"We want to use the experience and knowledge gained during the acquisition of Toll to create a global management base and expand further into Asia and North America," said Takahashi.

Japan Post paid what Macquarie Securities analyst Sam Dobson called a "generous" 49 percent premium over Toll's closing price on the day before the deal became public.

"Typically you would look at a premium of some 25 percent or so on this type of deal, and here we get double that," said Dobson. "That's a lot."

Canon's $2.8 billion for Swedish network video surveillance firm Axis AB was also made at a premium of nearly 50 percent, and Kintetsu's purchase of Singapore's APL Logistics was about 30 percent above what sources said APL's parent company Neptune Orient Lines had been looking for.

The cost of overseas acquisitions funded in U.S. dollars has already risen by more than 25 percent in the last two years as the yen weakened to 119 against the dollar from 95.

Analysts expect the Bank of Japan to embark on more stimulus later this year, a Reuters poll showed this month, which is likely to put further pressure on the yen.

"Everyone thinks that the yen is going to get cheaper, so they think it's better to hurry up now," Ernst & Young's Kaneko said.

Japan's sensitivity to yen weakness has become particularly heightened since the 2011 Fukushima disaster led to the shutdown of its nuclear reactors, costing the country an estimated $28 billion in extra fuel imports annually.

Asahi Kasei president Toshio Asano said the company decided to buy Polypore International Inc's energy storage business on Monday mainly because it fitted the company's growth strategy and would generate synergies, but the yen's trajectory was also a factor the company took into account.

"We thought about it. The pressure is growing," he said.

Summary: With shrinking prospects at home and the weak yen threat, Japanese companies are rushing to buy overseas and seem willing to pay top dollar.


Medical marijuana business licenses saw only a 6 percent increase over that period, while the retail segment has grown about 110 percent. Colorado officials are likely pleased to see consumption shift toward the retail market, because that's where the most tax money is going to be made.

Read MoreMarketers capitalize on pot's high holiday

Colorado's retail marijuana tax is set up as a 15 percent excise tax on the market rate of wholesale marijuana, as well as a 10 percent state tax on retail sales, the standard 2.9 percent state sales tax and local taxes. Medical marijuana brings in only the standard sales tax and some additional money from separate licenses and fees.

The state brought in about $53 million in taxes, licenses and fees from marijuana in 2014. Only about 22 percent of that amount came from medical marijuana licenses or taxes, and the rest came from the retail market. Many found the state's total pull from marijuana taxes to be underwhelming, but the shift toward retail is a good sign for next year.

Summary: Medical marijuana leads by volume, but retail sales are bringing in all the tax money.


08/28/2015 AT 02:05 PM EDT

three years ago, but her health struggles didn't stop there.

The actress developed lymphedema, the buildup of fluid in soft tissues, which causes swelling in the arms and legs.

"I have a very mild case, but I have to wear compression garments from time to time, and it really does affect quality of life," Bates, 67, tells PEOPLE.

star was angry about her diagnosis.

"I think sometimes you get depressed and think, 'Why do I have to deal with this every day?' " she says. "I get angry about it and I get worn out with it and I get frustrated."

But now, as an ambassador for the

[LE&RN], the Academy Award winner is hoping to spread awareness about the disease that affects up to 10 million Americans and can be "debilitating," Bates says.

"Now when I attend social events wearing my [compression] sleeves, I feel less self-conscious," she says. "I

people to ask me about it."

"Maybe if people can put my face on lymphedema," she adds, "then more people will be willing to come out of the shadows and talk about it."

Summary: As an ambassador for the Lymphatic Education and Research Network, Kathy Bates is hoping to spread awareness about the "debilitating disease"


ABUJA, July 1 (Reuters) - Nigeria should merge its debt-laden airlines and create a national carrier in partnership with a global airline to boost revenue and create jobs, a ruling party strategy report seen by Reuters on Wednesday shows.

Muhammadu Buhari, who was sworn in as president of Africa's top oil producer and biggest economy on May 29, is considering recommendations in the strategy document produced by a 19-member committee from his All Progressives Congress (APC) party.

The report may influence policy decisions by Buhari, who was elected on an anti-corruption ticket and has vowed to recover billions of dollars allegedly stolen by officials. He has, however, been criticized for not naming a cabinet yet and party officials say it may not happen until September.

Three years ago, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), a state-backed "bad bank" established in 2009, took on more than 132 billion naira ($663 million) of debts from 12 Nigerian airlines including the biggest carrier, Arik, and Aero.

The APC strategy document says the aviation ministry should create a national airline "in partnership with a global airline," which would involve "merging all airlines currently with AMCON," to serve as a West and Central African hub.

The report, submitted to Buhari about two weeks ago, says the proposals would lead to "increased revenue, reduce capital flight, expand the local aviation industry and create more employment opportunities due to the scale created."

British billionaire Richard Branson set up domestic and international carrier Virgin Nigeria in 2000, but pulled out in 2010 in frustration at what he said was interference by politicians and regulators.

The airline he created, which was later rebranded Air Nigeria, closed in 2012 after collapsing under about 35 billion naira of debt which left it unable to pay staff, a former finance director of the company told Reuters at the time.

The APC strategy report also proposes upgrading the airport in the capital Abuja by building a second runway, as a possible way to increase passenger numbers.

The report says airline operators should be required to have a minimum of five planes, rather than three now, and capital requirements should be increased to 2.5 billion naira for a domestic carrier and 5 billion for an international one.

(Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by David Clarke and Mark Potter)

Summary: ABUJA, July 1- Nigeria should merge its debt-laden airlines and create a national carrier in partnership with a global airline to boost revenue and create jobs, a ruling party strategy report seen by Reuters on Wednesday shows. Muhammadu Buhari, who was sworn in as president of Africa's top oil producer and biggest economy on May 29, is considering...


DETROIT, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The Detroit Three automakers are showing increased interest in the United Auto Workers union's proposal that they pool their healthcare systems, a sign that contract talks between the union and manufacturers are down to the big money issues.

The UAW and bargainers for General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles face a Sept. 14 deadline to negotiate new labor agreements for 142,000 U.S. workers. Rising healthcare costs have emerged as a stumbling block in the way of raises for blue collar workers.

UAW President Dennis Williams has for months advocated replacing company-run plans with a cooperative that would cover U.S. workers at all three companies and have a more powerful bargaining position with healthcare providers.

"We are talking to them about a co-op and it is an idea we support," FCA said in a statement Thursday that was the clearest signal yet that automakers are giving serious consideration to Williams' proposal.

GM said, "The pressures of rising health care costs require collaboration to find creative solutions," but didn't explicitly endorse the cooperative idea. On Wednesday, Ford Chairman Bill Ford said his company was discussing the idea with the union.

Williams and officials at the Detroit Three have said rising health care costs, a wage system in which new hires are paid significantly less than veterans, pension liabilities and future investment in UAW-represented plants are the key issues they want to address in this round of contract bargaining.

The Detroit Three shifted health care costs for about 900,000 UAW retirees to union-managed trusts as part of a 2007 agreement. The automakers say their combined spending on healthcare is $2.25 billion a year for active UAW workers, up 55 percent from 2011.

A deal to curb healthcare costs would give the automakers and the UAW more flexibility to give pay raises or narrow the wage gap between newly hired UAW workers, who make about $16 an hour, and veterans hired before 2011, who make about $28 an hour.

Workers at the three U.S. automakers have made bonus checks based on their employer's North American profits as the companies have rebounded from the recession. But veteran UAW workers have not had a base wage increase in nearly a decade.

The UAW wants automakers to commit to investments to secure U.S. jobs. The July disclosure that Ford plans to shift some small car production to Mexico jarred UAW leaders.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Summary: DETROIT, Sept 3- The Detroit Three automakers are showing increased interest in the United Auto Workers union's proposal that they pool their healthcare systems, a sign that contract talks between the union and manufacturers are down to the big money issues. The UAW and bargainers for General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles face a Sept. 14...


While Google's business model marks a significant change for the industry, its wireless service will not be available to everyone, at least not at first.

Initially, Google's wireless plan is expected to only work with its Nexus 6 smartphones, and the devices are expected to be capable of switching between T-Mobile and Sprint's networks depending on which one has the stronger signal, according to the report.

The new service may also utilize Wi-Fi networks to make phone calls and service other data, according to the report.

Wireless isn't the only sector that Google is disrupting. The tech giant's high-speed broadband Google Fiber business has already pushed some of the biggest broadband companies like Comcast to ramp up the speed on their competing services.

Read the Journal's full report here.

Summary: The wireless industry is about to get some more competition.


06/04/2015 AT 08:40 AM EDT

is giving Instagram a try.

The actress, who already counts

on Wednesday – just in time to post a celebratory pic of the

cast on the night of the series finale.

"For my first Instagram post I wanted to say how much I love these girls dearly. What a great time we had. #HOTFinale #ThanksForTheLaughs," she wrote next to the photo, in which she poses with costars

, Wendie Malick and Jane Leeves – all of them raising a glass of champagne.

Expect those followers to keep piling up: Just overnight she pulled in almost 20,000.

Summary: The actress celebrates the Hot in Cleveland series finale by posting a cute cast photo


The tour represents an unprecedented grass-roots effort to get developers on board. "We want to go out and meet people where they are, where they're building, hear the challenges that they're facing, see how we can help them and see what comes out of the whole thing," said Douglas.

Read MoreTwitter shares rise amid Google acquisition rumors

On stage in Los Angeles, Douglas and her team talked about how Fabric can help developers build their apps, and shared lessons learned from building the software developer kits for Twitter, Crashlytics, the company's debugging and testing tool, and MoPub, its mobile ad exchange.

"One of the things that inspired us to create this platform was that we had some bumps along the road ourselves when we were creating our mobile app," Douglas told developers, referring to the company's struggles with the "fail whale," and the solution it found in its acquisition of Crashlytics.

Developers' feedback at Thursday's event was largely positive. "There's a lot of people, a lot of companies here, the mingling has been pretty amazing," said Sergio Trevino, a senior software engineer at HR Cloud, software service for human resources professionals.

Read More Ex-Hulu CEO's new video service launches in beta

HR Cloud is not yet using Fabric, and Trevino was looking to understand how it might integrate Twitter's new tools. "I need more tips, you know, we're not very familiar with the platform, but we're evaluating our new technologies that we're gonna use, and this is definitely one of them. ... There are many services out there, but if we can just integrate it into one place, I think that's pretty valuable for our business."

Summary: Twitter is taking its pitch to developers—and attempting to reinvent itself—on the road, with Twitter Flock.


Stock markets appear to be in the throes of a secular bull run, albeit selectively, and currently in pause mode after last year's spectacular gains.

Ironically it's the countries that have central banks engaging in an unprecedented global monetary expansion to boost growth, although anemic at best, which are the big winners.

And in the path for asset-market reflation-based policies, banks in particular stand out as clear sector beneficiaries of economic engineering. Why? Because banks are the backbone of all economies, so when asset prices rise, and economic activity picks up, lending and borrowing follow suit.

Read MoreThe world's 10 safest banks, ranked

That may appear too easy to apply as a fool-proof investment thesis for investors, but overall analysts in a CNBC banking poll say the sector should perform if the overall economy does too.

So after stellar equity market gains in 2013, how do banks stack up for 2014? In the context of Asian markets, the region is a melting pot of many different markets with different classifications ranging from frontier markets to developed markets.

In identifying which banks would be analysts' top choices for 2014, I broke up the CNBC poll surveys based on themes that are currently being explored by various analysts. The three regions are North Asia, Greater China and Southeast Asia. The methodology for each is quite different, as are the circumstances.

We start with Japan, because that's exactly where the worlds' most expansive monetary easing policy is taking place. If 'Abenomics' is to work by successfully lifting Japan out of a prolonged and agonizing deflationary run, banks should be the main beneficiaries.

Read MoreJapan business sentiment improves a touch: Tankan

Citi is bullish on Japan banks based on the following principles: a) perfectly recovered loan growth, b) potential steepening of yield thanks to reflation and U.S. tapering, c) overseas expansion (for mega banks) and d) valuation re-rating after the markets fully discount the core profitability outlook. Overall, the top picks from the pool of analysts polled, SMFG and MUFG were the preferred ones.

Summary: In identifying which banks would be top choices for 2014, CNBC conducted a surveys based on themes that are currently being explored by various analysts.


Eataly is planning to expand the concept further beyond its first Big Apple location.

"Our idea is more or less everywhere where we are going to open up a new Eataly in the world to put a Nutella bar," said Dino Borri, Eataly's head buyer. Currently it has Nutella bars in Sao Paolo, Chicago, Dubai and Milan.

The growing taste for the sweet confection has sent Ferrero in search of hazelnuts, which have become increasingly scarce and pricey.

The world's voracious appetite for Nutella is reflected in how quickly it tends to move off the shelves—and consumers' willingness to slather it over pancakes, toast, waffles and just about everything else. Entire Interent sites are devoted to explaining how to make the spread at home, as well as dozens of ways to prepare it in other dishes.

Nutella sales in the U.S. rose 5.2 percent to 2014 from the year before, according to market research firm Euromonitor.

Summary: Eataly is betting on Nutella "bars" devoted to selling creations made from the popular chocolate hazelnut spread.


Technical analysts often look at this 'Dow Theory' as a preview of what's to come in the broader market, and according to Yamada, "unless the divergence is eliminated, the risk of decline is pretty consistent." She pointed to two previous instances in which this divergence has proved to be bearish, in 1999-2000 and again in 2007. "Both of those instances took much longer than the six months we've seen thus far," she said. "But at the moment it's certainly an alert to us to remain cautious."

Of course, there are those who believe the 'Dow Theory' may be outdated.

Read MoreStock market correction by October: Strategist

Yamada added that the technicals on the market suggest that it could be "thinning" under the surface, as only a select number of stocks are making new highs. "Of the Dow stocks there are about seven or eight that are in distribution phases, and if you think of the Dow as a wall of 30 bricks, as you have more and more bricks dropping out, eventually the integrity of the wall is challenged," said Yamada.

Of whether we will see the pullback this summer, Yamada said, "it's quite possible that we will get something in the range of a correction which is defined at 10 to 20 percent down from the high."

Summary: Top technician Louise Yamada tells why the divergence between the Dow transports and Dow industrials could signal a deep correction soon.


While payrolls missed a forecast for an increase of 223,000 by economists in a Reuters poll, the report still showed improvement. Payrolls data for May and June were revised to show 14,000 more jobs created than previously reported. In addition, the average workweek increased to 34.6 hours, the highest since February.

The "curve flattener" trade of slightly higher short-term yields and lower long-term yields showed traders leaning toward the view that the Fed was on track to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade next month, analysts said.

The yield spread between five-year and 30-year Treasuries was at 125 basis points after the data, marking the tightest spread since April. Bond yields move inversely to prices.

""The number didn't give the market a surprise here, it just reinforced expectations for higher rates in September," said Sharon Stark, chief fixed income strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The curve has flattened since short-dated prices are expected to weaken once the Fed raises rates, while the lower inflation expected to come with rate hikes is beneficial to longer-dated Treasuries since it preserves the value of interest payouts.

"The 30-year yield broke down after the report came out, exactly because of that concern, because what if the Fed raises rates, what will it do with long-term inflation expectations? It will deter inflation," said Robbert Van Batenburg, director of market strategy at Societe Generale in New York.

U.S. two-year notes were last down 2/32 in price to yield 0.74 percent, from 0.71 percent late Thursday. U.S. 30-year bonds were last up 25/32 in price to yield 2.87 percent, from 2.91 percent late Thursday.

Benchmark 10-year notes were last up 5/32 in price to yield 2.22 percent, from a yield of 2.23 percent late Thursday.

Summary: U.S. bond prices rose after earlier dropping as all-important non-farm payrolls data fell short of forecasts.


Lions wide receiver Ryan Broyles signed a contract with more than a million in guaranteed money, but his annual budget reflects one of a much smaller salary: $60,000 a year between him and his wife.

Broyles wanted to make sure his NFL career, however long it lasts, really did set him up for life.

"Then you know how much you can invest, how risky you can be," Broyles said, as he enters the last year of his rookie contract with no guarantee he'll make the Lions roster. "Then, when I was hitting the same budget over three, four, five months, it was all right, this is what your budget is and I had some spending money."

Read more from USA Today: Ronda Rousey says she could take Floyd Mayweather in no-rules fight during Reddit AMA DeAngelo Williams is just happy that Madden NFL 16 got his hair right David Beckham bashes journalist that criticized his parenting

Summary: Despite signing an NFL contract worth more than $1 million in guaranteed money WR Ryan Broyles lives off $60K, reports USA Today.


“Heart of a Dog” is a unique, exceptionally touching cinematic tone-poem on the subject of mourning and a movie that only Laurie Anderson could have made. It’s also a film in which the mourned object itself is nearly invisible. Only once before the last moments of this 75-minute art-documentary do we glimpse an image of Lou Reed, the late rock legend and the filmmaker’s husband. And that is a very Laurie Anderson tactic: fashioning a memorial on the subjects of life and death and the gray areas between them while maintaining a hole at the center of the work that’s too painful to look at directly.

As its title indicates, “Heart of a Dog” is also about Anderson’s faithful rat terrier, Lolabelle, who has also passed on to the great beyond and whose final days the artist confronts with love and dry humor. (After Lolabelle went blind in old age, Anderson taught her to play piano and paint, which is hard to believe until you watch the deadpan video evidence here.) The movie expands and contracts to take in the death of Anderson’s aged Midwestern mother as well — her last words were “Tell the animals. Tell all the animals.” — and the unthinkable existential grief occasioned by the attack on New York’s World Trade Center, which Anderson witnessed from a front row seat in her apartment downtown.

All of this only sounds depressing as hell if you’ve never experienced an Anderson performance. The elfin avant-gardist, now 68, narrates “Heart of a Dog” in the same calm, comic, karmic tone that animated her “United States” stage extravaganza back in the 1980s (and the single spun out of it,“O Superman,” which went all the way to No. 2 in England). She has the knack of making connections that are both funny and deeply foreboding. Here, she speaks of a hawk swooping down upon Lolabelle during a walk in the country and the dog’s reaction reminding her of New Yorkers after 9/11: the shocked realization that death “could come from the air, and that it would be that way from now on.” Or her thoughts on one of the mantras for our anxious new age, “If you see something, say something” — “It sounds like Wittgenstein.”

Visually, “Heart of a Dog” is an artful collage of animations, archival footage, canine re-enactments, and layered elements that seems to weave in and out of focus; the soundtrack mixes shards of recorded music and Anderson’s original, violin-based compositions, often paralyzingly beautiful. It’s a bit like a slide presentation from the Id. What holds it together is the artist’s lucidity and a sense of wonder that, for her, renders everything freshly seen. Which is maybe the definition of an artist right there.

The film loses its grip only once, and then intentionally, during a long section devoted to the “bardo,” the Buddhist concept of the waiting period between a person’s lives. (Anderson is a practitioner, as was her husband.) Even if you don’t buy into the notion of reincarnation — I’m not sure she does — the sequence feels like the slow dispersal of a person’s consciousness in the moments after death, a sort of great unwinding.

It helps to keep the unmentioned Reed, blunt and acerbic, in the back of your mind during such scenes, because it sharpens the fondness in every frame of his widow’s unorthodox elegy. “Every love story is a ghost story,” the filmmaker muses, quoting David Foster Wallace (who himself continues to haunt our culture). “Heart of a Dog” is a reconciliation with all the ghosts of Anderson’s life, and it works its way toward the revelation “that the purpose of death is the release of love.” In a very real way, this movie is that release, fashioned from words, sounds, images, and emotions.

Written and directed by Laurie Anderson. Starring Anderson, Lolabelle. At Kendall Square. 75 minutes. Unrated (mature thoughts on loss and grief).

Summary: “Heart of a Dog” review: A uniquely touching cinematic tone-poem on the subject of mourning, and a movie that only Laurie Anderson could have made.


11/26/2015 AT 09:30 AM EST

is opening up about her divorce from

reports that in a new interview with

for their January issue, Lambert reveals: "Marriage is a tough business, and we gave it our best college try," adding that she is still trying to process everything.

After 10 years together, the country superstars called it quits

, ending their four-year marriage. Shelton – who has since begun a

– filed for divorce on July 6 in Oklahoma.

Lambert, 32, reportedly tells the magazine that she is not yet ready to date again. "I had a great relationship with an amazing man, so I know what good is. I have a great launching pad for the future. I will never take that for granted," she explains.

The "Little Red Wagon" star also talked about her next steps in moving on, saying: "Some of that might mean nights on my porch crying, drinking whiskey, and going, 'Man, this sucks right now.'"

On Wednesday, Lambert – who

earlier this month – told fans that she was headed home for the holidays to spend

"Nothing beats a handwritten note from Mom. #homesweethome #cheetosandwine," the country star captioned her Instagram snap.

Summary: Miranda Lambert has spoken about her divorce from Blake Shelton to Cosmopolitan


(Read more: Starbucks asks U.S. patrons to leave guns at home)

He said that people on both sides of the issue had used the cafés "as staging grounds for their own position as recently as last month. And in view of that, Starbucks has been mischaracterized and misrepresented on either side of the issue."

Schultz also said that laws that allow residents to carry firearms have been "quite confusing and ambiguous for many people around the country."

(Read more: Starbucks boosts its outlook amid strong sales)

As a result, "when a person legally is carrying a gun and decides to walk into a Starbucks store, I think our customers and young children are tremendously uncomfortable and somewhat jarred from the experience," he said. "And we've just come to the conclusion that we're not anti-gun, we're not pro-gun, but guns should not be part of the Starbucks experience."

Schultz emphasized that Starbucks was not issuing an outright ban on guns at its stores, nor would it enforce its request that patrons not carry weapons inside.

(Read more: Starbucks CEO on 'Mad Money': We're in early stages of growth)

"So anyone who does not respectfully honor the policy, we're still going to serve you, we're going to honor your business as a customer, and we'll go on with our day," he said. "But we think the vast majority of Americans will understand the policy, will think it's reasonable, and most people will, I think, respect the request."

Shares of Starbucks rose 1.7 percent to close at $77.33.

— By CNBC's Bruno J. Navarro. Follow him on Twitter @Bruno_J_Navarro.

Trader disclosure: On Sept. 18, 2013, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Dan Nathan is long NFLX; Dan Nathan is long IBM; Dan Nathan is long TSLA; Dan Nathan is long CAT; Dan Nathan is long MSFT; Dan Nathan is long FXI; Dan Nathan is long WFM; Dan Nathan is long ZNGA; Dan Nathan is long XCO; Dan Nathan is long SPY; Tim Seymour is long BAC; Tim Seymour is long INTC; Tim Seymour is long NOK; Brian Kelly is long oil; Brian Kelly is long natural gas; Guy Adami is long C; Guy Adami is long GS; Guy Adami is long INTC; Guy Adami is long MSFT; Guy Adami is long AGU; Guy Adami is long NUE; Guy Adami is long BTU; Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.

Summary: "I think our customers and young children are tremendously uncomfortable and somewhat jarred from the experience," Howard Schultz says.


Michael Vitar in 1993's The Sandlot.

20th Century FOX/Courtesy Everett Collection

Michael Vitar – an off-duty firefighter and one of the stars of

– has been charged with assault after he was accused along with two other men of attacking a man on Halloween,

But his attorney tells PEOPLE that Vitar was "peripheral" to the incident and is innocent of the charge, while the attorney for a second defendant says his client used "reasonable force under the circumstances."

The DA's office alleges that Vitar was attending a Halloween party on Oct. 31 at the home of Eric Carpenter, also an off-duty L.A. firefighter, when he, Carpenter and Thomas Molnar "became upset when a 22-year-old man visiting his grandmother in the area was handing out candy to kids as he walked down the street."

Prosecutors allege that "after chasing the victim down the street, the three defendants reportedly jumped him. They then allegedly forced the victim to the ground before Carpenter choked him."

Vitar, 36, is charged with one count of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, the DA's office said in a release.

Best known for his role as Benny Rodriguez in 1993's

, Vitar also appeared in

Carpenter, 38, and Molnar, 45, are also each charged with one count of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, while Carpenter is additionally charged with personally inflicting great bodily injury on the victim, according to the DA's release.

But attorneys for the trio argue instead that the victim's behavior was bizarre, raising their suspicions around their kids; and that they were escorting him away when he "ran back," Molnar's attorney, Arthur Avazian,

They were trying to detain the man, the attorneys said, according to the AP.

Vitar was allegedly "peripheral" to the incident which was "very ambiguous" as it was described to Vitar, his attorney, Joseph Gutierrez, tells PEOPLE.

Vitar arrived several minutes after it had begun and "was basically calming the situation," Gutierrez says.

The evidence will show "unequivocally" that Vitar is innocent, Gutierrez says.

Carpenter's attorney, Michael A. Goldstein, disputed the DA's version of events, telling PEOPLE that instead of being chased, the victim was calmly asked to leave the area.

But Goldstein says the victim refused and instead moved back toward Carpenter's property, inciting the altercation in which Carpenter put his hands on the victim's neck.

"Reasonable force under the circumstances was used to subdue the gentleman," Goldstein says, adding, "Nobody wanted this gentleman to sustain any injuries."

Gutierrez and Goldstein both say their clients called authorities at the scene and worked to resuscitate the victim after he lost consciousness.

Carpenter and Vitar will both plead not guilty, their attorneys say.

PEOPLE was not immediately able to reach Avazian for comment. It could not be immediately confirmed how Molnar would plead.

The three men are out of jail, according to the AP, and are scheduled to be arraigned on Jan. 21, according to the DA's release.

Carpenter and Vitar have been placed on paid leave, according to the AP.

Vitar faces up to four years in state prison, if convicted, according to the release, and Carpenter and Molnar face up to seven and four years, respectively.

Representatives with the Los Angeles Fire Department and the DA's office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

Summary: Best known for his role as Benny Rodriguez in 1993's The Sandlot, Vitar also appeared in D2: The Mighty Ducks and NYPD Blue


A row of familiar faces will line up inside a Bath gallery this month as celebrated artists and writers such as Maggi Hambling and Philip Pullman sell self-portraits to raise money for The Big Draw, an annual campaign to get people drawing.

Hambling, the portraitist and sculptor, will join James Lloyd, a former winner of the BP Portrait award, painter Emrys Williams and Royal Academician Chris Orr, along with the writers Pullman and Willy Russell, in a sale of original images, all donated to promote the cause of drawing.

The architect Piers Gough and Christopher Frayling, the writer and former rector of the Royal College of Art, are also among those who have picked up a mirror and a pencil and tried to put down a recognisable sketch of their features. Their handiwork will stand next to self-portraits by Observer political cartoonists Chris Riddell and Martin Rowson.

The Big Draw 2010, which is organised by the Campaign for Drawing, takes place throughout this month in hundreds of venues, including Bristol, Liverpool, Glasgow and Dulwich. The event is now the largest drawing campaign in the world and this year for the first time events will be staged around the world in tandem, at venues including the Museu Picasso de Barcelona, the Getty Center and Huntington Library in Los Angeles, the National Art School in Sydney, the Architecture Biennale in Venice, and various locations in Berlin.

"Drawing is a vital part of every creative process," said David Hockney, patron of the Campaign for Drawing. "It should be part of a visual education, in the same way that doing press-ups is part of an athlete's training."

Josie Reed, director of the Chapel Row Gallery, which is mounting the self-portrait sale in Bath, said that it offered a rare chance to buy unique work, much of which will be highly collectible.

Summary: Philip Pullman and James Lloyd among those donating their images to be sold for The Big Draw campaign


As dynasty-launching images go, Earl Cooper offered a cool one.

Cooper mostly lived in the background on the 1981 49ers, a fullback quietly catching passes out of the backfield while Joe Montana, Dwight Clark and young Ronnie Lott seized the headlines. And then, on the biggest stage of all in Super Bowl XVI, Cooper literally leaped into the forefront.

Sports Illustrated memorably captured the moment on its Feb. 1, 1982 cover — Cooper at the apex of his post-touchdown jump, the ball raised high in his left hand as he prepared for a vigorous spike. Three Cincinnati players appeared in the background, two of them sprawled on the Silverdome turf.

The headline: “The 49ers Hit Pay Dirt.” The subhead: “Earl Cooper’s TD Jolts the Bengals.”

Nearly 34 years later, the image still shadows Cooper. He’s now a high school special education teacher and girls basketball and track coach outside Austin, Texas. One of his fellow teachers at Hendrickson High heard he once played in the NFL, looked him up online and soon sent an e-mail to every teacher at the school, spreading word of his Super Bowl glory.

More than half the teachers had no idea, Cooper said, because he seldom broaches the topic. He still appreciates its impact, even more than three decades removed from his big moment.

“The thing that escalates it for me is it was Joe Montana’s first touchdown pass in the Super Bowl, and the first touchdown pass in 49ers Super Bowl history,” Cooper, 58, said last week. “Then to have that shot on the cover of SI just really enhanced it and made it more meaningful.

“That shot would be forever ingrained with the 49ers and my family.”

Cooper was only 24 at the time of Super Bowl XVI, in his second NFL season. The 49ers had selected him in the first round of the 1980 draft (13th overall), from Rice. Cooper wasn’t sure he would get drafted at all, let alone that high.

His rookie season validated the choice — he thrived in head coach Bill Walsh’s West Coast offense, given its emphasis on short passes. Cooper had 83 catches in 1980, second in the NFL behind Chargers tight end Kellen Winslow (89), and also gained 720 yards rushing.

Those numbers dropped in 1981, but Cooper was still productive (51 catches, 330 yards rushing). He was on the field during The Catch in the NFC Championship Game, blocking when Montana connected with Clark to propel the 49ers into their first Super Bowl.

Then, with the 49ers ahead 7-0 early in the second quarter and driving at the Cincinnati 11-yard line, Walsh called “Slot left fullback 2 hide.” Rough translation: Montana faked a handoff to Cooper, who leaked into the flat, caught the dump-off pass and crashed through two prospective tacklers at the goal line.

“We had run the same play against New England my rookie year and never saw it again until the Super Bowl,” he said. “I caught the ball, and 1,000 things went through my mind. Should I run for the pylon? I figured I might as well turn it upfield and see what I get.…

“Drew Pearson did a double wind-up spike (earlier that season) and hurt his knee. That was my impulse at moment, my plan. I changed my mind in midstream.”

Cooper slammed the football into the turf with so much force, it bounced into the crowd. So much for that memento.

As it turned out, his Super Bowl score marked the apex of Cooper’s career in some ways. He started 27 games in his first two seasons, five in 1982 and only eight more the rest of his career.

The 49ers eventually moved Cooper to tight end. He enjoyed his new position, caught 41 passes in 1984 — when San Francisco earned its second Super Bowl title — but was out of the NFL after a five-game stint with the Raiders in ’86.

Thirty years later, Cooper spends more time working with kids, and watching his daughter play college basketball at Sam Houston State, than he does reflecting on his 49ers days. He occasionally appears at Bay Area card shows, but he’s perfectly content staying in the background in Texas.

“There’s not much use here in Cowboy country for guys on that ’81 S.F. team,” Cooper said. “We might get booed at a card show down here.”

Ron Kroichick is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: rkroichick@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ronkroichick

Summary: Cooper mostly lived in the background on the 1981 49ers, a fullback quietly catching passes out of the backfield while Joe Montana, Dwight Clark and young Ronnie Lott seized the headlines.  Sports Illustrated memorably captured the moment on its Feb. 1, 1982 cover — Cooper at the apex of his post-touchdown jump, the ball raised high in his left hand as he prepared for a vigorous spike.  The headline: “The 49ers Hit Pay Dirt.”  “The thing that escalates it for me is it was Joe Montana’s first touchdown pass in the Super Bowl, and the first touchdown pass in 49ers Super Bowl history,” Cooper, 58, said last week.  [...] to have that shot on the cover of SI just really enhanced it and made it more meaningful.  Cooper was only 24 at the time of Super Bowl XVI, in his second NFL season.  Cooper had 83 catches in 1980, second in the NFL behind Chargers tight end Kellen Winslow (89), and also gained 720 yards rushing.  [...] with the 49ers ahead 7-0 early in the second quarter and driving at the Cincinnati 11-yard line, Walsh called “Slot left fullback 2 hide.”  Montana faked a handoff to Cooper, who leaked into the flat, caught the dump-off pass and crashed through two prospective tacklers at the goal line.  Thirty years later, Cooper spends more time working with kids, and watching his daughter play college basketball at Sam Houston State, than he does reflecting on his 49ers days.


THE LEAST WE CAN EXPECT OF science fiction, which focuses so assiduously on the future, is that it be up to date. According to this criterion, the science-fiction series that have proliferated on television this season -- "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," "Space Rangers" and "Time Trax" -- fall short. Instead of representing an evolutionary step forward from the "Star Trek" era, which began 26 years ago with the first voyage of the starship Enterprise and is still going strong with "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the new shows prompt a sense of deja vu. Inside their futuristic packaging they offer familiar premises and plots mostly borrowed from past television shows and movies.

For all its public resolve to be grittier and sexier than its forebears, "Deep Space Nine," launched this month with a two-hour special (its regular time slot is 7 P.M. Sundays on Channel 11 in New York), comes across as no more than a "Star Trek" spinoff, set in a seedy 24th-century space station instead of a spotless starship. "Space Rangers," which began on CBS this month and is seen at 8 P.M. Wednesdays, offers 22d-century space cops in a higher-tech, lower-brow "Mission: Impossible" laced with secondhand "Aliens." "Babylon 5," a syndicated movie to be broadcast in late February, features yet another space station filled with touchy humans and nonhumans with funny faces and hairdos. "Time Trax, " a syndicated hourlong series (8 P.M. Wednesdays on Channel 9), apes a different model: by setting 22d-century villains loose in 1993 to be chased by a 22d-century policeman, it promises to be an interminable "Terminator."

You might think television would bring out the best in science fiction, whose essence is neither dialogue nor psychological insight but the pictures it awakens in the imagination. Of course, all good fiction asks the reader's cooperation in imagining a credible reality, a detailed, coherent world -- Proust's Paris, Joyce's Dublin, Faulkner's Mississippi -- in which characters can plausibly act and interact. But science fiction asks even more because the elaborate worlds it seeks to construct in the mind -- ecosystems, technologies, social structures -- are themselves imaginary.

In good science fiction, as in all good writing, it's important to get the details right. Science-fiction writers consult texts and experts in astrophysics, meteorology, plate tectonics, evolution, ecology and more to find scientifically defensible justifications for the worlds they want to write about: worlds with gravity a million times stronger than the earth's, worlds where space or time travel are commonplace. Some writers become so involved in these details that they have no energy left to worry about characters or plot, so they fill their ingenious intellectual constructs with stick figures. The best science fiction, however, creates new worlds that cast light on the people who live there -- people whose problems arouse sympathy despite their distance from us in time and space and biology.

In the hands of writers like Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Arthur C. Clarke and Ursula Le Guin, and movie makers like Stanley Kubrick, science fiction can be a powerful stimulus to fresh thinking. It can restore to jaded sensibilities a sense of wonder about the unlimited potential of life in an infinitely large and various universe. Meanwhile, television continues to stumble over the essential first step: creating a background world. The problem is partly lack of money, partly lack of imagination.

To set a story in a plausible 23d-century New York or Paris or Dublin would require the construction of futuristic dwellings, streets, transportation, offices, theaters. With current technology and budgets, this is impossible for a weekly series. "Time Trax," which needs no special sets for present-day scenes, bypasses the problem but runs the risk of looking like every other cops-and-robbers shoot-'em-up. The solution most producers have chosen is to stage the bulk of the action on a permanent indoor set, with telescreens and transporter beams and holodecks to allow limited access to the outside world. Fortuitously, science fiction provides the ideal set: the controlled environment inside a spaceship or space station.

"Star Trek" was hardly the first series to discover this economical solution. In the early 50's, when television was live and special effects were minimal, "Captain Video" and "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" sailed the space lanes, ridding the galaxy of assorted evildoers. Watching these shows placed a special strain on the audience, whose job was not so much to imagine a detailed world of the future as to ignore the obvious gaps in the world on screen. I remember one space captain trying to dodge a collision with the sun by giving a couple of hard turns to a steering wheel that might have been lifted from my father's Oldsmobile 88.

As the original "Star Trek" demonstrated, viewers will forgive almost any inadequacies of style if the characters, however wooden, are amusing enough and if the stories are stimulating. The pilot episode of "Deep Space Nine" had a thought-provoking scene in which Comdr. Benjamin Sisko (played by Avery Brooks, formerly the street-smart Hawk on "Spenser: For Hire") used baseball to explain to a species that lives in an eternal moment what it is like to experience time in a linear manner. At the least, with so many species rubbing noses in cramped quarters, the spaceship/space-station setting can be used to preach against ethnic prejudice, a staple of the original "Star Trek."

But the producers of the new shows have limited their horizons by repeating the "Star Trek" formula so slavishly. By adopting a military model, in which the main characters are bound to one another hierarchically, these shows lose the chance to explore other kinds of social organization. Even on the gentler programs, like "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the temptation to resolve conflict through force is always at hand.

The "Star Trek" universe is more than 300 years in the future, more than enough time for provocative social experiments to have emerged. What about a series set in a society that rotates leadership by gender? Or by lottery? Economies where transactions are measured in units of pleasure and pain instead of money? Such speculations, which animate much of the best science fiction, would not be out of place on television. What might the special-effects wizards be able to create in the way of universities, houses of worship, prisons, parliaments of tomorrow?

Rumor has it that breakthroughs in computer graphics will soon make it possible to match any kind of background illusion with live actors, so characters will be able to stroll through a city of the future as easily as they now dissolve into subatomic particles to be beamed through space. When those illusions become television reality, the only barrier to the creation of good science fiction on the small screen will be the imagination of the creators.

Photo: Rene Auberjonois, left, and Armin Shimerman in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," one of several new science-fiction series -- Cop shows in 22d-century disguise. (Kim Gottlieb-Walker/Paramount)


Smart money moves for 2014

There's not much to do now to reduce your AMT risk for 2013, but experts say taxpayers at risk have lots of moves available for the 2014 tax year."If you've been close or have paid the AMT in the past, you're likely to pay the AMT in the future," Lang said, adding, "If you want to get out of the AMT," he said, "you really want to push earnings into the future."

Taxpayers can also reduce current income with moves like maximizing tax-deductible contributions to IRAs and 401(k)s, he added. And they can offset capital gains by selling money-losing investments.

Luscombe said taxpayers should start by looking at the reasons they faced the AMT in 2013. If a home-equity loan hurt you, for example, think about paying it off. A taxpayer who lives in a state with high state and local taxes like New York might even, as an extreme move, consider changing the primary residence to a state like Florida, which has no income tax, he said.

McKelvey said much AMT strategy involves smart timing of matters, like when to take income or prepay taxes. A number of his clients who own construction companies, for instance, can time their billings to receive income in the current tax year or to wait until the next, allowing them to book income in the year they'll face the lowest tax rate, he explained.

Similarly, clients with stock options can sometimes minimize the overall tax by exercising the option in one year, triggering AMT, and then waiting until a subsequent year to sell the shares. That way, they get a credit on regular tax for the AMT paid earlier.

"That's a timing difference," he explained. "We do models on how that would treat them."

(Read more: Don't Make These Common (and Costly) Tax Mistakes)

Because the new higher tax rates for regular taxes will eliminate AMT for many who have paid it in the past, these taxpayers should reexamine past strategies, said Paul Gevertzman, partner, Anchin, Block & Anchin, a New York City accounting firm. He said that one of his clients, an engineer with a mid-six-figure income, has for years declined to claim a deduction for research and development because he was always subject to AMT, which does not allow this deduction. But with the higher income tax rates, this client will now pay the regular income tax, which does allow that deduction.

So if you're exposed to AMT for 2013, sorry, you may be stuck. To ease the pain of an ugly surprise, do your return as early as possible, and be sure to have some cash on hand to pay a tax bill if it comes to that.

Then follow the experts' advice: Start this year's AMT planning sooner rather than later.

—By Jeff Brown, Special to CNBC.com

Summary: It’s not the rich who have the most to worry about. Some 3.9 million taxpayers are expected to get hit with the AMT for 2013.


Linda Interlichia arrived alone at her family’s Cape Cod vacation home a half-mile from the beach last fall. Her routine there had been unchanged for years: She opened the doors to let the breeze flow in from the marsh and sat on the deck in the afternoon, sipping a glass of Chardonnay.

The second night, ease gave way to dread. Heavy pelvic bleeding left her faint, and the next morning, she drove herself to the emergency room.

It was, she confided to her husband, Frank, among the most frightening episodes in her life. The hemorrhaging under control, she returned home to Rochester, N.Y., and saw her doctor the same week.

To Mrs. Interlichia’s relief, her gynecologist, Wendy Dwyer, linked the bleeding to benign uterine growths, she said, and offered an enticing solution, a brochure extolling a robot-assisted hysterectomy through tiny incisions.

“She slapped it on the table between us as we sat in her office like she was giving me a Christmas present,” Mrs. Interlichia said.

“She said I’d be up and running—she knew I liked to jog—in three weeks with minimal scarring and pain,” she said. “I left thinking I didn’t have a care in the world.”

But her problem wasn’t benign. It was an aggressive cancer, leiomyosarcoma, identified only after her surgery. And Dr. Dwyer had used a laparoscopic power morcellator, a tool inserted through an incision to cut up and remove the uterus.

A morcellator can leave behind bits of malignant tissue that seed multiple new tumors, scientists say. No one told Mrs. Interlichia her October 2013 surgery would use a morcellator, she said. Eight weeks later, another doctor found a softball-size mass and other tumors in her pelvis that he said weren’t there before her hysterectomy.

“It is terrible,” Dr. Dwyer said this month, her voice catching with emotion. “It’s never what I wanted for her.” Little was known about the cancer in the past, she said, and it was good it was now being looked at. She declined to comment further for this story.

Dozens of cases have come to light this year of women whose cancers rapidly worsened after morcellation. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned in April that the tools can worsen cancer. The top U.S. morcellator maker, Johnson & Johnson , halted sales in April, and many hospitals have curtailed their use.

While the newfound scrutiny of the morcellator may save lives, women like Mrs. Interlichia and their families are still paying a grim price for decisions they and their doctors made not long before the alarms rang.

“Looking back now,” Mrs. Interlichia said this June, “I wish I had asked more questions.”

When Mrs. Interlichia, a Rochester copy editor, came to Dr. Dwyer in 2013, most gynecologists still rarely told patients that a morcellator might spread cancer. The risk was considered too small.

Dr. Dwyer didn’t suggest options other than robotic surgery, Mrs. Interlichia said, and “I figured she would tell me what was best.”

She went in for surgery Oct. 21, 2013, expecting a quick recovery. Her husband found her chatting with the nurse in good spirits in the recovery room. “The patient tolerated the procedure well,” Dr. Dwyer wrote in postoperative notes that day.

The shock came 10 days later. As the Interlichias sat in Dr. Dwyer’s office, they said, the gynecologist seemed near tears as she told them what she had thought was a fibroid, a common benign growth, was actually leiomyosarcoma.

“I felt bad for her,” said Mrs. Interlichia. “She was devastated it happened.” Soon after, she dropped off a gift—holiday-themed socks—for Dr. Dwyer.

The couple still hadn’t heard the word “morcellator.”

That came eight weeks later. In late December, she visited Dr. Christopher Awtrey, gynecologic oncology director at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, for exploratory surgery to see if her cancer had spread.

Leiomyosarcoma experts like Dr. Awtrey say there is far greater probability of recovery if surgeons remove the uterus intact. Once spread, the malignancy usually isn’t curable, cancer experts say.

Mrs. Interlichia lay in her hospital bed, gripping her husband’s hand as she listened to Dr. Awtrey explain the morcellator and describe her tumors. Fragments left behind had embedded in her abdomen and grown wildly, he concluded. “That tumor, once morcellated, appeared to be like a small fire with gasoline on it,” he told the Journal.

Mrs. Interlichia told him she wished she had sought a second opinion. “He said I could have gotten a second, third, fourth and fifth opinion, and they would all say the same thing. This has been gynecologists’ common practice,” she said. Dr. Awtrey corroborated the conversation.

In early January, she became aware of surging publicity around the morcellator’s risk. Dr. Amy Reed, a Boston anesthesiologist, had gone public in December with her story: After a hysterectomy for fibroids, she learned a hidden cancer had been morcellated.

Mrs. Interlichia started following news on the issue closely as she began chemotherapy. She lost her long hair, which she had dyed blond. Photos after that point show her with short gray hair.

In April, as she was trying a second type of chemotherapy—the first failed to stop tumor growth—she was shocked to read a Wall Street Journal page-one article showing there had been years of scattered but accumulating evidence of the morcellator’s risk.

Days later, the FDA issued its advisory. That was some comfort, but Mrs. Interlichia was troubled to read of a divide in gynecology: Some doctors were still using the device, insisting the FDA had overreached.

“I think this is mostly public relations and not science,” one doctor told the Journal in a May 21 article Mrs. Interlichia read. Incensed, she would later write to the FDA: “As I lay in my hospital bed after a second surgery to address the damage done by my hysterectomy…I was anything but fodder for a public relations scheme.”

That month, in one of her first public outings after losing her hair, she saw her youngest daughter, Grace, graduate from college. Her other daughter, Katie, was in graduate school in Boston.

Mrs. Interlichia insisted that her illness not throw her two daughters’ lives off track. “Look, if you think you’re going to come back to Rochester and stare at us and cry, that is not what we want,” she told them. The daughters were heartbroken about their mother’s diagnosis, her husband said.

As summer approached, Mrs. Interlichia began frequenting websites for women and families who had morcellation experiences, learning of other women like her in Rochester.

One was Brenda Leuzzi. In 2012, doctors at a University of Rochester Medical Center hospital diagnosed her with bleeding from fibroids. The Zumba instructor had a hysterectomy with morcellation in September 2012, records provided by her lawyer show.

She screamed when she got the call with a postsurgery diagnosis: leiomyosarcoma.

She and her husband, Rochester firefighter George Leuzzi, in May filed suit against J&J’s Ethicon unit, the morcellator’s maker, in New York federal court, alleging it sold an unsafe product and failed to adequately warn of dangers. An Ethicon spokesman said it “acted appropriately and responsibly in the development, testing, marketing, and voluntary withdrawal of our devices.”

When Mrs. Interlichia connected online with Mrs. Leuzzi’s family, Mrs. Leuzzi was already in the late stages of cancer. Mrs. Leuzzi’s uncle, Gene Manley, who planned to testify at FDA hearings on the device, asked Mrs. Interlichia if he could mention her name. She agreed, also writing her letter to the FDA.

“There is no justification in the world for a doctor making my condition worse when it was absolutely avoidable,” she wrote. “I had hopes, dreams, plans and a life I loved. In short, I am a human being, not a data point.”

The Interlichias watched the July FDA hearing on a laptop while she was receiving chemotherapy. One panel member, Craig Shriver, a surgical oncologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, said: “There is at present no safe way to offer laparoscopic power morcellation as part of any minimally invasive surgery.”

But some who testified defended morcellators, Mr. Interlichia said, and “we stopped watching because it was too upsetting to hear such vigorous defense of the process that put her in that infusion chair.”

At the hearing, Mrs. Leuzzi’s uncle found another Rochester-area cancer victim’s husband, Jim Leary, a police officer from Greece, N.Y. Mr. Leary told of how his wife, a church-preschool teacher, had died.

Barb Leary, a mother of two, had come in with bleeding to her gynecologist in 2009. The doctor diagnosed fibroids, and she had morcellation at Rochester General Hospital, according to records provided by her family.

Days later, the pathology report revealed Mrs. Leary had leiomyosarcoma. “It was like getting hit with a baseball bat upside the head,” Mr. Leary said.

Barb Leary died of the cancer in September 2013 at age 52.

The gynecologist who performed her surgery was Dr. Dwyer. A month after Mrs. Leary’s death, Dr. Dwyer, who is affiliated with Rochester General, would morcellate Mrs. Interlichia.

Mrs. Interlichia knew of Mrs. Leary through an online community. “When I learned she had done this before, unfortunately to Barbara, I was stunned,” Mrs. Interlichia said of Dr. Dwyer after a Journal reporter told her of the connection. “It’s a depth of anger and shock that’s hard to quantify or express.”

Dr. Eugene Toy, Rochester General’s chief of obstetrics and gynecology, declined to discuss patients. Rochester General, where Mrs. Interlichia and Mrs. Leary had their surgeries, suspended power morcellation after the FDA advisory, and he said the new policy showed the hospital was doing all it could to reduce risks.

Mrs. Interlichia wrote Mr. Leary an email suggesting they meet, but she became too ill. Her MRI showed two tumors were growing and several new ones had appeared.

Instead, in August, her husband met Mr. Leary at a Rochester Italian restaurant. Mr. Interlichia had a beer. Mr. Leary nursed a Jack Daniel’s. Each ordered another.

“For the first time, I was able to really talk to someone who understands what I went through with Barb,” Mr. Leary said. He shared the little things he had done as she weakened, like how he learned the smell of coffee made her feel nauseated and stopped making it around her.

“We drank a bit and talked about our sad, common bond,” Mr. Interlichia, who oversees fundraising at the University of Rochester Medical Center, said a few days afterward. “We certainly share anger.”

Soon their group included Mr. Leuzzi, who knew of Mrs. Interlichia’s case from support websites. “There’s a unique bond between the three of us,” Mr. Leuzzi said. “I can’t describe how terrible this ordeal has been,” he said. “There’s only a few people out there who understand that.”

Late this summer, Mr. Leuzzi was busy caring for his wife, who was often doubled over in pain.

Her cancer was “unexpected and tragic,” said Dr. Marit Sheffield, who evaluated Mrs. Leuzzi before surgery. Her surgeon, Uma Penmetsa, said of Mrs. Leuzzi that “she is helping physicians to rethink if, when, and how to use power morcellation, which until recently, has been standard practice.”

The two doctors declined to say whether they told Mrs. Leuzzi about the morcellator and its risks. University of Rochester said its hospitals stopped using power morcellators in May.

Dr. Joseph Skitzki, a sarcoma specialist at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., evaluated Mrs. Leuzzi this year and said he believes morcellation worsened her cancer.

In an interview this summer, Mrs. Leuzzi said she was heartbroken she wouldn’t see her 3-year-old daughter, Peyton, grow up. She blamed morcellation for robbing her of a fair fight against her cancer.

With another procedure, Mrs. Leuzzi said, “I would have had more time.”

Mrs. Interlichia, too, had other minimally invasive options that would have given her a fighting chance, Dr. Awtrey said. Preoperative tests, he believed, showed she could have had a vaginal hysterectomy.

“My most fervent wish,” Mrs. Interlichia said this summer, “is to make sure this never happens to anyone else.”

By September, Mrs. Leuzzi was too weak to talk. Mrs. Interlichia had tried three types of chemotherapy, but her tumors kept growing. Midmonth, she traveled with her husband to their Cape Cod house but could only manage walks to the end of the street.

By October, Mrs. Leuzzi was bedridden. Mrs. Interlichia, who needed help standing up, eventually stopped treatment. “I am not afraid,” she told her husband.

Brenda Leuzzi died Oct. 24, 2014, at age 44.

Linda Interlichia died one week later, on Halloween. She was 55.

Write to Jennifer Levitz at jennifer.levitz@wsj.com and Jon Kamp at jon.kamp@wsj.com

Summary: While scrutiny over the power morcellator may save lives, women like Linda Interlichia are paying a grim price for decisions made before the alarms rang about the hysterectomy tool.


NEW YORK — Apple Inc. said it may not be needed to help unlock an iPhone connected to a drug case in New York if the government finds a way without its assistance to get into a phone used by the gunman in the December massacre in San Bernardino, Calif.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Monday that it was approached by an unidentified third party about a possible method to get into the San Bernardino shooter’s phone.

Apple has been fighting attempts to force it to unlock the drug dealer’s phone for months before the California case thrust the battle between the company and the government into the spotlight.

Apple on Thursday asked a federal judge in Brooklyn to delay a deadline for submissions in the case there, saying the government may not need its help if the same method the government is using in California can be used in New York. US District Judge Margo Brodie on Friday gave the government until March 29 to respond to Apple’s letter.

“If the DOJ claims that the method will not work on the iPhone here, Apple will seek to test that claim, as well as any claims by the government that other methods cannot be used,” attorneys for Apple said in the letter.

The government is appealing a magistrate judge’s ruling from February that the company doesn’t have to cooperate with investigators in the Brooklyn iPhone case.

The government has sought Apple’s help because self-destruct features on newer iPhones wipe out data if prosecutors try “brute force” techniques to hack in. The contents of the drug dealer’s phone were not backed up to remote cloud storage, leaving the physical device as the only source of data, US officials said.

The company said any movement on the case should wait until after April 5, when the Justice Department is scheduled to report the status of its efforts to test its potential work-around in the San Bernardino case.

The technology in the cases differ. The dealer’s phone in Brooklyn uses iOS 7, an older form of operating system that Apple had routinely been able to hack using a secret process at its company headquarters.

The shooter’s phone used a newer operating system, designed to be more secure so that even Apple itself could not break into it.

Summary: Apple Inc. said it may not be needed to help unlock an iPhone connected to a drug case in New York if the government finds a way without its assistance to get into the phone used by the gunman in the December massacre in San Bernardino, California.


BUENOS AIRES, April 1 (AP)—Alejandro Lavorante, former Argentine heavyweight champion, died today in Mendoza as the result of ring injuries suffered a year and a half ago. He was 27 years old.

Lavorante was the third wellknown boxer to die from injuries in recent years.

Benny Paret of New York the welterweight champion, died April 3, 1962, after having been knocked out by Emile Griffith of New York in the 12th round of a fight at Madison Square Garden on March 24, 1962.

Davey Moore of Los Angeles, the featherweight titleholder, died March 25, 1963, after having been knocked out by Urtiminio (Sugar) Ramos of Cuba in the 10th round of a title bout in Los Angeles on March 21, 1963.

Lavorante never fully recovered consciousness after a freakish knockout by Johnny Riggins in Los Angeles on Sept. 21,1962. He underwent three brain operations, the first only hours after the knockout.

In time he learned to speak a few words, to walk from a wheelchair to his bed and to eat his food unassisted

He was taken home to Rosario, Argentina, after eight months in a Los Angeles hospital and seemed to understand where he was going. But doctors never held out hope for his complete recovery

“I just kept hoping and praying he would come through. He was a good fighter and could have gone up.” said Riggins today in San Francisco when he heard of Lavorante's death.

3 Knockouts in 6 Months

The knockout by Riggins, a little‐known heavyweight, was the third suffered by Lavorante in six months. He had been stopped by the former lightheavyweight champion, Archie Moore, in 10 rounds on March 30, 1962. Cassius Clay, now world heavyweight champion, knocked him out in the fifth round on July 20, 1962.

Before his first knockout defeat, by Moore, Lavorante had beaten such fighters as Zora Folley, Willi Besmanoff, Alonzo Johnson and Von Clay in 1961

Early in 1963 the boxer's father, Alejandro Lavorante Sr., obtained a court order permitting him to take his son back to Argentina. The journey was made on June 30, after the fighter's parents had settled a claim for $9,878 in unpaid income taxes.

The California Boxers and Wrestlers Fund paid part of Lavorante's Los Angeles hospital expenses. California Lutheran Hospital dropped an attempt to collect the remainder of the bill before Lavorante was taken home.

After his return, he underwent therapeutic treatment at a Rosario clinic and later was taken home. Doctors said he showed some signs of improvement there, although he never fully regained consciousness and his weight dropped to 165 pounds.

In Des Moines, Iowa, Lavorante's manager, Paul L. (Pinkie) George, said he thought it was a mistake to return Layorante to Argentina. He said he thought the boxer would have received better care in the U nited States.

The funeral will be at Mendoza tomorrow.

This article can be viewed in its original form. Please send questions and feedback to archive_feedback@nytimes.com

Summary: A Lavorante dies of injuries reed in Sept '62 bout, Los Angeles; was in semi-coma since then


04/14/2016 AT 04:40 PM EDT

If it's Thursday and the Kardashians don't

, is it even really a Thursday?

The answer to that is no, no it's not, because nary a Thursday goes by without at least one member of the famous family sharing a few gems to remind us what they looked like before they were

to share a few epic throwbacks to her 20th birthday in anticipation of turning 37 on Monday.

Though the pictures speak for themselves (the eyebrows alone

year 2000), Kardashian filled us in with a little more info about how she celebrated the big 2-0.

Kourtney Kardashian with Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian and others

"When I turned 20, I was living in Dallas, where I was attending Southern Methodist University," she wrote. "My mom

, her best friend Shelli Azoff (my pretend mom), Shelli's daughter (and one of my closest friends) Allison, [my sister]

and Cici all surprised me and flew to Dallas for the weekend."

"They threw me a surprise party at one of my favorite restaurants – the Crescent Court Hotel, where we all stayed," she added. "I wore a bright pink Dolce & Gabbana dress, which I remember thinking was so cool at the time."

Hey, it's still cool, Kourtney. And with that flower crown, we should have known to

Summary: Kourtney Kardashian will turn 37 on Monday


“A film should have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but not necessarily in that order.” So goes Jean-Luc Godard’s oft-repeated bon mot, and he is just one of many influences Dennis Hauck displays in his debut film, “Too Late.”

Divided into five parts, often cleverly connected, “Too Late” begins somewhere near the middle of the story.

It wastes no time explaining the title. Dorothy (Crystal Reed) wanders around a wooded, lonely place in LA. She calls private investigator Mel Sampson (a gaunt and tortured John Hawkes), reminding him of their past liaison and asking for help with an undisclosed problem.

Sampson drives to her rescue. Dorothy, meanwhile, passes the time unwisely chatting with unsavory strangers and by the time Sampson gets there he is. . . (Cue the title).

A few things you’ll notice. First, like the beginning of “Touch of Evil” and “The Player” (and the entirety of “Russian Ark”), this segment, as well as the other four, seemingly consists of one take, incorporating long tracking shots, slow zooms, portentous pans, and an occasional split screen. Second, without this showy technical tour de force, the noirish plot and characters would barely register.

This is a film about film — not necessarily the art form, but the 35mm celluloid itself — shot by a camera, put on reels, and projected to an audience (Hauck insists that “Too Late” be viewed no other way). Hauck achieves this formal self-consciousness sometimes with admirable invention and cleverness. One segment begins with a black screen and a woman announcing that there will be a brief pause while she changes a reel. But it’s not a “Persona”-like break in the illusion; it’s part of the narrative, setting up the next scene in a battered drive-in showing “Carnival of Lost Souls.”

At a certain point, though, one has to wonder: To what end is all this showing off? There’s a long scene in which a woman wanders, oblivious to the fact she’s naked from the waist down. That might be Hauck’s way of alluding to Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts,” but it was gratuitous and creepy when Altman did it, too.

With “Too Late,” Hauck confirms that he’s a master of the film medium. What’s less convincing is why this film matters.

Written and directed by Dennis Hauck. Starring John Hawkes, Dichen Lachman, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Robert Forster, Crystal Reed, Jeff Fahey. At the Brattle. 107 minutes. Unrated (gratuitous nudity and fancy formalism).

Summary: “Too Late” review: First-time director Dennis Hauck unloads everything he knows about movie technique and tradition in this noir, but neglects to provide any reason to care.


05/13/2016 AT 03:50 PM EDT

is known around the world as the man behind the biggest Broadway hit in years.

, the hip-hop musical about the titular Founding Father, Miranda's name has become a ubiquitous part of pop culture. So who is the man behind the music?

At a recent reception for 2016 Tony Award nominees, Miranda's costars and collaborators shared behind-the-scenes stories about the creative mastermind. Along with reminiscing about their friendships, they opened up about working with the man who has broken world records, won a Grammy Award and was declared a MacArthur Genius – all in one year. Describing Miranda as "quirky," "generous" and "the optimist in the room," they all commented on his energy and drive as well as his devotion to creating art.

Kelly Ripa on the cover of PEOPLE

And then PEOPLE sat down with Miranda himself. Talking just as quickly as one would expect a prolific creator to speak (while also pausing to burst into spontaneous

melodies), Miranda, who became a father for the first time just two weeks before

began rehearsals Off-Broadway, is the first to admit that his life has taken a wild turn.

"Literally everything about my life changed," he said.

Miranda also recalled one of the first times he experienced the thrill of performing his own work: It was bird day in third grade when he rewrote a McDonald's jingle to describe the feathered friends his teacher loved.

Watch the video above to hear Miranda's bird day rap and hear even more about his life.

Summary: Learn how third grade Bird Day foreshadowed Miranda's future on Broadway


A negative analyst report about IBM is probably not what CEO Ginni Rometty was hoping for this week as Big Blue kicked off its big InterConnect Conference.

In a research note, Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi expressed doubts that IBM’s much-trumpeted transformation—which relies heavily on its cloud, mobility, analytics and security businesses— is getting traction, or at least enough traction to offset the declines in its legacy businesses. Sacconaghi, a respected figure among investors, echoed concerns others have about IBM ibm and which IBM execs have sought to downplay.

The “theory” is that as the company’s strategic imperatives become larger over time, IBM’s growth rate will improve. The problem is that is hasn’t. While the strategic imperatives have grown $13.8B over the last 4 years (including acquisitions), IBM’s “core” revenues have declined by a stunning $29.7B, resulting in revenue declines (adjusted for currency and acquisitions and divestitures) in each of the last 4 years. Most sobering, IBM’s revenue growth rate on this normalized basis has not improved during the period.

The company continues to bet big on emerging markets including healthcare data analytics. Last week it announced its plan to acquire Truven Healthcare for $2.6 billion, for example. That’s a bold move, but skeptics wonder if these continuing investments will reap the necessary rewards. And there is some feeling that IBM is buying not only data and technology but customers for Watson, its marquee self-learning or artificial intelligence software, instead of selling that service to new customers the old-fashioned way.

For more on IBM and health data, watch:

A few weeks ago on IBM’s fourth-quarter earnings call, chief financial officer Martin Schroeter said the company’s performance in these strategic areas “accelerated” in the previous fiscal year.

“Together, cloud, analytics, mobile, social and security grew 26% and delivered $29 billion in revenue,” Schroeter noted. Together, he added, they represent more than one third of IBM’s business, up from 22% two years ago.

IBM, which had no comment for this story, has also claimed huge uptake of its Bluemix software development platform by thousands of new developers every week. But there is still a lack of big-name customers for cloud and data analytics services. Lots of partnerships and acquisitions for sure, but customers? Not so clear. Meanwhile Amazon amzn and Microsoft msft continue their well-funded public cloud push.

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Sacconaghi’s report comes just days after Morgan Stanley ms analyst Katy Huberty raised her rating of IBM from “equal weight” (or neutral) to “overweight” (or buy.) Huberty said the company is doing better at this multi-year transition than is generally accepted.

Sacconaghi plainly disagrees. He said shareholders need more detail about IBM’s key businesses, including software. For example, how much has that business declined and how much of its revenue comes from software that runs on old-school Unix-based hardware? The hope is that these questions will be asked (and answered) on IBM’s analyst briefing day this Thursday.

And, in cloud where IBM competes with Amazon Web Services in shared public cloud infrastructure and with a number of software-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service players, a key question is how much of IBM’s “as-a-service” revenue comes from new customers and how much is due to a shift of existing customers from on-premises use of software to the newer model?

In Sacconaghi’s view, the jury is out even though IBM’s priority businesses are doing well.

The problem is that Big Blue’s overall growth is negative and not improving, he noted. That suggests, he wrote:

that IBM is losing wallet share from its customers, and market share of overall IT. Overall IT spend over the last few years has averaged about 2% – 3%. IBM’s revenues have been declining at about -2%. Moreover, IBM’s financials suggest that its strategic imperatives don’t appear to be improving its wallet share at customers – rather, since overall revenues are contracting, it suggests that IBM is not even keeping up with its customers’ shifting priorities.

Summary: One Wall Street analyst has his doubts.


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

English soccer player Adam Johnson was jailed for six years on Thursday (March 24), after being found guilty of sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl earlier this month.

Johnson, who was sacked by Premier League club Sunderland after he was found guilty, showed no emotion as he was sentenced by Judge Jonathan Rose.

The 28-year-old winger, who has played 12 times for England, had admitted kissing and grooming the teenager at the beginning of his trial but had denied two more serious accusations of sexual activity.

A jury at Bradford Crown Court in northern England cleared him of one of these charges but convicted him of the other.

Sunderland sacked Johnson after he entered his guilty pleas but the club has been criticized for not taking action sooner. Sportswear firm Adidas also cancelled its boot contract with the midfielder after his guilty pleas.

More from AOL.com: Women, kids playing soccer rival gridiron players in concussions Report: TCU hires Jamie Dixon as next head basketball coach Best NBA prospects in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16

Summary: After being found guilty of sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl, former Sunderland soccer player Johnson was jailed for six years on Thursday.


"Making a Murderer" star, and controversial convict, Brendan Dassey's lost all hope in his new prison -- he will not get to see his favorite show, WrestleMania ... TMZ has learned.

Dassey transferred to Columbia Criminal Institution in Wisconsin in January, and prison officials tell us there's a strict rule against violence, foul language and nudity for TV viewing. That means the WWE's main event is off the table, so avid wrestling fan Dassey is screwed.

If you watched 'Murderer,' you'll recall Dassey's main concern after getting arrested for homicide in March 2006 ... was that he'd miss WrestleMania 22 the next month.

Dassey -- who's serving a life sentence -- ran into the same ban in his previous prison. He should get used to missing out, since he's still more than 30 years from a shot at parole.

Summary: "Making a Murderer" star, and controversial convict, Brendan Dassey's lost all hope in his new prison -- he will not get to see his favorite…


Jerry Brown wanted to talk about apocalypse, but the group of Jewish voters was more interested in talking about Jesse Jackson.

After happily riding a wave of New York chaos, as Gov. Bill Clinton stumbled through the New York primary campaign, Edmund G. Brown Jr. was pulled up short yesterday in a prickly session at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

The former California Governor was hissed, heckled and politely asked again and again how he could expect to win the Jewish vote after saying he would choose the Rev. Jesse Jackson as his running-mate.

Mr. Jackson alienated many American Jews by referring to New York as "Hymietown" in the 1984 Presidential campaign and by his associations with Louis Farrakhan, the American Muslim leader who said Judaism was a "gutter religion," and with Yasir Ara fat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

After his usual comments about the corrupt system and failed status quo, Mr. Brown brought up Mr. Jackson, saying the black leader had a goal of "healing the divisions between black and white."

The comment was met with scattered boos and hisses, and Dov Hikind, an Assemblyman from Borough Park, called out that Mr. Brown had removed himself as a candidate of Jews by his selection of Mr. Jackson as a preferred running-mate.

Mr. Hikind was eventually ejected from the room, and Kenneth Bialkin, the president of the council, apologized to Mr. Brown for the "rudeness of one of our guests."

Mr. Hikind, though visible and outspoken, is not in the mainstream of New York's Jewish leaders. For example, on Monday after he said he intended to support Mr. Clinton, officials of the Arkansas Governor's campaign stressed that it was not an endorsement they particularly welcomed.

Mr. Brown tried to get back on track by saying the questions over Mr. Jackson were "a graphic demonstration of the split within this community, within this society."

But many in the audience called out, "No," murmuring that there was not a split between Jews and blacks; there was a split between Jews and Mr. Jackson.

Charlotte Jacobson, who identified herself as a representative of Hadassah, told Mr. Brown: "The Jewish community is certainly not opposed to a black vice president. We don't think you have selected the best representative of the black community. We think you have not chosen wisely."

Sol Kuper, who said he was a retired state official, asked Mr. Brown about an event several days ago at which he held Business Week magazine and said Mr. Clinton was a tool of the money lenders on Wall Street.

Mr. Kuper said that some of the names in the Business Week article were Jewish and that Mr. Brown's remark had smacked of "classic anti-Semitism."

Mr. Brown replied that he wanted to "disassociate myself with any implication" that he was alluding specifically to Jewish investment bankers.

After the meeting, Mr. Kuper said he was unconvinced. "How can I, in good conscience, give a vote to a person who has made such a statement?"

A reporter asked Mr. Brown how he felt about the fact that someone called out, "Welcome to Hymietown," as he was leaving the meeting. Mr Brown replied, "I think it was a horrible remark and I totally condemn it."

On Tuesday, when Mr. Clinton appeared before the council, he was greeted by people handing out leaflets questioning his support for Israel. After he answered questions on that topic, he was generally well received.

Mr. Brown said in a brief news conference after his appearance yesterday that when he named Mr. Jackson as a possible running-mate he had "taken that step fully aware of the consequences in New York politics."

"If we can't pull blacks, whites, Jews, gentiles together then we're ripped apart," Mr. Brown said, adding that he was glad to serve as a "catalyst."

Later at a rally at Washington Square, Mr. Brown said, "When I come to New York and say I'd like the Reverend Jackson to be a vice presidential candidate, I know it's controversial." But, he said, the real point was this: "I don't see why I should be in the Empire State, the crown jewel of American civilization, and find neighborhoods looking like bombed out Berlin in 1946."

Photos: The Brown campaign ran into trouble in New York as a group of Jewish voters objected to the choice of the Rev. Jesse Jackson as running mate. Kenneth J. Bialkin, left, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, tried to calm Assemblyman Dov Hikind (Photographs by Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times); Edmund G. Brown Jr. speaking later a rally at Washington Square. He defended his suggestion of Mr. Jackson as his running mate. (Agence France-Presse)


RODIN: TRANSFORMING SCULPTURE A survey of sculptures in plaster, bronze, and marble, along with related drawings by the greatest sculptor of the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Through Sept. 5. Peabody Essex Museum, East India Square, Salem. 978-745-9500. www.pem.org

GEOFFREY FARMER Farmer, who has been selected to represent Canada at the 2017 Venice Biennale, presents a room-size installation of hundreds of his small-scale, puppet-like sculptures made of photographic cut-outs and fabric. Through July 17. Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr. 617-478-3100, www.icaboston.org

N.C. WYETH’S MEN OF CONCORD The 12 panels N.C. Wyeth painted for the book “Men of Concord and Some Others, as Portrayed in the Journal of Henry David Thoreau” (1936) have been reunited for the first time in almost 80 years. Through Sept. 18. Concord Museum, 53 Cambridge Turnpike, Concord. 978-369-9763, www.concordmuseum.org

DRAWINGS FROM THE AGE OF BRUEGEL, RUBENS, AND REMBRANDT Forty Netherlandish, Dutch, and Flemish drawings from the 15th to the 18th centuries, all from Harvard’s collection, which is one of the most comprehensive in the United States. Through Aug. 14. Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge. 617-495-9400, www.harvardartmuseums.org SEBASTIAN SMEE

Summary: Sebastian Smee’s picks for noteworthy art events in and around Boston this week.


When he was 18 years old, Manny Waks turned his back on life within the Orthodox sect of Judaism known as Chabad. But the effects on his life remain profound.

Now 38, Waks is still unable to read a novel, so dictated was his childhood by religious texts. Until the age of about 29, he believed rubbing his eyes with his fingers after waking up in the morning would cause him to go blind unless he carried out a religious washing ceremony first.

But the most damage has been caused by the repeated sexual abuse he suffered within the umbrella organisation for the movement in Australia, known as Yeshivah.

Waks grew up across the street from Melbourne’s Yeshivah Centre, where all of his schooling and extracurricular activities took place. He and his family were completely immersed within the Yeshivah community, and anything beyond its radius was foreign to them.

For the past fortnight, that secretive world has been comprehensively picked apart at the royal commission into institutional responses into child sexual abuse.

The hearings represent the first time the Sydney and Melbourne Yeshivah centres, headquarters to the Orthodox Chabad sect of Judaism, have been scrutinised in public, and Waks’ evidence has played a central part in that process.

Since Waks first spoke publicly in 2011 about the abuse he suffered, he has helped to expose the centres, and the schools, synagogues and activities attached to them, as communities within which child sex abuse was covered-up, denied or ignored.

The rabbinic law of mesirah – the prohibition of a Jew informing on a fellow Jew to secular authorities – was used by leaders to keep victims silent, the commission heard. When victims did go to police, they were labelled mosers, or “informers”, a charge so serious they were threatened with exclusion so severe it was akin to being excommunication, which would mean being ripped away from a culture, identity, religion and community. It meant everything from marriage prospects to opportunities for religious honours would be forever taken away.

Exact membership numbers are unknown, but the Yeshivah Chabad communities in Victoria and New South Wales are small and tight-knit. The commission heard that while membership numbers were not recorded, the synagogues held a few hundred people, and were often full during services.

It does not matter that peak Jewish bodies have publicly said the concept of mesirah does not, and should never, apply to cases of child sexual abuse. Even today, Waks says, victims remain fearful of being shunned.

“The fact that to this day I am the only victim who has been willing to be named should say plenty,” Waks says.

“It is easier for me than for other victims, because I am no longer in that world. Most child sex abuse victims prefer anonymity because of a range of taboos and stigmas attached to them. It’s very sensitive.

“But within the Yeshivah community, those issues and barriers are multiplied tenfold, and by speaking out against them, your life will potentially be over. You will feel the consequences, you will be damaged goods.”

In 1988, when he was 11 years old, Waks was abused by a member of the Yeshivah centre known only to the commission as AVP because he left the country before he could be charged.

The man abused Waks multiple times. Once, it happened inside a synagogue during the Jewish festival of Shavuot, where it is customary for men to stay awake all night studying religion. Once it happened inside a bathroom adjoining the synagogue. The abuse continued, usually on the Sabbath at Chabad House.

Waks confided in a classmate at the Yeshivah college, who told other children. Soon, Waks felt like everyone knew about what was happening to him, and he faced daily taunts and bullying – including being called “gay” because he had been abused by a man.

The children mocked him in the presence of teachers and other adults, who never asked what was going on. Waks responded by becoming rebellious and disobeying the rules of his religion. He wore jeans. He turned lights on and off during Sabbath. He took off his kippah (skullcap).

It attracted the ire of his parents and teachers, who tried to control him by reducing his secular education and increasing his religious studies. To this day, Waks feels he has “huge gaps” in his secular education.

Traumatised by his previous experience of disclosing his abuse, Waks said nothing when he was 12 years old and another Yeshivah staff member, security guard David Cyprys, began sexually abusing him. In a religious environment where even speaking about sex except in the most specific of circumstances was taboo, telling an adult he was being abused felt impossible.

For Waks, there was no escape. He and his 16 brothers and sisters lived directly across the road from the Yeshivah centre in St Kilda, just 6km south-east of Melbourne’s CBD. Two of his brothers were also abused.

“For me, Yeshivah was the centre of my universe,” Waks says. “It was everything. None of the kids in my family knew anything beyond the radius of a few blocks, and at the centre of that radius was Yeshivah, the heart of our world.

“My interactions were with people who were Chabad, and my contact with the outside world was minimal.

“We didn’t venture out. We didn’t need to. Our school, our recreational activities, our synagogue, they were all at the Yeshivah centre. And if an event we went to wasn’t held at the centre, it was still a Yeshivah event.”

Waks says Chabad has “all the hallmarks” of a cult – “every waking moment was dictated for us”, he said. He still has difficulty reading books or watching movies for pleasure, so heavily was his studying of religious texts and documentaries. He did not know what his secular birthday was until he was 15. His relationship with his father, who used a disciplinary approach to ensure his children adhered to Yeshivah values, is fractured.

But Waks says to label Chabad and Yeshivah as a cult would force him to reject his entire childhood. And there were moments of beauty he wants to hold on to.

There were the van rides into the countryside with his brothers and sisters, where they were allowed to break free from their endless religious study.

There was walking for hours in the heat or the rain to visit elderly community members in nursing homes, just to bring them some happiness. There was the charity work and sense of community.

Despite having shunned the religion, Waks carries with him everywhere a laminated US$1 note given to him in 1990 by the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the then leader of the global Chabad movement.

“I got the dollar from him around the same time I was being abused, and I like to think if he was alive today and knew, he would have stopped it and made Yeshivah leaders start behaving in a loving way,” Waks said. “When I think of the Rebbe, I still view him with the utmost respect and reverence.”

When Waks was 12 years old and questioned a teacher about whether the Rebbe was really infallible, he received a swift slap in the face.

“So I find it hard to criticise Chabad. It’s my childhood. And I find it difficult to call Chabad a cult, even though there are clearly cult-like elements.”

His father, Zephaniah Waks, has no such difficulty. While he still practises Judaism, he broke away from the Orthodox community last year after being severely ostracised. By supporting his sons in going to the police and speaking out against their abuse, he faced endless and unrelenting attacks within Chabad.

He put his house on the market two years ago – he remains unable to sell it – and moved overseas.

“It is a cult, there is no doubt,” he says. “When you are in a cult, you can’t just decide to leave, it is extremely difficult. You can’t just leave Chabad and go to a different Chabad church. When I go overseas, word gets around within Chabad there that I am destroying Chabad in Australia.

“I do not mix with the Chabad community anymore. The day before the royal commission, I shaved off my beard. That was the final step of leaving. It destroys people.”

“One paedophile can do what he can do,” Waks said. But by ignoring claims of abuse, some members of the community had enabled the perpetrators to “do this again and again, and then helping them to cover it up, never forcing them to be stopped or held to account, and also stopping any victims from coming forward”.

“After hearing the evidence from the commission, how can anyone say this abuse was [isolated]? And they did nothing.

“This commission will have ramifications no matter what happens. If they come out with strong findings and recommendations, it will have ripple effects throughout the world, and it will be clear people can’t away with these things.”

The commission heard that as Zephaniah Waks was giving evidence about the abuse of three of his sons, the president of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia, Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant, sent a text message to the editor of the Australian Jewish News accusing him of “destroying Chabad” and calling him a “lunatic”. On Monday morning Kluwgant resigned after child sexual abuse victims said his position was untenable.

Related: Australia's top rabbi resigns after giving evidence at sex abuse royal commission

Manny Waks believes the past two weeks of evidence means resignations now need to happen. Some of the rabbis were involved in malicious attacks against him and his family, it was revealed. They were so brutal that Waks relocated his wife and three children to Europe.

“Where was anyone at the time we were being abused, when we were going to the police?” he asks. Waks is now establishing a global organisation to investigate child sex abuse within the Jewish community.

“These leaders, these people, are the ones who are the biggest miscarriages of justice. They will do anything to protect themselves, their reputation and their institution, and that’s what’s so astounding and so offensive to the core.

“They didn’t get up and say anything. I was left alone as the victim, as the advocate, as the troublemaker, as the person that is bringing the community into disrepute. As the one attacking orthodoxy and attacking Yeshivah. I hope finally, everyone can see there were reasons for it.”

With the Yeshivah hearings now over, Waks says he feels elated. “I have a family to support and I have a life to live, and I hope at some stage soon I can reclaim my life and continue my work helping victims in a way that is sustainable,” he says.

“I haven’t been able to relax in years. How often do I get phone calls, emails and text messages in the middle of the night from all over the world that says, ‘Can we speak’?

“I can’t turn victims away. I can hear the struggle in their voices, I can see it in their writing, and I know in reaching out to me they have done the bravest thing they’ve ever done in their lives. And if I don’t respond to that call or message in the middle of the night, I know they won’t be able to sleep as they wonder if I’ve read it or if I’ll respond. This takes up my time, and it does come at a cost to me and my family.”

But Waks says he will not be able to truly relax until the resignations come. “From the people who knew about the abuse, from the people who should have known about the abuse, from the people who covered it up and the people who knew or should have known about the cover-up. From the people who knew about the intimidation of victims and from those who were involved in the intimidation of victims. The list is long, and their positions are untenable.”

Summary: Manny Waks is still living with the impact of years of abuse inside Australia’s Yeshivah centres. Before he can reclaim his life, he says, more people must resign in the wake of the child sex abuse royal commission