Here’s a fitness rule you shouldn’t follow: “Never skip a workout.”

Forcing yourself to stick with an extreme program that tells you to “never, ever deviate” (we’re looking at you, restrictive diets and aggressive fitness plans) isn’t sustainable. And, at R29 Wellness, we believe that living healthfully and staying active is a lifestyle — not just a month-long commitment.

With any regular training program, you should be taking one to two days off per week to allow your body to recover, explains performance coach and exercise physiologist Pete McCall. This helps prevent burnout and ward off injuries by giving your muscles time to heal. As McCall points out, a rest day doesn’t have to mean spending hours on your couch; you can recover actively by taking a low-intensity walk or scheduling a restorative yoga class.

But, there are times when doing nothing at all is your best bet for mental and physical health. (Unfortunately, having just bought a bottle of wine doesn’t quite make the cut.) Ahead, five common scenarios where sleeping in (and/or eating the damn cookie) will leave you more refreshed and energized than pushing through your regularly scheduled sweat session would.

This post originally appeared on Refinery29.com.

Sleep and exercise have a delicate, sometimes tumultuous relationship. Studies have shown that regularly working up a sweat improves sleep quality over time. But, you need to clock the recommended seven-plus hours per night in order to reap those benefits.

“If you skimped on sleep a few nights in a row and feel like you’re dragging, go ahead and take the nap instead of forcing yourself to work out,” says McCall. Sleep is when your body repairs and resets itself, restoring hormone levels and repairing muscle tissue. “Exercising on top of exhaustion and extreme fatigue will cause additional stress for your body,” he explains.

An interesting study published last fall in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine looked at women suffering from insomnia who did 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three times per week. While exercise has been previously linked to improving sleep quality among insomniacs, the researchers found that insufficient sleep influenced the participants’ next-day exercise — instead of the other way around. After a poor night’s slumber, the women tended to shorten their workouts.

If you train when you’re really, truly exhausted, you’re not going to have a great workout. And, you’re increasing your risk of injury by pushing too hard when your mind and body aren’t completely focused on what you’re doing, explains McCall. Rest is essential to any exercise program, so if you’re totally wiped out, enjoying an extra day of recovery is better than logging a “meh” workout.

(MORE: 6 Workout Moves You’re Not Doing — But Should Be)

Regular exercise has been linked to warding off colds by boosting your immune system. But, if you’ve already got the sniffles, it’s OK to skip your workout to recuperate. “Give your body the time it needs to heal,” McCall says. “The stress of working out can wreak havoc on a weakened immune system, so allow your body to do it’s job and focus its energy on fighting the illness.” Plus, bringing germs into the gym is just bad mojo.

If you’re really torn about ditching a previously booked class, follow the “neck rule” — if your symptoms are above the neck only, it’s OK to stick with your workout. If they manifest below, however, wait until you’re fully recovered before heading to the gym. And, always use common sense; you know when your body is just not having it.

Choosing to skip a workout because of a headache, however, is completely personal. “[For some people], exercise will exacerbate symptoms,” explains McCall, “whereas light exercise can help others.” Of course, if you’re working out while under the weather, you should proceed with caution, scaling back your intensity and effort. What’s the American Council on Exercise’s recommendation for a sniffle-proof activity? Moderate walking.

One of the best benefits of exercise is stress relief. But, when it’s one of those weeks (the ones when it seems like everything is falling apart), skip the gym. Instead, focus on handling what you need to get done, so you can give 100% during your next workout, McCall explains.

“Exercise is stress on the body. Positive stress, but still stress,” he says. If you know you have a few extremely busy days ahead, plan on cutting back on your training or find a way to sneak in more movement throughout your day — whether it’s a few 10-minute walks or even just standing up more. It’s best not to do a high-intensity workout, but a little physical activity can help you feel better.

A recent study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that chronic stress affects your body’s ability to recover after exercise. The most stressed participants experienced more fatigue and soreness after a tough training session.

Of course, stress isn’t completely avoidable, so it’s important to understand how it affects your individual workout performance and recovery. If you feel it over-stimulates your body, go ahead and cut back during your most hectic weeks. Or, if you find exercise to be a great way to take your mind off everything, just be sure to add an extra day of recovery between workouts during those high-stress times.

Taking a mental time-out to enjoy a special activity, such as a friend’s birthday dinner or an anniversary celebration, is just as important as giving your body time to recover. Working up a sweat is essential to feeling good and warding off disease, but ultimately life isn’t just about working out. Healthy living is a commitment that needs to be sustainable.

McCall points out that social activity is part of the wellness wheel, which recognizes a need for fun. “Laughing and enjoying yourself can be just as healthy as a workout,” He adds. But, that doesn’t mean you have a free pass to turn every happy-hour invite into a special occasion; you still need to exercise. If skipping your workout for [insert any social event here] turns into a regular activity (a.k.a. more than once a month), it’s time to adjust your schedule. Try exercising in the morning or sneaking in more mini-bouts of activity throughout your day.

(MORE: Don’t Make This Ab Mistake)

Feeling a little achy after a workout is normal. If you’re just slightly sore, it’s OK to exercise as planned. Do a cross-training routine that uses different muscles, or go for a low-intensity walk. “It will feel good to move around,” McCall says. “Activity helps increase circulation.” There is, however, a difference between active, recreational movement and full-on, hard-core working out; when you’re sore, go for the former.

If you’re extremely sore, experiencing pain, or already injured, hold off on exercise entirely. If you forge ahead in a workout in this case, your body will try to avoid the area(s) of pain and will adjust your movement patterns accordingly. Compromising form in this way can increase your risk of serious injury, leaving you sidelined for even longer. “Injury is stress to the body, and if you’re not feeling good, exercising on top of that won’t make you feel any better. So, take a few days off,” McCall says. If after a few days of rest you’re still experiencing pain, see a doctor.

Each injury is different, and it’s imperative to listen to your physician about what you can and can’t do while recovering. Allowing your body to rest is necessary to its natural healing process. While you may not be able to keep up with a particular sport (for example, running with a knee injury), you can use this as an opportunity to explore different activities that don’t place the same stress on your body. Of course, follow your doctor’s orders on integrating movement back into your routine.

Summary: Here's a fitness rule you shouldn't follow: "Never skip a workout." Forcing yourself to stick with an extreme program that tells you to "never, ever…


City Sports is getting back in the game.

Two brothers who run a New Jersey-based soccer equipment retailer have embarked on an ambitious plan to revive the City Sports business, after buying the brand name and related intellectual property.

Although beloved by a core customer base, City Sports filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and eventually closed after doing business in Boston for 32 years.

Now the brothers, Brent and Blake Sonnek-Schmelz, say an e-commerce site is in the works, probably launching within the next few weeks. They hope to pick their first brick-and-mortar location for their new firm, City Sports USA, by the end of the year.

The focus at the start, Brent Sonnek-Schmelz said, will be on locations in Boston and New York.

The Boston retailer, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month, failed to find a buyer to continue to operate the chain.

For now, they’ll run City Sports out of the headquarters of their chain, Soccer Post, in Eatontown, N.J. But Brent Sonnek-Schmelz said they will be run as separate companies, with Soccer Post aimed at suburban consumers and City Sports targeting urban ones.

The chief operating officer of the new City Sports company said the brothers were longtime City Sports customers, visiting stores in New York and Philadelphia. He said they were surprised to learn last November that the chain would close. The previous management tried to find a buyer for 18 of those stores, but two liquidation firms offered the best bid, and all 26 stores were shuttered.

“It was a great store, and everyone was shocked,” Sonnek-Schmelz said. “It’s not like the brand deteriorated over time and they were limping along. . . . We saw that as an opportunity.”

So the brothers bought the City Sports intellectual property — such as the brand name, the logo, and the customer lists — for $400,000, with a goal of building the chain back up again.

“It’s not like you’re starting from scratch,” said Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. “You’re starting with a real trademark, a real valued seller that had a loyal following.”

The new locations won’t be the same as the old locations, Sonnek-Schmelz said, but the revamped stores probably will be near the old ones. Some of those previous locations are expected to be used by the competition: Modell’s Sporting Goods acquired the leases to three of them, including the one at 480 Boylston St. in Back Bay.

City Sports’ demise was blamed on its expansion in recent years to locations away from its core urban base. The competition in the suburbs was tough, and the brand wasn’t as well known farther from the cities.

The audiences were different, too. Sonnek-Schmelz said the typical city customer is a single person looking for exercise clothing, and equipment, while a suburban customer is buying for their kids as well.

“They tried to expand too quickly, especially in suburban markets, and just lost track of who their core customer was,” Sonnek-Schmelz said. “What we plan on doing is not repeating those same mistakes.”

Sonnek-Schmelz said he has reached out to former City Sports vendors and is working with them to build up an inventory for the business. He doesn’t have employees for the new City Sports yet, but he expects to hire some after the e-commerce site becomes operational. He’s also working with a team of six students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School to craft a launch plan for City Sports.

“City Sports is an amazing brand with an amazing following,” said Dave Spandorfer, co-founder of local running apparel firm Janji. “It definitely deserves another shot.”

Its new owners’ biggest hurdle could be picking storefronts that aren’t too expensive but also not too removed from high-traffic areas.

“Someone like City Sports that needs some scale, finding a space that’s big enough is a challenge,” said Daniel Dain, a commercial real estate lawyer in Boston. “If they’re going to survive, they have to be different from the [competitors in] the suburbs, and they have to know their urban audience.”

Tony Post, chief executive of Newton-based running shoe company Topo Athletic, said City Sports’ success could hinge on how well its managers connect with local residents and give them a reason to not shop online.

“Boston’s a city where you kind of have to live there to know the heartbeat of the city,” Post said. “Hopefully, they’ll have the right kind of management team in place that can be connected to the community.”

Summary: Two brothers who run a New Jersey-based soccer equipment chain have embarked on an ambitious plan to revive the City Sports business, after buying the brand name and related intellectual property.


Singapore, with its tax-friendly policies and security, ranked second in attracting the world's wandering wealthy. It gained 45,000 millionaires between 2003 and 2013. The U.S. ranked third, gaining 42,400 millionaires.

So where were all these millionaires moving from? Mostly China. According to the report, China had a net outflow of 76,200 millionaires during the 10-year period. India was the next largest loser, with a net outflow of 43,400, followed by France, Italy and Russia.

Read MoreMeet the 'hand-to-mouth' wealthy

The report said Chinese millionaires were mostly moving to Hong Kong, Singapore and the U.K. Indian millionaires prefer the U.K., U.S. and Australia, while French and Italian millionaires were largely flocking to the U.K. and Switzerland.

A surprising number of Swiss millionaires are also moving—mostly to Singapore, the U.K. and the United Arab Emirates.

Read MoreWealthy hunt for properties in paradise

Summary: According to a report, the U.K. was the number one destination for migrating millionaires over the past decade.


RALEIGH, N.C. — Apple, Google, and Facebook are among a dozen big companies or their top executives objecting to a North Carolina law that bars municipalities from adopting their own antidiscrimination ordinances.

Facebook, Google, and Apple each run massive data-processing complexes in western North Carolina. They joined American Airlines, IBM, and others in reacting to a state law quickly adopted Wednesday that blocked local government measures to counter discrimination against gay, lesbian, and transgender people.

None of the high-profile companies have threatened to immediately withdraw business from North Carolina.

San Francisco’s mayor Friday banned city workers from nonessential travel to North Carolina. The city, which has a large gay and lesbian population, “will not subsidize legally sanctioned discrimination,” Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement.

A Charlotte ordinance would have enabled transgender people to legally use restrooms aligned with their gender identity and would have provided broad protections against discrimination in public accommodations in the state’s largest city.

North Carolina on Wednesday passed a sweeping law overturning gay and transgender protections at the local level.

North Carolina is the first state to require public school and university students to use only those bathrooms that match their birth certificates, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures.

Advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights say state legislators demonized them with bogus claims about bathroom risks. Supporters say the new law protects all people from having to share bathrooms with people who make them feel unsafe.

Corporations announcing their displeasure ‘‘are shamefully bullying’’ state officials while many small-business owners who live in North Carolina support the new legislation, North Carolina Values Coalition executive director Tami Fitzgerald said.

“North Carolinians should be aware of this so they have the opportunities to be consumers of companies that are congruent with their values,” Fitzgerald said in a statement.

Other businesses have voiced support for the measure Republican Governor Pat McCrory signed into law, a spokesman for his reelection campaign said. Spokesman Ricky Diaz did not respond when asked which businesses backed the governor’s decision.

About 200 protesters blocked a downtown Raleigh street in front of the state’s Executive Mansion on Thursday evening. Police said in a statement that five people were arrested after they sat down in the street and refused orders to disperse.

McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor, stays in the mansion while in the state capital but was not there at the time of the protest, spokesman Josh Ellis said.

Summary: Technology giants Apple, Google and Facebook are among a dozen big companies or their top executives objecting to a North Carolina law that bars municipalities from adopting their own anti-discrimination ordinances.


Avril Lavigne and Chad Kroeger

04/03/2016 AT 08:50 PM EDT

and Nickelback don't win rock album of the year at the

on Sunday, the musician will walk away with at least one title: most amicable exes.

The singer was joined by

on the red carpet for Canada's version of the Grammys, despite the fact that

"I came with Chad because Nickelback got nominated," she said. "And I'm just here supporting him," Lavigne told

on the red carpet. Meanwhile, Kroeger had his own reasons: "I got tired walking around with my band members, so I went and found hottie here," he said, referring to Avril.

since announcing their plans to split, and regularly join each other in and out of the studio.

Teasing their appearance at the Juno Awards over the weekend, Lavigne also shared a photo with Kroeger exiting a plane for the annual ceremony.

Lavigne also shared a vintage video from 2003, when she won her first award at the ceremony, presented by – ironically – Kroeger and Nickelback.

And later in the night, Lavigne shared photos from the event, captioning one, "Good to be back at the Junos Awards. Feeling healthy and enjoying the positive vibes here."

Post-breakup, Kroeger and Lavigne have hit the red carpet before, and even joined up for a

The couple was married for two years before calling it quits, and vowed to remain friends – which they clearly have.

Summary: Chad Kroeger and Avril Lavigne separated nearly seven months go


Gasoline prices in Massachusetts have increased for the second consecutive week, jumping 9 cents over last week, according to AAA Northeast.

The average price Monday for self-serve regular unleaded was $1.79 per gallon in Massachusetts, up from $1.70 last week, but still well below the year-ago price of $2.41, according to the latest survey from AAA.

The price in Massachusetts is 15 cents below the national per gallon average for regular unleaded of $1.94.

Gasoline prices in Massachusetts as of Monday ranged from a low of $1.59 to a high of $1.94 for regular unleaded, according to the auto club.

Monday’s average gas prices per gallon for other grades were $2.11 for midgrade unleaded and $2.29 for premium unleaded. Diesel averaged $2.08 per gallon.

Summary: The average price Monday for self-serve regular unleaded was $1.79 per gallon in Massachusetts, up from $1.70 last week and $2.41 a year ago, according to AAA Northeast.


Apple may be trying to keep the spotlight on its latest foray into the streaming-music business, but it is also still trying to clean up the mess caused by its ham-handed entry into an earlier market: book publishing. A federal court on Tuesday rejected the company’s appeal of an earlier ruling that found it guilty of orchestrating a conspiracy with the major book publishers, in what the court said was a successful attempt to artificially inflate the price of e-books.

As Fortune‘s Jeff Roberts reports, the court found Apple AAPL engaged in collusion with what amounted to an oligopoly—namely, Harper Collins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Hachette and Macmillan—and that its actions were a clear breach of antitrust law. Apple argued that the deal it cut with the publishers was necessary to blunt Amazon’s dominance in the e-book market, but the appeals court didn’t buy that argument. Judge Debra Ann Livingston wrote:

“Competition is not served by permitting a market entrant to eliminate price competition as a condition of entry, and it is cold comfort to consumers that they gained a new ebook retailer at the expense of passing control over all ebook prices to a cartel of book publishers.”

One reason the court failed to buy this argument is that the major publishers clearly had zero interest in actually competing on price—in fact, they wanted to do exactly the opposite. Their interest in doing a deal with Apple stemmed from a desire to maintain the existing favorable price structure for books, which allowed them to milk the market for high-priced hardcover versions of new novels before eventually releasing cheaper versions. Amazon’s AMZN low-priced e-books were a threat.

“These members of the Big Six thought that Amazon’s lower‐priced ebooks would make it more difficult for them to sell hardcover copies of new releases, which were often priced, as the district court noted, at thirty dollars or more. Further down the road, the publishers feared that consumers would become accustomed to the uniform $9.99 price point for these ebooks, permanently driving down the price they could charge for print versions.”

The fact that the book industry was a cozy cartel is reinforced by the court’s description of how the publishers behaved even before Apple came along: They “operated in a close‐knit industry and had no qualms communicating about the need to act together,” the ruling says, quoting from the lower-court decision: “On a fairly regular basis… the CEOs of the [Big Six] held dinners in the private dining rooms of New York restaurants, without counsel or assistants present, in order to discuss the common challenges they faced.”

Since the publishers didn’t compete with each other on the basis of price, the appeals court decision says, “publishers felt no hesitation in freely discussing Amazon’s prices with each other and their joint strategies for raising those prices.” And then into their laps fell Apple, which was looking for a way into the market, and the publishers realized they had a crowbar they could use to pry open their deals with Amazon and force the e-book retailer to give them better terms.

After strong-arming Amazon into accepting the new “agency pricing” model—in which the publishers got to set the price for their books, rather than allowing the retailer to do so—the book industry got exactly what it wanted. According to research by the Justice Department, the price of newly released books rose by an average of 24% and bestsellers climbed by 40%.

It says a lot about the book-publishing business that doing this actually caused book sales to drop fairly dramatically across the board: research done by another expert using data from Random House showed that publishers who switched to the agency model sold close to 15% fewer books than they would have otherwise. So the industry was effectively willing to trade a short-term decline in sales for the increase in power that they got over pricing as a result of the deal with Apple.

Much of Apple’s appeal was based on the idea that, while the book publishers (all of whom have already settled the case against them) may have colluded to fix prices, Apple was just an innocent business partner, and the fact that it signed identical deals with all of the publishers was effectively a coincidence. It also argued that it used what it called an “aikido move” to leverage market conditions in its favor. But the appeals court disagreed:

“Aikido move or not, the attractiveness of Apple’s offer to the Publisher Defendants hinged on whether it could successfully help organize them to force Amazon to an agency model and then to use their newfound collective control to raise ebook prices. The Supreme Court has defined an agreement for Sherman Act Section 1 purposes as ‘a conscious commitment to a common scheme designed to achieve an unlawful objective.’ Plainly, this use of the promise of higher prices as a bargaining chip to induce the Publisher Defendants to participate in the iBookstore constituted a conscious commitment to the goal of raising ebook prices.”

In other words, instead of being able to piggy-back on the market position of its publishing partners in order to gain entry into this new market, Apple hitched its e-book wagon to an industry that was already actively engaged in collusion over prices—and desperately trying to resist the future. And ultimately it was the giant electronics company that got crushed under the wheels of that wagon.

Summary: An appeal court's decision finding Apple guilty of collusion with publishers reinforces just how cozy a cartel the industry was.


Billionaire tech entrepreneur Sean Parker announced Wednesday that he is giving $250 million through his foundation to launch the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, a collaboration between some of the nation’s top cancer research institutes that aims to accelerate the development of breakthrough immune therapies.

The unprecedented cancer research effort collates in a central location the work being done at six leading cancer centers: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Stanford Medicine, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, San Francisco, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and University of Pennsylvania. That totals some 40 laboratories and more than 300 researchers all devoted to the field of immunotherapy.

“About half of all cancers, if you catch them early enough are readily treatable with chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. The other 50% are likely going to kill you,” Parker told Fortune in advance of the announcement. “Immunotherapy is the first breakthrough in recent memory that doesn’t just offer some incremental three to six months average life extension. It offers the possibility to beat cancer.”

Immunotherapy is one of the major advances in cancer treatments in recent decades. It harnesses the body’s own immune system and mobilizes its disease-fighting abilities to attack cancer cells. Cancer cells are adept at “hiding” from the body’s disease-fighting immune system, allowing it to elude detection. Immunotherapies are able to overcome those evasive strategies by either turning off the immune system’s brakes—through so-called “checkpoint inhibitor” drugs—so it can work in overdrive to attack the cancer cells or by rejiggering the body’s T-cells to specifically recognize cancer cells, a strategy that includes what are known as CAR-T therapies.

“Immunotherapy represents a fundamentally new, breakthrough treatment paradigm in the fight against cancer,” Jeff Bluestone, CEO and president of the Parker Institute and one of the two original discoverers of checkpoint inhibitors, said in a statement. “Our scientists are leaders in the field and will now work together to make discoveries to treat and potentially cure cancer.”

The Parker Institute wants to accelerate research into these areas as well as new tumor antigen targets to ultimately turn cancer into a manageable and even curable disease. It plans to do that by coordinating research across the field’s top laboratories and pushing those findings quickly into clinical trials. The Parker Institute will not only provide comprehensive funding, clinical resources, and technology to each location, it will also create a central repository for intellectual property. This will allow researchers across the six cancer centers to quickly access a broad swath of core discoveries, further speeding other research avenues.

The initiative is a personal one for Parker, who has donated on his own and through the Parker Foundation to life science research for years. Parker has suffered from asthma and anaphylactic allergies his whole life and multiple family members have autoimmune disorders. That spurred his interest in immunology, initially.

“I was always fascinated by the immune system, which is this incredibly dense interlocking series of checks and balances,” said Parker. “It’s an incredibly complex intellectual puzzle, and at some point along the way, I began to wonder whether or not the immune system might play some role in regulating cancer. And, that in some ways, actually seemed like a more accessible problem than the problem of solving autoimmunity.”

Parker dove into the world of immunotherapy research and learned about the latest breakthroughs from such luminaries as Jim Allison, who discovered checkpoint inhibitors at the same time as Bluestone. (Allison, the executive director of the immunotherapy platform at MD Anderson, also now serves on the Institute’s leadership board.) Parker was inspired by the research but also saw a need to connect the patchwork of discovery happening across the top cancer centers. He spent nearly three years negotiating to launch the Institute, working to convince leaders at each institute to sign onto a program that had never been done before, he said.

Parker’s $250 million donation is the largest single contribution ever made to the field of immunotherapy, and he hopes that it can take discoveries from bench to clinical trials to bedside more quickly than the siloed models to date. The Institute has appointed a series of advisors to help govern the institution to make that happen. It includes a Board of Directors that will set the overall goals, a scientific steering committee that will develop the research project portfolio, and a strategic advisory group to provide counsel on a range of issues that affect the clinical research and cancer patient communities. It has also established relationships with more than 30 strategic partners, including pharmaceutical companies, nonprofit cancer groups, and academia.

“My belief, my sincere belief, is that this is very early days for cancer immunotherapy, and that most of the breakthroughs are still to come,” said Parker. “We have a proof of concept that this works in certain cancers, and now the hard work of expanding immunotherapy to many cancers begins.”

Summary: Six of the best U.S. cancer centers are on board.


Host Craig Ferguson and a star-studded cast of Hollywood favorites come together to have fun, raise money and change the lives of kids who need our help the most in "The Red Nose Day Special" on NBC. Broadcast live from Los Angeles on Red Nose Day, Thursday, May 26 (9:00 - 11:00 p.m. ET), the special features hilarious comedy, incredible music performances from popular artists and short, compelling films shedding light on children in need here at home and around the world.

Elton John, Julia Roberts, Will Ferrell, Blake Shelton, Ellen DeGeneres, Jack Black, Tracy Morgan and Kobe Bryant are among the more than 65 stars who are coming together for the star-studded charity event, which helps raise awareness and money for kids in need here at home and around the world.

Paul Rudd, Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Jay Leno, Celine Dion, Anna Kendrick, Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Bono, Ellie Kemper, Blake Griffin, Connie Britton, Mel B, Bill Gates, Tyler Perry, Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Vince Vaughn and Sarah Silverman appear in the FUN-raising special, along with Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, Kristen Bell, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Rose Byrne, Chloë Grace Moretz, Steve Buscemi, Danny Trejo, Adam Devine and Ron Funches.

Also appearing are Jane Lynch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Goldblum, Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, Dax Shepard, Mayim Bialik, Jay Pharoah and Trevor Noah, along with Iwan Rheon, Chris Hardwick, Yvette Nicole Brown, Retta, David Morrissey, Jon Daly, Margot Robbie, Kate Micucci, Malin Akerman, Tony Hale and Grace Helbig.

The special features Julia Roberts' recent trip to Phoenix to visit projects that take care of children facing serious health issues without the means to afford basic medical treatment. It also features Chris "Ludacris" Bridges making a special visit to an amazing food bank in Atlanta at a school where 50% of the students are living below the poverty line, and where one of the biggest problems is day-to-day hunger. Jack Black, who went to Uganda last year to shed light on the issue of children living in poverty, returns to "The Red Nose Day Special" to give a heartwarming update on Felix, a young boy he met there who had been living on the streets for three years. He reveals what life is like for Felix today after being helped by a program that aims to change the lives of homeless kids.

Music also takes center stage in "The Red Nose Day Special," with both Elton John and Blake Shelton performing very special songs. Paul Shaffer brings his signature brand of great music and high energy as the musical director with the Red Nose Orchestra. Elton's involvement with Red Nose Day goes back many years in the U.K., where he has performed songs as well participated in comedy sketches. In the U.K., Elton's AIDS Foundation has also partnered with Red Nose Day to raise awareness and provide over £5 million to support thousands of children living in extreme poverty in Africa who have lost their parents to AIDS. They have also ensured that more than 200,000 pregnant moms living with HIV get the medicine they need to make sure they have HIV-free babies.

"The Red Nose Day Special" also delivers a great night of comedy, from Tracy Morgan putting his own unique spin on the classic "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" while reading to kids, to Paul Rudd committing more money for Red Nose Day than he ever imagined when he promises to donate $5,000 for every three-pointer that basketball superstar Blake Griffin makes in three minutes. The fun continues with a comedy sketch featuring "The Walking Dead" cast - Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Ross Marquand, Josh McDermitt, Steven Yeun, Christian Serratos, Melissa McBride and Sonequa Martin-Green - as viewers have never seen them before.

Red Nose Day has become a cultural phenomenon in the U.K., and raised more than $1 billion globally in the last 25 years. Red Nose Day launched in the U.S. in 2015 as a special day to come together, have fun and make a difference for kids who are most in need. In its inaugural year in America, more than $23 million was raised for the Red Nose Day Fund, with the money now at work in all 50 states across America and 15 countries internationally through programs to keep children and young people safe, healthy and educated.

The money raised by Red Nose Day in 2016 will help support projects in some of the neediest communities in the U.S. and some of the poorest communities in the world. People from all walks of life are encouraged to get involved, have fun and raise money by buying red noses sold exclusively at Walgreens stores nationwide, organizing fundraising events and watching and donating during the television special.

Created by Oscar nominee and Emmy Award-winning writer-director Richard Curtis ("Love Actually," "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Notting Hill"), Red Nose Day was built upon the foundation that the power of entertainment and celebrities can help raise money and awareness of poverty to save and change millions of lives.Richard Curtis is an executive producer for the live NBC telecast (a Universal Television production), along with John Irwin of Irwin Entertainment and Lily Sobhani.

For more information, visit www.rednosedayusa.com, and follow @RedNoseDayUS on Twitter and @RedNoseDayUSA on Facebook and Instagram using #RedNoseDay.

Summary: Watch clips and highlights from the show. Craig Ferguson hosts The Red Nose Day Special, bringing together Hollywood stars for a night of FUN-raising.


The first rule of fight club is supposed to be that you don’t talk about fight club.

But luckily for the rest of us, one former employee at the doomsaying alternative financial blog Zero Hedge—where several writers publish under the pseudonym Tyler Durden, after the Fight Club character—has decided to tell all.

Colin Lokey worked for Zero Hedge for about a year before leaving and agreeing to spill the beans on the secretive site to Bloomberg. According to the report, Tyler Durden was actually three people: Lokey, Daniel Ivandjiiski, 37, the Bulgarian-born former analyst who was outed as the site’s driving force back in 2009, and Tim Backshall a credit derivatives strategist who has appeared frequently in the financial media.

The site has consistently grown its audience by trafficking in news and analysis from the point of view that the global financial system run by a corrupt partnership of the global elite and national governments, with its stories often tacitly or explicitly supporting outsider political candidates like Ron and Rand Paul, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

Lokey complained to Bloomberg, however, that the site is disingenuously supporting this political point of view in order to reap big profits from page-view driven advertising. He argued that Ivandjiski’s multimillion dollar home in Mahwah, New Jersey was evidence that his iconoclasm was just an act. “What you are reading at Zero Hedge is nonsense. And you shouldn’t support it,” Lokey wrote in an e-mail to Bloomberg. “Two guys who live a lifestyle you only dream of are pretending to speak for you.”

Zero Hedge fired back in a post early Friday morning, accusing Lokey of being “an emotionally unstable, psychologically troubled alcoholic with a drug dealer past,” who could not handle the pace of working for a daily news site that publishes dozens of posts per day.

Summary: Former employee spills the beans


NEW YORK, April 4 (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders vowed to nominate Latinos into key cabinet posts in their administrations if elected, according to their answers to a questionnaire organized by the nation's largest Latino coalition.

The 20-question survey was submitted by the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda to all U.S. presidential candidates on Feb. 25, but received responses only from the two Democratic contenders and none from the Republicans, according to the results reviewed by Reuters.

Latinos and African-Americans have emerged as key voting blocs in the Democratic race for the White House nomination so far, and are likely to play a large role in the outcomes of big contests looming in New York and California.

See images from the Democratic debate in Florida:

Democrats Clinton, Sanders promise to include Latinos in cabinet

MIAMI, FL - MARCH 9: Democratic presidential candidates Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton are seen before the Univision News and Washington Post Democratic Presidential Primary Debate on the Miami Dade College Kendall Campus on March 9, 2016 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images)

MIAMI, FL - MARCH 09: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during her debate against Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) at the Univision News and Washington Post Democratic Presidential Primary Debate at the Miami Dade College's Kendall Campus on March 9, 2016 in Miami, Florida. Voters in Florida will go to the polls March 15 for the state's primary. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

KENDALL, FL - MARCH 09: Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) speaks during his debate against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the Univision News and Washington Post Democratic Presidential Primary Debate at the Miami Dade CollegeÃs Kendall Campus on March 9, 2016 in Kendall, Florida. Voters in Florida will go to the polls March 15 for the state's primary. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, attempts to listen to a question from the audience as Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, walks off the stage during a break at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

A Univision staffer shows what topics are trending from women on Facebook during a break at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

MIAMI, FL - MARCH 9: General view at the Univision News and Washington Post Democratic Presidential Primary Debate on the Miami Dade College Kendall Campus on March 9, 2016 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images)

Members of the audience applaud during the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks, as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, listens, during the the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks during the democratic presidential debate with Hillary Clinton in Miami on March 9, 2016. / AFP / Gaston De Cardenas (Photo credit should read GASTON DE CARDENAS/AFP/Getty Images)

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton (R) and Bernie Sanders stand during a National Anthem before the democratic presidential debate in Miami on March 9, 2016. / AFP / Gaston De Cardenas (Photo credit should read GASTON DE CARDENAS/AFP/Getty Images)

Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, shakes hands before the start of the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

MIAMI, FL - MARCH 09: Democratic presidential candidates Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton shake hands before the Univision News and Washington Post Democratic Presidential Primary Debate on the Miami Dade Colleges Kendall Campus on March 9, 2016 in Miami, Florida. Voters in Florida will go to the polls March 15th for the state's primary. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

MIAMI, FL - MARCH 09: Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton debate during the Univision News and Washington Post Democratic Presidential Primary Debate at the Miami Dade College's Kendall Campus on March 9, 2016 in Miami, Florida. Voters in Florida will go to the polls March 15th for the state's primary. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

MIAMI, FL - MARCH 09: Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton debate during the Univision News and Washington Post Democratic Presidential Primary Debate at the Miami Dade College's Kendall Campus on March 9, 2016 in Miami, Florida. Voters in Florida will go to the polls March 15th for the state's primary. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt and Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton interrupt each other during the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

"From special assistants to cabinet members, Latinos will play a key role in helping to shape my policy priorities and be effectively represented in our agencies," former U.S. Secretary of State and Democratic front-runner Clinton wrote.

U.S. Senator from Vermont Sanders promised to make his administration "reflect the diverse make-up of the country... I can think of no place more vital for such diversity than in the cabinet and the Senior Executive Service of the President of the United States of America."

President Barack Obama has nominated a number of Latinos to cabinet position during his time in office, two of whom are currently serving: Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro.

Both Clinton and Sanders have already promised comprehensive immigration reform, appealing to Hispanic voters ahead of presidential nominating contests in minority-heavy states. Leading Republican hopefuls Donald Trump and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, meanwhile, have promised to tighten up the borders and deport undocumented immigrants.

The responses come as the Democratic contest for the party's presidential nomination is poised to roll into a slate of diverse states - including New York later this month and minority-heavy California in June.

The NHLA will use the questionnaires to guide voter engagement ahead of the November election, and to hold the winner to promises made during the campaign, said Hector Sanchez, the chairman of the NHLA.

"This is not just a piece of paper that we're going to put out there," Sanchez said. "If they want the Latino vote, they must engage with us."

More from AOL.com: Bernie Sanders: Hillary Clinton owes me an apology over 'lies' claim Clinton campaign says Sanders 'rejected' New York debate dates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tag-team Trump in MSNBC special

Summary: Both Clinton and Sanders have already promised comprehensive immigration reform, appealing to Hispanic voters.


Another Beyoncé concert in the New York metro area is coming into formation.

The pop superstar will perform at Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Sept. 7 as part of her multi-continental "Formation" tour, she announced Thursday.

The concert will mark Beyoncé's third show near Manhattan this summer, following up her previously announced gigs at Citi Field on June 7-8.

BEYONCE ADDS SECOND CITI FIELD SHOW TO 'FORMATION' TOUR

The Metlife concert is one of eight new tour dates Beyoncé added to her tour on Thursday. She also announced stops in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and her hometown of Houston, among others, and rescheduled her recently canceled May 5 show in Nashville for Oct. 2.

Tickets for the latest batch of concerts go on sale on Ticketmaster on May 13.

Beyoncé kicked off her latest tour in Miami on April 27. The eight concerts she announced Thursday will serve as her second North American leg of the tour.

The 34-year-old icon is the latest big-name act to announce a show at Metlife Stadium this summer, with others including Coldplay, Guns N' Roses and Paul McCartney.


The following people and organizations are on our list of 2016 Game Changers. They did extraordinary things last year, reshaping the way we live and work.

Vikram Aggarwal, founder of EnergySage

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Leonard Campanello, Gloucester’s police chief

Darius Cephas, McDonald’s employee who helped Fight for $15 effort

Daily Table, a nonprofit grocery in Dorchester

Stephen Darr, bankruptcy trustee in TelexFree case

Sheila Dillon, Boston’s housing czar

Nathan Eagle, cofounder and CEO of Jana

Jessie Gaeta, chief medical officer at Boston Health Care for the Homeless

Oksana Hradyska, founder of Sitters Without Borders

Emily Reichert of Greentown Labs

Brian Shortsleeve, MBTA’s chief administrator

Corey Thomas, CEO of Rapid7

Conor Walsh, Harvard engineering professor

Summary: These 46 innovators had the vision, leadership, and determination to make a difference in lives around the world and around the corner.


One of the last bastions of phone-free zones, the darkened movie theater, may be about to cave.

The new CEO of AMC Entertainment, the company set to become the nation’s largest chain of movie theaters, says he’s open to the idea of letting people use their smartphones in the movies.

Especially millennials, who he thinks can’t be expected to live a moment, much less the two hours required for a movie, without their phones:

“When you tell a 22-year-old to turn off the phone, don’t ruin the movie, they hear please cut off your left arm above the elbow,” Adam Aron, the new CEO of AMC Entertainment amc , tells Variety. “You can’t tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone. That’s not how they live their life.”

And he’s not wrong: A full 87% of young adults (18 to 34) report they never put their smartphones down.

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But Aron cautions that opening up movie theaters to cell phones will have to be done carefully, in a way that doesn’t “disturb” audiences.

One idea? Treat the texters and messagers like smokers, and put them in their own segregated smartphone-friendly section. Or maybe the glued-to-the-small-screen set could get their own separate showtimes?

Smartphone-clutchers in one theater, Luddites, you file in next door.

For more on movies, watch:

But embracing smartphones isn’t going to solve all of the big-screen industry’s woes. Because it’s not just millennials who are going to the theater less and less: Almost a third of Americans didn’t set foot in a movie theater last year. Another 10% saw just one film on the big screen all year (Star Wars, anyone?), likely opting to stay home for more streaming like Netflix instead. Movie theaters have largely been relying on hiking up popcorn and concession rates to pay for some of the declining ticket sales.

Now Aron tells Variety theaters need to up their game “so that millennials go to movie theaters with the same degree of intensity as baby boomers went to movie theaters throughout their lives.”

The question is, if you let millennials bring their little phones to the big screen, will they come?

Summary: It's a push to lure more millennials back to the big screen


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Three suspected Islamic State militants were arrested in Istanbul late on Tuesday after a tip-off they had planned an attack on a transgender march, Dogan News Agency said.

The suspects - one Turkish national and two from Russia's volatile Dagestan - were ordered held in custody pending formal charges by an Istanbul court, the agency added. There was no immediate comment from authorities.

People wawe rainbow flags as Turkish anti-riot police officers fire rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators gathered for a rally staged by the LGBT community on Istiklal avenue in Istanbul on June 19, 2016. Turkish riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to break up a rally staged by the LGBT community in Istanbul on June 19 in defiance of a ban. Several hundred police surrounded the main Taksim Square -- where all demonstrations have been banned since 2013 -- to prevent the "Trans Pride" event taking place during Ramadan. / AFP / GURCAN OZTURK (Photo credit should read GURCAN OZTURK/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images

The reported arrests came after police late last week confiscated suicide vests during raids in two Istanbul suburbs. Officers said they had acted on intelligence reports the Sunni hardline group was plotting to attack the "Trans Pride" rally on June 19.

Authorities banned that march, citing security concerns and riot police fired tear gas and rubber pellets to disperse around 50 people who turned up.

Turkish police charge demonstrators who gathered for the march. Emrah Gurel / AP

Istanbul's governor has also banned a gay pride march scheduled for this coming Sunday, but campaigners say they will press on with the parade.

Dogan cited counter-terrorism police as saying the three suspects had traveled to war zones under Islamic State rule but did not specify where.

Islamic State has increasingly targeted NATO member Turkey, bordering Iraq and Syria where the group has seized large swathes of territory.

The group has been blamed for two suicide bombings in Istanbul this year and has carried out targeted killings in the southern cities of Gaziantep and Sanliurfa, both hubs for Syrian activists trying to document the war.

Istanbul has held gay pride parades since 2003, attracting tens of thousands of marchers, but last year's was broken up by police. Unlike many other predominately Muslim countries, homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey, but hostility toward gay people remains widespread.

A trans beauty queen participates in the annual Gay Pride March in Istanbul on June 29, 2014. Turkey is the only majority Muslim country where gay pride gatherings can take place. Photo by Jodi Hilton/NurPhoto (Photo by Jodi Hilton/NurPhoto) (Photo by NurPhoto/Corbis via Getty Images) Jodi Hilton / Corbis via Getty Images

Dagestan borders Chechnya, where Moscow fought two wars against Islamist separatists before regaining control of the region. A patchwork of ethnicities and languages, it has become a hub of militant Islam in the North Caucasus, and some militant groups have sworn allegiance to Islamic State.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Ayla Jean Yackley and Andrew Heavens)

Summary: ISTANBUL- Three suspected Islamic State militants were arrested in Istanbul late on Tuesday after a tip-off they had planned an attack on a transgender march, Dogan News Agency said. The suspects- one Turkish national and two from Russia's volatile Dagestan- were ordered held in custody pending formal charges by an Istanbul court, the agency added.


Four Eastern states are working on implementing a mileage tax.

The I-95 Corridor Coalition, which represents transportation agencies, toll authorities, and related organizations, applied for a federal grant last month. The Washington Post reports that the funding would allow Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New Hampshire to test methods that could replace a gas tax, charging drivers a fee based on how many miles they’ve driven to fill “the gaping hole” in the country’s transportation funding.

“The idea is to get folks comfortable that mileage-based user fees are a feasible, reasonable and easy-to-use approach,” executive director of the I-95 coalition Patricia G. Hendren told the Post. The concept has been tried already in Oregon, and California will begin testing it next month.

However, a mileage tax has been very unpopular among the public. A recent survey by the Mineta Transportation Institute found that support ranged between 23% and 48%, depending on how the question was asked. It had more support when the hypothetical tax depended on the amount of pollution a driver’s car emits.

Various methods are being considered including a counting device plugged into the car, a device hooked up to gas pumps, cellphone apps, and GPS. Hendren said that any approach that’s implemented “will offer the option to simply pay an annual fee.”

Delaware’s secretary of transportation and chair of the coalition, Jennifer Cohan, explained that even though a mileage tax is unpopular, they essentially have no choice. “Reliance on the gas tax as a major contributor to funding transportation is no longer a viable option,” she told the Post. The federal gas tax hasn’t been raised in more than two decades and currently stands at 18.4 cents per gallon, and efforts to increase it have been unsuccessful.

“Whatever it ends up being, at least we’ll have data,” Cohan said about testing the mileage tax. “We’ll actually have something to show: This is what it will look like if we actually implement it.”

Summary: To replace the gas tax.


TWENTY-HOUR days, desperate scrambling, always looking perfect, not all banged up like the reporters following her look after 12-hour drives. And those are on the easy days.

She doesn’t wear a coat (or God forbid, a hat!) even though it’s no degrees out and snowing, and she keeps those brown pantsuits to lighter weight fabrics that don’t add extra pounds.

She never lets anyone catch her eating – although she, like other pols, might want to hold a Bud Lite at a BBQ joint if things start to really look tough.

Welcome to life on the road with Hillary Clinton (the Rodham seems now to be as missing as her old headbands), where it’s always freezing, always snowing and always grueling as she enters the final few days before the Iowa caucuses, the Golden Globes of politics.

Like that ubiquitous award, it’s an event in which relatively few people are catered to by many very rich and very powerful people who sweep in to roam the countryside in caravans of buses, state trooper cars, and assorted security vehicles looking like a modern-day cattle drive in the hope that winning this one will lead to winning the big one.

For Hillary Clinton, former first lady turned senator and now presidential candidate, the stakes couldn’t be higher – or the negatives harder to overcome. But she’ll never let us, them, or anyone else see her sweat.

But the party’s nomination is not a given as she likes to portray – as it’s now a three-way dead heat.

And the people I’ve spoken to have concerns about her.

She proclaims in her stump speech that she’s against the mismanaged Iraq war, yet she voted for it – despite the fact that she sat at the right hand of God for eight years and knew more than most on the Hill what exactly the deal was with Iraq.

She brags at each stop that at the women’s conference in Beijing when she was first lady she proclaimed that “women’s rights are human rights!” yet she stayed with a cheating man and behaved as though being the victim of a womanizer was a woman’s right.

And there’s the fact that she, as the first female candidate for president of the United States, came to the audition as the former winner’s wife, something you’d expect in a Third World dictatorship after the dictator drops dead. I mean, would they let Simon Cowell’s girlfriend try out for “American Idol”?

So Hillary keeps her eye on the prize, her speech succinct, her demeanor geared to the crowd, her head up and her hair coiffed to within an inch of its life, while giving that same stump speech in volunteer firehouses for 200, school gyms for another 300, the country fair ground buildings for maybe another 250.

At one undercrowded venue in Webster City Friday she cut her usually 45-minute or so speech to 23 brief minutes. At a building at the North Iowa Fairgrounds late in the day, to an overflow crowd that must have been deemed more conservative, she told them to caucus for the soldiers in Iraq who couldn’t be there, and that she and Bill worked to end welfare as it had been structured.

And, hey, you’ve got to give her props for declaring in a room full of flannel shirts and cowboy boots that the days of “Cowboy diplomacy are over!”

Clearly having taken a page from Bill’s book, she has learned to speak less like a mean schoolteacher ready to give you detention and more like your friend, and in some cases as the good mother, declaring to one crowd that she’d “take care of you,” and that she’d wake up every morning and think about them and worrying about them and their families.

Summary: TWENTY-HOUR days, desperate scrambling, always looking perfect, not all banged up like the reporters following her look after 12-hour drives. And those are on the easy days. She doesn’t wear …


Until now, no feature film has been made about Martin Luther King Jr. Whether that’s because the slain civil rights leader’s story was too sprawling or because some his most important speeches can’t be recreated because of legalities, the closest Hollywood has come is a 1978 TV movie.

Which is one reason “Selma” surprises. Here’s another: Director Ava DuVernay and writer Paul Webb focus on King’s 1965 battle for voting rights and his political pressure on President Lyndon Johnson to end the systemic oppression of black Americans. This is an intellectual approach to an emotional issue — and it delivers, powerfully and beautifully.

The film opens with a tableau of the era’s struggle, horror and headlines: Little girls are victims of a church bombing. Annie Lee Cooper (Oprah Winfrey) is asked impossible questions before being told she cannot register to vote. And King (David Oyelowo), still just an Atlanta minister at heart, is in Sweden with his wife Coretta (Carmen Ejogo) to receive the Nobel Prize.

When he returns to the U.S., King urges Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) to pass voting rights, a bedrock of equality. A major hurdle is Gov. George Wallace (Tim Roth) and his Alabama state troopers, who enforce the racism Wallace embodies. That helps make Selma the perfect place to start.

King encounters resistance also from Selma’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which he helped found and whose leaders have other plans. Finally, King and his team — including Andrew Young (Andre Holland), Amelia Boynton (Lorraine Toussaint) and James Bevel (Common) — decide a march is the best means to their goal of making America wake up. That it does, and Johnson is forced to take action after 1965’s Bloody Sunday, on March 7, when peaceful marchers are inhumanly beaten by Alabama troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

DuVernay, a nuanced indie filmmaker making her first big studio film, gracefully shows the strategies, negotiations and meetings that made a dream possible. If we’re never quite inside King’s head, we are absolutely right beside him as the weight of history, and the hope of good people, falls on him.

Oyelowo embodies King with a soft-spoken urgency and sad-eyed determination. Talking to Wilkinson’s growly LBJ, King is never less than a leader while assuring the president that nonviolence travels with this movement.

Roth, Winfrey and Ejogo are all standouts in supporting roles. Cinematographer Bradford Young — who shot “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” and DuVernay’s “Middle of Nowhere” — films "Selma" in honeyed hues that make it feel both immediate and historic.

That also sums up the reality of the world surrounding this terrific movie’s release. The battle it documents is both a cornerstone of the past and a reflection of ongoing struggles. DuVernay infuses “Selma” with that dichotomy, never forgetting how Selma, the place, was a pledge to march ahead. jneumaier@nydailynews.com Catch "Joe Neumaier's Movie Minute" throughout the day Thurs. - Sun. on New York's WOR 710 AM and at wor710.com.

On a mobile device? Click here to watch the trailer.

Summary: Until now, the closest thing to a feature film about Martin Luther King Jr. is a '70s TV movie.


Game of Thrones fans know that Ramsay Bolton is one of the most wicked characters on the HBO hit. But…what if he wasn’t? A fan-made, out-of-context supercut asks you to temporarily forget all the raping and murdering and torturing and betrayal and focus on his, uh, good qualities.

Just think of this video, set to Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King, as palate-cleanser for all the other, horrible things that happened this season.

Summary: Just forget all the horrible things he's done


He began as the commander of a small Christian militia group outside Beirut, battled his way to the top of the Phalangist Party - the most powerful of the warring, near-feudal clans that have dominated Lebanon's recent bloody history - and for 22 days was President-elect of Lebanon. He would have been the youngest President in the country's history.

Bashir Gemayel was described as tough, ambitious and ruthless. He proudly embraced the gun in his fight for power. He died by the tools of his trade.

Violence suffused Mr. Gemayel's personal history. He survived assassination attempts in 1979 and in 1980. His 18-month-old daughter died in a car bombing.

Mr. Gemayel played a major role in much of Lebanon's violence. During the civil war of 1975-76, he led one of the war's most savage battles over a Palestinian refugee camp, including the massacre of the camp's survivors. And during and after the war his forces wiped out his two most prominent opponents on the Christian right. Defended Israeli Invasion

When Israeli troops invaded Lebanon on June 6, Mr. Gemayel defended the action as a ''surgical operation'' designed to expunge the Palestine Liberation Organization from his countunity to shed his warlord image by promoting himself as the leader of forces striving for Lebanese unity.

Even better, the retirement of President Elias Sarkis opened up a legitimate platform from which Mr. Gemayel could try to impose his will. Although he was the sole candidate for the presidency, the absence of an opponent did not foreshadow a sudden end to his country's sectarian strife.

On Aug. 23, as P.L.O. forces sailed from Beirut under the guns of the Israeli Army, the Lebanese Parliament met and elected Mr. Gemayel President. East Beirut, the stronghold of Maronite Catholics, exploded in an ecstasy of gunfire as Christian militiamen drove through the streets with portraits of their leader taped to windshields, rifles blazing away into the air. But explosions and gunfire tore through predominately Moslem west Beirut. Sought Image of Moderate

Upon his election, Mr. Gemayel sought to portray himself as a moderate leader, determined to see foreign armies removed from Lebanon and intent upon achieving national unity. On Sunday, he issued a call for Christians and Moslems to work together.

In June, shortly after the Israeli Army moved into Lebanon, Mr. Gemayel staked out his position as Lebanon's future leader in a television interview. He said:

''We are looking to get all the foreigners out - Syrians, Palestinians and Israelis and even Unifil. We don't need any foreign armed presence in this country. We will take care of the security of our own country.''

While denying that he asked the Israelis to invade Lebanon, he was not disappointed by their action. ''Definitely for us, this was the only way to finish with all the problems,'' he said.

He was born in Beirut on Nov. 10, 1947, the sixth and youngest child of Pierre Gemayel, the leader of the newly founded Phalangist Party. A trip to the 1936 Berlin Olympics impressed on his father the discipline of Hitler's Germany. The nationalistic and fascist movements of Francisco Franco and Benito Mussolini inspired the new party's ideology. Studied at Jesuit School

After earning diplomas in political science and law at a Jesuit school in Beirut and at Southwestern University in Texas, he worked briefly in a Washington law office before returning to Beirut to pursue legal and political activities.

But it was during the 1975-76 civil war, when he helped lead the Christian militias in their efforts to crush the armed Palestinians in Lebanon and their leftist Moslem supporters, that Mr. Gemayel rose to prominence.

During the war, he commanded the siege of the Palestinian refugee camp of Tal Zaatar, one of the war's bloodiest battles. At the siege's end, the camp's survivors were killed by the Phalangist troops.

He used his fighters to advance his own political power as well. In 1978, after Suleiman Franjieh, the former Maronite President of Lebanon, broke from the Christian alliance, Mr. Gemayel's soldiers attacked Mr. Franjieh's son and political heir, Tony. The raid left Tony and 32 supporters dead. Afterward Mr. Gemayel dismissed the assault as a ''social revolt against feudalism.'' Murdered Christian Rival

In 1980, his Phalangist forces assaulted the beach resort of a Christian rival, Dany Chamoun. Bathers at Mr. Chamoun's resort house were machine gunned in a swimming pool. Doctors later said that many bodies had been mutilated.

After the murder of Mr. Chamoun, Mr. Gemayel emerged as the dominant Christian figure in Lebanon. The size of Mr. Gemayel's army, the largest private force in Lebanon, grew from 10,000 to some 25,000 fighters by the time Israel invaded Lebanon on June 6.

Though technically running an uncontested race, Mr. Gemayel encountered organized opposition. Moslem leaders called for a boycott of the election and succeeded in postponing balloting for three days. When the vote was finally held, it was not at the Villa Mansour, the pock-marked Lebanese Parliament building located on the green line, but at a military barracks in a portion of Beirut controlled by the Israelis. Reluctant legislators had to be cajoled into a quorem, and Mr. Gemayel was able to muster the required number of votes only on the second ballot. Predicted 'Era of Peace'

After the vote he predicted a ''new era of peace, security and tranquillity.'' Instead, later in the day antitank shells and rocketpropelled grenades were fired at the homes of three Moslem members of Parliament who participated in the election, and the next day the homes of six more Moslems who took part in the election were attacked.

Mr. Gemayel's election was nonetheless greeted with enthusiasm by Israel and the United States. Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel immediately sent him a telegram beginning ''My dear friend,'' and there were unconfirmed reports that Mr. Gemayel and Mr. Begin met in northern Israel two weeks later.

Philip C. Habib, the American special envoy, paid him a visit in August. Mr. Habib later told Lebanese reporters: ''We wish the President and the President-elect and the people of Lebanon the best, the best in the world. You need it now. Hallaq.'' Hallaq is Arabic for ''come together.''

Mr. Gemayel married Solange Tutunji in March 1977. He has two children, an 18-month-old daughter and a 3-year-old son. Another daughter, Maya, was killed when a booby-trapped car exploded as the Gemayel automobile was passing it.

Illustrations: photo of Bashir Gemayel


Pope Francis’ personal phone call to an unmarried Argentinian woman living with a divorced man encouraging her to take Communion won him new legions of fans – but is driving Vatican officials batty.

Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, said Thursday the call was part of Francis’ “personal pastoral relationships” that did not reflect a change in the church’s long-standing ban on unmarried women living with divorced men receiving Communion.

“Several telephone calls have taken place in the context of Pope Francis’ personal pastoral relationships,” said the harried priest, who has been besieged with media inquiries since the woman’s common-law husband made the call public.

“Therefore, consequences relating to the teaching of the Church are not to be inferred from these occurrences,” Lombardi insisted, according to Vatican Radio.

The woman, Jaquelina Lisbona, had written to the Pope months ago after she was denied Communion by her parish priest in San Lorenzo, Argentina.

Pope Francis called her on Easter Monday and reportedly told her that she may receive Communion despite living with a man who is divorced and the father of their two children – a position hailed by many Catholic women.

The Catholic News Agency said Julio Sabetta, Lisbona’s common-law husband, was married in the Catholic church in 1985, but got legally divorced in 1992.

In 1994, he was re-introduced to Jaquelina – they had dated in their teens – and the two shacked up. Since then, they had two kids, 17- and 14-year-old girls.

A few years ago, preparing for her youngest daughter’s confirmation, Lisbona was told she could not take Communion because of church rules banning unmarried mothers from receiving the sacrament.

She wrote to the Pope for advice last fall, leading to his call last week, her husband wrote on his Facebook page, the news agency said.

“Today one of the most beautiful things happened to me since the birth of my two daughters, I got a call in my home from none other than Pope Francis, it was a big emotion … and I can assure you that we he talks, he gives you total peace. Thanks God for this blessing!” Sabetta wrote.

Lisbona later told Argentine media the Pope told her to “go to confession and start taking communion at a different parish.”

But the pastor of San Lorenzo’s church, Father José Ceschi, said late Wednesday that the story was “absurd,” the agency said.

“The Pope would never do that, is impossible. If he is coming from a previous sacrament and they are living together is absolutely impossible,” Ceschi told a local radio station.

The Pope has previously made comments that appeared to soften the church’s position on homosexuality, winning praise from more liberal Catholics who bristled under Rome’s conservative bent under previous pontiffs.

Summary: Pope Francis’ personal phone call to an unmarried Argentinian woman living with a divorced man encouraging her to take Communion won him new legions of fans – but is driving Vatican officials…


Editor's Note: The author of the original article "A Harsh Winter for Sinovel and China's Wind Industry," which was later attached to the phishing email in this video, wishes it known that he was not involved in a cyberattack against American Superconductor.

The following is a script from "The Great Brain Robbery" which aired on Jan. 17, 2016. Lesley Stahl is the correspondent. Rich Bonin, producer.

If spying is the world's second oldest profession, the government of China has given it a new, modern-day twist, enlisting an army of spies not to steal military secrets but the trade secrets and intellectual property of American companies. It's being called "the great brain robbery of America."

The Justice Department says that the scale of China's corporate espionage is so vast it constitutes a national security emergency, with China targeting virtually every sector of the U.S. economy, and costing American companies hundreds of billions of dollars in losses -- and more than two million jobs.

John Carlin: They're targeting our private companies. And it's not a fair fight. A private company can't compete against the resources of the second largest economy in the world.

Lesley Stahl and John Carlin, assistant attorney general for National Security

John Carlin is the assistant attorney general for National Security with responsibility for counterterrorism, cyberattacks and increasingly economic espionage.

John Carlin: This is a serious threat to our national security. I mean, our economy depends on the ability to innovate. And if there's a dedicated nation state who's using its intelligence apparatus to steal day in and day out what we're trying to develop, that poses a serious threat to our country.

Lesley Stahl: What is their ultimate goal, the Chinese government's ultimate goal?

John Carlin: They want to develop certain segments of industry and instead of trying to out-innovate, out-research, out-develop, they're choosing to do it through theft.

All you have to do, he says, is look at the economic plans published periodically by the Chinese Politburo. They are, according to this recent report by the technology research firm INVNT/IP, in effect, blueprints of what industries and what companies will be targeted for theft.

John Carlin: We see them put out the strategic plan, and then we see actions follow that plan. We see intrusion after intrusion on U.S. companies.

Lesley Stahl: Do you have a number of U.S. companies that have been hit?

John Carlin: It's thousands of actually companies have been hit.

Lesley Stahl: Thousands of U.S. companies?

John Carlin: Of U.S. companies.

But getting CEOs from those companies to talk is nearly impossible because most of them still have business in China and don't want to be cut out of its huge market. Daniel McGahn, the head of American Superconductor, is an exception. His firm spent years and millions of dollars developing advanced computer software for wind turbines that McGahn says China looted, nearly putting him out of business. He's talking because he wants to fight back.

Daniel McGahn: I'm personally never gonna give this up. Too many lives were affected, too many families were damaged through this. We can never give up on this.

Lesley Stahl: You had to fire 600 people.

Lesley Stahl: Out of how many jobs?

Daniel McGahn: At the time we were almost 900.

Lesley Stahl: So how much did you lose in share value?

Daniel McGahn: Total loss is well over a billion dollars.

Today, his factory floor is largely silent, a shadow of this once thriving company.

Daniel McGahn: I think part of the strategy in all this was to kill us. So--

Lesley Stahl: They set out to kill you.

Daniel McGahn: To kill the company.

How can he be so sure? Well, his story begins when China passed a clean energy law in 2005, calling for the creation of mega-wind farms throughout the country.

The law made China the hottest wind power market in the world. So McGahn partnered with a small Chinese firm called Sinovel which was partly owned by the government. Sinovel made the skeletons of the turbines, and his company, American Superconductor, the sophisticated gadgetry and computer code to run them.

Lesley Stahl: They actually built the turbines.

Daniel McGahn: They make the turbine, we make the controls.

Lesley Stahl: And did they make these turbines with your brains in them for the entire country of China?

When he went into business there, China was already notorious for poaching American intellectual property. So he says he did everything he could think of to protect his technology from being stolen.

Daniel McGahn: We made sure that any software or any pieces of the code were restricted and used, were able to be accessed, only by a few people within the company.

Lesley Stahl: Once they got everything over there couldn't they reverse-engineer it?

Daniel McGahn: We believe that's what they tried to do. And what they learned was this encrypted protocol was in the way. They didn't quite understand how it worked. And they couldn't reverse-engineer it

Lesley Stahl: Everybody knows if it's on the Internet, some brilliant hacker can get at it.

Daniel McGahn: It wasn't accessible through the Internet.

Lesley Stahl: You kept it off the Internet?

Lesley Stahl: It sounds like you built a little fortress around your, your precious codes.

Daniel McGahn: We certainly tried.

Initially, business boomed in China for American Superconductor, with sales skyrocketing from $50 million-a-year to nearly half a billion.

Daniel McGahn: We were going through exponential growth. It's what every technology company wants to get to, is this high level of growth. We were there.

Then, in 2011, his engineers were testing the next-generation software in China on Sinovel's turbines. The software had been programmed to shut down after the test but the blades didn't shut down. They never stopped spinning.

Daniel McGahn: So we said why. We didn't really know. So the team looked at the turbine and saw running on our hardware a version of software that had not been released yet.

Lesley Stahl: That's when you realized.

Daniel McGahn: Realized something's wrong. So then we had to figure out how did, how could this have happened?

To find out, he launched an internal investigation and narrowed it down to this man, Dejan Karabasevic, an employee of American Superconductor based in Austria. He was one of the few people in the company with access to its proprietary software. He also spent a lot of time in China working with Sinovel.

Daniel McGahn: And what they did is they used Cold War-era spycraft to be able to turn him.

Lesley Stahl: They turned him.

Daniel McGahn: And make him into an agent for them.

Lesley Stahl: Do you know any specifics of what they offered him?

Daniel McGahn: They offered him women. They offered him an apartment. They offered him money. They offered him a new life.

The arrangement included a $1.7 million contract that was spelled out in emails and instant messages that McGahn's investigation found on Dejan's company computer. In this one, from him to a Sinovel executive, Dejan lays out the quid pro quo, "All girls need money. I need girls. Sinovel needs me." Sinovel executives showered him with flattery and encouragement: you are the, quote, "best man, like superman."

Lesley Stahl: And did they say, "We want the-- the source codes"?

Daniel McGahn: It was almost like a grocery list. "Can you get us A? Can you get us B? Can you get us C?"

Lesley Stahl: I've seen one of the messages, the text message, in which Dejan says, "I will send the full code of course."

Daniel McGahn: That's the full code for operating their wind turbine.

Dejan eventually confessed to authorities in Austria and spent a year in jail. Not surprisingly, the Chinese authorities refused to investigate, so Daniel McGahn filed suit in civil court -- in China, suing Sinovel for $1.2 billion. But he suspected that China was still spying on his company, and that Beijing had switched from Cold War to cutting-edge espionage.

Lesley Stahl: So why were you brought in?

Dmitri Alperovitch: We were brought in because the attacks now continued in cyberspace.

McGahn hired Dmitri Alperovitch and George Kurtz, cofounders of a computer security firm called CrowdStrike, to investigate. They zeroed in on a suspicious email purportedly sent by a board member to 13 people in the company.

Dmitri Alperovitch: It had an attachment. A few people clicked on an attachment and that let the Chinese in. It was sort of like opening the front door.

Lesley Stahl: What do you mean they were in?

Dmitri Alperovitch: Once they clicked on that email and they opened up the attachment, malicious codes started executing on their machine and it beaconed out to the Chinese and basically let them right in to the company.

From that point they can hop to any machine and take any file that they wanted from that network.

By analyzing who the email was sent to, they were able to infer that the Chinese were after more than just computer codes.

Dmitri Alperovitch: They also wanted to figure out the legal strategy of the company now that they were suing Sinovel for $1.2 billion.

George Kurtz: Whenever there's a big lawsuit we'll see the Chinese government actually break into that company, break into the legal department and figure out what's going on behind the scenes so they can better deal with that lawsuit.

Lesley Stahl: Now did you know at that time who had perpetrated the hack?

Dmitri Alperovitch: We were able to determine with great confidence that this was Unit 61398, part of the Chinese military that was responsible for this attack.

Unit 61398 is believed to be based in this nondescript building in Shanghai. It's part of the People's Liberation Army. And it's charged with spying on North American corporations.

Dmitri Alperovitch: We estimate that there are several thousand people in this unit alone, this one unit.

Lesley Stahl: How active is this unit?

George Kurtz: It's one of the most prolific groups that we've tracked coming out of the Chinese government. It's unbelievable what they've been able to steal over the last decade.

Lesley Stahl: Like what? Give us a sense of the scope.

George Kurtz: Every industry, engineering documents, manufacturing processes, chip designs, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, you name it it's been stolen.

In 2014, five military officers in the unit were criminally charged with economic espionage by John Carlin's National Security division at the Justice Department.

John Carlin: These were officers in uniform and their day job was to get up, go to work, log on, and steal from a range of American companies. And you would watch, as we put in an exhibit in the case, the activity would spike around 9:00 in the morning. They get into work, turn on their computers, and start hacking into American companies. Then it calms down a little bit from about 12:00 to 1:00 where they take a lunch break.

John Carlin: And then it continues until the end of the day, 5 or 6 o'clock--

Lesley Stahl: And then they go home.

John Carlin: --at night. And then they go home, and it decreases 'till the next morning.

China has always denied that it conducts or condones economic espionage.

But in September during a visit to Washington, President Xi Jinping pledged for the first time that China would not engage or knowingly support cybertheft of intellectual property for commercial gain.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama

Dmitri Alperovitch: It's the first time ever they've admitted that economic espionage should be off-limits and that they will not conduct it. Unfortunately, what we saw is that the very next day, the day after they were in the Rose Garden shaking hands, the intrusions continued.

Lesley Stahl: Wait, wait, wait, stop. The hacking has not stopped.

Dmitri Alperovitch: The hacking has not stopped. But one of the things that has happened is that the military units that have been responsible for these hacks have actually had their mission taken away from them and it was given to the Ministry of State Security, their version of the CIA. So, in effect, they said, "You guys are incompetent. You got caught. We'll give it to the guys that know better."

The director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center confirms that there is no evidence China has curtailed its economic espionage.

Lesley Stahl: There's a lotta criticism out there among businessmen, and some people in the government, who complain that President Obama wags his finger at the Chinese but he doesn't do anything.

John Carlin: Well I think it's important that we do take, that we do take action. If we don't do things like bring the indictment then we would be a paper, a paper tiger.

Lesley Stahl: You know, it feels like a pinprick, your indictment. They're never going to be extradited. Is there talk of putting any sanctions on the way we did with Russia when they went into the Ukraine?

John Carlin: The bottom line I think has to be that we continue to increase the costs until the behavior changes. If it doesn't change, then we need to keep thinking of additional actions, whether they're trade actions or sanctions that change the behavior.

The government of China declined our request for an interview, but sent us this comment: "China has long suffered from massive cyber attacks ...(and) firmly opposes and combats all forms of cyber attacks in accordance with law... groundless speculation, accusation or hyping up is not helpful..."

In Massachusetts, Daniel McGahn is rebuilding with much of his business now shifted to India. But adding insult to injury, Sinovel is now exporting wind turbines with his stolen technology, including one purchased by the state of Massachusetts using federal stimulus funds.

Daniel McGahn: So the U.S. government facilitated bringing the stolen goods into the U.S.

Lesley Stahl: And they're here now?

Daniel McGahn: And they're here now and it's part of a--

Lesley Stahl: Up and running?

Daniel McGahn: Up and running.

Lesley Stahl: So Sinovel using the stolen source codes has sold wind turbines here in Massachusetts using to--

Daniel McGahn: --to the government of Massachusetts funded by the federal government of the United States of America.

© 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Summary: Economic espionage sponsored by the Chinese government is costing U.S. corporations hundreds of billions of dollars and more than two million jobs


A whiskey drinker’s whiskey, since the turn of the 19th century. Only 500 bottles released per year. Made with 7- to 8-year-old pure pot still whiskey, 25% from sherry casks. Hard to find here but soon widely available in the U.S. Rich, complex and disarmingly sensuous. Slightly mentholated nose, burst of honey on the tongue, a pot still finish laced with coffee and cough drops.

More in ForbesLife Wine Cellar Must-Haves

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Summary: Are you a Macallan drinker? One taste of these sippable beauties might sway you from Scotch.


Paul Cummings is a first-year surgical resident at San Antonio Memorial. Though he excelled in medical school, he's still adjusting to the pace and the culture of the ER. A lifelong nerd, Paul's determined to fit in and learn the ropes from the more experienced doctors, even if it means enduring the occasional teasing or practical jokes from the staff.

Summary: Meet Paul on NBC.com.


The same hot weather that brings out the best in tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and other summer vegetables makes spinach, lettuce, peas and other cool-weather vegetables tough and bitter.

In the middle of a siege of hazy, hot days, it is hard to imagine that the weather will ever be cool and the soil moist again. But of course they will, and now is a good time to plan for and begin planting those vegetables that thrive when cool temperatures and short days sap the vitality from tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.

Growing fall vegetables is like having an extra growing season. The garden's closing scenes need not be of blackened tomato vines in a sea of weeds but can be vibrant with lush green, bluish-green and reddish-green leaves. The medley of frilly, scalloped, wrinkled and smooth leaves livens the scene.

Moist, cool weather, even temperatures dipping below freezing, brings out the best flavor from vegetables like kale, broccoli and carrots. And the fall harvest season in the Northeast can go well into December. While spinach, radishes and Chinese cabbage grow seed stalks instead of tender edible leaves or roots during spring's lengthening days, these vegetables stay succulent and savory during fall's shortening days. Broccoli and cauliflower buds stay tight, patiently awaiting harvest.

Before planning for a delectable harvest of fall vegetables, a gardener needs to make three commitments. The first is to maintain soil fertility. In order to get another growing season out of the garden, fertilizer and liberal amounts of compost or other organic matter should be applied to the soil. Fall's predominantly leafy vegetables are heavy feeders.

Second, do not forget to water. Seedlings beginning life in midsummer cannot get enough water for themselves through a typical summer of heat and drought. When sowing seeds in dry soil, open up a furrow, drop the seeds in, then water the furrow thoroughly before covering it and firming the soil. Sprinkle the soil with water right over the furrow every day or two, until the seedlings emerge, then give the row a thorough soaking once a week, unless there are heavy rains. Natural rainfall and cooler temperatures will lessen or eliminate the watering chores as fall approaches.

And third, weed. Summer weeds take up space that can be used for fall vegetables, and they compete for water and nutrients. A few minutes of weeding on a regular basis is easier and takes up less total time than tugging and chopping at large weeds overgrown through neglect.

To figure out when to sow a fall vegetable, look on the seed packet for ''days to maturity.'' Cool weather and shorter days are going to slow growth drastically as fall approaches, so count on any vegetable's being ready for harvest on about Sept. 15, rather than on the average date of your first fall freeze, which may be a month or more later. Counting back the ''days to maturity'' from Sept. 15 tells you when to plant the seeds.

The exceptions are vegetables that usually are transplanted -- broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, for example; for them, the days to maturity are counted from when they will be transplanted, so count back another three weeks, the time they would need to grow to transplant size.

Right now is the time to sow broccoli, endive, winter radishes, cabbage, carrots, beets and parsley, all of which need a relatively long season to mature. Sow these seeds directly in the garden where early crops of peas or lettuce are no longer worth eating and can be pulled up.

No space yet anywhere? Then sow them in seed flats or a separate, small nursery bed, then transplant them to their permanent homes in three weeks. Do not attempt this with carrots or radishes, though, because they do not transplant well. Daikon radishes, incidentally, can grow very large, and one way to limit their size is to wait a few weeks more before planting them.

Follow the first wave of planting in a couple of weeks with sowings of lettuce, Chinese cabbage, cauliflower, kale and collards. Be sure to check the days to maturity for Chinese cabbage; there are many varieties, and quicker maturing ones will bolt to seed if sown too early.

This sowing of lettuce should be the first of many. Every two weeks, through the end of August, sow small amounts, and there will be a continuous supply of tender leaves for the salad bowl. Be sure to include some extra-cold-hardy varieties, like Winter Density, Rouge d'Hiver and Arctic King, for later picking.

Whole rows of vegetables in this second planting might follow early plantings of bush beans or sweet corn, or you can sow in seed flats for transplanting three weeks later. The nice thing about using transplants is that there is no need to plant a whole row at once -- plants can be tucked here and there as space becomes available.

Late August is the time for a third wave of fall planting, perhaps where you have gathered up mature onion and garlic bulbs, or dug out cucumber vines that have finally succumbed to the inevitable bacterial wilt. Sow seeds of spinach, mustard, arugula and turnips directly in the ground. Also plant small radishes, the kind normally sown in spring. Consider trying some offbeat fall greens, like cold-hardy mache, miner's lettuce or the exotic-flavored shungiku (an edible chrysanthemum).

The final crop for the fall vegetable garden benefits not the gardener, but the soil. Sown anytime before freezing weather, a cover crop -- usually rye grain or oats -- protects the soil from rain and wind, conserves nutrients and improves tilth. It also looks nice, blanketing the ground in verdant green into winter.

Local seed racks are often cleared out in midsummer. If this is the case, or if you seek unusual varieties, here are several mail-order sources. All offer free catalogues:

W. Atlee Burpee, 300 Park Avenue, Warminster, Pa. 18974; (800) 888-1447.

Johnny's Selected Seeds, Foss Hill Road, Albion, Me. 04910; (207) 437-4301.

Pinetree Garden Seeds, Box 300, New Gloucester, Me. 04260; (207) 926-3400.

Photos: Above, young lettuces in late summer in a bed where onions were harvested. At right, fall lettuces form a tapestry of colors and textures. (Photographs by Lee Reich)


With the United Kingdom counting down to a June 23 referendum to decide whether the country should leave the European Union, the battle lines have been drawn: “Brexit” or “Bremain”?

“Brexit,” a blend of “Britain” and “exit,” has been the favored term for the looming possibility of the U.K.’s departure from the EU for a few years now. “Bremain,” blending “Britain” and “remain,” is a newer concoction, an attempt by the opposing side to...

Summary: As Britain debates whether to leave the European Union, the coined words ‘Brexit’ and ‘Bremain’ get a workout.


J. Crew's business is still declining.

The company reported that comparable sales were down 8% in the most recent quarter.

J. Crew's customers have likely been conditioned to discounts and promotions, something that Banana Republic's customers have been conditioned too, as well.

In fact, this has been an issue plaguing much of the retail industry lately.

"It starts to train the customer to expect 30% off or 40% off going forward, and the onlyway to untrain her is to have a big fashion hit that they happen to buy very little of, and train her to start [shopping] more like [the store was] a fast fashion retailer," Mizuho Securities Managing Director, Betty Chen, told Business Insider.

J. Crew is known for its frequent sales.

"That people are unwilling to pay full price means that discounting at mainstream stores and via the mainstream website is also very frequent," Neil Saunders, CEO of consulting firm Conlumino wrote in a note to clients last quarter. "While this is a necessary evil to clear down inventory, J. Crew is building a reputation as a retailer from which customers should never buy at full price — something that is hampering its ability to rebuild its brand and price integrity."

But it looks like J. Crew will be making some changes to help fix these problems.

Looks from J. Crew's Spring 2016 collection:

J. Crew trained customers to want one thing — and now it's killing business

Chen pointed to do the company's relatively new CFO, Michael J. Nicholson, who had a "stellar history of controlling expenses at Ann Inc.," where he previously worked.

"If he can bring over similar measures at J. Crew, that would be instrumental," she said.

That — coupled with fashion (and quality) that customers want — could potentially help solve J. Crew's problems. Until then, J. Crew will have to change consumers minds with apparel that resonates and get them to pay full price again.

Fortunately, there are some bright spots in the business. Trendy sister store Madewell saw comparable sells increase 6%, but the parent company's comparable sales were still down 7%.

NOW WATCH: Chipotle just reported their first ever quarterly loss and now they're considering adding this menu item

SEE ALSO: We went to Banana Republic and saw why sales are plummeting

Summary: J. Crew's business is still declining -- and it might be thanks to a common practice also used at Banana Republic.


One of Hillary Clinton’s warm-up acts at the Democratic convention Thursday will be an Ohio Senator who was on the shortlist of her potential running mates.

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown is one of the leading progressives in the U.S. Senate, but he’s not well-known among many Americans.

Brown was elected at 22 to the Ohio House and eventually became Ohio’s Secretary of State before moving to the House and then the Senate in 2006.

Here are some things to know about Brown:

He voted against the Iraq war and fought passage of NAFTA. Americans for Democratic Action gave Brown a 95% liberal rating in 2014, putting him among the most liberal senators. Brown supports tighter regulation of Wall Street and stronger gun control laws and is often compared to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

He was on Clinton’s vice presidential shortlist. The Senator was seen as someone who could unite the populist wing of the Democratic party behind Clinton, a nominee that some Senator Bernie Sanders supporters have not rallied behind. Brown endorsed Clinton and campaigned with her in Ohio, saying, “She has the best, thought-through trade and manufacturing policy.”

He is married to a Pulitzer-Prize winner. Connie Schultz won the prize in 2005 for a series of columns at the Cleveland Plain Dealer “that provided a voice for the underdog and the underprivileged.” She regularly tweets pictures of her husband and adds a personal side to the politician.

Summary: Sherrod Brown will speak before Clinton.