Demi Moore Fresh Restart After Rehab

 Demi Moore -- Fresh Restart after Rehab

 resurfaced Tuesday night after her rehab stint ... and it was mostly business.Demi showed up at a home in Beverly Hills to celebrate the launch of the TV show, "The Conversation." She's the executive producer, and her best friend,(red and white) is the star.Although Demi has not filed for divorce yet -- she's ready for a name change. Demi tweeted last night that she's taking suggestions for a new screen name -- her current one is @MrsKutcher. ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| After a rough couple of months (divorce, hospitalization, rehab),is back.

 The 48-year-old actress returned to Twitter, keeping her handle name as @MrsKutcher. This may surprise some as her split to Ashton Kutcher, 34, was late last year. Demi hadn’t tweeted since Jan. 7 when she wrote to her followers on Sunday: “Testing.” She also posted a pic of herself resting in bed, as seen above.

 What do you think? Should Demi change her Twitter handle? Click the gallery to see her sexiest twitpics, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

 Meanwhile, relationship rumors are swirling between Demi’s ex and one of his former That ’70s Show costars.

 The Two and a Half Men actor was seen out to dinner with Mila Kunis, 28, Sunday night. The two reportedly dined on sushi in Los Angeles, Calif. before going furniture shopping, and according to X17online.com, Ashton and Mila have been out together on several occasions. Following their Sunday night rendevous in Studio City, they reportedly went back to Ashton’s Hollywood Hills home.

 Mila will be reuniting with all her ’70s Show costars on the small screen when the group returns to FOX for the network’s 25th Anniversary Special on April 22. |||||
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– Demi Moore stepped out last night for the first time since her rehab stint, supporting best friend Amanda de Cadenet at the launch of her show, which Moore is producing, TMZ reports. Moore, who hadn't surfaced since being hospitalized after a party back in January, was looking good, the New York Post notes. No longer "sullen and gaunt," she has put some weight back on and "appeared to glow" with "round cheeks and a dewy complexion," the paper decrees. Moore—who has not filed for divorce from Ashton Kutcher yet—also reappeared on Twitter Sunday for the first time since January 7. And last night, she tweeted that she's ready to stop being @MrsKutcher on the microblogging site. "Time for a change, twitter name change," she posted, asking for suggestions. USA Today lists a few she's received so far: SheWhoLaughsLast, QueenMoore, and HotExWife.


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– The world is becoming more egalitarian, with men doing a much larger share of things like cooking and childcare these days. "It’s seen as socially admirable and masculine for a man to be on diaper duty or to sous-vide a steak," writes Jessica Grose, whose own husband handles half the midnight baby feedings. "But there are no closet organizing tips in the pages of Esquire, no dishwasher detergent ads in the pages of GQ," and her husband hasn't scoured a single toilet during their six-year relationship. Cleaning, she writes for the New Republic, is the "final feminist frontier." She shares a few theories as to why (cleaning just isn't fun, laundry detergent is still marketed as a women's product) but ultimately posits that society's instinct is to blame the mess on the woman. "Unfortunately, the notion that women will be the first to be judged for a messy home and the first to be commended for an orderly one isn’t much of an incentive for men to pick up a mop," she writes. But in New York, Jonathan Chait sees something else at work: Women simply have higher cleanliness standards. The underlying assumption is "that there is a correct level of cleanliness in a heterosexual relationship, and that level is determined by the female. I think a little cultural relativism would improve the debate. My wife and I ... settled—fairly, I think—on a home that’s neater than I’d prefer to keep it, but less neat than she would." Click for Grose's full column or Chait's response.

Only about 2 percent of commercials featuring men showed them doing domestic tasks.

 In a phone interview, Arlie Hochschild, the author of The Outsourced Self and the foundational feminist text on women and housework, The Second Shift, makes the argument that a women’s desire for a clean home has deeper origins than just marketing. Cleaning, Hoschild says, is not simply physical work. It’s emotional work. “Letting the house go is in a way letting something deeper go. … You get a sense of safety in an orderly home,” Hochschild says.

 But assuming both parties care about creating a sense of safety in the home, why does it fall to women? I suspect that women are more driven to keep a clean house because they know they—before their male partners—will be judged for having a dirty one. When I lived with two female roommates, I was much more of a slob. None of us was particularly responsible for the emotional tone of that apartment—no single one of us was more likely to be shunned for the state of our bathroom. But when I got married, the dust bunnies hopping across our floor started seeming like a personal affront. Although it was my husband’s father coming over, I was the one who insisted we clean. I was worried I would be judged for the beef jerky wrappers (on both aesthetic and gustatory grounds), despite the fact that my father-in-law has never once made a peep about the state of our abode. Somewhere lodged within me was the message that it was my responsibility.

 Unfortunately, the notion that women will be the first to be judged for a messy home and the first to be commended for an orderly one isn’t much of an incentive for men to pick up a mop. In the instances in which men actually do the majority of the housework in their partnership, women are still the ones getting credit. David Michael Perez, the publisher and editor of Kindling Quarterly, says that though he does more decorating and cleaning than his spouse does, “often when people say ‘your house is nice,’ it’s directed more at my wife.” If they’re not even going to be rewarded for it, why bother at all?

 With all these obstacles to real gender parity of chores, what’s a working woman to do? Philosophy professor Alexandra Bradner suggests on the Atlantic’s website that couples sit down with a list of questions like, “Do I do half of the laundry and half of the dishes every day?” to figure out where they’re slacking off in comparison to their mate. This sounds exhausting and impractical. If I do one load of laundry, it’s easier for me to do the second rather than wait for my husband to mosey over. (Bradner also says that when men do traditionally female chores, they’re enacting “‘small instances of gender heroism,’ or ‘SIGH’s”—which, barf.)

 I’m much more inclined to take the advice of Jenny Anderson, the co-author of It’s Not You, It’s the Dishes, which applies economic theory to household tasks. A lot of women shoo their husbands away from cleaning because they know the men will do a sub-par job of scrubbing the sink. Anderson says you should divide up tasks according to the economic theory of comparative advantage. Let’s say a woman is twice as good as her husband at doing the laundry, but only 20 percent better than her husband at doing the dishes. In that couple, the husband should always do the dishes. What’s more, he’ll get better at it through repetition.

 Another solution is for women to lower their filth thresholds. Did I really need to clean up the house for my father-in-law? Would he have cared if there were a few glasses sitting out on the kitchen table? Probably not. But it’s harder to stomach this fix once you have children, when the threat of a Fisher Price plastic hell-scape is perpetually around the corner. One of the women I interviewed for this piece, who doesn’t want to publicly shame her husband, said that when she came home after a weekday night out, it was so messy that it looked like she had 40 kids instead of two. If she had left the living room like that, it wouldn’t have been very good hygiene modeling for her kids (and, at some point, might get social services called).

 One last suggestion comes from Magary, who so emphatically declared that cleaning sucks: make cleaning more fun. He says that when the Swiffer first came on the market, it was sort of enticing. (Swiffer reps said they had no information to share with me about men and cleaning.) “We like gadgets and stuff,” Magary explains. “If there was some new electronic hovering Apple product that cleaned the bathroom, I’d try it.” Are you listening out there in Cupertino? You have a huge, untapped market on your hands for toilet-scrubbing iPods. I bet my husband would buy one. ||||| Photo: Roadside Attractions

 Jessica Grose has an interesting piece for The New Republic observing — and also decrying — that husbands may be catching up with childcare and even cooking, but still do way less housework than women. (“When it comes to housecleaning,” she writes, “my basically modern, egalitarian marriage starts looking more like the backdrop to an Updike short story.”)

 Grose casts around for explanations, but does not consider a possibility that probably explains a big part of the gap: Women in general just have higher standards of cleanliness than men do. People who care a lot about neater homes spend more time cleaning them because that makes them happy. And while I agree in general that domestic life requires more gender equality, the housework problem has a partial solution that’s simpler and more elegant: Do less of it.

 Viewing housework inequality as entirely a phenomenon of exploitative men free-riding off of female domestic labor makes sense only if you think men derive equal enjoyment from a cleaner and neater home. If that were the case, men who lived by themselves, or with other men, would have to keep their own homes tidy until they could conscript a wife or girlfriend to do their cleaning.

 Does anybody think that’s true? In college, I lived in a group house with newspapers for carpeting and pizza boxes stacked to the ceiling. My brother’s three-dude college apartment was so filthy it was condemned by the Ann Arbor board of health. It had a spilled milkshake on the floor that stayed there all year, forming a permanent, unearthly silver blob that became an object of curiosity. (To be clear, this was my brother, not me — I was content with the pizza box tower, but if it was my floor, I’d have cleaned up the milkshake.) My post-college group house was vastly neater than my college home, yet still messy enough that my girlfriend refused to set foot in it, insisting we spend all our domestic time at her place.

 We’re now married, which seems like the proper place to note that the mental image you have probably formed of my domestic habits is not accurate. Mainly because I work at home, and her in the office, I handle more than half the parental responsibilities. I buy all the groceries, cook dinner every night, get the kids ready for school, and walk them in the morning. We split bedtime. If one of them gets sick, my wife still heads to work, and it’s up to me to take care of them.

 When the kids were born, we got a housekeeper once a week. Obviously, that’s a luxury many people can’t afford. I mention it because, when Grose bemoans “the drudgery of vacuuming day in and day out,” I think, Really? Day in and day out? We pretty much figure the weekly vacuuming we pay for takes care of our vacuuming needs. The cover of New York, featuring Lisa Miller’s story on feminist housewives, has an image of a mom holding a duster. We don’t dust. Ever.

 The assumption of much of the feminist commentary surrounding household chores assumes that there is a correct level of cleanliness in a heterosexual relationship, and that level is determined by the female. I think a little cultural relativism would improve the debate. The tidiness level of a home is a matter of simple preference with no right or wrong (except perhaps when you reach the antagonizing-municipal-authorities extremes of my brother’s pad.) My wife and I happily learned to converge on each other’s level of tidiness. We settled — fairly, I think — on a home that’s neater than I’d prefer to keep it, but less neat than she would. She does a little more housecleaning than I do. But it’s not that much more than the time I spend doing the man-work of trash-clearing, lightbulb-replacing, heavy-object-hauling, and screw-turning.

 The tricky thing in allocating the responsibilities between partners is that not all “work” can be equated. This neat chart from Pew Research has been making the rounds:

 Photo: Pew Research

 All these things are not the same. Marching the kids through their morning checklist and getting them out the door is stressful work, where every morning feels like I’m trying to pass a bill through the Senate and my kids are Mitch McConnell. Walking them to school is nice. Reading Harry Potter to my daughter, or wrestling on the carpet with my son, is incredibly fun. All those things are “childcare.” Sometimes on weekdays, I have a sick kid on the sofa while I work in the room next door. Look — according to that chart, I performed nine hours of child care and nine hours of paid work! (Okay, eight — we took some story-time breaks.)

 Housecleaning is all drudgery and zero fun. But while some of it (like laundry) is necessary, other parts are purely discretionary. I like having magazines strewn across the coffee table. My wife doesn’t. I won’t protest when she stacks them up somewhere, but when she does it, I don’t regard it as her participation in the shared household duties. She handles our household finances, which is a gigantic contribution, out of all proportion to the hours it consumes owing to its stressfulness.

 Cooking lies in between, though it depends on the person. I don’t like cooking, especially — if I could magically conjure the meals instead of prepare them, I would. But it does come with the satisfaction of watching your family enjoy the meal, except that sometimes it comes with the frustration of your spouse coming home late and making it cold, or your kid announcing they won’t try it and marching to the pantry to make a peanut-butter sandwich.

 A Pew-style chart of my household would show that I do both more paid work and more childcare than my wife — mainly because I don’t commute. But that would present an inaccurately slanted picture of our relative contributions. Having more time around the kids while she slogs through the Red Line is a perk I enjoy, not a cost I’m bearing.

 For differing reasons, both feminists and anti-feminists have sandblasted away the distinction between different kinds of work, but the distinction matters. I think Grose’s general point, about the unequal demands faced by women, stands. But the specific indictment about housework doesn’t seem quite as solid.

 Feminists want women to work like men do, right? Why not try living like men, too? Put down the duster. It’ll be okay. |||||


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Russell Brand's Secret Weapon -- Katy Perry's Skirt

 isn't making it up ... law enforcement sources tell TMZtold LAX cops immediately after he attacked paparazzi that he did it because a photog was trying to shoot up his fiancée's skirt.As we first reported, Brand and Perry were going through Delta security when he allegedly attacked photogs . He was arrested for misdemeanor battery.In addition to telling cops about the upskirt shot, we're told Brand and his lawyer raised the issue at LAPD's Pacific Division, where Brand was booked.Katy herself tweeted, "If you cross the line & try an put a lens up my dress, my fiancé will do his job & protect me."Fun fact ... It's not a legal defense to a battery that someone tried to shoot up your girlfriend's dress. But prosecutors know any jury would be extremely sympathetic to a celeb under these circumstances and venomous toward the paparazzi. ||||| Russell Brand Arrested

 Comedian hit photographers while trying to protect Katy Perry...

 Russell Brand was arrested and questioned by Los Angeles police after allegedly attacking several photographers.

 The comedian was making his way through LAX airport on September 17 when the incident took place. Reports suggest Brand lashed out at paparazzi after they got too close to fiancée Katy Perry, pushing one photographer and striking several others.

 A victim performed a citizen’s arrest on Brand and he was interviewed by airport police before being taken into custody for a misdemeanour charge of simple battery. He was released after posting $20,000 bail.

 After the incident Katy tweeted: "If you cross the line & try and put a lens up my dress, my fiancé will do his job & protect me." Katy also added two hash tags: #standbyourman and #don’t****withtheBrands. Russell has not commented on the incident.

 The former VMAs host had travelled to the west coast of America to spend time with Katy on their first anniversary as a couple; the altercation meant they missed their flight to Las Vegas. Russell is based in New York for several months while he films the remake of Arthur.

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– Russell Brand is free on bail today on charges of simple battery after he allegedly roughed up members of the paparazzi at LAX airport. The reason? He told cops upon his arrest that photographers were trying to shoot up fiancée Katy Perry's skirt, reports TMZ. Katy herself confirms the line of defense, via tweet, of course: "If you cross the line & try and put a lens up my dress, my fiancé will do his job & protect me." MTV has more details.


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– Apparently, the birds of Gilbert, Minn., can't handle their liquor. Case in point: The police department there has received several reports of birds that "appear to be 'under the influence' flying into windows, cars, and acting confused," according to a police department statement released this week. The culprit? An early frost. Or, more specifically, berries that froze, causing the starch they contain to convert to sugar, which in turn fermented when the berries thawed. "Birds actually do get literally intoxicated when they eat berries that have started fermenting," a bird expert tells the Duluth News Tribune. "And that does lead to drunken behavior." And it's pretty common, reports NPR, which dug up some other instances of boozey birds. In one case, the city of Whitehorse in the Yukon had to set up drunk tanks (modified hamster cages) for the "party fowl." As for Gilbert's winged drunkards, "There's no need to call law enforcement about these birds as they should sober up within a short period of time," per the police statement, which adds that there are some bird-related occurrences that should be called in. Among these are: "The Roadrunner jumping in and out of traffic on Main Street;" "Big Bird operating a motor vehicle in an unsafe manner;" and " Tweety acting as if 10 feet tall and getting into confrontations with cats."

He said probably a half-dozen people contacted his department Monday with concerns about apparently disoriented birds flying into buildings and cars.

 Not to worry, he said. Techar attributed the strange behavior to an early frost. Starch in the frozen berries is converted to sugar, and when they thaw again, yeast can enter the fruit and accelerate fermentation, yielding alcohol.

 All this, before many birds have migrated out of the area, apparently has resulted in widespread avian inebriation, as the feathered flocks gorge on spiked fruit, mostly mountain ash berries.

 Laura Erickson, a Duluth birding expert, said waxwings, robins and thrushes often are some of the most prone to become tipsy, as they commonly feed on such berries.

 "Birds actually do get literally intoxicated when they eat berries that have started fermenting, and that does lead to drunken behavior," she said.

 Techar said occasional reports of loopy birds are nothing new at this time of year, but weather conditions this fall have served up more than the typical share of alcohol-laden fruit.

 "There is no need to call law enforcement about these birds, as they should sober up within a short period of time," he wrote.

 "However, we would like you to call the Gilbert Police Department if you see the following," Techar added, obviously tongue in cheek:

 • Heckle and Jeckle walking around being boisterous or playing practical jokes.

 • Woodstock pushing Snoopy off the doghouse for no apparent reason.

 • The Roadrunner jumping in and out of traffic on Main Street.

 • Big Bird operating a motor vehicle in an unsafe manner.

 • Angry Birds laughing and giggling uncontrollably and appearing to be happy.

 • Tweety acting as if 10 feet tall and getting into confrontations with cats.

 • Or any other birds after midnight with Taco Bell items.

 As for the playful riff at the end of the news release, Techar said: "I wasn't going to do it, but we decided to show people that we've got a little bit of a sense of humor."

 Who said law enforcement can't have a little fun once in a while?

 Large numbers of birds and an increased risk of collisions are to be expected during this season, with or without fermenting berries, Erickson noted. Weather conditions also can temporarily halt bird movement, resulting in what's called migration fallout.

 "It's par for the course at this time of year, but some years we have a much bigger, more noticeable fallout than other years, and this year's is pretty impressive," Erickson said.

 She said small songbirds pausing in their travels often can be seen foraging for insects on the ground or along roadsides, where they typically can find warmer surface temperatures.

 "It's been scary for people to drive when you have a whole collection of little warblers that are flitting right on the road, and people have been hitting a lot of them," Erickson said.

 To reduce the risk of bird strikes, she recommends people adorn their windows with stickers, suncatchers, or strings.

 "If people don't have that, birds smack into the windows, and the real tragedy with that is that half of the ones that fly off have bad enough wounds that they end up dying from head trauma," Erickson said.

 Those birds that overindulge on fermented berries yet avoid windows may experience a different sort of head trauma. But fortunately it's nothing they can't sleep off. ||||| If birds that feed on winter berries in the Northern Hemisphere seem to be painting the town red, it could be because they're intoxicated.

 Alcohol forms in berries as they ferment with the first frosts, and the birds that gorge on these winter fruits may get drunk more often than we think, scientists say. (See National Geographic's backyard bird identifier.)

 "Most birds likely just get a bit tipsy, and very few people would be able to pick them out as intoxicated," said Meghan Larivee, laboratory coordinator at the government agency Environment Yukon in Canada. "However, every now and then, some birds just overdo it."

 Such was the case with several Bohemian waxwings (Bombycilla garrulus) that flew into Whitehorse, Yukon, this fall, and ended up in "drunk tanks" after bingeing on fermented berries of the rowan tree.

 The birds were admitted to the territory's Animal Health Unit, a wildlife facility equipped with modified hamster cages in readiness for the influx of berry-seeking migrants.

 While there's no Breathalyzer for birds, it's pretty clear the waxwings were flying under the influence, according to Larivee.

 "They cannot coordinate their flight movements properly or at all, and they are unable to walk in a coordinated way," she said in an email.

 The birds, who come in with juice-stained beaks, are checked for illnesses that might otherwise explain their groggy condition. They generally recover after a few hours, she said.

 Less fortunate are those intoxicated birds that die in collisions with buildings—two such fatalities were recorded in Whitehorse this fall.

 An Alcohol Problem

 While there are numerous anecdotal reports of such incidents in North America and Europe, there have been few studies to show that alcohol is indeed the cause.

 One problem is that there's no routine test for diagnosing alcohol poisoning in animals, said Paul Duff, a veterinary scientist with the U.K.'s Animal and Plant Health Agency. The tests are "relatively expensive, and alcohol can disappear quickly. And toxicity leaves no characteristic lesions," he said. (Also see "Boozing Mammal Drinks 'Beer' Every Night, Study Finds.")

 In 2011, Duff was called in as part of a police investigation into the suspicious deaths of 12 common blackbirds (Turdus merula) at an elementary school in the county of Cumbria in northern England.

 Postmortem results, which included the detection of significant levels of alcohol in a liver sample, suggested the birds succumbed after eating fermenting rowan berries.

 The same agency made a similar diagnosis for a group of redwings (Turdus iliacus) in 1999. The birds sustained fatal falls onto concrete from a berry-laden holly bush.

 High Tolerance

 The relatively large livers of waxwings and other species that rely on berries to get through winter are thought to help the birds handle alcohol. Young birds, however, may be more vulnerable.

 Duff noted that the blackbirds he investigated in 2011 were all immature. "It is possible that adults learn to avoid toxic berries," he added.

 A more obvious risk factor for drunk birds, certainly for those that flock to urban areas, are buildings and hard surfaces.

 Bohemian waxwings that make their way south to Britain from Scandinavia in winter often make a beeline for ornamental berry trees in shopping center parking lots and residential areas. (Also see "'Drunk' Bats Fly Right—Discovery Surprises Scientists.")

 In such an environment, being unable to fly straight may be lethal, said Ben Andrews, a wildlife advisor with the U.K.'s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

 "We've had the odd report from people phoning us up and saying they've had a waxwing or waxwings dead under their window and things like that," Andrews said.

 If you come across a live bird that appears drunk but uninjured, Andrews advises putting the animal in a cardboard box with some air holes for a few hours until they sober up and can be released.

 Climate Change Effect?

 But if outbreaks of insobriety aren't so unusual among berry-eating birds, might climate change make them even more frequent?

 Though not an unusual fall phenomenon, freezing causes the berries to convert starches into sugars, while subsequent thawing makes it possible for yeast to get in and speed up the fermentation process, Larivee explained.

 Larivee's recent waxwing patients were admitted to her Yukon animal unit following several frosts and thaws due to warmer temperatures. Average global surface temperature increased 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.85 Celsius) from 1880 to 2012, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

 "We have to look at longer term trends when speaking about climate change, but we are seeing some changes," Larivee said. (Read more about the effects of global warming.) |||||


Here is a news article: (CNN) One of three conductors aboard the Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia this week told investigators she heard the locomotive's engineer say the train had been struck by an object, National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said Friday.

 The assistant conductor said she overheard radio transmissions made Tuesday by Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian and the engineer of a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) train.

 "She recalled that the SEPTA engineer had reported to the train dispatcher that he had either been hit by a rock or shot at, and the SEPTA engineer said that he had a broken windshield, and he placed his train into emergency stop," Sumwalt said. "She also believed that she heard (the Amtrak) engineer say something about his train being struck by something."

 Bostian was interviewed Friday afternoon for the first time since the derailment of Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188. Eight people were killed and more than 200 were injured.

 While he was "extremely cooperative," he had "no recollection" of anything that happened once the train passed the North Philadelphia station, about 3 miles from the crash site, Sumwalt said. Bostian suffered a concussion, among other injuries.

 The locomotive's windshield was shattered in the derailment. But Sumwalt said there is "particular damage" to the lower portion of the windshield that the FBI will examine. He described it as a "circular pattern that emanates out just a bit."

 "We're very interested in this report. We want to learn more about it so we will use all sources of information that we can to independently validate that," Sumwalt said.

 That includes meeting with the engineer of the SEPTA train.

 NTSB Has secured outward-facing video from the SEPTA train in question and will be reviewing radio transmissions. #Amtrak — NTSB (@NTSB) May 15, 2015

 Engineer reported no problems

 Investigators are considering all possibilities, including speed, track conditions and human error, as they try to figure out what happened.

 Much of the focus has been on Bostian, the 32-year-old at the controls of the train when it accelerated into a 50-mph curve at a speed of 106 mph.

 JUST WATCHED Train accelerated from 70 mph to more than 100 mph Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Train accelerated from 70 mph to more than 100 mph 02:31

 Bostian told investigators he was not ill or tired, felt "fully qualified and ... reported no problems with his train handling," Sumwalt said.

 Under questioning, "he demonstrated very good working knowledge of the territory" where the derailment occurred, including speed limits at various points along the route between Washington and New York, which he made five days a week.

 The NTSB will reassemble the train to connect its brake lines and test the braking system.

 Other trains reportedly struck by objects

 Former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said if the report of a projectile striking the train is true, "it would be a tremendous distraction" to the engineer.

 Passenger Alfred Price told CNN he was sitting only three or four rows away from the engineer booth of the affected SEPTA train at about 9:10 p.m. Tuesday when he heard a loud boom and the train came to a stop. The engineer, who appeared shaken up, told passengers that something had hit the train.

 I am aboard septa train to Trenton. Train was hit by something and came to a stop. Moments later the Amtrak train that derailed passed us. — Alfred Price (@TheAlfredPrice) May 13, 2015

 Scott Knowles, another passenger on the SEPTA train, said the incident happened somewhere between Philadelphia's 30th Street station and the North Philadelphia station. The 30th Street station is the last stop the derailed Amtrak 188 train made before the crash.

 Adding to the mystery of what happened the night of the derailment, passengers aboard a third train also reported their train getting struck by an object.

 JUST WATCHED Passenger says earlier train struck by object Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Passenger says earlier train struck by object 02:48

 Passenger Madison Calvert was aboard an Amtrak Acela train from New York to Philadelphia when he heard a "loud thud" that left part of the window next to him cracked in a circular pattern.

 The incident happened right outside 30th Street station roughly 20 minutes before the crash, Calvert told CNN.

 Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said Wednesday that the Acela incident was not related to the derailment.

 SEPTA engineers have reported "from time to time" projectiles hitting trains in this area before, said spokeswoman Kristin Geiger.

 Co-workers describe engineer as 'very professional'

 Bostian has had a reputation as a transportation buff since high school when he wrote about rail travel for his school newspaper. One of the online posts linked to him suggests he was working on a short-line railroad when he was 20 or 21.

 What we know about the engineer

 His LinkedIn profile says he joined Amtrak as a conductor after graduating from the University of Missouri in 2006. He became an engineer about 4½ years later.

 His attorney, Robert Goggin, has said Bostian wasn't drunk, drugged or distracted by his cell phone Tuesday night. Nor has he had mishaps or major issues on the job, Goggin said.

 The conductors aboard the train described to NTSB investigators a good working relationship with the engineer, calling him "very professional" and "great to work with," according to Sumwalt.

 "He was very thorough always when it came to work (and) he was on point," said friend Xavier Bishop, who lost his job with Amtrak due to absenteeism issues. "He knew what he needed to know and if he wasn't sure about it ... he was going to call and make sure that he got the proper information."

 Still, the engineer's seemingly stellar past hasn't stopped people from pointing fingers at him -- starting with Mayor Nutter.

 JUST WATCHED Mayor: 'Clearly he was reckless and irresponsible' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Mayor: 'Clearly he was reckless and irresponsible' 07:18

 Nutter called Bostian's driving "clearly ... reckless," telling CNN, "There's no way in the world he should have been going that fast into the curve."

 Investigators looking at speed as factor

 CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta said the crash could have caused post-traumatic amnesia in which a person forgets parts of what happened before and after an injury.

 Bishop, who "went up and down those rails with Brandon hundreds of times," is among those befuddled by the crash, saying, "I really believe something happened to prior to him getting to that curve. We all know what the speed limits are; it's not a mystery us."

 The Philadelphia District Attorney's office is closely monitoring the investigation of the crash, but at this point there is nothing conclusive indicating Bostian was criminally reckless, according to an official with the DA's office.

 One area of interest is whether the engineer could have possibly been distracted, perhaps by his cell phone. While Bostian's attorney said in an interview with ABC earlier this week that his client's cell phone was off at the time of the crash, investigators are pulling the engineer's phone records to determine whether there was any activity at the time of the derailment, according to a Philadelphia police official.

 Bostian touted safety tools to override human error

 Long before the derailment, Bostian apparently was an online advocate to prevent such a calamity -- technology to slow a dangerously fast train when an engineer does not.

 "They have had nearly a hundred years of opportunity to implement SOME sort of system to mitigate human error," one post read. "But with a few notable exceptions (the rail industry) has failed to do so."

 This message was one of several in recent years appearing to be written by Bostian on TrainOrders.com, which describes itself as a "railfan site" with photos, multimedia, chat and discussion forums. In one of the posts with the same "author" name, he writes out his name in full; in another, he uses his first initial. In one more, he describes himself as a student in Missouri originally from Memphis, Tennessee, which was true at the time.

 Sumwalt has said already that there would have been no derailment if technology known as positive train control had been in place on the fateful override track to overrule an errant, oblivious or incapacitated engineer.

 How does positive train control work?

 Sumwalt has been seconded by rail experts, insiders and aficionados. Bostian himself apparently was an advocate of such an approach before the crash.

 A 2011 post mentions how the NTSB decades ago put positive train control on its "most wanted" list of rail upgrades, then lamented that it took Congress to pass a law mandating the change by the end of 2015. Bostian apparently wrote that railroads have had many tools available for decades to curb crashes such as the one in Southern California involving a freight train and a Metrolink commuter train that killed 25 people in 2008.

 "It shouldn't take an act of Congress to get (the rail) industry to adopt common-sense safety systems on their own," one message states.

 Debate over Amtrak technology, funding

 Many concur it is a shame positive train control wasn't installed already in places such as Frankford Junction, the curve in the track where this week's train crash happened. That includes Amtrak CEO Joseph Boardman.

 "Had it been installed, it would have been prevented this accident," the Amtrak chief told CNN's Rene Marsh. "That's what I've been saying for a long period of time."

 JUST WATCHED Amtrak CEO: Derailment could have been prevented Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Amtrak CEO: Derailment could have been prevented 01:43

 And it's going to happen, at least, on Amtrak's busy Northeast Corridor -- which includes rails around Philadelphia -- by December 31, Boardman pledged.

 Even after then, questions remain about why it's taken so long and what other infrastructure or technological improvements aren't happening.

 Boardman said Amtrak and other transportation infrastructure nationally are significantly underfunded. This problem leaves agencies with tough questions about which safety upgrades to implement and which ones not to, with potentially dangerous implications.

 There's no guarantee that more funding is coming.

 On Wednesday, the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee voted to reduce grants to Amtrak by $252 million, a drop of about 15% from last year's level.

 The move doesn't mean such a cut will become reality. But it certainly doesn't bode well for those -- such as Boardman and President Barack Obama -- who have called for more spending to repair decaying infrastructure in the wake of the latest crash. ||||| The intersection of Wheatsheaf and Frankford Ave. on May 13, 2015. ( ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer )

 Right before the fatal derailment of Amtrak Train 188 a conductor said she believes she heard the engineer say that a window on the train had been "struck by something," National Transporation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said Friday. In the agency's final briefing in Philadelphia on Tuesday night's horrific accident, Sumwalt said the FBI now was involved in the investigation of the crash that killed eight people and injured 200. The FBI confirmed that it is investigating damage to the windshield of the train but said no separate federal criminal investigation is yet under way. He said that NTSB officials interviewed engineer Brandon Bostian on Friday, and that he "cooperated fully." Bostian was accompanied by his attorney, who has said his client suffered a concussion in the crash.

 Sumwalt said Bostian told investigators that the last thing he remembers is ringing a train bell as required as he went through the North Philadelphia station. He did not remember the crash.

 Sumwalt said Bostian "did not feel fatigued nor did he report any illness." He said Bostian, 32, "demonstrated very good working knowledge of the territory, speed limits and things like that." Bostian drove the daily New York to Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. and back train run, Monday to Friday.

 Sumwalt said that officials also had spoken with a conductor who "believes she heard her engineer say something about his train being struck by something," Sumwalt said.

 "We have seen damage to the left-hand lower portion of the Amtrak windshield that we have asked the FBI to come in and look at for us," he added. He said the damage appeared in a "circular pattern that emanates out quite a bit."

 Right before the crash Tuesday night at Frankford Junction, a SEPTA commuter train and another Amtrak train in the same area were hit by projectiles, one of which crashed through the SEPTA engineer's window.

 The unnamed conductor told the NTSB she heard the engineer of her Amtrak train talking to the engineer of a SEPTA train about three to four minutes after leaving Philadelphia, Sumwalt said. The woman, a 39-year-old Amtrak worker, was in the fourth car - the cafe car - when she heard the radio conversation.

 "She heard him talking to a SEPTA engineer who reported to a train dispatcher that he had either been hit by a rock or shot at," Sumwalt said, "and that the SEPTA engineer said he had a broken windshield and put the train into an emergency stop."

 Sumwalt said the particular damage that NTSB wants the FBI to examine is the circular pattern of damage on the lower left windshield, as seen from inside the engineer's station.

 He said the right-hand side of the windshield was shattered by the crash impact.

 It was not known when NTSB agency would release a final report on the crash of Train 188.

 Bill Shuster (R., Pa.), chairman of the house transportation committee, said Friday he planned to covene hearings on the accident.

 In a statement, Amtrak president Joseph Boardman said, "Amtrak takes full responsibility, and deeply apologizes for our role in this tragic event."

 Meanwhile, work to reopen the stretch of tracks where Amtrak Train 188 derailed, killing eight passengers, moved into high gear Friday, and service along one of the nation's most heavily traveled sections of rail was expected to resume Tuesday.

 The Northeast Corridor is Amtrak's busiest, carrying millions of people annually, and the closure at Frankford Junction has halted Amtrak service between New York and Philadelphia and, by extension, New York and Washington.

 It also has forced 12,000 daily riders who use SEPTA's Trenton Line to find alternate routes to work and has prevented NJ Transit's Atlantic City line trains from getting to and from 30th Street Station.

 Officials say Train 188 had accelerated right before the crash and was speeding when it hit the sharp curve at the junction, jumping the tracks after the engineer activated the brakes.

 Work is underway to replace 22 track panels along two of the four tracks at the site. Each panel is 60 feet long, Amtrak spokesman Craig Schulz said.

 Crews also are installing four new catenary poles - the H-shaped steel structures that hold the overhead wires along the tracks.

 "These guys have literally been working around the clock," Schulz said.

 He did not have a cost estimate for the work, which also includes testing the signal and power systems.

 He said crews will continue working around the clock until repairs are complete.

 Against the backdrop of the work to reopen the junction and an ongoing investigation into the derailment, two dozen fire officials, police commanders and first responders gathered at City Hall to speak to about the massive city response to the crash.

 The officials said it was an opportunity for the public to hear about the Herculean efforts that were undertaken to rescue wreck victims. The event began with a moment of silence for the dead and injured.

 A dispatch supervisor spoke first, saying multiple calls came in from passengers on the wrecked train - who didn't know where they were. Officials used technology to identify the location of the cellphone calls.

 "The people were frantic but they were also calm," said supervisor Ken Carey. "They were able to say, 'I've been in an accident, but I don't know where I am.'"

 Repeated themes at the briefing were the horrifying scope of the disaster and the way the many responding agencies cooperated.

 Back at the crash scene, a steady beeping of machinery and buzzing of cement trucks could be heard along Frankford Avenue on Friday morning.

 Though the scene has been released back to Amtrak, it remained behind police barricades as repair work continued.

 White Amtrak pickup trucks came and went from a dusty lot between two warehouses. Beyond the lot, dozens of workers in hard hats and orange vests labored along the tracks. Some later paused to paused to eat a lunch of chicken off paper plates in a parking lot along the tracks Friday afternoon.

 Portable spotlights were in place for continuing work through the night.

 Earlier Friday, bulldozers cleared the site where the front two cars - which were most damaged in the derailment - had crashed. Larger trucks also arrived on the site, where tents and portable toilets were set up in a staging area.

 Six people injured in the derailment remained in critical condition - five at Temple University Hospital (down from six Thursday) and one at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.

 Officials have said more than 200 people were injured in the crash, about 150 of whom ended up in hospitals.

 At a brief news conference outside Temple University Hospital, U.S. Sen. Robert Casey said he had toured the hospital to get a sense of the challenges facilities faced as victims of the Amtrak crash poured in.

 He said he was "inspired by the really miraculous work that was done here under the most horrific of circumstances."

 Inquirer staff writers Stacey Burling, Paul Nussbaum, and Mari A. Schaefer contributed to this article. |||||
A summary of this is?

– The feds have interviewed the Amtrak engineer at the controls before this week's crash in Philadelphia, and while Brandon Bostian was fully cooperative, he says he still can't remember a thing about the derailment, reports CNN. But the more interesting development came from an interview with an assistant conductor, who said she thought she heard Bostian say before the crash that the train's windshield had been "broken by something,” reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. “We have seen damage to the left-hand lower portion of Amtrak windshield that we have asked the FBI to come in and look at for us,” says NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt. Prior to the crash, two other trains in the area had been hit by some kind of projectile, reports the Inquirer. One was a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority train, and the assistant conductor remembers hearing about it. "She recalled that the SEPTA engineer had reported to the train dispatcher that he had either been hit by a rock or shot at, and the SEPTA engineer said that he had a broken windshield, and he placed his train into emergency stop," says Sumwalt. "She also believed that she heard (the Amtrak) engineer say something about his train being struck by something." As for Bostian, he told the NTSB that he hadn't been sick or tired, but insisted he remembers nothing beyond the point his train left the nearby station in north Philly. (The train was clearly speeding up before entering a curve at twice the speed limit.)


Article:

Yoshiki Fujimoto, 2, is rescued on Aug. 15 after he went missing in Suo-Oshima, Yamaguchi Prefecture, on Aug. 12. (Provided by Yamaguchi Asahi Broadcasting Ltd.)

 SUO-OSHIMA, Yamaguchi Prefecture--A 2-year-old boy missing for three days was found safe and well Aug. 15 on a mountain just a few hundred meters from his great-grandfather’s home here.

 Yoshiki Fujimoto, of Hofu in the prefecture, was discovered around 6:30 a.m. by a 78-year-old volunteer from Oita Prefecture who had joined the search operation, Yamaguchi prefectural police said.

 Haruo Obata had gone up the mountain, northeast from the great-grandfather’s house, close to where Yoshiki had last been seen, to search for the boy. After repeatedly calling his name, he got a reply: “I’m here.”

 Obata said, “I found him sitting on a moss-covered rock in the middle of a mountain stream, with his feet dangling in the water.

 “I thought he was in pretty good shape because he snatched a bag of candy which I gave him and crunched on them.”

 Obata wrapped the boy in a towel and descended the mountain, joining police officers on the way, who drove the boy to his great-grandfather’s home, where his anxious family was waiting for him.

 Yoshiki’s 37-year-old mother burst into tears when she saw him. Yoshiki had no problem conversing with his mother and grandmother, according to police.

 The boy was taken to a hospital in Yanai in the prefecture for a checkup.

 A doctor said he was suffering from dehydration and had scratches and tick bites on his skin, but no obvious injuries.

 The child clung to his mother, saying, “Mommy.” He is expected to remain in hospital for several days.

 The boy's 66-year-old grandfather took Yoshiki and his 3-year-old brother to swim in the sea about 400 meters from the home around 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 12.

 After walking 100 meters or so toward the beach, Yoshiki suddenly announced, “I want to go home,” and started walking back.

 The grandfather watched, apparently unconcerned that the boy could get lost.

 Yoshiki's mother and two other children who left the house soon afterward did not come across him, and the family then realized that he had gone missing.

 About 150 prefectural police officers and firefighters had been searching for Yoshiki since Aug. 12, focusing on the area around his great-grandfather’s home.

 On Aug. 14, Yoshiki’s mother called out to him through a community wireless system, saying, “Yo-chan, say anything. Come out soon.” But there was no reply.

 Yuichi Koide, who heads the department of clinical research at the National Hospital Organization Disaster Medical Center, said, “I am relieved the boy is safe as it is extremely difficult for a 2-year-old child to endure three days outdoors under such harsh conditions.”

 The highest temperature was around 33 degrees in Suo-Oshima over the three days from Aug. 12. ||||| The discovery of an uninjured two-year-old boy who had been missing for three days on a western Japan island was touted as a “miracle”, with experts pointing to some favourable conditions and unique characteristics of the toddler involved.

 Yoshiki Fujimoto was found Wednesday by a volunteer searcher barefooted and sitting on a mossy stone in the middle of a stream on a mountain about 68 hours after he had become unaccounted for in the town of Suo-Oshima on Yashiro Island in Yamaguchi Prefecture, just shy of the 72 hours after which the chance of survival is believed to drop.

 Paediatricians and experts were surprised that the boy was found alive as temperatures on the island topped 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) between Sunday and Tuesday.

 “I was most worried about possible heatstroke but the boy may have found shade near the stream and drunk water. It must have been a result of a number of miraculously favourable conditions,” said Mieko Miyata, the head of a non-profit organisation promoting safety education for children.

 “Water intake is essential for babies and toddlers because they are more vulnerable to dehydration compared with adults,” said Eiichi Ishii, a professor at Ehime University’s paediatrics department.

 “The boy may have not sweated much in the shade but it is surprising he hung on in the hot environment. Three days is close to the limit.”

 Yoshiki, from Hofu, Yamaguchi Prefecture, had been visiting his great-grandfather’s house since Sunday, and went missing the same day after heading for a beach about 400 meters away with his grandfather Masanori and three-year-old brother.

 After about 100 metres, Yoshiki tried to return to the house on his own but subsequently disappeared. He was found at around 6:30am on Wednesday on a mountain only 560 metres from the house.

 According to Keisen University President Masami Ohinata, who is well versed in children’s development psychology, it is difficult for two-year-olds to objectively look at situations they are in.

 “(Small children) are unlikely to walk around or despair out of fear.

 Their underdeveloped judgement and cognitive capacities may have helped prevent the boy from getting stressed or exhausted,” she said.

 She also said the boy’s discovery on a mountain was the result of the unpredictable behaviour of two-year-olds who are often referred to as the “terrible twos”.

 “For two-year-olds as tall as about 90 centimetres, a small space which looks like a bush for adults can be seen as a trail,” Ohinata said.

 Despite a search effort involving 380 police officers and rescuers as well as drones with thermal imaging cameras, the mountain where the boy was eventually found was left unsearched until the volunteer Haruo Obata went there and quickly found him.

 Rescuers dived in water reservoirs and combed paddy fields as well as roads but not the mountain, prompting some police officers to voice regret that they should have expanded the search area earlier.

 Obata, 78, from Oita Prefecture went onto a mountain trail, believing small children tend to climb up rather than descend based on his experience of joining a different search operation for a two-year-old girl found on a mountain in the Oita city of Saiki in 2016.

 It took just 30 minutes before he heard Yoshiki reply to his call and found him sitting on the stone.

 The site can be reached by following a trail stretching from the great-grandfather’s home but the footing was unstable as the pass was covered with fallen rocks and leaves.

 “I would like to thank the police, rescuers and local people,” said the boy’s grandfather Masanori.

 “I apologise as it was I who took my eyes off him.” ||||| TOKYO: A two-year-old boy who went missing in woods in western Japan has been found unharmed after three days alone, apparently surviving on river water as volunteers hunted desperately for him.

 Yoshiki Fujimoto disappeared on Sunday morning in the Yamaguchi region while out walking with his brother and grandfather, and the search for him made headlines nationwide.

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 Yoshiki Fujimoto, who went missing on Sunday (Aug 12). (Photo: Yamaguchi prefectural police)

 Police and locals combed the woods looking for him, but it was a 78-year-old volunteer from a neighbouring region who stumbled upon the toddler on Wednesday morning.

 "I shouted 'Yo-chan'," Haruo Obata told local television, a red towel wrapped around his head against the summer heat.

 "He replied 'yes, here' and there he was," added Obata, a retiree who said he regularly volunteers in disaster relief efforts.

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 The toddler was sitting on a rock, with his bare feet in a small puddle of water in front of him, Obata said.

 "At first, I didn't think it was a human." he told reporters. "But there he was. I thought my heart was going to stop."

 The toddler's miraculous survival is all the more astonishing given the hot weather in Japan in recent weeks, with local media saying the temperature where he went missing hit 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) during his three-day ordeal.

 The woodland area has creeks and rivers, and some media speculated the resourceful tot, who turned two on Monday while he was missing, survived by drinking from them.

 "He doesn't have any major injuries, just a few scratches and slight dehydration," said Hiroyuki Nishihara, an official at the local hospital treating Fujimoto.

 "But his life isn't in danger and he will be able to leave the hospital very soon."

 The toddler disappeared on Sunday after his grandfather let him walk back alone to the house - around 100 metres away - where the child's mother was waiting.

 But Fujimoto never made it to the house, and appears to have wandered off en route, prompting a massive manhunt that gripped Japan during its quiet summer season.

 Drones with optical and thermal cameras, search dogs and helicopters were drafted in for the search, along with around 160 police and more volunteers.

 But in the end, he was found just a few hundred metres from where he disappeared, to his family's relief.

 "I couldn't help but squeeze him tight," his tearful mother Mio Fujimoto told local television. "I'm so grateful my son returned safely ... He is sleeping tight now, he seemed relieved but tired."

 "That this volunteer would come all the way here, all we can do is offer thanks from the bottom of our hearts," the boy's grandfather added. |||||
What is a summary?

– Most toddlers celebrate turning 2 with cake and presents. Yoshiki Fujimoto spent his birthday lost on a Japanese mountain, the subject of a frantic three-day search after he disappeared while with his grandfather. The South China Morning Post reports on the "miracle" of a volunteer finding Yoshiki Wednesday, perched with no shoes on a rock in the middle of a stream on Yashiro Island, almost 72 hours after he was reported missing. The Asahi Shimbun notes the boy had been headed to the beach on Aug. 12 with his grandfather and 3-year-old brother when Yoshiki decided he wanted to turn around and return to his great-grandfather's home about 300 feet away, which his grandfather didn't stop him from doing. Shortly afterward, it was discovered he never made it back. Nearly 400 cops and other rescuers—as well as drones and search dogs, per Channel NewsAsia—were deployed to find Yoshiki, who doctors feared would succumb to dehydration and Japan's summer heat. Being credited with Yoshiki's discovery: 78-year-old volunteer Haruo Obata, who correctly guessed the boy was more likely to have climbed up the mountain rather than down it. Obata tells the Shimbun that as he called the boy's name around 6:30am Wednesday, he heard an "I'm here" and found the child, who "snatched a bag of candy" from Obata's hands as he held it out to him. Yoshiki was found to be dehydrated, with tick bites and scratches, but otherwise fine. "I'm so grateful my son returned safely," Yoshiki's mother told local TV. The boy's grandfather tells the Morning Post, "I apologize, as it was I who took my eyes off him."


Article:

News Release 16-135

 U.S. Antarctic Program Investigator Perishes in Snowmobile Accident

 October 23, 2016

 This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.

 A researcher with the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP), managed by the National Science Foundation (NSF), suffered a fatal injury on Saturday, October 22, New Zealand time.

 Dr. Gordon Hamilton, University of Maine Climate Change Institute, Orono, Maine, was fatally injured when the snow machine he was riding went into a crevasse. Hamilton's team was camped in a heavily crevassed area known as the Shear Zone (SZ), approximately 25 miles south of McMurdo Station, the largest of the three U.S. research stations in Antarctica.

 The McMurdo SZ is a three-mile wide and more than 125-mile long swath of intensely crevassed ice where the Ross Ice Shelf meets the McMurdo Ice Shelf. The ice is up to 650 feet thick in this area. Dr. Hamilton's body has been recovered and will be returned to his family in Maine. An accident investigation has begun by USAP personnel.

 "I am deeply saddened by the news of the tragic death of Dr. Hamilton. Our thoughts are with the family and entire community as we mourn this loss," said Dr. France Córdova, Director, National Science Foundation.

 Dr. Hamilton's research utilized two robots that contained ground penetrating radar instruments to study the stability of the Ross and McMurdo Ice Shelves.

 At the time of the accident, the science team was camped approximately 200 yards from the USAP's South Pole Operations Traverse crevasse remediation team. The two teams, science and Traverse operations, were working together to identify and remediate crevasses which had appeared in the past year.

 The two teams included experienced personnel who had worked in this area over the past several years and all members of both teams had received crevasse and glacial safety training before going into the area. In addition, mountaineers, familiar and experienced with the SZ, were with each of the two teams. Crevasses had been identified and filled earlier in the week and work on a newly identified crevasse was beginning at the time of the accident.

 The NSF manages the USAP, through which it coordinates all U.S. research and the necessary logistical support on the continent and aboard ships in the Southern Ocean.

 -NSF-

 Media Contacts

 Peter West, NSF, (703) 292-7530, email: pwest@nsf.gov

 The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2017, its budget is $7.5 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 48,000 competitive proposals for funding and makes about 12,000 new funding awards.

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 Gordon Hamilton. (University of Maine)

 Gordon Hamilton, a prominent climate scientist who studied Earth's melting ice sheets, died Saturday when his snowmobile went into a crevasse in Antarctica, according to the National Science Foundation. He was 50.

 Hamilton was a researcher with the NSF-managed U.S. Antarctic Program studying the stability of the ice shelves near McMurdo Station, a research center on Ross Island, 2,500 miles south of New Zealand.

 He and his team were camped in a heavily-crevassed area known as the McMurdo shear zone, where the Ross and McMurdo ice shelves meet. Three miles wide and more than 125 miles long, this perilous zone bisects the compacted snow road to the station. The ice there is hundreds of feet thick and striated with fractures. Hamilton and his colleagues have worked for several years to map this region with robots and ground-penetrating radar, identifying crevasses to be repaired so that vehicles can haul supplies and equipment from the coast to McMurdo station.

 Hamilton was driving a snow machine when he hit a crevasse and fell 100 feet into the ice. The circumstances of the accident are still unclear, but NSF spokesman Peter West said that some crevasses are covered in snow and are difficult to spot from ground level. Some of Hamilton's colleagues are working to develop robots capable of detecting buried crevasses for that reason.

 Hamilton's body has been recovered and will be returned to his family in Orono, Maine, the NSF said.

 [Plane takes off from the South Pole in rare, risky effort to rescue sick workers]

 Hamilton was born in Scotland and held degrees from the University of Aberdeen and the University of Cambridge. Since 2005, he has been an associate professor at the University of Maine's School of Earth and Climate Sciences. In a statement Monday, university President Susan Hunter said that his glaciology research was “second to none.”

 “He leaves a legacy as an outstanding scientist, and a caring mentor and well-known teacher to undergraduate and graduate students,” she said.

 Hamilton spent years surveying the glaciers around Greenland and Antarctica, aiming to understand how they might contribute to sea level rise. This was his latest of several expeditions to Antarctica.

 The NSF said that Hamilton and all members of his team received crevasse and glacial safety training before going into the shear zone. The Antarctic Program also assigned mountaineers who were familiar with the zone to accompany Hamilton's science team and the crevasse remediation team, which was camped 200 yards away.

 The two teams had spent the week identifying and filling in crevasses in the area, and were about to start work on a new crevasse when Hamilton died.

 The U.S. Antarctic Program has opened an accident investigation of Hamilton's death. Hamilton's colleagues are currently preparing to leave the field, West said.

 Deaths in Antarctica are rare, but research at the poles is always risky. Earlier this year, two sick workers at the South Pole had to be evacuated under the cover of complete darkness during the six-month Antarctic night.

 “The U.S. Antarctic Program is a close-knit corps of researchers and support personnel who carry out the nation’s program of research in Antarctica, working at the frontiers of human knowledge, but also at the physical frontiers of human experience,” Kelly Falkner, director of polar programs for the NSF, said in a statement. “The death of one of our colleagues is a tragic reminder of the risks we all face — no matter how hard we work at mitigating those risks — in field research.”

 Hamilton is survived by his wife, Fiona, and their two children, Martin and Calum.

 Read more:

 This Antarctic glacier is the biggest threat for rising sea levels. The race is on to understand it

 Scientists just showed what it truly means when a huge Antarctic glacier is unstable

 The latest disaster risk from climate change — huge glacial floods |||||
What is a summary?

– America's close-knit team of Antarctic researchers is mourning a colleague who died in one of the continent's most dangerous areas. Climate scientist Gordon Hamilton, a 50-year-old Scotsman, died Saturday when his snowmobile plunged into a crevasse in an area known as the "Shear Zone," 25 miles south of the McMurdo research station, according to the National Science Foundation, which describes the area as a "three-mile wide and more than 125-mile long swath of intensely crevassed ice" where two ice shelves meet. Hamilton and his colleagues spent years trying to map the region, using robots and ground-penetrating radar, the Washington Post reports. Hamilton fell 100 feet into the ice after hitting a crevasse that may have been covered in snow and hard to spot. When he wasn't carrying out research in frozen parts of the world, Hamilton was a research professor at the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute, specializing in glaciology. His work, which focused on the contribution of ice sheet shifts to sea level rise, "was second to none," university president Susan Hunter said Sunday in a statement, per the New York Times. Hamilton's body was recovered and will be returned to his wife and two children in Maine. Kelly Falkner, director of polar programs for the NSF, called the death a "tragic reminder of the risks we all face" in field research. (A worker at the South Pole needed to be rescued a few months ago.)


A teenager in Colorado died after consuming an entire marijuana cookie that contained 6 servings of marijuana's active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), according to a new report.

 The 19-year-old man had received a marijuana cookie from his friend, a 23-year-old who bought the product from a store. The sales clerk instructed the friend to divide the cookie into six pieces, with each piece containing about 10 mg of THC, the recommended serving size established by Colorado authorities.

 At first, the 19-year-old followed these instructions, and ate just part of the cookie. But after about 30 to 60 minutes, he didn't feel any effects, so he ate the rest of the cookie, according to the report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

 Over the next few hours, the man showed erratic speech and hostile behaviors, the report said. About 2.5 hours after he ate the whole cookie, he jumped off a balcony on the fourth floor of his building, and died from trauma from the fall, the report said.

 Officials determined that marijuana intoxication was the chief contributing factor to the man's death, which occurred in March 2014. An autopsy found that the man's blood levels of THC were above the legal limit for driving a car in Colorado. The man did not have a history of alcohol abue, illegal drug use or mental illness, according to the report.

 "This case illustrates a potential danger associated with recreational edible marijuana use," the report said. [Where Americans Smoke and Grow Marijuana (Maps)]

 In 2012, Colorado legalized the recreational use of marijuana, and stores selling the products opened in 2014.

 Marijuana takes longer to have an effect when ingested as opposed to smoked. Peak blood levels of THC occur about 1 to 2 hours after ingestion of marijuana, compared to just 5 to 10 minutes after the drug is smoked.

 "Because of the delayed effects of THC-infused edibles, multiple servings might be consumed in close succession before experiencing the 'high' from the initial serving, as reportedly occurred in this case," the report said.

 High doses of THC "can produce serious anxiety attacks and psychoticlike symptoms," Robert MacCoun, a professor at Stanford Law School, told Live Science in an interview earlier this year. MacCoun previously published a commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine expressing concern about the hazards of edible marijuana products for children and teens.

 In February this year, Colorado instituted new rules for the packaging and labeling of edible marijuana products, requiring these products to contain no more than 10 mg of THC, or to have clear marking of each 10-mg serving, the report said.

 However, the new report suggests "a need for improved public health messaging to reduce the risk for overconsumption of THC," the researchers said.

 The report is published in the July 24 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

 Editor's Note: This article was updated to include information about this case not having a history of illegal drug use or mental illness.

 Follow Rachael Rettner @Rachael Rettner. Follow Live Science @LiveScience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. ||||| A college student who jumped to his death from a Denver hotel balcony last month ate six times the recommended amount of a marijuana cookie before his death.

 Levy Thamba, a 19-year-old student at Northwest College in Powell, Wyo., died last month at a Holiday Inn in northeast Denver while visiting with three friends.

 An investigative report by Denver police into Thamba's death released this week details events leading up to the young man's death.

 This story was first reported by CBS4.

 Denver police presented the case to the Denver District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors decided not to pursue criminal charges against Bessie Gondwe, the only person of legal age among the foursome who would be able to purchase recreational marijuana in Colorado.

 Thamba, who was from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa, ate an entire "Sweet Grass Kitchen" lemon poppy seed cookie. It contained 65 milligrams of THC and was labeled 6.5 servings, the report said.

 Gondwe, 23, one of the students and a friend of Thamba, told investigators that the cookie was purchased at a downtown marijuana store, Native Root Apothecary, on the 16th Street Mall.

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 An employee at the store told them to "cut the cookie into six pieces and to only eat one piece at a time," the police report said.

 The group purchased four cookies, one for each one of them, at a price of $10 apiece.

 Back at the hotel they all consumed a single slice of the cookie. Thamba said "he didn't feel anything and he ate the remainder of his cookie all at once."

 Thamba awoke early that morning, shivering and speaking in French, the report said. The others — the group was sharing a room — calmed him down.

 But he awoke several times, again in incoherent states, at one point apparently talking to a room lamp.

 During one of the intervals, Thamba left the fourth- floor hotel room, returned and said: "This is a sign from God that this has happened, that I can't control myself," Anna Jakaovljeveic, 20, Thamba's friend, told investigators. "It's not because of the weed."

 He went back to sleep, but awoke "crazy" and began smashing room furniture, lamps and the television.

 He ran from the room, out the front door, and tumbled over a railing on an elevated hallway overlooking the lobby.

 Two hotel employees witnessed the fall and told police no one was near him at the time.

 Andres Bigum, 20, was bolting after Thamba from the room, but wasn't able to catch up with the victim.

 As part of the investigation police confiscated all Sweet Grass cookies Native Root had in stock. All of the 67 cookies had THC levels that tested within "required limits," the report said.

 The Denver coroner listed "marijuana intoxication" as a significant condition contributing to his death. According to an autopsy report, Thamba's marijuana concentration in his blood was 7.2 nanograms of active THC per milliliter of blood. In impaired driving cases, state law sets a standard of 5 nanograms per milliliter at which juries can presume impairment.

 Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822, knicholson@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kierannicholson ||||| Notes from the Field: Death Following Ingestion of an Edible Marijuana Product — Colorado, March 2014

 Jessica B. Hancock-Allen, MSN1,2; Lisa Barker2; Michael VanDyke, PhD2; Dawn B. Holmes, MD3 (Author affiliations at end of text)

 In March 2014, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) learned of the death of a man aged 19 years after consuming an edible marijuana product. CDPHE reviewed autopsy and police reports to assess factors associated with his death and to guide prevention efforts. The decedent's friend, aged 23 years, had purchased marijuana cookies and provided one to the decedent. A police report indicated that initially the decedent ate only a single piece of his cookie, as directed by the sales clerk. Approximately 30–60 minutes later, not feeling any effects, he consumed the remainder of the cookie. During the next 2 hours, he reportedly exhibited erratic speech and hostile behaviors. Approximately 3.5 hours after initial ingestion, and 2.5 hours after consuming the remainder of the cookie, he jumped off a fourth floor balcony and died from trauma. The autopsy, performed 29 hours after time of death, found marijuana intoxication as a chief contributing factor. Quantitative toxicologic analyses for drugs of abuse, synthetic cannabinoid, and cathinones ("bath salts") were performed on chest cavity blood by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. The only confirmed findings were cannabinoids (7.2 ng/mL delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol [THC] and 49 ng/mL delta-9 carboxy-THC, an inactive marijuana metabolite). The legal whole blood limit of delta-9 THC for driving a vehicle in Colorado is 5.0 ng/mL. This was the first reported death in Colorado linked to marijuana consumption without evidence of polysubstance use since the state approved recreational use of marijuana in 2012.

 According to the police report, the decedent had been marijuana-naïve, with no known history of alcohol abuse, illicit drug use, or mental illness. In addition to listing inactive ingredients, the cookie label described the psychoactive ingredients as "65 mg THC/6.5 servings (THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, the principal psychoactive agent in cannabis)." The label also noted, "This marijuana product has not been tested for contaminants or potency." According to the police report, the sales clerk had instructed the buyer and decedent to divide each cookie into sixths, each piece containing approximately 10 mg of THC, the serving size, and to ingest one serving at a time. The police report did not indicate whether the sales clerk provided specific instructions for how long to wait between ingesting each serving.

 This case illustrates a potential danger associated with recreational edible marijuana use. Some studies have suggested an association between cannabis and psychological disturbances (1). Second to alcohol, marijuana is the most commonly used recreational drug in the United States, with an estimated 19.8 million past-month users during 2013 (2). In 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states to permit recreational use of marijuana under their state laws (3). The first state-licensed recreational marijuana stores in Colorado opened in January 2014. An estimated 45% of Colorado's marijuana sales involve edible marijuana, including THC-infused food, drink, and pills (4,5). Colorado's marijuana surveillance system collects adverse outcomes data from hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and poison center calls.

 Systemic THC levels and psychoactive effects after ingestion are highly variable because of differences in bioavailability, rate of gastrointestinal absorption, and metabolic first-pass effect whereby an orally administered drug is partially metabolized (principally in the liver) before reaching systemic distribution (6,7). Because absorption is slower, the onset of effects is delayed (with mean peak plasma concentration at 1–2 hours after ingestion, in contrast with 5–10 minutes to peak plasma concentrations if smoked), and duration of intoxication is longer when THC is ingested compared with when it is smoked (7). Whereas a single-serving recreational edible marijuana dose in Colorado was set at 10 mg of THC, multiple-dose recreational edible products, often containing 100 mg of THC, were available during March 2014 (4). The marijuana store where the implicated cookies had been purchased voluntarily gave all 67 remaining cookies of the same brand to the Denver Police Department. Testing confirmed that the THC levels in the items were within required limits. Because of the delayed effects of THC-infused edibles, multiple servings might be consumed in close succession before experiencing the "high" from the initial serving, as reportedly occurred in this case. Consuming a large dose of THC can result in a higher THC concentration, greater intoxication, and an increased risk for adverse psychological effects.

 Recreational marijuana is now permitted for persons aged ≥21 years under state law in four states (Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington) and the District of Columbia; marijuana-attributed morbidity and mortality surveillance can help guide efforts to prevent overconsumption in these jurisdictions. Regulation of recreational marijuana edibles in Colorado continues to evolve. On the basis of initial surveillance data in Colorado and numerous cases of accidental overconsumption, on February 1, 2015, Colorado instituted new packaging and labeling rules, requiring that recreational edible marijuana products contain no more than 10 mg of THC, or have clear demarcation of each 10-mg serving (8). In addition, before distribution, cannabinoid potency testing is now performed on batches of recreational edible marijuana products by state-certified laboratories. Other states permitting recreational marijuana use could potentially reduce adverse health effects by considering similar THC limits in marijuana edible products, and by enforcing clear labeling standards that require information on multidose products. Although the decedent in this case was advised against eating multiple servings at one time, he reportedly consumed all five of the remaining servings of the THC-infused cookie within 30–60 minutes after the first serving, suggesting a need for improved public health messaging to reduce the risk for overconsumption of THC.

 1Epidemic Intelligence Service, CDC; 2Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment; 3Denver Office of the Medical Examiner.

 Corresponding author: Jessica Hancock-Allen, ydi3@cdc.gov, 303-692-2745.

 References |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– There's a saying in the health care world: dose matters. It certainly did in the case of 19-year-old Levy Thamba, a native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo who was studying at Wyoming's Northwest College. While in Denver with friends on spring break in March of 2014, the teen jumped to his death from a Holiday Inn balcony after ingesting a whole lot of weed. In this week's Morbidity and Mortality report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention review his death, the first "linked to marijuana consumption without evidence of polysubstance use" since pot became legal in the state in 2012. (The lemon poppyseed cookie was purchased legally by a 23-year-old friend; Thamba, however, wasn't of age and therefore didn't consume the pot legally.) The police report stated he initially ate just the recommended single portion of the cookie; some 30-60 minutes later, still feeling no effects, Thamba—called "marijuana naive, with no known history of alcohol abuse, illicit drug use, or mental illness"—ate the whole cookie, constituting 6.5 servings. Roughly 2.5 hours later, Thamba exhibited "hostile behavior," according to his friends. He had no other drugs in his system at the time he jumped, and his death was ruled an accident. The legal blood limit for THC for drivers in the state is 5.0 ng/mL; his blood level was 49 ng/mL. LiveScience reports that regulations were put in place in February regarding the labeling of edible marijuana items; if they contain more than 10 mg of THC, each 10 mg serving must be clearly indicated. The cookie Thamba ate contained 65 mg. (Thamba's friends reportedly tried to calm him.)


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– A Michigan man is fuming after he left his car running in a driveway—and got a ticket. "Every person warms up their car," Nick Taylor tells WDIV. "We live in Michigan!" Taylor, 24, left the car idling unlocked at his girlfriend's house on a frigid morning last week. When he returned a few minutes later, he spied the $128 ticket for leaving a vehicle unattended. Taylor posted a photo of the ticket on his Facebook page and railed against the "dip----" Roseville police officer who left it there for "wasting the taxpayer's money." (He later "retracted" the insult.) The post has been shared nearly 14,000 times, but Police Chief James Berlin wasn't backing down, saying you can't leave vehicles running. "This is purely a public safety issue," he tells Fox2. "You see it all the time, people hop in a running car and steal them. Something bad happens when that occurs." And because of the original insult, Berlin says he's not about to tear up the ticket. One footnote for those who practice Taylor's habit of warming up the car: Mechanics say the old-school ritual is no longer necessary in the era of fuel-injected engines, notes USA Today. In fact, today's cars tend to warm up more quickly being driven rather than idling. (This driver faced DUI charges, though he had only caffeine in his system.)

See more of Nick Taylor on Facebook ||||| CLOSE Should you warm your car up by letting it idle on cold days? One expert gives a definitive answer. GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS

 Commuters travel under a warning sign as they work their way down Highway 26 in Portland, Ore., earlier this month (Photo: Don Ryan, AP)

 Here's a winter driving tip for you: Don't warm up your car engine.

 There's no need in this modern era of fuel injection and on-board computers. Thirty seconds, a minute at the most, and you're good to go, no matter the weather outside. That's how long it takes for the oil to get from the bottom to the top of your engine, where the moving parts are.

 So says Chris Lague, service writer at Partner Tire & Service in Colchester, Vt. Lague has been everything from a certified master technician to a business manager at a dealership, spending 23 years in the car business.

 "Manufacturers will say about 30 seconds and then you can start driving," Lague said. "Most cars are engineered now so they'll actually warm up faster if you drive them than if you just let it sit there."

 Kristen McIntyre, a stay-at-home mom in Essex, Vt., said she was aware that modern engines don't need to be warmed up. McIntyre has another reason for a quick, idle-free getaway.

 "Because of the environment," she said.

 CLOSE Here's the latest for Monday, December 26th: Russia plane crash possibly pilot error; Singer George Michael dead at 53; Blizzard conditions in northern Plains; Boxing Day shopping extravaganza in Australia. AP

 Vermont enacted a statute in 2014 that prohibits idling for more than 5 minutes out of any 60-minute period, with some exceptions, including health issues, frosted-over windshields and food refrigeration.

 "It so happens cars fit their law," Lague said. "You don't have to sit there for 10 minutes. Even though there are less emissions now than ever, you're still emitting something. The state rightfully wants to protect the environment."

 Dale Franklin, owner of Partner Tire, knows better than to think everyone will agree with his service writer. Franklin, who used to do a radio spot called the "Partner Car Care Minute," said even when the spot was about something he believed was "definitive," colleagues would track him down on the street to tell him he was wrong.

 It didn't take long on an afternoon stroll through Burlington Town Center to find someone who didn't agree with Lague. Bill Brisson, 54, said he warms his car up for eight to 10 minutes on cold winter mornings.

 "At zero or 10 below, that (engine) oil is still like molasses," Brisson said. "You don't want to start the car and start going down the road immediately. Let the crankshaft pull the oil to the top of the heads and warm up."

 Run out there real quick, start the car up, go back in the house and finish your last sip of coffee, throw on your shoes and your coat, and you're out the door in eight to 10 minutes, Brisson said.

 "I'm old school," he said.

 Exactly, says the 41-year-old Lague.

 The old school hearkens back to the days of carburetors — the fuel delivery system that preceded fuel injection, and did require warming up on cold winter days. In the cold, old days, Lague said, you had to wait 10 minutes before you even thought about getting into your car.

 "It would be warm a few miles down the road, maybe," he said.

 Unless you're driving a vintage 1960s muscle car with a carburetor instead of fuel injection, no warm-up is required, despite what Brisson and others like him believe, according to Lague.

 "People our age were trained under people older than us," Lague said. "This is how it was done under carburetors, so this is how it has to be done now. That has pretty much gone by the wayside. It's time for the newer generation, this generation, to say, 'Look, this is the way it is now. Computers have taken over. As far as getting warm, just drive it.'"

 The computer systems in today's cars have two modes, Lague explained. One mode is designed to get the car to normal operating temperature as quickly as possible. That's the mode your car is in when you start it. The other mode runs the car as efficiently as possible once it reaches operating temperature.

 How about if you just want a nice warm car for the drive to work in the morning? No harm done, Lague says, but keep your warm-up to 5 minutes or less if you don't want to be a scofflaw.

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2iFhvDo ||||| Roseville man posts ticket he received for warming car in own driveway Local News Roseville man posts ticket he received for warming car in own driveway A Roseville man is becoming Facebook famous after he posted a picture of a ticket he received from a Roseville cop for warming up his vehicle in his own driveway.

 - A Roseville man is becoming Facebook famous after he posted a picture of a ticket he received from a Roseville cop for warming up his vehicle in his own driveway.

 Nick Taylor posted the sarcastic Facebook post on Thursday, thanking the officer who gave him the ticket. According to the picture, the ticket is for his car that was left running in the driveway with no one around.

 "I've never heard of any city ordinance of law like that," Taylor said.

 On Thursday, it was frigidly cold and he wanted to keep his car running while he ran into his girlfriend's house. But he left it unlocked with the key in the ignition. Chief James Berlin said that's a problem.

 "This is purely a public safety issue. You can't do it. You see it all the time, people hop in a running car and Steal them. Something bad happens when that occurs," Berlin said.

 The post received thousands of comments and shares since he posted it.

 "I mostly just put it online to see what people thought of it and see if it's happened to anyone else because I've never heard of this," Taylor said.

 The ticket shows ordinance listed as 99006 but there is no ordinance in the city or state that corresponds to 99006. Under the description of the offense, it lists VEH/MOTOR ON UNATTENDED 895. Ordinance 895 is listed as being part of 'rodent control' on Roseville's website.

 FOX 2 contacted the Michigan State Police for more information. Lt. Mike Shaw says there is no state law that prohibits letting your car idle with the keys in the ignition.

 At this point, it seems difficult to decipher which code the officer was enforcing. Either way, Nick has an appointment on January 26th in District Court in Roseville.

 The ticket shows it was written for a 1997 Chrysler Concorde - and it likely did not come equipped with remote start. Berlin said if the car would have had auto-start, this would not be an issue.

 "Our officers are cognizant of the fact that some people have auto-start. Auto-start has numerous safeguards built in to prevent the car from being stolen: car must be locked, must be in gear. you cannot put the car in gear until the key is inserted into the ignition. That is done to prevent the car from being stolen. That was not the case," Berlin said.

 Taylor wrote on Facebook "Let's all take a moment to thank officer dips*** K. Keary for wasting the taxpayer's money and giving me a ticket for warming up my car in my own damn driveway."

 He said he regrets the swearing and calling the officer an offensive name.

 See the full, unedited ticket for yourself here (WARNING, strong language used): ||||| See more of Nick Taylor on Facebook ||||| ROSEVILLE, Mich. - A Roseville man took to Facebook to insult an officer who gave him a ticket for warming up his car in his own driveway.

 "Every person warms up their car," Nick Taylor said. "We live in Michigan!"

 Roseville police phones have been lighting up with calls from people who are furious that Taylor was given a ticket for warming up his car.

 "I was furious when I saw it," Taylor said.

 Taylor said he started his car Tuesday morning to warm it up and went inside for 5 minutes. When he went back outside, he had received a ticket that said "motor vehicle unattended."

 "Vehicle parked in drive with keys in ignition, motor running -- no one around," the Roseville officer wrote on the ticket.

 The officer didn't knock on the door to inform Taylor of the problem.

 "That would have been respectful," Taylor said. "I had no clue that this was a law, an ordinance."

 Police said the key component of the case is whether the key is in the car. Using a remote starter is OK because the key isn't in the car. If the key is in the car, it's a state and local violation, because somebody could take off in the car.

 "You're putting the public at risk," Roseville police Chief James Berlin said. "This is purely a public safety issue."

 Taylor posted a picture of the ticket on his Facebook page and called the officer an insulting name. It's been shared more than 6,000 times and there are more than 5,000 comments.

 Berlin said he's not tearing up the ticket. He's angry about the name calling.

 "You see the disparaging comments he made about my officer?" Berlin said. "Drop dead."

 Taylor said he didn't mean to call the officer a name, but he doesn't want the ticket.

 "Unattended car?" Taylor said. "I’ve done this every day for seven years. Every person warms up their car. We live in Michigan."

 Taylor is scheduled to appear in court later this month.

 Copyright 2017 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved. |||||


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 This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. ||||| PENDER COUNTY, N.C. — A dog trapped in house submerged by Hurricane Florence will be reunited with its owner thanks to the heroic efforts of the Humane Society of Missouri.

 The owner called rescue teams to say her small, white fluffy dog Soshe was stranded in her flooded home in Pender County, North Carolina. The woman had evacuated about a week ago and was now trapped in Wilmington, North Carolina with no way to get home to her dog.

 “She was distraught that she couldn’t get to her house and knew that Soshe was inside,” said a woman who picked up Soshe and will reunite the dog with its owner.

 That’s where HSMO’s Disaster Response Team stepped in.

 READ MORE: Dog that was swimming for his life in floodwaters reunited with WCNC reporter

 It took three trips by boat for the team to save the dog. In their first two tries, the floodwater was so deep, they could barely see the roofs of the homes. Identifying which house the dog was in was impossible.

 But the team pressed on, even when the boat broke down on their third try. They paddled half a mile to the house, and luckily, the water had receded enough they could see which house they needed to search.

 Rescuers said they could hear the dog barking as they pulled up to the house.

 It took two of them to kick in a door. When they looked inside, they spotted the small dog sitting on a floating couch in the living room.

 Soshe was alive after spending nearly a week in the flooded house.

 The dog’s owner was moved to tears when she heard Soshe was safe.

 RELATED: Saving pets without a permit: Good Samaritan arrested after helping animals survive Florence

 Soshe was one of several dogs, chickens and horses rescued by HSMO’s Disaster Response Team following Hurricane Florence. The nine-member team headed back to Missouri Tuesday after a 10-day deployment.

 Anyone interested in helping pets affected by Hurricane Florence can donate online here or by calling (314) 951-1542.

 © 2018 KSDK ||||| Soshe is back in loving arms thanks to the Humane Society of Missouri’s Disaster Response Team.

 The small white dog became separated from her owner during Hurricane Florence, putting Soshe’s mom in a horrible position.

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 Stuck in another state and unable to reach her flooded home, the owner was also caught knowing her dog was in desperate need of help.

 The owner contacted the Humane Society of Missouri’s Disaster Response Team — one of many animal rescue teams aiding in Florence recovery efforts — for assistance rescuing Soshe. According to the group, it took the team three attempts to find the house with Soshe inside, since the water levels in that area had reached the roofs, making homes difficult to identify.

 Courtesy Humane Society of Missouri

 After dealing with a broken-down boat and paddling half of a mile, the team finally reached Soshe’s home. When they approached, they were relieved to hear barking coming from inside. To save the canine, the team kicked down the front door.

 Inside they found Soshe marooned on a floating living room couch, likely where she’d spent the past week.

 Courtesy Humane Society of Missouri

 The Humane Society of Missouri’s Disaster Response Team carefully removed the dog, dried her off and got her to a friend of the owner. Eventually, the pooch was reunited with her grateful mother.

 Soshe’s rescue was just one of many the team executed in response to Hurricane Florence. The group spent 10 days in North Carolina working with rescue partners Code 3 Associates, Inc. to save dogs, cats, chickens, goats and horses from the flood waters. The team also helped transport animals to temporary shelters and assisted the Coast Guard with the unloading of animals. |||||
What is a summary?

– A bright spot in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence: A dog name Soshe will be reunited with her owner after being trapped in a flooded house in Pender, NC, for almost a week, People reports. Soshe's owner, stuck in another city, got in touch with the Humane Society of Missouri's Disaster Response Team, which was on the scene in North Carolina, asking for help, per KHOU. Twice, traveling by boat, a Humane Society team attempted to locate Soshe's house, but the floodwaters were too high. On the third attempt, they located the house late last month, having to paddle half a mile after their boat's engine broke down. They heard a dog barking inside the house. Two rescuers forced the door open and found Soshe sitting on a couch that was floating in the living room. In addition to saving Soshe, according to KHOU, the Missouri Humane Society team rescued several other dogs, chickens, and horses during its 10-day deployment. Check out video of Soshe's rescue. (One woman helped save 27 animals after Florence and got busted.)