicity costs to make up for? Why that will never work: First, going straight to video sends audiences a message that the film is in the same league as cheapo junk like American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile. For another, you can’t count on home video the way you used to for ancillary profits. The Los Angeles Times today reports that for the first half of the year, DVD sales were down about 15 percent, while DVD rental spending declined nearly 5 percent — thanks to a 55 percent jump in revenue at $1 per night kiosks like Red Box. OPTION 2: Market The Beaver As a Jodie Foster Film, Not a Mel Gibson Movie. Why it could work: Everybody loves Jodie Foster! She’s an American institution! And who doesn’t remember Little Man Tate fondly? Why it will never work: Yes, Foster directed and played his wife. But insiders tell us Gibson is in 90 percent of the scenes in the movie, making it all but impossible to hide his involvement. What are you gonna do, kick him out of the poster? Look at how well that worked with Tom Cruise and Knight and Day. OPTION 3: Sell The Beaver As a "Message Movie" About Mental Illness and Have Mel Publicly Say He Is, in Fact, Mentally Ill Why it could work: Imagine all the interviewers asking, “Mel, have you ever felt like you were going crazy?” Then he could make a little joke, “Whatever could you be talking about?” then everyone chuckles, and he leans forward and says, “But seriously, mental illness affects everyone, as you see in this movie. Heck, it even happens to movie stars. And thank goodness I was able to get help. Everyone’s not so lucky.” Why it will never work: Gibson recently lost his longtime agent and trusted confidant, Ed Limato, to lung cancer and was promptly cut loose by Limato’s former agency, William Morris Endeavor. Without Limato, who was well-known for his straight talk with clients, Gibson seems bereft of the professional advice that might preserve his career: He seems genuinely committed to the idea that he can still win custody of his youngest child and be consumed with hatred for its mother. Plus, when it comes to audience empathy for mental illness, there is a big difference between the clinically depressed and people who bellow “I DESERVE TO BE BLOWN!” OPTION 4: Really Commit and Release The Beaver As an Oscar Contender and Hope for the Best. Why it could work: Summit insiders (unsurprisingly) say that the Gibson film is quite good. (It’s not impossible: Wagner, after all, was a racist and an anti-Semite, but no one is suggesting The Ring Cycle wasn’t a mammoth operatic achievement.) The script by Kyle Killeen (creator of Fox’s buzzy new fall show Lone Star) topped the 2008 Black List, the annual list of best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood. And the Motion Picture Academy loves Foster: She has been nominated for four Oscars and won two, and the fact that she’s been acting for 41 years means they look at her like proud parents, even though she’s 47. Why it will never work: Audiences stayed away in droves from Gibson’s last starring vehicle, Edge of Darkness, and that was before he allegedly punched Grigorieva while she was holding his child. And while Foster has won both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Academy Awards, she’s never been nominated for her directing, even for Little Man Tate. And let’s say, miracles of miracles, it becomes an Oscar contender. That’s hardly a box-office indicator: Despite The Hurt Locker being named last year’s Best Picture, Summit still only managed to squeeze an extra $1.7 million out of audiences after the Oscars. OPTION 5: Put the Film on the Shelf Until the Moment Is Right. Why it’s the best option: Scientists predict that in the year 2843, the human race will be overtaken by a race of cyborgs with the prime directive that they deserve to be blown. And they will need a summer tentpole.

– Mel Gibson hopes to shore up his fading career with his latest role as a depressed dad who cures himself by talking to a beaver puppet that lives on his own hand. Sounds pretty pathetic, but word is that the movie—directed by Gibson friend and fellow actor Jodie Foster—is quite good ... and the preview has finally hit US televisions (watch it in gallery). But for Mel, who reportedly suffers from alcoholism and bipolar syndrome, playing a crazy dad might not be the right career choice just now as he's battling for custody of his baby daughter with Oksana Grigorieva, notes Jon Swaine in the Telegraph. The film is supposed to be out in spring, postponed from its initial planned summer release. Producers are reportedly a bit worried about reception. New York Mag previously predicted a minefield when Gibson meets the press on promotional tours for the film: "Imagine all the interviewers asking, 'Mel, have you ever felt like you were going crazy?'" Talk to the hand, Mel.

Our recent analysis, Super Spending: U.S. Trends in High-Cost Medication Use, examines prescription drug use among patients with exceedingly high annual medication costs under the pharmacy benefit to help clients identify new opportunities to improve care, quality of life and health outcomes for the patients who rely on these costly, complex therapies. The number of U.S. patients estimated to have annual medication costs greater than $50,000 jumped 63 percent between 2013 and 2014, from 352,000 to 576,000 Americans. Of the estimated 575,000 Americans who used at least $50,000 in prescription medicines last year, about 139,000 used at least $100,000 worth of medication, nearly triple the 47,000 who hit that mark in 2013, the report said. "The profile emerging from this research shows these patients are overwhelmingly taking specialty medications, and have multiple comorbidities, prescriptions and prescribers," said Glen Stettin, M.D., Senior Vice President, Clinical, Research and New Solutions at Express Scripts. Comorbidities, Polypharmacy Complicate Care Nine out of 10 patients with drug costs of $50,000 used specialty medications, which are expensive treatments for complex conditions. Among patients whose costs reached $100,000 or higher: More than one-third were being treated for 10 or more different medical conditions; Approximately 60 percent took 10 or more different medications; and Approximately 72 percent had prescriptions written from at least four prescribers. The prevalence of antidepressant use among patients taking a specialty medication was 2.3 times higher compared to the national average. More than a half-million U.S. patients had medication costs in excess of $50,000 in 2014, an increase of 63 percent from the prior year, as doctors prescribed more expensive specialty drugs for diseases such as cancer and hepatitis C, according to an Express Scripts report released on Wednesday. Compounded medication use was the third-largest contributor to these extremely high medications costs. Among Boomers in this high-cost category, 50 percent were being treated for cancer, 77 percent were being treated for hepatitis C, and 46 percent were taking compounded drugs. Patients Pay a Small Fraction of the Total Expense Insurance plans and employers covered more than 98% of the costs for patients whose prescription drug bills exceeded $100,000 in 2014, paying an average of $156,911 of these patients’ 2014 pharmacy costs. Patients within this highest-cost tier were responsible for less than 2 percent of their total 2014 pharmacy costs, reflecting an annual decrease in the out-of-pocket percentage these patients pay. The report looked at prescription drug claims of 31.5 million Americans with either commercial health insurance or coverage through federal and state Medicare and Medicaid plans. About Express Scripts Express Scripts manages more than a billion prescriptions each year for tens of millions of patients.

– Prescription drugs are pricey: According to a report released Wednesday by benefits manager Express Scripts, more than 500,000 people in 2014 took home meds costing a total of $50,000 or more per year, while the number of big spenders who took home at least $100,000 worth of drugs annually jumped from 47,000 to 139,000 between 2013 and last year, NBC News reports. About 60% of the patients in the $100,000 group were taking at least 10 medicines from no fewer than four different prescribers, Reuters reports. "Patients in these highest-spend categories are treating a complex condition along with other more common chronic conditions, such as diabetes or depression," an Express Scripts' head researcher says in a statement. A significant factor in the 63% increase of those dropping at least $50,000: More prescriptions are being issued for pricey specialty drugs for diseases such as hepatitis C and cancer, Reuters notes. Using info from 31.5 million insured Americans (covered by either commercial insurers or Medicaid/Medicare), the report also figured out the cost to payers for these pricey prescriptions: what the report labels "an unsustainable" $52 billion per year. But insurance picks up most of the tab, with plans covering almost 98% of the bill in the $100,000-plus group, per a press release. (What one expert calls "highway robbery": the trend of manufacturers to hike drug prices as soon as they buy them from other companies.)

Backer, who was 53 when he went missing, was an Olympic rower before he went into finance — although he never made the podium in three trips to the Games. He's facing two counts of fraud over $5,000 with a court appearance scheduled for Tuesday. Video footage of Harold Backer moments after the Coho ferry docked in Washington state on Nov. 3, 2015. His disappearance sparked a frantic search on Vancouver Island and in Washington state after surveillance footage showed a cyclist fitting Backer's description getting off the Coho ferry in Port Angeles, Wash. (Port Angeles Police) On Friday, more than 520 days after his disappearance, police in Victoria, B.C., said Backer had turned himself in and was being held in custody. In a written statement, the department said financial crime investigators started looking into the My Financial Backer Corporation and Backer himself shortly after the adviser vanished.

– Missing Olympian rower Harold Backer walked into a police station in Canada last week, ending a 528-day mystery—but the remaining mysteries include his whereabouts during all that time, and the whereabouts of the millions of dollars that clients of his investment business say he stole from them. Backer, who was 53 when he disappeared, was charged with two counts of fraud after he surrendered himself to authorities in Victoria, BC, the CBC reports. The last confirmed sighting of him had been Nov. 3, 2015, when he told his wife he was going for a bike ride. Surveillance footage revealed that he had taken a ferry from Canada to Port Angeles in Washington state. The disappearance of Backer, who rowed for Canada in the 1984, 1988, and 1992 Olympics, became a criminal investigation within days after 15 investment clients—including friends, his brother, and his former coach, who lost $800,000—received letters confessing that his business was a pyramid scheme. He said he had lost their money in the dot-com crash 15 years earlier and couldn't get it back. Police haven't commented on where they think Backer spent the last 18 months. Port Angeles Police Chief Brian Smith says his name would have been flagged if he had tried to cross the border. "The question is: If he turned himself in in Victoria, how did he get back into Canada?" he tells the Victoria Times Colonist.

Police say the teenage girls stole a car in a Walmart parking lot on March 31, and evaded law enforcement who were pursuing them in the allegedly stolen vehicle before tragedy struck. "The officers got in the pond and just because it's not on cam doesn't mean it didn't happen," Gualtieri said. Gualtieri summarized what happened this way: On March 30, Miller, 15, was with two other girls, Ashaunti Butler, 15, and Dominique Battle, 16, all of St. Petersburg. The Honda ran another red light and headed toward Royal Palm North Cemetery off Gandy Boulevard, a dead end. “In my opinion, this has been a smear campaign.” Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said deputies did everything by the book, even attempting to save the girls' lives after their car plunged into the pond. The dash cam footage, released by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office on Monday, shows deputies in a car chase with the teenagers, aged 15 and 16, who were driving in a Honda Accord they had allegedly stolen. Whitfield and Anderson highlighted comments the sheriff made in the March 31 news conference, when Gualtieri said the girls were evading deputies. The Sheriff's office maintains their position that the officers did all they could. "I'm not going to stand by and let these people cast a false narrative, " Gualtieri said. “My daughter was not perfect,” Natasha Winkler, mother of Laniya Miller, one of the girls who drowned, told WFTS. "What 15-year-old is?” Gualtieri added that because the pond was "thick with sludge," it was difficult for officers to get to the teenagers. These are kids who are heavily engaged in criminal activity.

– The families of three Florida teens who drowned in a stolen car are suggesting sheriff's deputies could have done more to save them, the Miami Herald reports. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has forcefully rebutted those allegations in this Facebook post. The office released hours of dashboard footage of the March 30 tragedy, which shows that officers took off clothes and equipment in an attempt to rescue the girls, but also shows one deputy watching from the bank of the pond and talking about hearing screams for help. "We are in the process of reviewing everything," says Will Anderson, a lawyer for the girls' families, per ABC News. Dominique Battle, 16, Ashaunti Butler, 15, and Laniya Miller, 15, allegedly stole a Honda Accord from a Walmart parking lot that night. Deputies followed and saw them plunge into a pond, but the sheriff's office says their rescue attempts were hampered by darkness and thick mud. "They’re done. They’re done," a deputy says in one of the clips. Another says, "I thought I heard yelling." The other responds, "As it was going down. But now, they're done." Anderson also accused the sheriff's office of conducting a "smear campaign" for revealing the girls' past records; they had seven felony charges over the previous year for auto theft. Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri expressed sympathy for the families, but says they shouldn't "disparage the deputies who were trying to rescue three kids." The deputies "got in the pond, and just because it's not on cam doesn't mean it didn't happen." (This clip shows deputies walking by the camera, one of them shirtless.) Laniya's mother, Natasha Winkler, admits her daughter "was not perfect" but says she doesn't want her remembered as a thief, the Tampa Bay Tribune reported earlier this month.

Hillary Clinton, who is already the second-least-popular presidential nominee in history, seems likely to be a millstone around the necks of many Democratic House candidates. Republicans are projected to hold on to control of the House of Representatives, but Democrats are projected to make single-digit gains, chipping away at the GOP's 247-seat majority, the party's largest since 1928. Democrats have no good plan for winning back the House As difficult as the map was for Democrats this year, 2016 still represented the best chance they had at winning back the House of Representatives for at least four years — and probably more.

– An analyst declared days ago that "the race for the House is over," with "zero chance" of it going to the Dems, and it appears that prediction has now come to fruition. Both ABC News and NBC News have projected the GOP will keep control of the House of Representatives, effectively "extinguishing Democrats' hopes of a new progressive era in Washington," per Vox. Although there are some races still up in the air, it isn't expected those will have any significant effect in terms of handing control over to the Democrats, who needed to gain 30 seats to flip the current 247-188 majority. That’s not to say the GOP won't suffer losses: Per NBC, the party will lose between five and 20 seats "due in large part" to Donald Trump as its nominee. What may now be slipping out of Dems' grasp, thanks to this development: the chance to push through a climate change cap-and-trade bill, immigration reform, or a hike in the minimum wage, Vox reports. A notable win in the state of Florida, where it's a white-knuckle race on the presidential side: The AP projects former Gov. Charlie Crist, running as a Democrat, will defeat GOP Rep. David Jolly in the state's 13th District, per Roll Call. And Republican Liz Cheney, daughter of former VP Dick Cheney, won her dad's former House seat in Wyoming, per the AP.

Sergeant 1st Class Matthew Bessler and the Belgian Malinois named Mike had been part of a canine tactical team with the 10th Special Forces Group based at Fort Carson. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, was not a new diagnosis for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan at that time. “But I’m disgusted with the fact that the guy hasn’t even shown his face to say, ‘I’m sorry this happened.’” Steward said the Sheriff’s Office plans to follow up on a few inconsistencies, such as whether bird or buck shot was used, but he said “everything’s pretty consistent with what the victim’s telling us.” Bessler said his next step will be having an autopsy performed and “memorializing, remembering Mike and taking care of services.” “I don’t know,” he said. “If he knew you and you were in my house, he was by your side, leaning up against you.” Bessler hopes Mike can have a burial with military honors. So Bessler took Mike to the 10th Group’s lead dog trainer in Baghdad, who spent some time with the dog and then told Bessler: “He’s done working.” [MORE: After her husband’s Parkinson’s diagnosis, she created a product to help millions] Back in Colorado, once Mike had been on Prozac for six months or so, he became calmer, more focused, more trusting, Dr. Ramsel said. The 59-year-old Powell man who shot Mike has not been cited for any wrongdoing.

– A US military veteran wants his service dog to receive burial with military honors after it was shot dead by a cyclist in Powell, Wyoming, USA Today reports. Matthew Bessler says Mike, his 10-year-old Belgian Malinois, was a combat dog who did bomb detection in Iraq before transitioning to civilian life, albeit with canine PTSD. "I raised him and trained him as a puppy, and the ability he has to sense some of the issues that I have with seizures, with my PTSD, my TBI [traumatic brain injury] and severe anxiety disorders, how he can calm me down just by him being in my presence," the Army veteran tells the Billings Gazette. "He can help take the focus and help change the focus of what’s going on with me and help me calm down or relax me." (The unique pair were featured in a Washington Post story this summer.) Now Bessler is questioning the official story that a passing cyclist killed Mike when the dog tried to attack him, the Powell Tribune reports. Bessler was away on a hunting trip when the cyclist passed the veteran's house, drew a bike-mounted revolver, and opened fire (with birdshot, the cyclist says). The cyclist "said he was genuinely in fear of his life and well-being, and the dog was 'definitely in full attack mode and not backing down at all,'" says a sheriff's spokesman. Yet Mike was shot in the backside from 5 to 10 feet away, per the sheriff's office. Bessler says he's considering taking civil action, and is "flabbergasted" that "a person would be carrying the types of things [the bicyclist] was carrying." Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page has reached its $10,000 goal to get Mike an animal autopsy and have him "laid to rest with a military funeral and burial."

The House ethics committee put another dent in the armor of embattled Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel Thursday, admonishing him for violating House gift rules by accepting corporate-funded trips to the Caribbean through an organization called the Carib News. But in a tale that promises to provide more intrigue, the committee also found that a former counsel to the Ethics panel, Dawn Kelly Mobley, “improperly communicated confidential internal committee information” to the Carib News and it referred to the Justice Department allegations that employees of the organization – Karl Rodney, Faye Rodney and Patricia Louis – “submitted false or misleading information” to the committee to win prior approval of the trips and later during sworn testimony. Mobley served as the Ethics Committee’s counsel under the late Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and was chief of staff to Tubbs Jones’ successor, Rep. Marcia Fudge, as recently as September of 2009, according to House disbursement records published online by Legistorm. The ruling, which raises questions about the Ethics Committee’s own practices, drew a sharp rebuke from Rangel, who twice hauled Ethics Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and ranking Republican Jo Bonner of Alabama into his private office steps from the House floor before facing reporters at a Capitol news conference. Despite the admonition, the committee determined that the New York Democrat had no direct knowledge that false or misleading information was given to the committee in its investigation of the trips. Four other lawmakers who went on the same trips were not found to be in violation of House ethics rules. The committee essentially found that Rangel is responsible for the transgressions of aides who knew of the corporate sponsorship of the trips. “The committee did not find sufficient evidence to conclude, nor does it believe that it would discover additional evidence to alter its conclusion, that Rep. Rangel had actual knowledge of the memoranda written by his staff,” an Ethics statement says. “However, the report finds that Rep. Rangel was responsible for the knowledge and actions of his staff in the performance of their official duties.” But Rangel, who read the findings aloud at a news conference, took issue with the concept that staffers’ actions could be “imputed” to him. “I don’t want to be critical of the committee, but the common sense dictates that members of Congress should not be held responsible for what could be the wrongdoing of, or mistakes occur, as a staff unless there’s reason to believe the member knew or should have known. And there’s nothing in the record to indicate the latter,” he said. “So I have to now deal with my lawyer as to what the hell do they mean that something’s imputed. Does it mean that no matter what a staff member does if the member doesn’t know it that the member could be charged and admonished publicly for it?”

– Though House ethics committee sources say Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel knowingly accepted Caribbean trips in violation of House rules that forbid hidden financing by corporations, the New York congressman tells Politico tonight he’s merely being “admonished” by the committee. I’m satisfied that when you read the report, that you will see that I have not been found guilty of anything.” “We were approved, the trip was approved. Whether or not it should have been approved is a serious issue,” he said of the 2007 and 2008 travel by members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Rangel added that “the critical part in the report is they’re saying the ethics committee should not have authorized it if they had known all the facts—that some private funds were involved in the payment of the conference.”

Marshal's Service shows Jared Lee Loughner, who pleaded guilty in the Tucson, Ariz., shooting rampage that killed six people and left several... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2011 file photo, Emergency personnel and Daniel Hernandez, an intern for U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, second right, move Giffords after she was shot in the head outside a shopping... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Jan. 30, 2012 file photo, former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was seriously injured in the mass shooting that killed six people in Tucson, Ariz., in January 2011, is aided by her... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2011 file photo, emergency personnel attend to a shooting victim outside a shopping center in Tucson, Ariz., where U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and others were shot as... (Associated Press) The roughly 2,700 pages included witness and survivor accounts from people who helped save Giffords' life after she was shot in the head outside a Tucson supermarket in 2011 during a meet-and-greet with constituents. About two hours later, he had apparently used some of that ammunition, emptying a 33-round magazine in about 19 seconds, and killing, among others, a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl and seriously wounding Ms. Giffords, who was shot in the head at close range. The records, about 2,700 pages of police reports, witness statements and other material, detail the events leading up to the attack, from Mr. Loughner’s purchase of ammunition at a Walmart on the morning of the shooting to the response of Pima County Sheriff’s deputies to a bloody Safeway parking lot, where Mr. Loughner had been subdued by bystanders while reloading his 9-millimeter Glock semiautomatic. Kuck told police he had seen Loughner's mental state deteriorate over time, starting with drinking problems in high school, trouble with authorities and being kicked out of college, noting Loughner had gotten tattoos of bullets and a gun on his shoulder. Loughner asked if he could use the restroom, then at one point complained he felt sore. His father, Randy Loughner, dropped his coffee and ran after his son but couldn't catch him, the mother said. "And sometimes he would look like he was having a conversation with someone right there, be talking to someone. The officer said that after handcuffing Mr. Loughner he had found two fully loaded Glock ammunition magazines in Mr. Loughner’s pockets, along with a folding knife with a four-inch blade. The deputy said Mr. Loughner repeatedly said that he pleaded “the Fifth,” even though the deputy said he had not asked him any questions. "At that point, he said, 'I just want you to know that I'm the only person that knew about this,'" Audetat said.

– Jared Lee Loughner started acting so erratically in the months leading up to his 2011 shooting spree that his parents confiscated his shotgun on the advice of the community college that expelled him, reports the Arizona Republic. (Loughner used a different weapon in the Tucson rampage.) His father even worked on disabling Loughner's car so he couldn't get out at night, reports the New York Times. The revelations come from a trove of newly released documents on the case that show Loughner in a downward spiral that worried his family and acquaintances, reports AP and CNN: His mother: "Sometimes you'd hear him in his room, like, having conversations," she told police. "And sometimes he would look like he was having a conversation with someone right there, be talking to someone. I don't know how to explain it." She said she urged her son to get psychological help, but he didn't do it. Crying at traffic stop: Loughner got pulled over hours before the shooting for running a red light, and when the officer said he'd let him go with a warning, Loughner started to cry. "So I asked him if he was OK," said the officer. "And he said, 'Yeah, I'm OK, I've just had a rough time and I really thought I was gonna get a ticket, and I'm really glad that you're not.'" His father: "I tried to talk to him. But you can't. He wouldn't let you. Lost, lost and just didn't want to communicate with me no more." On confiscating the gun: "That totally set him over, I think." Childhood friend: "I kicked him out of my house because he showed me his gun," Andrew Kuck told police, recalling a visit several weeks before the shooting when Loughner showed up armed. Loughner explained he had the gun for protection—he had grown paranoid about the police and others being out to get him—and gave Kuck's roommate a souvenir bullet. Gabby Giffords connection: Another friend says Loughner, who had developed a hatred of government, once asked the visiting congresswoman, "What is government and stuff?" and didn't get an an answer he liked. "I feel like he had ... something against Gabrielle Giffords." Suicide call? The same friend says Loughner left him a phone message the morning of the shooting: "He just said, 'Hey, this is Jared. Um, we had some good times together. Uh, see you later.' And that's it."

Even crazier, the man may have been in there for three days, according to Sgt. The man is in his 40s and may be a transient, Cage said. A man trapped in a wall at the rear of Marshalls, 205 Ken Pratt Blvd., crawls out of a hole cut by Longmont firefighters Tuesday morning. pic.twitter.com/qPJvKxlvoH — Lewis Geyer (@LGeyerTC) November 11, 2014 Once crews freed the man, he was transported to the hospital to be checked out. "They were hard to read, but they definitely said 'help,'" Cage said, adding that Felyk, 35, had ineffectively attempted to describe his position inside the building in one of the notes. April Garcia, an employee at Edible Arrangements, which is several store fronts east of Marshalls, said the phones and heat went out at her store on Monday and that after the incident Tuesday, employees began to suspect that there was a connection between the two. "It really put a dent in our business," she said.

– Employees at a Marshalls store in Colorado swore they heard a voice coming from somewhere yesterday, but they couldn't quite find the source. Today it got a little louder, resulting in the rescue of a man trapped in a void between the store's interior and exterior walls, reports the Denver Channel. Fire officials in Longmont say Paul Felyk, 35, might have been stuck in there for three days, reports the Longmont Times-Call. He was hospitalized at least briefly, though it's not clear whether he suffered any injuries. Authorities think Felyk got into the building through a roof vent and fell about 20 feet into his cramped location. They did not speculate about why he was apparently trying to get into the store in such a weird way, but the case remains under investigation. No charges have been filed so far. (It's not the only roof-related rescue this week.)

– The 84th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee is under way, and before a winner is crowned on national television tomorrow night, thousands of really obscure words will be tackled by 275 kids ages 8 to 15. Twelve-year-old Kevin Lazenby of Opelika, Ala., kicked off round two today, notes the AP, correctly spelling "dolorifuge." If that seems like a tough one, brace yourself: NPR talks to linguist Ben Zimmer, who explains which words are really the tough ones. Foreign words that are in Merriam-Webster's unabridged English dictionary but adhere to non-English spelling rules, like the Greek hypozeuxis and the German stromuhr (last year's winning word). Words that sound like they should follow a typical spelling pattern, but don't: hidrosis sounds like it should be spelled "hydrosis"—but, of course, it isn't. "The dreaded schwa": These neutral vowels can be extremely tricky. Caprifig, for instance, is often misspelled as caprofig. Words that don't follow the spelling suggested by a like word: Though it's "religious," it's sacrilegious, not sacreligious.

(Photo: Eden Carlson Miracles, YouTube) A 2-year-old from Arkansas who nearly drowned in her family's swimming pool is on the mend thanks to a type of oxygen therapy. Two-year-old Eden Carlson had managed to get through a baby gate and fall into the family swimming pool and was in the 5 degree Celsius water for up to 15 minutes before being discovered. In a bid to reverse the brain damage, researchers at the LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine and the University of North Dakota School of Medicine began treating her with two types of oxygen therapy. This includes normobaric oxygen therapy, where levels of oxygen given are the same as at sea level, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), where they are given pure oxygen at pressures higher than that of the atmosphere within a special chamber. Fifty five days after the drowning accident, doctors started giving Eden normobaric oxygen for 45 minutes twice per day. She started laughing more and was able to move her arms and hands, and grasp with her left. Harch and Edward Fogarty, at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine, documented her progress in a report published in Medical Gas Research. Paul Harch, who treated Eden, said in a statement: “The startling regrowth of tissue in this case occurred because we were able to intervene early in a growing child, before long-term tissue degeneration.

– When a 2-year-old girl in Arkansas managed to make her way through a baby gate and fall into the family swimming pool, she was submerged in 41-degree water for as many as 15 minutes before she was found. Having technically drowned and suffered a heart attack, Eden Carlson was resuscitated after the February 2016 accident but completely unresponsive to stimuli for a month. Now, in what appears to be a world first, per Newsweek, researchers at the LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine and the University of North Dakota School of Medicine report in Medical Gas Research that they have managed to reverse much of her white and gray matter brain damage using two types of non-invasive oxygen therapy. "The startling regrowth of tissue ... occurred because we were able to intervene early in a growing child, before long-term tissue degeneration," says Paul Harch, who treated her, in an LSU release. MRI showed deep gray matter injury and both gray and white matter loss, and Eden was unresponsive, couldn't walk or talk, and constantly squirmed. Since researchers started giving her normobaric oxygen therapy (sea-level amounts of oxygen) and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (pure oxygen at higher pressure) for 45 minutes twice a day, she stopped squirming, appeared more alert, began to laugh, and can now talk, climb stairs, and play, reports USA Today. An MRI after her 40th HBOT session showed "near-complete reversal of cortical and white matter atrophy." "She’s getting so much better all the time," her mother says. (Drowning doesn't always involve dying.)

Helping drive the speculation, dozens of Kennedy's former law clerks traveled to Washington this weekend to participate in a private clerk reunion that occurs regularly -- and many of them wondered if it will be their last chance to meet with him while he is still on the bench. Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to President Trump, said earlier this year in an interview with Infowars host Alex Jones that the likely pick to replace Kennedy was "clearly Neil Hartigan from the Western District of Pennsylvania," one of the judges Trump reportedly considered to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia before settling on Justice Neil Gorsuch. The court's decision this week to take the Wisconsin case was a political bombshell.

– CNN uses the term "fever pitch." At this point it's only speculation, but the big question swirling around the Supreme Court has nothing to do with one of its cases. It's whether Justice Anthony Kennedy plans to step down—and whether he may do so Monday. What you need to know: Slate points out that the speculation isn't fresh, but with Monday being the court's final public session of the term, that would be the time to do it if the 80-year-old is going to do it now. Another reason the speculation is ramping up: A number of reports on the topic cite unnamed sources close to him as well as his former law clerks who say they think he's thinking about it. CNN uses the phrase "seriously considering." And this from the AP: "Kennedy and his clerks were gathering over the weekend for a reunion that was pushed up a year and helped spark talk he might be leaving the court." Bill Kristol put it at "at least 50-50" in a Saturday tweet. The Washington Examiner throws one more log on the fire, reporting Senate Judiciary Committee members Ted Cruz and Chuck Grassley previously expressed that they expect a seat to open up this summer. A piece from New Zealand's Stuff calls Kennedy "the man with the weight of America's goofy-shaped democracy on his shoulders," and that points to just how pivotal he has been. CNN frames it like so: "Like no other justice in recent history, Kennedy has cast the vital swing vote in cases that grab the [country's] attention." Among the biggest: Obergefell v. Hodges, which allowed for same-sex marriage nationwide. On the flip side, CNN notes he wrote the majority opinion in Citizens United v. FEC, which axed election spending limits for corporations. Should the retirement announcement come to pass, who might Trump replace him with? Trump addressed that question in a late April interview with the Washington Times, saying he'd pick from the list of candidates he put out during the election. Trump also addressed the Kennedy rumors, saying, "I don’t like talking about it. I've heard the same rumors that a lot of people have heard. And I have a lot of respect for that gentleman, a lot." Read one of the "most powerful" paragraphs written by Kennedy.

A 3-year-old child died Sunday after being left inside a car for several hours, officials said Monday. Phoenix Police and Fire departments personnel were called to Abundant Life Church on Saturday afternoon after the child was discovered to have been left in a car for three hours. Courtney Arnold, a family friend, reportedly left 3-year-old Hayden Nelson in a hot car Saturday afternoon outside Abundant Life Church in Phoenix, where she and the child's mother, Tiffani Nelson, were attending choir practice, according to a police statement released Monday. Because Hayden's mother needed to arrive early to choir practice, Arnold agreed to bring the children, including her own 5-year-old daughter, at a later time. All but Hayden exited the car, where heat built up for the next three hours as temperatures outside reached 96 degrees. Both adults were scheduled to attend choir practice at the church, but Hayden's mother had to be there earlier than her friend. 3-year-old left in car for hours dies; mother's friend could face charges PHOENIX -- Police are investigating the death of a 3-year-old boy who was apparently left in a car outside a church for three hours Saturday afternoon. By then, Hayden had been taken to a hospital in critical condition, where he would die on Sunday. "You cannot imagine what this young lady is going through right now, what this family is going through ...," Holmes said.

– America has seen its 28th death of a child left in a hot car this year, according to the Kids and Cars nonprofit, with the latest death occurring on Saturday in Phoenix. In that case, 3-year-old Hayden Nelson was allegedly left in a car outside Abundant Life Church for several hours by a family friend. Police explain the timeline, via the Arizona Republic: The child, mother Tiffani Nelson, and an 8-year-old sister spent the night at Courtney Arnold's home. Arnold and Nelson both had choir practice to attend; because Nelson had to get there early, Arnold, 27, agreed to bring her own daughter, along with Nelson's kids, later. AZFamily.com reports that Arnold arrived around 11am. In an emailed statement, police say "indications are the suspect was a bit late and she and the other children exited the car. The suspect went immediately into the church for practice." Hayden was somehow left behind and spent three hours in the vehicle before his mother and churchmembers began searching for him. Outside temps at the time were as high as 96 degrees. The boy had stopped breathing, and died Sunday in the hospital. Prosecutors are still considering whether to bring charges against Arnold, though Officer James Holmes paints it as a tragic accident: "It's obvious that the 27-year-old forgot that the child was in the car. She was in a hurry. She had something that she had to do, and she didn't take a minute to make sure."

It was my first time tasting the sweet milk; I was even more eager to try the donkey cheese, a delicacy I’d learned about a few years back when rumours swirled that Serbian tennis ace Novak Djokovic was buying up their entire stock for his restaurants. The world's supply of pule comes from a herd of Balkan donkeys that live on the Zasavica Special Nature Preserve. More specifically, for the donkey milk cheese, which is the most expensive cheese in the world due to the extremely low milk yield of the magarica (female donkey): just 300 millilitres per day. Each animal produces about 5 liters (1.3 gallons) of milk per day, so each year the farm can only offer 300 kg (660 pounds) of cheese. Moose Cheese – Over 500/kg; US $300/pound Produced in Sweden by the Moose House, this cheese is made only from the milk of Gullan, Haelga, and Juno. “Novak Djokovic never bought our cheese,” he wrote. It’s easy when they say ‘sustainable tourism’, but it’s not easy. “It’s kitschy, expensive and Eastern European,” said Julia Lowry, a cheesemonger at Cowgirl Creamery in San Francisco.

– What goes great with donkey cheese? Donkey sausage, of course. That's the repast writer Kristin Vukovic enjoyed at the Zasavica Special Nature Reserve in Serbia, where milk from the beasts of burden is used to make the world's most expensive cheese. A small cupcake-sized mound of the stuff will set you back some $55. Writing for the BBC, Vukovic describes the cheese, which can cost $600 to more than $1,000 a pound, as "sweet, clean, and mild, unlike any cheese I had ever tasted." (Another writer described the flavor of the "magareci sir," aka "pule cheese," as "fusty-musty," per a 2012 New York Times piece.) Former politician Slobodan Simic started the Zasavica reserve about two decades ago. A few years after that, he rescued some abused Balkan donkeys. Now, the females in his herd of about 180 animals are responsible for supplying all the milk for the world's donkey cheese supply, per the Mother Nature Network. Vitamin-rich, donkey milk has long been heralded as an immunity booster, anti-aging serum, and a kind of natural Viagra. More recently, Simic had the idea to start making cheese with the milk of donkeys. Because the milk is low in a protein needed to make cheese, it is mixed with goat's milk—60/40, favoring donkey milk. Production of the donkey cheese is similar to that of goat cheese, Vukovic writes, but the "exact method is a secret." As for why it's so expensive, it takes 3 gallons of donkey milk to produce a pound of cheese, and female donkeys (who must be milked manually three times a day) don't produce much milk. The cheese—which made headlines in 2012 on a rumor that tennis star Novak Djokovic was buying the whole year's supply—isn't the only donkey product Zasavica makes. The farm's offerings include soap, face creams, and a donkey-milk liqueur. As for the sausage, Zasavica's farm manager tells Vukovic that it is made from male donkeys that have taken on a taboo interest in their female offspring. (This 340-year-old shipwreck cheese resembles "granular Roquefort.")

Speaking at the International Association of Chiefs of Police annual meeting in San Diego, Chief Terrence M. Cunningham of Massachusetts also called on police and the swelling number of protesters to work together to break “this historic cycle of mistrust” that has plagued relations between law enforcement and minority communities. His apology on behalf of an organization that has a membership of more than 20,000 police officials comes at a fraught time of relations between law enforcement and local communities in the wake of controversial police shootings, most involving African-American men. He then referred both to the hard and honorable work of police — “a noble profession” — and acknowledged “the history of policing has also had darker periods.” He said police have been required to carry out discriminatory laws and policies, and too often have become what Cunningham called “the face of oppression” to non-white communities nationally.That built a generational history of mistrust, he said. “For our part, the first step in this process is for law enforcement and the IACP to acknowledge and apologize for the actions of the past and the role that our profession has played in society’s historical mistreatment of communities of color,” he said..”At the same time, those who denounce the police must also acknowledge that today’s officers are not to blame for the injustices of the past. "There have been times when law enforcement officers because of the laws enacted by federal, state and local governments have been the face of oppression to far too many of our fellow citizens. “It should also be recognized these laws do not exist any longer, and the police officers of today are not responsible for the injustices of yesterday.” The Rev. Some next steps: require anti-bias training; discipline officers who engage in bias policing https://t.co/fINWw9iL61 — Legal Defense Fund (@NAACP_LDF) October 17, 2016 National Action Network President Al Sharpton welcomed the apology but said he wanted Cunningham's words "backed by action." In a statement about Cunningham’s remarks, San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman said, "The best way for our country to improve community police relations is to acknowledge our past, gain a better understanding of each others’ viewpoints, and find a common path forward for better relationships."

– It is time to break the "historic cycle of mistrust" between police and minority groups in America, the leader of America's biggest association of police chiefs said at the group's annual meeting in San Diego Monday, offering an unprecedented apology. There is much to be proud of in the history of law enforcement, but policing has also "had darker periods," International Association of Chiefs of Police President Terrence Cunningham said, per CNN. "There have been times when law enforcement officers, because of the laws enacted by federal, state, and local governments, have been the face of oppression to far too many of our fellow citizens," said Cunningham, chief of police in Wellesley, Mass. To move forward, Cunningham said, it will require "the law enforcement profession and the IACP to acknowledge and apologize for the actions of the past and the role that our profession has played in society's historical mistreatment of communities of color." The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that civil rights leaders have welcomed the apology, but they'd like Cunningham to clarify whether he's talking about the 19th century, the 20th century, or last week. "What specific action of the past is he referring to?" wonders Andre Branch, head of the San Diego chapter of the NAACP. "Excessive force? Illegal stops by law enforcement? Fatalities of African-Americans in police encounters?"

As the Internet and 4G networks and Skype have marched across the globe, and even the most teeny-tiny, out-of-the-way places have been wired, it's hard not to feel a shred of ambivalence. But after so much time on the road, certain precautionary measures had started to slip.

– When Conan O'Brien picked Sarah Killen at random to be the person he'd follow on Twitter, it wouldn't have been a huge surprise if she milked her fame and turned "into a real douche," writes Mary Elizabeth Williams. And while Killen has indeed become a bit of a media darling and even raked in a new iMac and other pieces of swag, she's also used her celebrity to raise money for breast cancer and help a charity that feeds children. "Sure, there's a pleasure in the fame of it all for her, too," writes Williams at Salon. "But there's something lovely and breathtakingly generous about someone with newfound notoriety leveraging into something other than just more notoriety." She may have been picked at random, but Killen was an "inspired choice."

A number of travel operators have responded to the government's announcement: Thomas Cook has cancelled its flight and holiday programme to Sharm el-Sheikh until 12 November Thomson Airways along with First Choice, have cancelled all outbound flights to Sharm el-Sheikh up to and including 12 November British Airways has postponed its Thursday flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh until Friday EasyJet has cancelled all flights to and from the resort on Thursday and is keeping future flights "under review" Monarch has cancelled all flights in and out of Sharm el-Sheikh on Thursday The Irish Aviation Authority said it had directed Irish airlines not to fly to or from the area until further notice British holidaymaker Craig Peacock, who has been in Egypt for nine days, said finding out he may not be able to return home is "not the greatest news". The UK foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said his government is now advising against all but essential travel through Sharm el-Sheikh airport in Egypt as there is a “significant possibility” that the plane was brought down by an explosion on board, the strongest remarks yet by an official on the cause of the crash. ___ 5:55 p.m. Egypt's Islamic State group affiliate has allegedly reiterated its claim to have downed a Russian passenger plane over the Sinai Peninsula last week, killing all 224 people on board. It believes there are currently up to 20,000 Britons on holiday in Sharm el-Sheikh, who might have to be evacuated if the UK decides it is not satisfied with Egyptian security. Within hours of the UK announcement, CNN reported an anonymous US official saying the latest intelligence suggested a bomb was planted on the plane by Isis or one of its affiliates. But obviously we’re investigating it, and directing our intelligence resources to try to determine the cause of the crash.” The White House’s National Security Council declined to speculate on the cause of the crash, citing a need not to prejudice the outcome of the investigation. Read more Hammond said there was a “significant possibility” the plane was brought down by a bomb, after a meeting with the UK’s crisis response committee, Cobra, chaired by the prime minister, which concluded to advise against all but essential travel by air through Sharm el-Sheikh airport. Hammond apologised to those who would not be permitted to fly and said he recognised it would cause “immense disruption and inconvenience” to people, but also stressed that the UK is not changing its assessment about the threat level in Sharm el-Sheikh resort. Hammond said he recognised that it would cause immense harm to the Egyptian economy but the UK government had to put the safety of its citizens first. Egypt's foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, earlier said he was very disappointed by the decision to suspend flights, accusing the UK government of making "a premature and unwarranted statement" on the crash. The UK has intervened despite playing no part in the crash’s official investigation committee, which is formed from representatives from Ireland, Russia, France and Germany. The plane had taken off from Sharm el-Sheikh early on Saturday morning and disappeared from the radar about 25 minutes later, at around 6.20am local time. MOSCOW (AP) — The latest on Saturday's crash of a Russian plane in Egypt that killed 224 people. Authorities are making another attempt to evaluate information from the voice recorder of the Russian plane that crashed in Egypt, after damage to the device prevented an earlier try. Investigators have taken samples from the bodies of passengers killed in the crash, and they are being analysed by forensic experts for any further clues as to what might have brought down the plane, he added. “There are two versions now under consideration: something stowed inside [the plane] and a technical fault. UK officials at the airport will act as extra security and effectively sign off planes as safe to travel, he said.

– US officials have reported that the heat flash in the area where Metrojet Flight 9268 went down in Egypt may have been from a bomb—and the UK thinks that's an increasingly likely scenario, the AP reports. London is worried enough that it suspended flights to and from the Sinai Peninsula, with PM David Cameron's office saying Wednesday that "we have become concerned that the plane may well have been brought down by an explosive device." A Cameron rep tells the Guardian that the "precautionary measure" (not a ban on travel to the area) halting flights to and from the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh will give UK aviation experts heading there time to assess security at the city's airport and "to identify whether any further action is required." That assessment should be done by Wednesday night. The Egyptian president has said that ISIS' claims it was behind the crash are "propaganda," and experts tell the AP that the militants don't have the firepower needed to take down a plane flying that high. But the news agency also notes an audio recording has been making its way across the Internet Wednesday, with the speaker saying the crash coincided with the anniversary of the pledge Egypt's ISIS affiliate made to the parent group. The AP adds it hasn't been able to verify the recording, but it says it sounds like other recordings the group has made. The British government says it realizes the canceled flights "may cause concern" for UK citizens vacationing in Egypt and that travelers should contact their airlines or tour operators, per the BBC. The UK's move may cause some discomfort Thursday between Cameron and Egypt's president when they meet, notes the Telegraph.

The release reads as follows: There has been a great deal of outcry about the situation involving the horses in the Black Forest area. After our investigators arrived on scene, they determined that while the appearance of the animals was visually disturbing, none of the horses were in immediate danger and none of them had to be euthanized. Once the vet did so, the sheriff's office says they then had the legal right to seize the horses, and made arrangements to do so. "In order to seize somebody's livestock, there's a very specific set of criteria that we have to follow," Sgt. The El Paso County Sheriff's Office is currently heading up the investigation, but at Tuesday's county commissioners meeting District Attorney Dan May said his office would like to be involved.

– Authorities say a special unit that responds to animal abuse will handle a case involving more than a dozen dead and malnourished horses found in a Colorado barn. KRDO-TV reports that the El Paso County Sheriff's Office mounted unit is investigating the Friday discovery of the horses in Black Forest, near Colorado Springs. A woman renting the property says she found the dead horses—some no more than skeletons—under Lye and tarps, when one of the German Shepherds she's raising broke free into the barn, KKTV reports. At least eight horses were alive but in extremely poor health. Sgt. Gregory White says investigators could not legally seize the living horses because they were not in immediate danger. Authorities gave them water and food. White says the woman who owns the horses has been cooperative in making a plan to improve their health and conditions and has agreed to clean the property. She isn't facing charges but is "under supervision" by authorities, KKTV reports. (Read about an elephant sanctuary founder who was "crushed by an old friend.")

– Two top Republicans put it simply: A wave of political "hate" for President Trump is driving the midterm elections and could even unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, the New York Times reports. Speaking at a closed-door GOP event in New York City, the two conservatives—Mick Mulvaney, federal budget director, and Ronna McDaniel, RNC chairwoman—said the GOP has the money and infrastructure to repel a November "blue wave" but admitted that enthusiasm is high among Democrats. "There’s a very real possibility we will win a race for Senate in Florida and lose a race in Texas for Senate, OK?" said Mulvaney in a recording obtained by the Times. "I don't think it's likely, but it's a possibility. How likable is a candidate? That still counts." He criticized Democrats for fueling a "movement of hate" against Trump and lacking a "signature piece of legislation." And when McDaniel spoke, she derided the DNC for raising only $116 million compared to $227 million by the GOP. But they did note high Democratic turnout in the midterm primaries and conceded a widespread dislike for Trump. Their warning echoed recent comments by Republican strategists who say the GOP has offered weak nominees for races in the House, where Democrats need 23 seats to take over. As for Cruz—who is holding a 4.4% polling lead over rival Beto O'Rourke, per Real Clear Politics—he dismissed the budget chief's words: "I don't worry about what some political guy in Washington says," said the senator. "I worry about what the people of Texas say."

The implants — made by a French company, Poly Implants Prothèses, that was closed last year — used an inferior, industrial-grade silicone and are more likely to rupture or ooze than those made from surgical silicone. A health ministry statement said advice from medical experts showed that: "There is as of now no increased risk of cancer for women using implants of the PIP brand versus other implants." A spokeswoman for the French health products safety agency, known as Afssaps, said it was possible that the rupture rates in other countries were lower because reporting was still low, or because complaints had not yet reached some governments. ” “We recognize the concern that some women who have these implants may be feeling, but we currently have no evidence of any increase in incidents of cancer associated with these implants and no evidence of any disproportionate rupture rates other than in France,” the British agency said in a statement. More than 2,000 women in France have filed legal complaints and another 250 women have recently done likewise in Britain, where the authorities have stopped short of recommending implant removals and sought to reassure on cancer risks too on Friday.

– The French government today advised women who got breast implants from Poly Implant Prothèse to have them removed post-haste, and even offering up public health care funds to finance the operation, over fears that they might rupture or cause irritation. The PIP boobs were yanked off the market last year, over accusations that they were filled with industrial-grade silicone—the stuff used in things like computer chips and spatulas, Reuters explains. France said that there was no evidence that the implants boosted cancer risk, but more than 1,000 French women have suffered ruptures, so they’re recommending their removal as a preventative measure. Some 30,000 women in France and 300,000 worldwide received PIP implants, though mainly in Europe and Latin America—none were sold in the US, according to the New York Times. Britain today added that it was not echoing France’s recommendation, citing the lack of cancer risk.

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard) commentary If Hewlett-Packard is flip-flopping on the PC business, it should go all the way and bring WebOS and the mobile business back as well. After an evaluation of the business, HP said today that it would keep its personal systems group, aka its consumer PC business, calling it the best move for shareholders, consumers, and the company. "Coming to a town near you soon, I hope," she said during a conference call today to discuss the PC business decision. In other HP tablet news, the company did confirm that they need to be in the tablet business, and that they're "going to be there with Windows 8." Citing what he called a "tablet effect," Apotheker suggested a shift in consumers' preferences away from PCs and toward tablet devices such as Apple's iPad and the numerous Android offerings in that space.

– The world's biggest PC maker has decided to keep making PCs. New Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman announced today that the company is backtracking from her ousted predecessor's strategy to spin off the $41 billion computer division and, in the words of Gizmodo, "turn HP into the next IBM." Whitman said an analysis showed the move wouldn't make sense. Still unclear is what will happen with the mobile operating system known as WebOS and the popular TouchPad tablet that HP announced it was discontinuing earlier this year. "While WebOS and HP's mobile devices business have their fair share of problems, it may be prudent for the company to thaw out WebOS and attempt a comeback," writes Roger Cheng at CNET. "If the company wants to remain a major player in the consumer technology business, it will need to have a mobile strategy. WebOS remains a viable one, if the company can actually get its act together." Click for more on HP.

After much buildup in the 61-hour debate — of Republicans wanting things to be over, and Democrats railing against Republicans who they said would cut off debate — at about 1 AM Speaker Pro Tempore Bill Kramer (R) announced that he would hear a voice vote for a roll call on final passage. Soon after the vote, as local CBS affiliate reporter Jessica Arp showed me in a video replay in the press room, an unidentified Democratic legislator could be seen throwing his papers and a beverage of some kind into the air in the heat of passion, as the booing broke out after final passage. Shame!” and similar exclamations, as the Republicans filed out of the room. Earlier in the night, Majority Leader Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) said that Democrats had been given more than two full days and nights to make their case - effectively turning the debate into a filibuster - and that Republicans had done nothing wrong. Some Dems speculated that the GOP leadership had allowed some Assembly Republicans in marginal districts to skip the vote or vote ‘no’ on the final tally.) With a total of 96 members, that got to a majority for the bill but left 28 members who hadn’t had a chance yet to vote. Later Rep. Kelda Helen Roys (D-Madison) said, "We never imagined they would do it as they did, not even properly using the nuclear option." Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, including its controversial provisions to eliminate almost all collective bargaining rights for public employee unions as well as many other provisions to weaken union organizing. The 14 state Senate Democrats remain in exile in Illinois, preventing the state Senate from having the three-fifths quorum required to take a vote on the budget.

– Wisconsin's assembly approved a controversial bill stripping public sector workers of collective bargaining rights early Friday morning after a grueling 61-hour debate. Just after 1am, Republicans abruptly cut off debate and announced a voice vote. Chaos erupted—Republicans shouted their ayes, Democrats booed, and within seconds the electronic vote system had closed the voting at 51-17—leaving 28 lawmakers, including 25 Democrats, with no recorded vote. Democrats went wild, throwing papers and even a drink into the air, and screaming “Shame! Shame! Shame!” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. “Cowards all! You’re all cowards!” shouted one Rep. Several Democrats told Talking Points Memo that they believe the vote was illegal. Some Republicans were led out of the chamber under police protection. “The Democrats were clearly stalling,” says one Rep. The measure now goes to the Senate, where 14 Democrats are still refusing to show up. Click for the latest on Wisconsin.

In this Nov. 12, 2015 photo provided by Kevin Dumont, he is seen chained to the top of a water park in Candia, N.H. Dumont had been chained to the top of the waterslide, sleeping in a tent and staving... (Associated Press) In this Nov. 12, 2015 photo provided by Kevin Dumont, he is seen chained to the top of a water park in Candia, N.H. Dumont had been chained to the top of the waterslide, sleeping in a tent and staving... (Associated Press) CANDIA, N.H. (AP) — The owner of a New Hampshire waterpark who chained himself to a slide tower 17 days ago to try to prevent the park's auction has ended his quest because of failing health and the lack of a financial savior. "Dear friends and supporters, it is with profound sadness that I must tell you that my attempts to find a partner in time to save the waterpark from auction has failed," he wrote. "I had a number of interested parties but there just wasn't enough time to get the details worked out before the December 2nd auction. A GoFundMe page raised just $1,945 toward a $1 million goal, and interest from four potential investors didn't lead to a rescue. Through social media, word of mouth, the press or anything else you can think of.

– The owner of a New Hampshire water park who chained himself to a slide tower 17 days ago to try to prevent the park's auction has ended his quest because of failing health and the lack of a financial savior. Kevin Dumont climbed the slide at Liquid Planet on Nov. 9 in a bid to attract investors interested in saving the business. He said Wednesday on Facebook there were no takers and that a doctor believes he is developing pneumonia. "Dear friends and supporters, it is with profound sadness that I must tell you that my attempts to find a partner in time to save the waterpark from auction has failed," he wrote. "I had a number of interested parties but there just wasn't enough time to get the details worked out before the December 2nd auction. I tried my best to have the auction delayed but unfortunately I could not make it happen." Dumont, a genial 46-year-old Army veteran with nine years of service, opened the park in 2008. Two wet summers kept crowds away and a series of financial problems immediately followed. Late this season, the state temporarily shut down two of his new waterslides when they were found to have high levels of bacteria. The state also said he put up the slides without a required review. "We've done things, taken short term loans, worked for free to try to keep it going," Dumont told the AP the day before he ended his effort. "But unfortunately, our loan just wasn't performing. The bank had to call our loan." A GoFundMe page raised just $1,945 toward a $1 million goal, and interest from four potential investors didn't lead to a rescue. A total of $1.6 million was needed to keep the property—including his home—off the auction block. Click for more on how Dumont spent the 17 days (including how he went to the bathroom).

Two California women break away from tour group to scratch their initials into ancient amphitheatre, where defacing walls is strictly forbidden Tourists are once again getting into trouble in Italy, with two American women caught carving their names into Rome’s Colosseum. The women may now go in front of a judge and face a penalty.

– Rome's storied Colosseum—an "incomplete building that has already been robbed," as one spokesperson recently put it—is certainly no stranger to depraved behavior, in its prime hosting gladiators fighting to the death and as many as 73,000 unruly spectators. The latest in its storied history are two women from California, reports the Guardian. The women, 21 and 25, managed to break away from their tour group Saturday and use a coin to scratch the initials "J" and "N" about 3 inches high into one of the walls before snapping a selfie. They were, of course, caught, and have since apologized, reports Italian news site La Stampa: "We did not imagine it was something so serious," translates CBS Local. "We’ll remember for a lifetime." It's unclear whether they will be punished. Last year a Russian, two Australians, a Canadian, and a Brazilian were all caught defacing the monument, though the unruly five tourists comprise an extremely small minority of the site's 6 million annual visitors. "Everyone should have respect for it," a visiting Dutchman told the Guardian. "They should be fined to make an example. It’s heritage, so you must protect it." Security is high right now in the wake of Islamic State threats against Rome, but the newly hired personnel are looking for terrorists, not vandals. (These American sisters got caught taking pictures of their bare butts at a sacred temple.)

Doctors at Boca Raton Regional Hospital in Florida have no way to explain how 40-year-old Ruby Graupera-Cassimiro survived after spending 45 minutes without a pulse and enduring three hours of attempts to bring her back from near-death on Sept. 23. "She essentially spontaneously resuscitated when we were about to call the time of death," said Thomas Chakurda, the hospital spokesman. A spokesman for Boca Raton Regional Hospital told The Associated Press on Sunday that a team of medical workers spent three hours attempting to revive the woman after a rare amniotic fluid embolism. Definition By Mayo Clinic Staff Amniotic fluid embolism is a rare but serious condition that occurs when amniotic fluid — the fluid that surrounds a baby in the uterus during pregnancy — or fetal material, such as fetal cells, enters the mother's bloodstream. But not only did Graupera-Cassimiro survive, but she suffered no brain damage or physical injuries from efforts to revive her. All I know is that I'm grateful to be here," Graupera-Cassimiro she told them, according to the Sun Sentinel. And doctors were on the verge of declaring her dead when suddenly there was a blip her heart monitor. They kept pumping Graupera-Cassimiro's chest for 45 minutes, taking turns to avoid exhaustion. Finally, they decided to call her family into the room to say their goodbyes.

– An amniotic fluid embolism is a rare and easily fatal complication following childbirth that occurs when amniotic fluid enters the mother's bloodstream. When a 40-year-old Florida woman suffered from one after a routine cesarean section in late September, medical staff caught it in time to perform CPR. After 45 minutes taking turns doing chest compressions to manually keep her heart beating and shocking her intermittently to try to jump-start her pulse, they were ready to pronounce the time of death and called in the woman's distraught family. Then, just as they stopped all life-saving procedures and turned to the heart monitor, Ruby Graupera-Cassimiro's heart started beating on its own, reports the South Florida Sun Sentinel. "She essentially spontaneously resuscitated when we were about to call the time of death," the hospital spokesman tells the AP. What's more, he adds, "Today she is the picture of health," without any detectable brain damage. In fact, both she and her healthy daughter were sent home from the hospital a few days later. "I don't know why I was given this opportunity," Graupera-Cassimiro says, according to the Washington Post, "but I'm very grateful for it." According to CBS 12, Staff are calling it the hospital's "second miracle." The first was the building of the hospital itself, which was a grass-roots effort—sparked by the tragic deaths of two children—to raise money to build the city's first hospital back when Boca Raton was home to just 10,000 people. (See how a "miracle" baby recently helped save her mom's life.)

– After plenty of waiting and speculation, the Verizon iPhone is officially (almost) here. Verizon president Lowell McAdam made the announcement as anticipated today, telling the assembled press that "the iPhone 4 will be available early next month." The Wall Street Journal and Engadget live-blogged the event; both noted that the various execs in attendance (no, Steve Jobs was not there) made sure to emphasize how prepared Verizon is for the "unprecedented volume" of iPhone users. (Unlike, say, AT&T?) McAdam also hinted at more to come from Verizon's partnership with Apple, including video and 4G. Existing Verizon customers can pre-order the iPhone starting Feb. 3; ordering will be opened to the general public on Feb. 10. Like AT&T's version, a 16GB model will cost $199 and a 32GB will cost $299 with a two-year contract. Unlike AT&T's version, that pesky antenna should actually work: "We had to make changes to work on the CDMA network," says Apple COO Tim Cook. "It's going to work great." (Gossipy aside: John Oliver was in attendance, apparently taping a Daily Show bit in which he must be reacting to the announcement, shouting "F*** yeah! Thank you! Oh thank God! Thank you!")

PHOTOS: Stunning Maps Help Visualize Complex Data A wristband dubbed Nymi confirms a user’s identity via electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors that monitor the heartbeat and can authenticate a range of devices, from iPads to cars. A slick promotional video shows someone gliding from bed to airports to hotels to cafes, effortlessly logging into devices and unlocking doors without once having to enter a password or procure a key. If the attacker is able obtain a person's unique ECG signal and bracelet, the attacker may be able to hook it up to a simple circuit that replays the heartbeat. Nearly all of computer security boils down to one question: How can a device know that you are you?

– Keep forgetting your password? A Canadian startup says it can give you a password that you won't lose for the rest of your life. The firm's "Nymi" wristband checks your heartbeat—which is as unique as your fingerprints—and uses it to unlock everything from computer accounts to cars, Discovery reports. The company says the device only needs to verify your pulse once when you put it on, meaning that stressed or exercising people don't need to fear being suddenly locked out, the Atlantic notes. Experts say the wristband shows promise as a replacement for passwords, though they warn hackers are certain to target it—and could be able to intercept the signal and make off with somebody's car while they're logging into their smartphone. "This could be a very nice technology and an upgrade over password security for most users," a security researcher tells Ars Technica. "I'd like to see something like this work out. I just hope that they get some security experts to vet this before people trust it for anything important."

[Critters found in Antarctic ice show how tenacious life is] A helicopter flies the AEM sensor over Lake Frxyell in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Despite McMurdo's apparent dryness on the surface, it's always hinted at something more: The region is home to the magnificently creepy Blood Falls, a red ooze that shines bright against the otherwise desolate surface. Today, Mars may still be home to small amounts of salty liquid water, which would exist on the planet's soil at night before evaporating during the daytime. It's possible that this extensive brine isn't unique to the valley, Mikucki explained, and that subsurface ecosystems of extreme microbes might be connected to visible lakes, and perhaps even interact with the ocean. The team used an electromagnetic mapping sensor system called SkyTEM that was mounted to a helicopter and flew over several glaciers to find brines, or water saturated with salt, which formed waterways beneath glaciers. Jill Mikucki, a microbiologist at University of Tennessee and a co-author of this study, has spent some time analyzing brines samples in Blood Falls — an area in the Antarctic that exudes red-colored subglacial brines that are pushed to the surface. She said what's below the surface could be entering the ocean, and that affects what's available in those waters, changing the ocean food webs.

– The chillingly named Blood Falls is a fascinating feature of Antarctica's landscape: Interrupting the blanket of frozen white, the falls is a liquid, rusty red. (It's no coincidence that the falls looks rusty: The water gets its color from oxidized iron it carries.) And, as a researcher tells LiveScience, it also provides a gateway to a "subglacial world." Under Taylor Glacier, home to the falls, is briny water: In fact, the area under what's known as Taylor Valley contains salty water that links lakes around the region. "This study shows Blood Falls isn't just a weird little seep," researcher Jill Mikucki says. "It may be representative of a much larger hydrologic network." There appears to be a whole ecosystem down there, suggests Mikucki, per the Knoxville News Sentinel. Her team says it probably hosts microbes, and experts believe conditions in the area are among the most similar on Earth to conditions on Mars. So microbes that live there could offer "possibilities for better understanding the combinations of factors that might be found on other planets," co-author Ross Virginia tells the Verge. Mikucki's team made its findings using an electromagnetic sensor that dangled from a helicopter. It was able to detect salty water, scanning for conductivity as deep as 1,000 feet. Salt water has relatively high conductivity, the Washington Post reports, and Mikucki tells LiveScience it "shone like a beacon." (Remarkable technology has also recently been used to study the thickness of Antarctic ice.)

We considered three variables for the human impact hypothesis: provisioned (whether the community had been artificially fed); area (size of protected area, with smaller areas assumed to experience more impacts); and disturbance. The highest rate of killing occurred at a relatively undisturbed and never-provisioned site (Ngogo); chimpanzees at the least disturbed site (Goualougo) were suspected of one killing and inferred to have suffered an intercommunity killing; and no killings occurred at the site most intensely modified by humans (Bossou). Whether the common ancestor of chimpanzee and humans showed similar types of aggression and if it was adaptive is not known but our results bring us a step closer.

– Chimpanzees are "natural born killers," and their tendency toward lethal aggression is not a result of human influence, a new study finds. The study, published in Nature, looked at chimp-on-chimp killings in 18 chimp communities over a span of five decades and assessed how much those communities had been affected by human activities. Researchers found killings to be most common in the east African communities that had been least touched by humans, according to a press release. At the site most affected by human interference, in Guinea, no killings took place. "Patterns of lethal aggression ... show little correlation with human impacts," the authors say, "but are instead better explained by the adaptive hypothesis that killing is a means to eliminate rivals when the costs of killing are low." Researchers concluded that, in addition to eliminating rivals, chimps kill to get better mates, food, resources, or access to territory. The study bolsters evidence that such killings are an evolved, adaptive tactic as chimps seek to pass on their own genes, rather than a consequence of deforestation or humans studying and feeding chimps. The findings are particularly interesting because, as the Washington Post reports, chimpanzees are the only animals other than humans who "go to war" with each other. But the study—which refutes another high-profile study blaming human interference for chimps' warlike tendencies, the Chicago Tribune reports—has inspired some debate. Two anthropologists tell the New York Times the researchers didn't actually establish that any of the communities studied were truly free from human interference. (Another fascinating recent study finds that primates are capable of abstract thought.)

Or put another way, the pitch of a crying baby could be used to predict what that child would sound like as a five-year-old. Now, their new research — published last week in the journal Biology Letters — indicates that the pitch of babies’ cries at 4 months old may predict the pitch of their speech at age 5. While a recent longitudinal study indicates that inter-individual differences in voice pitch remain stable in men during adulthood and may even be determined before puberty (Fouquet et al.

– Whether you have a high-pitched voice or a lower one, a new study suggests that it was probably evident when you were just a baby. As previous research has suggested voice pitch is unchanging in adulthood and nearly set in stone by age 7, researchers in France and the UK set out to explore just how early the pitch of one's speech might be determined, per a release. Their study, published in the journal Biology Letters, reveals the pitch of babies' cries is "a significant and substantial predictor of the pitch of their speech" at age 5, per the New York Times. Given that research suggests a high-pitched voice is tied to less testosterone exposure in the womb, and vice versa, researchers say it's possible that "a substantial proportion" of differences in voice pitch are determined in utero. "In utero, you have a lot of different things that can alter and impact your life—not only as a baby, but also at an adult stage," says researcher Nicolas Mathevon, who compared the "mild discomfort cries" of 4- and 5-year-olds (six French girls and nine French boys) with the same children's cries as infants. The results leads Discover to predict a future reality show following "celebrity judges as they scour maternity wards … for the iconic voice of a new generation." But though the study is "intriguing" based on its suggestion "that individual differences in voice pitch may have their origins very, very early in development," Carolyn Hodges of Boston University notes the small sample size raises the risk "that it is not representative of the population as a whole." (Women may hear their voice drop after pregnancy.)

– An unusual murder case in Indiana has prompted an unusual request from prosecutors: They want the judge to bar spectators in the courtroom from wearing buttons that express support or sympathy for accused killer Bei Bei Shuai, reports AP. They also want the defense to refrain from asking questions of witnesses that might elicit sympathy for Shuai, who is charged with killing her child by eating rat poison while 8 months' pregnant. It was a suicide attempt. Friends got Shuai to the hospital in time to save her, but not baby Angel, who was born days later. The trial starts April 22. The 2010 case has drawn international headlines. Shuai's supporters say that she was suffering depression when she attempted suicide and that convicting her of murder and feticide will theoretically open up such charges to any mother accused of providing improper care for her fetus. (A Change.org petition calling for Shuai's freedom has about 11,000 signatures.) Prosecutors say the case is straightforward: Shuai's suicide note made clear she was trying to kill her fetus along with herself, and that warrants the murder charges.

– Those who speak by packing their sentences with words such as "you know," "I mean," and "like" aren't being ditzy as pop culture would suggest—they're being conscientious. So suggests a new study in the Journal of Language and Social Psychology whose authors say that such "filler words" tend to be used by people who are more thoughtful than most, reports Research Digest. "When having conversations with listeners, conscientious people use discourse markers, such as ‘I mean’ and ‘you know,’ to imply their desire to share or rephrase opinions to recipients," write the researchers. At New York, Melissa Dahl paraphrases: "This is a person who is truly paying attention, to you and the conversation at hand," she writes. "Conscientious people are careful, diligent individuals who are very concerned with doing things correctly—including, apparently, idle chitchat." They want to make sure their conversation partners are sticking with them and use such "discourse fillers" to help guide them along or to seek consensus. (Another recent study on language found that learning a foreign one can help keep your brain young.)

New York City prosecutors say they didn’t have enough evidence to prove model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez’s claim that... (Associated Press) FILE - In this May 25, 2017 file photo, producer Harvey Weinstein appears at the amfAR charity gala during the Cannes 70th international film festival, Cap d'Antibes, southern France. Weinstein representative Sallie Hofmeister has said Weinstein "unequivocally denies" ''any allegations of non-consensual contact" In a series of tweets Thursday, McGowan addresses Amazon chief Jeff Bezos and says that she repeatedly told an Amazon Studios executive that "HW raped me." McGowan says the executive told her it wasn't proven and she said "I am the proof." McGowan last year said that she had been raped by a "studio head." After the New Yorker expose ran Tuesday, which included the report that Weinstein had allegedly sexually assaulted three women, McGowan tweeted "now I am allowed to say rapist." When the interview was finished, Masse said, Weinstein hugged her tight and said, "I love you." The episode, Twitter said Thursday, was because McGowan tweeted a private phone number, a practice it said violated its service terms. The company said it will "be clearer about these policies and decisions in the future." McGowan's suspension caused an enormous backlash on social media, with many criticizing Twitter for a move that would silence an alleged victim of sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein on its service. McGowan has been among the most vocal in Hollywood about sexual abuse in the industry. McGowan’s Twitter account has been suspended, temporarily muting a central figure in the allegations against Harvey Weinstein.... (Associated Press) FILE - In this April 15, 2015 file photo, Rose McGowan arrives at the LA Premiere Of "DIOR & I" held at the Leo S. Bing Theatre on Wednesday, April 15, 2015, in Los Angeles. On her Instagram account, McGowan announced her suspension late Wednesday, warning that "there are powerful forces at work." The New York Times earlier reported that McGowan was among the numerous women sexually harassed by Weinstein, who paid McGowan a financial settlement in 1997. McGowan also recently called Ben Affleck "a liar" on Twitter and suggested the actor knew about Weinstein's conduct. Representatives for Affleck haven't responded to messages regarding that allegation.

– Rose McGowan is stating more frankly what she has long suggested. The actress, whose temporary suspension from Twitter was lifted Thursday afternoon, said in a tweet upon her return to the social media service, "HW raped me," apparently referring to Harvey Weinstein, the AP reports. Weinstein representative Sallie Hofmeister has said Weinstein "unequivocally denies" ''any allegations of non-consensual contact." In a series of tweets Thursday, McGowan addressed Amazon chief Jeff Bezos and said that she repeatedly told an Amazon Studios executive that "HW raped me." McGowan says the executive told her it wasn't proven and she said "I am the proof." McGowan last year said that she had been raped by a "studio head." The New York Times' Weinstein exposé reported that Weinstein paid a financial settlement to McGowan in 1997. Meanwhile, the eastern branch of the Writers Guild of America says it will take steps to make it easier for women to report sexual harassment and assault. In a statement Thursday, guild President Beau Willimon and Executive Director Lowell Peterson condemned Harvey Weinstein's "deplorable" behavior and said that "sexual harassment and assault have long been hallmarks of the entertainment industry." The guild said it will review what it can do to facilitate prevention of harassment going forward. The statement acknowledged that accusers often speak out at and face great professional and emotional risk. Cannes film festival officials also condemned Weinstein's alleged actions Thursday, and Hachette Book Group, one of the country's top publishers, says that it has "terminated" its deal with Weinstein Books. (Twitter has revealed why McGowan's account was suspended.)

A man who died after falling into a woodchipper on Sunday had been helping a family friend by clearing small trees in her front yard, police said Emergency services were called to Tinana Road in Goomboorian, near Gympie, about 7.40pm on Sunday after a man had become caught in a woodchipper. (9NEWS) () The man died at the property near Gympie. Photo: Nine News Queensland - Twitter Gympie Patrol Group Acting Inspector Paul Algie said the victim, 54, and two friends had spent the past three weekends at the rural property "doing a favour" for the resident. Police were yet to determine how the man fell into the wood chipper, but Acting Inspector Algie said he was killed "within a few seconds". Queensland Workplace Health and Safety is investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident, as police examine the machinery. While the man is yet to be officially identified, next of kin have been informed and a report will be prepared for the coroner.

– A man trying to do a favor for a family friend ended up dead in a tragic accident in Australia Sunday night that local authorities are calling one of the worst scenes they've come across. Emergency services were called to a rural property in Queensland, where they found the 54-year-old with fatal injuries after having fallen into a wood chipper, 9 News reports. He and three others were clearing trees on the property when he was somehow pulled into the machine. Authorities are investigating exactly how the accident occurred. "They are all friends and they were doing a favor for the lady [who] owns the property, sadly," says one inspector. Another inspector says the men had been out there working for the past three weekends, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. "He was placing a tree into a tree shredder; [he became] entangled within the machine," one inspector tells the Gympie Times. His friends, who were said to be "traumatized" by the accident, per the Herald, frantically tried in vain to pull him out, but he was dead "within a few seconds." (A teen died in a wood chipper on his first day at work.)

Uploaded by 65Seasons on Song: Ice Cream Singer: Barbara Cook Composer: Jerry Brock Album: She Loves Me - Original Broadway Cast 1963 She Loves Me is a musical and movie with a book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock. The plot revolves around Budapest shop employees Georg Nowack and Amalia Balash who, despite being consistently at odds with each other at work, are unaware that each is the other's secret pen pal met through lonely-hearts ads.

– Barbara Cook, whose shimmering soprano made her one of Broadway's leading ingenues and later a major cabaret and concert interpreter of popular American song, has died, the AP reports. She was 89. Cook died early Tuesday of respiratory failure at her home in Manhattan, surrounded by family and friends, according to her publicist. Her last meal was vanilla ice cream, a nod to one of her most famous roles in She Loves Me. On Broadway, Cook was best known for three roles: her portrayal of the saucy Cunegonde in Leonard Bernstein's Candide (1956); librarian Marian, opposite Robert Preston in The Music Man (1957); and Amalia Balash, the letter-writing heroine of She Loves Me (1963). Yet when Cook's ingenue days were over, she found a second, longer career in clubs and concert halls, working for more than 30 years with Wally Harper, a pianist and music arranger. Born in Atlanta in 1927, Cook hated vocal exercises and never had a vocal coach. "I don't remember when I didn't sing. I just always sang," she said in 2011. "I think I breathed and I sang." Cook made her Broadway debut in 1951's Flahooley, a short-lived musical fantasy that became a cult classic, then turned to solo shows after her Broadway career withered in the late 1960s as she battled alcoholism and weight gain. She gave up drinking in the 1970s and, with the help of Harper, reinvented herself as a solo artist, working in small NYC clubs and finally Carnegie Hall. When asked what her advice usually was to aspiring singers, she once told the AP it boiled down to three words: "You are enough. You are always enough. You don't ever have to pretend to be anything other than what you are." Her marriage to acting teacher David LeGrant ended in divorce. Cook is survived by son Adam LeGrant.

His minority would likely consist of 200-odd votes, which would give him a strong hand in negotiations with President Hillary Clinton and Pelosi. With a smaller majority, Ryan will have little margin for error in a floor vote over his nomination for speaker. Being in charge of a smaller majority would force Ryan to completely own any deals he cuts with a Clinton White House. For Democrats, winning back the House won't be easy.

– With scandal swirling around Donald Trump, do the Democrats have a chance at retaking control of the House of Representatives? An analysis at the Cook Political Report finds that it's still quite a long shot to think that Democrats could manage the 30-seat gain they'd need. David Wasserman lays out a multitude of reasons why this is, but the numbers speak for themselves: There are only 37 competitive House races, and six of those are seats already held by Democrats. Of the rest, 18 are "toss up" states and 13 are "lean Republican" states. Even assuming the GOP maintains its majority in the House, questions are also swirling about what will become of Paul Ryan—like, for example, if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, will he even want to run for what could be a "miserable" term as speaker? More reading on both subjects: CNBC concurs that winning back control of the House wouldn't be easy for Democrats, but argues that the hope of doing so "isn't so far-fetched." Politico lays out the plausible scenarios for Ryan's future. One of them: If he does run for speaker again, he could have a hard time getting enough votes. There's also the chance, albeit slim, he could quit Congress entirely. The Washington Post, however, talks to an assortment of insiders for a story suggesting that Ryan and a hypothetical President Clinton could find a way to work together. Ryan himself spoke Friday in Madison, Wis., against that hypothetical president, the Wisconsin State Journal reports. He did not mention Trump by name once, but decried Democrats' "hubris" and focused on Republicans maintaining control of the Senate. Speaking of the Senate, Bloomberg notes that though it's an easier shot than the House (a net gain of four seats is needed), it will still be challenging for Democrats to retake that chamber. (This man could be president with just six electoral votes.)

– Former Baltimore Colt John Mackey, one of football's great tight ends and one of the fiercest advocates for the rights of NFL players, has died from dementia at the age of 69. Mackey, who revolutionized his position during his playing days, won better pensions and benefits for players as head of the NFL Players Association in the early '70s. "All of the benefits of today's players come from the foundation laid by John Mackey," Baltimore Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome tells the Baltimore Sun. "He took risks. He stepped out. He was willing to be different." After Mackey became ill and the cost of his care exceeded his pension, the league initially resisted paying disability income, claiming there was no link between football and brain injuries, reports the Los Angeles Times. The former No. 88's struggles led to the creation of the "88 Plan" to aid former players suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's. Even in death, Mackey will be helping sportsmen: He is among scores of retired players who pledged to donate their brains to a Boston University program studying sports brain injuries.

Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun was arrested Tuesday at her home in Darien, Conn. She was to appear later in the day in federal court in Manhattan to face charges of wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property. According to a criminal complaint, the missing jewelry included numerous diamond bracelets in 18-carat gold, diamond drop and hoop earrings in platinum or 18-carat gold, diamond rings in platinum, rings with precious stones in 18-carat gold, and platinum and diamond pendants.

– It's not the kind of jewelry heist screenwriters dream about, but this alleged plot seems to have gotten the job done: A former executive at Tiffany's is accused of taking 165 pieces of jewelry, pretty much one piece at a time, and then reselling them to an international dealer for about $1.3 million, reports AP. Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun had access to the loot as part of her job as VP in charge of product development. An investigation found that she checked out from storage everything from diamond bracelets to precious stones to gold earrings, items that somehow never found their way back to the company. Her excuses about things getting lost or damaged didn't stand up to scrutiny, especially when authorities found 75 hefty checks written by the unidentified dealer to her or her husband. (The New York Post says the dealer is a company in Midtown Manhattan.) The 46-year-old suspect, who lost her job at Tiffany's during downsizing in February, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

In a recent video, Sarah Palin used the phrase "blood libel" to discuss the media's reaction to the Gabrielle Giffords shooting: "[E]specially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn.

– Sarah's Palin's "blood libel" is the phrase of the day, even setting off an online debate at Politico about her loaded word choice on victimhood. Palin didn't invent the phrase: As AOL News explains, it goes back to the Middle Ages, usually in reference to the myth that Jews used the blood of Christian children in rituals. It first got used in context with Arizona in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Monday, in which Glenn Reynolds blasted the criticism of Palin and others, asking, "Where is the decency in blood libel?" Much of the debate centers on whether Palin intentionally used it to be provocative, perhaps a testament to how her every utterance can drive a media conversation: Jonah Goldberg, National Review: "I agree entirely with Glenn’s, and now Palin’s, larger point. But I’m not sure either of them intended to redefine the phrase, or that they should have." Ben Smith, Politico (via tweet): "A quick 'blood libel' thought. Palin's aides, including @thegoldfarb, get the context—so this is a pot being stirred, not an accident." Ernest Istook, Heritage Foundation: "It is but one term within Sarah Palin's thoughtful discourse about the Arizona shootings and our ability to discuss our differences vigorously but without violence. Anyone who listens to her entire comment should appreciate that."

That year, 19% of adults reported not reading any books.

– Jimmy Kimmel is taking issue with a recent study claiming 24% of Americans haven't read a book in the past year. He thinks the figure should be higher and, on his show Thursday, offered some corroboration in interviews with people on the street. Asked to name any book—the Bible would've been acceptable—plenty of people, even a former librarian, drew blanks. One man claimed to have read a book titled Horse by a guy named Moby Dick. Another answered, The Lion King. Asked one woman, "Do magazines count?" In their defense, "it is a weirdly broad question," Mashable notes. The segment ends with a clip from a 1990s NBA commercial. "When you know how to read, adventures come to you," says Shaquille O'Neal. "That's right. Thank you, Shaq," Kimmel concludes.