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The Marine Corps has served a role in every conflict in the history of the United States.

That's because the Marines operate on sea, air, and land — unlike the other sister-service branches.

Since the Marines are amphibious, they can respond to a crisis in under 24 hours with the full force of a modern military.

That's because the Marines operate on sea, air, and land — unlike the other service branches — and can respond to a crisis in less than 24 hours with the full force of a modern military.

Today there are more than 220,000 active-duty and reserve Marines.

To celebrate the Corps, we've pulled some of the best photos of America's most adaptive fighting force.

There is nothing quite like America's amphibious Marine Corps

Cpl. Justin Dudley from Oxnard, California, with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 262 (Reinforced), 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, keeps watch while flying in a UH-1Y Venom during Amphibious Landing Exercise 15 at Crow Valley, Sept. 30, 2014.

(US Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Robert Williams Jr./Released)

Cpl. Daniel Hopping, assaultman, Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, and a native of Rogers, Arkansas, shields himself from dust being kicked up from a CH-53E Super Sea Stallion lifting off during a mission in Helmand province, Afghanistan, April 28, 2014.

(Photo via US Marine Corps)

Marines with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit jump off the side of the USS Essex during a swim call.

(Photo via US Marine Corps)

A US Marine assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 461, sits on top of a CH-53E Super Stallion aircraft at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, Dec. 15, 2015.

(Photo via US Marine Corps)

Marines with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit Maritime Raid Force depart the USS Essex (LHD 2) on a combat rubber raiding craft during Amphibious Squadron Three/Marine Expeditionary Unit Integration Training (PMINT) off the coast of San Diego March 4, 2015.

(Photo via US Marine Corps)

Gunnery Sgt. Eddie Myers, parachute safety officer assigned to Detachment 4th Force Reconnaissance Company, parachutes from a UH-1Y Venom helicopter during airborne insertion training at the flight line aboard Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay June 10, 2015.

(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Aaron S. Patterson/Released)

Marines assigned to 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit enter the well deck of the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard on a Combat Raiding Rubber Craft.

(Photo via US Marine Corps)

Marines assigned to Force Reconnaissance Platoon, Maritime Raid Force, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), conduct a high altitude low opening (HALO) jump during category 3 sustainment training in Louisburg, N.C., June 2, 2015.

(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Andre Dakis/Released)

Marines shoulder-carry a boat to water during an amphibious operations familiarization drill as part of Exercise Cobra Gold 2014 at Hat Yao beach, Rayong, Kingdom of Thailand, Feb. 12, 2014.

(Photo via US Marine Corps)

Marines aboard an amphibious assault vehicle exit the well deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5).

(Photo via US Marine Corps)

Marines observe explosives detonate from a safe distance on a demolitions range at Crow Valley, the Philippines, during Amphibious Landing Exercise 15, Oct. 8.

Marines and sailors with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit's Maritime Raid Force ride in rigid-hull inflatable boats during maritime interoperability training off the coast of Camp Pendleton, California, Jan. 12, 2015.

(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Jamean Berry/Released)

A Marine engages targets from a UH-1Y Venom with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 161, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, during Composite Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX) above San Clemente Island, California, March 20, 2015.

(Photo via US Marine Corps)

Marines and sailors in the Basic Reconnaissance Course practice their helocasting skills at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado and in San Diego Bay on Nov. 6, 2013.

Force Reconnaissance Marines with the Maritime Raid Force, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit perform a diving exit while conducting an initial High Altitude Low Opening jump out of an MV-22B Osprey at Marine Corps Auxiliary Landing Field Bogue Field, N.C., Aug. 11, 2014.

(US Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Todd F. Michalek/ Released)

US Marines with Alpha Battery, 1st Battalion, 12th Marines fire the M777-A2 Howitzer down range during Integrated Training Exercise 2-15 at Blacktop Training Area aboard Camp Wilson, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., Jan. 31st, 2015.

(Photo via US Marine Corps)

US Marines with Combat Logistics Detachment 1, Combat Logistics Battalion 13, 1st Marine Logistics Group, practice "combat gliding" during Integrated Training Exercise 2-15 at Camp Wilson on Twentynine Palms, California, Jan. 31, 2015.

(US Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Kathryn Howard/Released)

An MH-60S Seahawk, assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25, lowers a rescue swimmer into the water as part of a simulated combat search and rescue water extraction at Agat Bay, Guam, during Exercise Forager Fury II (FF II), Dec. 11, 2013.

(Photo via US Marine Corps)

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Summary: The Marines operate on sea, air and land -- giving them a huge role in any sort of conflict the United States is involved in.


SCIENTISTS have found important new clues to the brain chemistry and anatomy of one of the most serious, puzzling and difficult forms of mental illness, obsessive-compulsive disorder.

One group at University of California in Los Angeles and two at the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md., have found that specific small portions of the patients' brains burn energy at excessive rates.

While the brain structures were long suspected of being involved in the disorder, the new studies appear to be the first to show clear evidence of abnormal activity there.

The three groups, working independently, made similar findings; the scientists consider this evidence that what they have found is real and important and may contribute to better understanding of the disease.

The disorder and its link to specific portions of the brain were spotlighted recently in a bizarre case in which an obsessive-compulsive patient shot himself in the head with a .22 rifle in a suicide attempt. He survived the shot, but damaged his brain in a way that may have eliminated his obsessive symptoms and evidently left him otherwise intact.

Some scientists question whether the wound really produced a cure, noting that the incident itself must have had profound psychological effects and that those, together with the treatment he received after the accident, may have been important factors.

The new research involved studies of patients' brain function by positron emission tomography or PET scans, a technique that allows study of the human brain while it is in action: awake, thinking and responding to the outside world.

The regions that are the main focus of the new studies are the basal ganglia deep in the brain, particularly the caudate nuclei, twin structures on each side of the brain, as well as the twin portions of the frontal cortex called the orbital gyri. These structures are believed to play roles in control of movements and also in some aspects of learned behavior and the brain's strategy for coping with repeated stimuli.

Reports on some of the research have been published recently in scientific journals, while other data have not yet been published.

Patients who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder are obsessed with certain perceived threats and are compulsive in dealing with them. Such patients may wash their hands almost continuously or check time after time to be sure that a door is locked or a stove is turned off.

They seem unable to accept the evidence of their own senses that the problem has been dealt with. For example, a patient may have an irrational fear of turning aggressive and stabbing a companion with a knife and therefore may become disturbed whenever a knife is within reach.

Some of the acts, like hand washing, are essentially trivial, but the patients perform them so persistently and compulsively that the habits become disabling. The hands of such a patient may become raw and bleed, and so much time may be devoted to the washing that ordinary activities are disrupted. Patients who suffer from the disorder may become suicidal.

Aspects of these behaviors may occur in patients with other problems and even in people who have no mental disorder at all, but the full-blown cases are considered a separate and distinct mental disorder. Studies have indicated that 1 percent or more of Americans may suffer from the mental disorder at some time in their lives.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder used to be viewed as a consequence of psychologically damaging experiences and unresolved conflicts of early childhood. But in recent years, experts have increasingly shifted to explanations that depend more on derangements of brain function and brain chemistry. The search for answers has concentrated on the same brain regions that have emerged as important in the new studies.

In the past, doctors have sometimes seen symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder improve when the key brain regions were partly destroyed or disconnected by surgery or damaged by accident or disease, but these studies offered few clues to the abnormalities in brain function that brought on the characteristic behavior. Metabolic Excess

Now the three groups of scientists have each found metabolic excess in the brain chemistry of obsessive-compulsive patients. The PET scan studies showed that parts of the brains of patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder metabolize glucose at a substantially faster rate than the same brain regions of people who have different kinds of mental illness or no illness.

Glucose, a sugar, is the brain's source of energy, and the PET scans indicated increased energy use. Just how the effect figures in the symptoms of the mental disorder is still in question, but the findings give doctors a new way of thinking about the problem and suggest additional research that might cast more light on the disorder.

The team at U.C.L.A., led Dr. Lewis R. Baxter Jr., Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Dr. John C. Mazziotta, Dr. Michael E. Phelps and Dr. Barry H. Guze, have already found that patients who were responding well to a drug treatment for the disorder show PET scan results different from those of other obsessive-compulsive patients who were not benefiting from treatment.

Summary: LEAD: SCIENTISTS have found important new clues to the brain chemistry and anatomy of one of the most serious, puzzling and difficult forms of mental illness, obsessive-compulsive disorder.


Is Kanye waving the white flag?

Just a few hours after Taylor Swift dissed him in a Grammy acceptance speech, Kanye West appeared to want to move past the bizarre feud that has pit the reigning darling of music against rap’s resident egotist.

“All positive energy,” West tweeted early Tuesday after Swift blasted him as she collected the Grammy Monday night for Album of the Year.

The Zen comment may have been the punctuation mark on an earlier West Twitter rant in which he declared himself millions of dollars in debt and called for donations so he could “serve more” people with his art.

But the timing of the “peace out”-style tweet suggested he was referring back to Swift, who is apparently still smarting from a lyric on West’s new album, “The Life of Pablo” in which West boasts that he and Swift “might still have sex” because he made her “famous.”

That claim dates back to 2009, when West commandeered the stage at MTV’s VMAs as Swift was collecting a trophy for best female video. West believes his move put Swift’s career on the fast track.

HERE IS A FULL LIST OF GRAMMY WINNERS

"I want to say to all the young woman out there: There will be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments, your fame, but if you just focus on the work and you don't let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get to where you're going, you'll look around and you will know it was you,” Swift said in her pointed Grammy speech. “And that will be the greatest feeling in the world.”

I did not diss Taylor Swift and I’ve never dissed her…

Last week, West had claimed in a lengthy Twitter rant that he “did not diss Taylor Swift and I’ve never dissed her.”

Summary: Is Kanye waving the white flag?


At seven o’clock in the evening of 27 September 1994, the cruise ferry MS Estonia left Tallin with 989 people on board, heading for Stockholm through the Baltic Sea. It never got there. Six hours into the journey, pushing through a force nine gale, the bow door broke open and the ferry started taking on water. Within an hour it had sunk, taking with it 852 of its passengers and crew.

Even given the speed of tragedy, the stormy sea and the length of time it took rescuers to arrive (a full-scale emergency was only declared half an hour after the sinking), survival experts were astonished at the high death toll. It appears that many people drowned because they did nothing to save themselves. “A number of people… seem to have been incapable of rational thought or behaviour because of their fear,” concluded the official report into the accident. “Others appeared petrified and could not be forced to move. Some panicking, apathetic and shocked people were beyond reach and did not react when other passengers tried to guide them, not even when they used force or shouted at them.”

What happened? One person who knows the answer is John Leach, a military survival instructor who researches behaviour in extreme environments at the University of Portsmouth. He has studied the actions of survivors and victims from dozens of disasters around the world over several decades (and as it happens he was present at one of them, the fire at King’s Cross underground station on 18 November 1987 which killed 31 people). He has found that in life-threatening situations, around 75% of people are so bewildered by the situation that they are unable to think clearly or plot their escape. They become mentally paralysed. Just 15% of people on average manage to remain calm and rational enough to make decisions that could save their lives. (The remaining 10% are plain dangerous: they freak out and hinder the survival chances of everyone else.)

My role as a psychologist is to teach people not to die

Stories about survival often focus on the 15%, and what is so special about them that helps them stay alive. But Leach thinks this is the wrong question. Instead, we should be asking, why do so many people die when they need not, when they have the physical means to save themselves? Why do so many give up, or fail to adjust to the unfolding crisis? In most disaster scenarios, he says, you don’t need special skills to survive. You just need to know what you should do. “My role as a combat survival instructor is to teach people how to survive. My role as a psychologist is to teach people not to die.”

We haven’t always had a clear picture of what people really do in emergencies. Engineers designing evacuation procedures used to assume that people respond immediately when they hear an alarm, smell smoke or feel their building shake or their boat begins to list.

Yet as cases in recent decades began to show, the real challenge is getting them to move quickly enough. On 22 August 1985, 55 people died in a Boeing 737 on the runway at Manchester Airport in the UK after the plane, which was bound for Corfu, suffered engine failure during take-off. The government’s Air Accident Investigations Branch reported: “Perhaps the most striking feature of this accident was the fact that although the aircraft never became airborne and was brought to a halt in a position which allowed an extremely rapid fire-service attack on the external fire, it resulted in 55 deaths. The major question is why the passengers did not get off the aircraft sufficiently quickly.”

Rather than madness, or an animalistic stampede for the exits, it is often people’s disinclination to panic that puts them at higher risk.

One of the most graphic examples of crowd passivity in recent times occurred in New York’s Twin Towers after the hijacked planes hit them on 9/11. You’d have thought those who survived the initial impact would have headed for the nearest exit pretty quickly. Most did the opposite: they prevaricated. Those who eventually got out waited six minutes on average before moving to the stairs, and some hung around for half an hour, according to a study by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Unprepared for what was happening to them, they either carried on as normal or hung around to see what would happen, waiting for others to move first. One study found that half of those who survived delayed before trying to escape, making phone calls, tidying things into drawers, locking their office door, going to the toilet, completing emails, shutting down their computer, changing their shoes. One woman accustomed to bicycling to work even returned to her office to change into her tracksuit before trying to leave.

The prevailing psychological explanation for these kinds of behaviours – passivity, mental paralysis or simply carrying on as normal in the face of a crisis – is that they are caused by a failure to adapt to a sudden change in the environment. Survival involves goal-directed behaviour: you feel hungry, you look for food; you feel isolated, you seek companionship. Normally, this is straightforward (we know how to find food or companions). But in a new, unfamiliar environment, particularly a stressful one such as a sinking ship or a burning aircraft, establishing survival goals – where the exit is and how to get to it – requires a lot more conscious effort.

“In emergencies, quite often events are happening faster than you can process them,” explains Leach. The situation outruns our capacity to think our way out of it. Jerome Chertkoff, a social psychologist at Indiana University, puts it another way: “Being in a situation where your life is in danger increases your emotional arousal, and high arousal causes people to limit the number of alternatives they consider. That can be bad when trying to determine a course of action, since you may never consider the option most likely to result in escaping safely.”

This explains why in emergencies people often fail to do things that under normal circumstances would seem obvious. So the only reliable way to shortcut this kind of impaired thinking, most survival experts agree, is by preparing for an emergency in advance. “Practice makes actions automatic, without [the need for] detailed thinking,” says Chertkoff. This means making a mental note of the fire exits when you go to the cinema (and imagining yourself using them), reading the evacuation guidance on the back of the door when you stay in a hotel, and always listening to aircraft safety briefings however frequent a flyer you are. “Every time I go on a boat the first thing I do is find out where my lifeboat station is, because then if there is a problem I just have to respond, I don’t have to start thinking about it,” says Leach. Typically, survivors survive not because they are braver or more heroic than anyone else, but because they are better prepared.

What about how you deal with other people? No matter how well-primed you are, one aspect of emergency situations will always be out of our control: how those around us behave. Here, too, the scientific understanding is at odds with common wisdom or what we are likely to read in the media.

Commentators often highlight the supposed stupidity or madness of crowds during disasters – a stampede of pilgrims, the crush of a football crowd, the blind scramble for the exits in a burning nightclub. In reality, this is rarely what happens. Research shows that in most scenarios, groups of people are more likely to help each other than hinder. “In emergencies, the norm is cooperation,” says Chris Cocking, who studies crowd behaviour at the University of Brighton. “Selfish behaviour is very mild and tends to be policed by the crowd rather than spreading.”

Take the suicide bombings on London’s transport system on 7 July 2005, which killed 52 and injured more than 700. For several hours, hundreds of passengers were trapped in smoky underground tunnels with no way of knowing if they would be rescued, nor if further explosions were imminent. Amid this chaos, most people were highly cooperative and helpful, according to survivors interviewed by Cocking, John Drury at the University of Sussex and Steve Reicher at the University of St Andrews. Psychologists call this response “collective resilience”: an attitude of mutual helping and unity in the middle of danger.

Drury, Cocking and Reicher have documented many examples of collective resilience. In 2008, they talked to survivors of 11 mass tragedies or incidents from the previous four decades, including the 2001 Ghana football stadium crush in which 126 people died while trying to escape through locked exits, and the sinking of the cruise ship Oceanos off South Africa in 1991 (when remarkably all 500-odd passengers survived). In each case, group solidarity was more prevalent than selfishness. Cocking thinks that people’s tendency to cooperate during emergencies increases the chances of survival for everyone. “Individually, the best thing tactically is to go along with the group interest. In situations where everyone acts individually, which are very rare, that actually decreases effective group evacuation.”

Still, some emergencies can be so disorientating that cooperation may be beyond some people. For a dramatic example of how differently people behave when their life is on the line, consider the story of the British-Irish Atlantic Odyssey rowing team who in January 2012 attempted to cross the ocean east to west in a record-breaking 30 days. After 28 days, a freak wave capsized their boat while they were still 500 miles (800 kilometres) from their destination in Barbados. According to Mark Beaumont, an adventurer and broadcaster who was part of the six-strong crew, they would all have drowned had several of them not dived repeatedly under the upturned hull to free the life raft and retrieve the emergency beacon, GPS tracker, satellite phone, fresh water and food.

But not all of the crew reacted so rationally. “A couple of the guys went into pretty deep shock,” he recalls. “One of them could barely get a word out. He just shut his eyes and shut down.” Later, this colleague, who was a strong rower, explained to Beaumont that he had become overwhelmed by the situation. “I was completely out of my league,” he told him. “I thought the best thing to do was take up as little room as possible in the life-raft, shut my eyes and wait for it to pass, whether that was to die or be rescued.”

The chances are you will never find yourself in a disaster situation. But it’s a good idea to imagine that you will: to be aware that there are threats out there, and that you can prepare for them, without sliding into paranoia. “All you have to do is ask yourself one simple question,” says Leach. “If something happens, what is my first response? Once you can answer that, everything else will fall into place. It’s that simple.”

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Summary: In a catastrophic event, most people fail to do the one thing that would save their life, says Michael Bond.


This story has been updated to reflect comment from Yahoo.

Yahoo yhoo employees should brace for even more layoffs.

The company is reportedly planning to cut as much as 10% of its 10,000-strong headcount, beginning as soon as this month, sources told Business Insider. The cuts—following Yahoo’s hiring of the consulting firm McKinsey and Co. to determine which units to axe—are part of a widespread reorganization designed to turn the fortunes of the struggling Internet media business.

Sources told BI the cuts will be companywide, but the media and platforms-technology groups and European operations are expected to be particularly targeted. In the past year, Yahoo has already reduced its headcount by 14%, down from 12,500 employees in 2014.

The cuts are expected as Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer faces increasing shareholder criticism over her handling of the company’s turnaround. Yahoo shares have fallen 35% over the last year. In December, Yahoo announced its plans to spin off its core Internet business to quell shareholder concern.

On Wednesday, activist investor Starboard Value sent a letter to the company threatening a proxy fight unless Yahoo replaces Mayer and a number of directors. The shareholder has been at the forefront of the push for Yahoo to spin off its main Internet business—but it’s not alone. Other Yahoo investors have been calling for the company to sell off its core business as soon as possible and slash its workforce by three-quarters, among other dramatic changes.

A Yahoo spokesperson told Fortune, “It’s not our policy to comment on rumors.”

Summary: As shareholders grow increasingly impatient.


Copa America Centenario kicks off Friday night in Santa Clara when the host United States takes on Colombia. The soccer tournament features 10 nations from CONMEBOL (South America) and six from CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean). In theory, it should crown the champion of the Americas. Like the FIFA World Cup, Copa America features groups of four for the round-robin stage. If you cannot catch every match during group play in the next week and a half, these are the seven to watch:

United States vs. Colombia (June 3, 9:30 p.m. ET, Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara)

American fans would like the U.S. to start with a cupcake match. That is not the case. The U.S. is in the group of death. The Yanks get Colombia, the highest-ranked nation in Group A and the second-highest ranked team in the tournament. Colombia is No. 3 in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking and Argentina is No. 1. The U.S. is No. 31. Colombia is bringing its stars, with 2014 World Cup sensation James Rodriguez, 64-time capped goalkeeper David Ospina and Juventus midfielder Juan Guillermo Cuadrado. The U.S. will need a energetic crowd at Levi's Stadium to hang with the favored Colombians.

Brazil vs. Ecuador (June 4, 10 p.m. ET, Rose Bowl, Pasadena)

Brazil's most legitimate challenger comes on Day 2 of the tournament. Ecuador, a nation that did not make its first World Cup until 2002, peaked at No. 11 in the world in 2013. Ecuador is now No. 13, just six spots behind Brazil. Ecuador has only beaten Brazil twice in 29 tries, the latest victory coming in 2004 during World Cup qualifying. Brazil is in a transitional phase right now, with manager Dunga leaving veterans David Luiz, Marcelo and Thiago Silva off the roster, favoring a younger core. On top of that, the nation's best player, Neymar, opted to play in the Olympics later this summer in Brazil, rather than put his body in harm's way in Copa America. (Olympic soccer teams are only allowed three players outside of U-23.) The stars could align for a massive Ecuadorian upset.

Mexico vs. Uruguay (June 5, 8 p.m. ET, University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona)

This is another heavyweight bout on opening weekend as either of these squads can win the whole thing. Uruguay brings stalwart strikers Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani, while Mexico's veteran roster features Javier Hernandez, Andres Guardado, Guillermo Ochoa and 37-year-old defender Rafael Marquez. Uruguay is ninth in the world rankings and Mexico is 16th. Both made the Round of 16 at the 2014 World Cup.

Argentina vs. Chile (June 6, 10 p.m. ET, Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara)

This is the highest-ranked matchup of the group stage with No. 1 Argentina and No. 5 Chile. Argentina is bringing the big boys, with Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain, Angel Di Maria, Javier Mascherano and Sergio Romero. Ezequiel Lavezzi and Javier Pastore both suffered injuries in training and are likely out for this game, but Argentina has more than enough star power to make up for their absence. Meanwhile, Alexis Sanchez, Arturo Vidal, Claudio Bravo and Chile are still riding on their high of forcing Brazil to penalty kicks during the Round of 16 at the 2014 World Cup. Chile is evolving into a world power and can prove it by knocking off its neighbors to the East.

United States vs. Costa Rica (June 7, 8 p.m., Soldier Field, Chicago)

Life does not get much easier for the U.S. in the team's second match. Costa Rica came out of nowhere in the 2014 World Cup, winning a group with three former World Cup champions: Uruguay, Italy and England. La Sele then beat Greece in penalty kicks and lost in penalty kicks to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals. Costa Rica peaked at No. 13 in the world rankings last year, and the squad is currently at No. 23. The United States has lost two straight matches to Costa Rica, and this could be a scary match to watch for American fans if the U.S. does not at least draw Colombia.

Mexico vs. Jamaica (June 9, 10 p.m. ET, Rose Bowl, Pasadena)

Jamaica, which has only played in one World Cup (1998), catapulted itself to legitimacy with a 2-1 upset of the United States in the Gold Cup semifinals last summer in Atlanta. This will be a rematch of the Gold Cup final, a 3-1 Mexico victory. Leicester City captain Wes Morgan will look to bring some of that Premier League champion magic back across the Atlantic Ocean. Mexico has only lost to Jamaica once in its past 12 meetings, and the Los Angeles setting will make this seem like a home game for El Tri, but the Jamaicans will play like they have nothing to lose, mon.

United States vs. Paraguay (June 11, 7 p.m. ET, Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia)

Assuming the United States has something to play for in its last match of the group stage, it should feed off a raucous Philadelphia crowd. This is the one match the U.S. should be comfortably favored in, but Paraguay is a seasoned squad that reached the World Cup quarterfinals just six years ago. Defender and captain Paulo da Silva and goalkeeper Justo Villar each have more than 100 caps, although most of the roster features raw, youthful talent. If the youngsters mesh stronger than Paraguay's No. 44 ranking suggests, the Americans could be in for a early exit in the City of Brotherly Love.

Soccer fan Stephen Curry says he is eager to watch the tournament, even as the Warriors will be competing in the NBA Finals:

More Soccer: -- Don Garber And The Growing Global Power Of MLS -- Christen Press Talks Olympics, Equal Pay And Deep-Dish Pizza -- U.S. Men's And Women's Soccer Teams Fight, Everyone Loses

Follow Jeffrey Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband.

Argentina, Arturo Vidal, Brazil, Chile, Clint Dempsey, Colombia, Copa America, Copa America Centanario, Costa Rica, Ecuador, jamaica, james Rodriguez, Javier Hernandez, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Mexico, Michael Bradley, MLS, Neymar, Paraguay, Soccer, United States, Uruguay, USMNT

Summary: These are the group stage matches to watch in Copa America.


If the thought of the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list fills your head with visions of hardened prisoners with long rap sheets, you’re not alone. Since March 14, 1950, the list has led to the capture of 156 criminals—and captured the American imagination along with it. But the story of how law enforcement started its iconic list involves more than mere post offices and police stations. It’s a romp across American history that involves the printing press, the Wild West, Prohibition and the evolution of the news as we know it.

In a time before walkie-talkies, cell phones and high-tech surveillance, nabbing criminals relied on good old-fashioned detective work. But detectives have always needed citizens to feed them relevant information and help them track down suspects.

Long before America was even a country, precursors of “wanted” posters, made possible by printing technology, were used to help track down scofflaws and apprehend criminals. Runaway slaves, not exactly the kind of criminal we’d think of today, were among the first to be targeted by the new mass media. In 1769, a young man named Thomas Jefferson—yes, that Thomas Jefferson—took to The Virginia Gazette to offer 40 shillings for the safe return of Sandy, a slave he described as “inclining to corpulence, and his complexion light.” His use of the newspaper was typical of slave-owners who shared details about runaways’ names, appearances and potential whereabouts in an attempt to reclaim their property.

As printing and photography evolved, so did wanted posters. Frontier sheriffs and governors created compelling posters advertising bounties and spreading the word about outlaws like Jesse James and Butch Cassidy. (According to one such poster, Jesse James was worth a cool $5,000 if arrested and another $5,000 if convicted—the equivalent of over $113,000 in today’s dollars.)

By 1919, the FBI started issuing its own wanted posters for military deserters and gangsters. That same year, a civic watchdog group called the Chicago Crime Commission formed in response to a surge of organized crime in the Windy City. In April 1930, the Commission released a list of “public enemies” headed up by Al Capone. Intrigued by Chicago’s most notorious Prohibition-era criminals, reporters took note and the list took off. The popularity of lists was just as true back then as it is today.

This got the attention of Bureau of Investigation and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. TIME noted in 1939 that the FBI “usually considers it undesirable to dignify Public Enemies by listing them,” but that the agency sometimes did so anyway. (At the time of that article, bank robber Irving Charles Chapman was at the top of the FBI’s unofficial list.) Unsurprisingly then, when Hoover was approached by a reporter for the International News Service (now United Press International) and asked about the “ten toughest guys” he wanted to capture in 1949, Hoover seized the opportunity to spread the word about America’s most dangerous criminals. The article that resulted was so popular that he decided to make it a regular program, and on March 14, 1950, the FBI issued its first official “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list.

Number one on the list was Thomas James Holden, a bank robber whose rap sheet included charges of robbing a mail train, escaping prison and murdering his wife. Less than a year later, Holden was apprehended after being recognized by an acquaintance in Oregon who had seen the top-ten list in a local newspaper. And nabbing fugitive number one was just the first of the list’s many successes. Boosted by media, beloved by sharp-eyed citizens and helped along by a healthy reward program, the list still endures 65 years later.

FBI agents don’t always get their man; they’re still hunting, for example, for Victor Manuel Garena, a bank robber who has been on the list for more than 30 years. But other fugitives aren’t so lucky: In 1969, Billie Austin Bryant became one of the list’s shortest-ever occupants. He occupied a slot in the top ten for a mere two hours before he was discovered by a citizen in a Washington, D.C. attic and arrested.

Summary: The first such list was first published on March 14, 1950


The World Trade Center Transportation Hub opens Thursday after nearly 12 years of construction and a striking investment of $4 billion in public money, a sum that ballooned as the center was under development.

The hub sits catty-corner to One World Trade and looms over the September 11th memorial pools. It’s a stark white structure spikes up between the skyscrapers of downtown Manhattan, creating the heart of a subway stop that’s only New York’s 18th busiest, according to the New York Times.

The Santiago Calatrava-designed building, which the Times describes as a “winged dove, beefed up to meet security demands, devolved into a dino carcass,” was initially supposed to take five years and $2.2 billion to build. However, those two estimates were well overrun by the end.

Thursday’s unveiling is not the for the full building, which is still a work in progress. The main opening is for the Oculus, or the hulking main interior portion that is the heart of the transit hub. The connections to the PATH train connecting New York City and New Jersey will also open. Other parts, like the retail portion, are still under construction.

City and Port Authority officials initially shied away from a celebration to open the new building, but backtracked and said there will be a to-do sometime this spring, reported the Wall Street Journal.

Until then, the Oculus is open and ready for your architectural reviews and Instagram photos.

Summary: It cost $4 billion.


is officially in the clear over allegations he assaulted a female bus driver in Cleveland, Ohio last year.

-- the bus driver -- has dismissed

with prejudice, meaning she cannot file it again.

, tells TMZ, Fox did not pay Bormann a penny by way of settlement. In fact, Stark tells us he actually dropped Bormann as a client recently because she was difficult to deal with.

For his part, Fox dropped his countersuit against Bormann -- in which he had sued her for defamation, claiming Heather made up the whole story.

The dismissal comes the same week

claimed that Fox had a history of beating women, something we're told Fox vehemently denies.

Stark, ironically, tells us he believed his client -- that Fox punched her in the vagina -- and says Bormann dropped the case because Fox and his lawyers frightened her with his ability to wage legal war against her.

Summary: Matthew Fox is officially in the clear over allegations he assaulted a female bus driver in Cleveland, Ohio last year.Heather Bormann -- the bus driver --…


Employees marched into One World Trade Center on Monday, writing their own “part of history” and triumphantly marking the skyscraper’s opening.

Workers with publishing giant Conde Nast and other tenants celebrated their roles as the first employees to occupy the space where terrorists struck 13 years ago.

“I feel like I’m a part of history,” said Conde Nast employee Peter Matthew, 37, walking into his new workplace.

“You know, a lot of sad things happened here and this is a good start to get things going in the right direction. It will turn out fine. Conde Nast has a great security team.”

Matthew recalled his visits to lower Manhattan as a kid, long before 9/11.

“I thought it was kind of cool. I remember as a kid growing up in New York City and visiting the World Trade Center, as it was before,” he said. “And now I get a chance to work in the building.”

Work crews are still putting finishing touches on the 1,776-foot skyscraper, with the 102nd-floor observation deck due to open this spring.

John Duffy, director of policy and control at Conde Nast, admitted some of his colleagues were nervous about setting foot in the new WTC — but most were overjoyed to be part of this downtown revival.

“It’s just a great start. I think some people are nervous, but most people are just excited to start downtown. I used to work here in the ’80s in the original Trade Center, so it’s sort of like coming home for me,” he said.

“I’m not really concerned about it (security). The Port Authority has this place buttoned up. (I’m) just excited. Just excited to get started. We’re helping to revitalize downtown.”

Vijay Ramcharitar, a 25-year-old finance analyst on the 21st floor, said he loves his office view — even if he’s staring down any lingering security fears.

“The view from over there is great. I could understand the fear behind it, but fear is something they (terrorists) want you to live with,” Ramcharitar said.

“If you live with fear, you can’t get anything done. I don’t think you look at this building with fear, you look at it with inspiration.”

Maryanne Casey, a corporate paralegal at Conde Nast, said she couldn’t help thinking of her family on the way into work on Monday.

Her sister worked at 7 World Trade Center and her FDNY brother spent days working “on the pile” in the aftermath of 9/11.

“I think it’s spectacular,” Casey said of her new work digs. “And I think it’s a great tribute to America to see this. I’m proud to be able to work here.”

The sparkling new building is the tallest in the Western Hemisphere and cost $3.9 billion to build. It had originally been slated to open in 2006, but cost overruns and political infighting led to delays.

Other new tenants include the General Services Administration and the ad firm Kids Creative.

Additional reporting by David K. Li

Summary: Employees marched into One World Trade Center on Monday, writing their own “part of history” and triumphantly marking the skyscraper’s opening. Workers with publishing giant Conde Nast and other te…


The good news: More women are enrolling in full-time MBA programs. The bad news: The pace of change isn’t exactly breathtaking.

A new report reveals that the average enrollment of women in full-time MBA programs at 36 business schools climbed from 32% to 36% between 2011 and 2015. At 12 of the schools—including Harvard Business School, Yale School of Management, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University—women account for at least 40% of students.

The report comes from Forté Foundation, a nonprofit consortium of companies, business schools and the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), and included enrollment figures from the 36 schools that are Forté members.

Virginia Ware Myers, executive director of The National Association of Women MBAs (NAWMBA), a nonprofit women’s business association, says it’s important to recognize the progress. However, an increase of less than 1% a year is tough to celebrate too heartily, especially when you consider that women have been outpacing men in overall degree attainment in recent years. “I think we’re definitely looking at something that could be better,” Myers says.

Indeed, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), women have generally been earning more degrees than men since 2000. In 1990, the percentage of male and female 25- to 29-year-olds who had completed a bachelor’s degree or higher were not measurably different. However, in 2014, 37% of women earned bachelor’s degrees compared with 31% of men.

According to the 2015 GMAC Application Trends Survey, which tracked responses from 426 MBA programs, the proportion of women represented in the applicant pools for all programs in 2015 has grown since 2011, with the exception of the Master in Accounting program, which remained flat. The GMAC report found women made up the majority of applicants in three programs:

So, what will it take to get MBA programs to the 50-50 mark?

It’s a complex question, says Myers. Organizations like Forté help increase the numbers by providing guidance, resources, and funding to women pursuing their MBAs, she says. Other important steps: prompting employers to hire women with MBAs, getting more women into business school professor and deanships, and increasing the number of female CEOs and other top execs.

While some observers may be frustrated by the slow rise in enrollment numbers, Elissa Sangster, executive director of Forté, argues that we shouldn’t overlook the progress that’s been made.

“I think we’re going to continue to see the schools who have achieved 40% head toward 50%, and I think a line has been drawn in the sand,” she says. “Other schools are looking at how they can get to 40% as well because they want to be a part of that story. I do think it’s a positive trend.”

Subscribe to The Broadsheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the world’s most powerful women.

Summary: It's an improvement. But is it enough?


The Game is makin' it PURPLE rain in his living room ... thanks to a massive custom painting he commissioned in Prince's honor ... TMZ has learned.

Sources tell us Game hired artist Madsteez the day Prince died and asked him to create a tribute piece. The rapper -- who came thiiiis close to recording with Prince -- picked out a shot from "Purple Rain" as inspiration.

We're told Game dropped $65k on the artwork, which took Madsteez more than 100 hours to complete. The 8' x 6' portrait is a combination of oil, acrylic and spray paints -- and, as of Sunday, has been hanging proudly in Game's crib.

Summary: The Game is makin' it PURPLE rain in his living room ... thanks to a massive custom painting he commissioned in Prince's honor ... TMZ has learned.…


ITV’s shareholders are not feeling particularly optimistic. The shares are down more than 17pc so far this year, compared with a flat performance by the FTSE 100 index.

The full-year results in March were a disappointment for investors, despite a £400m special dividend and profit growth of 18pc.

The gloom was all based on concern over the outlook for the new financial year. Any incoming threats are a matter now for Norman’s successor, former Big Brother producer Sir Peter Bazalgette, as well as the rest of the advertising-funded TV industry, which includes Channel 4, UKTV and Viacom-owned Channel 5.

They have had a good run. According to data from the Advertising Association, since the financial crisis TV advertising has enjoyed an unbroken run of strong and accelerating growth.

While digital advertising has grown faster, TV budgets remain much larger and have benefited as household brands have shifted money away from declining tabloid newspapers.

Advertising grandees such as Sir Martin Sorrell have also voiced growing frustration around the overall effectiveness of online marketing for brands and levels of traffic fraud, whereby digital advertising is “viewed” by computers rather than people.

Total spending on television in 2009, in the depths of the post-financial crisis recession, sank to £3.7bn, from a high in 2005 of £4.2bn. The industry rebounded in 2010 and expanded to hit total revenues of £5.2bn in 2015, a year in which growth topped 7pc.

That expansion came despite moves last year by Britain’s big four supermarkets, top 10 spenders across the advertising industry, to cut their spending.

The trend was sparked by Tesco amid competitive pressure from Aldi and Lidl and its accounting scandal. Chief executive Dave Lewis’s fightback based on cutting prices meant margins had to be protected with cuts elsewhere, and advertising is among the simplest budget lines for any company to trim.

Once Tesco pulled back, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons also made cuts, as their advertising budgets are heavily reliant on “share of voice”, and as they seek to benchmark their spending according to that of their rivals. Yet despite the supermarkets’ cuts, 2015 was a marquee year for television advertising.

As well as ITV’s growth, it delivered record revenues and profits for UKTV, the broadcaster behind Dave and Gold, and is expected to do the same this week for Channel 4, which will publish its annual report on Tuesday. “I don’t think we’re at the top of the cycle yet,” UKTV chief executive Darren Childs said in a recent interview.

This year started brightly, too, says a senior commercial broadcasting executive, who like most in the industry is nervous of publicly talking down its prospects but testifies to a less buoyant mood. And the picture has darkened rapidly in the past three months.

“At the beginning of the year we carried on as before,” he says. “Things like the Brexit referendum weren’t really on people’s minds. But as time has gone on the number of negatives has gradually stacked up and the mood has definitely shifted.”

That change has been detected by several of the regular surveys that closely follow the advertising industry partly for its own benefit and partly as a canary in the mine for the wider consumer economy.

KPMG’s media tracker last month found that economic uncertainty at the turn of the year caused more tentative advertising spending by brands fearing a rougher year.

“If you’re a UK brand you’re looking at Brexit and thinking 'shall I commit my spending now or shall I wait until after June?’ ” says the head of one of Britain’s biggest advertising companies.

“It’s a bit of a no-brainer for a lot of them.

“For some of the big global brands I think there is a bit of an effect from the general market volatility early this year and around the oil price.

“There’s no doubt there is now a bit of a pause in spending. We are hoping that’s what it is and there is a rebound in the second half.”

Such hopes suffered a blow from Sir Martin Sorrell last month. He indicated alongside WPP’s first quarter update that Brexit fears were not a major feature of tighter budget discussions with “marketing taking a back seat”.

Some City analysts now believe the party may be over for ITV on a longer-term basis. Deutsche Bank last week urged clients to sell the shares ahead of its first quarter update, arguing that hopes of a bounce back in the advertising market after the referendum are misplaced.

Analyst Laurie Davison said checks with media agencies that act as middle men between brands and broadcasters “point to a continuing deterioration in ITV ad revenues” since March.

Deutsche Bank pointed to pressure on advertising spending by consumer brands as a result of the introduction of the living wage as an under-appreciated headwind faced by ITV. Again, facing a squeeze on margins from higher costs, advertising budgets may be the first to face the accountants’ red pens.

Adam Crozier, ITV’s chief executive, sought to cheer up investors in March by pointing to this summer’s European Championships as a highlight in the broadcaster’s schedule that will attract viewers and advertisers alike.

The tournament has the rare draw of four home nations competing. But one big advertiser points out that after the Euros, there are few major events on the horizon to boost advertising spending until the 2018 Olympics. Sectors beyond supermarkets are likely to pull back on spending, he suggested.

Telecoms companies are among the country’s heaviest spenders, for instance, but fierce competition around BT’s launch of its European football coverage last year has calmed.

Roddy Davidson, a media analyst at Shore Capital, believes that “demand created by the Euro 2016 Championships (and not Brexit) will be the key determinant of Q2 performance” and that fears over the resilience of the advertising market are overdone.

Yet Crozier has repeatedly admitted ITV’s declining audiences are a problem, and promised improvements from new programming. Strong performers, such as the current Nordic-style psychological drama Marcella starring Anna Friel, have been matched by flops including Jekyll and Hyde.

Summary: 'ITV just don’t have the same spring in their step these days,” says the chief executive of one of Britain’s top 10 advertising spenders.


JAKARTA, Indonesia, Feb. 5 - After a 13-year break, the Bush administration is acting to mend relations with the Indonesian military, the largest in Southeast Asia and a potentially crucial player in its campaign against terrorism.

Washington is seizing on an opportunity that came with the tsunami, when Indonesia accepted the help of the United States military in distributing aid and had daily contacts with the Americans. Congress, concerned about Indonesia's human rights record, curbed military ties in 1992 and cut them back further five years ago after the army was involved in the killings of hundreds of civilians in East Timor, a province that has since gained independence.

Now, administration officials said, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has moved to strengthen American training of Indonesian officers considerably. Such training allows up-and-coming officers to learn modern warfare methods, the American system of civilian control over the military, accountability and rights issues. Armies in Asia that receive the training, known as the International Military Education and Training Program, include Thailand, Malaysia, India and Pakistan.

In late January, Washington dispatched $1 million worth of spare parts for Indonesia's aging fleet of military transport planes. For the moment, the administration was not planning to push for the removal of the ban on the sale of weapons to Indonesia, although that could come later, a Pentagon official said.

The Bush administration tried once before to draw closer to Indonesia's military, but the effort failed in 2002 when two American schoolteachers were killed in Papua Province, and, American officials say, the Indonesian Army blocked American investigators.

Ms. Rice now plans to certify to Congress that Indonesia is cooperating sufficiently in investigating the Americans' deaths, a step that would remove a major stumbling block to ties, according to an aide to Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont. The aide, Tim Rieser, said Ms. Rice told the senator of her decision in a telephone conversation this week. Mr. Leahy is the Congressional architect of the break in relations dating to 1992.

Mr. Leahy and others in Congress assert that the Indonesians first need to "fully cooperate" with an F.B.I. investigation into the American deaths, and in other cases of rights abuse, before full training of Indonesian soldiers in the United States can resume. Congressional approval is necessary for a resumption of the military training.

American military officials who have been hankering since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to gain access to the army, a dominant though still largely unreformed force, and the tsunami has presented the opportunity. The Bush administration views Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation, as a moderate and increasingly democratic Muslim state.

At the height of the cold war, when Indonesia was under the authoritarian rule of General Suharto, it was viewed by American administrations as a bulwark against Communism in Asia. Over nearly three decades, American training and equipment poured into Indonesia, though its military became increasingly abusive and corrupt.

The Indonesian Army itself, where some factions are viewed by American officials to be sympathetic to Indonesia's Islamic extremist groups, has kept a determined distance from America. But in an interview, the civilian minister of defense, Juwono Sudarsono, who is close to the recently elected president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said he planned to go to Washington in March to make the case for what he called "re-engagement."

President Yudhoyono, a former general and one of the last Indonesian officers to receive training at a United States staff college, is seen as the first Indonesian leader with a military background to be sympathetic to reform of the military, a proud and profoundly nationalist institution that is itself skittish about restoring ties.

Mr. Juwono, who must take that attitude into account, said he intended to make a "calibrated" case to Washington that would emphasize the need for a stable Indonesia having a military with "accountability and legitimacy."

He said Indonesia would not beg on its knees. Indeed, he said, the Chinese had invited Indonesia for strategic talks last November in Beijing, the first gesture of its kind between the nations. The Chinese, he said, offered to sell Indonesia fighter jets at concessionary rates. "They emphasized there would be no conditionality," Mr. Juwono said.

Asked what Indonesia's response was, he said: "We said it depends on the strategic partnership. If it's junior partnership for Indonesia, no way."

Mr. Juwono, who was educated at the London School of Economics, said that even after the widely heralded democratic presidential election here last year, the military "retains the real levers of power."

"From the political point of view, the military remains the fulcrum of Indonesia," he said.

To upgrade the military, Mr. Juwono said officers needed more training in management, budget and human rights issues at American military staff colleges. American officials also argue that training in the United States can create a more professional and disciplined force.

But Mr. Leahy said in a speech this week on the floor of the Senate that the United States needed to keep its leverage on the Indonesian military until it accounted for past actions. "Although senior Indonesian military officers have repeatedly vowed to support reform, they have done next to nothing to hold their members accountable for these heinous crimes," he said. "Instead, the Indonesian military has consistently obstructed justice."

After the two teachers' deaths in 2002, American officials said, the army blocked an F.B.I. investigation for 18 months. The Indonesian police concluded in a report soon after the killings that elements in the Indonesian military were responsible for the deaths.

Summary: Bush administration acts to mend relations with Indonesian military after 13-year break prompted by Congressional concerns about Indonesia's human right record; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has moved to strengthen American training of Indonesian officers, teaching up-and-coming officers modern warfare methods and American system of civilian control over military, accountability and rights issues; Sen Patrick J Leahy says US must keep its leverage on Indonesian military until it accounts for past actions; photo; map (M)


Over the last few months, this page has repeatedly demanded that President Bush acknowledge the mistakes his administration made when it came to the war in Iraq, particularly its role in misleading the American people about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and links with Al Qaeda. If we want Mr. Bush to be candid about his mistakes, we should be equally open about our own.

During the run-up to the war, The Times ran dozens of editorials on Iraq, and our insistence that any invasion be backed by ''broad international support'' became a kind of mantra. It was the administration's failure to get that kind of consensus that ultimately led us to oppose the war.

But we agreed with the president on one critical point: that Saddam Hussein was concealing a large weapons program that could pose a threat to the United States or its allies. We repeatedly urged the United Nations Security Council to join with Mr. Bush and force Iraq to disarm.

As we've noted in several editorials since the fall of Baghdad, we were wrong about the weapons. And we should have been more aggressive in helping our readers understand that there was always a possibility that no large stockpiles existed.

At the time, we believed that Saddam Hussein was hiding large quantities of chemical and biological weapons because we assumed that he would have behaved differently if he wasn't. If there were no weapons, we thought, Iraq would surely have cooperated fully with weapons inspectors to avoid the pain of years under an international embargo and, in the end, a war that it was certain to lose.

That was a reasonable theory, one almost universally accepted in Washington and widely credited by diplomats all around the world. But it was only a theory. American intelligence had not received any on-the-ground reports from Iraq since the Clinton administration resorted to punitive airstrikes in 1998 and the U.N. weapons inspectors were withdrawn. The weapons inspectors who returned in 2002 found Iraq's records far from transparent, and their job was never made easy. But they did not find any evidence of new weapons programs or stocks of prohibited old ones. When American intelligence agencies began providing them tips on where to look, they came up empty.

It may be that Saddam Hussein destroyed his stockpiles of banned weapons under the assumption that he could restart his program at a later date. His cat-and-mouse game with the weapons inspectors may have been the result of paranoia, or an attempt to flaunt his toughness before the Iraqi people. But we're not blaming ourselves for failing to understand the thought process of an unpredictable dictator. Even if we had been aware before the war of the total bankruptcy of the American intelligence estimates on Iraq, we could not have argued with any certainty that there were no chemical and biological weapons.

But we do fault ourselves for failing to deconstruct the W.M.D. issue with the kind of thoroughness we directed at the question of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, or even tax cuts in time of war. We did not listen carefully to the people who disagreed with us. Our certainty flowed from the fact that such an overwhelming majority of government officials, past and present, top intelligence officials and other experts were sure that the weapons were there. We had a groupthink of our own.

By the time the nation was on the brink of war, we did conclude that whatever the risk of Iraq's weaponry, it was outweighed by the damage that could be done by a pre-emptive strike against a Middle Eastern nation that was carried out in the face of wide international opposition. If we had known that there were probably no unconventional weapons, we would have argued earlier and harder that invading Iraq made no sense.

Saddam Hussein was indisputably a violent and vicious tyrant, but an unprovoked attack that antagonized the Muslim world and fractured the international community of peaceful nations was not the solution. There were, and are, equally brutal and potentially more dangerous dictators in power elsewhere. Saddam Hussein and his rotting army were not a threat even to the region, never mind to the United States.

Now that we are in Iraq, we must do everything possible to see that the country is stabilized before American forces are withdrawn. But that commitment should be based on honesty. Just as we cannot undo the invasion, we cannot pretend that it was a good idea -- even if it had been well carried out.

Congress would never have given President Bush a blank check for military action if it had known that there was no real evidence that Iraq was likely to provide aid to terrorists or was capable of inflicting grave damage on our country or our allies. Many politicians who voted to authorize the war still refuse to admit that they made a mistake. But they did. And even though this page came down against the invasion, we regret now that we didn't do more to challenge the president's assumptions.

Summary: Editorial says The Times regrets that editorial page did not do more in days before war in Iraq to challenge Pres Bush's assumptions about Saddam Hussein's illicit weapons; says The Times accepted certainty of past and present intelligence officials and other experts who were sure weapons were there, and did not listen carefully to those who disagreed; says paper failed to deconstruct WMD issue with kind of thoroughness it directed at other war-related questions, such as link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, or even tax cuts in time of war


Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s U.S. arm said on Friday it would recall 7,810 sport utility vehicles in the United States to update software for radios to prevent hacking.

The announcement by FCA US LLC, formerly Chrysler Group LLC, comes more than a month after the company recalled about 1.4 million vehicles in the United States over hacking concerns. The vehicles were recalled to install software to prevent hackers from gaining remote control of the engine, steering and other systems.

Cybersecurity researchers used the Internet to turn off a car’s engine as it drove, escalating concerns about the safety of Internet-connected vehicles. FCA said on Friday that it was unaware of any injuries related to software exploitation.

The recalled vehicles include 2015 Jeep Renegade SUVs equipped with 6.5-inch touchscreens.

FCA said that more than half of the recalled vehicles remain with dealers and will be serviced before they are sold.

(Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Summary: The announcement comes just one month after Fiat Chrysler recalled 1.4 million vehicles.


What is there to say about

, really, except that he was, well,

That's how a visibly moved

remembered the music icon – who

at 57 – when introducing a special

tribute episode to him that aired this weekend.

Fallon, 41 – wearing (what else?) a purple tie – memorialized Prince as "larger than life" and an "icon" who "lived his music."

But he had only so many words for someone so cool and so innovative and so himself.

"There was always something different about a Prince performance," Fallon said. "It was special. It was an event. It was

He wasn't all somber, though. With a small laugh, Fallon said of Prince, "He had his own color. Who has their own color? He owns purple. You can't just pick a color and that's my thing."

Prince had a close connection to

, performing on the show several times and even giving a

for the cast and crew at the show's star-studded 40th anniversary party in 2015.

Summary: A visibly moved Fallon wore (what else?) a purple tie during his remarks


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Summary: Act 5: Nextdoor.com is a high-tech neighborhood watch for neighbors to connect and problem-solve.


The Massachusetts unemployment rate last month fell below 7 percent for the first time in three years, but employers cut jobs - a sign that the state’s economy may be slowing after a burst of growth early last year.

Economists said a slowdown, or rather a leveling off, is to be expected after the state enjoyed some of the most robust job gains in years during the first half of 2011.

“The growth rate was so strong in the first half of the year - that may account, partly, for why the growth was so slow in the second half,’’ said Alan Clayton-Matthews, a Northeastern University economics professor. “If you were hiring like crazy, then you filled the spots you needed to fill.’’

In Massachusetts, the jobless rate fell to 6.8 percent in December, from 7 percent in the previous month, the state’s Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported yesterday. It was the lowest unemployment rate since December 2008.

Employers, however, cut more than 6,000 jobs last month, and revised data showed they added far fewer jobs in November than first reported - just 300 compared with initial estimates of 5,000.

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits plummeted last week by 50,000, adding to evidence that the job market is strengthening.

The unemployment rate and job statistics are based on separate surveys, and sometimes the results diverge. The unemployment rate is estimated from a survey of households, and job growth from a survey of employers.

Only four of 10 private employment sectors added jobs in Massachusetts last month, with the largest increases in trade, transportation, and utilities, which gained 2,300 jobs. Manufacturing added 1,100 jobs.

The additions were offset by losses in key sectors that help drive the Massachusetts economy. Professional, scientific, and business services - which includes a variety of technology firms - lost 5,000 jobs in December. Employment in education and health fell by 2,400 jobs, and leisure and hospitality lost 1,200 jobs.

On the bright side, Massachusetts added nearly 41,000 jobs in 2011, helping to drop the state’s unemployment rate 1.5 percentage points from 8.3 percent in January, and 2 points from its 8.8 percent peak in October 2009. The state’s unemployment rate also remains well below the national average, which was 8.5 percent in December.

While the Massachusetts economy has grown at a faster rate than the United States as a whole, the nation now appears to be catching up as the national recovery gains momentum. US employers added 200,000 jobs in December and the national unemployment rate has plunged more than a half-point since June.

Yesterday, the Labor Department reported that first time claims for unemployment benefits fell by 50,000 last week to 352,000 the lowest level since April 2008.

In 2011, payroll employment in Massachusetts grew at a 1.3 percent rate, the same rate as job growth nationally. But in the first half of the year, Massachusetts employment grew at an annual rate of about 2.5 percent, double the national rate. In the last six months of 2011, however, job growth in the state was essentially flat, while employers nationally added jobs at a 1.4 percent annual rate.

Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Amherst College, said the local job market is being held back by a lack of growth in the number of small businesses in the state.

“We have a situation where there are not a lot of new start-ups, not a lot of new companies being created,’’ he said. “While Massachusetts is doing pretty well and the unemployment rate certainly looks encouraging, there’s not a lot of dynamism in the economy.’’

Clayton-Matthews said December’s declines are not too worrisome given the state’s growth in early 2011, but he is concerned about looming challenges: For instance, debt problems in Europe, a major market for technology, drugs, and other Massachusetts products, could “put a damper on 2012.’’

“There are some real risks with the situation in Europe, especially for Massachusetts,’’ he said. “We’re heavily concentrated in Europe as a destination for our exports.’’

Summary: The Massachusetts unemployment rate last month fell below 7 percent for the first time in three years, but employers cut jobs - a sign that the state’s economy may be slowing.. The state jobless rate declined to 6.8 percent from 7 percent in November. Employers, however, cut more than 6,000 jobs last month. Some economists said the Massachusetts recovery is likely leveling off after a period of particularly strong growth in earlier in 2011..


Seymour V. Reit, an author and illustrator best known as a creator of the cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost, died on Nov. 21 in New York City, where he lived. He was 83.

Casper, a genial ghost-child who wants only to make friends, has been the subject of 55 theatrically released animated shorts, comic books, an animated television show and a live-action feature film with computer-generated special effects.

Casper's exact ancestry was a matter of dispute between Mr. Reit as the author and Joe Oriolo as the illustrator. Mr. Reit's version is that he created the character of a gentle-natured ghost in a short story one weekend in 1940 and that Mr. Oriolo drew up a ''model chart,'' a sketch with assorted poses of the winsome half-pint in a white bedsheet.

All rights to Casper, who went on to become one of the most recognizable cartoon characters in the world, were sold to Famous Studios at Paramount in the early 1940's for $200. When the film ''Casper,'' produced by Steven Spielberg, came out in 1995, Mr. Reit remarked: ''All I have is some nice memories and a little nostalgic sadness that I am not part of the movie. My career went on in all sorts of interesting, fun ways.''

''I'm not mourning or grieving over what I might have lost with Casper,'' Mr. Reit added. ''It was fun. I did the story. It has a lot of cachet.''

The theatrical shorts were produced from 1945 to 1959, and the made-for-television cartoons appeared in 1963. Unlike scarier spirits, Casper preferred leaning against his tombstone and reading Dale Carnegie's ''How to Win Friends and Influence People.'' Other characters' eyes bugged out as they cried, ''A ghost!'' and Casper walked away with hands clasped behind his back in dejection until he found a new friend and regained his skipping step.

A lifelong New Yorker, Mr. Reit was born on Nov. 11, 1918; that was Armistice Day, and he was given the middle name Victory. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx and drew cartoons for the humor magazine at New York University, from which he graduated at age 19. Fleischer Studios in Miami offered him a $25-a-week job, and he was soon producing ''in-between'' drawings -- the drawings between major movements in an animated scene -- and writing gags for Popeye and Betty Boop animated shorts.

During World War II he used his artistic skills in a camouflage unit. ''They began by camouflaging the West Coast, because they were afraid of the Japanese,'' recalled his widow, Edmée Reit. ''It was a unit full of wonderful people like Billy Baldwin who had been scenic designers and window decorators.''

Mr. Reit then served with the Army Air Forces in Europe after D-Day. ''He was only 5-foot-4, and he weighed 105,'' Mrs. Reit said. ''He was not supposed to go up in a plane, because I think you have to be 110 to open a parachute, and he'd still be up there.''

After the war, Mr. Reit continued his career in comics, writing for ''Archie'' and ''Little Lulu,'' as well as contributing gags to the Casper shorts.

Mr. Reit also wrote more than 60 pieces for Mad magazine beginning in the late 1950's, and in 1968 he anticipated air-pollution problems from aerosol cans, naming the pollutant ''sprog.'' (He also mentioned ''spritz'' from soda cans and ''smaft'' from burning draft cards.) He was also a ghostwriter for the syndicated strip ''There Ought to Be a Law.''

Casper comics were published by St. John Publishing beginning in 1949, and later by Harvey Comics, which expanded the cast of characters to include Casper's three pointy-headed ectoplasmic uncles, Stinkie, Fatso and Stretch, and Wendy, the good little witch. The comic books are still published occasionally. Casper inspired a number of less successful comic-book clones, including Homer the Happy Ghost, Timmy the Timid Ghost and Spunky the Smiling Spook.

Mr. Reit wrote more than 80 children's books on subjects from the Confederate ironclad the Merrimack to Balto, the hero dog who brought diphtheria vaccine to Nome, Alaska, in 1925 and who is commemorated by a statue in Central Park.

His books for adults include ''The Day They Stole the Mona Lisa,'' a true account of how the famous portrait disappeared from the Louvre for two years in 1911. He also wrote the nonfiction book ''Sibling Rivalry'' while he was employed in the publications department of the Bank Street College of Education, where he worked for 15 years. ''Seymour never had an argument with his sister in his entire life,'' Mrs. Reit said, ''but he's still considered an expert on sibling rivalry.''

In addition to his wife, Mr. Reit's sister, Phyllis Reit Nelson of Pittsfield, Mass., survives him.

Photos: Irwin Nelson Seymour Reit, shown in the early 1990's, helped create the character Casper but sold the rights before the cartoon ghost found fame. (Irwin Nelson); (Harvey Comics)


Voters don’t believe Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will fulfill their major promises — including the Republican’s campaign-defining vow to build a wall on the US-Mexico border, pollsters said Thursday.

Only 24 percent of registered voters believe Trump, if elected, will be able to build the barrier — with Mexico picking up the tab — that’s been a rallying point at his campaign events, a Quinnipiac University poll showed.

Thirty-nine percent of voters said Trump would try but fail to build the wall, while 29 percent of voters said he won’t even try.

Trump has also promised to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants and only 19 percent of voters said that’ll happen if he’s elected.

Forty-two percent of respondents said he’ll try and fail and 21 percent don’t believe he’ll make any effort here, pollsters said.

Voters are caught in “gridlock mentality,” pollster Tim Malloy said, believing their candidate of choice will be systematically blocked.

“It’s not that they (voters) think they’re lying, they just don’t think any of this will get done,” Malloy told The Post. “While Trump and Clinton both have grand designs and may well want to accomplish these goals, voters don’t believe they will be able to.”

While Trump has mathematically locked up the GOP nod, Clinton is still fighting for the Democratic nomination against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has cast the former secretary of state as a mouthpiece of Wall Street.

Clinton has steadfastly said big donors don’t control her.

Voters were asked if they believe a President Hillary Clinton would “remove secret money from politics” and 63 percent said “no,” she wouldn’t even try.

Just 18 percent said she’d make an effort and fail, and 9 percent said Clinton would be successful in getting shady money out of politics.

The numbers were just as stark, when asked if a President Clinton would “rein in the power of Wall Street.”

Two-thirds of voters said Clinton would make no effort to do that, while 15 percent said she’d try and fail. Just 12 percent said she’d be able to curb Wall Street influence.

“No matter which candidate you pick, you can cut the cynicism with a knife,” said Malloy.

The poll was conducted between May 24 and Monday, interviewing 1,561 registered voters. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Summary: Voters don’t believe Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will fulfill their major promises — including the Republican’s campaign-defining vow to build a wall on the US-Mexico border, pollsters sa…


Ricky Williams entered the NFL with all the hype you can imagine: A Heisman Trophy, great pre-draft workouts, Mike Ditka wearing a dreadlock wig and proclaiming Williams as the next great thing.

But Williams' professional career was defined by, more than anything else, his marijuana use. Williams wasn't shy about being a fan of the drug. In 2004, he retired from the game, amid widespread speculation that he was quitting to smoke weed.

Now, in a new documentary, Williams admits that those assumptions weren't far off from the truth.

"It's kind of true, but not the way that people see it, that I quit football to go smoke weed," Williams says in the trailer for Ricky Williams Takes The High Road.

Williams returned to professional football in 2006, playing for the CFL's Toronto Argonauts. In 2007, after his suspension from the NFL ended, he re-joined the Miami Dolphins. He played five more seasons before retiring in 2011.

More NFL: -- Ricky Williams Is Running A Marijuana Gym In San Francisco -- Marshawn Lynch Has A #*&@ing Blast Test-Driving Cars -- NFL Wideout Falls Asleep, Gets Locked Inside Museum

Football, Marijuana, Miami Dolphins, NFL, Ricky Williams

Summary: Ricky Williams says 'it's kind of true' that he quit the NFL so he could smoke more marijuana.


Jul 6, 2016 2:11 PM EDT Entertainment

NEW YORK -- Tony Award-nominee Brandon Victor Dixon will replace Tony Award-winner Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr on Broadway in the smash hit "Hamilton," and Lexi Lawson will take over from Phillipa Soo as Eliza Schuyler.

Dixon was nominated last season for "Shuffle Along" and has also appeared in "The Color Purple," ''Motown: The Musical" and "The Scottsboro Boys" at the Vineyard Theatre. He starts in "Hamilton" in mid-August

Lawson, who will be making her Broadway debut, was in the national tour of "In the Heights" and was also on tour in "Rent." She takes over the role of Schuyler on July 11.

Producers also named Michael Luwoye as the alternate Alexander Hamilton when current alternative Javier Muñoz takes over the Hamilton part from creator Lin-Manuel Miranda on July 11.

Summary: Tony Award-winner Leslie Odom Jr. and Phillipa Soo are leaving the show


Judge Robert Drain has a message for Wells Fargo: “Forged” foreclosure documents don’t cut it in New York’s federal courts.

In a stunning 30-page decision on January 28, Drain, a federal bankruptcy judge in New York’s Southern District, blasted Wells Fargo, America’s largest mortgage servicer, for false documents it used in trying to prove its right to foreclose on Westchester County resident Cynthia Carrsow Franklin’s home.

Drain shredded Wells Fargo’s arguments regarding two crucial documents needed to prove ownership of a loan: an indorsement (another term for endorsement) on a note and an assignment of mortgage.

These documents have to be created properly within a certain time frame, or they won’t hold up in court.

The issue lies at the heart of the foreclosure crisis, and continues to haunt hardworking New Yorkers like Franklin, a speech pathologist for autistic children, to this day.

“… [T]he blank indorsement, upon which Wells Fargo is relying, was forged,” wrote Drain in a stinging rebuke to the bank. “Nevertheless it does show a general willingness and practice on Wells Fargo’s part to create documentary evidence, after-the-fact, when enforcing its claims, WHICH IS EXTRAORDINARY,” wrote Judge Drain with emphasis.

Drain went on to say that “it is conceivable that all of Wells Fargo’s newly created mortgage assignments and newly created indorsements were proper” but that the burden was on Wells to show that, and it didn’t.

A Wells Fargo spokesman said, “Wells Fargo’s processes ensure that all note endorsements are done legally and appropriately, and we strongly dispute the conclusions in this case,” adding, “we are troubled by the additional comments about our general practices that are unsupported by the evidence.”

The judge’s ruling delves deeply into the work of Herman John Kennerty, who was deposed for this case by Franklin’s attorney, Linda Tirelli.

Drain casts a harsh eye on Kennerty’s statements about his work as a manager heading up a “default documents” department for Wells Fargo at the time of Franklin’s foreclosure.

Kennerty admitted to signing between 50 and 150 original documents each day related to administration and enforcement of Wells’ defaulted loans, according to the ruling.

Drain added: “Moreover, Mr. Kennerty’s testimony does not stop at describing manufactured mortgage assignments. He also testified that his ‘assignment team’s’ duties were not limited to processing assignments, including, when determined necessary, creating them; in addition, the ‘assignment team’ included people tasked with endorsing notes.”

The Post first reported on Franklin’s case in March 2014, when Tirelli alleged in court papers that Wells Fargo set up detailed internal procedures in a 150-page Wells Fargo Foreclosure Attorney Procedures Manual (created Nov. 9, 2011, and updated Feb 24, 2012) to fabricate foreclosure papers on demand. Wells Fargo denied the allegations.

Franklin told The Post, “I feel relieved … I’m hoping this case will help other people.”

She added, “Reading this opinion … it feels very calculated. It wasn’t like I was lost in the shuffle somehow. And you know, if someone writes me a check and they forget to sign it, I can’t cash it. If in my job I turn in paperwork and I forgot to check something or to write in a code, it’s kicked out. I don’t get paid. That’s how it works with everybody else.”

Wells Fargo has about two weeks to file a notice of appeal. The megabank lost this round, but the judge also made it clear that Franklin’s debt remains.

Drain’s ruling followed another major loss for Wells Fargo in a residential foreclosure case last week — and another smackdown, this time from a Missouri state court judge. This in turn comes after Wells Fargo and three other big banks were hit with a $2.7 million penalty to settle allegations of unlawful foreclosures in Massachusetts.

On Jan. 26, Judge R. Brent Elliott of Missouri’s 43rd Judicial Circuit awarded $2.9 million in punitive damages to a Missouri couple who spent years in limbo after Wells wrongfully foreclosed on their home. Wells sold it to Freddie Mac on Aug. 15, 2008, even after agreeing to a reinstatement of the loan following a disputed debt.

Elliott also blasted Wells Fargo for “outrageous and reprehensible” decisions and “deceptive and intentional conduct” that “displayed a complete and total disregard for the rights of David and Crystal Holm.

“Defendant Wells Fargo operated from a position of superiority provided by its enormous wealth,” Brent wrote in a blistering nine-page decision. “Wells Fargo’s decision took advantage of an obviously financially vulnerable family,” the judge continued, noting that Wells Fargo showed no evidence of remorse for the harm caused.

“In fact, the Court recalls the lack of remorse and humanity illustrated by a Wells Fargo corporate representative who testified, ‘I’m not here as a human being. I’m here as a representative of Wells Fargo,’ ” the judge wrote.

The couple and their 12-year-old daughter got their home back, along with a total of $3.25 million in damages.

“We have modified more than 1 million mortgage loans and have forgiven $8.4 billion in principal since the beginning of 2009. There’s a lot more to this case than the decision reflects, and we have strong arguments to appeal the judgment and the unwarranted damages that were awarded,” a Wells Fargo spokesman said of the Missouri case.

Summary: Judge Robert Drain has a message for Wells Fargo: “Forged” foreclosure documents don’t cut it in New York’s federal courts. In a stunning 30-page decision on January 28, Drain, a federal bankruptcy…


was a "model citizen" before he allegedly attacked a cop at a Florida airport ... so says one of his old coaches who tells

he wants Davone to get help before it's too late.

, who was the associate head coach at the University of Hawaii when Davone played for the Warriors.

Miano says he knows Bess has gone through some "very difficult times" off the field recently ... and acknowledges that with his recent arrest, it seems like Davone's life is "spiraling out of control."

But deep down, Miano says Bess is a good person -- "He'd come back to Hawaii every year and seemed like he was doing the right things, community service, things with children, it really seemed like he had transformed his life."

Bess had missed the last two games of the regular season citing personal issues ... and is currently under investigation by the Browns for tweeting pictures of a blunt and sack of weed.

But Miano says ... "Davone was somewhat of a model citizen at UH. There weren't any signs that he was a time bomb waiting to happen."

"He's just gotta get help."

Summary: Cleveland Browns WR Davone Bess was a "model citizen" before he allegedly attacked a cop at a Florida airport ... so says one of his old coaches who tells…