In rules released this week, China’s State Council announced that all digital maps provided in China be stored on servers within its borders. The rules, which also lay out certification standards for digital mapping providers, will go into effect Jan. 1.

According to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency, the purpose of the new regulations is to “boost development of the geographic information industry” and safeguard “national sovereignty and geographic information security.”

The rules seem much heavier on tightening control than on boosting development. In addition to the server location requirements, map providers are prohibited both from displaying or even storing any data deemed to be prohibited by the government. Government officials will be able to regularly inspect data for “errors and leaks of information that threaten national sovereignty,” according to Xinhua.

Due to ongoing conflicts over the status of Taiwan, and over China’s borders with India, Japan, and the Philippines, map information has very high political significance in China. Keeping map servers within China would, in theory, give its government even more control over what its citizens see. But the move is arguably redundant—China has long held mapping services to strict content standards, and blocks those that don’t comply.

This includes Google Maps, which has been officially blocked for users in China since 2010, when Google refused to submit to Chinese government censorship. Google has since made moderate concessions in its representation of Chinese borders on maps accessed from outside of the country, changing the names of disputed regions and depiction of Chinese borders with India and the Philippines.

There has been frequent speculation about when (or if) Google Maps will return in China. The current rule change would seem to make that harder, particularly since it includes a system of fines and penalties—and even potential criminal prosecution—for violations.

In Google’s absence, digital mapping in China has been dominated by services from Alibaba-owned AutoNavi, Baidu, and Tencent. Apple also offers its Apple Maps service there, using AutoNavi’s data at launch.

Digital mapping has become a proxy battleground for many nations with conflicted borders. Google, in particular, has been targeted by partisans in everything from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to India’s fight with Pakistan over the Kashmir region. But within China, there doesn’t seem to be much of a fight, since the country is keeping dissenting services—and opinions—out.

For more on Chinese pressure on tech companies, watch this Fortune video:

Sign up for Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter about the business of technology.

Summary: New regulations could make it harder than ever for Google to re-enter the world's largest market.


DETROIT, Feb. 25 - Robert W. Kearns, the inventor of intermittent windshield wipers, who won multimillion-dollar judgments against Ford Motor and Chrysler for using his idea, died on Feb. 9 at his home in suburban Baltimore. He was 77.

The cause was cancer, his family said.

Mr. Kearns, a onetime Wayne State University professor, received numerous patents in 1967 for his design for wipers that pause between swipes for use in very light rain or mist. The invention permits the driver to set the interval at which the wiper sweeps the window.

He tried to interest various automakers in his invention but did not reach a licensing deal with any of them.

But carmakers eventually began offering intermittent wipers.

Mr. Kearns sued the Ford Motor Company in 1978 and Chrysler in 1982, accusing them of patent infringement.

In 1990, a jury decided that Ford had infringed on Mr. Kearns's patent, though it concluded that the infringement had not been deliberate. Ford contended that the patent was invalid because the windshield system contained no new concepts.

But Mr. Kearns said a new combination of parts made his invention unique.

That jury failed to agree on how much he should be awarded, and another jury later ordered Ford to pay Mr. Kearns $6.3 million, which a judge cut to $5.2 million.

To settle the case, Ford later agreed to pay $10.2 million and to drop all appeals.

Chrysler was ordered to pay Mr. Kearns $18.7 million and interest. The Supreme Court of the United States rejected Chrysler's bid to overturn the award in 1995.

"I don't think the goal was the magnitude of the money," Mr. Kearns said when the Ford case ended. He said his role "was to defend the patent system."

Later, his lawsuit against General Motors was dismissed, as were his lawsuits against foreign carmakers. Much of the money he was awarded went to legal expenses.

Mr. Kearns, who acted as his own lawyer during parts of the battle, was disappointed because the courts did not bar the companies from continuing to use the wipers. He had hoped not just to collect royalties but make the devices himself.

Judge Avern Cohn of Federal District Court in Michigan, who presided over five of the trials, said Mr. Kearns was frustrated because he wanted to be a major manufacturer.

"He was feisty, determined and he established the fact that he made a contribution to the auto industry that was unique," Judge Cohn said. "His zeal got ahead of his judgment."

A daughter, Maureen Kearns, said her father's home was filled with legal files. After a point, she said, "his life was simply this battle."

Mr. Kearns was born in Gary, Ind., and grew up in suburban Detroit.

He was a member of the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency, during World War II. After the war, he earned engineering degrees from the University of Detroit and Wayne State University and a doctorate from Case Western Reserve University.

In addition to his daughter Maureen, Mr. Kearns is survived by another daughter; four sons; a brother; and seven grandchildren.

Summary: Robert W Kearns, inventor of intermittent windshield wipers, dies at age 77; photo (M)


Toyota says that the Tacoma was the best-selling midsize pickup in each year of the past decade, and the redesigned 2016 Tacoma appears ready to defend that title. This new truck clearly has the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon in its sights.

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• Redesigned inside and out

• New 3.5-liter V6 engine

• Available tri-fold tonneau cover

• New safety and infotainment options

• Standard GoPro mount near rearview mirror

• Tows up to 6,800 pounds of trailer

• Hauls up to 1,620 pounds of payload

• New seating materials and colors

• Fresh exterior paint colors

Toyota offers the new Tacoma in Access Cab (extended cab) and Double Cab (crew cab) body styles, each equipped with a standard cargo bed. A short cargo bed is offered only for the Double Cab.

Buyers choose from SR, SR5, TRD Sport, TRD Off-Road, and Limited trim levels. The SR is the work truck, the SR5 is the popular truck, the TRD Sport is the sport-tuned truck, and the Limited is the upscale truck. Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten the TRD Off-Road model, which has a suspension specifically tuned for off-roading and which includes a Multi-Terrain Select system designed to calibrate the powertrain for different types of driving surfaces.

A 2.7-liter 4-cylinder engine is standard in some Tacomas, while others get a new 3.5-liter V6 engine. The 4-cylinder develops 159 horsepower at 5,200 rpm and 180 lb.-ft. of torque at 3,800 rpm, while the V6 delivers 278 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 265 lb.-ft. of torque at 4,600 rpm. Manual and automatic transmission are available, depending on body style and engine.

READ MORE ABOUT ALL OF THE TOYOTA MODELS.

The optional 4-wheel-drive system is part-time, and it includes an automatic limited slip differential. A Clutch Start Cancel feature is included only with the available 6-speed manual transmission. Hill Start Assist Control, Active Traction Control, and Crawl Control are also available with the latter working at speeds between 1 and 5 mph, automatically braking and accelerating the Tacoma while the driver is focused solely on steering.

Every 2016 Tacoma has a touchscreen infotainment system with a USB 2.0 port, Bluetooth calling and music streaming, Siri Eyes Free compatibility, and a reversing camera. As buyers move up into more expensive versions of the truck, the system adds features including a Scout navigation app, Entune App Suite and connected services technology, a navigation system, predictive traffic and weather with Doppler radar overlay, and a JBL premium sound system.

A Premium & Technology option package is offered for some versions of the Tacoma, installing a blind spot warning system with rear cross-traffic alert, dual-zone automatic climate control, a power sunroof, and more.

Alternatives to the Toyota Tacoma

The primary targets for the new Tacoma wear Chevrolet and GMC badges, namely the Colorado and Canyon. Nissan can also expect the Tacoma to siphon some Frontier buyers.

Did you find this article helpful? If so, please share it using the "Join the Conversation" buttons below, and thank you for visiting Daily News Autos.

Summary: The redesigned 2016 Tacoma is ready to defend its title as the most popular midsize truck on the market.


Boardwalk Empire actor Jack Huston is set to star in a Ben-Hur remake, says the Hollywood Reporter.

The details aren’t finalized yet, but the English actor will reprise the role made famous by Charlton Heston. He will star alongside Morgan Freeman, who will play Ildarin, the Reporter says.

Director Timur Bekmambetov, known for his vampire franchise Night Watch and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter will take on the challenge of remaking the 1959 classic, which won 11 Oscars, including Best Picture.

Bekmambetov will begin filming in Europe next year, and the movie is scheduled to be released on Feb. 26, 2016.

Summary: Filming begins in Europe next year and the movie is scheduled to be released in February, 2016.


I need some of you to cut it the hell out. Maybe, for some of you, it’s a presumed mutual appreciation for Beyoncé and weaves that has you thinking that I’m going to be amused by you approaching me in your best “Shanequa from around the way” voice. I don’t know. What I do know is that I don’t care how well you can quote Madea, who told you that your booty was getting bigger than hers, how cute you think it is to call yourself a strong black woman, who taught you to twerk, how funny you think it is to call yourself Quita or Keisha or for which black male you’ve been bottoming — you are not a black woman, and you do not get to claim either blackness or womanhood. It is not yours. It is not for you.

Black people can’t have anything. Any of these things include, but aren’t limited to: a general sense of physical safety, comfort with law enforcement, adequate funding and appreciation for black spaces like schools and neighborhoods, appropriate venues for our voices to be heard about criticism of issues without our race going on trial because of it, and solid voting rights (cc: Chris McDaniel).

And then, when you thought this pillaging couldn’t get any worse, extracurricular black activities get snatched up, too: our music, our dances, our slang, our clothing, our hairstyles. All of these things are rounded up, whitewashed and repackaged for your consumption. But here’s the shade — the non-black people who get to enjoy all of the fun things about blackness will never have to experience the ugliness of the black experience, systemic racism and the dangers of simply living while black. Though I suppose there’s some thrill in this “rolling with the homies” philosophy some adopt, white people are not racially oppressed in the United States of America.

White people are not racially oppressed in the United States of America.

White people are not racially oppressed in the United States of America.

Nothing about whiteness will get a white person in trouble the way blackness can get a black person shot down in his tracks. These are just facts. It’s not entirely the fault of white people. It’s not as if you can help being born white in America, any more than I can help being born black in America.

The truth is that America is a country that operates on systems of racism in which we all participate, whether consciously or unconsciously, to our benefit or to our detriment, and that system allows white people to succeed. This system also creates barriers so that minorities, such as black people, have a much harder time being able to do things like vote and get houses and not have to deal with racists and stuff. You know. Casual.

But while you’re gasping at the heat and the steam of the strong truth tea I just spilled,what’s even worse about all of this, if you thought things could get even crappier, is the fact that all of this is exponentially worse for black women. A culture of racism is bad enough, but pairing it with patriarchal structures that intend to undermine women’s advancement is like double-fisting bleach and acid rain.

At the end of the day, if you are a white male, gay or not, you retain so much privilege. What is extremely unfairly denied you because of your sexuality could float back to you, if no one knew that you preferred the romantic and sexual company of men over women. (You know what I’m talking about. Those “anonymous” torsos on Grindr, Jack’d and Adam4Adam, show very familiar heterosexual faces to the public.) The difference is that the black women with whom you think you align so well, whose language you use and stereotypical mannerisms you adopt, cannot hide their blackness and womanhood to protect themselves the way that you can hide your homosexuality. We have no place to hide, or means to do it even if we desired them.

In all of the ways that your gender and race give you so much, in those exact same ways, our gender and race work against our prosperity. To claim that you’re a minority woman just for the sake of laughs, and to say that the things allowed her or the things enjoyed by her are done better by you isn’t cute or funny. First of all, it’s aggravating as hell. Second, it’s damaging and perpetuating of yet another set of aggressions against us.

All of this being said, you should not have to stop liking the things you like. This is not an attempt to try to suck the fun out of your life. Appreciating a culture and appropriating one are very, very different things, with a much thicker line than some people think, if you use all of the three seconds it takes to be considerate before you open your mouth. If you love some of the same things that some black women love, by all means, you and your black girlfriends go ahead and rock the hell out. Regardless of what our privileges and lack of privileges are, regardless of the laws and rhetoric that have attempted to divide us, we are equal, even though we aren’t the same, and that is okay. Claiming our identity for what’s sweet without ever having to taste its sour is not. Breathing fire behind ugly stereotypes that reduce black females to loud caricatures for you to emulate isn’t, either.

So, you aren’t a strong black woman, or a ghetto girl, or any of that other foolery that some of you with trash Vine accounts try to be. It’s okay. You don’t have to be. No one asked you to be. You weren’t ever meant to be. What you can be, however, is part of the solution.

Check your privilege. Try to strengthen the people around you.

Sierra Mannie is a rising senior majoring in Classics and English at the University of Mississippi. She is a regular contributor to the Opinion section of the school’s student newspaper, The Daily Mississippian, where this article originally appeared.

Summary: You are not a black woman, and you do not get to claim either blackness or womanhood. There is a clear line between appreciation and appropriation


The fit mom, who shocked people with

, but her followers started criticizing Duncan for improperly supporting his head.

Source: Chontel Duncan / Instagram

a few hours later, adding an outtake where Miah is curled up on her chest.

"Sorry but I'm not going to be nice about what I think about your belittling attempts to educate me on the safety or better yet my intentions as a new mum," Duncan begins.

"Miah lifted his head up an for that second that he did so, I just happened to have caught it on camera, before he then laid his head back down on my chest," she explains. "New borns can lift their own heads up its not me standing there with his head flicked back shooting away."

, mom and baby are doing well. Duncan says that Miah is happily breastfeeding, and she's healing from the C-section.

"My c-section incision is healing nicely," she posted. "It's larger then a normal one due to the doctors struggling to get Miah out at the time of my operation where my core held him in very tightly."

"Scar, stretch marks, wider hips, heavy 'not so perky' jugs WHO CARES I have a baby & though I was very lucky to not have many of those I did receive a large scar which I am very proud of."

And on Monday, the personal trainer posted that she and a few of her fellow mom friends took a first aid course for pediatric care.

"This course was UNREAL, and far out the information was so important for parents,"

. "Hopefully we will never need to practice any of it but the confidence in knowing was well worth it."

It's all good information for the new mom, especially she hopes to add another face to the family soon.

"If all goes well, I plan to fall pregnant again this year," she

Summary: Duncan couldn't believe the backlash after posting a selfie with her 2-week-old son


Colonial New York was a city with palpable edges: cows on the common could be seen at the end of the street. It was small enough that everyone knew that a wealthy stranger had just arrived, but large enough to contain every kind of person and possibility. We feel the dolls’ house closeness of rooms that smell of waxed wood and tea-leaves, and then, as dusk falls, a dim apprehension that beyond the familiar streets lie all the "forests of the night", a continent barely known.

In the stillness, Spufford’s characters feel ‘as if a piece of folded white paper had abruptly opened up’ to reveal them ‘standing tiny at its middle point’. Stepping into Trinity Church on a Sunday morning we see powdered heads bobbing above white box-pews, but can a novel record what happens, invisibly, in people’s souls when, "lidless before the lord", they kneel down out of sight? "Certainly, all the heads reappeared again looking none the worse".

Spufford is fascinated by what novels can do. Can they contain life’s "mess of accident" while also sorting out the muddle? Is the energetic narration of incident a "conjuror’s distracting busywork", holding our attention with arabesque flourishes, so that some tragedy can be smuggled away, as one would a playing card?

Golden Hill is a celebration of the 18th-century novel as it was shaped by Smollett, Sterne, Henry and Sarah Fielding. Plenty of dubious currencies change hands in old New York, but this novel is verifiable gold.

Summary: It’s New York in 1746, the lights of Breukelen twinkle over the water and a young Mr Smith arrives with a 1000-dollar bill.


From almonds to cherries, dozens of food crops are partially or totally dependent on honeybee pollination. And while media attention has waned, there’s still reason to worry about the country’s smallest and most indispensable farm workers.

Bee researchers first reported massive die-offs back in the 1990s. But the plight of the honeybee didn’t truly buzz into the national consciousness until the spring of 2013, when data revealed the average beekeeper had lost 45% of her colonies the previous winter. A mysterious phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD) further stoked the fires of public interest.

Jump to 2015. While last winter’s bee death data won’t be published for a few more weeks, things appear to be “status quo,” says Dr. Greg Hunt, a honeybee expert at Purdue University. Unfortunately, the status quo is grim. “We’ve been seeing about 30% loss in an average winter,” Hunt says. “The winter before last was particularly bad and got a lot of attention, but things have been bad for a while.”

Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp—a University of Maryland entomologist who helps collect and publish the winter death data each spring—says there are three “primary drivers” of honeybee loss: The varroa mite, pesticides and poor nutrition. He doesn’t hesitate when asked to name the largest threat to bees: “I’d get rid of the varroa first.”

Varroa mites, properly (and frighteningly) named Varroa destructor, likely migrated to the U.S. sometime in the 1980s. They attach to a honeybee’s body and suck its blood, which kills many bees and spreads disease to others. The varroa can jump from one colony to another, wiping out whole populations of honeybees, vanEngelsdorp explains. There are treatments that combat the varroa. But many small-scale beekeepers don’t use them. “That’s bad, because they can spread mites to neighboring colonies,” he adds.

Of the two other major bee-killers vanEngelsdorp listed, pesticides have arguably gotten the most press—especially a commonly used category called neonicotinoids. While considered safe for humans, research suggests neonicotinoids may be extremely harmful to bees and many other insects, and so have been banned in some European countries. But the amount these chemicals contribute to bee deaths and colony collapse disorder is still debated. “We don’t find levels of neonicotinoids that are indicative of widespread exposure or harm,” vanEngelsdorp says.

The third problem—poor nutrition—is likely the most confounding of the honeybee’s enemies.

“Bees need a varied diet of different pollens in order to grow into strong, healthy workers,” explains Dr. Heather Mattila, a honeybee biologist at Wellesley College. Unfortunately, a country once filled with meadows of diverse, pollen-packed wildflowers is now blanketed by crops, manicured lawns, and mown fields barren of pollen sources. “A green space can be a green desert if it doesn’t have flowering plants that are bee-friendly,” Mattila adds.

Combine a restricted diet with environmental factors like extremely cold winters and scorching summers, and stressed honeybee colonies are less able to resist the ravages of mites, pesticides, viruses and other potential causes of colony collapse disorder.

To fill nutrition gaps, beekeepers give their wares pollen supplements. Along with tactics like colony splitting, keepers can restore their bee supplies quickly during the spring and summer months. But Hunt says the cost to do this is large—and growing larger. “As long as beekeepers are willing to put more money and hard labor into it, we can come back and rebuild our colonies and numbers,” he explains. “But whether this is all sustainable is an open question.”

Mattila calls this a “Band-Aid,” not a cure. “I think we’re making the best of a tough situation,” she says. Both she and Hunt applaud companies and localities that have started letting wildflowers grow along the sides of highways or under rural power lines—places that used to be mown and sprayed with herbicide. The federal government has also taken steps to protect lands that offer honeybees (and lots of other insects) the sustenance they need. Mattila says every American can help these efforts by planting flowers and avoiding chemical treatments.

But she mentions another emerging concern when it comes to the future of America’s honeybees: The strange, abrupt deaths of many bee queens. “When I started working with bees 18 years ago, we’d replace living queens every two years,” she recalls. “Now queens die after half a summer. Nobody is really clear on why.”

The “Band-Aid” she mentioned might already be coming off.

Read next: You Asked: Do Fruit Flies Come From Inside Fruit?

Listen to the most important stories of the day.

Summary: Beekeepers continue to grapple with historically high death rates. And now something’s up with the queens.


Though his buddy LeBron James couldn’t stand him, Carmelo Anthony likes the idea of hiring former Cavaliers coach David Blatt, according to a person familiar with his thinking.

Blatt interviewed with the Knicks two weeks ago and is being considered for the position, despite erroneous reports it served only as a courtesy interview.

The source stated Anthony believes Blatt, because of his vast international experience before joining the Cavaliers, would be better for 7-foot-3 Latvian phenom Kristaps Porzingis than would interim coach Kurt Rambis.

The source said Anthony feels Blatt could develop Porzingis into an All-Star quicker with his international touch. Blatt has dominated leagues in Israel and Russia, where he also was coach of the Olympic team, guiding the country to the bronze medal in 2012.

Sources have indicated Porzingis wasn’t thrilled with the way Rambis used him early on (he went the first 12 games under the interim coach without a double-double), but things improved, and he is not picking sides in the coaching search.

Anthony has been outspoken in pressuring Knicks president Phil Jackson to broaden his search, but questions loomed on his opinion of Blatt. Not only did James sour on Blatt in Cleveland, but so did Anthony’s former Knicks teammates J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert.

Anthony, who has hinted periodically about the prospect of waiving his no-trade clause in the near future, appears concerned Jackson will stick to the status quo in Rambis. The source said Anthony likes and respects Rambis, but has reservations. Anthony has requested input, but hasn’t had contact with Jackson since exit meetings four weeks ago.

Anthony recently said on a promotional tour if Jackson doesn’t conduct an extensive search, he would have “a problem” with the process. When asked who his choice would be, Anthony responded: “For me, man, it’s hard to narrow it down to just one person. I just want to see the proper procedure gone through, the proper process. We give everybody a shot to come in and say what they have to say and see if you like that person or not.”

Jackson has been away at his Montana lake house while drawing criticism for not being in New York during a critical juncture. The Zen Master may show up in Chicago for this week’s draft combine, where another Knicks candidate, Frank Vogel, may conduct interviews.

Tuesday was the 43rd anniversary of the Knicks winning their last championship with Jackson as a backup forward. But his approval ratings have hit an all-time low. Hiring Blatt and making Rambis offensive coordinator of the triangle seems a perfect compromise. Knicks general manager Steve Mills, friends with Blatt since sharing the Princeton backcourt in the late 1970s, appears on board.

Hiring Blatt would ease the transition of Jackson ceding power to Mills, his successor, if the Zen Master leaves in a year or two. There’s an opt-out in Jackson’s contract after the 2016-17 season.

Knicks owner James Dolan, who just returned from a European tour with his blues band as opening act to Jewel, never met Blatt when he interviewed, according to an NBA source.

During Blatt’s coaching career in Israel for Maccabi Tel Aviv, the 56-year-old ran a play or two that were similar to triangle sets. However, according to an NBA source, after Steve Kerr reneged on taking the Knicks job two years ago, Jackson didn’t inquire about Blatt. That was odd considering Blatt and Kerr had the same agent, former Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum.

Blatt, interviewed this week by Houston, took the undermanned Cavaliers to the NBA Finals last season, losing in six games to the Warriors. Blatt had posted the East’s best record at 30-11 when fired in January.

His downfall? Sources have talked about James resenting that Blatt was too arrogant as a rookie NBA coach. Blatt took exception, feeling his international success should count. Some believe James wanted a former NBA player running the bench — something he hadn’t had since his rookie year with Paul Silas.

Summary: Though his buddy LeBron James couldn’t stand him, Carmelo Anthony likes the idea of hiring former Cavaliers coach David Blatt, according to a person familiar with his thinking. Blatt interviewed wi…


The Obama administration on Tuesday unveiled the final version of a long-awaited and controversial rule to extend overtime pay to 4.2 million U.S. workers, which marks one of the administration’s most significant moves to address stagnant wages.

The rule, which has drawn intense criticism from business groups and Republicans, doubles the maximum annual income a salaried worker can earn and still be automatically eligible for overtime pay from $23,660 to $47,476 and requires that threshold to be updated every three years. It takes effect Dec. 1.

Officials said many workers will earn more money, an estimated total of $12 billion over the next decade, while others will work fewer hours for the same pay.

“More than 4 million workers are either going to be paid more or get time back to raise their family, go to school  or retrain to get a better job,” Vice President Joe Biden said during a phone call with reporters on Tuesday.

The rule will likely touch nearly every sector of the U.S. economy but is expected to have the greatest impact on nonprofit groups, retail companies, hotels and restaurants, which have many management workers whose salaries are below the new threshold.

Business groups, which lobbied heavily against the changes, say companies will be forced to cut wages and hours and may slow hiring.

The Obama administration and supporters of the new rule say the $23,660 threshold allowed companies to hold down labor costs by requiring workers with relatively low incomes to work well over 40 hours per week without additional pay.

The rule will likely face legal challenges, including claims that the U.S. Labor Department flouted legal requirements for creating new regulations. Republicans in Congress have said they will move to block the rule, but they would need to overcome a veto from President Barack Obama.

The new threshold was lower than the $50,440 standard proposed by the Obama administration last year, but the last-minute change to lower it, which was widely expected, did little to appease critics.

Any federal standard above the $35,100 overtime threshold in New York, which has a high cost of living, will inhibit economic growth in more rural states in the South and Midwest, Tammy McCutchen, a Washington D.C. lawyer who works with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said on Tuesday before the final rule was announced.

The threshold also disappointed proponents of the new rule, including Ross Eisenbrey of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, who first pitched an overhaul to the White House in 2013.

“It means a million fewer employees will be helped,” he said before the rule was released.

Summary: The minimum salary for automatic eligibility for overtime will rise from $23,660 to $47,476.


05/10/2016 AT 02:55 PM EDT

' Honest Trailer for the film's DVD and Blu-Ray release Tuesday – but don't expect him to be too excited about it.

proves his character's sarcasm is as sharp as ever in this five-minute trailer, which jokingly aims to explain what potential viewers should

expect while watching the hit movie.

"Look, the only reason I'm even here is to promote

, which is now out on Blu-Ray and DVD, blah, blah, blah, like anyone still f---ing buys those glorified f---ing drink coasters," Reynolds says while suited up. "So let's be real, Honest Trailer guy, I'm way too big of a deal to be slumming it in some played out web series."

Earlier, when the trailer's voice-over narrator expresses shock that Reynolds is appearing in the trailer in character, the star deadpans, "No, It's Rhythm Nation-era

. Yeah, I'm motherf---ing Deadpool."

Later, narrator explains that the film invites fans to "follow along on Ryan Reynolds' epic quest to look like Ryan Reynolds again, as this immortal Tucker Max battles villains that pose no real threat to him."

The trailer also points out a giant plot flaw in the hour-and-48-minute movie, explaining that Reynolds plays a "wisecracking, indestructible psychopath who would do anything to get his fiancée back – except talk to her, which would have been way too easy, causing the movie to end in like 20 minutes."

Watch the trailer above to see even more from this "wisecracking, indestructible psychopath," as well as a cameo from PEOPLE's

, whose X-Men Wolverine character is referenced repeatedly in the movie.

is available on DVD and Blu-Ray now.

Summary: The funny faux trailer coincides with Deadpool's DVD and Blu-Ray release Tuesday


David Eigenberg stars as Christopher Herrmann, a seasoned firefighter and salt-of-the-earth family man, on NBC's drama "Chicago Fire."

Eigenberg is known to film and television audiences for his role as Steve Brady, the good-hearted husband and quintessential New York bar owner in the box office hit and Emmy Award-winning series "Sex and the City."

Among his film credits are "See You in September," "The Trouble with Romance," "The Mothman Prophecies" and "A Perfect Murder."

Eigenberg's television credits include "Justified," "Third Watch," "Criminal Minds," "N.C.I.S.," "Castle" and "Law & Order: SVU."

A member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York, Eigenberg has performed in numerous off-Broadway plays. On Broadway, he received his break in 1990, playing a hustler in the original cast of John Guare's "Six Degrees of Separation," directed by Jerry Zaks at Lincoln Center. He also starred in the original cast of "Take Me Out," directed by Joe Mantello, which was awarded the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Drama League and New York Critics awards for Best Play.

Eigenberg served in the United States Marine Corps for three years. He is married and resides in Chicago with his wife and two young children.

Summary: Meet David Eigenberg on NBC.com.


James Bond may soon be trading in his spy gear and hit the streets of South Los Angeles.

Daniel Craig, the "Casino Royale" star, is reportedly in early talks to appear alongside Halle Berry in a film depicting the rising turmoil after the police beat down of Rodney King in 1991, Deadline reported Tuesday.

The 48-year-old would play the role of Ollie, a loner who is one of the only white residents living in South Central L.A.

Ollie falls in love with Berry's character and the two work to track down a group of local kids and keep them from the violence erupting in the city.

Rodney King beating prompted cops to shoot more: lawyer

The drama is being directed by Deniz Gamze Erguven, who has dreamed of covering the riots since she graduated from film school, Deadline said.

If Craig is chosen for the film, it will mark another departure from his work as James Bond, which is still up in the air.

Summary: James Bond may soon be hitting the streets of South Los Angeles.


When malpractice lawsuits go to juries, the defendant wins 91% of the time, according to the AMA. But the average case takes about four years run its course–and that’s a very expensive four years. The average defense costs $94,284. As a result, it’s become quite expensive to be in the medical malpractice industry. It’s so expensive, in fact, that in 2001, one of the biggest malpractice insurance providers, St. Paul, Minn.-based Travelers Companies, left the field, saying they couldn’t afford to stay in the industry. Many states are establishing laws to protect doctors from frivolous lawsuits. Texas wrote tort reform into its constitution after its citizens voted it into law. Since tort reform was enacted in the state in 2004, the yearly premium doctors pay in Texas for malpractice insurance dropped by 40%. Also, the number of claims filed against doctors has dropped by about half.

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Summary: Doctors are facing challenges that didn't exist 20 or 30 years ago.


Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the Argentine Marxist and guerrilla fighter whose famous portrait by Alberto Korda still adorns everything from t-shirts and baseball caps to hagiographic murals, MAD magazine covers and high-end panties, was killed 47 years ago, on Oct. 9, 1967. He had been captured—with the help of CIA operatives—in Bolivia, where he was attempting to spark a continent-wide revolution in the mold of the Cuban rebellion of the previous decade.

The wounded Guevara was held for questioning for two days, and was eventually executed—shot nine times—by a sergeant in the Bolivian army.

In July 1960, LIFE magazine—in a multi-page feature titled, “Communism’s Take-Over in Castro’s Cuba”—wrote this of Guevara, Fidel Castro and the nascent Republic of Cuba:

Castro nominated himself the messiah of Latin American underdogs using one instrument—his voice. And although his wildly histrionic performances often make him appear a certifiable lunatic, the power of his magnetic appeal cannot be denied. . . . But since he does almost no real work himself, the material power of his regime rests with his chosen aides. Chief among them, and probably the most sinister, are his brother Raúl and the Argentine party-liner Ernest (Che) Guevara.

That’s an overly simplistic characterization of the post-Batista power structure in Cuba, but there’s no question that, for several years, no other rebel in Havana was closer to Castro, or wielded as much power, as Guevara. And that striking phrase applied to Castro—”the power of his magnetic appeal”—could just as aptly be applied to Guevara. Even his staunchest detractors concede that the man had a certain rough charisma, and the picture above, made by LIFE’s Joe Scherschel in Havana in 1959, captures some of that magnetism.

But the complexity of Guevara’s legacy—the wildly divergent perceptions of the man, which lend a Rorschach-test air to any discussion of his faults and his merits—are in many ways far more fascinating, and more telling, than any litany of mere facts about his life.

For example, for countless people around the globe, Guevara is the paragon of the freedom fighter: a fearless, selfless defender of the downtrodden who gave his life battling to liberate all of Latin America from the yoke of imperialist—i.e., American—oppression and exploitation.

For others, he’s little more than a glorified thug—an unimaginative and brutal commissar who imprisoned, tortured and killed those who disagreed with him (or those who happened to be gay, or Jehovah’s Witnesses, or displayed any number of other “anti-revolutionary” tendencies).

Finally, there are those—and sadly, they’re probably in the majority—who know absolutely nothing about the Cuban Revolution, or Castro, or Guevara, or Fulgencio Batista, but who love rocking those Che t-shirts and wrist cuffs and key chains because . . . well, he kind of looks like Metallica’s bass player, doesn’t he? And he was probably a cool guy when he was alive, right? A real stick-it-to-The-Man rebel?

At this point, of course, it’s unlikely that anyone, anywhere, who has fashioned an informed opinion of Che Guevara is going to change his or her mind about the man, no matter how cogent or impassioned the arguments on the other side might be.

In the end, it is at least marginally amusing to imagine what Guevara himself would say if he could see that his most lasting influence might not reside in the realm of geopolitics, or socialist or military theory, but in the pocketbooks of those eager capitalists who, for the past five decades, have been selling his image—silk-screened on every piece of clothing and every accessory they can get their hands on.

[Read a TIME.com interview with the authors of the book, Hunting Che]

Summary: The complexity of Guevara's legacy is in many ways far more fascinating, and more telling, than any litany of mere facts about his life


Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle

A San Francisco Police Officer tosses a flash bang grenade toward a suspect during a standoff in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

A San Francisco Police Officer tosses a flash bang grenade toward a suspect during a standoff in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

A San Francisco Police SWAT member aims his weapon as officers monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

A San Francisco Police SWAT member aims his weapon as officers monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 6,

San Francisco Police Officers stay on alert during a standoff in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

San Francisco Police Officers stay on alert during a standoff in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

Acting San Francisco Chief of Police Toney Chaplin speaks to the media and community members after a standoff in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

Acting San Francisco Chief of Police Toney Chaplin speaks to the media and community members after a standoff in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

San Francisco Police Officers block off Market Street during a standoff in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

San Francisco Police Officers block off Market Street during a standoff in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

San Francisco Police Officers stay on alert during a standoff in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

San Francisco Police Officers stay on alert during a standoff in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

San Francisco Police officers and SWAT members monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

San Francisco Police officers and SWAT members monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

A bike lies on the grownd near where San Francisco Police officers and SWAT members monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

A bike lies on the grownd near where San Francisco Police officers and SWAT members monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on

A San Francisco SWAT officer monitors the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

A San Francisco SWAT officer monitors the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

San Francisco Police officers and SWAT members monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

San Francisco Police officers and SWAT members monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

A bike lies on the grownd near where San Francisco Police officers and SWAT members monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

A bike lies on the grownd near where San Francisco Police officers and SWAT members monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on

San Francisco Police officers and SWAT members stand behind a vehicle as they monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

San Francisco Police officers and SWAT members stand behind a vehicle as they monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on

San Francisco Police SWAT members aims their weapons as officers monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

San Francisco Police SWAT members aims their weapons as officers monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 6,

San Francisco Police Officers stay on alert during a standoff in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

San Francisco Police Officers stay on alert during a standoff in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

San Francisco Police SWAT members aims their weapons as officers monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

San Francisco Police SWAT members aims their weapons as officers monitor the movements of a man believed to have a weapon at the corner of Jones and Market Street in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, July 6,

Police blocked off several streets around Market Street and Jones Street in San Francisco after reports of a possibly armed suspect in the area on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

Police blocked off several streets around Market Street and Jones Street in San Francisco after reports of a possibly armed suspect in the area on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

Police blocked off several streets around Market Street and Jones Street in San Francisco after reports of a possibly armed suspect in the area on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

Police blocked off several streets around Market Street and Jones Street in San Francisco after reports of a possibly armed suspect in the area on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

Police blocked off several streets around Market Street and Jones Street in San Francisco after reports of a possibly armed suspect in the area on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

Police blocked off several streets around Market Street and Jones Street in San Francisco after reports of a possibly armed suspect in the area on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

A crowd watches as police close off several streets near Market and Jones in San Francisco after reports of an armed suspect on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

A crowd watches as police close off several streets near Market and Jones in San Francisco after reports of an armed suspect on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

Police were blocking off several streets around Market Street and Jones Street in San Francisco after reports of a possibly armed suspect in the area.

Police were blocking off several streets around Market Street and Jones Street in San Francisco after reports of a possibly armed suspect in the area.

Police blocked off several streets around Market Street and Jones Street in San Francisco after reports of a possibly armed suspect in the area on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

Police blocked off several streets around Market Street and Jones Street in San Francisco after reports of a possibly armed suspect in the area on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

Police blocked off several streets around Market Street and Jones Street, including McAllister Street (pictured) in San Francisco after reports of a possibly armed suspect in the area on Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

Police blocked off several streets around Market Street and Jones Street, including McAllister Street (pictured) in San Francisco after reports of a possibly armed suspect in the area on Wednesday, July 6,

Police officers had guns drawn near Market and Jones after officials blocked off several roads in the area. Early reports said a man in the area was armed.

Police officers had guns drawn near Market and Jones after officials blocked off several roads in the area. Early reports said a man in the area was armed.

Summary: San Francisco police asked that people avoid the area of Market and Jones streets as they responded to a call of an potentially armed man, according to a tweet from the department's Twitter account.


I prefer not to spend space defending myself. I’m a big boy; I take my shots, lots of them, thus I expect to be shot at, in return. I know the score. But sometimes . . .

My biggest gripe with Mike Francesa is that he’s a bully. He belittles those he considers beneath him, and that’s most of us. I don’t like bullies. Never have. On Friday’s show, Francesa spent many minutes trying to discredit me. Fine. We’ve been firing at each other for years.

This time, though, Francesa claimed that he didn’t say what I wrote about him — or what he said I wrote — in regard to his comments about Chase Utley’s health, before Game 1 of the Series. He said tapes of his show will prove him correct. He issued me a $25,000 challenge.

Challenge accepted, under one condition: He must accept one of several let’s-go-to-the-tape challenges I’ve issued to him, specifically the one I issued nine years ago.

Days after the 9/11 attacks, Francesa, global affairs expert (it’s a gift), launched two bigoted, backwoods and facts-depraving commentaries blaming both Israel and American Jews for America’s peril at the hands of terrorists.

Francesa also said the Jews he knows are disloyal Americans in that they would go to war to defend Israel but not the United States.

In the wake of an attack on the U.S. by Islamic lunatics, Francesa even called upon American Jews to prove their virtue as Americans, to choose between Israel, which he called “a failed experiment,” and the U.S.

As a third-generation American Jew, whose great-uncle was a WWI doughboy, and whose father was a WWII Naval Lt., then commander of the Staten Island chapter of the Jewish War Veterans, I was, shall we say, displeased by Francesa’s determination that the time had come for me to swear allegiance to the United States.

On Sept. 23, 2001, the above appeared in this column. In WFAN’s response, on behalf of Francesa, station boss Mark Chernoff denied that Francesa said any of that — despite thousands, including WFAN staff, having heard what I’d heard. My challenge to produce those tapes was ignored.

If I wrote such malicious lies, why wasn’t I sued? Why not a word of protest from Francesa and/or WFAN to me or to the publisher of The Post?

So if Francesa wants to put up 25 grand on Friday’s Utley thing, donate the winnings to charity, or whatever — and use tape to settle it — cool, but let’s first take care of that longer-standing listen-to-the-tapes challenge.

And let’s double the risk to $50,000. Unlike Mike, I can’t afford to lose such wagers, but let’s go. He wants to challenge me based on tape-supported facts? Play the tapes on the air? I’m all in.

One last thing: I’ve never made Francesa’s weight an issue in this column. That’s too cheap of a cheap shot, too easy. Besides, I could stand to lose 20 pounds myself.

But Friday he called me “lazy.” For him to call anyone lazy, well, when we’re done settling these challenges, let’s bet another 10 grand on a race — here to the refrigerator.

CBS’s Jim Nantz, on Dolphins-Jets, yesterday, got it right, sorta. Miami’s Ted Ginn Jr. did “end his career at Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl with a kickoff return for a touchdown on the opening kick and was injured at the end of it.” He was injured during the celebration.

Wise perspective from Fox’s Troy Aikman at the top of Vikes-Packers: “I’d argue that this game means more to Aaron Rodgers than to Brett Favre.”

Fox pre-gamer Michael Strahan is a hoot. On the Redskins’ new-issue edict excluding fans from bringing signs due to safety concerns: “When they were winning, the signs were safe.”

Summary: I prefer not to spend space defending myself. I’m a big boy; I take my shots, lots of them, thus I expect to be shot at, in return. I know the score. But sometimes . . . My biggest gripe with…


The Alliance for Downtown nailed it with a report it put out just before Thanksgiving on the district’s current healthy state and a future likely to see significant economic growth.

I’ve written for years about Lower Manhattan’s extraordinary renewal since 9/11. The Alliance’s unsurprisingly optimistic take is entirely in sync with what The Post has reported, editorialized for and predicted all along.

Among other things, the Alliance, working with economic consulting firm Appleseed, identified a post-9/11 peak of over 227,000 private-sector jobs, the most since just before the terrorist attack; strong office vacancy rates despite the addition of millions of square feet of new space; the area’s disproportionately high contribution to city and state tax revenues; and a residential, retail and hotel boom.

The report doesn’t mention by name the extraordinary retailers coming soon, like Saks Fifth Avenue, or a roster of major restaurants and chefs including Nobu, Tom Colicchio and Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

But it’s got the goods on the changing shape of Lower Manhattan private-sector payroll employment — comparing “industry composition” from 2001 to the end of 2014.

Financial services, the businesses traditionally identified with the Wall Street area, in 2001 accounted for 55 percent of all jobs. By the close of 2014, those businesses represented only 35 percent of all jobs.

But the loss was offset by jumps in employment in other fields, such as professional, scientific and technical services and health care. That fundamental change, combined with a population boom to 62,000 and growing, has fundamentally altered the district’s DNA.

Since the Alliance/Appleseed survey relies on data from the state Department of Labor, which does not break out the well-covered TAMI (technology, advertising, media and information technology) sector, the payroll figures don’t cite percentage increases in those fields.

However, the Alliance separately determined that TAMI employment downtown leapt by 37 percent between 2009 and 2014, and will soar further in the next few years.

But how is the office market doing?

Perceptions are skewed by an abundance of space on the market at 1, 3 and 4 World Trade Center — where steady but slow leasing can’t compare with the swift fill-ups at Related Cos.’ 10 and 30 Hudson Yards.

Yet, according to CBRE’s third-quarter data, availability in downtown’s roughly 88 million-square-foot market, including at the WTC, was a respectably modest 11.9 percent, with actual vacancy a mere 9.1 percent.

CBRE power broker Brad Gerla told us that downtown asking rents continue to rise. He noted than at 123 William St., a 1960s building he represents, leases were just signed at $54 and $58 a square foot, comparable to many uptown. The address, which had 350,000 square feet up for grabs just two years ago, is now almost full.

He said the strength of the market is well-distributed, including along Water Street and in prewar addresses in the heart of the old Financial District.

Here are Realty Check’s hot seven situations to watch downtown. Their outcomes will have far-ranging impact for the area:

1. Two World Trade Center: If a deal is struck for Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox and News Corp. to be the anchor tenants at Larry Silverstein’s tower, it would complete the quartet of new WTC towers.

2. Westfield’s World Trade Center complex: The delayed stores in the Oculus and other parts of the concourse will finally open sometime next year. Eataly has already set an opening date in April at 4 World Trade.

3. 70 Pine St.: Residential owners and brokers will watch closely to see how quickly the 664 units fill up at the landmark former AIG headquarters, which Rose Associates and DTH Capital are converting into luxury rental apartments.

4. South Street Seaport: The Howard Hughes Co. is in high gear reinventing the formerly unloved tourist attraction into an entertainment, shopping, dining and cultural mecca aimed at New Yorkers.

5. 28 Liberty St.: China’s Fosun International is updating the former 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza with expanded retail space, outdoor plaza restoration and modernization of its 2 million-plus square feet of offices.

6. One Wall St.: Harry Macklowe’s first foray downtown, a planned transformation of the landmarked office skyscraper, will be a bellwether for both the luxury condo and retail markets.

7. 180 Maiden Lane: About 840,000 square feet of office space is up for grabs at the 1.2 million-square-footer, which Norman Sturner’s MHP and Clarion Partners are modernizing and disaster-proofing to the tune of $28 million.

Summary: The Alliance for Downtown nailed it with a report it put out just before Thanksgiving on the district’s current healthy state and a future likely to see significant economic growth. I’ve written fo…


From time to time this summer, we'll be attending the opening of an exhibit that piques our interest. Tracy Smith starts us off at an opening all about the search for closure:

In Hollywood, heartbreak has always been easy to find.

And now, it has an address: 6751 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, home of the Museum of Broken Relationships.

The Museum of Broken Relationships.

Think of it as emotion under glass: a hundred or so ordinary objects that mean absolutely nothing to you and me -- and EVERYTHING to the people who gave them up.

Love notes ... the blue silk blouse a woman wore the day her husband left her ... the wedding cake toppers someone kept after their marriage fizzled ... a dried-out prom corsage from a long-lost love ... the butterfly wings a guy made for his fiancee's Halloween costume before she cheated on him and fluttered away.

Smith said, "I don't know about you, but when I was spectacularly dumped by my college boyfriend, the last thing I wanted to do was to save a little something to remember that moment by."

But a lot of people do. Take the woman who was divorced but couldn't bear to throw away her silk floral wedding dress, so she kept it -- and crammed it in a pickle jar (left).

The man behind all this is L.A. attorney John Quinn, who discovered the original museum in Zagreb, Croatia, a little over a year ago -- a place with its own collection of relationship rubble.

"We all came out of it thinking, 'That was extraordinary,'" he told Smith. "It was very thought-provoking, very moving in a way. And I thought more people should see this."

And now they can, at eighteen dollars a head. Among the items on display: the cheerleader outfit one woman bought because her ex was a Nebraska fan ... and the silicone implants another had removed after she dumped the guy who talked her into getting them.

It can all be a little sad, but the people Smith met seemed to be taking it remarkably well.

"It's amazing, I love it," said one visitor from London. "It's wonderfully cathartic to see people shedding the memories of their breakup and moving on and letting go and allowing other people to share in what happened."

Alexis Hyde, the museum's director, says one can find beauty in a breakup: "I think so. Hopefully, you know, you can look back and think fondly and know that even if it didn't work out, it contributed to who you are today. And we're all failing together and we're all trying to get back up together. And that, I think, is very beautiful."

One couple was surveying the surveying the exhibits: "We were just reading one that might be one of his ex-girlfriends!" the woman said.

"This is a little embarrassing, because I've seen three things that describe my last three relationships to a tee," he added.

That's a common reaction: the museum already has enough material to change the displays every few months. But, like love itself, there's always room for more. "So this is very weird for us, 'cause we hope we don't end up in here," one woman said.

"But we easily could," her partner said.

Correspondence in the Museum of Broken Relationships.

© 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Summary: At the Museum of Broken Relationships in Los Angeles, remains of shattered love affairs go on display


The driver of this overturned Toyota SUV walked away unharmed following a two-vehicle crash Wednesday morning at Eighth and Mission streets in San Francisco.

The driver of this overturned Toyota SUV walked away unharmed following a two-vehicle crash Wednesday morning at Eighth and Mission streets in San Francisco.

SUV flips over in two-vehicle crash in SF’s SoMa neighborhood

Two drivers walked away shaken but unscathed from a crash early Wednesday in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood that left one of their vehicles flipped over on its roof, officials said.

The two-vehicle crash occurred around 6 a.m. at the intersection of Eighth and Mission streets.

A silver Toyota 4Runner and a pickup truck collided at the intersection sending the Toyota tumbling and coming to a rest on its roof, police at the scene said. Both drivers managed to get out of their vehicles on their own and were talking with police.

Bill Hutchinson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: bhutchinson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @bill_hutchinson

Summary: Two drivers walked away shaken but unscathed from a crash early Wednesday in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood that left one of their vehicles flipped over on its roof, officials said.  A silver Toyota 4Runner and a pickup truck collided at the intersection sending the Toyota tumbling and coming to a rest on its roof, police at the scene said.


The baseball fields in Canarsie Park are diamonds in the rough that local activists want to see shined up in short order.

Specifically, the 69th Precinct Community Council wants the six fields in the park used by their teams put in good shape for their junior sluggers, who play in the park all summer and who, in the past, have had to sit out days after rainstorms have flooded the fields.

The point was made — in spades — to a representative of the city’s Parks Department during the community council’s March meeting, which was held at the Hebrew Educational Society, on Seaview Avenue at East 95th Street.

“Will the ball fields be ready for our children for July?” asked Mary Salogub, the community council’s treasurer. “They were a mess last year. When it rains, we have puddles that sit. I enjoy the children sitting with me, but they’re supposed to be playing ball.”

Lawrence Major, the park and recreation manager for Community Boards 17 and 18, said that the agency’s goal was to have the fields playable by the spring and summer ball seasons. “Unfortunately, they don’t have any drains, but we will do what they can,” he told the group.

Phil Abramson, a spokesperson for the Parks Department, confirmed the problem.

“After heavy rain fall, the field closest to the field house is usually the most affected,” he said. “It holds large volumes of standing water behind the backstop and home plate area. Rain water sheets from paved surfaces towards the backstop, which is the lowest point of the field. There are no catch basins at this location to relieve it.”

Abramson promised “aeration efforts and adding clay” to help keep the water off the fields.

The 69th Precinct baseball program has served youngsters in the community for more than four decades, with Salogub’s own son, John — now the council president — having played baseball in the program, Salogub recalled.

Approximately 300 children between the ages of five and 14 participate in the low-cost program (under $100 per child) each year, she said, enjoying not only afternoons of play but also a trip to watch a Brooklyn Cyclones game in Coney Island or a pizza party (for the youngest players), as well as T-shirts and trophies for all.

The park is undergoing a $20 million multi-phase renovation. The first phase, including a new cricket field, is now complete, and the second phase — including a music pavilion, fitness trails and a skate park — is now underway.

Summary: The baseball fields in Canarsie Park are diamonds in the rough that local activists want to see shined up in short order.Specifically, the 69th Precinct Community Council wants the six fields in th…


Havana — Never had a country appeared as old as Cuba did when it started to upgrade itself. The mad rush to develop serves only to confirm our comical, almost antediluvian backwardness. The New7Wonders Foundation, an organization that aims to preserve monuments worldwide, has just chosen Havana as a “wonder city.” In a strict sense it is, although the local residents struggle to believe it.

Hordes of inquisitive foreigners are eager to step back into historical eras that are mostly extinct in other parts of the world. There are now nonstop flights by six airlines based in the United States, and the number will only grow.

The theme park that is Cuba is an insular museum, stuck between the Iron Curtain and the industrial capitalism of the 1950s. The symbols include the already insufferable classic Chevrolets, the Singer sewing machines, the General Motors refrigerators, the Lada and Moskvitch cars, the Aurika washing machines, the matryoshka dolls, the military and party propaganda. It’s likely that not many Cubans, promised a chance to move somewhere better off, would pass up a chance to leave Cuba as it is, untouched, frozen in time, covered in soot and light, varnished with that curious and appealing patina of an era in which surviving, however, is so terribly difficult.

Those travelers who are booking tickets on state-approved nonstop flights to Cuba should be advised: “Fear not. Buy your tickets with all the calm and confidence in the world that nothing has changed.” The resources we Cubans have drawn upon to modernize ourselves, and all the good news that has transpired in the last few months since relations with the United States were renewed, have failed to alter the status quo. So there’s nothing to fear. Havana is not quite yet turning into Dubai.

For Cubans, this results in the annoying experience of being viewed as something like an exotic species. The national mood seems to contain and define us, and keeps us on a short leash.

Forget the misleading suggestions of progress: the gimmicky Chanel shows on Havana’s Paseo del Prado; the filming of the pyrotechnics for the film “Fast 8” on the city’s scorching streets (badly paved and practically unnavigable several days before); the Rolling Stones concert; or surprise visits by Usher, Katy Perry, Rihanna, the Kardashian clan. None of this is harmful in itself, but it is extremely uncomfortable when the political aristocracy’s flirting, if not downright prostitution, is set against the lack of civil liberties and the accelerated deterioration of public services.

That the cultural ambassadors of pop, rock and fashion are visiting us is an unqualified signal of our continuing to be what we are, what we have almost eternally been, not of our being something else, new and different. The first day that not a single celebrity visits us after this period of euphoria will be the first day of our new lives.

The only substantial flurry of activity in the country is in the parks and public areas where the government has created Wi-Fi hot spots so that ordinary Cubans, filled with wonder, can talk for the first time with loved ones abroad. In video chats, Cubans see the faces and recognize the features of a grandchild or sibling not seen for the longest time, before the image freezes up.

I sit in a sidewalk doorway while I log on to a park’s Wi-Fi to send this article to my editor. That park is a shameless buzz of voices that know nothing of privacy, of others’ space, of reserve, of embarrassment. There’s almost a party going on, a tiny, fun revolution. Some shout. All expose their intimate problems to anyone willing to listen — their dirty laundry, their most trivial of yearnings. The medley of shameful intimacies that families keep to themselves is available for public consumption.

On Sunday afternoons, the park again resembles — either because of the availability of Wi-Fi or in spite of it — a park at the turn of the 20th century, where townspeople would gather to talk, to court, to stretch their legs.

Last month, in his opening speech at the summit meeting of the Association of Caribbean States, held in Havana, President Raúl Castro boasted of his excellent mental and physical state at 85. Then, to eliminate any doubt of his intentions, he said that regardless of how his health was, he would hand over power on Feb. 24, 1918. That was no gaffe, as twisted minds might think. Mr. Castro did nothing but cleverly suggest the course he is charting for our country. If the historical tide prevails, and Cuba continues moving inexorably toward its past, another century of autocratic rule awaits us.

Summary: My land is an insular museum, stuck between the Iron Curtain and the industrial capitalism of the 1950s, and visitors view us an exotic species.


Bernie Sanders wrapped up the opening night of the Democratic convention with a strong endorsement of his one-time rival Hillary Clinton, saying she "must" be the next US president.

Mr Sanders, 74, told to some 5000 party delegates gathered in Philadelphia, to cheers and some boos, that "based on her ideas and her leadership," Mrs Clinton was a better choice than Republican nominee Donald Trump and that she "must become the next president of the United States."

"Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her tonight.

"This election is about which candidate understands the real problems facing this country and has offered real solutions, not just bombast, not just fear-mongering, not just name-calling and divisiveness."

The endorsement was expected, and had already come from Mr Sanders weeks ago when he campaigned alongside Mrs Clinton in New Hampshire.

But it appeared aimed, in part, to help quell the loud voices of Sanders supporters who had spent much of the day booing and shouting out their opposition to speakers as they expressed support for Mrs Clinton.

Mr Sanders stunned the political world when his campaign, which began as a fringe effort by a self-described democratic socialist, earned broad grassroots support and gave Clinton a run for her money.

It became clear, however, a few months after the primaries began that Mrs Clinton's momentum would carry her through to the nomination.

But Mr Sanders's impressive showing helped him push through the most progressive Democratic Party platform in generations.

"Our job now is to see that platform implemented by a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House and a Hillary Clinton presidency, and I am going to do all that I can to make that happen," Mr Sanders said.

Throughout the campaign, Mr Trump had said Mr Sanders was being swept aside by a "rigged" system, but the brash billionaire accused Sanders of capitulating on Monday.

"Bernie Sanders totally sold out to Crooked Hillary Clinton," Trump tweeted before Sanders had finished speaking.

"All of that work, energy and money, and nothing to show for it! Waste of time."

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2016


Before you go, we thought you'd like these...

President Barack Obama was heckled by a protester during his historic swan song speech before the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night in Philadelphia.

"No more TPP!" a protester shouted, in reference to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

Others held anti-TPP signs as the president delivered his remarks.

The trade deal, supported by Obama, is unpopular with a large contingent of Democrats who have loudly voiced their opposition to it throughout the DNC.

Hillary Clinton previously supported a version of the deal, but reversed her position after the final details were made available.

The deal is unlikely to clear Congress during the election season, but some political observers think it might have a chance to pass during the lame-duck session of Congress.

Photos of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama at the DNC:

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama at the DNC

U.S. President Barack Obama (L) and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wave to the crowd after the President spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton hugs U.S. President Barack Obama as she arrives onstage at the end of his speech on the third night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton hugs U.S. President Barack Obama as she arrives onstage at the end of his speech on the third night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton greets U.S. President Barack Obama as she arrives onstage at the end of his speech on the third night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton greets U.S. President Barack Obama as she arrives onstage at the end of his speech on the third night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young

U.S. President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton appear onstage together after his speech on the third night at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Mark Kauzlarich

U.S. President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton appear onstage together after his speech on the third night at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar

U.S. President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton appear onstage together after his speech on the third night at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton joins U.S. President Barack Obama onstage after his remarks on the third night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

U.S. President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton appear onstage together after his speech on the third night at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar

U.S. President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton appear onstage together after his speech on the third night at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 27, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar

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The former chairman of the BBC and ITV, Lord Grade, has criticised channel bosses for threatening to stage televised election debates without David Cameron.

The Tory peer said the consortium of broadcasters had been self-important, incompetent and shambolic during the recent negotiations over the debates.

Grade, who was at the BBC between 2004 and 2006 before becoming executive chairman of ITV, wrote in the Times: “Who do the broadcasters think they are? Their behaviour over the election debates leads me to believe they suddenly have grossly inflated and misguided ideas of their own importance.”

Related: Election 2015: what does the British public think about the debates?

He wrote that “for the first time in history” the broadcasters were “unequivocally playing politics” in seeking to force the

Grade went on to warn the television executives involved that they are not “guardians of democracy”, arguing that the prime minister is free to refuse to take part in the debates and “people are free to comment on the choice he makes”.

The intervention comes as the issue is set to be debated on the floor of the House of Commons. Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party (DUP) has triggered a discussion on the process to agree televised debates between party leaders ahead of May’s general election.

The DUP leader, Nigel Dodds, has insisted if the Scottish National party (SNP) and Plaid Cymru continue to hold invites, his party should also be allowed to take part.

But speaking ahead of the debate, Dodds said he was “quite content” for the big nationwide parties to debate the issues alone. He said: “It’s difficult to think of a recent political event more badly managed by the people who wanted it most. Whether the TV election debates last time were a good or bad thing for the general election campaign, it’s been the broadcasters who have most persistently campaigned for them.

Related: TV election debates: broadcasters call David Cameron's bluff

“They’ve chopped and changed formats, blinked under pressure, refused to consult constructively and now are absurdly threatening not to have the prime minister present.

“My own party would have been – and is – quite content for the genuine, big parties to debate one another. But we’ve always said, if any UK regional parties are invited, we’re invited too.”

“At the moment, due to the incompetence of the broadcasters, these debates are in chaos and may well not happen. In future, we need to follow the example of the US and have an independent commission arrange any such debates.”

The DUP debate will follow a prime minister’s questions that could be dominated for a second week by talk of the debates between Cameron and Ed Miliband.

The Tory and Labour frontbenches will also make contributions to the Opposition Day debate.

Summary: The former BBC and ITV chairman has accused broadcasters of ‘unequivocally playing politics’ during the recent controversy over leaders’ televised debates


On the chilly Friday morning of Dec. 14, 2012, Neil Heslin walked his 6-year-old son,

into Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Connecticut.

Heslin watched as the first grader ambled down the hallway, carrying his trusty Disney

backpack – and hoping his class would make gingerbread houses that afternoon.

"That was the last time I saw him," Heslin, 55, told PEOPLE on Friday, looking back almost four years on the day his son died.

Just after 9:30 a.m. local time, in what would become one of

authorities say 19-year-old gunman Adam Lanza

killing Lewis, 19 other first graders and six educators, including Lewis' teacher,

, slain trying to protect their students.

On Friday, Heslin returned to the site of his son's death – and now the site of the new Sandy Hook Elementary School,

"I brought [my son] to school with a book bag and hours later he came out of the school in a body bag," Heslin tells PEOPLE. He says he left the school that day in 2012 at 9:04 a.m. and sat in the parking lot until about 9:20 a.m., reading emails.

"I had just left the school when everything happened," he says.

On that terrible morning, Lewis urged nine classmates huddling in a corner to escape when the shooter's gun jammed, saving their lives, Heslin says. After Lewis yelled, "Run!" the gunman shot him in the head, Heslin says.

"He was a hero," he says.

Standing Friday to the right of the new school, on a grassy mound known as "sacred ground" – the exact spot where the students and teachers were killed – Heslin grew quiet, before saying, "I kind of have a feeling that Jesse is here with me."

"Being here is sad," he says. "It brings back memories, good and bad."

The last time Heslin visited the school was when he viewed the classroom where his son was shot.

"I was in the school right after it happened, so being here today is not as hard as that was," he says. "But it's sad. I feel numb at this point."

Walking slowly across the mound, Heslin said, "I'm trying to figure out exactly where he was that day."

He paused before adding, "There's no words for this."

Friday, Heslin chatted with well-wishers and politicians such U.S. Senator Chris Murphy and Rep. Elizabeth Esty – and the courageous janitor who during the shooting called 911 and ran through the school while gunfire rang out, locking classroom doors and telling teachers and students to hide.

Heslin says he has "mixed feelings" about the new school, which sits further back on the property than the former school, which was demolished.

"I don't think a school should have been rebuilt here," says Heslin, who testified before Congress in 2013 about banning assault weapons. "I think it's sacred area and it's always going to be a sad place."

He wishes the land could have been turned into a park, with a pavilion for music, "so it could be a happy place again."

"With a school there, I feel like it just reminds people what happened there," he says.

He wishes the site included a memorial "with a stone there with all the names of the people who died."

"It could also be a place where people could go and honor the lives that were lost," he says.

But the sacred ground area bears no signs or plaques commemorating the shooting victims. "They call it 'sacred ground,' but I call it the murder site," Heslin says, "which is more blunt and gets the point across better."

, did not attend Friday's open house because she flew to Los Angeles, where her son J.T. Lewis is receiving the Courage Award at Fox's Teen Choice Awards for founding the charity

"I did visit the school, but didn't get beyond the grassy plot in the middle of the parking lot, our 'sacred space,' " she tells PEOPLE. "I cried for an hour."

Like Heslin, she wishes town officials would commemorate those who lost their lives in 2012.

"I think it would be a courageous and powerful learning opportunity for those coming into the school – how to honor and respect those who lost their lives, how to address and teach about grief and uncomfortable feelings," she says, "which would cultivate resilience, empathy and compassion while being mindful of what happened there."

But rebuilding the school "is part of the way people can heal from a tragedy like this – moving on, but not forgetting what happened," says Anthony Lusardi III, 34. His girlfriend,

, was killed in the shooting.

Lusardi knows not everyone feels that way: He tells PEOPLE, "I'm not a member of that community and I don't live down the street or a town away from where it happened, so I have some degrees of separation from it."

With the demolition and construction, he sees opportunity.

"Rebuilding a new school that looks nothing like the other one changes that aspect of it and makes it so that you are owning it as a community, which is a good thing," he says. "Somebody turned the old school into a horrible place, but now you get to take it back."

Indeed, Heslin calls the new Sandy Hook a "beautiful school."

"I'm happy for the kids who will attend this school and for the generations of children it will educate," he says.

But he will always have his little boy in his heart.

"It's a double-edged sword," he says, "because my son was brutally murdered here."

Summary: The father of one of the 20 children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre finally sees the new school built on the site


Winston Churchill’s Breguet pocket watch is almost as iconic as the man himself

No figure bestrides the 20th century like Winston Churchill. By the time he became prime minister in Europe’s darkest days, he had already lived an extraordinary life.

He had covered the Boer War as a newspaper correspondent, been elected to Parliament at the age of 25 and served as chancellor of the exchequer – a post once held by his father.

After the war, his prolific writing earned him the Nobel Prize, and he returned to Number 10 for a final term as peacetime leader.

Winston Churchill’s bravery, obstinacy and wit are well known, but his contemporaries often made mention of another character trait: his terrible sense of timekeeping.

It was a fault to which he freely admitted. “I do think unpunctuality is a vile habit,” he wrote in his first volume of autobiography. “All my life I have tried to break myself of it.”

Fortunately, he had a faithful companion to help him conquer the vice: his Breguet pocket watch, number 765, which he nicknamed “the Turnip”.

It was purchased in 1890 by his uncle, the Seventh Duke of Marlborough, and passed down to the young Churchill, who kept it throughout his life in preference to a wristwatch.

Now on display at the Churchill War Rooms at the Imperial War Museum in central London, the yellow-gold timepiece remains in perfect working order.

Its reverse is engraved with the Duke’s arms, and its face features a distinctive white enamel dial. This exceptional chronograph’s features include a minute repeater that can chime the time on demand and a flyback seconds hand.

It has been returned for servicing only once, shortly after the end of World War II – a task that Breguet’s craftsmen were happy to carry out.

The Turnip turns up in a wealth of Churchill anecdotes. One of the most famous comes from a lunch with his scientific adviser, Frederick Lindemann, in 1941.

Over coffee and brandy, Churchill placed the watch on the table and challenged the physicist to explain the quantum theory in words of one syllable – within five minutes, as timed by the Turnip. To the delight of all present, Lindemann succeeded with seconds to spare.

In his later life, Churchill’s tardiness became the bane of his household at Chartwell. Coaxing him out of bed proved particularly tricky, and so staff put forward every clock in his room by a quarter of an hour. Churchill soon became wise to the ruse, and insisted on checking each timepiece against his Breguet.

Eventually, his nurse even took to winding the Turnip forward whenever the great man was distracted. But in the battle for an extra 10 minutes in bed, Churchill would never surrender.

He simply demanded to know the time from any visitor who entered his bedroom, however many clocks were around – winning a final and decisive victory.

For more information, visit breguet.com

Summary: How many of these five facts about the former British Prime Minister did you already know?


I hate to be the one to break it to you, but creating an estate plan isn’t quite enough. In order to make sure your plan is as up-to-date and comprehensive as possible, it’s important that you review it over the years; I often recommend that people give it a checkup every few years.

Remember that as your life changes, so must your estate plan. Here are a few check-ins that will keep you and your family protected.

1. Update Existing Planning Documents

If you have existing health care advance directives, durable powers of attorney, wills and/or revocable trusts, check to see whether it’s time for an update. For instance, if you’ve moved to a different state, purchased real estate in another state, or if the value of your assets has changed significantly from when your documents were first prepared, then your estate plan should be updated to reflect those changes.

Health issues can be reasons for a change: Have any issues arisen for you or your family? Family members with special needs, substance abuse, or mental illness may require extra assistance.

Also, make sure that the people that you’ve named in your plan as fiduciaries — such as your health care agent, attorney, executor, or trustee — are still appropriate. If your personal or professional relationships have changed, check to see whether your estate plan documents need an update.

2. Check Your Life Insurance Coverage

Particularly if relatives depend on your income, life insurance is a critical part of an estate plan. (It can also help you pass tax-free money to heirs — particularly important if you have a large estate or live in a state that has its own inheritance tax.)

As part of a regular checkup, you should consider whether any significant life changes require adjustments to your life insurance coverage. Review your beneficiary designations to make sure they name the appropriate people, and ask yourself the following questions: Have you gotten married or divorced? Have you had additional children, or have older graduated college or moved out of the house? Have you changed jobs and lost employer-provided life insurance? Has your spouse or partner cut back on his or her work schedule? Have you purchased a more expensive home with a bigger mortgage?

A yes on any of the preceding could be a reason to adjust your life insurance coverage.

The way you own your assets should generally work seamlessly with your estate plan. If your estate will be subject to either federal or state estate tax, for instance, it may be best to split up ownership of assets between you and your spouse to help minimize those taxes.

The federal estate tax exemption amount is now portable, meaning that a surviving spouse can claim the deceased spouse’s unused exemption amount — but state tax rules are different. Therefore, if you live in a state with an estate tax and all assets are in your spouse’s name, your heirs could face higher taxes after both of you die than if those assets were split up.

Similarly, if you have a revocable trust, you’ll probably want to make sure that you’ve transferred ownership of your assets into that trust. Doing so will help your heirs avoid the hassle and cost of probate upon your death; it will also simplify management of your assets if you become incapacitated.

A good estate plan is imperative to help protect your loved ones. Even if you have one, it’s important that you continue to take care of it.

Tracy Craig is a partner at Massachusetts-based Mirick O’Connell and chair of its Trusts and Estates Group, and a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.

Summary: If your relationships have changed, you may need an update.


Pope Francis has created a commission to study the possibility of ordaining women as deacons in the Roman Catholic Church. On Tuesday, he named 12 experts — six men and six women — to serve on the panel.

Francis had promised to establish the panel in May in a meeting with an assembly of leaders of women’s religious orders.

The Vatican said that Francis decided to institute the commission “after intense prayer and mature reflection.” Francis’ predecessors have repeatedly said that church doctrine bars women from being ordained as priests or deacons. But some Catholics, especially in the United States and Europe, have been advocating for women to serve as deacons and hope the commission will open the door.

Deacons are ordained like priests, but only priests celebrate Mass. But deacons may preach, perform weddings, funerals and baptisms, and help administer a parish.

Phyllis Zagano, a professor of religion at Hofstra University and the author of many books on women in the Catholic Church, was appointed by Francis to the commission. Ms. Zagano spoke with Laurie Goodstein, the national religion correspondent for The New York Times.

Q: Why is this an important issue for the Catholic Church now?

A: Pope Francis has said repeatedly that he wants to see more women in more positions of authority, and there are certain offices that women cannot fully obtain because they’re not clerics. The ordinary means of entering the clerical state is by ordination to the diaconate. So it’s a simple way to have women who are trained, ordained and given faculties by their bishops to minister on behalf of the church.

Q: What do you expect the commission to accomplish?

A: I don’t know that the commission itself would make any conclusion. It would make a recommendation to the Holy Father on what history has demonstrated. And history clearly demonstrates that women served in the diaconate. The pressing question is whether women can be admitted to sacramental ordination as deacons, and that is a deep theological question that should be undertaken.

Q: What are your hopes for the commission?

A: I hope to participate in a serious discussion about not only the history of women in the ordained diaconate in Christianity, but also the possibilities for the future.

Q: When did you learn that you had been appointed to the commission?

A: At 8:30 this morning. The announcement of the members of the commission came as a surprise. That I was placed on it is a great honor to my research and the support of many, many scholars around the world who supported my research and helped me with it. I think the commission is a fine group of individuals, mostly European, coming from different perspectives and different academic disciplines.

Q: Have you been told when you will meet, or how much time the commission has been given to do its work?

Summary: Phyllis Zagano, who was appointed by Pope Francis to study the possibility of ordaining women as deacons, discusses what the group aims to accomplish.


Longtime G.O.P. economic hands like Wayne Berman, a veteran of several Republican presidential campaigns, conceded Friday’s data was favorable for Democrats, but insisted it represented a snapshot of the economy, not necessarily the underlying trends. A major failing in the recovery, Republicans note, is that millions of Americans who dropped out of the work force during the recession have still not found jobs.

July’s jobs number “is a good statistic for Clinton to pivot towards,” said Mr. Berman, who currently serves as a top official at the Blackstone Group and advised Senator Marco Rubio of Florida during the Republican primary. He noted, however, that the economy grew at an annual rate of just 1 percent in the first half of 2016, a sharp decrease from last year.

“We’re in a very mixed economic picture now,” said Mr. Berman, recalling the presidential campaign of Senator Bob Dole two decades ago, when attacks on Bill Clinton’s economic record failed to resonate at a time of rising prosperity. “You can’t say this is like 1996, when there was no oxygen for Bob Dole’s arguments.”

The Times’s Tom Redburn and Patricia Cohen broke down what was bigger-than-expected hiring data from last month.

The July increase in payrolls stands in sharp contrast to data released just last week showing disappointing economic growth in April, May and June.

A reason for the difference is that parts of the economy are still suffering from the continuing fallout from low oil prices as energy companies cut back on investment. Government spending also has been weak and many companies, at least for now, prefer to hire more workers rather than invest in new equipment and increase their efficiency and output.

If business and government investment continue to lag, that could undermine the long-term ability of the American economy to be more productive and raise living standards for most workers.

In late spring, the government reported that job creation in May was much weaker than economists had expected; a big rebound in June similarly caught the experts off guard. The July data helps clear up some of the confusion.

“This is a validator,” said Michael Gapen, chief United States economist at Barclays. “This is a report that indicates that the slowdown in hiring earlier in the year has been reversed.”

June’s gain was revised upward by 5,000 jobs, and May’s by 13,000. The combination of better gains in the spring and July’s increase in hiring means that the Federal Reserve is likely to have a more vigorous debate about raising interest rates when it meets in September. But most experts think the Fed will wait until December to be sure the economy remains on a solid track.

The Fed said in July, after the most recent meeting of its policy-making committee, that the economy was growing more strongly and there were fewer clouds on the horizon, suggesting it was giving greater consideration to rate increases later this year.

But on the policy-making front, William C. Dudley, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and an influential adviser to Janet L. Yellen, the Fed’s chairwoman, said on Sunday that current economic conditions still called for “caution in raising U.S. short-term interest rates.”

Job openings are spreading. “It’s been a really good summer for hiring all across the country,” said Tom Gimbel, chief executive of LaSalle Network, a recruiting and staffing firm based in Chicago. “Business has been great. Kids coming out of college are getting hired, and we’re seeing a lot of activity in the $50,000 to $150,000 category.”

The upswing in jobs last month also coincided with a sharp drop in unemployment among the least-educated workers, a group that has missed out on nearly all the gains of the current recovery thus far.

Other measures of the labor market suggest that underlying joblessness is higher than the official 4.9 percent rate, although nowhere near the 42 percent level Mr. Trump suggested last fall.

Summary: The new data undercuts Republican arguments that the recovery is faltering and suggests that workers are seeing benefits from the drop in unemployment.


Spring cleaning your house may be a given this time of year, but while you’re at it, it would be worthwhile to tackle your makeup collection.

“Women tend to accumulate a lot of makeup because it’s really fun to buy. I’m always trying out new stuff so my makeup collection is a bit out of control,” says celebrity makeup artist Fiona Stiles, who works with actresses and singers for red-carpet events and fashion shoots. “It’s not easy...

Summary: How to keep your makeup collection fresh, useful and accessible.